ked, reproachfully. "Would you like to
have me come back two months later, and tell you my love had ceased?"

"Yes, if it was the truth. How much better than to learn it after my
vows had been pledged and I was bound to you for the rest of my days!"

He rose and went with quick steps to her side, catching up her hand and
covering it with kisses. She did her best to stop him, whispering, with
a glance toward the door, that they might be interrupted at any minute.

"By whom!" he retorted, stung at her coldness. "Your sister has gone up
stairs, and there is no one else in the house."

"Hannibal might come in," she said, in a low tone. "He has no way of
knowing that I do not wish to be interrupted."

He grew angry at the mention of that name. But the warning had its
effect and he sat down, nearer to her than before, his heart beating
rapidly.

"I hate the fellow!" he exclaimed bitterly. "It is a good thing I am
going away, or I should strike him some day for his insolence!"

Daisy paled at the vehemence of her companion.

"Has he been insolent to you?" she murmured.

"To me? He would not dare! What angers me is the way he speaks to the
rest of you. He came with your cloak that night, acting as if he was
your master, instead of your servant. I have heard him speak to Mr.
Fern in a way that made me want to kick him! Why does your father bear
it? Why do you? Has Hannibal some mysterious hold on his situation?"

The girl heard him patiently, though the roses did not come at once to
her white cheek.

"I am afraid," she said, when he had finished his tirade, "that you
despise him for his color. It is a prejudice that seems to me--and to my
father--unchristian and uncharitable. Perhaps, in the anxiety to make
Hannibal forget that God gave him a darker skin than ours, we may have
gone to the other extreme, and treated him with too great consideration.
But I think you overstate the case."

Her gentle words smote upon the ears that heard them, and in a moment
Roseleaf was affected by the most lively contrition. Without attempting
to excuse himself he begged her pardon, which she readily granted.

"When do you leave us?" she asked.

"To-morrow morning."

"But you will call--occasionally?"

"If I may."

His tone was so sad that Daisy assured him he ought to have no doubt of
that.

"I understand," she added, "that you have probably helped Millie to a
reputation that she craves above everything, and she ought not to