. Not a word, look, or sign between them betrayed the least
token of any understanding or peculiar confidence as existing between
the commander and the Quadroon.

Maud, on her part, began to change somewhat since the first day of the
arrival of the strangers. Then she was as free and unconstrained as
innocence itself--now she seemed to regard the new-comers with a jealous
eye, for she saw the deep feeling evinced by the young commander towards
the fairest of the two; she heard a strange charm in the tone of his
voice when he addressed the daughter, and at such moments Mrs.
Huntington more than once saw her bosom heave quickly, and her eye flash
with a wild and startling fire that made her tremble. This was jealousy,
plain and unmistakable, a fact that no woman would have been at a loss
to understand.

It was not possible that the mother should be blind to the feeling
evinced by Captain Ratlin towards her daughter, and she thought, so long
as this sentiment maintained the respectful and solicitous character
which it now bore, that it would redound to their security and future
safety, as they were in one sense completely in his power. But as it
regarded the idea of her daughter's entertaining any affection for him,
or seriously considering his advances, the idea could not for a moment
enter her head. She did not at ill consider that there was any danger of
her daughter's losing her heart--no, no! Had not she been accustomed to
attention from earliest girlhood, and from the most polished men? She
did not even think it necessary to speak to her upon the subject; she
might be as friendly as she pleased with him under the circumstances.

But the daughter herself, who to her mother's eye was so indifferent,
was at heart deeply and strangely impressed by the frank, chivalrous and
devoted attention of the commander of the slaver. His attention was
characterized by the most unquestioned delicacy and consideration; he
had never uttered the first syllable to her that he might not properly
have used before her mother--indeed, he had not the boldness or
effrontery to urge a suit that he knew was out of the question, and yet
he felt irresistibly drawn towards the English girl, and could not
disguise from her the true sentiments that so plainly filled his inmost
heart; she must have been less than woman not to have read his very
soul, so bared to her scrutiny.

It was the first time that she had ever deceived her mother, because it