.

CHAPTER III

THE INTERVIEW

She was a short, slender little girl, not more than sixteen or
seventeen, with a sweet face and soft brown eyes which drooped as she
came forward, and then looked at him shyly through a mist of tears which
she bravely kept back.

"How d'ye. I'm so glad to see you," she said, looking up at him with
quivering lips which were so unquestionably asking for a kiss that he
gave it, while her face beamed with delight at the caress, and she did
not mind how cold, and stiff, and reserved he grew the next moment.

He did not like her "How d'ye," although he knew how common a salutation
it was at the South. It savored of Mandy Ann, and her accent was like
Mandy Ann's, and her white dress instead of pleasing him filled him with
disgust for himself, as he remembered when he first saw it and thought
it fine. She had worn a rose then, and he had asked her for it, and put
it in his pocket, like an insane idiot, Tom had said. She wore a rose
now, but he didn't ask her for it, and he dropped her hand almost as
soon as he took it, and called himself a brute when he saw the color
come and go in her face, and how she trembled as she sat beside him. He
knew she was pretty, and graceful, and modest, and that she loved him
as no other woman ever would, but she was untrained, and uneducated, and
unused to the world--his world, which would scan her with cold,
wondering eyes. He couldn't do it, and he wouldn't--certainly, not yet.
He would wait and see what came of his plan which he must unfold, and
tell her why he had come. But not there where the old woman might hear
and understand, and where he felt sure Mandy Ann was listening. She had
stolen down the stairs and gone ostensibly to meet a woman whom Eudora
called Sonsie, and who, she said, came every day to do the work now Jake
was away.

"Who is Jake?" the man asked, and Eudora replied, "The negro who has
taken care of us since I can remember. He is free, but does for us, and
is in Richmond now, valleying for a gentleman who pays him big wage, and
he spends it all for us."

The stranger flushed at her words indicative of her station, and then
suggested that they go outside where they could be sure of being alone,
as he had much to say to her.

"Perhaps you will walk part way with me on my return to the 'Hatty,'" he
said, glancing at his watch and feeling surprised to find how late it
was.

Instantly Eudora, who had seemed so listless, woke up