me
to dress in a certain suit of mouse-color without lace, but actually
bundled me into the silver-gray, talking volubly all the while; and I,
half laughing and wholly vexed, almost minded to go burrowing myself
among my boxes and risk peppering silk and velvet with hair-powder.

But he dressed me as it suited him, patting my silk shoes into shape,
smoothing coat-skirt and flowered vest-flap, shaking out the lace on
stock and wrist with all the delicacy and cunning of a lady's-maid.

"Idiot!" said I, "am I tricked out to please you?"

"You sho' is, Cap'in Ormond, suh," he said, the first faint approach to
a grin that I had seen wrinkling his aged face. And with that he hung
my small-sword, whisked the powder from my shoulders with a bit of
cambric, chose a laced handkerchief for me, and, ere I could
remonstrate, passed a tiny jewelled pin into my powdered hair, where it
sparkled like a frost crystal.

"I'm no macaroni!" I said, angrily; "take it away!"

"Cap'in Ormond, suh, you sho' is de fines' young gemm'n in de province,
suh," he pleaded. "Dess regahd yo'se'f, suh, in dishyere lookum-glass.
What I done tell you? Look foh yo'se'f, suh! Cap'in Butler gwine see how
de quality gemm'n fixes up! Suh John Johnsing he gwine see! Dat ole
Kunnel Butler he gwine see, too! Heah yo' is, suh, dess a-bloomin' lak
de pink-an'-silver ghos' flower wif de gole heart."

"Cato," I asked, curiously, "why do you take pride in tricking out a
stranger to dazzle your own people?"

The old man stood silent a moment, then looked up with the mild eyes of
an aged hound long privileged in honorable retirement.

"Is you sho' a Ormond, suh?"

"Yes, Cato."

"Might you come f'om de Spanish grants, suh, long de Halifax?"

"Yes, yes; but we are English now. How did you know I came from the
Halifax?"

"I knowed it, suh; I knowed h'it muss be dat-away!"

"How do you know it, Cato?"

"I spec' you favor yo' pap, suh, de ole Kunnel--"

"My father!"

"Mah ole marster, suh; I was raised 'long Matanzas, suh. Spanish man
done cotch me on de Tomoka an' ship me to Quebec. Ole Suh William
Johnsing, he done buy me; Suh John, he done sell me; Mars Varick, he buy
me; an' hyah ah is, suh--heart dess daid foh de Halifax san's."

He bent his withered head and laid his face on my hands, but no tear
fell.

After a moment he straightened, snuffled, and smiled, opening his lips
with a dry click.

"H'it's dat-a-way, suh. Ole Cato dess 'bleged to fix