bout a quarter of an hour, during which time
several hearty Ethiopian chuckles were heard to burst forth. Then,
returning to the cellar, Dinah introduced her friend to Hester as Missis
Lilly, and Hester to Missis Lilly as Miss Geo'giana.

Wondering why her friend had selected for her the name--if she
remembered rightly--of one of Blue Beard's wives, Hester bowed, and was
about to speak when Dinah put her flat nose close to hers and sternly
said, "Dumb."

"Moreober," she continued, "you mustn't bow like a lady, or you'll be
diskivered 'mediately. You must bob. Sally!"

This last word was shouted. The instant effect was the abrupt stoppage
of one of the disagreeable sounds before referred to--a sound as of
pounding--and the appearance of a black girl who seemed to rise out of a
pit in the floor at the darkest end of the cellar.

"Sally, show dis yar stoopid gal how to bob."

The girl instantly broke off, so to speak, at the knees for a moment,
and then came straight again.

"Now, Geo'giana, you bob."

Hester entered into the spirit of the thing and broke off admirably,
whereat Dinah and Lilly threw back their heads and shook their sides
with laughter. Sally so far joined them as to show all her teeth and
gums. Otherwise she was expressionless.

"Now you come yar wid me into dis room," said Dinah, taking Hester's
hand and heading her along a passage which was so profoundly dark that
the very walls and floor were invisible. Turning suddenly to the left,
Dinah advanced a few paces and stood still.

"You stop where you is, Geo'giana, till I gits a light. Don't stir,"
she said, and left her.

A feeling of intense horror began to creep over the poor girl when she
was thus left alone in such a horrible place, and she began almost to
regret that she had forsaken the comfortable home of the Moor, and to
blame herself for ingratitude. In her agony she was about to call aloud
to her negro friend not to forsake her, when the words, "Call upon Me in
the time of trouble," occurred to her, and, falling on her knees, she
cast herself upon God.

She was not kept waiting long. Only a minute or two had elapsed when
Dinah returned with a candle and revealed the fact that they stood in a
small low-roofed room, the brick floor of which was partially covered
with casks, packing-cases, and general lumber.

"Dis am to be your room, Geo'giana," said her friend, holding the candle
over her head and surveying the place with