having passed the reins to the occupant on the back seat, got
down, opened the gate, and stood holding it while the other drove the
horse into the road which ran by the side of the field to the house
behind the trees. At this time a passer-by, if there had been one, might
have observed, partly protruding from behind some bushes on the other
side of the public road, and at a little distance from the gate, the
lower portion of a purple umbrella. As the spring wagon approached, and
during the time that it was turning into the gate, and while it was
waiting for the driver to resume his seat, this umbrella was
considerably agitated, so much so indeed as to cause a little rustling
among the leaves. When the gate had been shut, and the wagon had passed
on toward the house, the end of the umbrella disappeared, and then, on
the other side of the bush, there came into view a sun-bonnet of the
same color as the umbrella. This surmounted the form of an old lady, who
stepped into the pathway by the side of the road, and walked away with a
quick, active step which betokened both energy and purpose.

The house, before which, not many minutes later, this spring wagon
stopped, was not a fine old family mansion like that of Midbranch, but
it was a comfortable dwelling, though an unpretending one. The gentleman
on the back seat, and the driver, who was an elderly negro, both turned
toward the hall door, which was open and lighted by a lamp within, as if
they expected some one to come out on the porch. But nobody came, and,
after a moment's hesitation, the gentleman got down, and taking a valise
from the back of the wagon, mounted the steps of the porch. While he was
doing this the face of the negro man, which could be plainly seen in the
light from the hall door, grew anxious and troubled. When the gentleman
set his valise on the porch, and stood by it without making any attempt
to enter, the old man put down the reins and quickly descending from his
seat, hurried up the steps.

"Dunno whar ole miss is, but I reckon she done gone to look after de
tukkies. She dreffle keerful dat dey all go to roos' ebery night. Walk
right in, Mahs' Junius." And, taking up the valise, he followed the
gentleman into the hall.

There, near the back door, stood the rotund black woman, and, behind
her, Plez. "Look h'yar Letty," said the negro man, "whar ole miss?"

"Dunno," said the woman. "She done gib out supper, an' I ain't seed her
sence. Is dis Mahs' J