Jealousy 201
XXV. The Awakening 208
XXVI. Light after Darkness 213
XXVII. The Convert's Trials 221
XXVIII. Mysterious Disappearance 231
XXIX. Hubert's Second Visit 235
XXX. "And the Sea shall give up its Dead" 240
XXXI. Conclusion 243

CHAPTER I.

A BLACK CONFERENCE.

It was the night after the funeral. Ellice Lisle, the loving wife,
devoted mother, kind mistress, and generous friend, had been laid away
to rest; over her pulseless bosom had been thrown the red earth of her
adopted Virginia, and, mingled with its mocking freshness, was the
bitter rain of tears from the eyes of all who had known the lowly
sleeper. Even Nature joined the general weeping; for, though the early
morning had been bright and beautiful, ere the mourners' feet had left
the new-made grave, the skies had lowered, and a gentle rain descended.

"_You_ have pity upon me, O Heaven, and you weep for me, O earth," had
exclaimed Duncan Stuart Lisle, as, leading his little Hubert by the
hand, he turned away from his lost Ellice.

As night deepened, the rain increased, and the darkness became intense.
The house-servants, timid and superstitious, had all congregated in Aunt
Amy's cabin. Amidst their grief, sincere and profound, was yet a subject
of indignation, which acted as a sort of safety-valve to their over-much
sorrowing.

"A nice, pretty piece of impudence it was, to be sure, when she hadn't
been in the house for five year, to 'trude herself the minute Miss
Ellice's breath had left her precious body, the poor dear!" ejaculated
Chloe, the cook, who was intensely black, and fat to immensity.

"Much as ever Massa Duncan 'peared to notice her, not'standing she make
herself so 'ficious," said Amy, who looked more the Indian than African.

"He never set eyes on her but once," said young China, the favorite
housemaid, whose dialect and manners were superior to those of the other
servants, "only just once, and that was when she looked at him so long
and fierce-like he couldn't actually keep his eyes down."

"I see it my own self," added Chloe, whose small orbs were almost buried
beneath overhanging cliffs of brow and uprising mountains of cheek, "and
I'll tell you what I tinks: I tinks just den and dere, dat if we's meet