rned to Mulock:

'Now go. The amount due you I shall retain to offset, in part, what you
have tempted the negroes to steal. You can come here once a week--on
Sunday--to see Phylly; but if you have any more dealings with the hands,
I will prosecute you on the instant.'

Mulock rose, put on his slouched hat, and, a dull fire burning in his
cold, snake-like eyes, slowly said:

'Wall, Squire, I'll gwo, but 'counts 'tween you an' me ain't settled
yit.'

As he went, Selma leaned forward, and, kissing Preston's cheek, said;

'O father! I'm so glad _you_ didn't speak harshly to her.'

Preston put his arm about her, and replied:

'You helped me, my child. I should be a better, happier man, if you were
with me.'

'And I will be, father; I won't go away any more.'

'But Frank?' said Preston, again kissing her.

'Oh, you know we're not to be married for a good while yet. I'll stay
with you _till then_, father.'

'Ah! there she goes,' said Joe, looking out at the window, which
commanded a view of the _porte cochere_; 'she can't get to Newbern till
ten, but the night air won't hurt _her_.'

'Then she makes Newbern her home now?'

'Yes, she spends the winters there; she came here only yesterday.'

CHAPTER XVIII.

Ally and Rosey were to be married[3] in the little church, and, directly
after supper, we all went to the wedding. The seats had been removed
from the centre of the building, for, though duly consecrated to the use
of the saints, the sinners were to exercise their heels in it after the
ceremony was over. At its farther extremity, the carpenter's bench of
which I have spoken, elongated at both ends, and covered with a white
table cloth, was piled high with eatables; indicating that a time of
'great refreshment' was at hand. The bounteous supply of ham, chicken,
wild duck, roast pig, fish, hoecake, wheat bread, tea, coffee, milk, and
pumpkin and sweet-potato pies under which the bench groaned, showed that
some liberal hand had catered for the occasion.

Black Joe, dressed in his 'Sunday best,' was seated on the rustic settee
at the back of the desk, and Phyllis and Dinah occupied chairs inside
the low railing, which faced the pulpit. Phyllis looked careworn and
sad, but Ally's mother was as radiant as a brass kettle in a blaze of
light wood. She wore a white dress, stiffly starched and expanded by
immense hoops, and a crimped nightcap, whose broad border flapped about
like the wings of a crowing rooster; a