utiful and
delicate female hand. The light of the lamp fell full upon his face,
which was very pale; and his teeth were pressed hard into his under lip.

Behind him, with one hand clasped upon the back of his chair, stood a
young girl; and though her features were of exquisite proportions and
beautiful moulding, she displayed in the slight tinge of duskiness upon
her skin, and the peculiar blackness of her large eyes, unmistakable
proofs, to an experienced judge, of the quadroon blood in her veins.

Her hair was long, and of midnight blackness; and fell in thick, close
curls over the graceful scarf which covered her shoulders. Her forehead
was high and fine, her eyebrows arched and delicately traced--her nose
free from all trace of her negro origin, and her lashes long and curving
upon her round cheek. Her mouth was small, and the lips parted over
teeth of the most perfect regularity; but in this feature, more than in
any other, as she stood watching Wilkins, as he wrote, there was an
expression of proud bitterness, which came and went over those exquisite
features, like gleams of lightning.

As Wilkins finished writing, he carefully folded and sealed his letter,
and handed it to the girl, without adding any superscription.

"There, Minny, give her that; but, remember how much depends upon your
secresy. There's a day coming when you shall meet your full reward for
all you are doing for us now."

"Yes, Mr. Bernard," she replied, addressing him by his first name, and
speaking earnestly, "I think of that myself sometimes, and tremble."

"And tremble! What do you mean?"

"Nothing, nothing; no matter now. Give me a pass, and let me be gone!
The great gun has fired two hours ago!"

"You are too white to need a pass, Minny."

"Ay! but I am a slave."

The bitter emphasis with which she uttered these last words sank deep
into Guly's young heart, and was the first intimation to him that she
was not of unmixed origin. She looked so purely beautiful, as she stood
there with that shade of scornful sadness on her face, that the boy
forgot the part he was acting in standing there, and remained with his
large eyes riveted upon her.

"Here's your pass, Minny; but, mark me, it will not be claimed of you."

As he spoke Wilkins rose, and handed her the paper. She concealed the
letter he had given her in her dress, then folded the pass between her
fingers, and prepared to leave.

The head clerk had stood still until how, watc