After a time, she began to grow quieter, turned, and lay
with wet eyes staring unseeingly at the wall, her underlip quivering
with the deep intake of each broken sigh.

"Oh, stars, stars, stars!" she whispered.

"Missy?" There came a soft knock upon the door and the clink of silver
upon china. "Missy?"

"What is it?"

So quick was Miss Betty that, although she answered almost at once, the
tears were washed away, and she was passing a cool, wet towel over her
eyes at the moment she spoke.

"Jass me. I brung yo' breakfas', honey."

Old Nelson's voice was always low and gentle, with a quaver and
hesitancy in the utterance; now it was tender and comforting with the
comprehension of one in suffering, the extraordinary tact, which the
old of his race nearly all come to possess. "Li'l chicken-wing on piece
brown toast, honey."

When she opened the door he came in, bending attentively over his tray,
and, without a glance toward his young mistress, made some show of fuss
and bustle, as he placed it upon a table near the window and drew up a
chair for her so that she could sit with her back to the light.

"Dah now!" he exclaimed softly, removing the white napkin and displaying
other dainties besides the chicken wing. "Dass de way! Dat ole Mamie in
de kitchen, she got her failin's an' her grievin' sins; but de way she
do han'le chicken an' biscuit sutney ain't none on 'em! She plead fo' me
to ax you how you like dem biscuit."

He kept his head bent low over the table, setting a fork closer to
Betty's hand; arranging the plates, then rearranging them, but never
turning his eyes in her direction.

"Dat ole Mamie mighty vain, yessuh!" He suffered a very quiet chuckle to
escape him. "She did most sutney 'sist dat I ax you ain't you like dem
biscuit. She de ve'y vaines' woman in dis State, dat ole Mamie, yessuh!"
And now he cast one quick glance out of the corner of his eye at Miss
Betty, before venturing a louder chuckle. "She reckon dem biscuit goin'
git her by Sain' Petuh when she 'proach de hevumly gates! Uhuh! I tell
her she got git redemption fo' de aigs she done ruin dese many yeahs;
'cause she as useless wid an ommelick as a two-day calf on de slick
ice!" Here he laughed loud and long. "You jass go and talk wid dat
Mamie, some day, Missy; you'll see how vain dat woman is."

"Has father gone out, Nelson?" asked Betty in a low voice.

"Yes'm; he up town." The old man's tone sank at once to the level of
her own; bec