s as soon as possible. After a
fortnight's absence he returned, bringing grieved and sympathizing
letters from the Signor and Madame; and on the minds of all, except
Tulee, the conviction settled that Floracita was drowned. Hope
lingered long in her mind. "Wherever the little pet may be, she'll
surely contrive to let us know," thought she. "She ain't like the poor
slaves when _they_'re carried off. She can write." Her mistress
talked with her every day about the lost darling; but of course such
suspicions were not to be mentioned to her. Gerald, who disliked
everything mournful, avoided the subject entirely; and Rosabella,
looking upon him only with the eyes of love, considered it a sign of
deep feeling, and respected it accordingly.

But, blinded as she was, she gradually became aware that he did not
seem exactly like the same man who first won her girlish love. Her
efforts to please him were not always successful. He was sometimes
moody and fretful. He swore at the slightest annoyance, and often
flew into paroxysms of anger with Tom and Tulee. He was more and more
absent from the cottage, and made few professions of regret for such
frequent separations. Some weeks after Flora's disappearance, he
announced his intention to travel in the North during the summer
months. Rosabella looked up in his face with a pleading expression,
but pride prevented her from asking whether she might accompany him.
She waited in hopes he would propose it; but as he did not even think
of it, he failed to interpret the look of disappointment in her
expressive eyes, as she turned from him with a sigh.

"Tom will come with the carriage once a week," said he; "and either he
or Joe will be here every night."

"Thank you," she replied.

But the tone was so sad that he took her hand with the tenderness of
former times, and said, "You are sorry to part with me, Bella Rosa?"

"How can I be otherwise than sorry," she asked, "when I am all alone
in the world without you? Dear Gerald, are we always to live thus?
Will you never acknowledge me as your wife?"

"How can I do it," rejoined he, "without putting myself in the power
of those cursed creditors? It is no fault of mine that your mother was
a slave."

"We should be secure from them in Europe," she replied. "Why couldn't
we live abroad?"

"Do you suppose my rich uncle would leave me a cent if he found out I
had married the daughter of a quadroon?" rejoined he. "I have met with
losses late