ropa? By Jove he
had it at last--the Europa of Veronese!

"There'll have to be a big frost before the persimmons get sweet," she
observed in a voice that was remarkably deep and full for a woman.
With the faint light on her classic head and her milky skin, he found
a delicious piquancy in the remark. Had she gossiped, had she even
laughed, the effect would have been disastrous. Europa, he was vaguely
aware, would hardly have condescended to coquetry. Her speech, like her
glance, would be brief, simple, direct.

"Tell me about the people here," he asked after a pause, in which he
plucked idly at the red-topped orchard grass through which they were
passing. Behind them the six little negroes walked primly in single
file, Mary Jo in the lead and a chocolate-coloured atom of two toddling
at the tail of the procession. From time to time shrill squeaks went up
from the rear when a startled partridge whirred over the pasture or a
bare brown foot came down on a toad or a grasshopper.

As she made no reply, he added in a more intimate tone, "I am Jonathan
Gay, of Jordan's Journey, as I suppose you know."

"The old gentleman's nephew?" she said, while she drew slightly away
from him. "Mary Jo, did you tell Tobias's mammy that he was coming
along?"

"Nawm, I ain done tole nobody caze dar ain nobody done ax me."

"But I said that you were not to bring him without letting Mahaly know.
You remember what a whipping she gave him the last time he came!"

At this a dismal howl burst from Tobias. "I
ain't-a-gwine-ter-git-a-whuppin'!"

"Lawd, Miss Blossom, hit cyarn' hut Tobias ez hit ud hut de res'er us,"
replied Mary Jo, with fine philosophy, "case dar ain but two years er
'im ter whup."

"I ain't-a-gwine-ter-git-a-whuppin'!" sang Tobias in a passionate
refrain.

"Now that's just it," said Gay, feeling as though he should like to
throttle the procession of piccaninnies. "What I can't understand is why
the people about here--those I met at Bottom's Ordinary, for instance,
seem to have disliked me even before I came."

Without surprise or embarrassment, she changed the basket from her right
to her left arm, and this simple movement had the effect of placing him
at a distance, though apparently by accident.

"That's because of the old gentleman, I reckon," she answered, "my folks
all hated him, I don't know why."

"But can you guess? You see I really want to understand. I've been away
since I was eight years old and I have