marriages
allowed off the place there. Vane was expiating his offence no one knew
where, and there were even rumors that he had already been sent away to
the Cuban plantation of the Marlboro's, whither all refractory slaves
were wont to journey.

Eloise went slowly back to the drawing-room, then out upon the piazza,
and with her went that bending grace that accompanied her least motion,
and always reminded you of a flower swaying on its stem. Mr. Marlboro'
leaned there, listening to Miss Murray's singing within. Eloise went and
took her place beside him, while his face brightened. He had been eating
opium again, and his eyes were full of dreams. From where they stood
upon the piazza they could see the creek winding, a strip of silvery
redness, along the coast, and far in the distance where it met the sea,
a film upon the sky, rose the dim castellated height of Blue Bluffs,
like an azure mist.

"There is something there that I want," said Eloise, archly, looking at
the Bluffs.

"There? you shall not wish twice."

Then Hazel approaching, as by signal, offered Mr. Marlboro' a cup, which
he declined without gesture or glance, while there gleamed in her eye a
subtle look that told how easy it would have been to brew poison for
this man who had such an ungodly power over her fate.

"That is my little maid," said Eloise. "I have lent her to Mrs. Arles
awhile, though. Is she not pretty,--Hazel?"

"That is Hazel, then? A very witch-hazel!"

"Yes."

"And you want Vane?"

"Yes, Mr. Marlboro'."

"I did not know she was your maid. But the offence of Vane, if
overlooked, would be a breach of discipline entailing too hazardous
effects. Authority should never relax. What creeps through the iron
fingers once can creep again. The gentle dews distilling through the
pores of the granite congeal in the first frost and rend the rock. I
would have difficulty, Miss Eloise, in pardoning such an offence to you,
yourself. Ah, yes, that would be impossible, by Heaven!"

Eloise laughed in her charming way, and said,--

"But, Mr. Marlboro', would it not be an admirable lesson to your people,
if Vane were sold?"

"A lesson to teach them all to go and do likewise, eh, Marlboro'?" said
St. George, passing, with Miss Humphreys on his arm.

"I have never sold, I never sell, a slave," replied Marlboro', in his
placid tone; but St. George was out of hearing. "Yet, Miss
Eloise,--if--if you will accept him"----

"Mr. Marlboro'! Indeed?