"
And before she could utter a syllable of deprecation, she had swung a
brief moment in the air, and was upon the other side, up which Mr. St.
George, in his high seven-league boots, clambered so soon as he had set
her down. Instead of venturing any new display of indignation, as St.
George expected, Eloise walked on with him quietly a moment, and then,
looking up, said,--
"You are very kind, and I am very ungracious."
Mr. St. George did not deny her assertion, only he glanced down at her
from his height a second with an inexplicable expression, and
immediately after the house became visible bowed low and left her.
"There's been such a tantrum, Miss," said the quadroon Hazel, combing
out Eloise's hair that night, "and Massa St. George's horse waited two
mortal hours to take him to Blue Bluffs. You ought to have heard him
swear! He galloped off at last like mad."
And as Eloise gave no response, unless the cloud on her face spoke for
her in the glass, the familiar girl added,--
"Not at you, Miss, not swearing at you,--oh, no, indeed!--but at all of
us, to think we'd let you go alone."
"Mr. St. George is too solicitous. That will do, Hazel. Have you spoken
to your master about buying Vane?"
"Laws, Miss, I never feels as if he was any master of mine, leastwise
excep' one can't help minding him.
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