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But in another moment the necessity was gone; and the revelation, though made by polluted lips, was not the less welcome to my ears. What cared I whether the oracle was profane, so long as its response echoed my most earnest desires? "S'pose nobody read but youseff?" continued the mulatta, in the same jeering tone. "S'pose nobody know what E.W. stand for? yah, yah!
Rather were they the involuntary accompaniment to an expression of peculiar anguish, that at that moment revealed itself on her features. The mulatta did not seem either to expect, or care for an answer: for on giving utterance to the fiendish insinuation, she turned upon her slippered heels, and hobbled back towards the camp. I held my face averted as she was passing near where I stood.
The interruption caused by the mulatta had hindered me from a verbal declaration, which otherwise I might have made; and there was no longer an opportunity for the periphrasis of speech. Even a word might betray me. Under this apprehension, I resolved to remain silent; and watch for the occasion when I might effect the secret conveyance of the paper.
You fill dat pail double-quick, or, golly, you catch it!" A threat! Lilian listens to it, and obeys! "I am coming, Aunt Lucy!" replied the girl, in a trembling voice, at the same time hastening to fill the water-can. I was in hopes that this conciliatory answer would send the mulatta back into the corral.
The gun-room officers had just finished their dinner, and the cloth had been removed, when our friend Billy Pitts entered, introducing a slim personage, attired in a robe of spotless white, with the dark turban peculiar to the Parsees, and bringing in his hand a small basket of fruit. "Massa Courtenay, here mulatta fellow want to speak to officers.
My good star was guiding me; and soon after I was rewarded for the act of prudence. "Say, gal!" continued the mulatta, still addressing herself to Lilian, "wha for you sittin' down dar, gazin' into da water? S'pose you tink you see him shadda dar? Yah, yah, yah!" "Whose shadow?" innocently inquired the girl. I trembled while listening for the reply. "O Lordy! you berry innocent gal, make 'pear!
The shade I had observed upon Lilian's countenance produced by the taunting speeches of the mulatta had convinced me that the young girl was not without some presentiment of her peril, however vaguely outlined. So much the better for our purpose; and, as I had already declared this belief to Marian, I did not interrupt her. She continued: "When you have read this, do not show it to any one.
The entrance of Scipio interrupted my reflections. A young girl assisted him with the plates and dishes. This was "Chloe," his daughter, a child of thirteen, or thereabouts, but not black like the father! She was a "yellow girl," with rather handsome features. Scipio explained this. The mother of his "leettle Chlo," as he called her, was a mulatta, and "`Chlo' hab taken arter de ole 'oman.
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