IV

Christmas Intrigue




IV

Uncle Noah hobbled after her. His new mistress had quite forgotten to
tell him where to deliver himself when his Christmas with the Colonel
was over. But when he reached the door she was eagerly greeting a man
who had just alighted from a waiting carriage. Uncle Noah could but
dimly see him, but as the genial voice reached his ears he halted in
the shadow quite content. It was Major Verney. The fact that the
Colonel's old friend and neighbor had driven in from Fernlands to meet
the radiant lady whose great gray eyes, Uncle Noah now recalled, had
had the Verney look which endeared the owner of Fernlands to all who
knew him, seemed to the watching negro a direct interposition of
Providence. A scant mile of cottonfields lay between the two
plantations, and, Christmas over, Uncle Noah had but to trudge across
the fields to deliver himself to the Major's guest.

"And, Ruth," concluded Major Verney in laughing reprimand, "you have
kept me waiting. Why, child, the Northern Express came in fifteen
minutes ago."

Uncle Noah did not catch the girl's reply as Major Verney assisted her
into the carriage and they drove rapidly away.