of plain homespun; and if the former sat so well upon him it was
more by virtue of his natural grace than by that of tailoring. His
stockings were of cotton, harsh and plain, and the broad castor,
which he respectfully doffed as he came up with her, was an old one
unadorned by band or feather. What had seemed to be a periwig at a
little distance was now revealed for the man's own lustrous coiling
black hair.

Out of a brown, shaven, saturnine face two eyes that were startlingly
blue considered her gravely. The man would have passed on but that
she detained him.

"I think I know you, sir," said she.

Her voice was crisp and boyish, and there was something of boyishness
in her manner - if one can apply the term to so dainty a lady. It
arose perhaps from an ease, a directness, which disdained the
artifices of her sex, and set her on good terms with all the world.
To this it may be due that Miss Arabella had reached the age of five
and twenty not merely unmarried but unwooed. She used with all men
a sisterly frankness which in itself contains a quality of aloofness,
rendering it difficult for any man to become her lover.

Her negroes had halted at some distance in the rear, and they
squatted now upon the short grass until it should be her pleasure
to proceed upon her way.

The stranger came to a standstill upon being addressed.

"A lady should know her own property," said he.