She seated herself on the top of the stone steps, and taking off her
straw hat, fanned her heated brow, where the rich waving hair clung
in damp masses.

"What name, miss, must I give, when the lie-yer finishes his
bizness?"

"Say that a stranger wishes to see him about an important matter."

"Its mighty uncertain how long he will tarry; for lie-yers live by
talking; turning of words upside down, and wrong side outards, and
reading words backards, and whitewashing black things, and smutting
of white ones. Marse Lennox Dunbar (he is our lie-yer now, since his
pa took paralsis) he is a powerful wrastler with justice. They do
say down yonder, at the court house, that when he gets done with a
witness, and turns him aloose, the poor creetur is so flustrated in
his mind, that he don't know his own name, on when he was born, or
where he was born, or whether he was ever born at all."

Curiosity to discover the nature of the stranger's errand had
stimulated the old man's garrulity, but receiving no reply, he
finally retreated, leaving the front door open. By the aid of a
disfiguring scar on his furrowed cheek, Beryl recognized him as the
brave, faithful, family coachman, Abednego, (abbreviated to
"Bedney")--who had once saved his mother's life at the risk of his
own. Mrs. Brentano had often related to her children, an episode in
her childhood, when having gone to play with her dolls in the loft
of the stable, she fell asleep on the hay; and two hours later,
Bedney remembering that he had heard her singing there to her dolls,