The sufferer yielded more readily to Tulee’s accustomed influence than she had done to that of Mr. Duroy.  She allowed herself to be laid upon the bed; but while her forehead and temples were being bathed, her heart beat violently, and all her pulses were throbbing.  It was, however, necessary to leave her with Chloe, who knelt by the bedside, holding her hand, and praying in tones unusually low for her.

“I’m feared for her,” said Tulee to Mr. Duroy.  “I never see Missy Rosy look so wild and strange.”

A short time after, when she looked into the room, Rosa’s eyes were closed.  She whispered to Chloe:  “Poor Missy’s asleep.  You can come and help me a little now.”

But Rosa was not in the least drowsy.  She had only remained still, to avoid being talked to.  As soon as her attendants had withdrawn, she opened her eyes, and, turning toward the babes, she gazed upon them for a long time.  There they lay side by side, like twin kittens.  But ah! thought she, how different is their destiny!  One is born to be cherished and waited upon all his days, the other is an outcast and a slave.  My poor fatherless babe!  He wouldn’t manumit us.  It was not thoughtlessness.  He meant to sell us.  “He meant to sell us,” she repeated aloud; and again the wild, hard look came into her eyes.  Such a tempest was raging in her soul, that she felt as if she could kill him if he stood before her.  This savage paroxysm of revenge was followed by thoughts of suicide.  She was about to rise, but hearing the approach of Tulee, she closed her eyes and remained still.

Language is powerless to describe the anguish of that lacerated soul.  At last the storm subsided, and she fell into a heavy sleep.

Meanwhile the two black women were busy with arrangements for the early flight.  Many things had been already prepared with the expectation of a summons to New Orleans, and not long after midnight all was in readiness.  Chloe, after a sound nap on the kitchen floor, rose up with the first peep of light.  She and Tulee hugged each other, with farewell kisses and sobs.  She knelt by Rosa’s bedside to whisper a brief prayer, and, giving her one long, lingering look, she took up her baby, and set off for the plantation, wondering at the mysterious ways of Providence.

They deferred waking Rosa as long as possible, and when they roused her, she had been so deeply sunk in slumber that she was at first bewildered.  When recollection returned, she looked at her babe.  “Where’s Chloe?” she asked.

“Gone back to the plantation,” was the reply.

“O, I am so sorry!” sighed Rosa.

“She was feared they would miss her,” rejoined Tulee.  “So she went away as soon as she could see.  But she prayed for ye, Missy Rosy; and she told me to say poor Chloe would never forget ye.”

“O, I’m so sorry!” repeated Rosa, mournfully.