each other good-bye in the parlor?  Why, the man had not even come out to put her in the carriage, and the omission of this courtesy was very remarkable.  These questions were entirely too difficult for him to resolve by himself.  It was absolutely necessary that more should be told to him, and explained to him.  Seeing the negro boy Plez crossing the yard, he called him and asked him to tell Mr Keswick that Mr Croft wished to see him immediately.

“Mahs’ Junius,” said the boy, “he done gone to de railroad to take de kyars.  He done took he knapsack on he back, an’ walk ’cross de fiel’s.”

When, about an hour or two afterwards, Uncle Isham brought Mr Croft his dinner, the old negro appeared to have lost that air of attentive geniality which he usually put on while waiting on the gentleman.  Lawrence, however, took no notice of this, but before the man reached the table, on which he was to place the tray he carried, he asked:  “Is it true that Mr Keswick has gone away by train?”

“Yaas, sah,” answered Isham.

“And where is Mrs Keswick?” asked Lawrence.  “Isn’t she in the house?”

“No, sah, done gwine vis’tin, I ’spec.”

“When will she return?”

“Dunno,” said Isham.  “She nebber comes to me an’ tells me whar she gwine, an’ when she comin’ back.”

And then, after satisfying himself that nothing more was needed of him for the present, Isham left the room; and when he reached the kitchen, he addressed himself to its plump mistress:  “Letty,” said he, “when dat ar Mister Crof has got froo wid his dinner, you go an’ fotch back de plates an’ dishes.  He axes too many questions to suit me, dis day.”

“You is poh’ly to-day, Uncle Isham,” said Letty.

“Yaas,” said the old man, “I’s right much on the careen.”

Uncle Isham, perhaps, was not more loyal to the widow Keswick than many old servants were and are to their former mistresses, but his loyalty was peculiar in that it related principally to his regard for her character.  This regard he wished to be very high, and it always troubled and unsettled his mind, when the old lady herself or anybody else interfered with his efforts to keep it high.  For years he had been hoping that the time would come when she would cease to “rar and chawge,” but she had continued, at intervals, to indulge in that most unsuitable exercise; and now that it appeared that she had reared and charged again, her old servant was much depressed.  She had gone away from the house, and, for all he knew, she might stay away for days or weeks, as she had done before, and Uncle Isham was never so much “on the careen” as when he found himself forced to believe that his old mistress was still a woman who could do a thing like that.

Letty had no objections to answering questions, but much to her disappointment, Lawrence asked her none.  He had had enough of catechising negroes.  But he requested her to ask Mrs Null if she would be kind enough to step out, for a few minutes, and speak to him.  When, very shortly thereafter, that lady appeared, Lawrence was seated at his open door ready to receive her.