Willcoxen and the
officer into the yard.
Mr. Willcoxen, the senior officer and Paul Douglass entered the
carriage, and the second constable attended on horseback, and so the
party set out for Charlotte Hall.
Hour after hour passed. Old Jenny came in and put the supper on the
table, and stood presiding over the urn and tea-pot while Cloudy ate his
supper. Old Jenny's tongue ran as if she felt obliged to make up in
conversation for the absence of the rest of the family.
"Lord knows, I'se glad 'nough you'se comed back," she said; "dis yer
place is bad 'nough. Sam's been waystin' here eber since de fam'ly come
from de city--dey must o' fetch him long o' dem. Now I do 'spose sumtin
is happen long o' Miss Miriam as went heyin' off to de willidge dis
mornin' afore she got her brekfas, nobody on de yeth could tell what
fur. Now de od-er two is gone, an' nobody lef here to mine de house,
'cept 'tis you an' me! Sam's waystin'!"
Cloudy laughed and tried to cheer her spirits by a gay reply, and then
they kept up between them a lively badinage of repartee, in which old
Jenny acquitted herself quite as wittily as her young master.
And after supper she cleared away the service, and went to prepare a bed
and light a fire in the room appropriated to Cloudy.
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