"
A pleased smile broadened the Governor's face, and he settled his waistcoat
with an approving pat. "Ah, you're a partial witness, my dear," he said;
"but I've an error to confess, so I mustn't forego your favour--I--I bought
several of Mr. Willis's servants, my love."
"Why, Mr. Ambler!" remonstrated his wife, reproach softening her voice
until it fell like a caress. "Why, Mr. Ambler, you bought six of Colonel
Blake's last year, you know and one of the house servants has been nursing
them ever since. The quarters are filled with infirm darkies."
"But I couldn't help it, Julia, I really couldn't," pleaded the Governor.
"You'd have done it yourself, my dear. They were sold to a dealer going
south, and one of them wants to marry that Mandy of yours."
"Oh, if it's Mandy's lover," broke in Mrs. Ambler, with rising interest,
"of course you had to buy him, and you did right about the others--you
always do right." She put out her delicate blue-veined hand and touched his
arm. "I shall see them to-day," she added, "and Mandy may as well be making
her wedding dress."
"What an eye to things you have," said the Governor, proudly. "You might
have been President, had you been a man, my dear."
His wife rose and took up her work-box with a laugh of protest. "I am quite
content with the mission of my sex, sir," she returned, half in jest, half
in wifely humility. "I'm sure I'd much rather make shirt fronts for you
than wear them myself.
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