" Then she nodded to him and went, with her stately
step, up the broad staircase, her white hand flitting over the mahogany
balustrade.
As he looked after her, the Governor's face clouded, and he sighed beneath
his breath. The cares she met with such serenity had been too heavy for her
strength; they had driven the bloom from her cheeks and the lustre from her
eyes; and, though she had not faltered at her task, she had drooped daily
and grown older than her years. The master might live with a lavish
disregard of the morrow, not the master's wife. For him were the open
house, the shining table, the well-stocked wine cellar and the morning
rides over the dewy fields; for her the cares of her home and children, and
of the souls and bodies of the black people that had been given into her
hands. In her gentle heart it seemed to her that she had a charge to keep
before her God; and she went her way humbly, her thoughts filled with
things so vital as the uses of her medicine chest and the unexpounded
mysteries of salvation.
Now, as she reached the upper landing, she met Betty running to look for
her.
"O, mamma, may I go to fish with Champe and the new boy and Big Abel? And
Virginia wants to go, too, she says."
"Wait a moment, child," said Mrs. Ambler. "You have torn the trimming on
your frock. Stand still and I'll mend it for you," and she got out her
needle and sewed up the rent, while Betty hopped impatiently from foot to
foot.
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