Mrs. Dormer requested Miss Melville to visit a lady at the next plantation; and Clara, the moment her back was turned, seized the box, and conveyed it to her mother, who had not time to satisfy her curiosity before Miss Melville returned for an ornament which she had left in it through mistake.
The box was not to be found. Mrs. Dormer and her daughter declared that they knew nothing of it; but a slave, who had accidentally seen it in Clara’s arms, as she carried it to her mother, said, “Missy Melville, you no cry—me telle you where de box be.”
“Oh, where, where, good Dinah, tell me,” returned Miss Melville; “I would rather lose every thing else in the world, than that box.”
“Missy Clara,” replied Dinah, “carry it to Madam, in de dressing-room.”
Miss Melville hurried to demand her box.
“Who told you it was here?” said Mrs. Dormer; “I have not seen it; and I am sure Clara never touched it.”
“No, that I did not,” cried the young lady, encouraged to assert a falsehood by the example of her mother—“Dinah has been telling you some story about the box, I suppose.”
Dinah was called.
“Do you know any thing of Miss Melville’s box, Dinah?” said Mrs. Dormer.
“Me see Missy Clara bring de box——”