"What did I tell you?" said Old Corrie. "All you've got to do in this world, little lady, is to have patience."
She was so overjoyed, having tight hold of Basil's hand, that she would have accepted the wildest theories without question.
"Mr. Corrie," she said, "may I have the magpie to-day?"
"Surely," he replied, "it is quite ready for you, and you will be able to teach it anything you please. But why so soon? Aren't you coming again?"
Her face became sad, and she clutched Basil's fingers convulsively: "I am afraid not this is the last, last time! I have heard something, Mr. Corrie, and if it is true my uncle and aunt are going to take me away to-morrow morning."
"In that case," said Old Corrie, "I will have the bird ready for you. Now you and Master Basil can talk; I'll not interrupt you." He went away at once, and left them together. For a little while they had nothing of a coherent nature to say to each other; but then Basil, recognising the necessity of introducing some kind of system into their conversation, related to Annette all that had happened within his knowledge since the sad morning of her father's death, and heard from her lips all that she had to relate. Much of it he had already heard from Old Corrie. The refrain she harped upon was, "And must we, must we part, Basil? And shall we never, never see each other again?"
"Part we must, dear Annette," he said; "I have no control over you, and no authority that can in any way be established. When I first came to the plantation I was a stranger to you and your father, and the law would acknowledge me as no better now."
"Next to my dear father and mother," said Annette, "I love you best in all the world. They cannot take that away from me; what I feel is my own, my very own. Oh, Basil, I sometimes have wicked thoughts, and feel myself turning bad; I never felt so before my uncle came."
"Annette, listen to me. You must struggle against these thoughts and must say to yourself, 'They will make my dear father and mother sorrowful. They have shown me kindness and love and I will show the same to them.' You cannot see them, Annette, but their spirits are watching over you; and there is a just and merciful God in heaven who is watching over you, too, and whom you must not offend."
"I will do as you say, Basil, dear; I will never, never forget your words. They will keep me good."