"To Colonel Le Noir?"
"Yes."
"I cannot curse you with the 'curse of a granted prayer! Colonel Le Noir is away."
"Why do you talk so strangely?" inquired Capitola.
"It is my whim. Perhaps my head is light."
"I should think it was, excessively so! Well—as the master of the house is away, be good enough to present me to the mistress?"
"What mistress? There is no mistress here!" replied Dorcas, looking around in strange trepidation.
"I mean the young lady, Colonel Le Noir's ward. In lieu of any other lady, she, I suppose, may be considered the mistress of the house!"
"Humph! Well, young girl, as you are fully resolved to stand your ground. I suppose there is nothing to do but to put up with you!" said Dorcas.
"And put up my horse," added Cap.