“If I had known! If I had only known!” he said.
But in all his narrative Stuart never mentioned the name or existence of either Lamia Leegh or Gentleman Geff. It was bad enough, he thought, to trouble the old gentleman’s calm spirit with the tale of want; but it would have been far worse to have darkened and depressed it with the story of falsehood and treachery.
The early dinner bell brought the family together, and around the table were only happy faces. All the painful past was for the time forgotten.
The afternoon was beautiful.
The large old sleigh was brushed out, lined with buffalo skins and blankets, and brought around to the front door by two swift horses. And the four—Mr. Cleve, Mrs. Pole, Stuart and Palma—took a ride; the first pair seated on the back seat, the second on the front seat, and Josias, the coachman, on the box.
They took the road that skirted the base of the mountains, on the inside, and went in a circle around the plantation. On this road, under the shelter of the mountains, stood the negroes’ quarters—log huts, large and small, from one room to two, three or even four, according to the necessities of the occupants. The men and boys were all away at such farm work as the season permitted, and the women were engaged in washing, ironing, cooking, or carding and spinning wool. Their open doors showed their occupations, and showed also the bright pine wood fires that so warmed their huts as to permit these open doors.
The sleigh passed too swiftly for the party in it to return half the nods and smiles with which their passage was greeted.
“Uncle,” said Palma, “you appear to me like a patriarch of old living among his tribe.”
“Yes, dear child, with this exception—the patriarchs were men of large families, with many sons and daughters, and sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, and innumerable grandchildren and great-grandchildren to the third and fourth generation, to rise up and call them blessed. And I—have none.”
“Oh! uncle, dear, you have us. We love you; indeed, we do. And we will serve you as tenderly and devotedly as any children could.”