“Breakfast will be served as soon as you are ready for it, Elfrida,” said the host, as, still leaning on the arm of his valet and supporting himself by his cane, he turned and passed through a door on the right, into his own sanctum.
Widely yawned the foot of the broad staircase, up which Mrs. Kelsy led the guests of the house, to a vast upper hall, flanked with oaken doors leading into a suit of apartments on either side.
The housekeeper opened a door on the right, saying:
“Here is a suit of five rooms, my lady, fitted up for yourself and the young ladies. And here, on the opposite side, is a large room, with dressing room attached, for the young gentlemen—Good Lord!!”
This sudden exclamation from the housekeeper was called forth by the unexpected apparition of Gipsy, the negro maid, than whom no blacker human being ever saw the light. Gipsy was as black as ink, as black as ebony. Wynnette declared that charcoal made a light-colored mark on her. But aside from her complexion, Gipsy was a good-looking girl, with laughing black eyes, and laughing lips that disclosed fine white teeth.
“This is my maid, Zipporah, but we call her Gipsy for convenience,” said Mrs. Force.
“Oh, my lady! Will it bite? Can’t it talk? Is it vicious?” inquired the Cumberland woman, who had never seen and scarcely ever heard of a negro, and had the vaguest idea of dark-colored savages in distant parts of the world, who were pagans and cannibals.
“She is a very good girl, and can read and write as well as any of us; and she is, besides, a member of the Episcopal church at home, which is the same as your Church of England here,” Mrs. Force explained.
“Yes, my lady. Certainly, my lady. I beg pardon, my lady, I am sure,” said the housekeeper, in profuse apology; but still she did not seem satisfied, but gave Gipsy a wide berth while she eyed her suspiciously.
Now Gipsy resented this sort of treatment; besides, she was a bit of a wag; so every time her mistress’ back was turned she rolled up the whites of her big eyes, curled up her large red lips, and snapped her teeth together, in a way that made Kelsy’s blood run cold.