"No, no; who could question your right to do as you please in the matter?"
"You forget," answered the lawyer; "you forget the fifty thousand dollars due to Augustus Horton; I am here to represent his interests as well as my own."
"Augustus Horton," cried Cora; "you hear, father, you hear. It is to deliver me to him that they would separate me from you."
"Reassure yourself, Miss Leslie," said Silas Craig; "the law requires that the slaves upon a property shall be sold by public auction. That auction will take place at noon to-morrow. Mr. Leslie has only to purchase you if he can command the means."
But Cora heard him not.
The name of Augustus Horton awakened all her terror of the persecution of a base and heartless profligate.
She imagined herself already in his power—his slave—his to treat as his vile passion prompted.
Wild with terror, she clung convulsively to her father.
"No, no," she cried; "do not abandon me. I shall die; I shall go mad. Do you forget that that man is the murderer of my mother?"
"Silence, silence!" whispered Gerald; "unhappy girl, do not infuriate him."