"This is too humiliating," exclaimed Augustus, walking rapidly up and down the apartment; "my sister degrades herself by evincing a marked predilection for a man who is indifferent to her, and the object of her admiration does her the honor to prefer a—slave!"
CHAPTER VIII.
TOBY TELLS THE STORY OF THE MURDERED FRANCILIA.
On an elevated terrace, fifty feet above the margin of a lake, was situated the summer pavilion occupied by the once wealthy planter, Gerald Leslie.
Thick shrubberies of magnolia and arbutus, intersected by winding pathways, and varied by rockeries, lay between the terrace and the limpid waters below. Tall palms spread their feathery branches above the roof of the pavilion, and exotic flowers bloomed beneath the colonnade of bamboo work which surrounded the light edifice. A flight of marble steps led from the glass door of the pavilion, and a balustrade of the same pure white material stretched the whole length of the terrace, at each end of which were sculptured marble vases, filled with the rarest blossoms. A flower garden, in exquisite order, surrounded the pavilion, while exactly opposite the veranda a rustic table and some garden chairs were placed beneath the luxuriant shade of a banana tree.
Seated on the steps leading from the pavilion, faithful as a dog who listens for the footsteps of his beloved master, the slave Toby might have been seen on the day following that on which Cora had paid her unwelcome visit at the house of Augustus Horton.
Gerald Leslie was at his office in New Orleans, where business often detained him when the best wishes of his heart would have kept him by his daughter's side.
The summer afternoon was hot and sultry, and all the windows were open. The slave seemed to be listening eagerly for some sound within.
"All is silent," he said, sorrowfully; "that pretty bird sings no more. What has happened? Something. I know. I saw by her sad face when she returned from New Orleans yesterday, that all was not well with the sweet young mistress. The sorrows of those he loves cannot escape the eyes of poor Toby."
At this moment a light footstep sounded behind him, and Cora Leslie emerged from the pavilion.