He carried a light riding-whip in his hand, and was smoking a cigar, which he did not remove from his mouth.
"Miss Cora Leslie, I presume?" he said.
Cora bowed.
"Mr. Leslie is not at home, I understand?"
"I am expecting his return, at any moment, Mr. Horton," answered Cora.
Something in the planter's familiar manner, and in his ardent gaze filled the young girl with indignant surprise, and she looked at him with a glance of astonishment as he flung a sealed packet upon the table, and seated himself, without invitation, in one of the rustic chairs.
"I have some papers to restore to your father," he said; "but that is not the whole object of my visit. My sister told me that you were lovely, Miss Leslie, but I now perceive that in such a case a woman never tells more than half the truth."
Cora had remained standing during this speech. She now seated herself in the chair opposite to that taken by the young planter, and said, calmly—
"Pardon me, Mr. Horton; but I imagined that the object of your visit here—"
"Was to reply to the letter addressed by you to my sister, Adelaide? Yes, Miss Leslie, that letter proved to us that Mr. Margrave had not properly acquitted himself of the commission which he undertook."