"'Twas another experiment in the still-room?" he ventured.
"Of course," she responded, reluctantly, and in a tone that finished the topic.
There was a pause. The Governor's lieutenant was finding himself again. "Will not you come in, Mistress Debby?" he said, finally. "Or may I come out and walk in the garden a little with you?"
"Thank you, I shall come in. Breakfast is ready, but the rest are late."
"And you have been in the still-room all this while?"
"No, I have been in the twelve-acre field, and as far as Hudson's Swamp."
"Devil take me! What were you doing there?"
"I was hunting for a plant—but I could not get it. I brought home some young tobacco instead."
"Why—why—Deborah, 'tis always plants with you! Can you find nothing nearer home to suit your pleasure? Tell me the plant you sought, and I will hunt for it to the other end o' Maryland, if you command."
"Thank you, Sir Charles, but in a month I shall pluck it for myself, at the end of the huckleberry path. 'Tis spotted hemlock. I found one, young yet, but well-looking, which I shall gather as soon as 'tis big enough."