I stammered out something, and she seated herself near me, and began to revive old recollections.
"They are not pleasant, Lindy, and I would rather they should be forgotten."
"Laws, I's got a very good home now; but I 'tends to marry some man that will buy me, and set me free! Now, I's got my eye sot on Henry."
I trembled violently, but did not trust myself to speak. Louise, however, in a quick tone, replied:
"He is engaged, and soon to be married to Ann."
"Laws! I doesn't b'lieve it; Ann shan't take him from me."
Though this was said playfully, it was easy for me to detect, beneath the seeming levity, a strong determination, on her part, to do her very worst. No wonder that I trembled before her, when I remembered how powerful an enemy she had been in former times.
With a few other remarks she left, and Louise observed:
"That Lindy is a queer girl. With all her ignorance and ugliness, she excites my dread when I am in her presence—a dread of a supposed and envenomed power, such as the black cat possesses."