“Why, he’s Uncle Dick,” said she; “the bestest uncle in the world;” while Halbert added, “He’s got a heap of money, too; and once, when ma thought I was asleep, I heard her tell Lina, that if he didn’t get married it would be divided between us, and I should have the most, ’cause I’m named after him, Richard Halbert Delafield Lansing, and they call me Hal, for short. I told Uncle Dick what mother said, and I tell you, he looked blacker’n a nigger; and somehow, after that he took to ridin’ and foolin’ with Ada, wonderfully.”
As yet everything with me was comparatively conjecture. I did not know positively that the Uncle Dick of the children was the “dark man” of Rosa Lee; but the answer to my next question would decide it, and half tremblingly was it put. “Who is this Ada. What is her other name?”
“Ada Montrose, and she lives with us. Uncle Dick is her guardian,” said Halbert, throwing a bit of dirt at the negro boy who accompanied us, and who returned the young gentleman’s salute with interest.
I was satisfied, and did not wish to hear any more. I should meet him again, and tinged as my temperament is with a love of the marvellous, I could not help believing that Providence had led me there. By this time we had reached “Sunny Bank,” as it was very appropriately called, and never before had I seen so lovely a spot. The grounds, which were very spacious, were surrounded on all sides by a hedge of the beautiful Cherokee rose, and, unlike those of Cedar Grove, were laid out with perfect taste and order, Mr. Delafield, as I afterwards learned, had spent much time at the North, and in the arrangement of his house and grounds, he had not only imitated, but far surpassed the style of the country seats which are so often found within a few miles of our eastern cities. For this he was in a measure indebted to Dame Nature, who at the South scatters her favors with a lavish hand, sometimes beautifying and adorning objects far better than the utmost skill of man could do. The gate at the entrance of Sunny Bank was a huge wooden structure, having for its posts two immense oak trees, around whose trunks the graceful ivy twined, and then hung in fanciful festoons from several of the lower branches.
As I had supposed, the house itself stood upon a slight elevation, and the walk which led up to it was bordered on either side by the mock orange, whose boughs, meeting overhead, formed an effectual screen from the rays of the sun. The building, though fashioned in the same style as that of Mrs. Lansing, was much larger, and had about it a far more stylish air. Much of the furniture had been brought from New York, Halbert said; adding that “all the floors were covered with matting in the summer, and elegant Turkey carpets in the winter.”
In the rear of the house were the cabins of the negroes, who were lounging idly about, some on the ground, some in the doors, and some stretched at full length upon the back of the piazza, evidently enjoying the cool evening breeze. At sight of us, they roused up a little, and when Halbert, after announcing that I was Miss Lee, the new governess, further informed them that their master was coming home in a few days, they instantly gathered round us, evincing so much joy as to astonish me, who had heretofore looked upon a southern slaveholder as a tyrant greatly dreaded by his vassals.
“You must like Mr. Delafield very much,” I ventured to remark to one old lady, whose hair was white as wool.
“Like Mass’r Richard!” said she, rolling up her eyes. “Lor’ bless you, miss, like don’t begin to ’spress it. Why, I farly worships him; for didn’t I tend him when he was a nussin’ baby? and hain’t these old arms toted him more’n a million of miles?”
Here her voice was drowned by the others, all of whom united in declaring him the “berry best mass’r in Georgy.” This did not, of course, tend in any way to diminish the interest which I felt in the stranger; and, ere I was aware of it, I found myself anticipating his return almost as anxiously as the negroes themselves.
It was dark when we reached Cedar Grove; and as there was company in the parlor, I went immediately to my room. I had not been there long, however, when a servant was sent up, saying, that “Mrs. Lansing wished me to come down and play.”