"So they are to be my first pupils," Everett said half aloud, and smiling as he watched the party drive off.
Mr. Suggs, sitting next to him, heard the words and saw the smile. "And a nice job you'll have, too," he said in a confidential whisper. "That little gal, you saw her, didn't you? She's Natalia Brandon and a whole school in herself, if what I hear going around is so. But she ought to be kinder interesting too, she's got enough history back of her. You know, her mother," Suggs edged his chair closer to Everett and lowered his voice, "it's whispered hereabouts, was a daughter of Gayosa. Of course, I don't want you to say it as coming from me, but there's a lot of folks think it, just the same."
"Mistress Brandon," Everett exclaimed, "that's impossible! I know her relatives in Boston."
"Oh no—not Mistress Brandon. She's the gal's stepmother. Brandon was married twice."
Everett looked in the direction the party had gone Their carriage had already disappeared down the street.
"And the old gentleman who met her," he asked, "who was he?"
"Shh! Here he comes with Jervais now."
Suggs rose as the two men came towards the table and held out his hand to the older man with the unmistakable signs of feeling a certain importance in the occasion.
"Mighty glad you come over here, Judge," he exclaimed in tones patently unctuous. "We've got something brand new in town to-day—a Yankee that's not an abolitionist."
CHAPTER IV