"If you had come a little earlier," said Edith, with unfailing good-nature, "I should have been glad to show you anything I have. But now, indeed, it is too late, and all my packages are made up—"
"It is not that," interrupted the maiden hastily, but with trepidation.
"No, I did not want to trouble you. But—"
"But what?" demanded Edith, with surprise, yet with kindness, for she observed the agitation of the speaker.
"Lady," said Telie, mustering resolution, and stepping to the bed-side, "if you will not be angry with me, I would, I would—"
"You would ask a favour, perhaps," said Edith, encouraging her with a smile.
"Yes, that is it," replied the girl, dropping on her knees, not so much, however, as it appeared, from abasement of spirit, as to bring her lips nearer to Edith's ear, that she might speak in a lower voice. "I know, from what they say, you are a great lady, and that you once had many people to wait upon you; and now you are in the wild woods, among strangers, and none about you but men." Edith replied with a sigh, and Telie, timorously grasping at the hand lying nearest her own, murmured eagerly, "If you would but take me with you, I am used to the woods, and I would be your servant."
"You!" exclaimed Edith, her surprise getting the better of her sadness. "Your mother would surely never consent to your being a servant?"
"My mother?" muttered Telie,—"I have no mother,—no relations."
"What! Mr. Bruce is not then your father?"
"No,—I have no father. Yes,—that is, I have a father; but he has,—he has turned Indian."