It was long before Daph returned to consciousness, and when her eyes once more opened they were wild with fever and anguish. She declared, however, that she was quite well, and would have no one about her; she longed to be alone, to struggle with her great sorrow. The children would not leave her, but it was in vain they tried their little expressions of tenderness, and begged her look once more like their “own dear Daffy.”
The sight of the unconscious orphans redoubled the grief of the poor negro, and she burst into a flood of tears. The poor children, overcome at this unwonted sight, sank down beside her, and mingled their tears with hers.
Mrs. Ray and the young doctor were sorely puzzled by the strange scenes they had witnessed. They had both seen the rich chains about Daph’s neck, which had been disclosed while she was unconscious, and not a little wonder was excited by the sight of that expensive jewelry in such a place. Dr. Bates had not failed to observe the refined appearance of the fair Louise and the noble bearing of little Charlie, contrasting as they did so strangely, with the plainness of their humble home, and the unmistakable African face of the woman, of whom they seemed so fond.
The wild agitation of Daph, the disappearance of the sun-browned stranger, the necklaces, the children, all tended to fill the mind of Dr. Bates with dark suspicion. He lingered about Daph as long as he could make any excuse for doing so, and when he reluctantly turned from the room, he did not leave the house without thoroughly questioning Mrs. Ray as to what she knew of her lodgers. Mrs. Ray had but little to tell, excepting, that they had been commended to her, three years before, by the same tall sailor, whose appearance that day had created such a commotion. Of Captain Jones she could only say, that he had been a mess-mate of her husband, years before, and had always been reckoned an honest, kind-hearted man.
The questions put by Dr. Bates roused all the curiosity of Mrs. Ray, and revived the suspicions, with regard to Daph, which had been much in her mind during the early days of their acquaintance. Such thoughts had long since been banished, by the honest, upright life of the kind-hearted, industrious negro, but now they rose with new strength.
She recalled the richly embroidered dresses in which the children sometimes appeared, the first summer after their arrival, and she dwelt on the reluctance which Daph always exhibited to answering any questions as to her past life, or the circumstances attending her departure from her southern home.
These remembrances and suspicions she detailed to the willing ear of Dr. Bates, who was satisfied that he was on the eve of unraveling some tangled web of iniquity, and with slow and thoughtful steps he walked away from the humble home, so wrapped in mystery.
Once more left to herself, Mrs. Ray felt ashamed of having doubted poor Daph, and was half inclined to go to her, and frankly own the misgivings the late occurrences had excited; but the thought of those strange circumstances again set her curiously at work, and all right feeling was soon lost, in an eager anxiety to find out the dark secret, which hung like a cloud over the poor negro.