I drew a breath of hope; and then my hope was quashed. Miss Pinshon chose one of the two that opened into each other; and my only comfort was the fact that my own room had two doors and I was not obliged to go through Miss Pinshon's to get to it. Just as this business was settled, Preston called me out into the gallery and asked me to go for a walk. I questioned with myself a second whether I should ask leave; but I had an inward assurance that to ask leave would be not to go. I felt I must go. I ran back to the room where my things lay, and in two minutes I was out of the house.
My first introduction to Magnolia! How well I remember every minute and every foot of the way. It was delicious, the instant I stepped out among the oaks and into the sunshine. Freedom was there, at all events.
"Now, Daisy, we'll go to the stables," Preston said, "and see if there is anything fit for you. I am afraid there isn't; though Edwards told me he thought there was."
"Who is Edwards?" I asked, as we sped joyfully away through the oaks, across shade and sunshine.
"Oh, he is the overseer."
"What is an overseer?"
"What is an overseer?—why, he is the man that looks after things."
"What things?" I asked.
"All the things—everything, Daisy; all the affairs of the plantation; the rice fields and the cotton fields and the people, and everything."
"Where are the stables? and where are we going?"