"Mademoiselle best knows its worth," said he, rather amused, and turning away.
The girl was still looking down; now, however, she threw after him a quick glance.
"Tenez!" said she, imperiously, and stepping toward him. "You fancy me very ungrateful," she continued, lifting her slender hand, and with the back of it brushing away the floating hair at her temples. "Well, I am not, and at some time it may be that I prove it. I do not like to owe debts; but, since I must, I will not try to cancel them with thanks."
Mr. Raleigh bowed, but said nothing. She seemed to think it necessary to efface any unpleasant impression, and, with a little more animation and a smile, added,--
"The Captain Tarbell told me your name, Mr. Raleigh, and that you had not been at home for thirteen years. Ni moi non plus,--at least, I suppose it is home where I am going; yet I remember no other than the island and my"--
And here the girl opened her eyes wide, as if determined that they should not fill with tears, and looked out over the blue and sparkling fields around them. There was a piquancy in her accent that made the hearer wish to hear further, and a certain artlessness in her manner not met with recently by him. He moved forward, keeping her beside him.
"Then you are not French," he said.
"I? Oh, no,--nor Creole. I was born in America; but I have always lived with mamma on the plantation; et maintenant, il y a six mois qu'elle est morte!"
Here she looked away again. Mr. Raleigh's glance followed hers, and, returning, she met it bent kindly and with a certain grave interest upon her. She appeared to feel reassured, somewhat protected by one so much her elder.
"I am going now to my father," she said, "and to my other mother."