"They are bringing in your breakfast," said the sister. hope you have an appetite.”

Though faint and sick at heart, Clara resolved to conceal her emotions. So she sat down and made a show of eating.

"I will leave you awhile," said the sister. "If you want anything, you can ring."

Left to herself, Clara rose and promenaded the apartment, her thoughts intently turned inward to a survey of her position. Why had she been removed to this new abode? Plainly because Semmes feared she would be aided by her companions in baffling his vigilance and effecting her escape.. Clara knelt by the bedside and prayed for light and guidance; and an inward voice seemed to say to her: "You talk of trusting God, and yet you only half trust him.”

What could it mean? Clara meditated upon it long and anxiously. What had been her motive in procuring the dagger! A mixed motive and vague. Perhaps it was to take her own life, perhaps another's. Had she not reached that point of faith that she could believe God would save her from both these alternatives? Yes; she would doubt no longer. Walking to the back window she drew the dagger from its sheath and threw it far out into a clump of rose-bushes that grew rank in the centre of the area.

The key turned in the door, and Sister Agatha appeared. "Mr. Semmes is here. Can he come in?"

"Yes. I've been waiting for him.”

The sister withdrew and the gentleman entered.

"Sit down," said Clara. "For what purpose am I confined here?"

"My dear young lady, you desire to be treated with frankness. You are sensible, you are well educated, you are altogether charming; but you are a slave.”

"Stop there, sir! How do you know I'm a slave?"

"Of course I am bound to take the testimony of my client, an honorable gentleman, on that point."

"Have you examined the record! Can Mr. Ratcliff produce any evidence that the child he bought was white? Look at me. Look at this arm. Do you believe my parentage is other than pure Saxon? If that does n't shake your belief,

let me tell you that I have proofs that I am the only surviving child of that same Mr. and Mrs. Berwick who were lost more than fourteen years ago in a steamboat explosion on the Mississippi."

"Proofs ? You have proofs ? Impossible ! What are they?"

"That I do not choose to tell you. Only I warn you that the proofs exist, and that you are lending yourself to a fraud in helping your client to hold me as a slave.”

"My dear young lady, don't encourage such wild, romantic dreams. Some one, for a wicked purpose, has put them into your head. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Berwick was lost with them, as was clearly proved on the trial that grew out of the disaster, and their large property passed into the possession of a distant connection."

"But what if the story of the child's loss was a lie, if she was saved, then kidnapped,

What if she now stands before you?"

what

then sold as a slave?

"As a lawyer I must say, I don't see it. And even if it were all true, what an incalculable advantage the man who has millions in possession will have over any claimant who can't offer a respectable fee in advance! Who holds the pursestrings, wins. "T is an invariable rule, my child.”

"God will defend the right, Mr. Semmes; and I advise you to range yourself on his side forthwith."

“It would n't do for me to desert my client. That would be grossly unprofessional."

"Even if satisfied your client was in the wrong?"

My dear young lady, that's just the predicament where a lawyer's services are most needed. What can I do for you?' "Nothing, for I'm not in the wrong. My cause is that of justice and humanity. You cannot serve it.”

"In that remark you wound my amour propre. Now let me put the case for my client: Accidentally attending an auction he buys an infant slave. He brings her up tenderly and well. He spares no expense in her education. No sooner does she reach a marriageable age, than, discarding all gratitude for his kindness, she runs away. He discovers her, and she is brought to his house. His wife dying, he proposes to marry and eman

cipate this ungrateful young woman. Instead of being touched by his generosity, she plots to baffle and disappoint him. Who could blame him if he were to put her up at auction to-morrow and sell her to the highest bidder?”

"If you speak in sincerity, sir, then you are, morally considered, blind as an owl; if in raillery, then you are cruel as a wolf."

"My dear young lady, you show in your every remark that you are a cultivated person; that you are naturally clever, and that education has added its polish. How charming it would be to see one so gifted and accomplished placed in that position of wealth and rank which she would so well adorn There must never be unpleasant words between me and the future Mrs. Ratcliff, never!"

"Then, sir, you 're safe, however angrily I may speak."

"Your pin-money alone, my dear young lady, will be enough to support half a dozen ordinary families."

Clara made no reply, and Semmes continued: "Think of it First, the tour of Europe in princely style; then a return to the most splendid establishment in Louisiana !”

“Well, sir, if your eloquence is exhausted, you can do me a favor."

"What is it, my dear young lady?

"Leave the room."

66

Certainly. By the way, I expect Mr. Ratcliff any hour

now."

"I thought he was in Fort Lafayette!" replied Clara, trying to steady her voice and conceal her agitation.

"No.

mond."

He succeeded in escaping. His letter is dated Rich

Clara made no reply, and the old lawyer passed out, muttering: "Poor little simpleton. 'Tis only a freak. No woman in her senses could resist such an offer. She 'll thank me one of

these days for my anaesthetic practice."

CHAPTER XXXIX.

SEEING IS BELIEVING.

"It is a very obvious principle, although often forgotten in the pride of prejudice and of controversy, that what has been seen by one pair of human eyes is of force to countervail all that has been reasoned or guessed at by a thousand human understandings." Rev. Thomas Chalmers.

W

HEN, after some detention, Esha returned to the garden, and could not see Clara, she ran up-stairs and sought her in all the rooms. Then returning to the garden she looked in the summer-house, in the grape-arbor, everywhere without avail. Suddenly she caught sight of a small black girl, a sort of under-drudge in the kitchen, who was standing with mouth distended, showing her white teeth, and grinning at Esha's discomfiture. It was the work of a moment for Esha to seize the hussy, drag her into the wash-house, and by the aid of certain squeezings, liberally applied to her cervical vertebræ, to compel her to extrude the fact that Missie Clara had been forcibly carried off by two men, and placed in a carriage, which had been driven fast away.

When Esha communicated this startling information to Madame Volney, the wrath of the latter was terrible to behold. It was well for Lawyer Semmes that his good stars kept him that moment from encountering the quadroon lady, else a sudden stop might have been put to his professional usefulness. After she had recovered from her first shock of anger, she asked: "Why has n't Peek been here these five days? "'Cause he 'cluded 't wan't safe," replied Esha.

"He seed

ole Semmes war up ter su'thin, an' so he keep dark.” "Well, Esha, we must see Peek. You know where he lives?"

"Yes, Missis, but we mus' be car'ful 'bout lettin' anybody foller us."

"We can look out for that.

Come! Let us start at once."

The two women sallied forth into the street, and proceeded

some distance, Esha looking frequently behind with a caution that proved to be not ill-timed. Suddenly she darted across the street, and going up to a negro-boy who stood looking with an air of profound interest at some snuff-boxes and pipes in the window of a tobacconist, seized him by the wool of his head and pulled him towards a carriage-stand, where she accosted a colored driver of her acquaintance, and said: “Look har, Jube, you jes put dis little debble ob a spy on de box wid yer, and gib him a twenty minutes' dribe, an' den take him to Massa Ratcliff's, open de door, an' pitch him in, an' I'll gib yer half a dollar ef yer 'll do it right off an' ahx no questions; an' ef he dars ter make a noise you jes put yer fingers har, -dy'e see, and pinch his win'pipe tight. Doan let him git away on no account whatsomebber."

"Seein' as how jobs air scarss, Esha, doan' car ef I do; so hahnd him up."

seat.

Esha lifted the boy so that Jube could seize him by the slack of his breeches and pull him howling on to the driver's Then promising a faithful compliance with Esha's orders, he received the half-dollar with a grin, and drove off. Rejoining Madame Volney, Esha conducted her through lanes and by-streets till they stopped before the house occupied by Peek. He was at home, and asked them in.

"Are you sure you were n't followed?" was his first inquiry. Esha replied by narrating the summary proceedings she had taken to get rid of the youth who had evidently been put as a spy on her track.

"Remember

"That was well done, Esha," said Peek. you've got the sharpest kind of an old lawyer to deal with; and you must skin your eyes tight if you 'spect to 'scape being tripped."

"Wish I'd thowt ob dat dis mornin', Peek; for ole Semmes has jes done his wustest, carried off dat darlin' chile, Miss Clara."

Peek could hardly suppress a groan at the news.
"Now what's to be done?" said Madame Volney.

"Think

of something quickly, or I shall go mad. That smooth-tongued Semmes, O that I had the old scoundrel here in my grip! Can't you find out where he has taken that dear child?”