‘Quita, you will make yourself ill if you go on like this!’ said Mrs Courtney, with grave solicitude. ‘You are really too silly to be reasoned with. Do you forget you are going to be the Governor’s wife? You are not going to marry a nobody, but a man high in position and power, and no one will dare to assail you either by word or deed. The church in which you are married will be lined with the military; and if you are nervous, Sir Russell will have a special guard of honour to protect you. But don’t let _him_ guess at any of your nervous fears, for Heaven’s sake, or he may get curious to learn the cause of them. Rely on me, Quita, that all will be well.’ ‘But there is another thing, mamma,’ said the girl, after a pause. ‘I am horribly afraid that old Jessica knows too much. One night when--when--I had been at the bungalow, I found her awake and watching for my return. And two or three times she has muttered hints that I could not misunderstand.’ ‘Oh, Quita, Quita, what trouble you have got yourself into. It seems as if we should never surmount the difficulties in our path. I shall know no peace until you are Lady Johnstone.’ ‘Nor I either, mamma! But can’t we send Jessica away too? I don’t intend to take her to Government House, and you will have no use for her when I am gone.’ ‘My dear, I am afraid it would be dangerous to dismiss her. She would guess the reason, and these negroes are very revengeful. They will serve you to the death, so long as you make them your friends; but once turn round on them, and their malice knows no bounds. Jessica has been with you since your birth, and to send her adrift just as you are going to be married, would be to set her tongue going like a mill-wheel. No, Quita, you must pursue a more politic course! I think we made a mistake in not bringing Jessica up to the hills with us. Had I known what you tell me now, I would not have consented to her being left behind; but you must take her some presents when we return, and do all in your power to conciliate her. Don’t encourage any familiarity, nor appear to understand any hints she may give you, but keep her in a good temper, my dear child, until after the fourteenth, whatever you do.’ Acting on her mother’s advice, Maraquita took a gaily-coloured shawl and a necklace of gilt beads to Jessica when she returned to the White House, and made the old nurse’s heart repent that she had been led into repeating any scandal about her missy. But the departure of the overseer was too important an event to be passed over in silence, and Maraquita was doomed to hear a repetition of what was thought concerning it in the coolie quarters. ‘Missy seen de new oberseer?’ Jessica commenced, the first moment they were left alone. ‘He berry fine man,--broader den Massa Courcelles, and plenty more colour in face; nice hair too--same colour as de carrots--and a soft voice, kinder like a woman’s.’