"Well, Harry, I won't press you for an answer, now. Stay here a month or two, and look around you; and then, we'll talk the matter over again, and see if we cannot settle upon something that shall be mutually satisfactory. For so long, surely, you can afford to be my guest." III. "PATTERN OF OLD FIDELITY." Before Bergan could answer, there came a low tap at the door. A negro woman, of unusual height, and singularly venerable and dignified aspect, stood, courtesying slightly, on the threshold. She was plainly of great age,--her face was deeply furrowed, and her hair, where it could be seen under the dark blue kerchief that covered her head, was white as snow,--yet her shoulders had not bent under the burden of years, her tall frame, though gaunt, was little palsied by the touch of actual infirmity. Although she carried a cane, it was not so much for its support, as for its aid in feeling out her way along her accustomed paths; she had been blind for many years. "Master Harry," said she, clasping her hands over the head of her cane, and speaking in slow, somewhat tremulous tones, but with neither the slovenly utterance nor the vicious pronunciation of the ordinary slave,--"Master Harry, excuse me if I interrupt you, but I could not wait any longer,--I wanted so much to see Miss Eleanor's son!" "It is Maumer Rue," said Major Bergan, not only with unwonted kindness of tone, but with something akin to respect in his manner;--"your mother must have spoken to you of our old nurse, Harry?" "Indeed she has!" exclaimed Bergan, earnestly, starting up to take the blind woman's hand. "Your name has always been a household word with us. The story of your devotion to my mother, in saving her from the flames, at the risk of your own life, and with the ultimate loss of your sight, was the one story of which we children never used to tire. Probably we felt, in our vague, childish way, that it was the one which came from the profoundest depth in her own heart,--since she could never tell it to us without a little tremor in her voice, and a soft dewiness in her eyes,--and that was the secret of its charm for us. You may be sure that she has never forgotten how much she owes you!" The old woman's lips trembled, and large tears gathered in her sightless eyes. "The Lord bless my dear young lady!" she ejaculated fervently,--"I knew she would never forget her old maumer. And it's like her to make much of my little service; but I did nothing but what was my duty--nothing."