“Reckon thar don’t nobody starve as long as this nigger rules the roost,” said Milly, wiping one of the silver tea-spoons with a corner of her apron, and then placing it in the cup destined for Mabel, who, not having seen her breakfast prepared, relished it highly, thinking the world was not, after all, so dark and dreary, for there were yet a few left who cared for her. Her headache of the day before still remained, and ’Lena suggested that she should stay in her room, saying that she would herself see that every necessary attention was paid her. This she could the more readily do, as Mrs. Livingstone had gone to Versailles with her husband. That afternoon, as Mabel lay watching the drifting clouds as they passed and repassed before the window, her ear suddenly caught the sound of horses’ feet. Nearer and nearer they came, until with a cry of delight she hid her face in the pillows, weeping for very joy—for John Jr. had come home! She could not be mistaken, and if there was any lingering doubt, it was soon lost in certainty, for she heard his voice in the hall below, his footsteps on the stairs. He was coming, an unusual thing, to see her first. But how did he know she was there, in his old room? He did not know it; he was only coming to put his rifle in its accustomed place, and on seeing the chamber filled with the various paraphernalia of a woman’s toilet, he started, with the exclamation, “What the deuce! I reckon I’ve got into the wrong pew,” and was going away, when Mabel called him back. “Meb, you here?” said he. “_You_ in this little tucked-up hole, that I always thought too small for me and my traps! What does it mean?” Mabel had carefully studied the tones of her husband’s voice, and knowing from the one he now assumed that he was not displeased with her, the sense of injustice done her by his mother burst out, and throwing her arms around his neck, she told him everything connected with her removal, asking what his mother meant by saying, “she should never get anything for their board,” and begging him “to take her away where they could live alone and be happy.” Since he had left her, John Jr. had _thought_ a great deal, the result of which was, that he determined on returning home much sooner than he at first intended, promising himself to treat Mabel decently, and if possible win back the respect of ’Lena, which he knew he had lost. To his companions, who urged him to remain, he replied that “he had left his wife sick, and he could not stay longer.”