A few words explained the whole, for Hagar never concealed aught from her master, and so she gave the history of her _plaster_, which now lay upon the hearth in the ashes, where she had thrown it. Quick as thought the truth burst upon Mr. Delafield, who laughed so long and loud, that Aunt Hagar, thinking that he was making light of her misfortunes, began to cry, saying she “never thought Mars’r Richard would poke fun at her misery.” “Neither am I making fun of you,” said he, adding further, by way of atoning for his error, that for the remainder of the week she should be freed from all household service, and devote her whole time, if she liked, to her aching back. This had the effect of restoring Aunt Hagar to good humor, and in the midst of her thanks, Mr. Delafield returned slowly to the house, thinking that when a habit of deception is once firmly fixed, it required more to cure it than a blister applied to the fire-board! CHAPTER XXIII. DR. CLAYTON. Rapidly, and to me very happily, did the winter pass away, for it was enlivened by the presence of Mr. Delafield, who was with us so often, that it became at last a serious debate among the blacks as to whether Cedar Grove or Sunny Bank were really his home. More than once, too, was it whispered in the village, that little _Rosa Lee_, plain and unassuming as she was, had stirred in the heart of the “stern old bachelor” a far deeper feeling than Ada Montrose had ever been capable of awakening. And sometimes _she_, foolish child that she was, thought so too, not from anything he said, neither from anything which he did; indeed, it would have been hard for her to tell _why_ her heart sometimes beat so fast when he was near, for though his manner was always kind and considerate, he never spoke to her of _love_—never appeared as he had once done in the summer-house, when she gave him such silly answers!