Mrs. Ratcliff was soon touched by Josephine’s obvious solicitude to minister to her happiness and health. The slave-girl’s childlike frankness begot frankness on the part of the wife. Seeing that their interests were identical, each was gradually drawn to the other, till a sincere and tender attachment was the result. The wife was made aware of her husband’s calculations in regard to a second marriage; and Josephine found in that wife a faithful and crafty ally, too deep, with all her shallowness, to be fathomed by the husband. No sooner had Ratcliff quitted the house, on the morning of the breakfast described, than Josephine hurried to the invalid’s room. A poor diminutive Creole lady, with wrinkled skin, darker even than the quadroon’s, and with one shoulder higher than the other, she sat, with a white crape-shawl wrapped round her, in a large arm-chair. Her face, as Josephine entered, lighted up with a smile of welcome that for a moment seemed to transfigure even those withered and pain-stricken features. In half an hour Josephine had put her in possession of all the developments of the last two days, and of her own plans for controlling the movements of Ratcliff in regard to the young white woman supposed to be his slave. With absorbed interest the invalid listened to the details, and approved warmly of what Josephine had planned. Her feminine curiosity was pleased with the idea of having, in her own house and under her own eye, this young person whom Ratcliff had presumed to think of as a second wife; while the thought of baffling him in his selfish schemes sent a shock of pleasure to her heart. Furthermore, the excitement seemed to brace up her frame anew, and to ruffle into breezy action the torpid tide of her monotonous existence. Esha was announced and introduced. A new and refreshing incident for the invalid! And now, if Esha had needed any further confirmation of the quadroon’s story, it was amply afforded. Josephine’s project for the present security of Ratcliff’s white slave was discussed and approved. The carriage was waiting at the door. “Go now,” said Mrs. Ratcliff, “and be sure you bring the girl right up to see me.” In less than twenty minutes afterwards, as Clara, lonely and anxious, sat in Tremaine’s drawing-room, a servant entered and told her that a colored woman was in Number 13, waiting to see her. Supposing it could be no other than Esha, she followed the servant to the room, and, on entering, recoiled at sight of a stranger. For a moment the quadroon was so absorbed in scanning the girl’s whole personal outline, that there was silence on both sides. “What’s wanting?” asked Clara, half dreading some trick. “Please close the door, and I’ll tell you,” was the reply. Clara did as she was requested. “Have you any objections to locking the door?” continued the quadroon. “None whatever,” replied Clara, and she locked it. “You fear I may be here as an agent of Mr. Ratcliff,” said Josephine.