Eloise went slowly back to the drawing-room, then out upon the piazza, and with her went that bending grace that accompanied her least motion, and always reminded you of a flower swaying on its stem. Mr. Marlboro' leaned there, listening to Miss Murray's singing within. Eloise went and took her place beside him, while his face brightened. He had been eating opium again, and his eyes were full of dreams. From where they stood upon the piazza they could see the creek winding, a strip of silvery redness, along the coast, and far in the distance where it met the sea, a film upon the sky, rose the dim castellated height of Blue Bluffs, like an azure mist. "There is something there that I want," said Eloise, archly, looking at the Bluffs. "There? you shall not wish twice." Then Hazel approaching, as by signal, offered Mr. Marlboro' a cup, which he declined without gesture or glance, while there gleamed in her eye a subtle look that told how easy it would have been to brew poison for this man who had such an ungodly power over her fate. "That is my little maid," said Eloise. "I have lent her to Mrs. Arles awhile, though. Is she not pretty,--Hazel?" "That is Hazel, then? A very witch-hazel!" "Yes." "And you want Vane?" "Yes, Mr. Marlboro'." "I did not know she was your maid. But the offence of Vane, if overlooked, would be a breach of discipline entailing too hazardous effects. Authority should never relax. What creeps through the iron fingers once can creep again. The gentle dews distilling through the pores of the granite congeal in the first frost and rend the rock. I would have difficulty, Miss Eloise, in pardoning such an offence to you, yourself. Ah, yes, that would be impossible, by Heaven!" Eloise laughed in her charming way, and said,-- "But, Mr. Marlboro', would it not be an admirable lesson to your people, if Vane were sold?" "A lesson to teach them all to go and do likewise, eh, Marlboro'?" said St. George, passing, with Miss Humphreys on his arm. "I have never sold, I never sell, a slave," replied Marlboro', in his placid tone; but St. George was out of hearing. "Yet, Miss Eloise,--if--if you will accept him"---- "Mr. Marlboro'! Indeed? Truly indeed? How happy you make me!" "And you can make me as happy,--happier, by the infinity of heaven over earth!" "But ought I to accept such a gift?" asked Eloise, oblivious of his last speech. "But can I?--may I?"--as St. George's warning stole into her memory. "Most certainly you can! most certainly you shall! he is yours!" And before Eloise could pour forth one of her multitudinous thanks, he had moved away. Marlboro's, however, was not that noble nature that spurns to beg at the moment when it grants. Directly, he had wheeled about, and with an eager air was again beside her. "And, Eloise," he said, "if in response I might have one smile, one hope"---- Thoughtlessly enough, Eloise turned her smiling face upon him, and gave him her hand.