The days were passing now so languidly, and wretchedness was still brooding in the heart of Alice. To one event, however, she looked forward with intense yearnings. There was somewhere in the wide, wide world a great sympathetic heart perpetually telegraphing its love, and she was feeling the electric current in its pulsations every moment in the day. He had promised to come again in the mellow, fragrant month of October, before the flowers fade and die; when the artist of nature is painting the foliage upon the trees green, purple and golden, and with a richer iris the twilight sky, and dappling the fleecy clouds. Yes, he is coming, not as the judge of the assizes, but as a prisoner of hope. Her affections hitherto were divided--now he yearns for the whole heart. Coming to endow her with a treasure selfishly coveted above rubies and diamonds, above principalities and thrones; coming to plight his troth at God's altar, that in sickness and in health they would cling to one another till death doth part them. How would Alice appear in her funereal robes before him, before the altar? Perhaps Clarissa can reassure her in this dilemma. "Miss Alice," she exclaimed as she clapped her hands approvingly, "If yer is as butiful when the jedge cums as yer is now, dat er po man is ergwine stracted wid hissef. I clare fore my blessed Marster up yander if I had er node how butiful yer is agwine ter look in dat black mourning, I wuld er swaded yer to dun und dun it fore ole marsa died." And what is going to become of Clarissa and Ned? The mildew of age is upon them both. For years past their old heads have been whitening with the hoar frost. "Now ole marsa is dun und gon, de fambly is ergwine to break up und de grate house is agwine to be the home of de owls, und de swallers und de bull-bats." So thought Clarissa as in the quiet gloaming she stood in the verandah, and listened to the melancholy winds and the more melancholy bleating of the cattle. Ned had been doing little chores about the house all the day, and after he had eaten his supper, he and Clarissa had by permission assembled in the dining-room where they found their young mistress engaged in some light needle work. She of course welcomed the negroes heartily. They were her friends and had been through many sore trials. Clarissa was the first to break the silence, as she enquired of her young mistress the day of the month. "It is the 27th day of September replied Alice." "Ugh! Ugh! I tole yer so Ned. Aint nex mont October?" she asked again. "Yes, why do you ask?" replied Alice. "Kase Ned sed the jedge warnt agwine to cum no mo twell juvember. Ned is flustrated monstrus, Miss Alice. So skeered de jedge is ergwine to tak yer away frum me und him." "And if he does, I am sure you will both be very glad," Alice replied.