The Ghost GirlStacpoole, H. De Vere (Henry De Vere)
General
The Ghost Girl
Stacpoole, H. De Vere (Henry De Vere)
Charleston (S.C.) -- Fiction; Guardian and ward -- Fiction; Love stories
Then she went off to dress herself for the journey, and an hour later she
appeared veiled and apparelled, Dick following her with the luggage, a
bandbox and a bag of other days.
She got into the big touring car without a word. Phyl followed her and
Pinckney tucked the rug round their knees.
"You've got the most careful driver in Charleston," said he, "and he knows
the road."
Miss Pinckney nodded.
She was flying straight in the face of her pet prejudice. She was not in
the least afraid of a break down or an overset. An accident that did not
rob her of life or limb would indeed have been an opportunity for saying
"I told you so." She was chiefly afraid of running over things.
As Pinckney was closing the door on them who should appear but Seth--Seth
in a striped sleeved jacket, all grin and frizzled head and bearing a
bunch of flowers in his hand. He had not been dismissed after all. When
Miss Pinckney had gone into the kitchen to pay him his wages he had
carried on so that she forgave him. The flowers--her own flowers just
picked from the garden--were an offering, not to propitiate but to
please.
Pinckney laughed, but Miss Pinckney as she took the bouquet scarcely
noticed either him or Seth, her mind was busy with something else.
She leaned over towards the chauffeur.
"Mind you don't run over any chickens," said she.
It was a gorgeous morning, with the sea mists blowing away on the sea
wind, swamp-land and river and bayou showing streets and ponds of sapphire
through the vanishing haze.
Phyl was in high spirits; the tune of Camptown Races, which a street boy
had been whistling as they started, pursued her. Miss Pinckney, dumb
through the danger zone where chickens and dogs and nigger children might
be run over, found her voice in the open country.
The bunch of flowers presented to her by Seth and which she was holding on
her lap started her off.
"I hope it is not a warning," said she; "wouldn't be a bit surprised to
find Seth Grangerson in his coffin waiting for the flowers to be put on
him; what put it in to the darkey's head to give me them! I don't know,
I'm sure, same thing I suppose that put it into his head to give me
impudence."
"You've taken him back," said Phyl.
"Well, I suppose I have," said the other in a resigned voice, "and likely
to pay for my foolishness."
Pinckney had said that it was only a two hours' run from Charleston to
Grangerville, but he had reckoned without taking into consideration the
badness of some of the roads, and the intricacies of the way, for it was
after one o'clock when they reached the little town beyond which, a mile
to the West, lay the Colonel's house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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