"I know, Toby, I know. But why that request? Why am I a prisoner here? Why is my father's manner more indicative of sorrow than joy at my return to Louisiana? Why, on my first visit to the friend of my youth, do I find the door shut in my face?" "But the English gentleman who conducted you home explained the reason of that, Miss Cora?" "No, Toby; Mr. Margrave endeavored to explain, but in doing so he only revealed his embarrassment. There is some secret in all this. Some mystery that--Hark!" The sound which arrested Cora's attention was the trampling of a horse's hoots upon the carriage drive below the terrace. "Hulloa!" cried a voice from the same direction. "Hulloa, there! Is there any one to hold my horse?" "A visitor!" exclaimed Cora. "It is Mr. Augustus Horton," said Toby, looking over the balustrade. "Adelaide's brother! Then I will see him." "But in your father's absence, Miss Cora?" murmured the slave, anxiously. "I will see him," repeated Cora; "he may come to offer an explanation--Heaven knows it is needed." "Hulloa! every one asleep here?" cried the voice below. "Coming, massa," answered Toby, running down the terrace steps. Three minutes afterward Augustus Horton made his appearance in the flower garden, where Cora awaited him. He bowed carelessly to the young girl without raising his hat, but fixing upon her lovely face a gaze of ardent admiration. He carried a light riding-whip in his hand, and was smoking a cigar, which he did not remove from his mouth. "Miss Cora Leslie, I presume?" he said. Cora bowed. "Mr. Leslie is not at home, I understand?" "I am expecting his return, at any moment, Mr. Horton," answered Cora. Something in the planter's familiar manner, and in his ardent gaze filled the young girl with indignant surprise, and she looked at him with a glance of astonishment as he flung a sealed packet upon the table, and seated himself, without invitation, in one of the rustic chairs. "I have some papers to restore to your father," he said; "but that is not the whole object of my visit. My sister told me that you were lovely, Miss Leslie, but I now perceive that in such a case a woman never tells more than half the truth." Cora had remained standing during this speech. She now seated herself in the chair opposite to that taken by the young planter, and said, calmly-- "Pardon me, Mr. Horton; but I imagined that the object of your visit here--" "Was to reply to the letter addressed by you to my sister, Adelaide? Yes, Miss Leslie, that letter proved to us that Mr. Margrave had not properly acquitted himself of the commission which he undertook." "How so, sir?" "My sister much regretted not being able to receive you, yesterday, and I should have shared those regrets, had she not chosen me to bring you her excuses." "It is not an excuse which I require, Mr. Horton, but an explanation," replied Cora, with dignity. Augustus shrugged his shoulders.