from the topmost bough of a locust, heavy with bloom, came the liquid trill of a mock bird. It was a fair domain, and a wealthy. The Englishman thought of certain appalling sums lost to Sedley and Roscommon, and there flitted through his brain a swift little calculation as to the number of hogsheads of Orenoko or sweet-scented it would take to wipe off the score. And the girl beside him was beautiful enough to take Whitehall by storm, to be berhymed by Waller, and to give to Lely a subject above all flattery. He set his lips with the air of a man who has made up his mind, and turned to his companion, who was absorbed in watching the white sail grow slowly larger. "How long, now, cousin?" "But a few minutes unless the wind should fail." "And then you will have your treasures. But, madam, when you have assumed all the panoply your sex relies on to increase its charms ’t will be but to ’gild refined gold or paint the lily.’ The Aphrodite of this western ocean needs no adornment." The girl looked at him with laughter in her eyes. "You make me too many pretty speeches, cousin," she said demurely. "We know the value of the fine things you court gallants are perpetually saying." "Upon my soul, madam, I swear"— "Do you know the amount of the fine for swearing, Sir Charles? See how large the sail has grown! When the boat rounds the long marsh she will come more quickly. We will soon be able to see my father wave his handkerchief." The young man bit his lip. "You are pleased to be cruel to-day, madam, but I am your slave and I obey. We will look together for Colonel Verney’s handkerchief. How many black slaves does he bring you?" She laughed. "But half a dozen blacks, but there will be several redemptioners if you prefer to be numbered with them." "Redemptioners! Ah, yes! the English servants who are sold for their passage money. I thank you, madam, but _my_ servitude is for life." "The men my father will bring may not be the ordinary servants who come here to better their condition. He may have obtained them from a batch of felons from Newgate who have been kept in gaol in Jamestown until word could be got to the planters around. I am sure I wish the ship captains and the traders would stop bringing in the wretches. It is different with the negroes: we can make allowance for the poor silly things that are scarce more than animals, and they grow attached to us and we to them, and the simple indented servants are well enough too. There are among them many honest and intelligent men. But these gaol birds are dreadful. It sickens me to look at them. Thieves and murderers every one!" "I should not think the colony served by their importation." "It is not indeed, and we have hopes that it will cease. I beg my father not to buy them, but he says that one man cannot stop an abuse—that as long as his fellow-planters use them he might as well do so too."