Although a stranger to the ladies, the officer was well known to the old servant. The guns had hardly been unlimbered in the beautiful grove in front of the house ere the ancient slave had appeared in the camp to express his ebullient patriotism, to thank his liberators for his freedom,--for this was the result of the advance of the Federal army, a military measure and not as yet a legal enactment. Despite his exuberant rhetoric, there was something tenuous about his fervent protestations, and the fact that he still adhered to his master's service suggested a devotion to the old régime incongruous with his loudly proclaimed welcome of the new day. "Why don't you leave your servitude, then, Uncle Ephraim?" one of the younger officers had tentatively asked him. "Dat is jes' whut I say!" diplomatically replied Uncle Ephraim, who thus came to be called "the double-faced Janus." Now indeed, instead of a vaunt of liberty, he was disposed to apologize, for the sake of the credit of the house, that there were no more slaves to make a braver show in servitude. "Dey ain't got no butler now,--he's in a restauroar up north,--nor no car'age driver; dat fool nigger went off wid de Union army, an' got killed in a scrimmage. He would hev' stayed wid Marster, dough, if de Fed'ral folks hedn't tuk de hosses off wid de cavalry; he 'lowed he wuz too lonesome yere, wid jes' nuffin' but two-footed cattle ter 'sociate wid." Once more he whisked the turkey wing along the clean, smooth hearth; then, still on his knees before the fire, he again addressed himself to the explanations he deemed fit as to the reduced status of his master's household. "Me an' my wife is all de servants dey got now--she's Chaney, de cook in de kitchen. Dey hatter scuse me, fur I never waited in de house afore. No, sah! jes' a wuckin' hand; jes' a cawnfield hand, out'n de cawnfield straight!" Whisk went the turkey wing. "Dat's whut I tell Miss Leonora,--dat's Mrs. Gwynn, de widder 'oman, Marster's niece whut's been takin' keer ob de house yere sence his wife died,--I say I dunno no better when I break de dishes, an' Miss Leonora, she say a b'ar outer a holler tree would know better. Yah! yah!" The officer, feeling these domestic confidences a burden, began to scrutinize with an appearance of interest the Dresden china shepherd and shepherdess at either end of the tall white wooden mantelpiece, and then the clock of the same ware in the centre. Old Janus mistook the nature of his motive. "'Tis gittin' late fur shore! Gawd! dem ladies is a-dressin' an' a-dressin' yit! It's a pity Miss Leonora--dat's de widder 'oman--don't fix _herself_ up some; looks ole, fur true, similar to a ole gran'mammy of a 'oman. But, sah, whut did she ever marry dat man fur?"