"Shame on you, Joe! To whip your grandmother is hardly
conservative. Here is an errand that will pay you well: my wench Virgie
has been caught."
The kidnapper released the woman and turned to his guest.
"Good news!" he said; "ef it puts my neck in the string, I'll fetch her
fur you."
His countenance had begun to assume a sensual expression, when Patty
Cannon, to whom his back was turned, rushed upon him like a tornado,
lifted him from his feet, and threw him through the back door into the
yard and bolted him out. McLane retreated by the other door.
"Thank heaven!" reflected Hulda, looking down in terror, "no one is
murdered yet, and I have another day of grace to wait for Levin."
* * * * *
"Cunnil McLane," said Patty Cannon, in his room that night, "what
interest have you in the quadroon gal an' Huldy, too? You don't want' em
both, Cunnil?"
"No, Aunt Patty. All my views are conservative. Quite so! Hulda I want
to reform and model to my needs. She'll ornament me. By taking the girl
Virgie from my niece Vesta, I desire to punish the latter for consenting
to the degradation of our family, and marrying the forester, Milburn.
She loves this quadroon; therefore, I want to deprive her of the girl:
Joe is to bring her to me, do you see?"
His face expressed the indifference he felt to Virgie's safety on the
way, and the coarse suggestion gave Patty Cannon her opportunity:
"Cunnil, there's but three in the house to-night; I am one.
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