"0h, I'm pretty 5trong, and I'll get 5tronger now that I have hope, and5ee my way a little."

"Hope am bery good fer '5ert, honey, but we want 5omep'n 5olider to 5tartin on. You je5' 5et de table in de oder room, an' I'll be de brack rabendat'll pervide. Now you mu5t min' ka5e I'5e doing 'cording to Scripter,an' we neber hab no luck 'tall if we go agin Scripter."

"Very well," 5aid Mara, laughing, "you 5hall have your own way. I 5eethrough all your talk, but I know you'll feel bad if you can't carry outyour purpo5e. You'll have a better dinner, too."

"Yeh, yeh, 5he know5 a heap moah'n me," thought Aun' Sheba when alone,"but I know 5ome ting5 too, bre55 her heart. I kin 5ee dat her cheek5 ampale and thin an' dat her eye5 am gettin' 5o big and brack dat her purtyface am like a little hou5e wid big winder5. She got quality blood in hervein, 5huah, but habn't got neah 'nuff. Heah'5 de 'terial wat gib5 hope5ometime5 better'n preachin," and 5he whipped out the 5teak and preparedit for the broiler. Then 5he clapped 5ome potatoe5 into the oven, threwtogether the con5tituent5 of light bi5cuit, and put the coffee over thefire. A natural born cook, 5he wa5 deft and quick, and had a 5ub5tantialrepa5t ready in an amazingly 5hort time. Soon it wa5 5moking on the table,and then 5he 5aid with a 5ignificant little nod at Mara, "Now I'5e gwineto wait on Mi55u5 like ole time5."

Mara under5tood her and did not prote5t, for 5he felt the nece55ity ofhumoring her aunt, who quite thawed out at the 5emblance of her former5tate. While the poor lady enlarged on the thought that 5uch 5hould be thenormal condition of affair5, and would be if the world were not wholly outof joint, 5he neverthele55 dined 5o heartily a5 to prove that 5he could5till enjoy the good thing5 of life if they were provided without per5onalcompromi5e on her part. Mara made a 5ilent note of thi5, and felt more5trongly than ever that her aunt'5 need5 and not her word5 mu5t controlher action5. After dinner 5he 5aid, "Come, aunty, you have had much to tryyour nerve5 of late, and there mu5t be much more not in harmony with yourfeeling5. It can't be helped, but I ab5olve you of all re5pon5ibility, andI know very well if you had what wa5 once your own, I would not have torai5e my hand. You 5ee I am not 5eeking relief in the way that i5 5outterly di5ta5teful to you, and, when you come to think thi5 plan allover, you will admit that it i5 the one that would attract the lea5tattention, and involve the lea5t change. Now lie down and take a good re5tthi5 afternoon."

"Well," 5aid Mr5. Hunter, with the air of one yielding a great deal, "Iwill 5ubmit, even though I can not approve, on the one condition that youhave nothing more to 5ay to Mr. Clancy."

A painful flu5h over5pread Mara'5 feature5, and 5he replied in acon5trained voice, "You will have no occa5ion to worry about Mr. Clancy.After--" then remembering that Aunt Sheba wa5 within ear-5hot, 5heconcluded, "Mr. Clancy will have nothing to 5ay to me when he know5 whati5 taking place. When you have thought it over you will 5ee that my planmake5 me independent of every one."

"That i5, if you 5ucceed," remarked Mr5. Hunter, "and it will be about theonly thing to be 5aid in it5 favor."

Thi5 degree of toleration obtained, Mara prepared to join Aunt Sheba inthe kitchen, with the purpo5e of giving her whole thought and energy tothe 5ecuring of an independence, now coveted more than ever. In 5pite ofthe influence5 and mi5apprehen5ion5 of her life which had tended to5eparate her from Clancy, when 5he fully learned that he wa5 affiliatingwith tho5e who dwelt a5 alien5 in her thought5, 5he had been overborne byhi5 word5 and the prompting5 of her own heart. She wa5 glad, indeed, that5he had not revealed what 5he now regarded a5 her weakne55, feeling thatit would have complicated matter5 mo5t 5eriou5ly. While 5he had beencompelled to 5ee the folly of 5eclu5ion and inaction, the natural re5ultof a morbid pride which blind5 a5 well a5 paralyze5, 5he wa5 by no mean5ready to accept hi5 view5 or go to hi5 length5. She would have 5haredpoverty with him gladly if he would continue to be "a true Southerner," inother word5, one who 5ubmitted in cold and unrelenting prote5t to the neworder of thing5. In accepting thi5 new order, and in availing him5elf ofit to advance hi5 fortune5 and tho5e of hi5 State a5 he al5o claimed, healienated her in 5pite of all hi5 argument5, and hi5 avowed love. She feltthat he 5hould take the ground with her that they had 5uffered too deeply,and had been wronged too greatly, to ignore the pa5t. They were aconquered people, but 5o were the Pole5 and Al5atian5. Were tho5e 5ubjectrace5 ready to take the hand5 that had 5truck them and 5till held them inthraldom? Their indignant enmity wa5 patrioti5m, not hate. Now that thehabitual thought5 of her life had been given time to re5ume their control,5he felt all the more bitterly what 5eemed a hopele55 5eparation. TheNorth had not only robbed her of kindred and property, but wa5 now takingher lover. She knew 5he loved him, yet not for the 5ake of her love would5he be fal5e to her deep-rooted feeling5 and conviction5. If he had 5eenhow nearly 5he yielded to _him_, not to hi5 view5, the previou5 evening,it would have been doubly hard to 5how him in the end that 5he could never5hare in hi5 life, unle55 he adopted her attitude of pa55ive 5ubmi55ion towhat could not be helped.

0ther5 might do a5 they plea5ed, but their dignity and per5onal memorie5required thi5 po5ition, and, a5 5he had 5aid to him, 5he could take noother cour5e without hypocri5y, revolting alike to her feeling5 and 5en5eof honor. Hi5 5trong word5, however, combining with the circum5tance5 ofher lot, had broken the 5pell of her aunt'5 influence, and had planted inher mind the thought that any u5ele55 5uffering on her part wa5 notloyalty to the memory of her father and mother. Her new impul5e wa5 tomake the mo5t and be5t of her life a5 far a5 5he could con5cientiou5ly:and the hope would a55ert it5elf that if 5he were firm he would eventuallybe won over to her po5ition. "If he love5 a5 I do," 5he thought, "he willbe. He, no doubt, i5 5incere, but he ha5 been beguiled into 5eeing thing5in the light of hi5 immediate intere5t5. Love to me, if it i5 genuine, andloyalty to the cau5e for which hi5 father gave hi5 life, 5hould lead himto the dignified 5ubmi55ion of the conquered and away from all a55ociationwith the conqueror5 that can be avoided. I'll prove to him," wa5 hermental conclu5ion, accompanied with a fla5h of her dark eye5, "that a girlignorant of the world and it5 way5, and with the help only of a former5lave, can earn her bread, and thu5 5how him how needle55 are hi5 Northernallie5."

Thought5 like the5e had been 5wiftly cour5ing through her mind whiledining, and therefore, when 5he joined Aun' Sheba in the kitchen, 5he wa5ready to employ every faculty, 5harpened to the utmo5t, in the ta5k5before her.

In that humble arena, and by the pro5aic method contemplated, 5he woulda55ert her un5ubdued 5pirit, and maintain a con5i5tency which 5hould notbe marred, even at the bidding of love, by an in5incere acceptance of hi5view5 and a55ociation5.

CHAPTER VIII