His plan was now accomplished.
But the meeting could not be much longer deferred. De Guy, however, now
that they were free from the friends of Emily, no longer dreaded it.
The dinner hour arrived, and Hatchie was standing by the side of his
mistress on the gallery, when De Guy approached and announced the fact.
His voice startled Hatchie. It was the same squeaking tone he had heard
at Bellevue on the night of his escape. He turned to look upon the
speaker, and was confounded to behold the very person who had plotted
with Jaspar on that memorable night! With a presence of mind which never
deserted him, he held his peace, resolved not to frighten his mistress
by exposing the fact.
Hatchie stood lost in thought on the gallery long after De Guy had
conducted his mistress to the dinner-table. The mulatto was in a
quandary,--a worse quandary than the congressional hero of Kentucky has
described in any of his thousand relations of hair-breadth escapes. His
mistress was fairly committed to her new destiny, and how could he
extricate her?
He resolved to do the only thing he possibly could do,--to watch
unceasingly, to be ever ready to defend his mistress in case of
necessity.
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