No, suh, dey didn't neber git
no word from him. He loved deh folk heah; such he did, suh."
The old man smiled, and in that beatific smile I saw not only his
perennial pleasure in the well-known story, but the fact that he, too,
would have stood there, with the bullets raining round him, sooner than
betray the folk he loved.
"Fine story, Richard; but--very silly, obstinate old man, your father,
wasn't he?"
He looked at me with a sort of startled anger, which slowly broadened
into a grin; then broke into soft, hoarse laughter.
"Oh, yes, suh, sueh; berry silly, obstinacious ol' man. Yes, suh
indeed." And he went off cackling to himself. He had only just gone
when I heard footsteps again behind my azalea clump, and Miss Monroy's
voice.
"Your philosophy is that of faun and nymph. Can you play the part?"
"Only let me try." Those words had such a fevered ring that in
imagination I could see Vaness all flushed, his fine eyes shining, his
well-kept hands trembling, his lips a little protruded.
There came a laugh, high, gay, sweet.
"Very well, then; catch me!" I heard a swish of skirts against the
shrubs, the sound of flight, an astonished gasp from Vaness, and the
heavy _thud, thud_ of his feet following on the path through the azalea
maze.
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