For a plantation she isn't worth seven
coppers, and sempstresses and housemaids of her kind are looked on
suspiciously. It's only with great nicety of skill ye can work such
property to advantage," he continues, viewing her in one of Mr.
Blackmore Blackett's ante-rooms.
The upshot of the matter is, that Mr. Blackmore Blackett accepts the
offer, and Graspum, having again taken the damaged property under
his charge, sends it back to his pen. As an offset for the broken
wrist, she has three new dresses, two of which were presented by the
younger Choicewest, and one by the generous Blackmore Blackett.
Poor Annette! she leaves for her home in the slave-pen, sad at
heart, and in tears. "My mother! Oh, that I had a mother to love me,
to say Annette so kindly,--to share with me my heart's bitter
anguish. How I could love Nicholas, now that there is no mother to
love me!" she mutters as she sobs, wending her way to that place of
earthly torment. How different are the feelings of the oppressor. He
drinks a social glass of wine with his friend Blackett, lights his
cigar most fashionably, bids him a polite good morning, and
intimates that a cheque for the amount of the purchase will be ready
any time he may be pleased to call. And now he wends his way
homeward, little imagining what good fortune awaits him at the pen
to which he has despatched his purchase.
Annette has reached the pen, in which she sits, pensively, holding
her bonnet by the strings, the heavy folds of her light auburn hair
hanging dishevelled over her shoulders.
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