Stirring Events

"No danger but what she will, and yours too," was Rondeau's consoling
reply.

"Lord knows," said Aunt Dilsey, "fust time she sasses me, I'll run away
long of Jack and the baby. I'll tie up my new gown and cap in a
handkerchief this night."

Leffie now proposed that her mother should defer her intended flight until
the arrival of the dreaded Julia, while Rondeau added, "Besides, Dilsey,
if you should run away your delicate body couldn't get further than the
swamp, where you'd go in up to your neck first lunge, and all marster's
horses couldn't draw you out."

This allusion to her size changed the current of Aunt Dilsey's wrath,
which now turned and spent itself on Rondeau. Her impression of Julia,
however, never changed, although she was not called upon to run away.

Mrs. Lacey, too, received the news of her son's engagement with evident
dissatisfaction; but she thought remonstrance would be useless, and she
kept silent, secretly praying that Julia might prove better than her
fears. In due course of time there came from Kentucky a letter of
congratulation from Fanny; but she was so unaccustomed to say or write
what she did not feel that the letter, so far as congratulations were
concerned, was a total failure. She, however, denied her engagement with
Frank, and this, if nothing else, was sufficient reason why Julia refused
to show it to Dr. Lacey. Julia knew the chain by which she held him was
brittle and might at any time be broken, and it was not strange that she
longed for the last days of October, when with Dr. Lacey she would return
to Kentucky.