Alfred stared.
"Down to de ole place!"
"Yes, of course."
Alfred sat down and laughed.
"Well, fore de Lawd, doan dat beat ye!"
"Shut up, and hurry back—I'll wait for you at the office."
"Yassah, right away, sah!"
"And Alfred, not a word to a living soul of this."
"No, sah, cose not Marse John—I know how tis 'my sef'—de course er true love ain't run smooth wid me nuther."
"Quick, now, don't you lose a minute."
John returned to his office to await with impatience the word that would mean the beginning of a new chapter in his life.
Alfred placed the note carefully under his hat and hastened to the Judge's, laughing and chuckling to himself.
For reasons best known to himself he entered by the carriage way.
At the wide double gate still stood the old lodgekeeper's cottage, a relic of the slave régime. Inthe cottage Aunt Julie Ann lived with Uncle Isaac, her latest husband. Alfred had once been honoured with that relationship before the war, but Isaac had whipped him and taken Aunt Julie Ann by force of arms.
