Ten miles an hour were the colonel's orders and ten miles an hour must Matthew make, including the loading and unloading of his fair passenger and her companions, or there would be the devil to pay on his return.
And the inside of the house offered no less a welcome.

Drawn up in the wide hall, under the direct command of old Alec, the head butler, were the house servants;--mulatto maids in caps, snuff-colored second butlers in livery, jet-black mammies in new bandannas and white aprons--all in a flutter of excitement, and each one determined to get the first glimpse of Marse Harry's young lady, no matter at what risk.
Alec himself was a joy to look upon--eyeballs and teeth gleaming, his face one wide, encircling smile.

Marse Harry was the apple of his eye, and had been ever since the day of his birth.

He had carried him on his back when a boy; had taught him to fish and hunt and to ride to hounds; had nursed him when he fell ill at the University in his college days, and would gladly have laid down his life for him had any such necessity arisen.

To-night, in honor of the occasion, he was rigged out in a new bottle-green coat with shiny brass buttons, white waistcoat, white gloves three sizes too big for him, and a huge white cravat flaring out almost to the tips of his ears.