Conventions were the breath of his young nostrils, and yet he was passing through an atmosphere, without, thank Heaven, his connivance or inclination, where it seemed to him the hardiest convention could not possibly survive.
When the lights of the mansion shone nearer through the bared boughs, he heaved a sigh of relief.
"Have I tired you ?" asked the girl in response, and the curious lilting note in her voice made him turn his head and glance at her in sudden suspicion.

Had she really hurt herself, or was she merely indulging some hereditary streak of buffoonery at his expense?
It struck him that she would be capable of such a performance, or of anything else that invited her amazing vivacity.

His one hope was that he might leave her in some obscure corner of the house, and slip away before anybody capable of making a club joke had discovered his presence.

The hidden country was lost now, and with it the perilous thrill of enchantment.
He rang the bell, and the door was opened by an old coloured butler who had been one of the family servants of the Culpepers.

How on earth, Stephen wondered, could the Governor tolerate the venerable Abijah, the chosen companion of Culpeper children for two generations?
While he wondered he recalled something his mother had said a few weeks ago about Abijah's having been lured away by the offer of absurd wages.