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“Make the old beldam go away, won’t you?” whispered the man.

“I’ll try,” she whispered back rather nervously. Then, raising her voice, she called out in slightly strained, somewhat artificial voice, which to the understanding of the annoyed young man in the hammock appeared to have almost a suggestion of apprehension in it:

“Is–is that you, Aunt Sharley?”

The answer was little more than a grunt.

“Well, Aunt Sharley, hadn’t you better be seeing about supper?”

“Num’mine ’bout supper. Ise tendin’ to de supper. Ise bound de supper’ll be ready ‘fo’ you two chillens is ready fur to eat it.”

Within, the chair continued to creak steadily.

The girl spread out her hands with a gesture of helplessness.

“You see how it is,” she explained under her breath. “Auntie is so set in her ways!”

“And she’s so set in that rocking-chair too,” he retorted grimly. Saying what he said next, he continued to whisper, but in his whisper was a suggestion of the proprietorial tone. Also for the first time in his life he addressed her without the prefix of Miss before her name. This affair plainly was progressing rapidly, despite the handicaps of a withered black duenna in the immediate offing.

“Emmy Lou,” he said, “please try again. Go in there yourself and speak to her. Be firm with her–for once. Make her get away from that door. She makes me nervous. Don’t be afraid of the old nuisance. This is your house, isn’t it–yours and your sister’s? Well, then, I thought Southerners knew how to handle darkies. If you can handle this one, suppose you give me a small proof of the fact–right now!”

Reluctantly, as though knowing beforehand what the outcome would be, Emmy Lou stood up, revealing herself as a straight dainty figure in white. She entered the door. Outside in the hammock Harvey strained his ears to hear the dialogue. His sweetheart’s voice came to him only in a series of murmurs, but for him there was no difficulty about distinguishing the replies, for the replies were pitched in a strident, belligerent key which carried almost to the yard fence. From them he was able to guess with the utmost accuracy just what arguments against the presence of the negress the girl was making. This, then, was what he heard:

“. . . Now, Mizz Emmy Lou, you mout jes’ ez well hush up an’ save yore breath. You knows an’ I knows, even ef he don’t know it, dat ’tain’t proper fur no young man to be cotein’ a young lady right out on a front po’ch widout no chaperoner bein’ clost by. Quality folks don’t do sech ez dat. Dat’s why I taken my feet in my hand an’ come hurryin’ back yere f’um dat grocery sto’ where I’d done went to git a bottle of lemon extractors. I seen yore sister settin’ in dat Mistah B. Weil’s candy sto’, drinkin’ ice-cream sody wid a passel of young folks, an’ by dat I realise’ I’d done lef’ you ‘lone in dis house wid a young man dat’s a stranger yere, an’ so I come right back. And yere I is, honey, and yere I stays. . . . Whut’s dat you sayin’? De gen’l’man objec’s? He do, do he?” The far-carrying voice rose shrilly and scornfully. “Well, let him! Dat’s his privilege. Jes’ let him keep on objectin’ long ez he’s a mind to. ‘Tain’t gwine ‘fluence me none. . . . I don’t keer none ef he do heah me. Mebbe it mout do him some good ef he do heah me. Hit’ll do him good, too, ef he heed me, I lay to dat. Mebbe he ain’t been raised de way we is down yere. Ef so, dat’s his misfortune.” The voice changed. “Whut would yore pore daid mother say ef she knowed I wuz neglectin’ my plain duty to you two lone chillen? Think I gwine run ary chancet of havin’ you two gals talked about by all de low-down pore w’ite trash scandalisers in dis town? Well, I ain’t, an’ dat’s flat. No, sir-ree, honey! You mout jes’ ez well run ‘long back out dere on dat front po’ch, ‘ca’se I’m tellin’ you I ain’t gwine stir nary inch f’um whar I is twell yore sister git back yere.”