and some benevolent mission, such as she had once engaged in at the north, bringing the most pleasurable reminiscences of old friends and scenes long since forgotten.
Being in too weak a state for the mind to throw off these unfavorable reactions, it was many days before any improvement was discernible, and Chrissy, whose quick perceptions readily divined the cause of her protracted recovery, was so guarded in all her inquiries concerning the state of her health and topics of conversation generally, always omitting any reference to Mr. Carleton, that her patient was well aware of her comprehension of the true nature of the case. As she lay one day absorbed in reflection the sight of the swarthy face so pitifully fixed upon her filled her with a most painful apprehension, and she again entreated her for a sketch of her history. This time she refused, shaking her head ominously, and heaved a deep sigh as her eyes vacantly rested on a large magnolia tree that stood sentinel at the corner of the lawn. Chrissy was what is denominated among the blacks a "yaller woman," a term sometimes significant of a doubtful kind of esteem, either from a dim sense of its immorality, or an inherent feeling of contempt for these mongrel specimens of races, representing neither one nor the other, and which do often excite a painful sensation as if nature had stepped out of her course, when the yellowish skin is accompanied with eyes and hair of the same hue. She was rather dark, and her eyes were more of a gray, her hair straight and black, so that she would about as readily pass for a dark skinned white
