The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1876-03-16
The Price of tie Corbyns.
ION Ianad
CHAPTER IL
TEE wALoors Al Eon.

vas Mrs. Nalcot, dominant, OF largs d-
nensions and lofty p-retensions; there was
Miss Walcot. slight. Lnguid. listless. and
intensely fashionable; and there were two
sons. William IND Stephen. the most bump
tious Of all bumptious Barbadians.
What a revolution their advent created
in that h~ospitable. free-and-easy bachelor
household! The will interdicted unneces.
sary change until heirship was determined
but Mrs. walcot was disrosed to read its
provisions literally. She did not sell or
destroy plain or old-fashioned fittings they
were simply huddled into a lumber-room
out of her way. and replaced with the very
brightest and newest im~portations from
Europe. before even the dogs and horses had
well learned to recognize the new MASTER
ship.
Matthias himself forgot he was only ex-
ecutor. He turned his shipping agency and
his sitting Office on the wharf over to his
tall sons. and settled down comfortably at
Corbyn Hall as proprietor and planter. But
Mrs. Walcot was fond Of society, and was
not content to dwell for ever ten miles from
town and two or three from their nearest
neighbors; 50 their old house at the Folly
was retained. ostensibly for the convenience
of William and Stephen, and the lady re-
joiced in a town-house and a country-house.
and became a very grand parsonage indeed.
She oscillated between the two houses. paid
and received visits. went shopping. and ram
sacked the heterogeneous stores of every
dealer in Broad-street, to the intense dis
gust Of Scipio, her mulatto eharioteer
whose lazy life was at an end.
Nor was Seipio the only grumbler on the
estate Flippant hdy's-maids invaded the
sanctity of Chloe's kitchen and Cassy's
laundry. Win and Steve in house or stable
were as ready to use their riding-whips on
the shoulders Of valet or groom as on the
TANKS of their steeds. There were sharp
overseers in the boiling-sheds, on the rocky
slopes amongst the waving yellow canes
and the ~changeful fields of Indian corn.
and among the bursting cotton-pods. The
change sank into the negro heart, and from
Chloe in her kitchen to CuIy in his distant
hut. there were sunken spirits and low
voiced murmurings. If a "boy" carried
his dish of cuckoo TO window or door-sill.
or squatted on mat or ground outside to eat
his dinner ut ease, he was sure to become
the centre Of a group no longer shaking
their fat sides with laughter. but shaking
their woolly heads mysteriously. and COM
pairing the present regime with the past.
Dinah-or aunt Dinah. as she was called
who had nursed the infant. sick, and
dying Corbyns for two generations. and
ruled supreme in Archibald's time. had been
derosed. and the poor old thing fretted
much. as might any other prime minister
in disgrace.
1t was none of Mr.. Walcot's doing. Had
he been consulted, he might have remember
ell her presence in the planters death
chamber, md from motives Of policy left
her to govern her colored brood as of yoro.
Yet even he new not that she had heard.
nor how it had worked in her brain. As it
was. she brooded over her dying masters
words. and felt their import greater han
reality.
Old Cufy-still the nominal head-gnrdar-
er-she made the depository of her know
ledge, and the pair held frequent and solemn
conference. From these twain, no doubt.
the first faint murmurings against Wslcot
rule went out like a breath, as soft and un-
suspected. And now aunt Dinah was trou-
bled with ominous dreams. and Cuffy grew
portentously prophetic.
Meanwhile Mrs. Walcot, blesscdly obtusc,
prepared to give a grand ball before the
rainy season should set in, with one match
making eye for Laura and another for
William, who had set both his on a lovely
orphan heiress, then the ward of the Rev.
John Fulton.
Vainly Matthias, with due regard to ap-
p~earances, urged that it was "too SOON"
Madam was wilful. and issued her invita-
tions to the cream Of Barbadian society,
with a select few of her former Bridgetown
friends. whom she hoped to overpower with
her grandeur.
Mourning was all but discarded: a gauxy
black scarf for herself, a black sash for
Miss Walcot, were all that memory could
spare for the late master of the mansion
whose family diamonds they wore. The
colored attendants were arrayed in the
gayest of tints: brilliant turbans, kerr
chiefs. and petticoats. flashing striped
trousers and light jackets. luttered every
where, like swarms of black-bodied butter
flies. to which every guest-bringing phaeton
added its quota, either in driver or lackey.
Odor of fruits and flowers and wines.
fash of glass and gliding. waI-lights and
mirrors. sparkle of eyes and jewelry. Autter
Of satins. gauzes and hearts. patter Of feet
and tongues. melody Of piano. guitar. and
song within.
Banjo and beating feet. the rollicking
song and the dance. a babel Of laughter and
gable without; and Cuffy and Dinah sui
lenly aloof in the shadow of a ~manchineel
tree-the only two to whom Mrs. Walcot's
magnificent ball had brought neither pleas
ure nor occupation.
The hooting owls in the sandbox trees
were scarcely such birds of il-omen to the
Walcots as were these two. brooding over
that festival as being an indignity to the
memory Of their dead master.
Song. and dance. and ripping laughter.
flushing cheeks and futtering fans A shrin
scream, like hat Of the Shunammite's son
my head. my head and with one
hand spamodically raised to her brow,
Laura Walcot fell back into the arms Of
her partner in the quadrille, spsechless and
gasping!
In vain ladies proffered scent-bottles and