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468 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; OR
"Plague on that Sambo, to kick up this yer row between me and the new hands ! The fellow won't be fit to work for a week, now, — right in the press of the season! "
" Yes, just like you," said a voice, behind his chair. It was the woman Cassy, who had stolen upon his soliloquy.
" Hah ! you she-devil! you rve come back, have you ? "
" Yes, I have," she said, coolly; " come to have my own way, too ! "
" You lie, you jade ! I '11 be up to my word. Either behave yourself, or stay down to the quarters, and fare and work with the rest."
" I ?d rather, ten thousand times," said the woman, "live in the dirtiest hole at the quarters, than be under your hoof!"
" But you are under my hoof, for all that," said he, turning upon her with a savage grin ; " that's one comfort. So, sit down here on my knee, my dear, and hear to reason," said he, laying hold on her wrist.
" Simon Legree, take care! " said the woman, with a sharp flash of her eye, a glance so wild and insane in its light as to be almost appalling. " You 're afraid of me, Simon," she said, deliberately; "and you've reason to be! But be careful, for I 've got the devil in me !'
The last words she whispered in a hissing tone, close to his ear.
" Get out! I believe, to my soul, you have!' said Legree, pushing her from him, and looking uncomfortably at her. " After all, Cassy," he said, " why can't you be friends with me, as you used to ? "
" Used to !' said she, bitterly. She stopped short, — a world of choking feelings, rising in her heart, kept her silent.
Cassy had always kept over Legree the kind of influence that a strong, impassioned woman can ever keep over the most brutal man ; but, of late, she had grown more and more irritable and restless, under the hideous yoke of her |
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