Whipping was scarcely known on the estate; and, whenever it did take place, it was invariably against the wishes of the young ladies.
But the wife of master George was of a disposition entirely the reverse.
Feeble, languid, and inert, sitting motionless for hours at her window, or moving her small fingers over the strings of her guitar, to some soft and languishing air, she would have seemed to a stranger incapable of rousing herself from that indolent repose, in which mind as well as body participated.

But, the slightest disregard of her commands--and sometimes even the neglect to anticipate her wishes, on the part of the servants; was sufficient to awake her.

The inanimate and delicate beauty then changed into a stormy virago.

Her black eyes flawed and sparkled with a snaky fierceness, her full lips compressed, and her brows bent and darkened.

Her very voice, soft and sweet when speaking to her husband, and exquisitely fine and melodious, when accompanying her guitar, was at such times, shrill, keen, and loud.