Louis bowed very low, and expressed his pleasure in seeing them; and hoped they would have a happy time, and that nothing should be wanting on his part, to make it so.  Very pleasantly passed the time away; Georgiette was in high and charming spirits; and many a pleasant ride and delightful saunter she took with her cousin through the woods, or in visiting other plantations.  She was very popular among the planters’ sons; admired by the young men, but feared and envied by the girls.

And thus the hours passed in a whirl of pleasurable excitement, until Louis actually imagined himself in love with her, and found himself one pleasant afternoon offering her his hand and heart.

She blushed and sighed, and referred him to her papa; and in a few weeks they were engaged.

At length the time of their departure came; and Louis, after accompanying them to New Orleans, returned to make ready for the wedding.  His father made him a present of a large plantation, which he stocked from his own purse, with three hundred slaves; and installed Ellen there as housekeeper till the arrival of the new mistress.

Chapter VI

“Thee is welcome to S.,” said the cheerful voice of Thomas Carpenter, as Josiah Collins alighted, bringing with him his charge; “and is this the little child thee wrote me about?  I am heartily glad thee has rescued her from that dreadful system!”

“Anna,” said he, turning to his wife, who had just entered the room, “here is our friend, Josiah Collins, and the little girl I told thee about.”

“I am glad thee has come,” said Anna, “sit down and make thyself at home.  And this is the little girl thee wrote Thomas about.  She is a beautiful child,” continued Anna, gazing admiringly at the child.  “I hope she will be contented.  Does she fret about her mother?”

“Not much; she would sometimes ask, ‘where is mamma?’ But the ladies in the cars were very kind to her, and she was quite at home with them.  I told them I was taking her North; that I thought the North would better agree with her; and that it was not convenient for her mother to come on just now.  I was really amused with the attention she received from the Southern ladies; knowing how they would have shrunk from such offices if they had known that one drop of the outcast blood ran in her veins.”

“Why, Josiah,” said Anna, “I have always heard that there was more prejudice against the colored people in the North than in the South.  There is a difference in the manifestations of this feeling, but I do not think there is as much prejudice here as there. [Here?] we have a prejudice which is [formed from?] traditional ideas.  We see in many parts of the North a very few of the colored people, and our impressions of them have received their coloring more or less from what the slaveholders have said of them.”

“We have been taught that they are idle, improvident, and unfitted for freedom, and incapable of progression; and when we see them in the cities we see them overshadowed by wealth, enterprise, and activity, so that our unfavorable impressions are too often confirmed.  Still if one of that class rises above this low mental condition, we know that there are many who are willing to give such a one a healthy recognition.”