“Never mind,” said Minnie, “it all turned out for the best.”

“Yes, Darling,” said Louis, growing calmer, “for it gave me you.  And that was life’s compensation.  But the question of the intermingling of the races in marriage is one that scarcely interests this question.  The question that presses upon us with the most fearful distinctness is how can we make life secure in the South.  I sometimes feel as if the very air was busting with bayonets.  There is no law here but the revolver.  There must be a screw loose somewhere, and this government that taxes its men in peace and drafts them in war, ought to be wise enough to know its citizens and strong enough to protect them.”

Chapter XIX

But the pleasant home-life of Louis and Minnie was destined to be rudely broken up.  He began to receive threats and anonymous letters, such as these:  “Louis Lecroix, you are a doomed man.  We are determined to tolerate no scalawags, nor carpetbaggers among us.  Beware, the sacred serpent has hissed.”

But Louis, brave and resolute, kept on the even tenor of his way, although he never left his home without some forebodings that he tried in vain to cast off.  But his young wife being less in contact with the brutal elements of society in that sin-cursed region, did not comprehend the danger as Louis did, and yet she could not help feeling anxious for her husband’s safety.

They never parted without her looking after him with a sigh, and then turning to her school, or whatever work or reading she had on her hand, she would strive to suppress her heart’s forebodings.  But the storm about to burst and to darken forever the sunshine of that home was destined to fall on that fair young head.

Imperative business called Louis from home for one night.  Minnie stood at the door and said, “Louis, I hate to have you go.  I have been feeling so badly here lately, as if something was going to happen.  Come home as soon as you can.”

“I will, darling,” he said, kissing her tenderly again and again.  “I do feel rather loath to leave you, but death is every where, always lurking in ambush.  A man may escape from an earthquake to be strangled by a hair.  So, darling, keep in good spirits till I come.”

Minnie stood at the door watching him till he was out of sight, and then turning to her mother with a sigh, she said, “What a wretched state of society.  When he goes I never feel easy till he returns.  I do wish we had a government under which our lives would be just as safe as they were in Pennsylvania.”

Ellen felt very anxious, but she tried to hide her disquietude and keep Minnie’s spirits from sinking, and so she said, “This is a hard country.  We colored people have seen our hard times here.”

“But, mother, don’t you sometimes feel bitter towards these people, who have treated you so unkindly?”

“No, Minnie; I used to, but I don’t now.  God says we must forgive, and if we don’t forgive, He won’t forgive.”