Camilla said no more, but a new train of thought had been awakened.  She had lived so much among the slaves, and had heard so many tales of sorrow breathed confidentially into her ears, that she had unconsciously imbibed their view of the matter; and without comprehending the injustice of the system, she had learned to view it from their standpoint of observation.

What she had seen of slavery in the South had awakened her sympathy and compassion.  What she had heard of it in the North had aroused her sense of justice.  She had seen the old system under a new light.  The good seed was planted, which was yet to yield its harvest of blessed deeds.

Chapter III

“What is the matter?” said St. Pierre Le Grange, as he entered suddenly the sitting-room of his wife, Georgietta Le Grange, and saw her cutting off the curls from the head of little girl about five years old, the child of a favorite slave.

“Matter enough!” said the angry wife, her cheeks red with excitement and her eyes half blinded with tears of vexation.  “This child shan’t stay here; and if she does, she shall never again be taken for mine.”

“Who took her for yours?  What has happened that has brought about all this excitement?”

“Just wait a minute,” said Georgietta, trying to frame her excitement into words.

“Yesterday I invited the Le Fevres and the Le Counts, and a Northern lady they had stopping with Mrs. Le Fevre, to dine with us.  To-day I told Ellen to have the servants all cleaned up, and looking as well as possible; and so I distributed around more than a dozen turbans, for I wanted Mrs. King to see how much better and happier our negroes looked here than they do when they are free in the North, and what should Ellen do but dress up her little minx in her best clothes, and curl her hair and let her run around in the front yard.”

“So she overdid the thing,” said Le Grange, beginning to comprehend the trouble.

“Yes, she did, but she will never do it again,” exclaimed Mrs. Le Grange, her dark eyes flashing defiantly.

Le Grange bit his lip, but said nothing.  He saw the storm that was brewing, and about to fall on the head of the hapless child and mother, and thought that he would do nothing to increase it.

“When Mrs. Le Fevre,” continued Georgietta, “alighted from the carriage, she noticed the child, and calling the attention of the whole party to her, said, ‘Oh, how beautiful she is!  The very image of her father.’  ‘Mrs. Le Grange,’ said she, after passing the compliments of the day, ’I congratulate you on having such a beautiful child.  She is the very image of her father.  And how large she is for her age.’  Just then Marie came to the door and said ‘She’s not my sister, that is Ellen’s child.’  I saw the gentlemen exchange glances, and the young ladies screw up their mouths to hide their merriment, while Mrs. Le Fevre, with all her obtuseness, seemed to comprehend the blunder, and she said, ’Child, you must excuse me, for my poor old eyes are getting so good for nothing I can hardly tell one person from the other.’  I blundered some kind of answer, I hardly know what I said.  I was almost ready to die with vexation; but this shall never happen again.”