“Dat a great deal—­quite won’erful, sah—­berry great deal, and more dan Chloe can say, or I can wish her to say.  But, sah, dey say now Neb has save ’e young masser’s life, young masser must gib him free-paper; and no gal of mine shall ebber be free nigger’s wife.  No, sah; ’scuse me from dat disgrace, which too much for fait’ful ole servant to bear!”

“I am afraid, Dido, Neb is the same way of thinking.  I offered him his freedom, the other day, and he refused to receive it.  Times are changing in this country; and it will be thought, soon, it is more creditable for a black to be free, than to be any man’s slave.  The law means to free all hands of you, one of these days.”

“Nebber tell me dat, Masser Mile—­dat day nebber come for me or mine; even ole Cupid know better dan dat.  Now, sah, Misser Van Blarcum’s Brom want to have Chloe, dreadful; but I nebber consent to sich a uner”—­(Dido meant union)—­“nebber.  Our family, sah, altogedder too good to marry in among the Van Blarcums.  Nebber has been, and never shall be uner atween ’em.”

“I was not aware, Dido, that the Clawbonny slaves were so particular about their connections.”

“Won’erful particular, sah, and ebber hab been, and ebber will be.  Don’t t’ink, Masser Mile, I marry ole Cupid, myself, if anoder prop’r connection offer in ’e family; but I prefar him, to marry into any oder family hereabout.”

“Neb is Clawbonny, and my great friend; so I hope you will think better of his suit.  Some day Chloe may like to be free; and Neb will always have it in his power to make his wife free, as well as himself.”

“Sah, I t’ink, as you say, Masser Miles, sah—­when I hab done t’inkin’, sah, hope young masser and young missus hear what ole cook got to say, afore ’ey gives consent.”

“Certainly; Chloe is your daughter, and she shall pay you all due respect—­for that, I will answer for my sister as well as for myself.  We will never encourage disrespect for parents.”

Dido renewed and redoubled her thanks, made another profound curtsey, and withdrew with a dignity that, I dare say, in Neb’s and Chloe’s eyes, boded little good.  As for myself, I now mused on the character of the things of this world.  Here were people of the very humblest class known in a nation—­nay, of a class sealed by nature itself, and doomed to inferiority—­just as tenacious of the very distinctions that were making me so miserable, and against which certain persons, who are wiser than the rest of the world, declaim without understanding them, and even go so far, sometimes, as to deny their existence.  My cook reasoned, in her sphere, much as I knew that Rupert reasoned, as the Drewetts reasoned, as the world reasoned, and, as I feared, even Lucy reasoned in my own case!  The return of Marble, who had left my side as soon as Dido opened her budget, prevented my dwelling long on this strange—­I had almost said, uncouth—­coincidence, and brought my mind back to present things.