“Yes,” said Mrs. Leroy; “the colored nurse could not nestle her master’s child in her arms, hold up his baby footsteps on their floors, and walk with him through the impressible and formative period of his young life without leaving upon him the impress of her hand.”

“I am glad,” said Robert, “for the whole nation’s sake, that slavery has been destroyed.”

“And our work,” said Dr. Gresham, “is to build over the desolations of the past a better and brighter future.  The great distinction between savagery and civilization is the creation and maintenance of law.  A people cannot habitually trample on law and justice without retrograding toward barbarism.  But I am hopeful that time will bring us changes for the better; that, as we get farther away from the war, we will outgrow the animosities and prejudices engendered by slavery.  The short-sightedness of our fathers linked the negro’s destiny to ours.  We are feeling the friction of the ligatures which bind us together, but I hope that the time will speedily come when the best members of both races will unite for the maintenance of law and order and the progress and prosperity of the country, and that the intelligence and virtue of the South will be strong to grapple effectually with its ignorance and vice.”

“I hope that time will speedily come,” said Marie.  “My son is in the South, and I am always anxious for his safety.  He is not only a teacher, but a leading young man in the community where he lives.”

“Yes,” said Robert, “and when I see the splendid work he is doing in the South, I am glad that, instead of trying to pass for a white man, he has cast his lot with us.”

“But,” answered Dr. Gresham, “he would possess advantages as a white man which he could not if he were known to be colored.”

“Doctor,” said Iola, decidedly, “he has greater advantages as a colored man.”

“I do not understand you,” said Dr. Gresham, looking somewhat puzzled.

“Doctor,” continued Iola, “I do not think life’s highest advantages are those that we can see with our eyes or grasp with our hands.  To whom to-day is the world most indebted—­to its millionaires or to its martyrs?”

“Taking it from the ideal standpoint,” replied the doctor, “I should say its martyrs.”

“To be,” continued Iola, “the leader of a race to higher planes of thought and action, to teach men clearer views of life and duty, and to inspire their souls with loftier aims, is a far greater privilege than it is to open the gates of material prosperity and fill every home with sensuous enjoyment.”

“And I,” said Mrs. Leroy, her face aglow with fervid feeling, “would rather—­ten thousand times rather—­see Harry the friend and helper of the poor and ignorant than the companion of men who, under the cover of night, mask their faces and ride the country on lawless raids.”

“Dr. Gresham,” said Robert, “we ought to be the leading nation of the earth, whose influence and example should give light to the world.”