His daughter, Melanctha Herbert, later always made a hard forced laughter.  She was only strong and sweet and in her nature when she was really deep in trouble, when she was fighting so with all she really had, that she did not use her laughter.  This was always true of poor Melanctha who was always so certain that she hated trouble.  Melanctha Herbert was always seeking peace and quiet, and she could always only find new ways to get excited.

James Herbert was often a very angry negro.  He was fierce and serious, and he was very certain that he often had good reason to be angry with Melanctha, who knew so well how to be nasty, and to use her learning with a father who knew nothing.

James Herbert often drank with John, the Bishops’ coachman.  John in his good nature sometimes tried to soften Herbert’s feeling toward Melanctha.  Not that Melanctha ever complained to John of her home life or her father.  It was never Melanctha’s way, even in the midst of her worst trouble to complain to any one of what happened to her, but nevertheless somehow every one who knew Melanctha always knew how much she suffered.  It was only while one really loved Melanctha that one understood how to forgive her, that she never once complained nor looked unhappy, and was always handsome and in spirits, and yet one always knew how much she suffered.

The father, James Herbert, never told his troubles either, and he was so fierce and serious that no one ever thought of asking.

‘Mis’ Herbert as her neighbors called her was never heard even to speak of her husband or her daughter.  She was always pleasant, sweet-appearing, mysterious and uncertain, and a little wandering in her ways.

The Herberts were a silent family with their troubles, but somehow every one who knew them always knew everything that happened.

The morning of one day when in the evening Herbert and the coachman John were to meet to drink together, Melanctha had to come to the stable joyous and in the very best of humors.  Her good friend John on this morning felt very firmly how good and sweet she was and how very much she suffered.

John was a very decent colored coachman.  When he thought about Melanctha it was as if she were the eldest of his children.  Really he felt very strongly the power in her of a woman.  John’s wife always liked Melanctha and she always did all she could to make things pleasant.  And Melanctha all her life loved and respected kind and good and considerate people.  Melanctha always loved and wanted peace and gentleness and goodness and all her life for herself poor Melanctha could only find new ways to be in trouble.