"Cunnil McLane," said Patty Cannon, in his room that night, "what interest have you in the quadroon gal an' Huldy, too? You don't want' em both, Cunnil?"
"No, Aunt Patty. All my views are conservative. Quite so! Hulda I want to reform and model to my needs. She'll ornament me. By taking the girl Virgie from my niece Vesta, I desire to punish the latter for consenting to the degradation of our family, and marrying the forester, Milburn. She loves this quadroon; therefore, I want to deprive her of the girl: Joe is to bring her to me, do you see?"
His face expressed the indifference he felt to Virgie's safety on the way, and the coarse suggestion gave Patty Cannon her opportunity:
"Cunnil, there's but three in the house to-night; I am one."
"I am two, Patty."
"And three is purty Huldy, Cunnil!"
They looked at each other a few minutes in silence.
"There is two to one," said Patty Cannon, with a giggle. "We have no neighbors that air not used to noises yer."
The silence was restored while the two products of men-dealing read each other's countenances.
"I made a very conservative and liberal proposition to her, Patty, and she insulted me, yet beautifully. But I owe her a grudge for it."