“Why didn’t you say so before he went in?”

“I reckoned you all knowed it.”

“Well I didn’t. We’ll leave your place if you prefer.”

“Oh ye’re welcome, yerself, an’ I reckon he kin stay. But I’m allowin’ yo’ ought to pay extry fer him instid o’ half price.”

Morey looked at the proprietor and his usually smiling face changed to a cold expression. Then he smiled.

“You are the proprietor, aren’t you?”

“Me and my wife.”

“Well, I am Mortimer Marshall, of Aspley Place, Lee’s Court House. In my part of Virginia a contract is a contract. Where I go my boy goes.”

“A nigger ’at kin dress like that coon, kin pay his bills, I reckon.”