The master lifted his hand in warning.
"Take care of yourself now. No more risks. You're not as young as you once were."
"Thankee, sah."
"Ask Mrs. Lee to bring me the document on my desk. Find Sam and fetch him here."
Ben bowed.
"Yassah. Right away, sah."
Lee turned to his guest genially.
"I'm going to ask you to witness what I'm about to do, Ruffin. And you mustn't take offense. We differ about Slavery and politics in the abstract, but whatever our differences on the surface, you are an old Virginia planter and I trust we shall always be friends."
The two men clasped hands and Ruffin spoke with deep emotion.
"I am honored in your friendship, Colonel Lee. However I may differ with you about the Union, we agree on one thing, that the old Dominion is the noblest state on which the sun has ever shown!"