"Lord, no!" she answered, "she never let on! No, indeed! But I knowed it—I knowed it all along. Sam Weaver's gal, she told me about it. I knowed she was keepin' company with him, kind o'."
"And you said nothing to Phenie?"
"Lord, no! Gals is bashful, Mis' Lawrence. No, indeed!"
"Nor say a word of all this to Columbus?" I asked again.
"What fur?" said Mrs. Angel, imperturbably.
He ain't got no call ter interfere, ef she kin do better."
I was silent a moment in sheer despair.
"Do you imagine, for one moment," I said, finally, "that if this general, as he calls himself, is really what he pretends to be, a gentleman and a friend of the President's, that he means honestly by Phenie?"
Mrs. Angel regarded me with a fixed stare, in which I discerned wonder at my incredulity, and indignation at the implied disparagement of her daughter.