As the boys grew older, they knew that their parents constantly quarrelled, just as the servants, and the tradespeople, and the neighbours knew it. Vivian, as was natural, had imbibed the servants' view, and held his stepfather a brute who beat "poor mamma" in the night. He called him to David once "a black beast," and in the scuffle that followed, the younger child got badly beaten; his indignation was stronger than his arms. David understood quite early that his father was looked down on because he was black; he realised that it was a disgrace not to be white. That explained why grandmamma had called him "poor little fellow," and why mamma only kissed him when visitors were present. It explained why her rare kisses fell on his cheek like the flick of a wet flannel. He began to see things. And in gabbling his Collects to Miss Fewster, he pronounced with fervour the petition: "Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord!"
Once he asked Lee where he was born.
"In Savannah, sonny."
Miss Fewster's geography lessons had not extended to Savannah. David wanted to know where it was.
"In America, my boy."
"Are there other people like you and me in America, pops?"
"Oh yes, heaps of them," said Lee after a stare.
David was puzzled. He had always believed his pops so wise, and really he seemed to have done a very thoughtless thing indeed. He would have been more sensible himself.
"If I'd been you, I should have stopped there," he said at last. "Then nobody would have noticed you so much."
Lee laughed, without being amused.