The next time Sally came for water she said that Mas’r James had been clerk in the Treasury when he married Jack’s mother, who was also a clerk in the same department.
“Well, if I ain’t beat. I s’posed Mr. Percy was the Great Mogul of the city from the airs his widder puts on,” Miss Hansford thought. “I dare say she was a clerk, too.”
Finally she put the question to Sally.
“I’se do’ know, but s’pecs not. She was bawn in Wassinton. T’other one was from de Noff,—a mighty nice woman, too, but she had a hard time wid ole Mar’s Roger, cussin’ at de house, and de dinners, and me, and de President, and all hands, and twittin’ Mar’s James for being like de fust Percy, who was a slave like de balance of us.”
“What are you talking about?” Miss Hansford almost screamed. “Was he a black man?”
“No, bless you; white as you is,” Sally answered, and Miss Hansford continued, “But there never was any white slaves.”
“Yes, thar was, way back, most to de flood, I reckon. I heard Mas’r James splainin’ to Miss’s onct after de ole Mas’r had been cussin’ bout him. It’s true’s you bawn, but mebby I didn’t orter speak of it,” and, picking up her pail of water, Sally hurried away, thinking that she had told too much and beginning to wish she had said nothing.
After that she was very reticent with regard to the family. But Miss Hansford had heard enough. Ordinarily, she would not have cared for the clerkship. She respected a man and woman who earned their own living if circumstances required it, but there had come to her rumors of Mrs. Percy’s remarks about the F. F. V.’s, and English ancestors, and now all this had resolved itself into Treasury clerks and white slaves. She did not believe the latter, but she never rested until she learned that white people had been sold into slavery in Virginia under Cromwell and the Stuarts, and then she did not doubt that the original stock of the Percys had been among these bondmen. She was honorable enough to keep her knowledge to herself, and only shut her lips a little closer when she came in contact with the lady who had not returned her call because she did not care for mixed acquaintances whom she could not recognize in Washington.
This was Mrs. Percy’s first season in Oak City, and before the Ralstons came there. The following winter the two families met in Florida and in Washington and became quite friendly, for Mrs. Percy was very pleasant to those whom she considered her equals. She was ambitious and managing, and knew how to get desirable acquaintances and invitations. She did not intend to go to Oak City very early that summer, and as Jack wanted to go, and she wanted to be rid of him, she contrived to have him invited to spend a short time with the Ralstons when they were fairly settled. And this was how he chanced to be at the Ralston House with Paul when the watermelon was stolen. That summer Mrs. Percy rented a cottage on the Oceanside and Miss Hansford saw little or nothing of her. Jack, however, was a constant source of annoyance and seldom let an opportunity pass to worry her. She had not forgotten his jeer at her singing, and advice to join the Salvation Army the previous summer, nor the valentine sent to her in February, but the crowning insult was given the only time she ever went bathing at the fashionable hour.
“She didn’t believe in spoiling her clothes with salt water, nor in showing her arms and legs to Tom, Dick and Harry,” she said, and, habited in white knit stockings, a faded calico skirt, woolen sacque, and a dilapidated hat, left with her by a former lodger, she presented a startling appearance as she went into the water, treading very gingerly over the stones and trying in vain to keep her dress from floating around her like a balloon.