"No and you won't see her about this place. She teaches in the colored school."
"How interesting! I shall have to go to her."
Miss Patty's face showed disapproval bordering on disgust. Miss Witherspoon was not the first of her guests who had at once expressed an interest in Ellen, and, later, helped on the already over-prosperous school. She turned the conversation back to her favorite.
"There are not many girls like Hertha to be found to-day. She has a natural aptitude for service, and her white blood makes her very intelligent. My cousin, Carrie (she died in Savannah two years ago), had a maid like that who was the most faithful creature—her constant nurse for fifteen years."
"Indeed!"
"I'm fixing to have Hertha with me for as long as I live."
"But don't you think she'll get married—she's so pretty."
"I hope not; I certainly hope not. I don't encourage her to go out to any of the parties with the rough boys and girls here. But she herself realizes that she's above them in station. No, Hertha will do much better not to marry. I can understand her falling in love with a colored man of her own complexion, but we haven't confidence in the 'yaller niggers,' as the darkies call them. They have the bad qualities of both races, you know; they're a thieving lot."
"Yes?" ejaculated Miss Witherspoon, and then, a little maliciously, "Does Hertha steal?"
"Hertha? Why, of course not!" Miss Patty looked very indignant. "Have you lost anything?"