"Yes," Judge Houston added, "if people would only stop to consider that it is to a man's interest to treat his slaves well, in order that they may do their work, probably they would soon see the fallacy of the exaggerated tales that are causing so much ill feeling in the North."
"Now, here you all have been discussing this everlasting slave question," Mrs. Houston said, as they finally rose from the table, "and all the time I have been wondering to myself over a very different matter. Can either of you guess what it is?"
"The wonderings of a woman's mind are quite beyond us, eh, Mr. Everett?" said Judge Houston.
"I shall have to admit my failure this time." Everett smiled at Mrs. Houston.
"Well," she continued, half seriously, "I was trying to calculate how long it will take you to tame Natalia."
Everett flushed slightly and did not attempt to hide the surprise he felt at the remark.
"Ah, there you go with your woman's eternal speculation on some ridiculous topic." Judge Houston frowned in mock disapproval. "Here you take a young fellow, and before he has ever seen the child you put all sorts of ideas into his head about her."
"Nevertheless, I notice the young man is embarrassed," Mrs. Houston continued in evident enjoyment of Everett's increasing confusion. "It appears to me that perhaps he has seen our little girl already. Have you, Mr. Everett?"
Everett glanced at Judge Houston, smiling, then back at the kind old lady who was bent on teasing him.
"Someone pointed out Mistress Brandon and her children to me as they got out of the coach to-day," he answered finally.