"Oh, for a season, yes; but nature does not make a mockery of an animal's love. The animal can seize its young and run away, but if the negro runs away to protect his young, he is brought back with the hounds. Dan, I am going to live as my mistress did, and no man shall have a claim on me."
"But Titine, you are a human being, you have passion, the sense of—"
"Sense of justice to myself and to those who might come after me."
"Titine, you are not a girl, you are a beautiful witch. You know too much for one of your age—your shrivelled old mistress left you her mind; and she is now watching you—"
"Ugh!" she cried, putting out her hands, "don't say that. But if she does watch me she will see that I follow her commands."
"But her commands were against your interests. She would shut you out from all enjoyment, from sentiment and from love. Thank her for her kindness but rebel against her exactions. Be my wife."
"Poor fool," she said, clasping her hands over her knee and gazing at me. "You are not a man to have a wife; you are a piece of property, and no matter how tightly I might cling to you, you could be torn from me and sold, and the howl of the auctioneer, yelling for another animal to be brought forward, would drown my cries of distress. Oh, I have stood in the slave market, and I have seen a child snatched from the arms of its heart-broken mother. Old Mistress used to take me there to show me the bitterness of life. And you would be the father of a stock to be sold! Poor fool, put your foot on such a thought." She rocked herself and laughed, and upon my soul, for a moment I fancied that she was a witch, endowed with a frightful wisdom; but a bough moved, the strong light fell upon her, and she sat there, warm, rich and human.
"Have you given your strange views to Miss May?"
"There are two children in our family and one of them is Miss May," she said.