Viney tossed her head, and that night she took out her free papers and studied them long and carefully.
She was incensed at her friends that they would not pay her the homage that she felt was due her. She was incensed at Ben because he would not enter into her feelings about the matter. She brooded upon her fancied injuries, and when a chance for revenge came she seized upon it eagerly.
There were two or three free negro families in the vicinity of the Raymond place, but there had been no intercourse between them and the neighboring slaves. It was to these people that Viney now turned in anger against her own friends. It first amounted to a few visits back and forth, and then, either because the association became more intimate or because she was instigated to it by her new companions, she refused to have anything more to do with the Raymond servants. Boldly and without concealment she shut the door in Mandy's face, and, hearing this, few of the others gave her a similar chance.
Ben remonstrated with her, and she answered him:
"No, suh! I ain' goin' 'sociate wid slaves! I's free!"
"But you cuttin' out yo' own husban'."
"Dat's diff'ent. I's jined to my husban'." And then petulantly: "I do wish you'd hu'y up an' git yo' free papahs, Ben."
"Dey'll be a long time a-comin'," he said; "yeahs f'om now. Mebbe I'd abettah got mine fust."
She looked up at him with a quick, suspicious glance. When she was alone again she took her papers and carefully hid them.
"I's free," she whispered to herself, "an' I don' expec' to nevah be a slave no mo'."