"A negro man, and a stout, hearty, rather good looking, young white woman."
"Not sleeping together?"
"No, not exactly that—there is no bed in the room—no chair—no table—no nothing—but rags, and dirt, and vermin, and degraded, rum degraded, human beings—men and women with just such souls as animate the highest and proudest in the land."
"Who is this man?"
"Dat am Ring-nosed Bill."
"Is that his wife?"
"Well, I don't know that. He calls her his woman."
"And she lives with him as his wife—you all live here together in this room?"
"Well, we is got nowhere else to live. Poor folks can't lib as rich ones do—hab to pay rent—pretty hard to do that alone."
"How much rent for this room?"