"Does it not change your mind about taking her on?"
"No, sir."
"Did it ever occur to you, or rather, does it not occur to you now, that the girl's design in coming may have been this very purpose of her freedom?"
"I do not think it was," I said.
"Even if not, it will be surely put in her head by other people before she has been at the North long; and she will know that she is her own mistress."
I was silent still. I knew that I wished she might.
"Do you think," Dr. Sandford went on, "that in this view of the case we had better send her back to Magnolia when you leave Washington?"
"No," I said.
"I think it would be better," he repeated.
"Oh, no!" I said. "Oh, no, Dr. Sandford. I can't send her back. You will not send her back, will you?"