“Ah, my dear sir, that is very different,” said Dr. Cary. “May I ask, have you any official—ah—? Do you expect to stay among us?”
“Do you mean, am I a carpet-bagger?” asked Major Welch, with a smile. But the other was serious.
“I would not insult you under my roof by asking you that question,” he said, gravely. “I mean are you thinking of settling among us as a gentleman?”
“Well, I can hardly say yet—but, perhaps, I am—thinking of it,” said Major Welch. “At least, that is one reason why I asked you about that man, Still.”
“Oh, well, of course, if you ask as my guest, I will take pleasure in giving you any information you may wish.”
“Is he a gentleman?” interrupted Major Welch.
“Oh, no—certainly not that, sir. He is hand in glove with the carpet-baggers, and the leader of the negroes about here. He and a carpet-bagger named Leech, and a negro preacher or exhorter named Sherwood, who, by the way, was one of my own negroes, and a negro named Ash, who belonged to my friend General Legaie, and a sort of trick-doctor named Moses, whom I once saved from hanging, are the worst men in this section.”
Major Welch had listened in silence, and now he changed the subject; for from the reference to Leech he began to think more and more that it was only prejudice which made these men objects of such narrow dislike.
When Ruth went up to bed she was in a sort of maze. The old negro woman whom she had seen downstairs came up to wait on her, and Miss Welch was soon enlightened as to several things. One was, that Dr. Cary’s family was one of the greatest in the State—perhaps, in the old woman’s estimation, the greatest—except, of course, Mrs. Cary’s, to which Mammy Krenda gave rather the pre-eminence as she herself had always belonged to that family and had nursed Mrs. Cary and Miss Blair, her daughter. According to her they had been very rich, but had lost everything, first by the war, and then, by the wickedness of someone, against whom the old woman was especially bitter. “He ain’ nuttin’ but a low-down nigger-trader, nohow,” she declared, savagely. “He done cheat ev’ybody out der home, he and dat Leech together, an’ now dey think dey got ev’ything der own way, but dey’ll see. Dey’s dem as knows how to deal wid ’em. An’ ef dee ever lay dee han’s pon me, dee’ll fine out. We ain’ gwine live in blacksmiff shop always. Dem’s stirrin’ what dee ain’ know ’bout, an’ some day dee’ll heah ’em comin for ’em to judgment.”
“Ken I help you do anything?” she asked, presently.