presence, when you unfolded your plan of education. Fatality again.
Instantly a crowd of hopes surged up. The education you began, could I
not finish? She was but young; a few years of careful teaching might
work wonders. Could I not train this forest flower so that it could
take its place in the garden? But, when I actually saw this full-grown
woman unable to add the simplest sum or write her name correctly, I
was again ashamed of my infatuation. It is one thing to talk of
ignorance, it is another to come face to face with it. Thus I wavered,
at one moment ready to give up all for pride, at another to give up
all for love.

'Then came the malicious suggestion of negro blood. Could it be
proved, I was free; that taint I could not pardon. [And here, even as
the surgeon spoke, I noticed this as the peculiarity of the New
England Abolitionist. Theoretically he believed in the equality of the
enslaved race, and stood ready to maintain the belief with his life,
but practically he held himself entirely aloof from them; the Southern
creed and practice were the exact reverse.] I made inquiries of Father
Piret, who knows the mixed genealogy of the little French colony as
far back as the first voyageurs of the fur trade, and found--as I,
shall I say hoped or feared?--that the insinuation was utterly false.
Thus I was thrown back into the old tumult.

'Then came that evening in this parlor when Jeannette made the coffee
and baked little cakes over the coals. Do you remember the pathos with
which she chanted File, file, pauvre Marie; File, file, pour le
prisonnier? Do you remember how she looked when she repeated
'Ivry'? Did that tender pity, that ringing inspiration come from a
dull mind and shallow heart? I was avenged of my enforced disdain, my
love gave itself up to delicious hope. She was capable of education,