Page:Maud Howe - Atlanta in the South.djvu/206

 protected the women, they worked the crops; they were faithful, docile, obedient, as if the force which had once kept them so had not been broken forever. And this is not an isolated case, this was the rule all over the country; and thus it was, by his self-restraint and forbearance, that the negro won the respect of the community, which no legal edict could ever have gained for him."

They had by this time reached the house; and Francis Rondelet, who had caught his nephew's words, waved his white hand in gracious if some what condescending acquiescence.

"Yes, Philip, you are certainly right, their conduct was most praiseworthy. But what does it prove? Simply that they were conscious of their inability to act and think for themselves. They went on automatically performing the tasks which they had been taught to accomplish. The negro is naturally a docile creature, quite docile."

He tapped the lid of his old silver snuff-box and took a pinch of maccaboy in a manner which seemed to dismiss the unwelcome topic of conversation.

He was a lonely old man, Francis Rondelet, his only companion in his quiet life an invalid niece, Philip's sister, who administered from her couch the affairs of the small household. The advent of his nephew's friends was a pleasant interruption to the monotony of existence on the