Page:Orange Grove.djvu/377

 ladies, she yielded to their customs, and oven the repugnance at being waited on by slaves was soon overcome, the more readily as the change of climate at that season of the year enervated her physical energies.

As Mr. Carleton was seldom cruel unless roused by some strong passion, and his plantation not an extensive one, his wife was never witness of the worst features of slavery, if by this term we mean the greatest physical suffering. Deeming kindness the most effectual barrier against the crime of running away, when they showed their ingratitude by doing so, he was as merciless as any other. During his residence in the north he had been led to doubt considerably the expediency of slave labor, from the contrast continually presented between northern thrift and southern indolence, but his convictions on this point never touched upon the first grain of principle and were soon forgotten on his return to its borders.

The most of his slaves were inherited from his father, whose death occurred a short time previous to his acquaintance with Miss Blanche. One beautiful brunette he bought soon after his marriage for a waiting maid for his wife, who seemed well enough pleased with the selection, inasmuch as she shared the northern prejudice against color, and such familiar contact with the African race as the Southern mode of life produced, was extremely repulsive to the staid influences of her northern education.

This slave had just enough of the negro blood in her veins to ripple her hair slightly, which was of the glossiest black, and impart to her countenance that