Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/287

 consequence." "But among those born in servitude there are all sorts of characters. Why, Mr Mason, it might have happened to me or to you to be born a slave. ‘There are slaves here in North Carolina quite as white as either of us; and do you suppose that under any circumstances we should have rested content under such a fate? We might have submitted, rather than jump out of the ‘frying-pan into the fire, and-yet have found the frying-pan not by any means our natural element."





Returning the next day to Carleton Hall, we found, sitting in the porch, a gentleman whom, from his dress and manner, I at once perceived to belong to the clerical profession. My host, who met him with great cordiality, introduced him to me as the Reverend Paul Telfair, rector of the Episcopal church of St Stephen's.

There was something in Mr Telfair's presence which strongly impressed me, the moment I set my eyes upon him. He was a slight but rather tall young man, not, I should judge, above three or four and twenty. His pale but handsome features lightened up, when he spoke, with a radiant smile, which seemed to spread round him a serene halo. His address was perfectly simple and unpretending, and yet it had in it at once such dignity and winning sweetness as to put one in mind of a real minister of grace and messenger from heaven.

"This," said Mr Mason, "is the son of that Miss Montgomery, now Mrs Telfair, whose mother was once the owner of Poplar Grove, and at not finding whom still resident upon it you seemed so much disappointed. I never saw that lady," he continued; "but knowing the son as I do, I am not surprised