Page:The leopard's spots - a romance of the white man's burden-1865-1900 (IA leopardsspotsrom00dixo).pdf/291

 "Would you leave them in ignorance, a threat to society?"

"Yes, until they can be moved. When I see these young negro men and women coming out of their schools and colleges well dressed, with their shallow veneer of an imitation culture, I feel like crying over the farce."

"Surely, Mrs. Durham, you believe they are better fitted for life?"

"They are not. They are lifted out of their only possible sphere of menial service, and denied any career. It is simply inhuman. They are led to certain slaughter of soul and body at last. It is a horrible tragedy."

Allan looked at her, smiled, and replied, "I knew you were a bitter and brilliant woman but I didn't think you would go to such lengths even with your pet aversions."

"It's not an aversion, or a prejudice, sir. It's a simple fact of history. Education increases the power of the human brain to think and the heart to suffer. Sooner or later these educated negroes feel the clutch of the iron hand of the white man's unwritten laws on their throat. They have their choice between a suicide's grave or a prison cell. And the numbers who dare the grave and the prison cell daily increase. The South is kinder to the Negro when he is kept in his place."

"You are a quarter of a century behind the times."

"Am I so old?" she laughed.

"The sentiment, not the woman. You are the most beautiful woman I ever saw."

"I like all my boys to feel that way about me."

"You don't class me quite with the rest, do you?"

She blushed the slightest bit. "No, I've always taken a peculiar interest in you. I have quarrelled with everybody who has hated and spoken evil of you. I have always believed you were capable of a high and noble life of great achievement."