Page:Uncle Tom's cabin; or, Life among the lowly (IA uncletomscabinor00stow).pdf/67



and Mrs. Shelby had retired to their apartment for the night. He was lounging in a large easy chair, looking over some letters that had come in the afternoon mail, and she was standing before her mirror, brushing out the complicated braids and curls in which Eliza had arranged her hair; for, noticing her pale cheeks and haggard eyes, she had excused her attendance that night, and ordered her to bed. The employment, naturally enough, suggested her conversation with the girl in the morning; and, turning to her husband, she said, carelessly,―

"By the by, Arthur, who was that low-bred fellow that you lugged in to our dinner table to-day?"