icance. She was a "study," the gossiping circle at
Frowenfeld's used to say; and any observant hearer of her odd aphorisms
could see that she herself had made a life-study of herself and her
conditions; but she little thought that others--some with wits and some
with none--young hare-brained Grandissimes, Mandarins and the like--were
silently, and for her most unluckily, charging their memories with her
knowing speeches; and that of every one of those speeches she would
ultimately have to give account.

Doctor Keene, in the old days of his health, used to enjoy an occasional
skirmish with her. Once, in the course of chaffering over the price of
_calas_, he enounced an old current conviction which is not without
holders even to this day; for we may still hear it said by those who
will not be decoyed down from the mountain fastnesses of the old
Southern doctrines, that their slaves were "the happiest people under
the sun." Clemence had made bold to deny this with argumentative
indignation, and was courteously informed in retort that she had
promulgated a falsehood of magnitude.

"W'y, Mawse Chawlie," she replied, "does you s'pose one po' nigga kin
tell a big lie? No, sah! But w'en de whole people tell w'at ain' so--if
dey know it, aw if dey don' know it--den dat _is_ a big lie!" And she
laughed to contortion.

"What is that you say?" he demanded, with mock ferocity. "You charge
white people with lying?"

"Oh, sakes, Mawse Chawlie, no! De people don't mek up dat ah; de debble
pass it on 'em. Don' you know de debble ah de grett cyount'-feiteh?
Ev'y piece o' money he mek he tek an' put some debblemen' on de under
side, an' one o' his pootiess lies on top; an' 'e gilt dat lie, and 'e
rub dat lie on 'is elbow, an' 'e shine dat lie, an' 'e put 'is bess
licks on dat lie; entel ev'ybody say: 'Oh, how pooty!' An' dey tek it
fo' good money, yass--and pass it! Dey b'lieb it!"

"Oh," said some one at Doctor Keene's side, disposed to quiz, "you
niggers don't know when you are happy."

"Dass so, Mawse--_c'est vrai, oui_!" she answered quickly: "we donno no
mo'n white folks!"

The laugh was against him.

"Mawse Chawlie," she said again, "w'a's dis I yeh 'bout dat Eu'ope
country? 's dat true de niggas is all free in Eu'ope!"

Doctor Keene replied that something like that was true.

"Well, now, Mawse Chawlie, I gwan t' ass you a riddle. If dat is _so_,
den fo' w'y I yeh folks bragg'n 'bout de 'stayt o' s'iety in Eu'ope'?"

T