s woman
may do or tell, you would not think concerned me, but I will show you
how deep her influence has reached, as well as explain to you why I
would not pursue my own servants to her den. In this I humiliate myself
before you, as I must do, if I am to become your client."

"You had been trading with Patty Cannon; I guessed that much."

"Such was the case. When I was a collegian at Yale, returning home one
holiday, I fell in love with a beautiful quadroon, the property of my
uncle, in Northampton County. She was an elegant woman, with a good
education, and had been my playmate. I was ardent and good-looking, and
easily found lodgment in her heart; but the conquest of her charms was
long, and agonizing with sincere esteem. You must believe me when I
declare that I fell dangerously ill because I was refused by her, and,
making a confidant of my doctor, he told the girl that she must choose
between my death and her surrender. Pity, then, prevailed, even over
religion. I was happy in every point but one--the injury concealment
worked upon her self-respect; for, Clayton, my mistress was my own
cousin."

"Goy!"

"I never desired to marry, although no children had been born in my
patriarchal relation; but, in the course of years, my uncle became
pressed for debts, and he appealed to me to save my beautiful handmaiden
from sale, he being in full sympathy with my relation to her, because
she was his daughter."

"I goy!"

"The case was urgent. I possessed some negroes, the legacy of my mother.
To sell them publicly would be a stigma both upon my humanity and my
credit. I adopted the cowardly device of letting a kidnapper slip them
away, and take a large commission for his trouble. I saved my lady, but
at the expense of a secret."

"And that secret Joe Johnson depended on, Custis, when he was suddenly
driven into your house, and found your old servant already demoralized
by the announcement of your son-in-law?"

"The scoundrel pressed his advantage; and he saw, besides, my
daughter--not Vesta, but her half-sister, Virgie--and, between his
persecution of her and my brother-in-law's vindictiveness, poor Virgie
was literally run to the ground and into it; she is in her grave."

Judge Custis broke into a long fit of sobbing, and Clayton, who had
noticed his dejected mien since their separation, passed an arm around
him, saying:

"Never mind, now! Never mind, old friend! Johnson is fled; McLane, they
whisper, has never