d my willingness to carry the message.

"It has probably come to your knowledge that my daughter Caroline has
won the admiration of Mr. Brown."

I replied that Anthony had mentioned it.

"The truth is," resumed Mr. Allen, "we entertained the highest opinion
of the young man, and he has visited frequently at our house. I am
willing to admit to you that the feeling I spoke of has been mutual.
With your appreciation of the claims of propriety, the impossibility of
a union will of course be apparent to you."

"Then you regard it as impossible?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied. "Do you not so regard it? Think for a moment what it
involves. Some friends of ours in a Western city, as my wife was saying
yesterday, have had a trouble of this kind a generation or two back, and
the children of the present family are in a condition of chronic worry
upon the subject. They are wealthy, and are regarded and treated in
society as white people; but the two young ladies use some kind of
whitening on their faces habitually. The circumstances of the case are
pretty generally known, and you can understand how unpleasant such a
matter must be to the entire family. It is claimed that a tinge of color
sometimes passes over a generation and appears more markedly in the
next. I do not know how that may be, but the idea of the risk is enough
to give one chills. There is a story that the Western family of which I
spoke has a colored grandson concealed somewhere. Of course I do not
know whether it is true or not; but it serves as an illustration.

"My message to Mr. Brown is, that, under all the circumstances, we think
he should discontinue his visits at our house. I presume he will see
that he should take that course. I shall always be glad to meet him
anywhere except at my home. In regard to a business engagement, if he
will allow me to say a word, I would suggest that he should teach our
colored school. They are looking for a teacher just now, as it happens,
and he would be very popular in that capacity."

I could not but admit that Mr. Allen's suggestions were characterized by
practical wisdom, but I hinted that the course proposed seemed hardly
just to Anthony.

"As to that," said Mr. Allen, "it is true that our laws and customs are
unjust and cruel in their treatment of a subjugated race. But it is not
wrong to avoid marriage with any other race than our own. As to the part
that is unjust, you and I cannot remedy that. So far as we are
i