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" The master lifted his hand in warning. "Take care of yourself now. No more risks. You're not as young as you once were." "Thankee, sah." "Ask Mrs. Lee to bring me the document on my desk. Find Sam and fetch him here." Ben bowed. "Yassah. Right away, sah." Lee turned to his guest genially. "I'm going to ask you to witness what I'm about to do, Ruffin. And you mustn't take offense. We differ about Slavery and politics in the abstract, but whatever our differences on the surface, you are an old Virginia planter and I trust we shall always be friends." The two men clasped hands and Ruffin spoke with deep emotion. "I am honored in your friendship, Colonel Lee. However I may differ with you about the Union, we agree on one thing, that the old Dominion is the noblest state on which the sun has ever shown!" Lee closed his eyes as if in prayer. "On that we are one. Old Virginia, the mother of Presidents and of states, as I leave her soil I humbly pray that God's blessings may ever rest upon her!" "So say I, sir," Ruffin responded heartily. "And I'll try to do the cussin' for her while you do the praying." Mrs. Lee entered and handed to her husband a folded document, as Ben came from the kitchen with Sam, who bowed and grinned to every one in the room. Lee spoke in low tones to his wife. "Ask the young people to come in for a moment, my dear." Mrs. Lee crossed quickly to the library door and called: "Come in, children, Colonel Lee wishes to see you all." Mary, Stuart, Custis, Phil, Robbie and Sid pressed into the hall in curious, expectant mood. Mrs. Marshall knew that Ruffin was still there, but her curiosity got the better of her aversion. She followed the children, only to run squarely into Ruffin. He was about to speak in his politest manner when she stiffened and passed him. Ruffin's eye twinkled. He knew that she saw him. She hated him for his political views. She also knew that he hated her husband, Judge Marshall, with equal cordiality. His pride was too great to feel the slightest hurt at her attempt to ignore him. She was a fanatic on the subject of the Union. All right, he was a fanatic on the idea of an independent South. They were even. Let it be so. With a toss of his head, he turned toward Lee who had seated himself at the table behind the couch. The children were chatting and laughing as they entered. A sudden hush fell on them as they caught the serious loo
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