d Mr. King.
"Nabob Green, as they call him, did actually contribute money for the
raising of colored regiments. He so far abated his prejudice as to be
willing that negroes should have the honor of being shot in his stead;
and Mrs. Fitzgerald agreed with him. That was a considerable advance,
you must admit."

They went on for some time talking over news, public and private; not
omitting the prospects of Tom's children, and the progress of Tulee's.
But such family chats are like the showers of manna, delicious as they
fall, but incapable of preservation.

The first evening the families met at the house in Beacon Street, Mr.
Blumenthal expressed a wish to see Henriet, and she was summoned. The
improvement in her appearance impressed him greatly. Having lived
three years with kindly and judicious friends, who never reminded
her, directly or indirectly, that she was a black sheep in the social
flock, her faculties had developed freely and naturally; and belonging
to an imitative race, she readily adopted the language and manners of
those around her. Her features were not handsome, with the exception
of her dark, liquid-looking eyes; and her black hair was too crisp to
make a soft shading for her brown forehead. But there was a winning
expression of gentleness in her countenance, and a pleasing degree of
modest ease in her demeanor. A map, which she had copied very neatly,
was exhibited, and a manuscript book of poems, of her own selection,
written very correctly, in a fine flowing hand. "Really, this is
encouraging," said Mr. Blumenthal, as she left the room. "If half a
century of just treatment and free schools can bring them all up to
this level, our battles will not be in vain, and we shall deserve to
rank among the best benefactors of the country; to say nothing of a
corresponding improvement in the white population."

"Thitherward is Providence leading us," replied Mr. King. "Not unto
us, but unto God, be all the glory. We were all of us working for
better than we knew."

* * * * *

Mr. King had written to George Falkner, to inform him of a situation
he had in store for him at Marseilles, and to request a previous
meeting in New York, as soon as he could obtain his discharge from the
army; being in this, as in all other arrangements, delicately careful
to avoid giving annoyance to Mrs. Fitzgerald. In talking this over
with his wife, he said: "I consider it a duty to go to Marseilles