Ellen was the first to speak. "Look after the supper, Mammy," she said,
"while Hertha comes with me." And she led the girl into Tom's bedroom.

"Is there a special reason why you don't want to go?" she asked; and
then, as Hertha did not answer, in a lower tone, "Has it anything to do
with Mr. Lee Merryvale?"

Still Hertha did not speak.

"Hertha!"

"Oh, you needn't worry." The girl looked up quickly. "Nothing has
happened. Only," and she spoke with bitterness, "I found out he despised
me."

"Well," Ellen observed after a pause, "you're a white girl now, you can
despise him."

"Yes," Hertha answered, but her tone did not carry conviction.

Ellen looked at the delicate face, at the slender hands, at the shy
figure, and swallowed hard. "Sister," she said authoritatively, "the
time has come for you to hold up your head. You've got to make your own
way. You'll be lonely and frightened and you'll miss home, but you've
got to do it. As for Mr. Lee, I'm pretty sure he won't bother you if you
let him see you don't like it. He'll have to take a little time to find
his bearings, now he knows you're white."

"I don't want him around."

"If he wants to be around he can see you one place as well as another.
You can't stay forever in these few rooms."

"Then you send me away?" Hertha turned to her former sister, her head
up.

"You're going to your lawyer, you're taking the name of Hertha Ogilvie,
you're coming into two thousand dollars from your grandfather's estate;
isn't that so?"

"Yes."

"Then, Hertha, haven't you gone away already? You know the South. You
can't be both white and black."

Hertha took down her hat from the shelf and put it on. It was a pretty
white straw with a blue ribbon. She had trimmed it herself but the straw
and the ribbon were a gift from Ellen.

"I suppose I may come back to pack up my things?" she asked angrily.

"Little sister, little sister!" Ellen cried.

Throwing off the hat Hertha flung her arms around her sister's neck.
"Let me stay just a little longer," she beseeched. "Tell him I will come
after supper. Tell him that I am too ill to come now but that you will
bring me later in the evening. Let me stay and have supper with you and
Mammy and then you may take me to his house. I'll go with you but not
with him."

"Oh, you darling!" Ellen said, hugging her. "You're the truest! And I'm
glad for you, I am, I am! You'll never forget, oh, I know you'll never
forget! You know th