and friendship. If he could not marry her, he
would never marry any one else; it would be cruel for him to seek
happiness while she was denied it, for, having once given her heart to
him, she could never, he was sure,--so instinctively fine was her
nature,--she could never love any one less worthy than himself, and
would therefore probably never marry. He knew from a Clarence
acquaintance, who had written him a letter, that Rena had not
reappeared in that town.

If he should discover--the chance was one in a thousand--that she was
white; or if he should find it too hard to leave her--ah, well! he was
a white man, one of a race born to command. He would make her white;
no one beyond the old town would ever know the difference. If,
perchance, their secret should be disclosed, the world was wide; a man
of courage and ambition, inspired by love, might make a career
anywhere. Circumstances made weak men; strong men mould circumstances
to do their bidding. He would not let his darling die of grief,
whatever the price must be paid for her salvation. She was only a few
rods away from him now. In a moment he would see her; he would take
her tenderly in his arms, and heart to heart they would mutually
forgive and forget, and, strengthened by their love, would face the
future boldly and bid the world do its worst.

XXIII

THE GUEST OF HONOR

The evening of the party arrived. The house had been thoroughly
cleaned in preparation for the event, and decorated with the choicest
treasures of the garden. By eight o'clock the guests had gathered.
They were all mulattoes,--all people of mixed blood were called
"mulattoes" in North Carolina. There were dark mulattoes and bright
mulattoes. Mis' Molly's guests were mostly of the bright class, most
of them more than half white, and few of them less. In Mis' Molly's
small circle, straight hair was the only palliative of a dark
complexion. Many of the guests would not have been casually
distinguishable from white people of the poorer class. Others bore
unmistakable traces of Indian ancestry,--for Cherokee and Tuscarora
blood was quite widely diffused among the free negroes of North
Carolina, though well-nigh lost sight of by the curious custom of the
white people to ignore anything but the negro blood in those who were
touched by its potent current. Very few of those present had been
slaves. The free colored people of Patesville were numerous enough
before the war to h