She did not speak very loud, and, perhaps unconsciously,
the girls drew near to each other as they approached
the long table in the centre of the room. A
straight object lay upon it, covered with a sheet.
This was doubtless “the new one” of which
the janitor spoke. Ruth advanced, and with a
not very steady hand lifted the white covering from
the upper part of the figure and turned it down.
Both the girls started. It was a negro.
The black face seemed to defy the pallor of death,
and asserted an ugly life-likeness that was frightful.
Ruth was as pale as the white sheet, and her comrade
whispered, “Come away, Ruth, it is awful.”
Perhaps it was the wavering light of the candles,
perhaps it was only the agony from a death of pain,
but the repulsive black face seemed to wear a scowl
that said, “Haven’t you yet done with the
outcast, persecuted black man, but you must now haul
him from his grave, and send even your women to dismember
his body?”
Who is this dead man, one of thousands who died yesterday,
and will be dust anon, to protest that science shall
not turn his worthless carcass to some account?
Ruth could have had no such thought, for with a pity
in her sweet face, that for the moment overcame fear
and disgust, she reverently replaced the covering,
and went away to her own table, as her companion did
to hers. And there for an hour they worked at
their several problems, without speaking, but not
without an awe of the presence there, “the new
one,” and not without an awful sense of life
itself, as they heard the pulsations of the music
and the light laughter from the dancing-hall.
When, at length, they went away, and locked the dreadful
room behind them, and came out into the street, where
people were passing, they, for the first time, realized,
in the relief they felt, what a nervous strain they
had been under.
While Ruth was thus absorbed in her new occupation,
and the spring was wearing away, Philip and his friends
were still detained at the Southern Hotel. The
great contractors had concluded their business with
the state and railroad officials and with the lesser
contractors, and departed for the East. But
the serious illness of one of the engineers kept Philip
and Henry in the city and occupied in alternate watchings.
Philip wrote to Ruth of the new acquaintance they
had made, Col. Sellers, an enthusiastic and hospitable
gentleman, very much interested in the development
of the country, and in their success. They had
not had an opportunity to visit at his place “up
in the country” yet, but the Colonel often dined
with them, and in confidence, confided to them his
projects, and seemed to take a great liking to them,
especially to his friend Harry. It was true
that he never seemed to have ready money, but he was
engaged in very large operations.
The correspondence was not very brisk between these
two young persons, so differently occupied; for though
Philip wrote long letters, he got brief ones in reply,
full of sharp little observations however, such as
one concerning Col. Sellers, namely, that such
men dined at their house every week.
