Iola Leroy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 283 pages of information about Iola Leroy.

Iola Leroy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 283 pages of information about Iola Leroy.

“Exactly so,” responded Lorraine; “I am too poor to marry a mere parlor ornament.  You can afford to do it; I cannot.”

“Nonsense, if I were as poor as a church mouse I would marry the woman I love.”

“Very fine sentiments,” said Lorraine, “and were I as rich as you I would indulge in them also.  You know, when my father died I had great expectations.  We had always lived in good style, and I never thought for a moment he was not a rich man, but when his estate was settled I found it was greatly involved, and I was forced to face an uncertain future, with scarcely a dollar to call my own.  Land, negroes, cattle, and horses all went under the hammer.  The only thing I retained was the education I received at the North; that was my father’s best investment, and all my stock in trade.  With that only as an outfit, it would be madness for me to think of marrying one of those lovely girls.  They remind me of beautiful canary birds, charming and pretty, but not fitted for the wear and tear of plantation life.  Well, which is your choice?”

“Neither,” replied Eugene.

“Then, is it that magnificent looking widow from New Orleans, whom we met before you had that terrible spell of sickness and to whom you appeared so devoted?”

“Not at all.  I have not heard from her since that summer.  She was fascinating and handsome, but fearfully high strung.”

“Were you afraid of her?”

“No; but I valued my happiness too much to trust it in her hands.”

“Sour grapes!” said Lorraine.

“No! but I think that slavery and the lack of outside interests are beginning to tell on the lives of our women.  They lean too much on their slaves, have too much irresponsible power in their hands, are narrowed and compressed by the routine of plantation life and the lack of intellectual stimulus.”

“Yes, Eugene, when I see what other women are doing in the fields of literature and art, I cannot help thinking an amount of brain power has been held in check among us.  Yet I cannot abide those Northern women, with their suffrage views and abolition cant.  They just shock me.”

“But your mother was a Northern woman,” said Eugene.

“Yes; but she got bravely over her Northern ideas.  As I remember her, she was just as much a Southerner as if she had been to the manor born.  She came here as a school-teacher, but soon after she came she married my father.  He was easy and indulgent with his servants, and held them with a very loose rein.  But my mother was firm and energetic.  She made the niggers move around.  No shirking nor dawdling with her.  When my father died, she took matters in hand, but she only outlived him a few months.  If she had lived I believe that she would have retrieved our fortune.  I know that she had more executive ability than my father.  He was very squeamish about selling his servants, but she would have put every one of them in her pocket before permitting them to eat her out of house and home.  But whom are you going to marry?”

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Iola Leroy from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.