'Mis' Herbert as her neighbors called her was never heard even
to speak of her husband or her daughter. She was always pleasant,
sweet-appearing, mysterious and uncertain, and a little wandering in
her ways.
The Herberts were a silent family with their troubles, but somehow
every one who knew them always knew everything that happened.
The morning of one day when in the evening Herbert and the coachman
John were to meet to drink together, Melanctha had to come to the
stable joyous and in the very best of humors. Her good friend John on
this morning felt very firmly how good and sweet she was and how very
much she suffered.
John was a very decent colored coachman. When he thought about
Melanctha it was as if she were the eldest of his children. Really
he felt very strongly the power in her of a woman. John's wife always
liked Melanctha and she always did all she could to make things
pleasant. And Melanctha all her life loved and respected kind and good
and considerate people. Melanctha always loved and wanted peace and
gentleness and goodness and all her life for herself poor Melanctha
could only find new ways to be in trouble.
This evening after John and Herbert had drunk awhile together, the
good John began to tell the father what a fine girl he had for a
daughter. Perhaps the good John had been drinking a good deal of
liquor, perhaps there was a gleam of something softer than the feeling
of a friendly elder in the way John then spoke of Melanctha.
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