n gates. This came of
sending girls away to school--they only learned foolishness.

And those niggers about the house had to be dressed for their new
work; the butler, a cracking plow-hand he was, wore better clothes than
he--Tom--did. No wonder he was sick;--and waste! Tom knew all about that
when the bills began to come in from Memphis. Why, that pink-faced chit,
he always referred to her in his own mind now as a pink-faced chit, was
evolving a scheme of life that would cost eight or ten thousand dollars
a year to maintain, and she was talking of decorators for the house,
either from New Orleans or Philadelphia, and new furniture from top to
bottom.

Tom felt that he was being robbed. Then he realized with a sense of
shock that here was a fortune of over half a million in lands and slaves
which he had managed and manipulated all these years, but which was not
his. It was true that under the terms of his stepmother's will he would
inherit it in the event of Betty's death--well, she looked like dying,
a whole lot--she was as strong as a mule, those soft rounded curves
covered plenty of vigorous muscle; Tom hated the very sight of her. A
pink-faced chit bubbling over with life and useless energy, a perfect
curse she was, with all sorts of extravagant tastes and he was powerless
to check her, for, although he was still her guardian, there were
certain provisions of the will--he consulted the copy he kept locked up
in his desk in the office--that permitted her to do pretty much as
she pleased with her income. It was a hell of a will! She could spend
fifteen or twenty thousand dollars a year if she wanted to and he
couldn't prevent it. It was an iniquitous document!

Well, the place could go straight off to the devil, he wouldn't wear out
his life economizing for her to waste--he didn't get a thank-you--and he
knew that nobody took off the land bigger crops than he did, while bale
for bale his cotton outsold all other cotton raised in the county--that
was the kind of a manager he was. He wagged his head in self-approval.
And what did he get out of it? A lump sum each year with a further
lump sum of twenty thousand dollars when she came of age--soon now--or
married. Tom's eyes bulged from their sockets--she'd be doing that next,
to spite him!

Betty's sphere of influence rapidly extended itself. She soon began to
have her doubts concerning the treatment accorded the slaves, and was
not long in discovering that Hicks, the