man wants you to hire out in his family after you graduate."

Foresta looked at the man in surprise. The thought of going into the
service of the whites was utterly foreign to her ambition.

"You may take your choice," said Arthur Daleman, Jr., sure of his
ground.

"What choice?" asked Foresta, alarmed by the man's tone of assurance.

"It is this way. Negro servants are not up to what they used to be. They
are getting squeamish, and you have to be so careful how you speak to
them or they will leave you. We are kept always on the lookout for a
servant girl."

"What on earth have I to do with that?" asked Foresta, her eyes widening
with astonishment.

"This much--I am going to have a measure of stability in my family
service somehow. Your mother here is in a tight box. All I have to do is
to speak the word and to the penitentiary she goes!" said Daleman.

Foresta grew weak, her lips slightly parted and she backed to the wall
for support.

Arthur Daleman, Jr., continued: "Borrowing money from loan companies
takes the form of a sale, as you can see by reading any of the
contracts. Now you can't sell a thing to two different people at the
same time. The law does not allow such. It is a penitentiary offense.
See?"

Foresta rushed to her mother and threw her arms about her and sobbed
bitterly.

Mrs. Crump said, "I'll go to the pen. Come after me when you get ready!
but Fores' shall never work for you."

"Take your choice," said Arthur Daleman, Jr., and walked from the room.

Foresta tore herself from her mother's arms and rushed out of the room
after him. "Mister! Wait!" she called. "Don't do anything to mama. I'll
come and do the work faithfully," said Foresta trying to smile.

"All right," said Daleman, smiling, "Be a good girl and you won't have a
better friend than I am," said he, in a significant tone, trying to
awaken Foresta to the real situation.

If she understood it her impassive countenance did not reveal the fact.

The world at large has heard that the problem of the South is the
protection of the white woman. There is another woman in the South.

CHAPTER X.

_Arabelle Seabright._

"Arabelle, I am not going to have a thing to do with this whole matter.
Suppose the bottom falls out and we are detected. Just imagine _my_
fate."

"Detected?" hissed Mrs. Arabelle Seabright, turning a scornful gaze upon
her husband. "You talk as though we have committed or are about to
commit some crime