n influence their gauging
was likely to have upon the plans she had so carefully laid, she might
have been a little more circumspect in her conduct toward them. But to
her they were "just black servants" and she was entirely incapable of
weighing their influence in the domestic economy, or of understanding
their shrewd judgment as to the best interests of the young girl whom
each, in common with all the other old servants upon the estate, loved
with a devotion absolutely incomprehensible to most northern-born
people. And another potent fact, entirely absent from the
characteristics of the northern negro, is the fact that the southern
negro servants' "kinnery" instantly adopts and maintains the viewpoint
of those "nearest the throne." It is a survival of the old feudal
system, unknown in the cosmopolitan North, but which even in this day,
so remote from the days of slavery, makes itself very distinctly felt in
many parts of the South.

And many of the servants upon the Severndale estate had been there for
three generations. Hence Peggy was their "chile," and her joys or
sorrows, happiness or unhappiness, were theirs, and all their kin's, to
be talked over, remedied if possible, but shared if not, or made a part
of their own delight in living, as the case might demand. And the
ramifications of their kinship were amazing. No wonder the report that
"an aunt-in-law ob de yo'ng mistress yonder at Severndale, had done come
down an' ondertuck fer ter run de hull shebang _an'_ Miss Peggy inter de
bargain, what is never been run by nobody," had circulated throughout
the whole community, and met with a resolute, though carefully concealed
opposition--subtle, intangible, but sure to prove overwhelming in the
end--the undertow, so hidden but so irresistible. All this had stolen
from one pair of lips to another and, of course, been related with
indignant emphasis to Jim Bolivar, Nelly's father, one of the tenants of
Severndale's large estate. And he, in turn, had discussed it with Nelly,
who worshipped the very ground Peggy chose to stand upon, for to Peggy
Stewart Nelly owed restored health, her home rescued when ruin seemed
about to claim everything her father owned, and all the happiness which
had come into her lonely life.

No wonder she now looked up to the deep brown eyes with her own blue
ones troubled and distressed.

CHAPTER III

HOSTILITIES SUSPENDED

During her drive into Annapolis Madam Stewart did more deep