emorse that rankled in his bosom
caused him to see all the world blood-shot. He had not visited his
mother-in-law since the evening he had given her liberty to use her own
discretion as to how Isabella and her child should be disposed of. He
feared even to go near the house, for he did not wish to see his child.
Gertrude felt this every time he declined accompanying her to her
mother's. Possessed of a tender and confiding heart, entirely unlike her
mother, she sympathized deeply with her husband. She well knew that all
young men in the South, to a greater or less extent, became enamored of
the slave-women, and she fancied that his case was only one of the many,
and if he had now forsaken all others for her she did not wish to be
punished; but she dared not let her mother know that such were her
feelings. Again and again had she noticed the great resemblance between
Clotelle and Henry, and she wished the child in better hands than those
of her cruel mother.

At last Gertrude determined to mention the matter to her husband.
Consequently, the next morning, when they were seated on the back
piazza, and the sun was pouring its splendid rays upon everything
around, changing the red tints on the lofty hills in the distance into
streaks of purest gold, and nature seeming by her smiles to favor the
object, she said,--

"What, dear Henry, do you intend to do with Clotelle?" A paleness that
overspread his countenance, the tears that trickled down his cheeks,
the deep emotion that was visible in his face, and the trembling of his
voice, showed at once that she had touched a tender chord. Without a
single word, he buried his face in his handkerchief, and burst into
tears.

This made Gertrude still more unhappy, for she feared that he had
misunderstood her; and she immediately expressed her regret that she
had mentioned the subject. Becoming satisfied from this that his wife
sympathized with him in his unhappy situation, Henry told her of the
agony that filled his soul, and Gertrude agreed to intercede for him
with her mother for the removal of the child to a boarding-school in one
of the Free States.

In the afternoon, when Henry returned from his office, his wife met him
with tearful eyes, and informed him that her mother was filled with rage
at the mention of the removal of Clotelle from her premises.

In the mean time, the slave-trader, Jennings, had started for the South
with his gang of human cattle, of whom Isabella was