Project Gutenberg's Mam' Lyddy's Recognition, by Thomas Nelson Page

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Title: Mam' Lyddy's Recognition
1908

Author: Thomas Nelson Page

Release Date: November 16, 2007 [EBook #23512]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAM' LYDDY'S RECOGNITION ***

Produced by David Widger

MAM' LYDDY'S RECOGNITION

By Thomas Nelson Page

Charles Scribner's Sons New York, 1908

Copyright, 1891, 1904, 1906

I

When Cabell Graeme was courting pretty Betty French up at the Chateau
place, though he had many rivals and not a few obstacles to overcome, he
had the good fortune to secure one valuable ally, whose friendship stood
him in good stead. She was of a rich chocolate tint, with good features,
and long hair, possibly inherited from some Arab ancestor, bead-like
black eyes, and a voice like a harp, but which on occasion could become
a flame. Her figure was short and stocky; but more dignity was never
compressed within the same number of cubic inches.

Mam' Lyddy had been in the French family all her life, as her mother and
grandmother had been before her. She had rocked on her ample bosom the
best part of three generations. And when Freedom came, however much she
may have appreciated being free, she had much too high an estimate of
the standing of the Frenches to descend to the level of the class she
had always contemned as "free niggers." She was a deep-dyed aristocrat.

The Frenches were generally esteemed to be among the oldest and best
families in the county, and the Chateau plantation, with its wide fields
and fine old mansion, was commonly reckoned one of the finest in that
section. But no such comparative statement would have satisfied Mam'
Lyddy. She firmly believed that the Frenches were the greatest people in
the world, and it would have added nothing to her dignity had they been
princes, because it could have added nothing to it to be told that
she was a member of a royal house. Part mentor, part dependent, part
domestic, she knew her position, and within her province her place
was as unquestioned as was that of her mistress, and her advice was as
carefully considered.

Caes