me
time by observing the gambols of Clarence and little Em, who were enjoying
a romp in their father's garden.

"Come here, Jule," said he, "and look at our new neighbour's
children--rather pretty, ain't they?"

He was joined by a diminutive red-faced woman, with hair and eyes very much
like his own, and a face that wore a peevish, pinched expression.

"Rather good-looking," she replied, after observing them for a few minutes,
and then added, "Have you seen their parents?"

"No, not yet," was the reply. "I met Walters in the street this morning,
who informed me they are from the South, and very rich; we must try and
cultivate them--ask the children in to play with ours, and strike up an
intimacy in that way, the rest will follow naturally, you know. By the way,
Jule," continued he, "how I hate that nigger Walters, with his grand airs.
I wanted some money of him the other day on rather ticklish securities for
a client of mine, and the black wretch kept me standing in his hall for at
least five minutes, and then refused me, with some not very complimentary
remarks upon my assurance in offering him such securities. It made me so
mad I could have choked him--it is bad enough to be treated with _hauteur_
by a white man, but contempt from a nigger is almost unendurable."

"Why didn't you resent it in some way? I never would have submitted to
anything of the kind from him," interrupted Mrs. Stevens.

"Oh, I don't dare to just now; I have to be as mild as milk with him. You
forget about the mortgage; don't you know he has me in a tight place there,
and I don't see how to get out of it either. If I am called Slippery
George, I tell you what, Jule, there's not a better man of business in the
whole of Philadelphia than that same Walters, nigger as he is; and no one
offends him without paying dear for it in some way or other. I'll tell you
something he did last week. He went up to Trenton on business, and at the
hotel they refused to give him dinner because of his colour, and told him
they did not permit niggers to eat at their tables. What does he do but buy
the house over the landlord's head. The lease had just expired, and the
landlord was anxious to negotiate another; he was also making some
arrangements with his creditors, which could not be effected unless he was
enabled to renew the lease of the premises he occupied. On learning that
the house had been sold, he came down to the city to negotiate with the new
owner, and