THE AWAKENING
beyond. In the hot season we used to go into Charleston, but would often ride out to the plantation to spend the day and frequently the night, although that was strictly against orders."
"I wish that you and Lady Maltby would come out this autumn with Giles."
"I should like to; we would both enjoy it. That section contains much of interest to me, but it would be full of sad associations. I should much enjoy witnessing your experiments with the tea. Do you think that it will be a success?"
"I am rather doubtful in regard to my camelias; one really needs young ladies to take care of those wretched plants in their infancy; each one must be coaxed and petted and coddled, with just the right proportions of sun and shade and heat and cold."
"Another thing which has been interesting me greatly is your racial problem. I am deeply in sympathy with what is being done for the advancement of the negro, as I presume are all of the broad-thinking members of the upper classes in the South as well as the North."
Manning sucked at his cigar without immediately replying. There was no topic more distasteful to him than that mentioned by his host; he had been drawn into the discussion with Giles through shocked sentiments, and even then under protest, and had quitted it at the earliest opportunity. Although his views were clear and positive, he disliked to advance them. He argued with outsiders on the negro question in a good deal the same spirit with which a great surgeon might be drawn into an argument with a layman regarding his craft—half-heartedly, with a sense partly of disgust at the ignorance
15
