IN THE SHADOW
"Thanks, boysie." Her eyes shone upon him affectionately. She turned to Virginia.
"How do you feel, dear? … I went in to look at you twice during the night but you were sleeping like a baby. Do you feel quite yourself?"
"Quite, thanks," answered Virginia.
Lady Maltby turned to Manning. "What are we to do with this young lady, Manning? When she was last here she got herself run away with while riding one of Giles's hunters; this time they would both have been drowned had it not been for that magnificent young Frenchman or African or Haytian— What determines the nationality of a West Indian?" she added helplessly.
"In the present case it is a negro to whom we are under obligation," replied Manning; "a Haytian negro." His tone was of its usual cool evenness, nevertheless Giles flushed, Sir Henry looked vexed, and Virginia was disturbed.
The Maltbys knew nothing of Manning's color prejudices beyond a vague idea that the people of his State had always resented the freedom of their slaves, and indifferently classed the negro with the lower animals. They would not have accredited Manning with these views, however, believing that as a man of the world he must necessarily be above local prejudices.
"But should he be regarded as a negro," replied Lady Maltby, "any more than you an Englishman or I a German because we are both Anglo-Saxon?"
"It is not a question of nationality, Lady Maltby," said Manning. "It is simply a matter of race. Would you consider that three generations of unmixed Chinamen born in England could produce an Englishman?"
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