'You needn't explain it to me, Joseph. I am quite aware that men take mistresses. But I wish it had not been one of your own slaves and in our own home.'

Her cool voice augmented his shame. He had tried to forget, during these weeks of blind passion with Venus, that she was one of his slaves. He thought of the disgust with which his father or brothers would regard any intercourse with the slaves. It happened, of course; that fellow on the Santee was debarred from Charleston society because of it. But it was contemptible. It was her fault—that brown devil with her luring voice and her thin, passionate lips!

He sprang up. 'I'll sell the bitch tomorrow!'

'No'. Theo seated herself quietly and shook her head.

He went on, unheeding. 'She shall be sent down to the barracoon in Charleston. The factor will take charge of it, see that she is bought for a distant plantation. You wanted me to do that once before. I wish I'd heeded you. Oh, Theo—with all my soul, I wish you had been spared this humiliation—and I too,' he added with a groan.

She surveyed his self-abasement with maternal tolerance. Having no physical love for him, it was easy for her to forgive. Her first reaction had sprung from the hurt to her pride and revulsion from an ugly episode. And there was truth in Venus's accusation: she was not a good wife in the conventional sense. Poor Joseph, she thought, as she had so many times.

'I don't want you to sell Venus,' she repeated gently.

He raised his head, wondering what punishment, then, Theo deemed the girl deserved. Whatever it was he would comply. A wife so sorely humiliated might make any conditions.

' I want you to set her free, Joseph.'

His jaw dropped. 'What!'

'Yes. Give her her freedom. She's like a mountain lioness from the back hills, trapped and caged. It is because she is caged that she's dangerous. And she is dangerous; she always has been. I think slavery is wrong, anyhow, but for those others it does not matter: they are stupid, and they are better cared for by us than they could manage for themselves. Yes, I know. We must have field hands, or what would become of the rice? But Venus is no field hand.'

'She would bring me a very good price,' said Joseph. He was dazed by her magnanimity.

'You can afford to forego the price.—Oh, yes, you can.'

' But what would she do—where would she go?'