into which black folk fitted. She was rather taken back, therefore, to be regarded as an expert on the problem. First her brother attacked her, not simply on cotton, but, to her great surprise, on Negro education; and after listening to her halting uncertain remarks, he suggested to her certain matters which it would be better for her to believe when Mrs. ¬ÝGrey talked to her.
“Interested in darkies, you see,” he concluded, “and looks to you to tell things. Better go easy and suggest a waiting-game before she goes in heavy.”
‚ÄúBut Miss Smith needs money‚ÅÝ‚Äî‚Äù the New England conscience prompted. John Taylor cut in sharply:
‚ÄúWe all need money, and I know people who need Mrs. ¬ÝGrey‚Äôs more than Miss Smith does at present.‚Äù
Miss Taylor found the Lake George colony charming. It was not ultra-fashionable, but it had wealth and leisure and some breeding. Especially was this true of a circumscribed, rather exclusive, set which centred around the Vanderpools of New York and Boston. They, or rather Mr. ¬ÝVanderpool‚Äôs connections, were of Old Dutch New York stock; his father it was who had built the Lake George cottage.
Mrs. ¬ÝVanderpool was a Wells of Boston, and endured Lake George now and then during the summer for her husband‚Äôs sake, although she regarded it all as rather a joke. This summer promised to be unusually lonesome for her, and she was meditating a retreat to the Massachusetts north shore when she chanced to meet Mary Taylor, at a miscellaneous dinner, and found her interesting. She discovered that this young woman knew things, that she could talk books, and that she was rather pretty. To be sure she knew no people, but Mrs. ¬ÝVanderpool knew enough to even things.