hated Negroes. He hated everything about them. He couldn't bear to have Negroes around him. He insisted that Miss Keller get a white maid. She hated parting with me but he made her. I was sorry to lose so fine a mistress but when she left she gave me a good lot of money. She even saw the landlord of this house and arranged for me to live here as care-taker until it was rented again."
"That was very kind of her," said Louella.
"Yes," replied Jobyna thoughtfully. "She always was kind, never impatient, never angry. I do so hope that she will be happy."
"Why shouldn't she be? Her husband knew the life she had been leading. There is nothing about her that he doesn't know."
"Oh, yes, there is," said Jobyna slowly. "There is one very important thing that he don't know. Miss Keller was a Negress, too, even though she had blonde hair and fair skin. Her hair was bleached and it made her very beautiful. But she had more Negro blood in her veins than he. Her own mother was a mulatto from New Orleans. She didn't mind overlooking the stain in his heritage. It is funny. He hates Negroes, even though he's one himself, partly. He wouldn't let his wife have a colored maid. Yet when he sleeps in her arms, he is feeling the warmth of Negro blood. In one thing she's fortunate. If they have any children and they are black, he'll blame himself. There's a good chance that they would be white. More likely there won't be any children. My mistress won't be known in Bloomington. Nobody will suspect her secret. Bloomington is a long way from New Orleans and besides when Miss Keller left her home town she was very young and her hair had not been bleached."
Chapter XV
Jobyna and Louella got along well together. Jobyna was an admirable servant, a veritable lady Crichton. No task seemed
77
