Robert greeted me cordially; but it was evident to me that there was a cloud between his wife and him. His ruddy face assumed a stern expression when he looked at her, and his voice had a hard tone when he addressed her. Her manner to him had an appealing, almost fawning, air, which it distressed me to see. It was some days before I found a chance to speak to Robert on the subject of the girl. I had better have held my tongue, for he was nettled in an instant, shrugged his shoulders, and curled his lip. “You Northern people know nothing whatever about the management of slaves. Helen leads that girl the life of a toad under a harrow, because the other darkies say she ‘hoodoos’ them, and because my mother had some irrational ideas about demoniacal possession. I declare to you, Tom, that if I did not know Helen’s delicate condition and nervousness were much to blame, I should be ashamed of her treatment of Asenath, who is a good house-servant, and valuable.” “But she is an annoyance that Helen should not have to contend with now.” “How is she to be got rid of?” he demanded, impatiently. “We never sell any of the people on this estate, and she won’t take her freedom as a gift. I can’t kill her.” Then I dropped the subject. When I next saw Helen, she had been crying, and she begged me not to speak to Robert about the girl again. I saw no more of Asenath for some time, and learned that she had been put steadily to work at the loom, the day following my arrival. One morning, news came that the loom-house had been entered in the night, all the yarn carried off, the woven cloth cut to pieces, and the loom and wheels so shattered that new ones would be necessary. Even the walls of the building were half-destroyed. “This is some of Asenath’s work,” said Helen. Robert, who had been annoyed by the news, now seemed additionally so. “Pshaw, Helen!” he said sharply; “it would take the strength of several men to do some of this mischief.” “She has it at command. Lucas shall take her in hand again.” “No, we will have no more of that,” Robert said, sternly. “Now, hear me, Helen; I have told Lucas that if he obeys you in that respect again he shall be flogged within an inch of his life, and I mean it.” Helen’s face turned very white, her hands fell into her lap, and she sat as if stricken helpless and hopeless. I hastened away to avoid hearing more, comprehending now what the trouble in my sister’s life was, and with a presentiment of coming evil that would be greater. It was that very night that, having strolled into the shrubbery to smoke my cigar, I fell asleep upon a rustic bench there and awoke to find it was late at night, with the wind moaning as if a storm were brewing in the cloudy heavens.