Miss Mildred had been Octavia's governess for seven or eight years, when one bright morning, just before her and Octavia's annual vacation, she was dumfounded to receive a proposal of marriage from Simon. During all these years Cupid had been shooting darts into his heart; he had been a silent lover of Miss Mildred. Time and again it was on the point of his tongue to make this declaration, but knowing that he was of an inferior race, and Miss Mildred far his superior, he shrank from it. During all this time Miss Mildred never suspected the sentiments he had for her, and never dreamed that he had any other than a high regard for her as a faithful teacher to his beautiful niece. She kindly refused him, telling him that she was too much in love with Octavia and engrossed in teaching her to love anybody else. There were stringent laws in this State against miscegenation, and his proposal to elope was out of the question, as, if she ever married, that was one way she wanted to avoid. She said she had a high regard for him as a man of honor and integrity, and trusted that this refusal would not mar their friendship. She said she was wrapped up in his niece, who had a bright future before her, and while only one more session remained before she would enter college, she would regret having to part with her; that she had had a pleasant home in his family, and would return after vacation to put in as faithful service in finishing up Octavia for college as it was in her power to give. This skillful and adroit changing of the subject relieved the embarrassment to both, and the interview ended by Simon wishing for her and Octavia a pleasant vacation at Saratoga. Simon afterwards said that if he could not marry one of a superior he would not marry one of an inferior race. In this connection I would say that it is one of the leading characteristics of the negro to want to marry one of better blood, with straight hair and white skin. Consequently mulattoes and quadroons are in demand. Especially do they bank on straight hair; if he or she have straight hair it hides all the ugliness of the face. It is a common remark that females of the white race resort to all kinds of ways to make their hair kinky or frizzly, while those of the negro race would give an empire for straight hair. Again, the negro suitor makes no objection because one has gone astray, and has one or more illegitimate children. If she has straight hair and a bright skin, it makes no difference about any of her past indiscretions.