But this was an impossibility under the State laws, even had the young man been disposed to do what was right in the matter.

Related as he was, however, to one of the first families in Virginia, he would not have dared to marry a woman of so low an origin, even had the laws been favorable.
Here, in this secluded grove, unvisited by any other except her lover, Isabella lived for years.

She had become the mother of a lovely daughter, which its father named Clotelle.

The complexion of the child was still fairer than that of its mother.

Indeed, she was not darker than other white children, and as she grew older she more and more resembled her father.
As time passed away, Henry became negligent of Isabella and his child, so much so, that days and even weeks passed without their seeing him, or knowing where he was.