Few women could have taken such a matter in hand and carried it through with more determination and success than old Mrs.Miller.Completely inured in all the crimes and atrocities connected with the institution of slavery, she was also aware that, to a greater or less extent, the slave women shared with their mistress the affections of their master.

This caused her to look with a suspicious eye on every good-looking negro woman that she saw.
While the old woman was thus lecturing her daughter upon her rights and duties, Henry, unaware of what was transpiring, had left the house and gone to his office.

As soon as the old woman found that he was gone, she said,-- "I will venture anything that he is on his way to see that wench again.
I'll lay my life on it." The entrance, however, of little Marcus, or Mark, as he was familiarly called, asking for Massa Linwood's blue bag, satisfied her that her son-in-law was at his office.

Before the old lady returned home, it was agreed that Gertrude should come to her mother's to tea that evening, and Henry with her, and that Mrs.Miller should there charge the young husband with inconstancy to her daughter, and demand the removal of Isabella.
With this understanding, the old woman retraced her steps to her own dwelling.
Had Mrs.Miller been of a different character and not surrounded by slavery, she could scarcely have been unhappy in such a home as hers.
Just at the edge of the city, and sheltered by large poplar-trees was the old homestead in which she resided.

There was a splendid orchard in the rear of the house, and the old weather-beaten sweep, with "the moss-covered bucket" at its end, swung majestically over the deep well.
The garden was scarcely to be equalled.