"Francesca is very like her mother," said Ercildoune, coming to his side.

It was his own thought, but he made no answer.
"I will tell you something of her and myself; a very little story; you can draw the moral.

My father, who was a Virginian, sent my brother and me to England when we were mere boys, to be trained and educated.

After his fashion, doubtless, he loved us; for he saw that we had every advantage that wealth, and taste, and care could provide; and though he never sent for us, nor came to us, in all the years after we left his house,--and though we had no legal claim upon him,--he acknowledged us his children, and left us the entire proceeds of his immense estates, unincumbered.

We were so young when we went abroad, had been so tenderly treated at home, had seen and known so absolutely nothing of the society about us, that we were ignorant as Arabs of the state of feeling and prejudice in America against such as we, who carried any trace of negro blood.