"You needn't worry," she had added shrewdly, "he will return as soon as he gets tired of working." "I hurt my ankle, Abijah," said the girl.
"You ain't, is you, Miss Patty ?" replied Abijah, in an indulgent tone which conveyed to Stephen's delicate ears every shade of difference between the Vetchs' and the Culpepers' social standing.
"How are you, Abijah ?" remarked the young man with the air of lordly pleasantry he used to all servants who were not white.

Beyond the fine old hall he saw the formal drawing-room and the modern octagonal dining-room at the back of the house.
"Howdy, Marse Stephen," responded the negro, "I seed yo' ma yestiddy en she sutney wuz lookin well an' peart." He opened the door of the library, and while Stephen entered the room with the girl's hand on his arm, a man rose from a chair by the fire and came forward.
"Father, this is Mr.Culpeper," remarked Patty calmly, as she sank on a sofa and stretched out her frivolous shoes.
In the midst of his embarrassment Stephen wondered resentfully how she had discovered his name..