With one bound my heart went out to her in sympathy, in admiration, in full and complete surrender.

Yet, even in that instant, the knowledge of the truth, in all its unspeakable horror, assailed me--this girl, this proud, beautiful girl, was a slave; within her veins a cursed drop of negro blood stained her with dishonor, made of her a chattel; and the sneering brute she faced was by law her master.

My hands clinched in the agony of the thought, the knowledge of my own impotence.

Yet all this was but the flash of an instant.

Before I could change posture, almost before I could draw fresh breath, her voice, trembling slightly with an emotion she was unable wholly to suppress, yet sounding clear as a bell, addressed the man confronting her.
"May I ask, sir, what this outrage means?
I presume you are responsible for the insolence of this fellow who brought me here ?" Kirby laughed, but not altogether at ease.
"Well, not altogether," he answered, "as his methods are entirely his own.