The old woman urged her daughter to demand that the quadroon and her child be at once sold to the negro speculators and taken out of the State, or that Gertrude herself should separate from Henry.
"Assert your rights, my dear.

Let no one share a heart that justly belongs to you," said Mrs.Miller, with her eyes flashing fire.

"Don't sleep this night, my child, until that wench has been removed from that cottage; and as for the child, hand that over to me,--I saw at once that it was Henry's." During these remarks, the old lady was walking up and down the room like a caged lioness.

She had learned from Isabella that she had been purchased by Henry, and the innocence of the injured quadroon caused her to acknowledge that he was the father of her child.

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.