The things we do!

"I have no
shame left. I've planned very little. I thought I might even ask
you to be a guest at my own plantation. My place is out on the
edge of the world, thirty miles back from the river. An amanuensis
is as reasonable there as on this boat, in the company of a
frontier army man."
"That, then, is your robber castle, I suppose."
"I rule there, Madam," he said simply.
"Over thrall and guest?"
"Over all who come there, Madam."
"I've heard of the time," she went on icily, "when this country was
younger, how the _seigneurs_ who held right under the old French
kings claimed the law of the high, low and middle justice. Life,
death, honor, all lay in their hands--in the hands of individuals.
But I thought those times past. I thought that this river was
different from the St. Lawrence. I thought that this was a
republic, and inhabited by men. I thought the South had
gentlemen--"
"You taunt me, my dear lady, my dear girl. But be not so sure that
times have changed.


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