Henry C. Rowland

“ Sometimes you will find a loblolly three feet in diameter, or a great gum or live oak growing right from the middle of one of these dikes, and as they could not have come until after the plantation was abandoned, one can see that they are pretty old. We have our antiquities in Carolina, Giles."
"Don't doubt it—if you call anything under five hundred years an antiquity. I fancy this lawn is that."
"Don't!" implored Virginia. "You make me feel so transient."
"Of course the impression is different in a place kept up; one doesn't feel the flight of time," said Manning. ”

“ Manning offered him a match, and Sir Henry smoked for a moment in silence; then he took the cigar from his mouth and examined it critically.
"It is delicious, so fragrant and full flavored, yet so mild. Pardon me, Manning, if I ask what one must pay for such a cigar in New York."
"It is hard to say; a few of my neighbors and I have them made expressly for ourselves."
"You rice planters are a pampered set. I shall never forget the luxury in which your grandfather lived; you know your father and I used to alternate our vacations, one year here, the next in Carolina. ”

“ He acknowledged the virtues of the negro race just as he knew to the ounce their limitations; for him to allow himself to be led into an argument regarding a subject on which he was so thoroughly informed was futile and a waste of time.
Possibly the baronet, with his quick intuition, perceived something of this, for he did not pursue the topic; instead, he followed Manning's eyes to Virginia. The young man was regarding his sister with the proud satisfaction which in a cold nature so strongly supplements affection.
"She is a beautiful girl," said Sir Henry, "and as good as she is beautiful. ”

“ Manning stared at the young Englishman with an expression half angry, half amused. "Gad! you English are funny people," he commented, with a scarcely polite frankness. "Fancy asking a big buck nigger to your house!"
Giles flushed. "Must say I can't see it," he answered, a trifle stiffly. "That is, from a man's point of view; of course a woman is apt to—to get ideas. Dessalines played one of our forwards, and is the best cricketer we've had for years; I've often borrowed his jersey or blazer, just as I would any other chap's ... why not? ”

“ I have never heard of his doing or saying a low thing; fact is, he sets a pace that's rather hard for a chap to hold—doesn't smoke; scarcely ever drinks anything; awfully decent chap. Just now he has got the Haddington cottage on the Crowleigh place ... doing some reading; saw him yesterday." He glanced at Virginia; something in her expression puzzled him; he colored abruptly and ceased speaking.
"Here comes Sir Henry," said Manning, whose quick eye had caught sight of a tall figure approaching from the sunken gardens. "You and Giles play another set, Sis; haven't finished my cigar." ”

“ But if we imported them, we'd have to feed the negroes just the same; if they can earn a part of their living, it's cheaper for us to let them. You and Giles play a set, Sis," Manning concluded. He detested the topic of the negro, and avoided it as much as possible.
Giles clambered to his feet with strong awkwardness; Virginia, lithe, supple, graceful as an ocelot, was in the court before him, and the game began, Giles's handicap being the double court, while Virginia played within the single lines. ”

“ Of a spring day, when the weather was fair, those who had never lived in brighter climes considered it radiant; it was the lack of this brilliance which struck a pang of homesickness to the heart of Manning Moultrie whenever he was in England.
"You do not know what sunlight is," said Manning to Giles Maltby, as the two and Virginia sat on the edge of the tennis court waiting for the dew to be whipped away by such feeble power as lay in the Kentish sun. "In Carolina the sunlight has a substance and a color; one can almost see it of itself apart from what it lights ”

“ I am rather doubtful in regard to my camelias; one really needs young ladies to take care of those wretched plants in their infancy; each one must be coaxed and petted and coddled, with just the right proportions of sun and shade and heat and cold. ”

“ There is no record of it beyond the old dikes and the patches of forest where the growth is lighter and of a different variety."
"Then you must clear it over again?" asked Giles.
"That part is not difficult; the dikes are the main problems, and they are almost as good as ever. One must build new trunks, of course, and plug rat holes. ”