" 'Spect he forgot all about it by dis time. Miss Daisy please
have her clothes off and go to bed?"
There was nothing more to wait for. I submitted, was
undressed; but the rest and sleep which had been desired were
far out of reach now. Pete's wife? — my good, strong, gentle,
and I remembered always _grave_, Pete! My heart was on fire with
indignation and torn to pieces with sorrow, both at once. Torn
with the helpless feeling too that I could not mend the wrong.
I do not mean this individual wrong, but the whole state of
things under which such wrong was possible. I was restless on
my bed, though very weary. I would rather have been up and
doing something, than to lie and look at my trouble; only that
being there kept me out of the way of seeing people and of
talking. Such things done under my father and mother's own
authority, — on their own land, — to their own helpless
dependants; whom yet it was _they_ made helpless and kept
subject to such possibilities. I turned and tossed, feeling
that I _must_ do something, while yet I knew I could do nothing.
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