The applause died out prematurely and the whole company gave
its attention to the debate, Ramsey sinking into the clerk's seat and
laughing merrily--since it was laugh or perish.
"No, gentlemen," she heard Julian say, "this is the last-st st-straw. A
nigger wench made up to counterfeit a member of our family, and the part
given her which that member of our family was to have played! ...
Overlook--oh, good God, sir, we've done nothing but overlook, every hour
of day and night since we started."
From the other three came responses too quiet to be understood. Ramsey
half rose toward the clerk and sank again, begging him to carry her
errand on to the brothers, and he had softly moved forward as far as to
the exhorter when that person, still on his feet, called to Julian:
"Yass! an' thah ah cause to believe said niggeh----"
Two small interruptions came at once, provoking a general laugh: Julian,
staring at him in heavy abstraction, said dreamily, "Ho--ho--hold your
tongue," while the clerk, at "John the Baptist's" side, gently grasped
between the shoulders a fold of his coat, mildly suggested, "Have a
seat," and put him so suddenly off his balance that he plumped heavily
into his chair--quite enough to rouse the mirth of a company already a
trifle nervous.
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