CHAPTER XI.
THE PLAGUE AND THE LAW.
Years passed, bringing no special change to the life of Leroy and his wife.

Shut out from the busy world, its social cares and anxieties, Marie's life flowed peacefully on.

Although removed by the protecting care of Leroy from the condition of servitude, she still retained a deep sympathy for the enslaved, and was ever ready to devise plans to ameliorate their condition.
Leroy, although in the midst of slavery, did not believe in the rightfulness of the institution.

He was in favor of gradual emancipation, which would prepare both master and slave for a moral adaptation to the new conditions of freedom.

While he was willing to have the old rivets taken out of slavery, politicians and planters were devising plans to put in new screws.