Occasionally he visited Leroy, but he always came alone.

His wife was the only daughter of an enterprising slave-trader, who had left her a large amount of property.
Her social training was deficient, her education limited, but she was too proud of being a pure white woman to enter the home of Leroy, with Marie as its presiding genius.

Lorraine tolerated Marie's presence as a necessary evil, while to her he always seemed like a presentiment of trouble.

With his coming a shadow fell upon her home, hushing its music and darkening its sunshine.

A sense of dread oppressed her.