good Northern people never can be made to understand that with a negro everything depends on the personal equation. He is not, and never can be made, a human machine. He is a personality, and his usefulness depends entirely on the recognition of that personality."
"The commonly accepted idea of a servant is a human machine," said Thorndyke, willing to champion Scipio's cause for the purpose of having Constance Maitland's soft eyes glow and sweet voice quicken in discussion. In the old days at Como they had many hot wrangles over the North and the South.
"Ah, if you had been served by human machines for eighteen years, as I was, you would understand how I longed to see an honest, laughing black face once more. My negro servants do much toward making this house a home for me. You would laugh at the way we get on together. When I am in an ill humour they must bear the brunt of it. I am a terrible scold when I am cross. But when the servants are lazy and neglectful, then I bear with them like an angel, and so we hit it off comfortably together. Even Scipio Africanus, who is altogeth-
