Dido Elizabeth Belle

My greatest misfortune would be to marry into a family who would carry me as their shame.

I have been blessed with freedom twice over, as a negro and as a woman.

I have a tongue, madam. Though yours explains well enough why I may not marry your son. You view my circumstances as unfortunate, though I cannot claim even a portion of the misfortune to those whom I most closely resemble. My greatest misfortune would be to marry into a family who would carry me as their shame, as I have been required to carry my own mother - her apparent crime to be born negro, and mine to be the evidence. Since I wish to deny her no more than I wish to deny myself, you will pardon me for wanting a husband who feels forgiveness of my bloodline is both unnecessary and without grace.

I remember my father's eyes. They were kind, gentle, a little like yours.

I mean in colour.

Must not a lady marry, even if she is financially secure? For who is she without a husband of consequence? It seems silly - like a free negro who begs for a master.

Papa, how may I be too high in rank to dine with the servants and too low to dine with my family?

How should any male know the ways of a lady when he has not even mastered the ways of a gentlemen?

And what if there were not a rule, Papa? What if the rule that allowed you to take me did not exist? Would you have returned me to the slums? You *are* courageous. When it comes to the matters you believe in, society is inconsequential. You break every rule when it matters enough, Papa. I am the evidence.

It is not in my repertoire to keep company with beasts!

Bette, you shall feel no such sentiment, for you shall either end poor or broken-hearted.