Anne's warning did not fall on deaf ears, though Mable didn't respond to her right away.  Despite how she knew she seemed, she wasn't completely ignorant of the world around her and how it viewed her.  For most of her life, the amount of people she had contact with was very limited, but after leaving the farm it had increased exponentially.

More than once on their journey from the farm to here, they had been impeded by people who looked down on her and her brother simply because of the color of her skin.  The thought of meeting someone else who might - and that someone being her friend's dad - made her a bit nervous too.

"How about this, then," she began tentatively.  "You do a lot of the talking, since you'll know how to, since he's your dad, and I'll just agree with you.  That way I won't say anything he won't like, probably, and he'll think I'm very sweet and nice like you!  How does that sound?"