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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10973 ***
+
+THE LATE MRS NULL
+
+BY
+
+FRANK R. STOCKTON
+
+1886
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+There was a wide entrance gate to the old family mansion of Midbranch,
+but it was never opened to admit the family or visitors; although
+occasionally a load of wood, drawn by two horses and two mules, came
+between its tall chestnut posts, and was taken by a roundabout way among
+the trees to a spot at the back of the house, where the chips of several
+generations of sturdy wood-choppers had formed a ligneous soil deeper
+than the arable surface of any portion of the nine hundred and fifty
+acres which formed the farm of Midbranch. This seldom opened gate was in
+a corner of the lawn, and the driving of carriages, or the riding of
+horses through it to the porch at the front of the house would have been
+the ruin of the short, thick grass which had covered that lawn, it was
+generally believed, ever since Virginia became a State.
+
+But there had to be some way for people who came in carriages or on
+horseback to get into the house, and therefore the fence at the bottom
+of the lawn, at a point directly in front of the porch, was crossed by a
+set of broad wooden steps, five outside and five inside, with a platform
+at the top. These stairs were wide enough to accommodate eight people
+abreast; so that if a large carriage load of visitors arrived, none of
+them need delay in crossing the fence. At the outside of the steps ran
+the narrow road which entered the plantation a quarter of a mile away,
+and passed around the lawn and the garden to the barns and stables at
+the back.
+
+On the other side of the road, undivided from it by hedge or fence,
+stretched, like a sea gently moved by a groundswell, a vast field,
+sometimes planted in tobacco, and sometimes in wheat. In the midst of
+this field stood a tall persimmon tree which yearly dropped its
+half-candied fruit upon the first light snow of the winter. It is true
+that persimmons, quite fit to eat, were to be found on this tree at an
+earlier period than this, but such fruit was never noticed by the people
+in those parts, who would not rudely wrench from Jack Frost his one
+little claim to rivalry with the sun as a fruit-ripener. To the right of
+the field was a wide extent of pasture land, running down to a small
+stream, or "branch," which, flowing between two other streams of the
+same kind a mile or two on either side of it, had given its name to the
+place. In front, to the left, lay a great forest of chestnut, oak,
+sassafras, and sweet gum, with here and there a clump of tall pines,
+standing up straight and stiff with an air of Puritanic condemnation of
+the changing fashions of the foliage about them.
+
+On one side of the platform of the broad stile, which has been
+mentioned, sat one summer afternoon, the lady of the house. She was a
+young woman, and although her face was a good deal shadowed by her
+far-spreading hat, it was easy to perceive that she was a handsome one.
+She was the niece of Mr Robert Brandon, the elderly bachelor who owned
+Midbranch; and her mother, long since dead, had called her Roberta,
+which was as near as she could come to the name of her only brother.
+
+Miss Roberta's father was a man whose mind and time were entirely given
+up to railroads; and although he nominally lived in New York, he was,
+for the greater part of the year, engaged in endeavors to forward his
+interests somewhere west of the Mississippi. Two or three months of the
+winter were generally spent in his city home. At these times he had his
+daughter with him, but the rest of the year she lived with her uncle,
+whose household she directed with much good will and judgment. The old
+gentleman did not keep her all the summer at Midbranch. He knew what was
+necessary for a young lady who had been educated in Germany and
+Switzerland, and who had afterwards made a very favorable impression in
+Paris and London; and so, during the hot weather, he took her with him
+to one of the fashionable Southern resorts, where they always stayed
+exactly six weeks.
+
+The gentleman who was sitting on the other side of the platform, with
+his face turned towards her, had known Miss Roberta for a year or more,
+having met her at the North, and also in the Virginia mountains; and
+being now on a visit to the Green Sulphur Springs, about four miles from
+Midbranch, he rode over to see her nearly every day. There was nothing
+surprising in this, because the Green Sulphur, once a much frequented
+resort, had seen great changes, and now, although the end of the regular
+season had not arrived, it had Mr Lawrence Croft for its only guest.
+There was a spacious hotel there; there was a village of cottages of
+varying sizes; there were buildings for servants and managers; there was
+a ten-pin alley and a quiet ground; there were arbors and swings; and a
+square hole in a stone slab, through which a little pool of greenish
+water could be seen, with a tin cup, somewhat rusty, lying by it. But
+all was quiet and deserted, except one cottage, in which the man lived
+who had charge of the place, and where Mr Croft boarded. It was very
+pleasant for him to ride over to Midbranch and take a walk with Miss
+Roberta; and this was what they had been doing to-day.
+
+Horseback rides had been suggested, but Mr Brandon objected to these. He
+knew Mr Croft to be a young man of good family and very comfortable
+fortune, and he liked him very much when he had him there to dinner, but
+he did not wish his niece to go galloping around the country with him.
+To quiet walks in the woods, and through the meadows, he could, of
+course, have no objection. A good many of Mr Brandon's principles, like
+certain of his books, were kept upon a top shelf, but Miss Roberta
+always liked to humor the few which the old gentleman was wont to
+have within easy reach.
+
+This afternoon they had rambled through the woods, where the hard,
+smooth road wound picturesquely through the places in which it had been
+easiest to make a road, and where the great trunks of the trees were
+partly covered by clinging vines, which Miss Roberta knew to be either
+Virginia creeper or poison oak, although she did not remember which of
+these had clusters of five leaves, and which of three.
+
+The horse on which Mr Croft had ridden over from the Springs was tied to
+a fence near by, and he now seemed to indicate by his restless movements
+that it was quite time for the gentleman to go home; but with this
+opinion Mr Croft decidedly differed. He had had a long walk with the
+lady and plenty of opportunities to say anything that he might choose,
+but still there was something very important which had not been said,
+and which Mr Croft very much wished to say before he left Miss Roberta
+that afternoon. His only reason for hesitation was the fact that he did
+not know what he wished to say.
+
+He was a man who always kept a lookout on the bows of his daily action;
+in storm or in calm, in fog or in bright sunshine that lookout must be
+at his post; and upon his reports it depended whether Mr Croft set more
+sail, put on more steam, reversed his engine, or anchored his vessel. A
+report from this lookout was what he hoped to elicit by the remark
+which he wished to make. He desired greatly to know whether Miss Roberta
+March looked upon him in the light of a lover, or in that of an intimate
+acquaintance, whose present intimacy depended a good deal upon the
+propinquity of Midbranch and the Green Sulphur Springs. He had
+endeavored to produce upon her mind the latter impression. If he ever
+wished her to regard him as a lover he could do this in the easiest and
+most straightforward way, but the other procedure was much more
+difficult, and he was not certain that he had succeeded in it. How to
+find out in what light she viewed him without allowing the lady to
+perceive his purpose was a very delicate operation.
+
+"I wish," said Miss Roberta, poking with the end of her parasol at some
+half-withered wild flowers which lay on the steps beneath her, "that you
+would change your mind, and take supper with us."
+
+Mr Croft's mind was very busy in endeavoring to think of some casual
+remark, some observation regarding man, nature, or society, or even an
+anecdote or historical incident, which, if brought into the
+conversation, might produce upon the lady's countenance some shade of
+expression, or some variation in her tone or words which would give him
+the information he sought for. But what he said was: "Are they really
+suppers that you have, or are they only teas?"
+
+"Now I know," said the lady, "why you have sometimes taken dinner with
+us, but never supper. You were afraid that it would be a tea."
+
+Lawrence Croft was thinking that if this girl believed that he was in
+love with her, it would make a great deal of difference in his present
+course of action. If such were the case, he ought not to come here so
+often, or, in fact, he ought not to come at all, until he had decided
+for himself what he was going to do. But what could he say that would
+cause her, for the briefest moment, to unveil her idea of himself. "I
+never could endure," he said, "those meals which consist of thin
+shavings of bread with thick plasters of butter, aided and abetted by
+sweet cakes, preserves, and tea."
+
+"You should have reserved those remarks," she said, "until you had found
+out what sort of evening meal we have."
+
+He could certainly say something, he thought. Perhaps it might be some
+little fanciful story which would call up in her mind, without his
+appearing to intend it, some thought of his relationship to her as a
+lover--that is, if she had ever had such a notion. If this could be
+done, her face would betray the fact. But, not being ready to make such
+a remark, he said: "I beg your pardon, but do you really have suppers in
+the English fashion?"
+
+"Oh, no," answered Miss Roberta, "we don't have a great cold joint, with
+old cheese, and pitchers of brown stout and ale, but neither do we
+content ourselves with thin bread and butter, and preserves. We have
+coffee as well as tea, hot rolls, fleecy and light, hot batter bread
+made of our finest corn meal, hot biscuits and stewed fruit, with plenty
+of sweet milk and buttermilk; and, if anybody wants it, he can always have
+a slice of cold ham."
+
+"If I could only feel sure," thought Mr Croft, "that she looked upon me
+merely as an acquaintance, I would cease to trouble my mind on this
+subject, and let everything go on as before. But I am not sure, and I
+would rather not come here again until I am." "And at what hour," he
+asked, "do you partake of a meal like that?"
+
+"In summer time," said Miss Roberta, "we have supper when it is dark
+enough to light the lamps. My uncle dislikes very much to be deprived,
+by the advent of a meal, of the out-door enjoyment of a late afternoon,
+or, as we call it down here, the evening."
+
+"It would be easy enough," thought Mr Croft, "for me to say something
+about my being suddenly obliged to go away, and then notice its effect
+upon her. But, apart from the fact that I would not do anything so
+vulgar and commonplace, it would not advantage me in the slightest
+degree. She would see through the flimsiness of my purpose, and, no
+matter how she looked upon me, would show nothing but a well-bred regret
+that I should be obliged to go away at such a pleasant season." "I think
+the hour for your supper," said he, "is a very suitable one, but I am
+not sure that such a variety of hot bread would agree with me."
+
+"Did you ever see more healthy-looking ladies and gentlemen than you
+find in Virginia?" asked Miss March.
+
+"It is not that I want to know if she looks favorably upon me," said
+Lawrence Croft to himself, "for when I wish to discover that, I shall
+simply ask her. What I wish now to know is whether, or not, she
+considers me at all as a lover. There surely must be something I can say
+which will give me a clew." "The Virginians, as a rule," he replied,
+"are certainly a very well-grown and vigorous race."
+
+"In spite of the hot bread," she said with a smile.
+
+Just then Mr Croft believed himself struck by a happy thought. "You are
+not prepared, I suppose, to say, in consequence of it; and that recalls
+the fact that so much in this world happens in spite of things, instead
+of in consequence of them."
+
+"I don't know that I exactly understand," said Miss Roberta.
+
+"Well, for instance," said Mr Croft, "take the case of marriage. Don't
+you think that a man is more apt to marry in spite of his belief that he
+would be much better off as a bachelor, than in consequence of a
+conviction that a Benedict's life would suit him better?"
+
+"That," said she, "depends a good deal on the woman."
+
+As she said this Lawrence glanced quickly at her to observe the
+expression of her countenance. The countenance plainly indicated that
+its owner had suddenly been made aware that the afternoon was slipping
+away, and that she had forgotten certain household duties that devolved
+upon her.
+
+"Here comes Peggy," she said, "and I must go into the house and give out
+supper. Don't you now think it would be well for you to follow our
+discussion of a Virginia supper by eating one?"
+
+At this moment, there arrived at the bottom of the inside steps, a small
+girl, very black, very solemn, and very erect, with her hands folded in
+front of her very straight up-and-down calico frock, her features
+expressive of a wooden stolidity which nothing but a hammer or chisel
+could alter, and with large eyes fixed upon a far-away, which,
+apparently, had disappeared, leaving the eyes in a condition of idle
+out-go.
+
+"Miss Rob," said this wooden Peggy, "Aun' Judy says it's more'n time to
+come housekeep."
+
+"Which means," said Miss Roberta, rising, "that I must go and get my key
+basket, and descend into the store-room. Won't you come in? We shall
+find uncle on the back porch."
+
+Mr Croft declined with thanks, and took his leave, and the lady walked
+across the smooth grass to the house, followed by the rigid Peggy.
+
+The young man approached his impatient horse, and, not without some
+difficulty, got himself mounted. He had not that facility of
+sympathetically combining his own will and that of his horse which comes
+to men who from their early boyhood are wont to consider horses as
+objects quite as necessary to locomotion as shoes and stockings. But
+Lawrence Croft was a fair graduate of a riding school, and he went away
+in very good style to his cottage at the Green Sulphur Springs. "I
+believe," he said to himself, as he rode through the woods, "that Miss
+March expects no more of me than she would expect of any very intimate
+friend. I shall feel perfectly free, therefore, to continue my
+investigations regarding two points: First, is she worth having? and:
+Second, will she have me? And I must be very careful not to get the
+position of these points reversed."
+
+When Miss Roberta went into the store-room, it was Peggy, who, under the
+supervision of her mistress, measured out the fine white flour for the
+biscuits for supper. Peggy was being educated to do these things
+properly, and she knew exactly how many times the tin scoop must fill
+itself in the barrel for the ordinary needs of the family. Miss Roberta
+stood, her eyes contemplatively raised to the narrow window, through
+which she could see a flush of sunset mingling itself with the outer
+air; and Peggy scooped once, twice, thrice, four times; then she
+stopped, and, raising her head, there came into the far-away gloom of
+her eyes a quick sparkle like a flash of black lightning. She made
+another and entirely supplementary scoop, and then she stopped, and let
+the tin utensil fall into the barrel with a gentle thud.
+
+"That will do," said Miss Roberta.
+
+That night, when she should have been in her bed, Peggy sat alone by the
+hearth in Aunt Judy's cabin, baking a cake. It was a peculiar cake, for
+she could get no sugar for it, but she had supplied this deficiency with
+molasses. It was made of Miss Roberta's finest white flour, and eggs there
+were in it and butter, and it contained, besides, three raisins, an olive,
+and a prune. When the outside of the cake had been sufficiently baked, and
+every portion of it had been scrupulously eaten, the good little Peggy
+murmured to herself: "It's pow'ful comfortin' for Miss Rob to have sumfin'
+on her min'."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+About a week after Mr Lawrence Croft had had his conversation with Miss
+March on the stile steps at Midbranch, he was obliged to return to his
+home in New York. He was not a man of business, but he had business;
+and, besides this, he considered if he continued much longer to reside
+in the utterly attractionless cottage at the Green Sulphur Springs, and
+rode over every day to the very attractive house at Midbranch, that the
+points mentioned in the previous chapter might get themselves reversed.
+He was a man who was proud of being, under all circumstances, frank and
+honest with himself. He did not wish, if it could be avoided, to deceive
+other people, but he was prudent and careful about exhibiting his
+motives and intended course of action to his associates. Himself,
+however, he took into his strictest confidence. He was fond of the idea
+that he went into the battle of life covered and protected by a great
+shield, but that the inside of the shield was a mirror in which he could
+always see himself. Looking into this mirror, he now saw that, if he did
+not soon get away from Miss Roberta, he would lay down his shield and
+surrender, and it was his intent that this should not happen until he
+wished it to happen.
+
+It was very natural when Lawrence reached New York, that he should take
+pleasure in talking about Miss Roberta March and her family with any one
+who knew them. He was particularly anxious, if he could do so delicately
+and without exciting any suspicion of his object, to know as much as
+possible about Sylvester March, the lady's father. In doing this, he did
+not feel that he was prying into the affairs of others, but he could not
+be true to himself unless he looked well in advance before he made the
+step on which his mind was set. It was in this way that he happened to
+learn that about two years before, Miss March had been engaged to be
+married, but that the engagement had been broken off for reasons not
+known to his informants, and he could find out nothing about the
+gentleman, except that his name was Junius Keswick.
+
+The fact that the lady had had a lover, put her in a new light before
+Lawrence Croft. He had had an idea, suggested by the very friendly
+nature of their intercourse, that she was a woman whose mind did not run
+out to love or marriage, but now that he knew that she was susceptible
+of being wooed and won, because these things had actually happened to
+her, he was very glad that he had come away from Midbranch.
+
+The impression soon became very strong upon the mind of Lawrence that he
+would like to know what kind of man was this former lover. He had known
+Miss March about a year, and at the time of his first acquaintaince with
+her, she must have come very fresh from this engagement. To study the
+man to whom Roberta March had been willing to engage herself, was, to
+Lawrence's mode of thinking, if not a prerequisite procedure in his
+contemplated course of action, at least a very desirable one.
+
+But he was rather surprised to find that no one knew much about Mr
+Junius Keswick, or could give him any account of his present
+whereabouts, although he had been, at the time when his engagement was
+in force, a resident of New York. To consult a directory was, therefore,
+an obvious first step in the affair; and, with this intent, Mr Croft
+entered, one morning, an apothecary's shop in a street which, though a
+busy one, was in a rather out-of-the-way part of the city.
+
+"We haven't any directory, sir," said the clerk, "but if you will step
+across the street you can find one at that little shop with the green
+door. Everybody goes there to look at the directory."
+
+The green door on the opposite side of the street, approached by a
+single flat step of stone, had a tin sign upon it, on which was painted:
+
+"INFORMATION
+OF EVERY VARIETY
+FURNISHED WITHIN."
+
+Pushing open the door, Lawrence entered a long, narrow room, not very
+well lighted, with a short counter on one side, and some desks,
+partially screened by a curtain, at the farther end. A boy was behind
+the counter, and to him Lawrence addressed himself, asking permission to
+look at a city directory.
+
+"One cent, if you look yourself; three cents, if we look," said the boy,
+producing a thick volume from beneath the counter.
+
+"One cent?" said Lawrence, smiling at the oddity of this charge, as he
+opened the book and turned to the letter K.
+
+"Yes," said the boy, "and if the fine print hurts your eyes, we'll look
+for three cents."
+
+At this moment a man came from one of the desks at the other end of the
+room, and handed the boy a letter with which that young person
+immediately departed. The new-comer, a smooth-shaven man of about
+thirty, with the air of the proprietor or head manager very strong upon
+him, took the boy's position behind the counter, and remarked to
+Lawrence: "Most people, when they first come here, think it rather queer
+to pay for looking at the directory, but you see we don't keep a
+directory to coax people to come in to buy medicines or anything else.
+We sell nothing but information, and part of our stock is what you get
+out of a directory. But it's the best plan all round, for we can afford
+to give you a clean, good book instead of one all jagged and worn; and
+as you pay your money, you feel you can look as long as you like, and
+come when you please."
+
+"It is a very good plan," said Lawrence, closing the book, "but the name
+I want is not here."
+
+"Perhaps it is in last year's directory," said the man, producing
+another volume from under the counter.
+
+"That wouldn't do me much good," said Lawrence. "I want to know where
+some one resides this year."
+
+"It will do a great deal of good," said the other, "for if we know where
+a person has lived, inquiries can be made there as to where he has gone.
+Sometimes we go back three or four years, and when we have once found a
+man's name, we follow him up from place to place until we can give the
+inquirer his present address. What is the name you wanted, sir? You were
+looking in the K's."
+
+"Keswick," said Lawrence, "Junius Keswick."
+
+The man ran his finger and his eyes down a column, and remarked: "There
+is Keswick, but it is Peter, laborer; I suppose that isn't the party."
+
+Lawrence smiled, and shook his head.
+
+"We will take the year before that," said the man with cheerful
+alacrity, heaving up another volume. "Here's two Keswicks," he said in a
+moment, "one John, and the other Stephen W. Neither of them right?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "my man is Junius, and we need not go any farther
+back. I am afraid the person I am looking for was only a sojourner in
+the city, and that his name did not get into the directory. I know that
+he was here year before last."
+
+"All right, sir," said the other, pushing aside the volume he had
+been consulting. "We'll find the man for you from the hotel books, and
+what is more, we can see those two Keswicks that I found last. Perhaps
+they were relations of his, and he was staying with them. If you put the
+matter in our hands, we'll give you the address to-morrow night,
+provided it's an ordinary case. But if he has gone to Australia or
+Japan, of course, it'll take longer. Is it crime or relationship?"
+
+"Neither," replied Lawrence.
+
+"It is generally one of them," said the man, "and if it's crime we carry
+it on to a certain point, and then put it into the hands of the
+detectives, for we've nothing to do with police business, private or
+otherwise. But if it's relationship, we'll go right through with it to
+the end. Any kind of information you may want we'll give you here;
+scientific, biographical, business, healthfulness of localities,
+genuineness of antiquities, age and standing of individuals, purity of
+liquors or teas from sample, Bible items localized, china verified; in
+fact, anything you want to know we can tell you. Of course we don't
+pretend that we know all these things, but we know the people who do
+know, or who can find them out. By coming to us, and paying a small sum,
+the most valuable information, which it would take you years to find
+out, can be secured with certainty, and generally in a few days. We know
+what to do, and where to go, and that's the point. If it's a new bug, or
+a microscope insect we put it into the hands of a man who knows just
+what high scientific authority to apply to; if it's the middle name of
+your next door neighbor we'll give it to you from his baptismal record.
+I'm getting up a pamphlet-circular which will be ready in about a week,
+and which will fully explain our methods of business, with the charges
+for the different items, etc."
+
+"Well," said Lawrence, taking out his pocket-book, "I want the address
+of Junius Keswick, and I think I will let you look it up for me. What is
+your charge?"
+
+"It will be two dollars," said the man, "ordinary; and if we find
+inquiries run into other countries we will make special terms. And then
+there's seven cents, one for your look, and two threes for ours. You
+shall hear from us to-morrow night at your hotel or residence, unless
+you prefer to call here."
+
+"I will call the day after to-morrow," said Lawrence, producing a
+five-dollar note.
+
+"Very good," replied the proprietor. "Will you please pay the cashier?"
+pointing at the same time to a desk behind Lawrence which the latter had
+not noticed.
+
+Approaching this desk, the top of which, except for a small space in
+front, was surrounded by short curtains, he saw a young girl busily
+engaged in reading a book. He proffered her the note, the proprietor at
+the same time calling out: "Two, seven."
+
+The girl turned the book down to keep the place; then she took the note,
+and opened a small drawer, in which she fumbled for some moments.
+Closing the drawer, she rose to her feet and waved the note over the
+curtain to her right. "Haven't any change, eh?" said the man, coming
+from behind the counter, and putting on his hat. "As the boy's not here,
+I'll step out and get it."
+
+The girl turned up her book, and began to read again, and Lawrence stood
+and looked at her, wondering what need there was of a cashier in a place
+like this. She appeared to be under twenty, rather thin-faced, and was
+plainly dressed. In a few moments she raised her eyes from her book, and
+said: "Won't you sit down, sir? I am sorry you have to wait, but we are
+short of change to-day, and sometimes it is hard to get it in this
+neighborhood."
+
+Lawrence declined to be seated, but was very willing to talk. "Was it
+the proprietor of this establishment," he asked, "who went out to get
+the money changed??"
+
+"Yes, sir," she answered. "That is Mr Candy."
+
+"A queer name," said Lawrence, smiling.
+
+The girl looked up at him, and smiled in return. There was a very
+perceptible twinkle in her eyes, which seemed to be eyes that would like
+to be merry ones, and a slight movement of the corners of her mouth
+which indicated a desire to say something in reply, but, restrained
+probably by loyalty to her employer, or by prudent discretion regarding
+conversation with strangers, she was silent.
+
+Lawrence, however, continued his remarks. "The whole business seems to
+me very odd. Suppose I were to come here and ask for information as to
+where I could get a five-dollar note changed; would Mr Candy be able to
+tell me?"
+
+"He would do in that case just as he does in all others," she said;
+"first, he would go and find out, and then he would let you know. Giving
+information is only half the business; finding things out is the other
+half. That's what he's doing now."
+
+"So, when he comes back," said Lawrence, "he'll have a new bit of
+information to add to his stock on hand, which must be a very peculiar
+one, I fancy."
+
+The cashier smiled. "Yes," she said, "and a very useful one, too, if
+people only knew it."
+
+"Don't they know it?" asked Lawrence. "Don't you have plenty of custom?"
+
+At this moment the door opened, Mr Candy entered, and the conversation
+stopped.
+
+"Sorry to keep you waiting, sir," said the proprietor, passing some
+money to the cashier over the curtain, who, thereupon, handed two
+dollars and ninety-three cents to Lawrence through the little opening in
+front.
+
+"If you call the day after to-morrow, the information will be ready for
+you," said Mr Candy, as the gentleman departed.
+
+On the appointed day, Lawrence came again, and found nobody in the place
+but the cashier, who handed him a note.
+
+"Mr Candy left this for you, in case he should not be in when you
+called," she said.
+
+The note stated that the search for the address of Junius Keswick had
+opened very encouragingly, but as it was quite evident that said person
+was not now in the city, the investigations would have to be carried on
+on a more extended scale, and a deposit of three dollars would be
+necessary to meet expenses.
+
+Lawrence looked from the note to the cashier, who had been watching him
+as he read. "Does Mr Candy want me to leave three dollars with you?" he
+asked.
+
+"That's what he said, sir."
+
+"Well," said Lawrence, "I don't care about paying for unlimited
+investigation in this way. If the gentleman I am in search of has left
+the city, and Mr Candy has been able to find out to what place he went,
+he should have told me that, and I would have decided whether or not I
+wanted him to do anything more."
+
+The face of the cashier appeared troubled. "I think, sir," she said,
+"that if you leave the money, Mr Candy will do all he can to discover
+what you wish to know, and that it will not be very long before you have
+the address of the person you are seeking."
+
+"Do you really think he has any clew?" asked Lawrence.
+
+This question did not seem to please the cashier, and she answered
+gravely, though without any show of resentment: "That is a strange
+question after I advised you to leave the money."
+
+Lawrence had a kind heart, and it reproached him. "I beg your pardon,"
+said he. "I will leave the money with you, but I desire that Mr Candy
+will, in his next communication, give me all the information he has
+acquired up to the moment of writing, and then I will decide whether it
+is worth while to go on with the matter, or not."
+
+He, thereupon, took out his pocket-book and handed three dollars to the
+cashier, who, with an air of deliberate thoughtfulness, smoothed out the
+two notes, and placed them in her drawer. Then she said: "If you will
+leave your address, sir, I will see that you receive your information as
+soon as possible. That will be better than for you to call, because I
+can't tell you when to come."
+
+"Very well," said Lawrence, "and I will be obliged to you if you will
+hurry up Mr Candy as much as you can." And, handing her his card, he
+went his way.
+
+The way of Lawrence Croft was generally a very pleasant one, for the
+fortunate conditions of his life made it possible for him to go around
+most of the rough places which might lie in it. His family was an old
+one, and a good one, but there was very little of it left, and of its
+scattered remnants he was the most important member. But although
+circumstances did not force him to do anything in particular, he liked
+to believe that he was a rigid master to himself, and whatever he did
+was always done with a purpose. When he travelled he had an object in
+view; when he stayed at home the case was the same.
+
+His present purpose was the most serious one of his life: he wished to
+marry; and, if she should prove to be the proper person, he wished to
+marry Roberta March; and as a preliminary step in the carrying out of
+his purpose, he wanted very much to know what sort of man Miss March had
+once been willing to marry.
+
+When five days had elapsed without his hearing from Mr Candy, he became
+impatient and betook himself to the green door with the tin sign.
+Entering, he found only the boy and the cashier. Addressing himself to
+the latter, he asked if anything had been done in his business.
+
+"Yes, sir," she said, "and I hoped Mr Candy would write you a letter
+this morning before he went out, but he didn't. He traced the gentleman
+to Niagara Falls, and I think you'll hear something very soon."
+
+"If inquiries have to be carried on outside of the city," said Lawrence,
+"they will probably cost a good deal, and come to nothing. I think I
+will drop the matter as far as Mr Candy is concerned."
+
+"I wish you would give us a little more time," said the girl. "I am sure
+you will hear something in a few days, and you need not be afraid there
+will be anything more to pay unless you are satisfied that you have
+received the full worth of the money."
+
+Lawrence reflected for a few moments, and then concluded to let the
+matter go on. "Tell Mr Candy to keep me frequently informed of the
+progress of the affair," said he, "and if he is really of any service to
+me I am willing to pay him, but not otherwise."
+
+"That will be all right," said the cashier, "and if Mr Candy is--is
+prevented from doing it, I'll write to you myself, and keep you
+posted."
+
+As soon as the customer had gone, the boy, who had been sitting on the
+counter, thus spoke to the cashier: "You know very well that old
+Mintstick has given that thing up!"
+
+"I know he has," said the girl, "but I have not."
+
+"You haven't anything to do with it," said the boy.
+
+"Yes, I have," she answered. "I advised that gentleman to pay his money,
+and I'm not going to see him cheated out of it. Of course, Mr Candy
+doesn't mean to cheat him, but he has gone into that business about the
+origin of the tame blackberry, and there's no knowing when he'll get
+back to this thing, which is not in his line, anyway."
+
+"I should say it wasn't!" exclaimed the boy with a loud laugh. "Sendin'
+me to look up them two Keswicks, who was both put down as cordwainers in
+year before last's directory, and askin' 'em if there was any Juniuses
+in their families."
+
+"Junius Keswick, did you say? Is that the name of the gentleman Mr Candy
+was looking for?"
+
+"Yes," said the boy.
+
+Presently the cashier remarked: "I am going to look at the books." And
+she betook herself to the desk at the back part of the shop.
+
+In about half an hour she returned and handed to the boy a memorandum
+upon a scrap of paper. "You go out now to your lunch," she said, "and
+while you are out, stop at the St. Winifred Hotel, where Mr Candy found
+the name of Junius Keswick, and see if it is not down again not long
+after the date which I have put on this slip of paper. I think if a
+person went to Niagara Falls he'd be just as likely to make a little
+trip of it and come back again as to keep travelling on, which Mr Candy
+supposes he did. If you find the name again, put down the date of arrival
+on this, and see if there was any memorandum about forwarding letters."
+
+"All right," said the boy. "But I'll be gone an hour and a half. Can't
+cut into my lunch time."
+
+In the course of a few days Lawrence Croft received a note signed Candy
+& Co. "per" some illegible initials, which stated that Mr Junius Keswick
+had been traced to a boarding-house in the city, but as the
+establishment had been broken up for some time, endeavors were now being
+made to find the lady who had kept the house, and when this was done it
+would most likely be possible to discover from her where Mr Keswick had
+gone.
+
+Lawrence waited a few days and then called at the Information Shop.
+Again was Mr Candy absent; and so was the boy. The cashier informed him
+that she had found--that is, that the lady who kept the boarding-house
+had been found--and she thought she remembered the gentlemen in
+question, and promised, as soon as she could, to look through a book, in
+which she used to keep directions for the forwarding of letters, and in
+this way another clew might soon be expected.
+
+"This seems to be going on better," said Lawrence, "but Mr Candy doesn't
+show much in the affair. Who is managing it? You?"
+
+The girl blushed and then laughed, a little confusedly. "I am only the
+cashier," she said.
+
+"And the laborious duties of your position would, of course, give you no
+time for anything else," remarked Lawrence.
+
+"Oh, well," said the girl, "of course it is easy enough for any one to
+see that I haven't much to do as cashier, but the boy and Mr Candy are
+nearly always out, looking up things, and I have to do other business
+besides attending to cash."
+
+"If you are attending to my business," said Lawrence, "I am very glad,
+especially now that it has reached the boarding-house stage, where I
+think a woman will be better able to work than a man. Are you doing this
+entirely independent of Mr Candy?"
+
+"Well, sir," said the cashier, with an honest, straightforward look
+from her gray eyes that pleased Lawrence, "I may as well confess that I
+am. But there's nothing mean about it. He has all the same as given it
+up, for he's waiting to hear from a man at Niagara, who will never write
+to him, and probably hasn't any thing to write, and as I advised you to
+pay the money I feel bound in honor to see that the business is done, if
+it can be done."
+
+"Have you a brother or a husband to help you in these investigations and
+searches?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"No," said the cashier with a smile. "Sometimes I send our boy, and as
+to boarding houses, I can go to them myself after we shut up here."
+
+"I wish," said Lawrence, "that you were married, and that you had a
+husband who would not interfere in this matter at all, but who would go
+about with you, and so enable you to follow up your clew thoroughly. You
+take up the business in the right spirit, and I believe you would
+succeed in finding Mr Keswick, but I don't like the idea of sending you
+about by yourself."
+
+"I won't deny," said the cashier, "that since I have begun this affair I
+would like very much to carry it out; so, if you don't object, I won't
+give it up just yet, and as soon as anything happens I'll let you know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Autumn in Virginia, especially if one is not too near the mountains, is
+a season in which greenness sails very close to Christmas, although
+generally veering away in time to prevent its verdant hues from tingeing
+that happy day with the gloomy influence of the prophetic proverb about
+churchyards. Long after the time when the people of the regions watered
+by the Hudson and the Merrimac are beginning to button up their
+overcoats, and to think of weather strips for their window-sashes, the
+dwellers in the land through which flow the Appomattox and the James may
+sit upon their broad piazzas, and watch the growing glories of the
+forests, where the crimson stars of the sweet gum blaze among the rich
+yellows of the chestnuts, the lingering green of the oaks, and the
+enduring verdure of the pines. The insects still hum in the sunny air,
+and the sun is now a genial orb whose warm rays cheer but not excoriate.
+
+The orb just mentioned was approaching the horizon, when, in an
+adjoining county to that in which was situated the hospitable mansion of
+Midbranch, a little negro boy about ten years old was driving some cows
+through a gateway that opened on a public road. The cows, as they were
+going homeward, filed willingly through the gateway, which led into a
+field, at the far end of which might be dimly discerned a house behind a
+mass of foliage; but the boy, whose head and voice were entirely too big
+for the rest of him, assailed them with all manner of reproaches and
+impellent adjectives, addressing each cow in turn as: "You, sah!" When
+the compliant beasts had hustled through, the youngster got upon the
+gate, and giving it a push with one bare foot, he swung upon it as far
+as it would go; then lifting the end from the surface of the ground he
+shut it with a bang, fastened it with a hook, and ran after the cows,
+his wild provocatives to bovine haste ringing high into the evening air.
+
+This youth was known as Plez, his whole name being Pleasant Valley, an
+inspiration to his mother from the label on a grape box, which had
+drifted into that region from the North. He had just stooped to pick up
+a clod of earth with which to accentuate his vociferations, when, on
+rising, he was astounded by the apparition of an elderly woman wearing a
+purple sun-bonnet, and carrying a furled umbrella of the same color.
+Behind the spectacles, which were fixed upon him, blazed a pair of fiery
+eyes, and the soul of Plez shrivelled and curled up within him. His
+downcast eyes were bent upon his upturned toes, the clod dropped from
+his limp fingers, and his mouth which had been opened for a yell,
+remained open, but the yell had apparently swooned.
+
+The words of the old lady were brief, but her umbrella was full of jerky
+menace, and when she left him, and passed on toward the outer gate,
+Plez followed the cows to the house with the meekness of a suspected
+sheep dog.
+
+The cows had been milked, some by a rotund black woman named Letty, and
+some, much to their discomfort, by Plez himself, and it was beginning to
+grow dark, when an open spring wagon driven by a colored man, and with a
+white man on the back seat came along the road, and stopped at the gate.
+The driver having passed the reins to the occupant on the back seat, got
+down, opened the gate, and stood holding it while the other drove the
+horse into the road which ran by the side of the field to the house
+behind the trees. At this time a passer-by, if there had been one, might
+have observed, partly protruding from behind some bushes on the other
+side of the public road, and at a little distance from the gate, the
+lower portion of a purple umbrella. As the spring wagon approached, and
+during the time that it was turning into the gate, and while it was
+waiting for the driver to resume his seat, this umbrella was
+considerably agitated, so much so indeed as to cause a little rustling
+among the leaves. When the gate had been shut, and the wagon had passed
+on toward the house, the end of the umbrella disappeared, and then, on
+the other side of the bush, there came into view a sun-bonnet of the
+same color as the umbrella. This surmounted the form of an old lady, who
+stepped into the pathway by the side of the road, and walked away with a
+quick, active step which betokened both energy and purpose.
+
+The house, before which, not many minutes later, this spring wagon
+stopped, was not a fine old family mansion like that of Midbranch, but
+it was a comfortable dwelling, though an unpretending one. The gentleman
+on the back seat, and the driver, who was an elderly negro, both turned
+toward the hall door, which was open and lighted by a lamp within, as if
+they expected some one to come out on the porch. But nobody came, and,
+after a moment's hesitation, the gentleman got down, and taking a valise
+from the back of the wagon, mounted the steps of the porch. While he was
+doing this the face of the negro man, which could be plainly seen in the
+light from the hall door, grew anxious and troubled. When the gentleman
+set his valise on the porch, and stood by it without making any attempt
+to enter, the old man put down the reins and quickly descending from his
+seat, hurried up the steps.
+
+"Dunno whar ole miss is, but I reckon she done gone to look after de
+tukkies. She dreffle keerful dat dey all go to roos' ebery night. Walk
+right in, Mahs' Junius." And, taking up the valise, he followed the
+gentleman into the hall.
+
+There, near the back door, stood the rotund black woman, and, behind
+her, Plez. "Look h'yar Letty," said the negro man, "whar ole miss?"
+
+"Dunno," said the woman. "She done gib out supper, an' I ain't seed her
+sence. Is dis Mahs' Junius? Reckon' you don' 'member Letty?"
+
+"Yes I do," said the gentleman, shaking hands with her; "but the Letty
+I remember was a rather slim young woman."
+
+"Dat's so," said Letty, with a respectful laugh, 'but, shuh 'nuf, my
+food's been blessed to me, Mahs' Junius."
+
+"But whar's ole miss?" persisted the old man. "You, Letty, can't you go
+look her up?"
+
+Now was heard the voice of Plez, who meekly emerged from the shade of
+Letty. "Ole miss done gone out to de road gate," said he. "I seen her
+when I brung de cows."
+
+"Bress my soul!" ejaculated Letty. "Out to de road gate! An' 'spectin'
+you too, Mahs' Junius!"
+
+"Didn't she say nuffin to you?" said the old man, addressing Plez.
+
+"She didn't say nuffin to me, Uncle Isham," answered the boy, "'cept if
+I didn't quit skeerin' dem cows, an' makin' 'em run wid froin' rocks
+till dey ain't got a drip drap o' milk lef' in 'em, she'd whang me ober
+de head wid her umbril."
+
+"'Tain't easy to tell whar she done gone from dat," said Letty.
+
+The face of Uncle Isham grew more troubled. "Walk in de parlor, Mahs'
+Junius," he said, "an' make yourse'f comf'ble. Ole miss boun' to be back
+d'reckly. I'll go put up de hoss."
+
+As the old man went heavily down the porch steps he muttered to himself:
+"I was feared o' sumfin like dis; I done feel it in my bones."
+
+The gentleman took a seat in the parlor where Letty had preceded him
+with a lamp. "Reckon ole miss didn't spec' you quite so soon, Mahs'
+Junius, cos de sorrel hoss is pow'ful slow, and Uncle Isham is mighty
+keerful ob rocks in de road. Reckon she's done gone ober to see ole Aun'
+Patsy, who's gwine to die in two or free days, to take her some red an'
+yaller pieces for a crazy quilt. I know she's got some pieces fur her."
+
+"Aunt Patsy alive yet?" exclaimed Master Junius. "But if she's about to
+die, what does she want with a crazy quilt?"
+
+"Dat's fur she shroud," said Letty. "She 'tends to go to glory all wrap
+up in a crazy quilt, jus chockfull ob all de colors of the rainbow. Aun'
+Patsy neber did 'tend to have a shroud o' bleached domestic like common
+folks. She wants to cut a shine 'mong de angels, an' her quilt's most
+done, jus' one corner ob it lef'. Reckon ole miss done gone to carry her
+de pieces fur dat corner. Dere ain't much time lef', fur Aun' Patsy is
+pretty nigh dead now. She's ober two hunnerd years ole."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Master Junius, "two hundred?"
+
+"Yes, sah," answered Letty. "Doctor Peter's old Jim was more'n a hunnerd
+when he died, an' we all knows Aun' Patsy is twice as ole as ole Jim."
+
+"I'll wait here," said Master Junius, taking up a book. "I suppose she
+will be back before long."
+
+In about half an hour Uncle Isham came into the kitchen, his appearance
+indicating that he had had a hurried walk, and told Letty that she had
+better give Master Junius his supper without waiting any longer for her
+mistress. "She ain't at Aun' Patsy's," said the old man, "and she's jus'
+done gone somewhar else, and she'll come back when she's a mind to, an'
+dar ain't nuffin else to say 'bout it."
+
+Supper was eaten; a pipe was smoked on the porch; and Master Junius went
+to bed in a room which had been carefully prepared for him under the
+supervision of the mistress; but the purple sun-bonnet, and the umbrella
+of the same color did not return to the house that night.
+
+Master Junius was a quiet man, and fond of walking; and the next day he
+devoted to long rambles, sometimes on the roads, sometimes over the
+fields, and sometimes through the woods; but in none of his walks, nor
+when he came back to dinner and supper, did he meet the elderly mistress
+of the house to which he had come. That evening, as he sat on the top
+step of the porch with his pipe, he summoned to him Uncle Isham, and
+thus addressed the old man:
+
+"I think it is impossible, Isham, that your mistress started out to meet
+me, and that an accident happened to her. I have walked all over this
+neighborhood, and I know that no accident could have occurred without my
+seeing or hearing something of it."
+
+Uncle Isham stood on the ground, his feet close to the bottom step; his
+hat was in his hand, and his upturned face wore an expression of
+earnestness which seemed to set uncomfortably upon it. "Mahs' Junius,"
+said he, "dar ain't no acciden' come to ole miss; she's done gone cos she
+wanted to, an' she ain't come back cos she didn't want to. Dat's ole
+miss, right fru."
+
+"I suppose," said the young man, "that as she went away on foot she must
+be staying with some of the neighbors. If we were to make inquiries, it
+certainly would not be difficult to find out where she is."
+
+"Mahs' Junius," said Uncle Isham, his black eyes shining brighter and
+brighter as he spoke, "dar's culled people, an' white folks too in dis
+yer county who'd put on dere bes' clothes an' black dere shoes, an' skip
+off wid alacrousness, to do de wus kin' o sin, dat dey knowed for sartin
+would send 'em down to de deepes' and hottes' gullies ob de lower
+regions, but nuffin in dis worl' could make one o' dem people go
+'quirin' 'bout ole miss when she didn't want to be 'quired about."
+
+The smoker put down his pipe on the top step beside him, and sat for a
+few moments in thought. Then he spoke. "Isham," he began, "I want you to
+tell me if you have any notion or idea----"
+
+"Mahs' Junius," exclaimed the old negro, "scuse me fur int'ruptin', but
+I can't help it. Don' you go, an ax an ole man like me if I tinks dat
+ole miss went away cos you was comin' an' if it's my true b'lief dat
+she'll neber come back while you is h'yar. Don' ask me nuffin like dat,
+Mahs' Junius. Ise libed in dis place all my bawn days, an' I ain't neber
+done nuffin to you, Mahs' Junius, 'cept keepin' you from breakin' you
+neck when you was too little to know better. I neber 'jected to you
+marryin' any lady you like bes', an' 'tain't f'ar Mahs' Junius, now Ise
+ole an' gittin' on de careen, fur you to ax me wot I tinks about ole
+miss gwine away an' comin' back. I begs you, Mahs' Junius, don' ax me
+dat."
+
+Master Junius rose to his feet. "All right, Isham," he said; "I shall
+not worry your good old heart with questions." And he went into the
+house.
+
+The next day this quiet gentleman and good walker went to see old Aunt
+Patsy, who had apparently consented to live a day or two longer; gave
+her a little money in lieu of pieces for her crazy bed-quilt; and told
+her he was going away to stay. He told Uncle Isham he was going away to
+stay away; and he said the same thing to Letty, and to Plez, and to two
+colored women of the neighborhood whom he happened to see. Then he took
+his valise, which was not a very large one, and departed. He refused to
+be conveyed to the distant station in the spring wagon, saying that he
+much preferred to walk. Uncle Isham took leave of him with much sadness,
+but did not ask him to stay; and Letty and Plez looked after him
+wistfully, still holding in their hands the coins he had placed there.
+With the exception of these coins, the only thing he left behind him was
+a sealed letter on the parlor table, directed to the mistress of the
+house.
+
+Toward the end of that afternoon, two women came along the public road
+which passed the outer gate. One came from the south, and rode in an
+open carriage, evidently hired at the railroad station; the other was
+on foot, and came from the north; she wore a purple sun-bonnet, and
+carried an umbrella of the same color. When this latter individual
+caught sight of the approaching carriage, then at some distance, she
+stopped short and gazed at it. She did not retire behind a bush, as she
+had done on a former occasion, but she stood in the shade of a tree on
+the side of the road, and waited. As the carriage came nearer to the
+gate the surprise upon her face became rapidly mingled with indignation.
+The driver had checked the speed of his horses, and, without doubt,
+intended to stop at the gate. This might not have been sufficient to
+excite her emotions, but she now saw clearly, having not been quite
+certain of it before, that the occupant of the carriage was a lady, and,
+apparently, a young one, for she wore in her hat some bright-colored
+flowers. The driver stopped, got down, opened the gate, and then,
+mounting to his seat, drove through, leaving the gate standing wide
+open.
+
+This contempt of ordinary proprietary requirements made the old lady
+spring out from the shelter of the shade. Brandishing her umbrella, she
+was about to cry out to the man to stop and shut the gate, but she
+restrained herself. The distance was too great, and, besides, she
+thought better of it. She went again into the shade, and waited. In
+about ten minutes the carriage came back, but without the lady. This
+time the driver got down, shut the gate after him, and drove rapidly
+away.
+
+If blazing eyes could crack glass, the spectacles of the old lady would
+have been splintered into many pieces as she stood by the roadside, the
+end of her umbrella jabbed an inch or two into the ground. After
+standing thus for some five minutes, she suddenly turned and walked
+vigorously away in the direction from which she had come.
+
+Uncle Isham, Letty, and the boy Plez, were very much surprised at the
+arrival of the lady in the carriage. She had asked for the mistress of
+the house, and on being assured that she was expected to return very
+soon, had alighted, paid and dismissed her driver, and had taken a seat
+in the parlor. Her valise, rather larger than that of the previous
+visitor, was brought in and put in the hall. She waited for an hour or
+two, during which time Letty made several attempts to account for the
+non-appearance of her mistress, who, she said, was away on a visit, but
+was expected back every minute; and when supper was ready she partook of
+that meal alone, and after a short evening spent in reading she went to
+bed in the chamber which Letty prepared for her.
+
+Before she retired, Letty, who had shown herself a very capable
+attendant, said to her: "Wot's your name, miss? I allus likes to know
+the names o' ladies I waits on.''
+
+"My name," said the lady, "is Mrs Null."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The Autumn sun was shining very pleasantly when, about nine o'clock in
+the morning, Mrs Null came out on the porch, and, standing at the top of
+the steps, looked about her. She had on her hat with the red flowers,
+and she wore a short jacket, into the pockets of which her hands were
+thrust with an air which indicated satisfaction with the circumstances
+surrounding her. The old dog, lying on the grass at the bottom of the
+steps, looked up at her and flopped his tail upon the ground. Mrs Null
+called to him in a cheerful tone and the dog arose, and, hesitatingly,
+put his forefeet on the bottom step; then, when she held out her hand
+and spoke to him again, he determined that, come what might, he would go
+up those forbidden steps, and let her pat his head. This he did, and
+after looking about him to assure himself that this was reality and not
+a dog dream, he lay down upon the door-mat, and, with a sigh of relief,
+composed himself to sleep. A black turkey gobbler, who looked as if he
+had been charred in a fire, followed by five turkey hens, also
+suggesting the idea that water had been thrown over them before anything
+but their surfaces had been burned, came timidly around the house and
+stopped before venturing upon the greensward in front of the porch;
+then, seeing nobody but Mrs Null, they advanced with bobbing heads and
+swaying bodies to look into the resources of this seldom explored
+region. Plez, who was coming from the spring with a pail of water on his
+head, saw the dog on the porch and the turkeys on the grass, and stopped
+to regard the spectacle. He looked at them, and he looked at Mrs Null,
+and a grin of amused interest spread itself over his face.
+
+Mrs Null went down the steps and approached the boy. "Plez," said she,
+"if your mistress, or anybody, should come here this morning, you must
+run over to Pine Top Hill and call me. I'm going there to read."
+
+"Don' you want me to go wid yer, and show you de way, Miss Null?" asked
+Plez, preparing to set down his pail.
+
+"Oh, no," said she, "I know the way." And with her hands still in her
+pockets, from one of which protruded a rolled-up novel, she walked down
+to the little stream which ran from the spring, crossed the plank and
+took the path which led by the side of the vineyard to Pine Top Hill.
+
+This lady visitor had now been here two days waiting for the return of
+the mistress of the little estate; and the sojourn had evidently been of
+benefit to her. Good air, the good meals with which Letty had provided
+her, and a sort of sympathy which had sprung up in a very sudden way
+between her and everything on the place, had given brightness to her
+eyes. She even looked a little plumper than when she came, and
+certainly very pretty. She climbed Pine Top Hill without making any
+mistake as to the best path, and went directly to a low piece of
+sun-warmed rock which cropped out from the ground not far from the bases
+of the cluster of pines which gave the name to the hill. An extended and
+very pretty view could be had from this spot, and Mrs Null seemed to
+enjoy it, looking about her with quick turns of the head as if she
+wanted to satisfy herself that all of the scenery was there. Apparently
+satisfied that it was, she stretched out her feet, withdrew her gaze
+from the surrounding country, and regarded the toes of her boots. Now
+she smiled a little and began to speak.
+
+"Freddy," said she, "I must think over matters, and have a talk with you
+about them. Nothing could be more proper than this, since we are on our
+wedding tour. You keep beautifully in the background, which is very nice
+of you, for that's what I married you for. But we must have a talk now,
+for we haven't said a word to each other, nor, perhaps, thought of each
+other during the whole three nights and two days that we have been here.
+I expect these people think it very queer that I should keep on waiting
+for their mistress to come back, but I can't help it; I must stay till
+she comes, or he comes, and they must continue to think it funny. And as
+for Mr Croft, I suppose I should get a letter from him if he knew where
+to write, but you know, Freddy, we are travelling about on this wedding
+tour without letting anybody, especially Mr Croft, know exactly where
+we are. He must think it an awfully wonderful piece of good luck that a
+young married couple should happen to be journeying in the very
+direction taken by a gentleman whom he wants to find, and that they are
+willing to look for the gentleman without charging anything but the
+extra expenses to which they may be put. We wouldn't charge him a cent,
+you know, Freddy Null, but for the fear that he would think we would not
+truly act as his agents if we were not paid, and so would employ
+somebody else. We don't want him to employ anybody else. We want to find
+Junius Keswick before he does, and then, maybe, we won't want Mr Croft
+to find him at all. But I hope it will not turn out that way. He said,
+it was neither crime nor relationship and, of course, it couldn't be.
+What I hope is, that it is good fortune; but that's doubtful. At any
+rate, I must see Junius first, if I can possibly manage it. If she would
+only come back and open her letter, there might be no more trouble about
+it, for I don't believe he would go away without leaving her his
+address. Isn't all this charming, Freddy? And don't you feel glad that
+we came here for our wedding tour? Of course you don't enjoy it as much
+as I do, for it can't seem so natural to you; but you are bound to like
+it. The very fact of my being here should make the place delightful in
+your eyes, Mr Null, even if I have forgotten all about you ever since I
+came."
+
+That afternoon, as Mrs Null was occupying some of her continuous leisure
+in feeding the turkeys at the back of the house, she noticed two
+colored men in earnest conversation with Isham. When they had gone she
+called to the old man. "Uncle Isham," she said, "what did those men
+want?"
+
+"Tell you what 'tis, Miss Null," said Isham, removing his shapeless felt
+hat, "dis yere place is gittin' wus an' wus on de careen, an' wat's
+gwine to happen if ole miss don' come back is more'n I kin tell. Dar's
+no groun' ploughed yit for wheat, an' dem two han's been 'gaged to come
+do it, an' dey put it off, an' put it off till ole miss got as mad as
+hot coals, an' now at las' dey've come, an' she's not h'yar, an' nuffin'
+can be done. De wheat'll be free inches high on ebery oder farm 'fore
+ole miss git dem plough han's agin."
+
+"That is too bad, Uncle Isham," said Mrs Null. "When land that ought to
+be ploughed isn't ploughed, it all grows up in old field pines, don't
+it?"
+
+"It don' do dat straight off, Miss Null," said the old negro, his gray
+face relaxing into a smile.
+
+"No, I suppose not," said she. "I have heard that it takes thirty years
+for a whole forest of old field pines to grow up. But they will do it if
+the land isn't ploughed. Now, Uncle Isham, I don't intend to let
+everything be at a standstill here just because your mistress is away.
+That is one reason why I feed the turkeys. If they died, or the farm all
+went wrong, I should feel that it was partly my fault."
+
+"Yaas'm," said Uncle Isham, passing his hat from one hand to the other,
+as he delivered himself a little hesitatingly--"yaas'm, if you wasn't
+h'yar p'raps ole miss mought come back."
+
+"Now, Uncle Isham," said Mrs Null, "you mustn't think your mistress is
+staying away on account of me. She left home, as Letty has told me over
+and over, because your Master Junius came. Of course she thinks he's
+here yet, and she don't know anything about me. But if her affairs
+should go to rack and ruin while I am here and able to prevent it, I
+should think it was my fault. That's what I mean, Uncle Isham. And now
+this is what I want you to do. I want you to go right after those men,
+and tell them to come here as soon as they can, and begin to plough. Do
+you know where the ploughing is to be done?"
+
+"Oh, yaas'm," said Uncle Isham, "dar ain't on'y one place fur dat. It's
+de clober fiel', ober dar, on de udder side ob de gyarden."
+
+"And what is to be planted in it?" asked Mrs Null.
+
+"Ob course dey's gwine to plough for wheat," answered Uncle Isham, a
+little surprised at the question.
+
+"I don't altogether like that," said Mrs Null, her brows slightly
+contracting. "I've read a great deal about the foolishness of Southern
+people planting wheat. They can't compete with the great wheat farms of
+the West, which sometimes cover a whole county, and, of course, having
+so much, they can afford to sell it a great deal cheaper than you can
+here. And yet you go on, year after year, paying every cent you can
+rake and scrape for fertilizing drugs, and getting about a teacupful of
+wheat,--that is, proportionately speaking. I don't think this sort of
+thing should continue, Uncle Isham. It would be a great deal better to
+plough that field for pickles. Now there is a steady market for pickles,
+and, so far as I know, there are no pickle farms in the West."
+
+"Pickles!" ejaculated the astonished Isham. "Do you mean, Miss Null, to
+put dat fiel' down in kukumbers at dis time o' yeah?"
+
+"Well," said Mrs Null, thoughtfully, "I don't know that I feel
+authorized to make the change at present, but I do know that the things
+that pay most are small fruits, and if you people down here would pay
+more attention to them you would make more money. But the land must be
+ploughed, and then we'll see about planting it afterward; your mistress
+will, probably, be home in time for that. You go after the men, and tell
+them I shall expect them to begin the first thing in the morning. And if
+there is anything else to be done on the farm, you come and tell me
+about it to-morrow. I'm going to take the responsibility on myself to
+see that matters go on properly until your mistress returns."
+
+Letty and her son, Plez, occupied a cabin not far from the house, while
+Uncle Isham lived alone in a much smaller tenement, near the barn and
+chicken house. That evening he went over to Letty's, taking with him, as
+a burnt offering, a partially consumed and still glowing log of hickory
+wood from his own hearth-stone. "Jes' lemme tell you dis h'yar, Letty,"
+said he, after making up the fire and seating himself on a stool near
+by, "ef you want to see ole miss come back rarin' an' chargin', jes' you
+let her know dat Miss Null is gwine ter plough de clober fiel' for
+pickles."
+
+"Wot's dat fool talk?" asked Letty.
+
+"Miss Null's gwine to boss dis farm, dat's all," said Isham. "She tole
+me so herse'f, an' ef she's lef' alone she's gwine ter do it city
+fashion. But one thing's sartin shuh, Letty, if ole miss do fin' out
+wot's gwine on, she'll be back h'yar in no time! She know well 'nuf dat
+dat Miss Null ain't got no right to come an' boss dis h'yar farm. Who's
+she, anyway?"
+
+"Dunno," answered Letty. "I done ax her six or seben time, but 'pears
+like I dunno wot she mean when she tell me. P'raps she's one o' ole
+miss' little gal babies growed up. I tell you, Uncle Isham, she know dis
+place jes as ef she bawn h'yar."
+
+Uncle Isham looked steadily into the fire and rubbed the sides of his
+head with his big black fingers. "Ole miss nebber had no gal baby 'cept
+one, an' dat died when 'twas mighty little."
+
+"Does you reckon she kill her ef she come back an' fin' her no kin?"
+asked Letty.
+
+Uncle Isham pushed his stool back and started to his feet with a noise
+which woke Plez, who had been soundly sleeping on the other side of the
+fireplace; and striding to the door, the old man went out into the open
+air. Returning in less than a minute, he put his head into the doorway
+and addressed the astonished woman who had turned around to look after
+him. "Look h'yar, you Letty, I don' want to hear no sech fool talk 'bout
+ole miss. You dunno ole miss, nohow. You only come h'yar seben year ago
+when dat Plez was trottin' roun' wid nuffin but a little meal bag for
+clothes. Mahs' John had been dead a long time den; you nebber knowed
+Mahs' John. You nebber was woke up at two o'clock in the mawnin wid de
+crack ob a pistol, an' run out 'spectin' 'twas somebody stealin' chickens
+an' Mahs' John firin' at 'em, an' see ole miss a cuttin' for de road
+gate wid her white night-gown a floppin' in de win' behind her, an' when
+we got out to de gate dar we see Mahs' John a stannin' up agin de pos',
+not de pos' wid de hinges on, but de pos' wid de hook on, an' a hole in
+de top ob de head which he made hese'f wid de pistol. One-eyed Jim see
+de whole thing. He war stealin' cohn in de fiel' on de udder side de
+road. He see Mahs' John come out wid de pistol, an' he lay low. Not dat
+it war Mahs' John's cohn dat he was stealin', but he knowed well 'nuf
+dat Mahs' John take jes' as much car' o' he neighbus cohn as he own. An'
+den he see Mahs' John stan' up agin de pos' an' shoot de pistol, an' he
+see Mahs' John's soul come right out de hole in de top ob his head an'
+go straight up to heben like a sky-racket."
+
+"Wid a whizz?" asked the open-eyed Letty."
+
+"Like a sky-racket, I tell you," continued the old man, "an' den me an'
+ole miss come up. She jes' tuk one look at him and then she said in a
+wice, not like she own wice, but like Mahs' John's wice, wot had done
+gone forebber: 'You Jim, come out o' dat cohn and help carry him in!'
+And we free carried him in. An' you dunno ole miss, nohow, an' I don'
+want to hear no fool talk from you, Letty, 'bout her. Jes' you 'member
+dat!"
+
+And with this Uncle Isham betook himself to the solitude of his own
+cabin.
+
+"Well," said Letty to herself, as she rose and approached the bed in the
+corner of the room, "Ise pow'ful glad dat somebody's gwine to take de
+key bahsket, for I nebber goes inter dat sto'-room by myse'f widout
+tremblin' all froo my back bone fear ole miss come back, an' fin' me dar
+'lone."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+When Lawrence Croft now took his afternoon walks in the city, he was
+very glad to wear a light overcoat, and to button it, too. But, although
+the air was getting a little nipping in New York, he knew that it must
+still be balmy and enjoyable in Virginia. He had never been down there
+at this season, but he had heard about the Virginia autumns, and,
+besides he had seen a lady who had had a letter from Roberta March. In
+this letter Miss March had written that as her father intended making a
+trip to Texas, and, therefore, would not come to New York as early as
+usual, she would stay at least a month longer with her Uncle Brandon;
+and she was glad to do it, for the weather was perfectly lovely, and she
+could stay out-of-doors all day if she wanted to.
+
+Lawrence's walks, although very invigorating on account of the fine,
+sharp air, were not entirely cheering, for they gave him an opportunity
+to think that he was making no progress whatever in his attempt to study
+the character of Junius Keswick. He had entrusted the search for that
+gentleman's address to Mr Candy's cashier, who had informed him, most
+opportunely, that she was about to set out on a wedding tour, and that
+she had possessed herself of clues of much value which could be readily
+followed up in connection with the projected journey. But a fortnight or
+more had elapsed without his hearing anything from her, and he had come
+to the conclusion that hymeneal joys must have driven all thoughts of
+business out of her little head.
+
+After hearing that Roberta March intended protracting her stay in the
+country the desire came to him to go down there himself. He would like
+to have the novel experience of that region in autumn, and he would like
+to see Roberta, but he could not help acknowledging to himself that the
+proceeding would scarcely be a wise one, especially as he must go
+without the desired safeguard of knowing what kind of man Miss March had
+once been willing to accept. He felt that if he went down to the
+neighborhood of Midbranch one of the battles of his life would begin,
+and that when he held up before him his figurative shield, he would see
+in its inner mirror that, on account of his own disposition toward the
+lady, he was in a condition of great peril. But, for all that, he wanted
+very much to go, and no one will be surprised to learn that he did go.
+
+He was a little embarrassed at first in regard to the pretext which he
+should make to himself for such a journey. Whatever satisfactory excuse
+he could make to himself in this case would, of course, do for other
+people. Although he was not prone to make excuses for his conduct to
+other people in general, he knew he would have to give some reason to Mr
+Brandon and Miss Roberta for his return to Virginia so soon after having
+left it. He determined to make a visit to the mountains of North
+Carolina, and as Midbranch would lie in his way, of course he
+would stop there. This he assured himself was not a subterfuge.
+It was a very sensible thing to do. He had a good deal of time
+on his hands before the city season, at least for him, would begin,
+and he had read that the autumn was an admirable time to visit the
+country of the French Broad. How long a stop he would make at Midbranch
+would be determined by circumstances. He was sorry that he would not be
+able to look upon Miss Roberta with the advantage of knowing her former
+lover, but it was something to know that she had had a lover. With this
+fact in his mind he would be able to form a better estimate of her than
+he had formed before.
+
+The man who lived in the cottage at the Green Sulphur Springs was
+somewhat surprised when Mr Croft arrived there, and desired to make
+arrangements, as before, for board, and the use of a saddle horse. But,
+although it was not generally conceded, this man knew very well that
+there was no water in the world so suitable to remedy the wear and tear
+of a city life as that of the Green Sulphur Springs, and therefore
+nobody could consider the young gentleman foolish for coming back again
+while the season permitted.
+
+Lawrence arrived at his cottage in the morning; and early in the
+afternoon of the same day he rode over to Midbranch. He found the
+country a good deal changed, and he did not like the changes. His road,
+which ran for much of its distance through the woods, was covered with
+leaves, some green, and some red and yellow, and he did not fancy the
+peculiar smell of these leaves, which reminded him, in some way, of that
+gathering together of the characters in old-fashioned comedies shortly
+before the fall of the curtain. In many places where there used to be a
+thick shade, the foliage was now quite thin, and through it he could see
+a good deal of the sky. The Virginia creepers, or "poison oaks,"
+whichever they were, were growing red upon the trunks of the trees as if
+they had been at table too long and showed it, and when he rode out of
+the woods he saw that the fields, which he remembered as wide, swelling
+slopes of green, with cattle and colts feeding here and there, were now
+being ploughed into corrugated stretches of monotonous drab and brown.
+If he had been there through all the gradual changes of the season, he,
+probably, would have enjoyed them as much as people ordinarily do; but
+coming back in this way, the altered landscape slightly shocked him.
+
+When he had turned into the Midbranch gate, but was still a considerable
+distance from the house, he involuntarily stopped his horse. He could
+see the broad steps which crossed the fence of the lawn, and on one side
+of the platform on the top sat a lady whom he instantly recognized as
+Miss Roberta; and on the other side of the platform sat a gentleman.
+These two occupied very much the same positions as Lawrence, himself,
+and Miss March had occupied when we first became acquainted with them.
+Lawrence looked very sharply and earnestly at the gentleman. Could it be
+Mr Brandon? No, it was a much younger person.
+
+His first impulse was to turn and ride away, but this would be silly and
+unmanly, and he continued his way to the stile. His disposition to treat
+the matter with contempt made him feel how important the matter was to
+him. The gentleman on the platform first saw Lawrence, and announced to
+the lady that some one was coming. Miss March turned around, and then
+rose to her feet.
+
+"Upon my word!" she exclaimed, elevating her eyebrows a good deal more
+than was usual with her, "if that isn't Mr Croft!"
+
+"Who is he?" asked the other, also rising.
+
+"He is a New York gentleman whom I know very well. He was down here last
+summer, but I can't imagine what brings him here again."
+
+Lawrence dismounted, tied his horse, and approached the steps. Miss
+Roberta welcomed him cordially, coming down a little way to shake hands
+with him. Then she introduced the two gentlemen.
+
+"Mr Croft," she said, "let me make you acquainted with Mr Keswick."
+
+The afternoon, or the portion of it that was left, was spent on the
+porch, Mr Brandon joining the party. It was to him that Lawrence chiefly
+talked, for the most part about the game and scenery of North Carolina,
+with which the old gentleman was quite familiar. But Lawrence had
+sufficient regard for himself and his position in the eyes of this
+family, to help make a good deal of general conversation. What he said
+or heard, however, occupied only the extreme corners of his mind, the
+main portion of which was entirely filled with the chilling fear that
+that man might be the Keswick he was looking for. Of course, there was a
+bare chance that it was not, for there might be a numerous family, but
+even this little stupid glimmer of comfort was extinguished when Mr
+Brandon familiarly addressed the gentleman as "Junius."
+
+Lawrence took a good look at the man he was anxious to study, and as far
+as outward appearances were concerned he could find no fault with
+Roberta for having accepted him. He was taller than Croft, and not so
+correctly dressed. He seemed to be a person whom one would select as a
+companion for a hunt, a sail, or a talk upon Political Economy. There
+was about him an air of present laziness, but it was also evident that
+this was a disposition that could easily be thrown off.
+
+Lawrence's mind was not only very much occupied, but very much
+perturbed. It must have been all a mistake about the engagement having
+been broken off. If this had been the case, the easy friendliness of the
+relations between Keswick and the old gentleman and his niece would have
+been impossible. Once or twice the thought came to Lawrence that he
+should congratulate himself for not having avowed his feelings toward
+Miss Roberta when he had an opportunity of doing so; but his
+predominant emotion was one of disgust with his previous mode of action.
+If he had not weighed and considered the matter so carefully, and had
+been willing to take his chances as other men take them, he would, at
+least, have known in what relation he stood to Roberta, and would not
+have occupied the ridiculous position in which he now felt himself to
+be.
+
+When he took his leave, Roberta went with him to the stile. As they
+walked together across the smooth, short grass, a new set of emotions
+arose in Lawrence's mind which drove out every other. They were grief,
+chagrin, and even rage, at not having won this woman. As to actual
+speech, there was nothing he could say, although his soul boiled and
+bubbled within him in his desire to speak. But if he had anything to
+say, now was his chance, for he had told them that he would proceed with
+his journey the next day.
+
+Miss Roberta had a way of looking up, and looking down at the same time,
+particularly when she had asked a question and was waiting for the
+answer. Her face would be turned a little down, but her eyes would look
+up and give a very charming expression to those upturned eyes; and if
+she happened to allow the smile, with which she ceased speaking, to
+remain upon her pretty lips, she generally had an answer of some sort
+very soon. If for no other reason, it would be given that she might ask
+another question. It was in this manner she said to Lawrence: "Do you
+really go away from us to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes," said he, "I shall push on."
+
+"Do you not find the country very beautiful at this season?" asked Miss
+Roberta, after a few steps in silence.
+
+"I don't like autumn," answered Lawrence. "Everything is drying up and
+dying. I would rather see things dead."
+
+Roberta looked at him without turning her head. "But it will be just as
+bad in North Carolina," she said.
+
+"There is an autumn in ourselves," he answered, "just as much as there
+is in Nature. I won't see so much of that down there."
+
+"In some cases," said Roberta, slowly, "autumn is impossible."
+
+They had reached the bottom of the steps, and Lawrence turned and looked
+toward her. "Do you mean," he asked, "when there has been no real
+summer?"
+
+Roberta laughed. "Of course," said she, "if there has been no summer
+there can be no autumn. But you know there are places where it is summer
+all the time. Would you like to live in such a clime?"
+
+Lawrence Croft put one foot on the step, and then he drew it back. "Miss
+March," said he, "my train does not leave until the afternoon, and I am
+coming over here in the morning to have one more walk in the woods with
+you. May I?"
+
+"Certainly," she said, "I shall be delighted; that is, if you can
+overlook the fact that it is autumn."
+
+When Miss Roberta returned to the house she found Junius Keswick
+sitting on a bench on the porch. She went over to him, and took a seat
+at the other end of the bench.
+
+"So your gentleman is gone," he said.
+
+"Yes," she answered, "but only for the present. He is coming back in the
+morning."
+
+"What for?" asked Keswick, a little abruptly.
+
+Miss Roberta took off her hat, for there was no need of a hat on a
+shaded porch, and holding it by the ribbons, she let it gently slide
+down toward her feet. "He is coming," she said, speaking rather slowly,
+"to take a walk with me, and I know very well that when we have reached
+some place where he is sure there is no one to hear him, he is going to
+tell me that he loves me; that he did not intend to speak quite so soon,
+but that circumstances have made it impossible for him to restrain
+himself any longer, and he will ask me to be his wife."
+
+"And what are you going to say to him?" asked Keswick.
+
+"I don't know," replied Roberta, her eyes fixed upon the hat which she
+still held by its long ribbons.
+
+The next morning Junius Keswick, who had been up a long, long time
+before breakfast, sat, after that meal, looking at Roberta who was
+reading a book in the parlor. "She is a strange girl," thought he. "I
+cannot understand her. How is it possible that she can sit there so
+placidly reading that volume of Huxley, which I know she never saw
+before and which she has opened just about the middle, on a morning
+when she is expecting a man who will say things to her which may change
+her whole life. I could almost imagine that she has forgotten all about
+it."
+
+Peggy, who had just entered the room to inform her mistress that Aunt
+Judy was ready for her, stood in rigid uprightness, her torpid eyes
+settled upon the lady. "I reckon," so ran the thought within the mazes
+of her dark little interior, "dat Miss Rob's wuss disgruntled dan she
+was dat ebenin' when I make my cake, fur she got two dif'ent kinds o'
+shoes on."
+
+The morning went on, and Keswick found that he must go out again for a
+walk, although he had rambled several miles before breakfast. After her
+household duties had been completed, Miss Roberta took her book out to
+the porch; and about noon when her uncle came out and made some remarks
+upon the beauty of the day, she turned over the page at which she had
+opened the volume just after breakfast. An hour later Peggy brought her
+some luncheon, and felt it to be her duty to inform Miss Rob that she
+still wore one old boot and a new one. When Roberta returned to the
+porch after making a suitable change, she found Keswick there looking a
+little tired.
+
+"Has your friend gone?" he asked, in a very quiet tone.
+
+"He has not come yet," she answered.
+
+"Not come!" exclaimed Keswick. "That's odd! However, there are two hours
+yet before dinner."
+
+The two hours passed and no Lawrence Croft appeared; nor came he at all
+that day. About dusk the man at the Green Sulphur Springs rode over with
+a note from Mr Croft. The note was to Miss March, of course, and it
+simply stated that the writer was very sorry he could not keep the
+appointment he had made with her, but that it had suddenly become
+necessary for him to return to the North without continuing the journey
+he had planned; that he was much grieved to be deprived of the
+opportunity of seeing her again; but that he would give himself the
+pleasure, at the earliest possible moment, of calling on Miss March when
+she arrived in New York.
+
+When Miss Roberta had read this note she handed it to Keswick, who, when
+he returned it, asked: "Does that suit you?"
+
+"No," said she, "it does not suit me at all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+It was mail day at the very small village known as Howlett's, and to the
+fence in front of the post-office were attached three mules and a horse.
+Inside the yard, tied to the low bough of a tree, was a very lean and
+melancholy horse, on which had lately arrived Wesley Green, the negro
+man who, twice a week, brought the mail from Pocohontas, a railway
+station, twenty miles away. There was a station not six miles from
+Howlett's, but, for some reason, the mail bag was always brought from
+and carried to Pocohontas; Wesley Green requiring a whole day for a
+deliberate transit between the two points.
+
+In the post-office, which was the front room of a small wooden house
+approached by a high flight of steps, was the postmistress, Miss Harriet
+Corvey, who sat on the floor in one corner, while before her extended a
+semicircle of men and boys. In this little assemblage certain elderly
+men occupied seats which were considered to belong to them quite as much
+as if they had been hired pews in a church, and behind them stood up a
+row of tall young men and barefooted boys of the neighborhood, while,
+farthest in the rear, were some quiet little darkies with mail bags
+slung across their shoulders.
+
+On a chair to the right, and most convenient to
+
+Miss Harriet, sat old Madison Chalkley, the biggest and most venerable
+citizen of the neighborhood. Mr Chalkley never, by any chance, got a
+letter, the only mail matter he received being, "The Southern Baptist
+Recorder," which came on Saturdays, but, like most of the people
+present, he was at the post-office every mail day to see who got
+anything. Next to him sat Colonel Iston, a tall, lean, quiet old
+gentleman, who had, for a long series of years, occupied the position of
+a last apple on a tree. He had no relatives, no friends with whom he
+corresponded, no business that was not conducted by word of mouth. In
+the last fifteen years he had received but one letter, and that had so
+surprised him that he carried it about with him three days before he
+opened it, and then he found that it was really intended for a gentleman
+of the same name in another county. And yet everybody knew that if
+Colonel Iston failed to appear in his place on mail day, it would be
+because he was dead or prostrated by sickness.
+
+With the mail bag on the floor at her left, Miss Harriet, totally
+oblivious of any law forbidding the opening of the mails in public,
+would put her hand into its open mouth, draw forth a letter or a paper,
+hold it up in front of her spectacles, and call out the name of its
+owner. Most of the letters went to the black boys with the mail bags who
+came from country houses in the neighborhood, but whoever received
+letter, journal, or agricultural circular, received also at the same
+time the earnest gaze of everybody else in the room. Sometimes there
+was a letter for which there was no applicant present and then Miss
+Harriet would say: "Is anybody going past Mrs Willis Summerses?" And
+if anybody was, he would take the letter, and it is to be hoped he
+remembered to deliver it in the course of a week.
+
+In spite of the precautions of the postmistress uncalled for letters
+would gradually accumulate, and there was a little bundle of these in
+one of the few pigeon holes in a small desk in the corner of the room,
+in the drawer of which the postage stamps were kept. Now and then a
+registered letter would arrive, and this always created considerable
+sensation in the room, and if the legal recipient did not happen to be
+present, Miss Harriet never breathed a quiet breath until he or she had
+been sent for, had taken the letter, and given her a receipt. Sometimes
+she sat up as late as eleven o'clock at night on mail days, hoping that
+some one who had been sent for would arrive to relieve her of a
+registered letter.
+
+All the mail matter had been distributed, everybody but Mr Madison
+Chalkley had left the room; and when the old gentleman, as was his wont
+on the first day of the month, had gone up to the desk, untied the
+bundle of uncalled-for letters, the outer ones permanently rounded by
+the tightness of the cord, and after carefully looking over them, one by
+one, had made his usual remark about the folly of people who wouldn't
+stay in a place until their letters could get to them, had tied up the
+bundle and taken his departure; then Miss Harriet put the empty mail
+bag under the desk, and went up-stairs where an old lady sat by the
+window, sewing in the fading light.
+
+"No letters for you to-day, Mrs Keswick," said she.
+
+"Of course not," was the answer, "I didn't expect any."
+
+"Don't you think," said Miss Harriet, taking a seat opposite the old
+lady, "that it is about time for you to go home and attend to your
+affairs?"
+
+"Well, upon my word!" said Mrs Keswick, letting her hands and her work
+fall in her lap, "that's truly hospitable. I didn't expect it of you,
+Harriet Corvey."
+
+"I wouldn't have said it," returned the postmistress, "if I hadn't felt
+dead certain that you knew you were always welcome here. But Tony Miles
+told me, just before the mail came in, that the lady who's at your place
+is running it herself, and that she's going to use pickle brine for a
+fertilizer."
+
+"Very likely," said Mrs Keswick, her face totally unmoved by this
+intelligence--"very likely. That's the way they used to do in ancient
+times, or something of the same kind. They used to sow salt over their
+enemy's land so that nothing would ever grow there. That woman's family
+has sowed salt over the lands of me and mine for three generations, and
+it's quite natural she should come here to finish up."
+
+There was a little silence after this, and then Miss
+
+Harriet remarked: "Your people must know where you are. Why don't they
+come and tell you about these things?"
+
+"They know better," answered Mrs Keswick, with a grim smile. "I went
+away once before, and Uncle Isham hunted me up, and he got a lesson that
+he'll never forget. When I want them to know where I am, I'll tell
+them."
+
+"But really and truly"--said Miss Harriet "and you know I only speak to
+you for your own good, for you pay your board here, and if you didn't
+you'd be just as welcome--do you intend to keep away from your own house
+as long as that lady chooses to stay there?"
+
+"Exactly so long," answered the old lady. "I shall not keep them out of
+my house if they choose to come to it. No member of my family ever did
+that. There is the house, and they are free to enter it, but they shall
+not find me there. If there was any reason to believe that everything
+was dropped and done with, I would be as glad to see him as anybody
+could be, but I knew from his letter just what he was going to say when
+he came, and as things have turned out, I see that it was all worse than
+I expected. He and Roberta March were both coming, and they thought that
+together they could talk me down, and make me forgive and be happy, and
+all that stuff. But as I wasn't there, of course he wouldn't stay, and
+so there she is now by herself. She thinks I must come home after a
+while, and the minute I do that, back he'll come, and then they'll have
+just what they wanted. But I reckon she'll find that I can stick it out
+just as long as she can. If Roberta March turns things upside down
+there, it'll be because she can't keep her hands out of mischief, and
+that proves that she belongs to her own family. If there's any harm
+done, it don't matter so much to me, and it will be worse for him in the
+end. And now, Harriet Corvey, if you've got to make up the mail to go
+away early in the morning, you'd better have supper over and get about
+it."
+
+Meanwhile, at Mrs Keswick's house Mrs Null was acting just as
+conscientiously as she knew how. She had had some conversations with
+Freddy on the subject, and she had assured him, and at the same time
+herself, that what she was doing was the only thing that could be done.
+"It was dreadfully hard for me to get the money to come down here," she
+said to him,--"you not helping me a bit, as ordinary husbands do--and I
+can't afford to go back until I have accomplished something. It's very
+strange that she stays away so long, without telling anybody where she
+has gone to, but I know she is queer, and I suppose she has her own
+reasons for what she does. She can't be staying away on my account, for
+she doesn't know who I am, and wouldn't have any objections to me if she
+did know. I suspect it is something about Junius which keeps her away,
+and I suppose she thinks he is still here. But one of them must soon
+come back, and if I can see him, or find out from her where he is, it
+will be all right. It seems to me, Freddy, that if I could have a good
+talk with Junius things would begin to look better for you and me. And
+then I want to put him on his guard about this gentleman who is looking
+for him. By the way, I suppose I ought to write a letter to Mr Croft, or
+he'll think I have given up the job, and will set somebody else on the
+track, and that is what I don't want him to do. I can't say that I have
+positively anything to report, but I can say that I have strong hopes of
+success, considering where I am. As soon as I found that Junius had
+really left the North, I concluded that this would be the best place to
+come to for him. And now, Freddy, there's nothing for us to do but to
+wait, and if we can make ourselves useful here I'm sure we will be glad
+to do it. We both hate being lazy, and a little housekeeping and farm
+managing will be good practice for us during our honeymoon."
+
+Putting on her hat, she went down into the garden where uncle Isham was
+at work. She could find little to do there, for he was merely pulling
+turnips, and she could see nothing to suggest in regard to his method of
+work. She had found, too, that the old negro had not much respect for
+her agricultural opinions. He attended to his work as if his mistress
+had been at home, and although, in regard to the ploughing, he had
+carried out the orders of Mrs Null, he had done it because it ought to
+be done, and because he was very glad for some one else to take the
+responsibility.
+
+"Uncle Isham," said she, after she had watched the process of turnip
+pulling for a few minutes, "if you haven't anything else to do when you
+get through with this, you might come up to the house, and I will talk
+to you about the flower beds, I suppose they ought to be made ready for
+the winter."
+
+"Miss Null," said the old man, slowly unbending his back, and getting
+himself upright, "dar's allus sumfin' else to do. Eber sence I was fus'
+bawn dar was sumfin else to do, an' I spec's it'll keep on dat ar way
+till de day I dies."
+
+"Of course there will be nothing else to do then but to die," observed
+Mrs Null; "but I hope that day is far off, Uncle Isham."
+
+"Dunno 'bout dat, Miss Null," said he. "But den some people do lib
+dreffle long. Look at ole Aun' Patsy. Ise got to live a long time afore
+I's as ole as Aun' Patsy is now."
+
+"You don't mean to say," exclaimed Mrs Null, "that Aunt Patsy is alive
+yet!"
+
+"Ob course she is. Miss Null," said Uncle Isham. "If she'd died sence
+you've been here we'd a tole you, sartin. She was gwine to die las'
+week, but two or free days don' make much dif'rence to Aun' Patsy, she
+done lib so long anyhow."
+
+"Aunt Patsy alive!" exclaimed Mrs Null again. "I'm going straight off to
+see her."
+
+When she had reached the house, and had informed Letty where she was
+going, the rotund maid expressed high approbation of the visit, and
+offered to send Plez to show Miss Null the way.
+
+"I don't need any one to go with me," said that lady, and away she
+started.
+
+"She don' neber want nobody to show her nowhar," said Plez, returning
+with looks of much disapprobation to his business of peeling potatoes
+for dinner.
+
+When Mrs Null reached the cabin of Aunt Patsy, after about fifteen
+minutes' walk, she entered without ceremony, and found the old woman
+sitting on a very low chair by the window, with the much-talked-of,
+many-colored quilt in her lap. Her white woolly head was partially
+covered with a red and yellow handkerchief, and an immense pair of
+iron-bound spectacles obstructed the view of her small black face, lined
+and seamed in such a way that it appeared to have shrunk to half its
+former size. In her long, bony fingers, rusty black on the outside, and
+a very pale tan on the inside, she held a coarse needle and thread and a
+corner of the quilt. Near by, in front of a brick-paved fireplace, was
+one of her great-granddaughters, a girl about eighteen years old, who
+was down upon her hands and knees, engaged with lungs, more powerful
+than ordinary bellows, in blowing into flame a coal upon the hearth.
+
+"How d'ye Aunt Patsy?" said Mrs Null. "I didn't expect to see you
+looking so well."
+
+"Dat's Miss Null," said the girl, raising her eyes from the fire, and
+addressing her ancestor.
+
+The old woman stuck her needle into the quilt, and reached out her hand
+to her visitor, who took it cordially.
+
+"How d'ye, miss?" said Aunt Patsy, in a thin but quite firm voice,
+while the young woman got up and brought Mrs Null a chair, very short in
+the legs, very high in the back, and with its split-oak bottom very much
+sunken.
+
+"How are you feeling to-day, Aunt Patsy?" asked Mrs Null, gazing with
+much interest on the aged face.
+
+"'Bout as common," replied the old woman. "I didn't spec' to be libin'
+dis week, but I ain't got my quilt done yit, an' I can't go 'mong de
+angels wrop in a shroud wid one corner off."
+
+"Certainly not," answered Mrs Null. "Haven't you pieces enough to finish
+it?"
+
+"Oh, yaas, I got bits enough, but de trouble is to sew 'em up. I can't
+sew very fas' nowadays."
+
+"It's a pity for you to have to do it yourself," said Mrs Null. "Can't
+this young person, your daughter, do it for you?"
+
+"Dat's not my darter," said the old woman. "Dat's my son Tom's yaller
+boy Bob's chile. Bob's dead. She can't do no sewin' for me. I'm 'not
+gwine ter hab folks sayin', Aun' Patsy done got so ole she can't do her
+own sewin'."
+
+"If you are not going to die till you get your quilt finished, Aunt
+Patsy," said Mrs Null, "I hope it won't be done for a long time."
+
+"Don' do to be waitin' too long, Miss. De fus' thing you know some udder
+culled pusson'll be dyin' wrop up in a quilt like dis, and git dar fus'."
+
+Mrs Null now looked about her with much interest, and asked many
+questions in regard to the old woman's comfort and ailments. To these
+the answers, though on the whole satisfactory, were quite short, Aunt
+Patsy, apparently, much preferring to look at her visitor than to talk
+to her. And a very pretty young woman she was to look at, with a face
+which had grown brighter and plumper during every day of her country
+sojourn.
+
+When Mrs Null had gone, promising to send Aunt Patsy something nice to
+eat, the old woman turned to her great-grand-daughter, and said, "Did
+anybody come wid her?"
+
+"Nobody comed," said the girl. "Reckon' she done git herse'f los' some
+o' dese days."
+
+The old woman made no answer, but folding up the maniac coverlid, she
+handed it to the girl, and told her to put it away.
+
+That night Uncle Isham, by Mrs Null's orders, carried to Aunt Patsy a
+basket, containing various good things considered suitable for an aged
+colored woman without teeth.
+
+"Miss Annie sen' dese h'yar?" asked the old woman, taking the basket and
+lifting the lid.
+
+"Miss Annie!" exclaimed Uncle Isham. "Who she?"
+
+"Git out, Uncle Isham!" said Aunt Patsy, somewhat impatiently. "She was
+h'yar dis mawnin'."
+
+"Dat was Miss Null," said Isham.
+
+"Miss Annie all de same," said Aunt Patsy, "on'y growed up an' married.
+D'ye mean to stan' dar, Uncle Isham, an' tell me you don' know de little
+gal wot Mahs' John use ter carry in he arms ter feed de tukkies?"
+
+"She and she mudder dead long ago," said Isham. "You is pow'ful ole,
+Aun' Patsy, an' you done forgit dese things."
+
+"Done forgit nuffin," curtly replied the old woman. "Don' tell me no
+moh' fool stuff. Dat Miss Annie, growed up an' married."
+
+"Did she tell you dat?" asked Isham.
+
+"She didn't tell me nuffin'. She kep' her mouf shet 'bout dat, an' I
+kep' my mouf shet. Don' talk to me! Dat's Miss Annie, shuh as shootin'.
+Ef she hadn't fotch nuffin' 'long wid her but her eyes I'd a knowed dem;
+same ole eyes dey all had. An' 'sides dat, you fool Isham, ef she not
+Miss Annie, wot she come down h'yar fur?"
+
+"Neber thinked o' dat!" said Uncle Isham, reflectively. "Ef you's so
+pow'ful shuh, Aun' Patsy, I reckon dat _is_ Miss Annie. Couldn't 'spec
+me to 'member her. I wasn't much up at de house in dem times, an' she
+was took away 'fore I give much 'tention ter her."
+
+"Don' ole miss know she dar?" asked Aunt Patsy.
+
+'"She dunno nuffin' 'bout it," answered Isham. "She's stayin' away cos
+she think Mahs' Junius dar yit."
+
+"Why don' you tell her, now you knows it's Miss Annie wot's dar?"
+
+"You don' ketch me tellin her nuffin'," replied the old man shaking his
+head. "Wish you was spry 'nuf ter go, Aun' Patsy. She'd b'lieve you; an'
+she couldn't rar an' charge inter a ole pusson like you, nohow."
+
+"Ain't dar nobody else in dis h'yar place to go tell her?" asked Aunt
+Patsy.
+
+"Not a pusson," was Isham's decided answer.
+
+"Well den I _is_ spry 'nuf!" exclaimed Aunt Patsy, with a vigorous nod
+of her head which sent her spectacles down to her mouth, displaying a
+pair of little eyes sparkling with a fire, long thought to be extinct.
+"Ef you'll carry me dar, to Miss Harriet Corvey's, I'll tell ole miss
+myse'f. I didn't 'spec to go out dat dohr till de fun'ral, but I'll go
+dis time. I spected dar was sumfin' crooked when Miss Annie didn't tole
+me who she was. Ise not 'feared to tell ole miss, an' you jes' carry me
+up dar, Uncle Isham."
+
+"I'll do dat," said the old man, much delighted with the idea of doing
+something which he supposed would remove the clouds which overhung the
+household of his mistress. "I'll fotch de hoss an' de spring waggin an'
+dribe you ober dar."
+
+"No, you don' do no sech thing!" exclaimed Aunt Patsy, angrily. "I ain't
+gwine to hab no hosses to run away, an' chuck me out on de road. Ef you
+kin fotch de oxen an' de cart, I go 'long wid you, but I don' want no
+hosses."
+
+"Dat's fus' rate," said Isham. "I'll fotch de ox cart, an' carry you
+ober. When you want ter go?"
+
+"Dunno jes' now," said Aunt Patsy, pushing away a block of wood which
+served for a footstool, and making elaborate preparations to rise from
+her chair. "I'll sen' fur you when I's ready."
+
+The next morning was a very busy one for Aunt Patsy's son Tom's yellow
+boy Bob's child; and by afternoon it was necessary to send for two
+colored women from a neighboring cabin to assist in the preparations
+which Aunt Patsy was making for her projected visit. An old hair covered
+trunk, which had not been opened for many years, was brought out, and
+the contents exposed to the unaccustomed light of day; two coarse cotton
+petticoats were exhumed and ordered to be bleached and ironed; a yellow
+flannel garment of the same nature was put aside to be mended with some
+red pieces which were rolled up in it; out of several yarn stockings of
+various ages and lengths two were selected as being pretty much alike,
+and laid by to be darned; an old black frock with full "bishop sleeves,"
+a good deal mended and dreadfully wrinkled, was given to one of the
+neighbors, expert in such matters, to be ironed; and the propriety of
+making use of various other ancient duds was eagerly and earnestly
+discussed. Aunt Patsy, whose vitality had been wonderfully aroused, now
+that there was some opportunity for making use of it, spent nearly two
+hours turning over, examining, and reflecting upon a pair of
+old-fashioned corsets, which, although they had been long cherished, she
+had never worn. She now hoped that the occasion for their use had at
+last arrived but the utter impossibility of getting herself into them
+was finally made apparent to her, and she mournfully returned them to
+the trunk.
+
+Washing, starching, ironing, darning, patching, and an immense deal of
+talk and consultation, occupied that and a good deal of the following
+day, the rest of which was given up to the repairing of an immense pair
+of green baize shoes, without which Aunt Patsy could not be persuaded to
+go into the outer air. It was Saturday morning when she began to dress
+for the trip, and although Isham, wearing a high silk hat, and a long
+black coat which had once belonged to a clergyman, arrived with the ox
+cart about noon, the old woman was not ready to start till two or three
+hours afterward. Her assistants, who had increased in number, were
+active and assiduous. Aunt Patsy was very particular as to the manner of
+her garbing, and gave them a great deal of trouble. It had been fifteen
+years since she had set foot outside of her house, and ten more since
+she had ridden in any kind of vehicle. This was a great occasion, and
+nothing concerning it was to be considered lightly.
+
+"'Tain't right," she said to Uncle Isham when he arrived, "fur a pow'ful
+ole pusson like me to set out on a jarney ob dis kin' 'thout 'ligious
+sarvices. 'Tain't 'spectable."
+
+Uncle Isham rubbed his head a good deal at this remark. "Dunno wot we
+gwine to do 'bout dat," he said. "Brudder Jeemes lib free miles off, an'
+mos' like he's out ditchin'. Couldn't git him h'yar dis ebenin', nohow."
+
+"Well den," said Aunt Patsy, "you conduc' sarvices yourse'f, Uncle
+Isham, an' we kin have prar meetin', anyhow."
+
+Uncle Isham having consented to this, he put his oxen under the care of
+a small boy, and collecting in Aunt Patsy's room the five colored women
+and girls who were in attendance upon her, he conducted "prars," making
+an extemporaneous petition which comprehended all the probable
+contingencies of the journey, even to the accident of the right wheel of
+the cart coming off, which the old man very reverently asserted that he
+would have lynched with a regular pin instead of a broken poker handle,
+if he could have found one. After the prayer, with which Aunt Patsy
+signified her entire satisfaction by frequent Amens, the company joined
+in the vigorous singing of a hymn, in which they stated that they were
+"gwine down to Jurdun, an' tho' the road is rough, when once we shuh we
+git dar, we all be glad enough; de rocks an' de stones, an' de jolts to
+de bones will be nuffin' to de glory an' de jiy."
+
+The hymn over, Uncle Isham clapped on his hat, and hurried menacingly
+after the small boy, who had let the oxen wander along the roadside
+until one wheel of the cart was nearly in the ditch. Aunt Patsy now
+partook of a collation, consisting of a piece of hoe-cake dipped in pork
+fat, and a cup of coffee, which having finished, she declared herself
+ready to start. A chair was put into the cart, and secured by ropes to
+keep it from slipping; and then, with two women on one side and Uncle
+Isham on the other, while another woman stood in the cart to receive and
+adjust her, she was placed in position.
+
+Once properly disposed she presented a figure which elicited the lively
+admiration of her friends, whose number was now increased by the arrival
+of a couple of negro boys on mules, who were going to the post-office,
+it being Saturday, and mail day. Around Aunt Patsy's shoulders was a
+bright blue worsted shawl, and upon her head a voluminous turban of
+vivid red and yellow. Since their emancipation, the negroes in that part
+of the country had discarded the positive and gaudy colors that were
+their delight when they were slaves, and had transferred their fancy to
+delicate pinks, pale blues, and similar shades. But Aunt Patsy's ideas
+about dress were those of by-gone days, and she was too old now to
+change them, and her brightest handkerchief had been selected for her
+head on this important day. Above her she held a parasol, which had been
+graciously loaned by her descendant of the fourth generation. It was
+white, and lined with pink, and on the edges still lingered some
+fragments of cotton lace.
+
+Uncle Isham now took his position by the side of his oxen, and started
+them; and slowly creaking, Aunt Patsy's vehicle moved off, followed by
+the two boys on mules, three colored women and two girls on foot, and by
+two little black urchins who were sometimes on foot, but invariably on
+the tail of the cart when they could manage to evade the backward turn
+of Uncle Isham's eye.
+
+"Ef I should go to glory on de road, Uncle Isham," said Aunt Patsy, as
+the right wheel of the cart emerged from a rather awkward rut, "I don'
+want no fuss made 'bout me. You kin jes' bury me in de clothes I got
+on, 'cep'n de pararsol, ob course, which is Liza's. Jes' wrop de quilt
+all roun' me, an' hab a extry size coffin. You needn't do nuffin' more'n
+dat."
+
+"Oh, you's not gwine to glory dis time, Aun' Patsy," replied Uncle
+Isham, who did not want to encourage the idea of the old woman's
+departure from life while in his ox cart. But after this remark of the
+old woman he was extraordinarily careful in regard to jolts and bumps.
+
+When the procession reached the domain of Miss Harriet Corvey, there was
+gathered inside the yard quite a number of the usual attendants on mail
+days, awaiting the arrival of Wesley Green with his waddling horse and
+leather bag. But all interest in the coming of the mail was lost in the
+surprise and admiration excited by the astounding apparition of old Aunt
+Patsy in the ox cart, attended by her retinue. As the oxen, skilfully
+guided by Uncle Isham's long prod, turned into the yard, everybody came
+forward to find out the reason of this unlooked-for occurrence. Even old
+Madison Chalkley, his stout legs swaddled in home-made overalls,
+dismounted from his horse, and Colonel Iston raised his tall form from
+the porch step where he had been sitting, and approached the cart.
+
+"Upon my word," said a young fellow, with high boots, slouched hat, and
+a riding whip, "if here ain't old Aunt Patsy come after a letter! Where
+do you expect a letter from, Aunt Patsy?"
+
+The old woman fixed her spectacles on him for an instant, and then said
+in a clear voice which could be heard by all the little crowd: "'Tain't
+from nobody dat I owes any money to, nohow, Mahs' Bill Trimble."
+
+A general laugh followed this rejoinder, and Uncle Isham grinned with
+gratified pride in the enduring powers of his charge. The old woman now
+put down her parasol, and made as if she would descend from the cart.
+
+"You needn't git out, Aun' Patsy," said several negro boys at once.
+"We'll fotch your letters to you."
+
+"Git 'long wid you!" said the old woman angrily. "I didn't come here fur
+no letters. Ef I wanted letters I'd sen' 'Liza fur 'em. Git out de way."
+
+A chair was now brought, and placed near the cart; a woman mounted into
+the vehicle to assist her; Uncle Isham and another colored man stood
+ready to receive her, and Aunt Patsy began her descent. This, to her
+mind, was a much more difficult and dangerous proceeding than getting
+into the cart, and she was very slow and cautious about it. First, one
+of her great green baize feet was put over the tail of the cart, and
+resting her weight upon the two men, Aunt Patsy allowed it to descend to
+the chair, where it was gradually followed by the other foot. Having
+safely accomplished this much, the old woman ejaculated: "Bress de
+Lor'!" When, in the same prudent manner, she had reached the ground,
+she heaved a sigh of relief, and fervently exclaimed: "De Lor' be
+bressed!"
+
+Supported by Uncle Isham, and the other man, Aunt Patsy now approached
+the steps. She was so old, so little, so bowed, and so apparently
+feeble, that several persons remonstrated with her for attempting to go
+into the house when anything she wanted would be gladly done for her.
+"Much 'bliged," said the old woman, "but I don' want no letters nor
+nuffin'. I's come to make a call on de white folks, an' I's gwine in."
+
+This announcement was received with a laugh, and she was allowed to
+proceed without further hindrance. She got up the porch steps without
+much difficulty, her supporters taking upon themselves most of the
+necessary exertion; but when she reached the top, she dispensed with
+their assistance. Shuffling to the front door, she there met Miss
+Harriet Corvey, who greeted the old woman with much surprise, but shook
+hands with her very cordially.
+
+"Ebenin', Miss Har'et," said Aunt Patsy. And then, lowering her voice
+she asked: "Is ole miss h'yar?"
+
+Miss Harriet hesitated a moment, and then she answered: "Yes, she is,
+but I don't believe she'll come down to see you."
+
+"Oh, I'll go up-stars," said Aunt Patsy. "Whar she?"
+
+"She's in the spare chamber," said Miss Harriet; and Aunt Patsy, with a
+nod of the head signifying that she knew all about that room, crossed
+the hall, and began, slowly but steadily, to ascend the stairs. Miss
+Harriet gazed upon her with amazement, for Aunt Patsy had been considered
+chair-ridden when the postmistress was a young woman. Arrived at the end
+of her toilsome ascent, Aunt Patsy knocked at the door of the spare
+chamber, and as the voice of her old mistress said, "Come in!" she went
+in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+When Lawrence Croft reached the Green Sulphur Springs, after his
+interview with Miss March, his soul was still bubbling and boiling with
+emotion, and it continued in that condition all night, at least during
+that great part of the night of which he was conscious. The sight of the
+lady he loved, under the new circumstances in which he found her, had
+determined him to throw prudence and precaution to the winds, and to ask
+her at once to be his wife.
+
+But the next morning Lawrence arose very late. His coffee had evidently
+been warmed over, and his bacon had been cooked for a long, long time.
+The world did not appear to him in a favorable light, and he was obliged
+to smoke two cigars before he was at all satisfied with it. While he was
+smoking he did a good deal of thinking, and it was then that he came to
+the conclusion that he would not go over to Midbranch and propose to
+Roberta March. Such precipitate action would be unjust to himself and
+unjust to her. In her eyes it would probably appear to be the act of a
+man who had been suddenly spurred to action by the sight of a rival, and
+this, if Roberta was the woman he believed her to be, would prejudice
+her against him. And yet he knew very well that these reasons would
+avail nothing if he should see her as he intended. He had found that he
+was much more in love with her than he had supposed, and he felt
+positively certain that the next time he was alone with her he would
+declare his passion.
+
+Another thing that he felt he should consider was that the presence of
+Keswick, if looked upon with a philosophic eye, was not a reason for
+immediate action. If the old engagement had positively been broken off,
+he was at the house merely as a family friend; while, on the other hand,
+if the rupture had not been absolute, and if Roberta really loved this
+tall Southerner and wished to marry him, there was a feeling of honor
+about Lawrence which forbade him to interfere at this moment. When she
+came to New York he would find out how matters really stood, and then he
+would determine on his own action.
+
+And yet he would have proposed to Roberta that moment if he had had the
+opportunity. Her personal presence would have banished philosophy, and
+even honor.
+
+Lawrence was a long time in coming to these conclusions, and it was late
+in the afternoon when he despatched his note. Having now given up his
+North Carolina trip--one object of which had been still another visit to
+Midbranch on his return--he was obliged to wait until the next day for a
+train to the North; and, consequently, he had another evening to devote
+to reflections. These, after a time, became unsatisfactory. He had told
+the exact truth in his note to Roberta, for he felt that it was
+necessary for him to leave that part of the country in order to make
+impossible an interview for which he believed the proper time had not
+arrived. He was consulting his best interests, and also, no doubt, those
+of the lady. And yet, in spite of this reasoning, he was not satisfied
+with himself. He felt that his note was not entirely honest and true.
+There was subterfuge about it, and something of duplicity. This he
+believed was foreign to his nature, and he did not like it.
+
+Lawrence had scarcely finished his breakfast the next morning when Mr
+Junius Keswick arrived at the door of his cottage. This gentleman had
+walked over from Midbranch and was a little dusty about his boots and
+the lower part of his trousers. Lawrence greeted him politely, but was
+unable to restrain a slight indication of surprise. It being more
+pleasant on the porch than in the house, Mr Croft invited his visitor to
+take a seat there, and the latter very kindly accepted the cigar which
+was offered him, although he would have preferred the pipe he had in his
+pocket.
+
+"I thought it possible," said Keswick, as soon as the two had fairly
+begun to smoke, "that you might not yet have left here, and so came over
+in the hope of seeing you."
+
+"Very kind," said Lawrence.
+
+Keswick smiled. "I must admit," said he, "that it was not solely for the
+pleasure of meeting you again that I came, although I am very glad to
+have an opportunity for renewing our acquaintance. I came because I am
+quite convinced that Miss March wished very much to see you at the time
+arranged between you, and that she was annoyed and discomposed by your
+failure to keep your engagement. Considering that you did not, and
+probably could not, know this, I deemed I would do you a service by
+informing you of the fact."
+
+"Did Miss March send you to tell me this?" exclaimed Lawrence.
+
+"Miss March knows nothing whatever of my coming," was the answer.
+
+"Then I must say, sir," exclaimed Lawrence, "that you have taken a great
+deal upon yourself."
+
+Keswick leaned forward, and after knocking off the ashes of his cigar on
+the outside of the railing, he replied in a tone quite unmoved by the
+reproach of his companion: "It may appear so on the face of it, but, in
+fact I am actuated only by a desire to serve Miss March, for whom I
+would do any service that I thought she desired. And, looking at it from
+your side, I am sure that I would be very much obliged to any one who
+would inform me, if I did not know it, that a lady greatly wished to see
+me."
+
+"Why does she want to see me?" asked Croft. "What has she to say to me?"
+
+"I do not know," said Keswick. "I only know that she was very much
+disappointed in not seeing you yesterday."
+
+"If that is the case, she might have written to me," said Lawrence.
+
+"I do not think you quite understand the situation," observed his
+companion. "Miss March is not a lady who would even intimate to a
+gentleman that she wished him to come to her when it was obvious that
+such was not his desire. But it seemed to me that if the gentleman
+should become aware of the lady's wishes through the medium of a third
+party, the matter would arrange itself without difficulty."
+
+"By the gentleman going to her, I suppose," remarked Croft.
+
+"Of course," said Keswick.
+
+"There is no 'of course' about it," was Lawrence's rather quick reply.
+
+At that moment some letters were brought to him from a little
+post-office near by, to which he had ordered his mail to be forwarded.
+As the address on one of these letters caught his eye, the somewhat
+stern expression on his face gave place to a smile, and begging his
+visitor to excuse him, he put his other letters into his pocket, and
+opened this one. It was very short, and was from Mr Candy's cashier. It
+was written from Howlett's, Virginia, a place unknown to him, and stated
+that the writer expected in a very short time to give him some accurate
+information in regard to Mr Keswick, and expressed the hope that he
+would allow the affair to remain entirely in her hands until she should
+write again. It was quite natural that, under the circumstances,
+Lawrence should smile broadly as he folded up this note. The man in
+question was sitting beside him, and, in a measure, was turning the
+tables upon him. Lawrence had been very anxious to find out what sort
+of a man was Keswick, and the latter now seemed in the way of making
+some discoveries in the same line in regard to Lawrence. One thing he
+must certainly do; he must write as soon as possible to his enterprising
+agent, and tell her that her services were no longer needed. She must
+have pushed the matter with a great deal of energy to have brought her
+down to Virginia, and he could not help hoping that her discretion was
+equal to her investigative capacity.
+
+When, after this little interruption, Lawrence again addressed Junius
+Keswick his manner was so much more affable that the other could not
+fail but notice it.
+
+"Mr Keswick," he said, "as our conversation seems to be based upon
+personalities, perhaps you will excuse me if I ask you if I am mistaken
+in believing that you were once engaged to be married to Miss March?"
+
+"You are entirely correct," said Junius. "I was engaged to her, and I
+hope to be engaged to her again."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Croft, turning in his chair with a start.
+
+"Yes," continued Keswick, "our engagement was dissolved in consequence
+of a certain family complication, and as I said before, I hope in time
+to be able to renew it."
+
+Lawrence threw away his cigar, and sat for a few moments in thought. The
+engagement, then, did not exist. Roberta was free. Recollections came
+to him of his own intercourse with her during the past summer, and his
+heart gave a bound. "Mr Keswick," said he, "upon consideration of the
+matter I think I will call upon Miss March this morning."
+
+If Keswick had expressed himself entirely satisfied with this decision
+he would have done injustice to his feelings. The service he had taken
+upon himself to perform for Miss March he had considered a duty, but if
+his mission had failed he would have been better pleased than with its
+success. He made, however, a courteous reply to Croft's remark, and rose
+to depart. But this the other would not allow.
+
+"You told me," said Croft, "that you walked over here; but it is much
+warmer now, and you must not think of such a thing as walking back. The
+man here has a horse and buggy. I will get him to harness up, and I will
+drive you over to Midbranch."
+
+As there was no good reason why he should decline this offer, Junius
+accepted it, and in half an hour the two were on their way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+Old Mr Brandon of Midbranch was not in a very happy frame of mind, and
+he had good reasons for dissatisfaction. He was an ardent supporter of a
+marriage between his niece and Junius Keswick; and when the engagement
+had been broken off he had considered that both these young people had
+acted in a manner very foolish and contrary to their best interests.
+There was no opposition to the match except from old Mrs Keswick, who
+was the aunt of Junius, but who considered herself as occupying the
+position of a mother. Junius was the son of a sister who had also
+married into the Keswick family, and his parents having died while he
+was a boy, his aunt had taken him under her charge, and her house had
+then became his home; although of late years some of his absences had
+been long ones. Mrs Keswick had no personal objections to Roberta, never
+having seen that lady, and knowing little of her; but an alliance
+between her Junius and any member of that branch of the Brandons,
+"which," to use the old lady's own words, "had for four generations
+cheated, stripped, and scornfully used my people, scattering their atoms
+over the face of three counties," was monstrous. Nothing could make her
+consent to such an enormity, and she had informed Junius that if he
+married that March girl three of them should live together--himself, his
+wife, and her undying curse. In order that Miss March might not fail to
+hear of this post-connubial arrangement, she had been informed of it by
+letter. Of course this had broken off the engagement, for Roberta would
+not live under a curse, nor would she tear a man from the only near
+relative he had in the world. Keswick himself, like most men, would have
+been willing to have this tearing take place for the sake of uniting
+himself to such a charming creature as Roberta March. But the lady on
+one side was as inflexible as the lady on the other, and the engagement
+was definitely and absolutely ended.
+
+Mr Brandon considered all this as stuff and nonsense. He could not deny
+that his branch of the Brandons had certainly got a good deal out of Mrs
+Keswick's family. But here was a chance to make everything all right
+again, and he would be delighted to see Junius, a relative, although a
+distant one, come into possession of Midbranch. As for the old lady's
+opposition, that should not be considered at all, he thought. It was his
+opinion that her mind had been twisted by her bad temper, and nothing
+she could say could hurt anybody.
+
+Of late Mr Brandon had been much encouraged by the fact that Junius had
+begun to resume his position as a friend of the family. This was all
+very well. If the young people, by occasional meetings, could keep alive
+their sentiments toward each other, the time would come when all
+opposition would cease, and the marriage would become an assured fact.
+He did not believe either of the young people would care enough for a
+post-mortem curse, if there should be one, to keep themselves separated
+from each other on its account for the rest of their lives.
+
+But the recent quite unexpected return of Lawrence Croft to Midbranch,
+combined with the evident discomposure into which Roberta had been
+thrown by his failure to come the next day, had given the old gentleman
+some unpleasant ideas. His niece had mentioned that she expected Mr
+Croft that day, and although she said nothing in regard to her
+subsequent disappointment and vexation, his mind was quite acute enough
+to perceive it. Exactly what it all meant he knew not, but it augured
+danger. For the first time he began to look upon Mr Croft in the light
+of a suitor for Roberta. If a jealous feeling at finding another person
+on the ground was the cause of his not coming again, it showed that he
+was in earnest, and this, added to the evident disturbance of mind of
+both Roberta and Junius, was enough to give Mr Brandon most serious
+fears that an obstacle to his cherished plan was arising. Roberta was
+fond of city life, of society, of travel, and if she had really made up
+her mind that her union with Junius was no longer to be thought of, the
+advent of a man like Croft, who had been making her acquaintance all
+summer, and who had now returned to Virginia, no doubt for the sole
+purpose of seeing her again was, to say the least, exceedingly ominous.
+One thing only could correct this deplorable state of affairs. The
+absurd bar to the union of Junius and Roberta should be removed, and
+they should be allowed to enter upon the happiness that was their right.
+
+Above all, the estate of Midbranch should not be suffered to go into the
+possession of an outsider, who might be good enough, but who was of no
+earthly moment or interest to the Brandons. He would go himself, and see
+the widow Keswick, and talk her out of her nonsense. It was a long time
+since he had met the old wild cat, as he termed her, and his
+recollection of the last interview was not pleasant, but he was not
+afraid of her, and he hoped that the common sense of what he would say
+would bring her to reason.
+
+Mr Brandon made up his mind during the night; and when he came down to
+breakfast he was very glad to find that Junius had already gone out for
+a walk. The distance to the widow Keswick's house was about fifteen
+miles, a pleasant day's ride for the old gentleman, and as he did not
+expect to return until the next day, he felt obliged to inform Roberta
+of his destination, although, of course, he said nothing about the
+object of his visit. He told his niece that he was obliged to see the
+widow Keswick on business, to which remark she listened without reply.
+
+Soon after breakfast he mounted his good horse, Albemarle, and early in
+the afternoon he arrived at the widow Keswick's gate. He had looked for
+a stormy reception, in which the thunder-bolts of rage should burst
+around him, and he was surprised, therefore, to be received with the
+frigidity of the North Pole.
+
+"I never expected," she said, without any previous courtesy, "to see one
+of your people under my roof, and it is not very long ago since I would
+have gone away from it the moment any one of you came near it."
+
+"I am happy, madam," said Mr Brandon, in his most courteous manner,
+"that that day is past."
+
+"My staying won't do you any good," said the old lady, whose purple
+sun-bonnet seemed to heave with the uprisal of her hair, "except,
+perhaps, to get you a better meal than the servants would have given
+you. But I want a lawyer, and I can't afford to pay for one either, and
+when I saw you coming I just made up my mind to get something out of
+you, and if I do it, it'll be the first red mark for my side of the
+family."
+
+Mr Brandon assured her that nothing would give him more pleasure than to
+assist her in any way in his power.
+
+"Very well, then," said Mrs Keswick, "just sit down on that bench, and,
+when we have got through, your horse can be taken, and you can rest a
+while, though it seems a very curious thing that you should want to stop
+here to rest."
+
+"Well, madam," said Mr Brandon, seating himself as comfortably as
+possible on a wooden bench, "I shall be happy to hear anything you have
+to say."
+
+The old lady did not sit down, but stood up in front of him, leaning on
+her umbrella, with which faithful companion she had been about to set
+out on her walk. "When my son Junius came home a while ago--" she began.
+
+"Do you still call him your son?" interrupted Mr Brandon.
+
+"Indeed I do!" was the very prompt answer. "That's just what he is. And,
+as I was going to say, when he wrote me a short time ago that he was
+coming here, I believed, from his letter, that he had some scheme on
+hand in regard to your niece, and I made up my mind I wouldn't stay in
+the house to hear anything more said on that subject. I had told him
+that I never wanted him to say another word about it; and it made my
+blood boil, sir, to think that he had come again to try to cozen me into
+the vile compact."
+
+"Madam!" exclaimed Mr Brandon.
+
+"The next day," continued Mrs Keswick, "a lady arrived; and as soon as I
+saw her drive into the gate I felt sure it was Roberta March, and that
+the two had hatched up a plot to come and work on my feelings, and so I
+wouldn't come near the house."
+
+"Madam!" exclaimed Mr Brandon, "how could you dream such a thing of my
+niece? You don't know her, madam."
+
+"No," said the old lady, "I don't know her, but I knew she belonged to
+your family, and so I was not to be surprised at anything she did. But I
+found out I was mistaken. An old negro woman recognized this young
+person as the daughter of my younger sister you know there were three of
+us. The child was born and raised here, but I have not seen and have
+scarcely heard of her since she was eight years old."
+
+"That's very extraordinary, madam," said Mr Brandon.
+
+"No, it isn't, when you consider the stubbornness, the obstinacy, and
+the wickedness of some people. My sister sickened when the child was
+about six years old, and her husband, Harvey Peyton--"
+
+"I have frequently heard of him, madam," said Mr Brandon.
+
+"And I wish I never had," said she. "Well, he was travelling most of the
+time, a thing my sister couldn't do; but he came here then and stayed,
+off and on, till she died. And not long afterward, just because I told
+him that I intended to consider the child as my child, and that she
+should have the name of Keswick instead of his name, and should know me
+as her mother, and live with me always, he got angry and flared up, and
+actually took the child away. I gave it to him hot, I can tell you,
+before he left, and I never saw him again. He was so eaten up with rage
+because I wanted to take the little Annie for my own, that he filled her
+mind with such prejudices against me that when he died a year or two
+ago, she actually went to work to get her own living instead of applying
+to me for help. But now she has come down here, and I was really filled
+with joy to have her again and carry out the plan on which my heart had
+long been set--that is to marry her to her cousin Junius, and let them
+have this farm when I am gone,----?"
+
+At this Mr Brandon raised his eyebrows, and lowered the corners of his
+mouth.
+
+"But I suddenly discover," continued the old, lady, "that the little
+wretch is married--actually married."
+
+At this Mr Brandon lowered his eyebrows and raised the corners of his
+mouth. "Did her husband come with her?" he asked, pleasantly. And he
+gave a few long, free breaths as if he had just passed in safety a very
+dangerous and unsuspected rock.
+
+"No, he didn't," replied the old lady. "I don't know where he is, and,
+from what I can make out, he is an utterly good-for-nothing fellow,
+allowing his wife to go where she pleases, and take care of herself. Now
+this abominable marriage stands square in the way of the plan which
+again rose up in my mind the moment I heard that the girl was in my
+house. If Junius and she should marry, there would be no more dangers
+for me to look out for."
+
+"But the existence of a husband," said Mr Brandon blandly, "puts an end
+to all thoughts of such an alliance."
+
+"No it don't," said the old lady, bringing her umbrella down with force
+on the porch. "Not a bit of it. Such an outrageous marriage should not
+be suffered to exist. They should be divorced. He does nothing for her,
+and neglects and deserts her absolutely. There's every ground for a
+divorce, or enough grounds, at any rate. All that's necessary is for a
+lawyer to take it up. I don't know any lawyers, and when I saw you
+riding up from the road gate I said to myself: 'Here's the very man I
+want,--and it's full time I should get something from people who have
+taken nearly everything from me.'"
+
+Mr Brandon bowed.
+
+"And now," continued the old lady, "I am going to put the case into your
+hands. The man is, evidently, a good-for-nothing scoundrel, and has
+probably spent the little money that her miserable father left her. It's
+a clear case of desertion, and there should be no trouble at all in
+getting the divorce."
+
+Mr Brandon looked down upon the floor of the porch, and smiled. This was
+a pretty case, he thought, to put into his hands. Here was a marriage
+which was the strongest protection in the promotion of his own plan, and
+he was asked to annul it. "Very good," thought Mr Brandon, "very good."
+And he smiled again. But he was an old-fashioned gentleman, and not used
+to refuse requests made to him by ladies. "I will look into it, madam,"
+said he. "I will look into it, and see what can be done."
+
+"Something must be done," said the old lady; "and the right thing too.
+How long do you intend to stay here?"
+
+"I thought of spending the night, madam, as my horse and myself are
+scarcely in condition to continue our journey to-day."
+
+"Stay as long as you like," said Mrs Keswick. "I turn nobody from my
+doors, even if they belong to the Brandon family. I want you to talk to
+my niece, and get all you can out of her about this thing, and then you
+can go to work and blot out this contemptible marriage as soon as
+possible."
+
+"The first thing," said Mr Brandon, "will be to talk to the lady."
+
+This reply being satisfactory to Mrs Keswick, Uncle Isham was called to
+take the horse and attend to him, while the master was invited into the
+house.
+
+Mr Brandon first met Mrs Null at supper time, and her appearance very
+much pleased him. "It is not likely," he said to himself, "that the man
+lives who would willingly give up such a charming young creature as
+this." They were obliged to introduce themselves to each other, as the
+lady of the house had not yet appeared. After a while Letty, who was in
+attendance, advised them to sit down as "de light bread an' de
+batter-bread was gittin' cole."
+
+"We could not think of such a thing as sitting at table before Mrs
+Keswick arrives," said Mr Brandon.
+
+"Oh, dar's no knowin' when she'll come," said the blooming Letty. "She
+may be h'yar by breakfus time, but dar ain't nobuddy in dis yere worl'
+kin tell. She's down at de bahn now, blowin' up Plez fur gwine to sleep
+when he was a shellin' de cohnfiel' peas. An' when she's got froo wid
+him she's got a bone to pick wid Uncle Isham 'bout de gyardin'. 'Tain't
+no use waitin' fur ole miss. She nebber do come when de bell rings. She
+come when she git ready, an' not afore."
+
+Mr Brandon now felt quite sure that it was the intention of his hostess
+not to break bread with one of his family, and so he seated himself, Mrs
+Null taking the head of the table and pouring out the tea and coffee.
+
+"It has been a long time, madam, since you were in this part of the
+country," said the old gentleman, as he drew the smoking batter-bread
+toward him and began to cut it.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs Null, "not since I was a little girl. I suppose you have
+heard, sir, that Aunt Keswick and my father were on very bad terms, and
+would not have anything to do with each other?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Mr Brandon, "I have heard that."
+
+"But my father is not living now, and I am down here again."
+
+"And your husband? He did not accompany you?" said Mr Brandon.
+
+"No," replied Mrs Null, very quickly. "We were both very sorry that it
+was not possible for him to come with me."
+
+Mr Brandon's spirits began to rise. This did not look quite like
+desertion. "I have no doubt you have a very good husband. I am sure you
+deserve such a one," he said with the air of a father, and the purpose
+of a lawyer.
+
+"Good!" exclaimed Mrs Null, her eyes sparkling.
+
+"He couldn't be better if he tried! Will you have sweet milk, or
+buttermilk?"
+
+"Buttermilk, if you please," said Mr Brandon. "Of course your aunt was
+delighted to have you with her again."
+
+"Oh," said Mrs Null, with a laugh, "she was not at home when I arrived,
+but when she returned nothing could be too good for me. Why, she had
+been here scarcely half an hour, and hadn't taken off her sun-bonnet,
+before she told me I was to marry Junius and we two were to have this
+farm."
+
+"A very pleasant plan, truly," said Mr Brandon.
+
+"But then, you see," continued the young girl, "Mr Null stood dreadfully
+in the way of such an arrangement; and when Aunt Keswick heard about him
+you can't imagine what a change came over her."
+
+"Oh, yes I can; yes I can," exclaimed Mr Brandon--"I can imagine it
+very well."
+
+"But she didn't give up a bit," said Mrs Null. "I don't think she ever
+does give up."
+
+"You are right, there," said Mr Brandon, "quite right. But what does she
+propose to do?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure; but she said I had no right to marry without
+the consent of my surviving relatives, and that she was going to look
+into it. I can't think what she means by that."
+
+Mr Brandon made no immediate answer. He gave Mrs Null some damson
+preserves, and he took some himself, and then he helped himself to a
+great hot roll, from a plate that Letty had just brought in, and
+carefully opening it he buttered it on the inside, and covered one-half
+of it with the damson preserves. This he began slowly to eat, drinking
+at times from the foaming glass of buttermilk at the side of his plate,
+from which the coffee-cup had been removed. When he had finished the
+half roll he again spoke. "I think, my dear young lady, that your aunt
+is desirous of having your marriage set aside."
+
+"How can she do that?" exclaimed the girl, her face flushing. "Has she
+been talking to you about it?"
+
+"I cannot deny that she has spoken to me on the subject," he answered,
+"I being a lawyer. But I will say to you, in strict confidence, please,
+that if you and your husband are sincerely attached to each other there
+is nothing on earth she can do to separate you."
+
+"Attached!" exclaimed Mrs Null. "It would be impossible for us to be
+more attached than we are. We never have had the slightest difference,
+even of opinion, since our wedding day. Why, I believe that we are more
+like one person than any married couple in the world."
+
+"I am very glad to hear it," said Mr Brandon, finishing his
+buttermilk--"very glad indeed. And, feeling as you do, I am certain
+that nothing your aunt can say will make any impression on you in regard
+to seeking a divorce."
+
+"I should think not!" said Mrs Null, sitting up very straight. "Divorce
+indeed!"
+
+"I fully uphold you in the stand you have taken," said Mr Brandon. "But
+I beg you will not mention this conversation to your aunt. It would only
+annoy her. Is your cousin expected here shortly?"
+
+"I believe so," she said. "To be sure, my aunt left the house the last
+time he came, but she has his address, and has written for him. I think
+she wants us to get acquainted as soon as possible, so that no time will
+be lost in marrying us after poor Mr Null is disposed of."
+
+"Very good, very good," said Mr Brandon with a laugh. "And now, my dear
+young friend, I want to give you a piece of advice. Stay here as long as
+you can. Your aunt will soon perceive the absurdity of her ideas in
+regard to your husband, and will cease to annoy you. Make a friend of
+your cousin Junius, whom I know and respect highly; and he certainly
+will be of advantage to you. Above all things, endeavor to thoroughly
+reconcile him and Mrs Keswick, so that she will cease to oppose his
+wishes, and to interfere with his future fortune. If you can bring back
+good feeling between these two, you will be the angel of the family."
+
+"Thank you," said Mrs Null, as they rose from the table.
+
+The next morning, after Mr Brandon and Mrs Null had breakfasted
+together, the mistress of the house, having apparently finished the
+performance of the duties which had kept her from the breakfast-table,
+had some conversation with her visitor. In this he repeated very little
+of what he had said to the younger lady the night before, but he
+assured Mrs Keswick that he had discovered that it would be a very
+delicate thing to propose to her niece a divorce from her husband, a
+thing to which she was not at all inclined, as he had found.
+
+"Of course not! of course not!" exclaimed Mrs Keswick. "She can't be
+expected to see what a wretched plight she has got herself into by
+marrying this straggler from nobody knows where."
+
+"But, madam," said Mr Brandon, "if you worry her about it, she will
+leave you, and then all will be at an end. Now, let me advise you as
+your lawyer. Keep her here as long as you can. Do everything possible to
+foster friendship and good feeling between her and Junius; and to do
+this you must forget as far as possible all that has gone by, and be
+friendly with both of them yourself."
+
+"Humph!" said the widow Keswick. "I didn't ask you for advice of that
+sort."
+
+"It is all a part of the successful working of the case, madam," said Mr
+Brandon. "A thorough good feeling must be established before anything
+else can be done."
+
+"I suppose so," said the old lady. "She must learn to like us before she
+begins to hate him. And how about your niece? Are you going to send her
+down here to help on in the good feeling?"
+
+"I have not brought my niece into this affair," replied Mr Brandon, with
+dignity.
+
+"Well, then, see that you don't," was the widow Keswick's reply. And the
+interview terminated.
+
+When Mr Brandon rode away on his good horse Albemarle, he looked at the
+post of the road gate from which he was lifting the latch by means of
+the long wooden handle arranged for the convenience of riders, and said
+to himself: "John Keswick was a good man, but I don't wonder he came out
+here and shot himself. It is a great pity though that it wasn't his wife
+who did it, instead of him. That would have been a blessing to all of
+us. But," he added, contemplatively, as he closed the gate, "the people
+in this world who ought to blow out their brains, never do."
+
+Soon after he had gone, Mrs Null went up Pine Top Hill, and sat down on
+the rock to have a "think." "Now, then, Freddy," she said, "everything
+depends on you. If you don't stand by me I am lost--that is to say, I
+must go away from here before Junius comes; and you know I don't want to
+do that. I want to see him on my account, and on his account too; but I
+don't want him crammed down my throat for a husband the moment he
+arrives, and that is just what will happen if you don't do your duty, Mr
+Null. Even if it wasn't for you, I don't want to look at him from the
+husband point of view, because, of course, he is a very different person
+from what he used to be, and is a total stranger to me.
+
+"It is actually more than twelve years since I have seen him, and
+besides that, he is just as good as engaged to that niece of Mr
+Brandon's, who is a horrible mixture of a she-wolf and a female mule, if
+I am to believe Aunt Keswick, but I expect she is, truly, a very nice
+girl. Though, to be sure, she can't have much spirit if she consented to
+break off her marriage just on account of the back-handed benediction
+which Aunt Keswick told me she offered her as a wedding gift. If I had
+wanted to marry a man I would have let the old lady curse the heels off
+her boots before I would have paid any attention to her. Cursing don't
+hurt anybody but the curser.
+
+"What I want of Junius is to make a friend of him, if he turns out to be
+the right kind of a person, and to tell him about this Mr Croft who is
+so anxious to find him. The only person I have met yet who seems like an
+ordinary Christian is old Mr Brandon, and he's a sly one, I'm afraid.
+Aunt Keswick thinks he stopped here on his way somewhere, but I don't
+believe a word of it. I believe he came for reasons of his own, and went
+right straight back again. You are almost as much to him, Freddy, as you
+are to me. It would have made you laugh if you could have seen how his
+face lighted up when he heard we were happy together, and that I would
+not listen to a divorce. And yet I am sure he has promised Aunt Keswick
+to see what he can do about getting one. He wants me to stay here and
+make friends of Aunt Keswick and Junius, but he wouldn't like that if it
+were not for you, Mr Null. You make everything safe for him.
+
+"And now, Freddy, I tell you again, that all depends upon you. If I'm to
+stay here--and I want to do that, for a time any way, for although Aunt
+Keswick is so awfully queer, she's my own aunt, and that's more than I
+can say for anybody else in the world--you must stiffen up, and stand by
+me. It won't do to give way for a minute. If necessary you must take
+tonics, and have a steel rod down your back, if you can't keep yourself
+erect without it. You must have your legs padded, and your chest thrown
+out; and you must stand up very strong and sturdy, Freddy, and not let
+them push you an inch this way or that. And now that we have made up our
+minds on this subject, we'll go down, for it's getting a little cool on
+the top of this hill."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+On the morning of her uncle's departure from Midbranch, Roberta came out
+on the porch, and took her seat in a large wooden arm-chair, putting
+down her key basket on the floor beside her. The day was bright and
+sunny, and the shadows of two or three turkey buzzards, who were
+circling in the air, moved over the field in front of the house. In this
+field also moved, not so fast, nor so gracefully as the shadows, two
+ploughs, one near by, and the other at quite a distance. The woods which
+shut out a great part of the horizon showed many a bit of color, but the
+scene, although bright enough in some of its tones, was not a cheering
+one to Roberta; and she needed cheering.
+
+Had it not been for the delay of her father in making his winter visit
+to New York, she would now be in that city, but if things had gone on as
+she expected they would, she would have been perfectly satisfied to
+remain several weeks longer at Midbranch. Junius Keswick, who had not
+visited the house for a long time, had come to them again; and, now that
+the subject of love and marriage had been set aside, it was charming to
+have him there as a friend. They not only walked in the woods, but they
+took long rides over the country, Mr Brandon having waived his
+objections in regard to his niece riding about with gentlemen. She had
+even been pleased with the unexpected return of Lawrence Croft, for, for
+reasons of her own, she wished very much to have a talk with him. But he
+had not fulfilled his promise to her, and had gone away in a very
+unsatisfactory manner.
+
+This morning she felt a little lonely, too, for Junius had left the
+place before breakfast, and she did not know where he had gone; and her
+uncle had actually ridden away to see that horrible widow Keswick,
+merely stating that his errand was a business one, and that he would be
+back the next day. Roberta knew that there had been a great deal of
+business, particularly that of an unpleasant kind, between the two
+families, but she did not believe that there was any ordinary affair
+concerning dollars and cents which would require the presence of her
+uncle at the house of his old enemy. She was very much afraid that he
+had gone there to try to smooth up matters in regard to Junius and
+herself. The thought of this made her indignant. She did not know what
+her uncle would say, and she did not want him to say anything. He could
+not make the horrible old creature change her mind in regard to the
+marriage, and if this was not done, there was no use discussing the
+matter at all, and she did not wish people to think she was anxious for
+the match.
+
+It was plain, however, that her uncle's desire for it had experienced a
+strong revival; and the unexpected return of Lawrence Croft had probably
+had a great effect on him. He had not objected to the visits of that
+gentleman during the summer, but he had never shown any strong liking
+for him, and Roberta said to herself that she could not see, for her
+part, why this should be; Mr Croft was a thorough gentleman, an
+exceedingly well educated and agreeable man.
+
+As to Junius, she was afraid that he had not the spirit which she used
+to think he possessed. There was something about him she could not
+understand. In former days, when Junius was in New York, she compared
+him with the young men there, very much to his advantage, but now Mr
+Croft seemed to throw him somewhat in the background. When Croft wanted
+to do anything he did it; even his failure to come to her when he said
+he would do so showed strength of will. If Junius had promised to come
+he would have come, even if he had not wanted to do so, and there would
+have been something weak about that.
+
+While she thus sat thinking, and gazing over the landscape, she saw afar
+off, on a portion of the road which ran along-side the woods, a vehicle
+slowly making its way to the house. Roberta had large and beautiful
+eyes, but they were not of the kind which would enable her to discover
+at so great a distance what sort of vehicle this was, and who was in it.
+As the road led nowhere but to Midbranch she was naturally desirous to
+know who was coming. She stepped into the hall, and, taking a small
+bell, rang it vigorously, and in a moment her youthful handmaiden,
+Peggy, appeared upon the scene. Peggy's habit of projecting her eyes
+into the far away could often be turned to practical account for her
+vision was, in a measure, telescopic.
+
+"What is that coming here along the road?" asked Miss Roberta, stepping
+upon the porch, and pointing out the distant vehicle.
+
+Peggy stood up straight, let her arms hang close to her sides, and
+looked steadfastly forth. "Wot's comin', Miss Rob," said she, "is the
+buggy 'longin' to Mister Michaels, at de Springs, an' his ole
+mud-colored hoss is haulin' it. Dem dat's in it is Mahs' Junius an'
+Mister Crof'."
+
+"Are you sure of that?" exclaimed Miss Roberta in astonishment. "Look
+again."
+
+"Yaas'm," replied Peggy. "I's sartin shuh. But dey jes gwine behin' de
+trees now."
+
+The road was not again visible for some distance, but when the buggy
+reappeared Peggy gave a start, and exclaimed: "Dar's on'y one pusson in
+it now, Miss Rob."
+
+"Which is it?" exclaimed her mistress quickly, shading her eyes, and
+endeavoring to see for herself.
+
+"It's Mister Crof'," said Peggy. "Mahs' Junius mus' done gone back."
+
+"It is too bad!" exclaimed Miss Roberta. "I will not see him. Peggy,"
+she said, snatching up the key basket, and stepping toward the hall
+door, "when that gentleman, Mr Croft, comes, you must tell him that I am
+up-stairs lying down, that I am not well, and cannot see him, and that
+your Master Robert is not at home."
+
+"Ef Mahs' Junius come, does you want me to tell him de same thing?"
+
+"But you said he was not in the buggy," said her mistress.
+
+"No'm," answered Peggy, "but p'raps he done cut acrost de plough fiel',
+an' git h'yar fus'."
+
+"If he comes first," said Miss Roberta, a shade of severity pervading
+her handsome features, "I want to see him." And with this, she went
+up-stairs.
+
+Peggy, with her shoes on, possessed the stolid steadiness of a wooden
+grenadier, for the heaviness of the massive boots seemed to permeate her
+whole being, and communicated what might be considered a slow and heavy
+footfall to her intellect. Peggy, without shoes, was a panther on two
+legs, and her mind, like her body, was capable of enormous leaps.
+Slipping off her heavy brogans, she made a single bound, and stood upon
+the railing of the porch, and, throwing her arm around a post, gazed
+forth from this point of vantage.
+
+"Bress my eberlastin' soul!" she exclaimed, "if Mister Crof ain't got
+ter de road gate, and is a waitin' dar fur somebody to come open it!
+Does he think anybody gwine to see him all de way from de house, and
+come open de gate? Reckin' he don' know dat ole mud-color hoss. He
+mought git out and let down de whole fence, an' dat ole hoss ud nebber
+move. Bress my soul moh' p'intedly! ef Mahs' Junius ain't comin' 'long
+ter open de gate!"
+
+For a few moments Peggy stood and stared, her mind not capable of
+grasping this astounding situation. "No, he ain't nudder!" she presently
+exclaimed with an air of relief. "Mahs' Junius done tole him dat ef he
+want dat gate open he better git down and open it hese'f. Dat's right
+Mahs' Junius! Stick up to dat! Dar go Mahs' Junius into de woods an'
+Mister Crof' he git out, an' go after him. Dey's gwine to fight, sartin,
+shuh! Lordee! wot fur dey 'low dem bushes ter grow 'long de fence to
+keep folks from seein' wot's gwine on!"
+
+There was nothing now to be seen from the railing, and Peggy jumped down
+on the porch. Her activity seemed to pervade her being. She ran down the
+front steps, crossed the lawn, and mounted the stile. Here she could
+catch sight of the two men who seemed to be disputing. This was too much
+for Peggy. If there was to be a fight she wanted to see it; and, apart
+from her curiosity, she had a loyal interest in the event. Down the
+steps, and along the road she went at the top of her speed, and soon
+reached the gate. Her arrival was not noticed by any one except the
+mud-colored horse, who gazed at her inquiringly; and looking through the
+bars, without opening the gate, Peggy had a good view of the gentlemen.
+
+The situation was a more simple one than Peggy had imagined. The road,
+for the last half mile, had been an up-hill one, and Keswick, as much to
+stretch his own legs as to save those of the horse, had alighted to
+walk, while Lawrence, as in duty bound, had waited for him at the gate.
+Here a little argument had arisen. Keswick, who did not wish to be at the
+house, or indeed about the place while Roberta was having her conference
+with Mr Croft, had said that he had concluded not to go up to the house at
+present, but would take a walk through the woods instead. Lawrence, who
+thought he divined his reason, felt an honorable indisposition to accept
+this advantage at the hands of a man who was, most indisputably, his
+rival. If they went together it would not appear as if he had waited for
+Keswick's absence to return; and there would still be no reason why he
+should not have his private walk and talk with Miss March.
+
+At all events, it seemed to him unfair to leave Keswick at the gate
+while he went up to the house by himself, and the notion of it did not
+please him at all. Keswick, however, was very resolute in his
+opposition. He objected even to seeing Roberta and Croft together. He
+thought, besides, if he and Croft came to the house at the same time it
+would appear very much as if he, Junius, had brought the other, and this
+was an appearance he wished very much to avoid. He had walked away, and
+Lawrence had jumped from the buggy to continue the friendly argument
+which was not finished when Peggy arrived. Almost immediately after this
+event Keswick positively insisted that he would go for a walk, and
+Lawrence reluctantly turned toward the vehicle.
+
+Peggy's mind was filled with horror. Master Junius had been frightened
+away, and the other man was coming up to the house! She could not stand
+there and allow such a catastrophe. Jerking open the gate, she rushed
+into the road and confronted Keswick.
+
+"Mahs' Junius," she exclaimed, "Miss Rob's orful sick wid her back an'
+her j'ints, an' she say she can't see no kump'ny folks, an' Mahs' Robert
+he done gone away to see ole Miss Keswick. I jes run down h'yar to tell
+you to hurry up."
+
+Keswick started. "Where did you say your Master Robert had gone?"
+
+"To ole Miss Keswick's. He went dis mawnin'."
+
+Junius turned slightly pale, and addressing Mr Croft, said: "Something
+very strange must have happened here! Miss March is ill, and Mr Brandon
+has gone to a place to which I think nothing but a matter of the utmost
+importance could take him."
+
+"In that case," said Mr Croft, "it will be highly improper for me to go
+to the house just now. I am very glad that I heard the news before I got
+there. I will return to the Springs, and will call to-morrow and inquire
+after Miss March's health. Do not let me detain you as your presence is
+evidently much needed at the house."
+
+"Thank you," said Keswick, hurriedly shaking hands with him. "I am
+afraid something very unexpected has happened, and so beg you will
+excuse me. Good-morning." And passing through the gateway, he rapidly
+strode toward the house, while Lawrence prepared to turn his horse's
+head toward the Springs.
+
+But, although Junius Keswick walked rapidly, Peggy, who had started
+first for the house, kept well in advance of him. Away she went,
+skipping, running, dancing. Once she stopped and turned, and saw that
+the buggy, with the mud-colored horse, was being driven away, and that
+Master Junius was coming along the road to the house. Then she started
+off, and ran steadily, the rapid show of the light-colored soles of her
+feet behind her suggestive of a steamer's wake. Up the broad stile she
+went, two steps at a time, and down the other side in a couple of jumps;
+a dozen skips took her across the lawn; and she bounded up to the porch
+as if each wooden step had been a springing board. She rushed up-stairs,
+and stood at the open door of Miss Roberta's room where that lady
+reclined upon a lounge.
+
+"Hi', Miss Rob!" she exclaimed, involuntarily snapping her fingers as
+she spoke. "Mahs' Junius comin', all by hese'f, an' I done sent de udder
+gemman clean off, kitin'!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Junius Keswick was received by Miss Roberta in the parlor. Her face was
+colder and sterner than he had ever seen it before, and his countenance
+was very much troubled. Each wished to speak first, and ask questions,
+but the lady went immediately to the front.
+
+"How did it happen that you and Mr Croft were coming here together?
+Where had you been?"
+
+"We came from the Green Sulphur Springs, where I called on him this
+morning."
+
+"I thought he was obliged to return immediately to the North. What made
+him change his mind?"
+
+"Perhaps it will be better not to discuss that now," said Junius.
+
+"I wish to discuss it," was the reply. "What induced him not to go?"
+
+"I did," answered Junius, looking steadfastly at her. "Did you not wish
+to see him?"
+
+For a moment Miss Roberta did not answer, but her face grew pale, and
+she threw herself back in the chair in which she was sitting. "Never in
+my life," she said, "have I been subjected to such mortification! Of
+course I wished him to come, but to come of his own accord, and not at
+my bidding. How do you suppose I would have felt if he had presented
+himself, and asked me what I wished to say to him? It is an insult you
+have offered me."
+
+"It is not an insult," said Keswick quietly. "It was a service of--of
+affection. I saw that you were annoyed and troubled by Mr Croft's
+failure to keep his engagement, and what I did was simply--"
+
+"Stop!" said Roberta peremptorily. "I do not wish to talk of it any
+more."
+
+Junius stood before her a moment in silence, and then he said: "Will you
+tell me if my Aunt Keswick is ill or dead, and why did Mr Brandon go
+there?"
+
+"She is neither;" answered Roberta, "and he went there on business." And
+with this she arose and left the room.
+
+Peggy, who had been in the hall, now made a bolt down the back stairs
+into the basement regions, where was situated the kitchen. In this
+spacious apartment she found Aunt Judy, the cook, sitting before a large
+wood fire, and holding in her hand a long iron ladle. There was nothing
+near her which she could dip or stir with a ladle, and it was probably
+retained during her period of leisure as a symbol of her position and
+authority.
+
+Peggy squatted on her heels, close to Aunt Judy's side, and thus
+addressed her: "Aun' Judy, ef I tell you sumfin', soul an' honor, hope
+o' glory, you'll neber tell?"
+
+"Hope o' glory, neber!" said Aunt Judy, turning a look of interest on
+the girl.
+
+"Well, den, look h'yar. You know Miss Rob she got two beaux; one is
+Mahs' Junius, an' de udder is de gemman wid de speckle trousers from de
+Norf."
+
+"Yes, I know dat," said Aunt Judy. "Has dey fit?"
+
+"Not yit, but dey wos gwine to," said Peggy, "but I seed 'em, an' I tore
+down de road to de gate whar dey wos gittin ready to fight, an' I jes'
+let dat dar Mister Crof' know wot low-down white trash Miss Rob think he
+wos, an' den he said ef dat war so 'twant no use fur to come in, an' he
+turn' roun' de buggy, an' cl'ar'd out. Den Mahs' Junius he come to de
+house, an' dar Miss Rob in de parlor waitin' fur him. I stood jes'
+outside de doh', so's to be out de way, but Mahs' Junius he kinder back
+agin de doh', an' shet it. But I clap'd my year ter de crack, an' I hear
+eberything dey said."
+
+"Wot dey say?" asked Aunt Judy, her mouth open, her eyes dilated, and
+the long ladle trembling in her hand.
+
+"Mahs' Junius he say to Miss Rob that he lub her better'n his own skin,
+or de clouds in de sky, or de flowers in de fiel' wot perish, an' dat de
+udder man he done cut an' run, an' would she be Miss Junius all de res'
+ob der libes foreber an' eber, amen?"
+
+"Dat wos pow'ful movin'!" ejaculated Aunt Judy. "An' wot did Miss Rob
+say?"
+
+"Miss Rob she say, 'I 'cept your kind offer, sah, wid pleasure.' An' den
+I hearn 'em comin', an' I cut down h'yar."
+
+"Glory! Hallelujah!" exclaimed Aunt Judy, bringing her ladle down upon
+the brick hearth. "Now is I ready to die when my time comes, fur Mahs'
+Junius 'll have dis farm, an' de house, an' de cabins, an' dey won't
+go to no strahnger from de Norf."
+
+"Amen," said Peggy. "An' Aun' Judy, dat ar piece ob pie ain't no 'count
+to nobuddy."
+
+"You kin hab it, chile," said Aunt Judy, rising, and taking from a shelf
+a large piece of cold apple pie, "an' bressed be de foots ob dem wot
+fotch good tidin's."
+
+Junius Keswick did not see Miss Roberta again that day, and early in the
+morning he borrowed one of the Midbranch horses, and rode away. He did
+not wish to be at the house when Mr Croft should come; and, besides, he
+was very anxious and disturbed in regard to matters at the Keswick farm.
+Of all places in the world why should Mr Brandon go there?
+
+It was not a very pleasant ride that Junius Keswick took that morning.
+He had anxieties in regard to what he would meet with at his aunt's
+house, and he had even greater anxieties as to what he was leaving
+behind him at Midbranch. It was quite evident that Roberta was angry
+with him, and this was enough to sadden the soul of a man who loved her
+as he loved her, who would have married her at any moment, in spite of
+all opposition, all threats, all curses. He was not in the habit of
+looking at himself after the manner of Lawrence Croft, but on this
+occasion he could not help a little self-survey.
+
+Was it a purely disinterested motive he asked himself, that took him
+over to the Springs to bring back Lawrence Croft? Did he not believe in
+his soul that Roberta would never have spoken so freely to him in regard
+to what the gentleman from the North would probably say to her if she
+had not intended to decline that gentleman's offer? And was there not a
+wish in his heart that this matter might be definitely and
+satisfactorily settled before Roberta and Mr Croft went to New York for
+the winter? He could not deny that this issue to the affair had been in
+his mind; and yet he felt that he could conscientiously assure himself
+that if he had thought things would turn out otherwise, he still would
+have endeavored to make the man perform the duty expected of him by
+Roberta, in whose service Junius always felt himself to be. But,
+apparently, he had not benefited himself or anybody else, except,
+perhaps, Croft, by this service which he had performed.
+
+It was late in the forenoon when Junius met Mr Brandon returning to
+Midbranch. In answer to his expressions of surprise, Mr Brandon, who
+appeared in an exceptionally good humor, informed Junius of his reasons
+for the visit to the widow Keswick, and what he had found when he
+arrived there.
+
+"Your little cousin," said he, "is a most charming young creature, and
+on interested motives I should oppose your going to your aunt's house,
+were it not for the fact that she is married, and, therefore, of no
+danger to you. I was very glad to find her there. Her influence over
+your aunt will, I think, be highly advantageous, and the first fruit of
+it is that the old lady will now welcome you with open arms. Would you
+believe it! she has already announced that she wishes to make a match
+between you and this little cousin; and in order to do so, has actually
+engaged me to endeavor to bring about a divorce between the young lady
+and her absent husband. The widow Keswick has as many cranks and
+crotchets in her head as there are seeds in a tobacco pod; but this is
+the queerest and the wildest of them all. The couple seem very much
+attached to each other, and nothing can be said against the husband
+except that he did not accompany his wife on her visit to her relatives;
+and if he knew anything about the old lady I don't blame him a bit. Now
+your course, my dear boy, is perfectly plain. Let your aunt talk as much
+as she pleases about this divorce, and your union with the little Annie.
+It won't hurt anybody, and she must talk herself out in time. In the
+mean time take advantage of the present circumstances to mollify and
+tone down, so to speak, the good old lady. Make her understand that we
+are all her friends, and that there is no one in the connection who
+would wish to do her the slightest harm. This would be our Christian
+duty at any time, but it is more particularly our duty now. I would like
+you to bring your cousin over to see us before Roberta goes away. I
+invited her to come, and told her that my niece would first call upon
+her were it not for the peculiar circumstances. But if the families can
+be in a measure brought together--and I shall make it a point to ride
+over there occasionally--if your aunt can be made to understand the
+kindly feelings we really have toward her, and can be induced to set
+aside, even in a slight degree, the violent prejudice she now holds
+against us, all may yet turn out well. Now go, my boy, and may the best
+of success go with you. Don't trouble yourself about sending back the
+horse. Keep him as long as you want him."
+
+Mr Brandon rode on, leaving Junius to pursue his way. "It is very
+pleasant," thought the young man, who had said scarcely a word during
+the interview, "to hear Mr Brandon talk about all turning out well, but
+when he gets home he may discover that there is something to be done at
+Midbranch as well as on the Keswick place."
+
+Mr Brandon's reflections were very different from those of Junius. It
+appeared to him that a reconciliation between the two families, even
+though it should be a partial one, was reasonably to be expected. That
+newly arrived cousin was an angel. She was bound to do good. A marriage
+between his niece and Junius Keswick was the great object of the old
+gentleman's heart, and he longed to see the former engagement between
+them re-established before Roberta went to New York, where her beauty
+and attractiveness would expose his cherished plan to many dangers.
+
+The road he was on led directly north, and it was joined about a
+quarter of a mile above by the road which ran through the woods to the
+Green Sulphur Springs. On this road, at a point nearly opposite to him,
+he could see, through the foliage, a horseman riding toward the point of
+junction. Something about this person attracted his attention, and Mr
+Brandon took out a pair of eye-glasses and put them on. As soon as he
+had obtained another good view of the horseman he recognized him as Mr
+Croft. The old gentleman took off his glasses and returned them to his
+vest pocket, and his face began to flush. In his early acquaintance with
+Mr Croft he had not objected to him, because he wished his niece to have
+company, and he had a firm belief in the enduring quality of her
+affection for Junius. But, latterly, his ideas in regard to the New York
+gentleman had changed. He had thought him somewhat too assiduous, and
+when he had unexpectedly returned from the North, Mr Brandon had not
+been at all pleased, although he had been careful not to show his
+displeasure. This condition of things made him feel uneasy, and had
+prompted his visit to the widow Keswick. And now that everything looked
+so fair and promising, here was that man, whom he had supposed to have
+left this part of the country, riding toward his house.
+
+Mr Brandon was an easy-going man, but he had a backbone which could be
+greatly stiffened on occasion. He sat up very straight on his horse, and
+urged the animal to a better pace, so that he arrived first at the point
+where the roads met. Here he awaited Mr Croft, who soon rode up. The
+old gentleman's greeting was very courteous.
+
+"You are on the way to my house, I presume," he said.
+
+Mr Croft assured him that he was, and hoped that Miss March was quite
+well.
+
+"I have been from home for a little while," said Mr Brandon, "but I
+believe my niece enjoys her usual health. I have had a long ride this
+morning," he continued, "and feel a little tired. Would it inconvenience
+you, sir, if we should dismount and sit for a time on yonder log by the
+roadside? It would rest me, and I would like to have a little talk with
+you."
+
+Lawrence wondered very much that the old gentleman should want to rest
+when he was not a mile from his own house, but of course he consented to
+the proposed plan, and imitated Mr Brandon by riding under a large tree,
+and fastening his bridle to a low-hanging bough. The two gentlemen
+seated themselves on the log, and Mr Brandon, without preface, began his
+remarks.
+
+"May I be pardoned for supposing, sir," he said, "that your present
+visit to my house is intended for my niece?"
+
+Lawrence looked at him a little earnestly, and replied that it was so
+intended.
+
+"Then, sir, I think I have the right to ask, as my niece's present
+guardian, and almost indeed as her father, whether or not your visit is
+connected in any way with matrimonial overtures toward that lady?"
+
+Not wishing to foolishly and dishonorably deny that such was his purpose
+in going to Midbranch; and feeling that it would be as unwise to decline
+answering the question as it would be unmanly to resort to subterfuge
+about it, Lawrence replied, that his object in visiting Miss March that
+day was to make matrimonial overtures to her.
+
+"I think," said Mr Brandon, "that you will be obliged to me if I make
+you acquainted with the present condition of affairs between Miss March
+and Mr Junius Keswick."
+
+"Has not their engagement been broken off?" interrupted Lawrence.
+
+"Only conditionally," answered the old gentleman. "They love each other.
+They wish to be married. With one exception, all their relatives desire
+that they should marry. It would be a union, not only congenial in the
+highest degree to the parties concerned, but of the greatest advantage
+to our family and our family fortunes. There is but a single obstacle to
+this most desirable union, and that is the unwarrantable opposition of
+one person. But, I am happy to say that this opposition is on the point
+of being removed. I consider it to be but a matter of days when my niece
+and Mr Keswick, with the full approbation of the relatives on either
+side, will renew in the eyes of the world that engagement which I
+consider still exists in fact."
+
+"If this is so," said Lawrence, grinding his heel very deeply into the
+ground, "why was I not told of it?"
+
+"My dear sir!" exclaimed Mr Brandon, "have you ever intimated to me or
+to any of my family, that your intentions in visiting Midbranch were
+other than those of an ordinary friend or acquaintance?"
+
+Lawrence admitted that he had never made any such intimation.
+
+"Then, sir," said Mr Brandon, "what reason could we have for mentioning
+this subject to you--a subject that would not have been referred to now,
+had it not been for your admission of your intended object in visiting
+my house?"
+
+Lawrence had no answer to make to this, but it was not easy to turn him
+from his purpose. "Excuse me, sir," he said, "but I think a matter of
+this sort should be left to the lady. If she is not inclined to receive
+my addresses she will say so, and there is an end of it."
+
+The face of Mr Brandon slightly reddened, but his voice remained as
+quiet and courteous as before. "You do not comprehend, sir, the state of
+affairs, or you would see that a procedure of that kind would be
+extremely ill-judged at this time. Were it known that at this critical
+moment Miss March was addressed by another suitor, it would seriously
+jeopardize the success of plans which we all have very much at heart."
+
+Lawrence did not immediately reply to this crafty speech. His teeth were
+very firmly set, and he looked steadfastly before him. "I do not
+understand all this," he said, presently, "nor do I see that there is
+any need for my understanding it. In fact I have nothing to do with it.
+I wish to propose marriage to Miss March. If she declines my offer there
+is an end of the matter. If she accepts me, then it is quite proper that
+all your plans should fall to the ground. She is the principal in the
+affair, and it is due to her and due to me that she should make the
+decision in this case."
+
+Mr Brandon had not quite so many teeth as his younger companion, but the
+very fair number which remained with him were set together quite as
+firmly as those of Lawrence had been. He remarked, speaking very
+distinctly but without any show of emotion: "I see, sir, that it is
+quite impossible for us to think alike on this subject, and there is,
+therefore, nothing left for me to do but to ask you--and I assure you,
+sir, that the request is as destitute of any intention of discourtesy as
+if it were based upon the presence of sickness or family
+affliction--that you will not visit my house at present."
+
+Lawrence rose to his feet with a good deal of color in his face. "That
+settles the matter for the present," he said. "Of course I shall not go
+to a house which is forbidden to me. I wish you good-morning, sir." And
+he stalked to his horse, and endeavored to pull down the limb to which
+its bridle was attached.
+
+Mr Brandon followed him. "You must mount before you can unfasten your
+bridle," he said. "And allow me to assure you, sir, that as soon as this
+little affair is settled I shall be very happy indeed to see you again
+at my house."
+
+
+Lawrence having succeeded in loosening his bridle from the tree, made
+answer with a bow, and galloped away to the Green Sulphur Springs.
+
+Mr Brandon now mounted and rode home. This was the first time in his
+life that he had ever forbidden any one to visit Midbranch, and yet he
+did not feel that he had been either discourteous or inhospitable.
+"There are times," he said to himself, "when a man must stand up for his
+own interest; and this is one of the times."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+In the little dining-room of the cottage at the Green Sulphur Springs
+sat that evening Lawrence Croft, a perturbed and angry, but a resolute
+man. He had been quite a long time coming to the conclusion to propose
+to Roberta March, and now that he had made up his mind to do so, even in
+spite of certain convictions, it naturally aroused his indignation to
+find himself suddenly stopped short by such an insignificant person as
+Mr Brandon, a gentleman to whom, in this affair, he had given no
+consideration whatever. The fact that the lady wished to see him added
+much to his annoyance and discomfiture. He had no idea what reason she
+had for desiring an interview with him, but, whatever she should say to
+him, he intended to follow by a declaration of his sentiments. He had
+not the slightest notion in the world of giving up the prosecution of
+his suit; but, having been requested not to come to Midbranch, what was
+he to do? He might write to Miss March, but that would not suit him. In
+a matter like this he would wish to adapt his words and his manner to
+the moods and disposition of the lady, and he could not do this in a
+letter. When he wooed a woman, he must see her and speak to her. To any
+clandestine approach, any whispered conversation beneath her window, he
+would give no thought. Having been asked by the master of the house not
+to go there, he would not go; but he would see her, and tell his love.
+And, more than that, he would win her.
+
+That morning, while waiting for the time to approach when it would be
+proper for him to go to Midbranch, he had been reading in a bound volume
+of an old English magazine, which was one of the five books the cottage
+possessed, an account of a battle which had interested him very much.
+The commander of one army had massed his forces along and below the
+crest of a line of low hills, the extreme right of his line being
+occupied by a strong force of cavalry. The army opposed to him was much
+stronger than his own, and it was not long before the battle began to go
+very much against him. His positions on the left were carried by the
+combined charge of the larger portion of the enemy's forces, and, in
+spite of a vigorous resistance, his lines were forced back, down the
+hill, and into the valley. It was quite evident he could make no stand,
+and was badly beaten. Thereupon, he sent orders to his generals on the
+left to retreat, in as good order as possible, across a small river in
+their rear. While this movement was in progress, and the enemy was
+making the greatest efforts to prevent it, the commander put himself at
+the head of his cavalry and led them swiftly from the scene of battle.
+He took them diagonally over the crest of the hill, down the other side,
+and then charging with this fresh body of horse upon the rear and camp
+of the enemy, he swiftly captured the general-in-chief, his staff, and
+the Minister of War, who had come down to see how things were going on.
+With these important prisoners he dashed away, leaving the acephalous
+enemy to capture his broken columns if he could.
+
+This was the kind of thing Lawrence Croft would like to do. For an hour
+or more he puzzled his brains as to how he should make such a cavalry
+charge, and at last he came to a determination; he would ask Junius
+Keswick to assist him. There was something odd about this plan which
+pleased Croft. Keswick was his rival, with the powerful backing of Mr
+Brandon and a whole tribe of relatives, and it might naturally be
+supposed that he was the last man in the world of whom he would ask
+assistance. But, looking at it from his point of view, Lawrence thought
+that not only would he be taking no undue advantage of the other in
+asking him to help him in this matter, but that Keswick ought not and
+would not object to it. If Miss March really preferred Croft, Keswick
+should feel himself bound in honor to do everything he could to let the
+two settle the affair between themselves. This was drawing the point
+very fine, but Lawrence persuaded himself that if the case were reversed
+he would not marry a girl who had not chosen another man, simply because
+she had had no opportunity of doing so. He had a strong belief that
+Keswick was of his way of thinking, and before he went to bed he wrote
+his rival a note, asking him to call upon him the following day.
+
+Early the next morning the note was carried over to Midbranch by a
+messenger, who returned, saying that Mr Keswick had gone away, and that
+his present address was Howlett's in the same county. This piece of
+information caused Lawrence Croft to open his eyes very wide. A few days
+before he had received a letter from Mrs Null, written at Howlett's, and
+now Keswick had gone there. He had been very much surprised when he
+found that the cashier had so successfully carried on the search for
+Keswick as to come into the very county in Virginia where he was; and he
+intended to write to her that he had no further occasion for her
+services; but he had not done so, and here were the pursuer and the
+pursued in the same town, or village, or whatever Howlett's was. He gave
+Mrs Null credit for being one of the best detectives he had ever heard
+of; for, apparently, she had not only been able to successfully track
+the man she was in search of, but to find out where he was going, and
+had reached the place in question before he did. But he also berated her
+soundly in his mind for her over-officiousness. He had not wished her to
+swoop down upon the man, but only to inform him of his whereabouts. The
+next thing that would probably happen would be the appearance of Mrs
+Null at the Green Sulphur Springs, holding Keswick by the collar. He
+deeply regretted that he had ever intrusted this young woman with the
+investigation, not because he had since met Keswick himself, but for
+the reason that she was entirely too energetic and imprudent. If Keswick
+should find out from her that she had been in search of him, and why, it
+might bring about a very unpleasant state of affairs.
+
+Croft saw now, quite plainly, what he must do. He must go to Howlett's
+as quickly as possible. Perhaps Keswick and the cashier had not yet met,
+and, in that case, all he would have to do would be to remunerate the
+young woman and her husband--for she had informed him that she intended
+to combine this business with a wedding tour--and send them off
+immediately. He could then have his conference with Keswick there as
+well as at the Springs. If any mischief had already been done, he did
+not know what course he might have to pursue, but it was highly
+necessary for him to be on the spot as soon as possible. He greatly
+disliked to leave the neighborhood of Roberta March, but his absence
+would only be temporary.
+
+After an early dinner, he mounted the horse which he had hired from his
+host of the Springs, and, with a valise strapped behind him, set out for
+Howlett's. He had made careful inquiries in regard to the road, and
+after a ride somewhat tiresome to a man not used to such protracted
+horseback exercise, arrived at his destination about sundown. When he
+reached the scattered houses which formed, as he supposed, the outskirts
+of the village, for such he had been told it was, he rode on, but soon
+found that he had left Howlett's behind him, and that those supposed
+outskirts were the place itself. Hewlett's was nothing, in fact, but a
+collection of eight or ten houses quite widely separated from each
+other, and the only one of them which exhibited any public character
+whatever, was the store, a large frame building standing a little back
+from the road. Turning his horse, Lawrence rode up to the store and
+inquired if there was any house in the neighborhood where he could get
+lodging for the night.
+
+The storekeeper, who came out to him, was a very little man whose
+appearance recalled to Croft the fact that he had noticed, in this part
+of the State, a great many men who were extremely tall, and a great many
+who were extremely small, which peculiarity, he thought, might assist a
+physiologist in discovering the different effects of hot bread upon
+different organizations. He was quite as cordial, however, as the
+biggest, burliest, and jolliest host who ever welcomed a guest to his
+inn, as he informed Mr Croft that there was no house in the village
+which made a business of entertaining strangers, but if he chose to stop
+with him he would keep him and his horse for the night, and do what he
+could to make him comfortable.
+
+Lawrence ate supper that night with the storekeeper, his wife, and five
+of his children; but as he was very hungry, and the meal was a plentiful
+one, he enjoyed the experience.
+
+"I suppose you're goin' on to Westerville in the mornin'?" said the
+little host.
+
+"No," replied Croft, "I am not going any farther than this place. Do you
+know if a gentleman named Keswick arrived here recently?"
+
+"Why, yaas," said the man, "if you mean Junius Keswick."
+
+"Certainly he did," said Mrs Storekeeper. "He rode through here
+yesterday, and he stopped at the store to see if we had any of that
+Lynchburg tobacco he used to smoke when he lived here. He's gone on to
+his aunt's."
+
+"Where is that?" asked Croft.
+
+"It's about two miles out on the Westerville road," said the little man.
+"If I'd knowed you wanted to see him, I'd 'a told you to keep right on,
+and you could 'a stopped with Mrs Keswick over night."
+
+Lawrence wished to ask some questions about Mrs Null, but he was afraid
+to do so lest he might excite suspicions by connecting her with Keswick.
+If the latter had gone two miles out of town, perhaps she had not yet
+seen him.
+
+The room in which Lawrence slept that night was to him a very odd one.
+It was a long apartment, at one end of which was a clean, comfortable
+bed, a couple of chairs, and a table on which was a basin and pitcher.
+At the other end were piles of new-looking boxes, containing groceries
+of various kinds, rolls of cotton cloth and other dry goods, and, what
+attracted his attention more than anything else, a vast number of bright
+tin cans, bearing on their sides brilliant pictures of tomatoes,
+peaches, green corn, and other preservable eatables. These were
+evidently the reserved stores of the establishment, and they were so
+different from the bedroom decorations to which he was accustomed, that
+it quite pleased Lawrence to think that with all his experience in life
+he was now lodged in a manner entirely novel to him. As he lay awake
+looking at the moonlight glittering on the sides of the multitude of
+cans, the thought came into his mind that this had probably been the
+room of the Nulls when they were here.
+
+"As this is the only house in the place where travellers are
+entertained," he said to himself, "of course they must have come to it.
+And as they are not here now, it is quite plain that they must have gone
+away. I am very glad of it, especially if they left before Keswick
+arrived, for their departure probably prevented an awkward situation.
+But I shall ask the storekeeper no questions about these people. There
+is no better way of giving inquisitive folk the _entrée_ to your affairs
+than by asking questions. Of course there was no reason why they should
+stay here after they had successfully traced Keswick to this part of the
+country; and every reason, if they wanted to enjoy themselves, why they
+should go away. But I can't help being sorry that I did not meet the
+young woman, and have an opportunity of paying her for her trouble, and
+giving her a few words of advice in regard to her action, or, rather,
+non-action in this matter. She has a fine head for business, but I
+should like to feel certain that she understands that her business with
+me is over."
+
+And he turned his eyes from the glittering cans, and slept.
+
+The next morning, Lawrence Croft rode on to Mrs Keswick's house, and
+when he reached the second, or inner gate, he saw, on the other side of
+it, an elderly female, wearing a purple sun-bonnet and carrying a purple
+umbrella. There was something very eccentric about the garb of this
+elderly personage, and many an inexperienced city man would have taken
+her for a retired nurse, or some other domestic retainer of the family,
+but there was a steadfastness in her gaze, and a fire in her eye, which
+indicated to Lawrence that she was one much more accustomed to give
+orders than to take them. He raised his hat very politely, and asked if
+Mr Keswick was to be found there.
+
+If the commander of the army, about whom Mr Croft had recently been
+reading, had beheld in the earlier stages of the battle a strong,
+friendly force advancing to his aid, he would not have been more
+delighted than Lawrence would have been had he known what a powerful
+ally to his cause stood beneath that purple sun-bonnet.
+
+"Do you mean Junius Keswick?" said the old lady.
+
+"Yes, madam," answered Croft.
+
+"He is here, and you will find him at the house."
+
+The gate was partly open, and Lawrence rode in. The old lady stepped
+aside to let him pass.
+
+"Do you want to see him on business?" she said. "How did you know he was
+here?"
+
+
+"I inquired at Howlett's, madam."
+
+Mrs Keswick would have liked to ask some further questions, but there
+was something about Lawrence's appearance that deterred her.
+
+"You can tie your horse under that tree over there," she said, pointing
+to a spot more trampled by hoofs than the old lady wished any other
+portion of her house-yard to be.
+
+When Lawrence had tied his bridle to a hook suspended by a strap from
+one of the lower branches of the indicated tree, he advanced to the
+house; and a very much astonished man was he to see, sitting side by
+side on the porch, Junius Keswick and Mr Candy's cashier. They were
+seated in the shade of a mass of honeysuckle vines, and were so busily
+engaged in conversation that they had not perceived his approach. Even
+now Lawrence had time to look at them for a few moments before they
+turned their eyes upon him.
+
+Equally astonished were the two people on the porch, who now arose to
+their feet. Junius Keswick naturally wondered very much why Mr Croft
+should come to see him here; and as for the young lady, she was almost
+as much terrified as surprised. Had this man come down from New York to
+swoop upon her cousin? Had it been possible that she could have given
+him any idea of the whereabouts of Junius? In her last note to him she
+had been very careful to promise information, but not to give any,
+hoping thus to gain time to get an insight into the matter, and to keep
+her cousin out of danger, if, indeed, any danger threatened. But here
+the pursuer had found Junius in less than a day after she had first met
+him herself. But when she saw Junius advance and shake hands in a very
+friendly way with Mr Croft, her terror began to decrease, although her
+surprise continued at the same high-water mark, and Keswick found
+himself in a flood of the same emotion when Croft very politely saluted
+his cousin by name, which salutation was returned in a manner which
+indicated that the parties were acquainted.
+
+At first Croft had been prompted to ignore all knowledge of the cashier,
+and meet her as a stranger, but his better sense prevented this, for how
+could he know what she had been saying about him.
+
+"I was about to introduce you to my cousin," said Keswick, "but I see
+that you already know each other."
+
+"I have had the pleasure of meeting Mrs Null in New York," said
+Lawrence, to whom the word cousin gave what might be called a more
+important surprise than anything with which this three-sided interview
+had yet furnished its participants. He gave a quick glance at the lady,
+and discovered her very steadfastly gazing at him. "I hope," he said,
+"that you and your husband have had a very pleasant trip."
+
+"Mr Null did not come with me," she quietly replied.
+
+Lawrence Croft was a man to whom it gave pleasure to deal with
+problematic situations, unexpected developments, and the like; but this
+was too much of a conundrum for him. That the man, whose address he had
+employed this girl to find out, should prove to be her cousin, and that
+she should start on her bridal trip without her husband, were points on
+which his reason had no power to work. One thing, however, he quickly
+determined upon. He would have an interview with Madam Cashier, and have
+her explain these mysteries. She was, virtually, his agent, and had no
+right to conceal from him what she had been doing, and why she had done
+it.
+
+It was necessary, however, that he should waste no time in thoughts of
+this kind, but should immediately state to Mr Keswick the reason of his
+visit; for it could not be supposed he had called in a merely social
+way. "I wish to speak to you," he said, "on a little matter of
+business."
+
+At these words Mrs Null excused herself, and went into the house. Her
+mind was troubled as she wondered what the business was which had made
+this New York gentleman so extraordinarily desirous to find her cousin.
+Was it anything that would injure Junius? She looked back as she entered
+the door, but the object of her solicitude was sitting with a face so
+calm and composed that it showed very plainly he did not expect any
+communication which would be harmful to him.
+
+"It is a satisfaction," thought Mr Croft, "a very great satisfaction
+that I can enter upon the object of my visit knowing that my affairs and
+my actions have not been discussed by this gentleman and Mrs Null."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+Old Mrs Keswick would willingly have followed the strange gentleman to
+the house in order to know the object of his visit, but as he had come
+to see Junius she refrained, for she knew her nephew would not like any
+appearance of curiosity on her part. Her reception of Junius had been
+very different indeed from that she had previously accorded him when she
+declined to be found under the same roof with him. Now he was here under
+very different auspices, and for him the very plumpest poultry was
+slain, and everything was done to make him comfortable and willing to
+stay and become acquainted with his cousin, Mrs Null. A match between
+these two young people was the present object of the old lady's
+existence, and she set about making it with as much determination and
+confidence as if there had been no such person as Mr Null. Of this
+individual she had the most contemptible opinion. She had never asked
+many questions about him, because, in her intercourse with her niece,
+she wished, as far as possible, to ignore him. Having mentally pictured
+him in various mean conditions of life, she had finally settled it in
+her mind that he was an agent for some patent fertilizer; a man of this
+kind being a very obnoxious person to her. This avocation, however,
+constituted in the old lady's mind no excusable reason for his
+protracted absence; and if ever a wife was deserted, she believed that
+her niece Annie was such a wife.
+
+"If he should stay away much longer," she said to herself, "we shall
+have no more trouble in getting a divorce than to have his funeral
+sermon preached. And if there is any talk of his coming here, or of her
+going to him, I'll put my foot down on that sort of thing, if I've a
+foot left to do it with."
+
+When she had first perceived the approach of Mr Croft, a fear had seized
+her that this might be the recreant husband, but the gentlemanly
+appearance of the stranger soon dispelled this idea from her prejudiced
+mind. Apart from the fact that she had no business at the house with her
+nephew's visitor, she had positive business in the garden with old Uncle
+Isham, and there she repaired. There was some work to be done in regard
+to a flower pit, in which some of her choicest plants were to be
+domiciled during the winter, and this she wished personally to oversee.
+Although the autumn was well advanced, the day was somewhat warm; and as
+the pair, whom Mr Croft had seen on the porch, had been glad to shelter
+themselves in the shade of the honeysuckle vines, so Mrs Keswick seated
+herself on a little bench behind a large arbor, still covered by heavy
+vines, which stood on the boundary line between the garden and the front
+yard, and opened on the latter. This bench, which was always shady in
+the morning, she had had placed there that she might comfortably direct
+the labors of old Isham, the boy Plez, or whoever, for the time being,
+happened to be her gardener.
+
+Mr Croft did not immediately begin the statement of the business which
+had brought him to see Junius Keswick. Several windows of the house
+opened on the porch, and he did not wish what he had to say to be heard
+by any one except the person he was addressing. "I desire to talk to you
+on some private matters," he said. "Could we not walk a little away from
+the house?"
+
+"Certainly," said Junius, rising. "We will step over to that arbor by
+the garden. We shall be quite comfortable and secluded there. This is
+the place," said Junius, as they seated themselves in the arbor, "where,
+when a boy, I used to come to smoke. My aunt did not allow this
+diversion, but I managed to do a good deal of puffing before I was found
+out."
+
+"Then you used to live here?" asked Croft.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Keswick, "my parents died when I was quite a little
+fellow, and my aunt had charge of me until I had grown up."
+
+"Was that your aunt whom I met at the gate? There was something about
+her bearing and general appearance which greatly interested me."
+
+"She is a most estimable lady," returned Junius. And not wishing further
+to discuss his relative, he added: "And now, what is it, sir, that I
+can have the pleasure of doing for you?"
+
+"The matter regards Miss March," said Croft.
+
+"I presumed so," remarked the other. "I will state it as briefly as
+possible," continued Croft. "In consequence of your visit to me at the
+the Springs, I set out, the day before yesterday, to make another
+attempt to call on Miss March, the first one having been frustrated, as
+you may remember, by the information we received at the gate in regard
+to Miss March's indisposition, which, as I have heard nothing more of
+it, I hope was of no importance."
+
+"Of none whatever," said Junius.
+
+"When I was within a mile or so of Midbranch," continued Croft, "I met
+Mr Brandon, who requested me not to come to his house, and, in fact, to
+cease my visits altogether."
+
+"What!" cried Keswick, very much surprised. "That is not at all like Mr
+Brandon. What reason could he have for treating you in such a manner?"
+
+"The very best in the world," said Croft. "Having, as the guardian of
+his niece, asked me the object of my visit to Miss March, and, having
+been informed by me that it was my intention to propose matrimony to the
+lady, he requested that I would not visit at his house." "On what
+ground did he base his objection to your visit?" asked Keswick.
+
+"He made no objection to me; he simply stated that he did not desire me
+to come, because he wished his niece to marry you."
+
+"Quite plainly spoken," remarked Keswick.
+
+"Nothing could be more so," replied Croft. "I could not expect any one
+to be franker with me than he was. He went on to inform me that a match
+between the lady and yourself was greatly desired by the whole family
+connection, with a single exception, which, however, he did not name,
+and, while he gave me to understand that he had no reason to fear that,
+so far as the lady was concerned, my proposal would interfere with your
+prospects, still, were it known that there was another aspirant in the
+field, a very undesirable state of things might ensue. What this state
+of affairs was he did not state, but I presume it had something to do
+with the exceptional opposition to which he referred."
+
+"And what did you say to all that?" asked Junius.
+
+"I said very little. When a man asks me not to come to his house, I
+don't go. But, nevertheless, I have fully made up my mind to propose to
+Miss March as soon as I can get an opportunity. I have nothing to do
+with family arrangements or family opposition. You have told me that
+you are not engaged to her, and I am going to try to be engaged to her.
+She is the one to decide this matter. And now I have called upon you, Mr
+Keswick, to see if there is any way in which you can assist me in
+obtaining an interview with Miss March."
+
+"Don't you think," said Junius, "that it is rather cool in you to ask me
+to assist you in this matter?"
+
+"Not at all," replied the other. "If it had not been for you I should
+now be in New York, with no thought of present proposals of marriage.
+But you came to me, and insisted that I should see the lady." "That was
+simply because she had expressed a strong desire to see you."
+
+"Very good," said Lawrence. "I tried to go to her, as you know, and was
+prevented. Now all I ask of you is to help me to do what you so strongly
+urged me to do. There is nothing particularly cool in that, I think."
+
+Keswick did not immediately reply. "I am not sure," he said, "that Miss
+March still wishes to see you."
+
+"That may be," replied Croft, speaking a little warmly. "None of us
+exactly know what she thinks or wishes. But I want to find out what she
+thinks about me by distinctly asking her. And I should suppose you would
+consider it to your advantage, as well as mine, that I should do so."
+"I have my own opinion on that point," said Keswick, "which it is not
+necessary to discuss at present. If I were to assist you to an interview
+with Miss March it would be on the lady's account, not on yours or mine.
+But apart from the fact that I do not know if she now desires an
+interview, I would not do anything that would offend or annoy Mr
+Brandon."
+
+"I don't ask that of you," said Croft, "but couldn't you use your
+influence with him to give me a fair chance with the lady? That is all I
+ask, and, whether she accepts me or rejects me, I am sure everybody
+ought to be satisfied."
+
+Keswick smiled. "You don't leave any margin for sentiment," he said,
+"but I suppose it is just as well to deal with this matter in a
+practical way. I do not think, however, that any influence I can exert
+on Mr Brandon would induce him to allow you to address his niece if he
+is opposed to it, and I am sure he would have a very strange opinion of
+me if I attempted such a thing. At present I do not see that I can help
+you at all, but I will think over the matter, and we will talk of it
+again."
+
+"Thank you," said Croft, rising. "And when shall I call upon you to hear
+your decision?"
+
+It was rather difficult for Junius Keswick to answer a question like
+this on the spur of the moment. He arose and walked with Croft out of
+the arbor. His first impulse, as a Virginia gentleman, was to invite
+his visitor to stay at the house until the matter should be settled, but
+he did not know what extraordinary freak on the part of his aunt might
+be caused by such an invitation. But before he had decided what to say,
+they were met by Mrs Keswick coming from the garden. Junius thereupon
+presented Mr Croft, who was welcomed by the old lady with extended hand
+and exceeding cordiality.
+
+"I am very glad," she said, "to meet a friend of my nephew. But where
+are you going, Sir? Certainly not toward your horse. You must stay and
+dine with us."
+
+Lawrence hesitated. He had no claims on the hospitality of these people,
+but he wished very much to have an opportunity to speak to Mrs Null.
+"Thank you," he said, "but I am staying down here at the village, and it
+is but a short ride." "Staying at Hewlett's?" exclaimed Mrs Keswick. "At
+which hotel, may I ask?"
+
+Lawrence laughed. "I am stopping with the storekeeper," he said.
+
+"That settles it!" said the old lady, giving her umbrella a jab into the
+ground. "Tom Peckett's accommodations may be good enough for pedlers and
+travelling agents, but they are not fit for gentlemen, especially one of
+my nephew's friends. You must stay with us, sir, as long as you are in
+this neighborhood. I insist upon it." Junius was very much astonished
+at his aunt's speech and manner. The old lady was not at all
+inhospitable; so far was it otherwise the case, that, rather than
+deprive an objectionable visitor of the shelter of her roof, she would
+go from under it herself; but he had never known her to "gush" in this
+manner upon a stranger. He now felt at liberty, however, to obey his own
+impulses, and urged Mr Croft to stay with them.
+
+"You are very kind, indeed," said Lawrence, "and I shall be glad to
+defer for the present my return to my 'hotel.' This will give me the
+additional pleasure of renewing my acquaintance with Mrs Null."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Mrs Keswick, "do you know her, too? And to think of
+you stopping at Peckett's! Your home, sir, while you stay in these
+parts, is here."
+
+Before the three reached the house, Mrs Keswick had inquired how long Mr
+Croft had known her niece; and had discovered, much to her
+disappointment, that he had never met Mr Null. Shortly after the arrival
+at the house of the gentleman on horseback little Plez ran into the
+kitchen, where Letty was engaged in preparing vegetables for dinner.
+
+"Who d'ye think is done come?" he exclaimed. "Miss Annie's husband! Jes'
+rid up to de house."
+
+"Dat so?" cried Letty, dropping into her lap the knife and the potato
+she was peeling. "Well, truly, when things does happen in dis worl' dey
+comes all in a lump. None ob de fam'ly been nigh de house for ebber so
+long; an' den, 'long comes Mahs' Junius hisse'f, an' Miss Annie dat's
+been away sence she was a chile, an' ole Mr Brandon, wot Uncle Isham say
+ain't been h'yar fur years and years, an' now Miss Annie's husband comes
+kitin' up! An' dar's ole Aun' Patsy wot says dat if dat gemman ebber
+come h'yar she want to know it fus' thing. She was dreffle p'inted about
+dat. An' now, look h'yar, you Plez, jus' you cut round to your Aun'
+Patsy's, an' tell her Miss Annie's husband's done come."
+
+"Whar ole Miss?" inquired Plez. "She 'sleep?"
+
+"No, she mighty wide awake," said Letty. "But you take dem knives an'
+dat board an' brick, an' run down to de branch to clean 'em. An', when
+you gits dar, you jus' slip along, 'hind de bushes, till you's got ter
+de cohn fiel', an' den you cut 'cross dar to Aun' Patsy's. An' don' you
+stop no time dar, fur if ole Miss finds you's done gone, she'll chop you
+up wid dem knives."
+
+Plez was quite ready for a reckless dash of this kind, and in less than
+twenty minutes old Patsy was informed that Mr Null had arrived. The old
+woman was much affected by the information. She was uneasy and restless,
+and talked a good deal to herself, occasionally throwing out a moan or a
+lament in the direction of her "son Tom's yaller boy Bob's chile." The
+crazy quilt, which was not yet finished, though several pieces had been
+added since we last saw it, was laid aside; and by the help of the above
+mentioned great granddaughter the old hair trunk was hauled out and
+opened. Over this hoard of treasures, Aunt Patsy spent nearly two hours,
+slowly taking up the various articles it contained, turning them over,
+mumbling over them, and mentally referring many of them to periods which
+had become historic. At length she pulled out from one of the corners of
+the trunk a pair of very little blue morocco shoes tied together by
+their strings. These she took into her lap, and, shortly afterward, had
+the trunk locked, and pushed back into its place. The shoes, having been
+thoroughly examined through her great iron-bound spectacles, were thrust
+under the mattress of her bed.
+
+That evening, Uncle Isham stepped in to see the old woman, who was
+counteracting the effects of the cool evening air by sitting as close as
+possible to the remains of the fire which had cooked the supper. She was
+very glad to see him. She wanted somebody to whom she could unburden her
+mind. "Wot you got to say 'bout Miss Annie's husband," she asked, "wot
+done come to-day?"
+
+"Was dat him?" exclaimed the old man. "Nobody tole me dat."
+
+This was true, for the good-natured Letty, having discovered the
+mistake that had been made, had concluded to say nothing about it and to
+keep away from Aunt Patsy's for a few days, until the matter should be
+forgotten.
+
+"Well, I spec Miss Annie's mighty glad to git him back agin," continued
+the old man, after a moment's reflection. "He's right much of a nice
+lookin' gemman. I seed him this ebenin' a ridin' wid Mahs' Junius."
+
+"P'raps Miss Annie is glad," said the ole woman, "coz she don' know. But
+I ain't."
+
+"Wot's de reason fur dat?" inquired Isham.
+
+"It's a pow'ful dreffle thing dat Miss Annie's husband's done come down
+h'yar. He don' know ole miss."
+
+"Wot's de matter wid ole miss?" asked Isham, in a quick tone.
+
+"She done talk to me 'bout him," said the old woman. "She done tole me
+jus' wot she think of him. She hate him from he heel up. I dunno wot
+she'll do to him now she got him. Mighty great pity fur pore Miss Annie
+dat he ever come h'yar."
+
+"Ole miss ain't gwine ter do nuffin' to him," said Isham, in a gruff and
+troubled tone.
+
+"Don' you b'lieve dat," said Aunt Patsy. "When ole miss don' like a
+pusson, dat pusson had better look out. But I ain't gwine to be sottin'
+h'yar an' see mis'ry comin' to Miss Annie."
+
+"Wot you gwine to do?" asked Isham.
+
+"I's gwine ter speak my min' to ole miss. I's gwine to tell her not to
+do no kunjerin' to Miss Annie's husban'. She gwine to hurt dat little
+gal more'n she hurt anybody else."
+
+Old Isham sat looking into the fire with a very worried and anxious
+expression on his face. He was intensely loyal to his mistress, aware as
+he was of her short-comings, or rather her long-goings. Although he felt
+a good deal of fear that there might be some truth in Aunt Patsy's
+words, he was very sure that if she took it upon herself to give warning
+or reproof to old Mrs Keswick, a storm would ensue; and where the
+lightning would strike he did not know. "You better look out, Aun'
+Patsy," he said. "You an' ole miss been mighty good fren's fur a pow'ful
+long time, an' now don' you go gittin' yourse'f in no fraction wid her,
+jus' as you' bout to die."
+
+"Ain't gwine to die," said the old woman, "till I done tole her wot's on
+my min'."
+
+"Aun' Patsy," said Uncle Isham, after gazing silently in the fire for a
+minute or two, "dar was a brudder wot come up from 'Melia County to de
+las' big preachin', an' he tole in his sarment a par'ble wot I b'lieve
+will 'ply fus rate to dis 'casion. I's gwine to tell you dat."
+
+"Go 'long wid it," said Aunt Patsy.
+
+"Well, den," said Isham, "dar was once a cullud angel wot went up to de
+gate ob heaben to git in. He didn't know nuffin' 'bout de ways ob de
+place, bein' a strahnger, an' when he see all de white angels a crowdin'
+in at de gate where Sent Peter was a settin', he sorter looked round to
+see if dar warn't no gate wot he might go in at. Den ole Sent Peter he
+sings out: 'Look h'yar, uncle, whar you gwine? Dar ain't no cullud
+gal'ry in dis 'stablishment. You's got to come in dis same gate wid de
+udder folks.' So de cullud angel he come up to de gate, but he kin' a
+hung back till de udders had got in. Jus' den 'long comes a white angel
+on hossback, wot was in a dreffle hurry to git in to de gate. De cullud
+angel, he mighty p'lite, an' he went up an' tuk de hoss, an' when de
+white angel had got down an' gone in, he went roun' lookin' fur a tree
+to hitch him to. But when he went back agin to de gate, Sent Peter had
+jus' shet it, and was lockin' it up wid a big padlock. He jus' looks
+ober de gate at de cullud angel an' he says: 'No 'mittance ahfter six
+o'clock.' An' den he go in to his supper."
+
+"An' wot dat cullud angel do den?" asked Eliza, who had been listening
+breathlessly to this narrative.
+
+"Dunno," said Isham, "but I reckin de debbil come 'long in de night an'
+tuk him off. Dar's a lesson in dis h'yar par'ble wot 'ud do you good to
+clap to your heart, Aun' Patsy. Don' you be gwine roun' tryin' to help
+udder people jus' as you is all ready to go inter de gate ob heaben. Ef
+you try any ob dat dar foolishness, de fus' thing you know you'll find
+dat gate shet."
+
+"Is dat your 'Melia County par'ble?" asked the old woman.
+
+"Dat's it," answered Isham.
+
+"Reckon dat country's better fur 'bacca dan fur par'bles," grunted Aunt
+Patsy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+Lawrence Croft had no idea of leaving the neighborhood of Howlett's
+until Keswick had made up his mind what he was going to do, and until he
+had had a private talk with Mrs Null; and, as it was quite evident that
+the family would be offended if a visitor to them should lodge at
+Peckett's store, he accepted the invitation to spend the night at the
+Keswick house; and in the afternoon Junius rode with him to Howlett's,
+where he got his valise, and paid his account.
+
+But no opportunity occurred that day for a _tête-a-tête_ with Mrs Null.
+Keswick was with him nearly all the afternoon; and in the evening the
+family sat together in the parlor, where the conversation was a general
+one, occasionally very much brightened by some of the caustic remarks of
+the old lady in regard to particular men and women, as well as society
+at large. Of course he had many opportunities of judging, to the best of
+his capacity, of certain phases of character appertaining to Mr Candy's
+cashier; and, among other things, he came to the conclusion that
+probably she was a young woman who would get up early in the morning,
+and he, therefore, determined to do that thing himself, and see if he
+could not have a talk with her before the rest of the family were astir.
+
+Early rising was not one of Croft's accustomed habits, but the next
+morning he arose a good hour before breakfast time. He found the lower
+part of the house quite deserted, and when he went out on the porch he
+was glad to button up his coat, for the morning air was very cool. While
+walking up and down with his hands in his pockets, and looking in at the
+front door every time he passed it, in hopes that he might see Mrs Null
+coming down the stairs, he was greeted with a cheery "good morning," by
+a voice in the front yard. Turning hastily, he beheld Mrs Keswick,
+wearing her purple sun-bonnet, but without her umbrella.
+
+"Glad you like to be up betimes, sir," said she. "That's my way, and I
+find it pays. Nobody works as well, and I don't believe the plants and
+stock grow as well, while we are asleep."
+
+Lawrence replied that in the city he did not get up so early, but that
+the morning air in the country was very fine.
+
+"And pretty sharp, too," said Mrs Keswick. "Come down here in the
+sunshine, and you will find it pleasanter. Step back a little this way,
+sir," she said, when Lawrence had joined her, "and give me your opinion
+of that locust tree by the corner of the porch. I am thinking of having
+it cut down. Locusts are very apt to get diseased inside, and break off,
+and I am afraid that one will blow over some day and fall on the house."
+Lawrence said he thought it looked like a very good tree, and it would
+be a pity to lose the shade it made.
+
+"I might plant one of another sort," said the old lady, "but trees grow
+too slow for old people, though plenty fast enough for young ones. I
+reckon I'll let it stand awhile yet. You were talking last night of
+Midbranch, sir. There used to be fine trees there, though it's many
+years since I've seen them. Have you been long acquainted with the
+family there?"
+
+Lawrence replied that he had known Miss March a good while, having met
+her in New York.
+
+"She is said to be a right smart young lady," said Mrs Keswick, "well
+educated, and has travelled in Europe. I am told that she is not only a
+regular town lady, but that she makes a first-rate house-keeper when she
+is down here in the country."
+
+Lawrence replied that he had no doubt that all this was very true.
+
+"I have never seen her," continued the old lady, "for there has not been
+much communication between the two families of late years, although they
+used to be intimate enough. But my nephew and niece have been away a
+great deal, and old people can't be expected to do much in the way of
+visiting. But I have a notion," she said, after gazing a few moments in
+a reflective way at the corner of the house, "that it would be well now
+to be a little more sociable again. My niece has no company here of her
+own sex, except me, and I think it would do her good to know a young
+lady like Miss March. Mr Brandon has asked me to let Annie come there,
+but I think it would be a great deal better for his niece to visit us.
+Mrs Null is the latest comer."
+
+Lawrence, speaking much more earnestly than when discussing the locust
+tree, replied that he thought this would be quite proper.
+
+"I think I may invite her to come here next week," said Mrs Keswick,
+still meditatively and without apparent regard to the presence of Croft,
+"probably on Friday, and ask her to spend a week. And, by the way,
+sir," she said, turning to her companion, "if you are still in this part
+of the country I would be glad to have you ride over and stay a day or
+two while Miss March is here. I will have a little party of young folks
+in honor of Mrs Null. I have done nothing of the kind for her, so far."
+
+Lawrence said he had no doubt that he would stay at the Green Sulphur a
+week or two longer, and that he would be most happy to accept Mrs
+Keswick's kind invitation.
+
+They then moved toward the house, but, suddenly stopping, as if she had
+just thought of something, Mrs Keswick remarked: "I shall be obliged to
+you, sir, if you will not say anything about this little plan of mine,
+just now. I have not spoken of it to any one, having scarcely made up my
+mind to it, and I suppose I should not have mentioned it to you if we
+had not been talking about Midbranch. There is nothing I hate so much as
+to have people hear I am going to give them an invitation, or that I am
+going to do anything, in fact, before I have fully made up my mind about
+it."
+
+Lawrence assured her that he would say nothing on the subject, and she
+promised to send him a note to the Green Sulphur, in case she finally
+determined on having the little company at her house.
+
+"Now," triumphantly thought Croft, "it matters not what Keswick decides
+to do, for I don't need his assistance. An elderly angel in a purple
+sun-bonnet has come to my aid. She is about to do ever so much more for
+me than I could expect of him, and I prefer her assistance to that of my
+rival. Altogether it is the most unexpected piece of good luck."
+
+After breakfast there came to Lawrence the opportunity of a private
+conference with Mrs Null. He was standing alone on the porch when she
+came out of the door with her hat on and a basket in her hand, and said
+she was going to see a very old colored woman who lived in the
+neighborhood, who was considered a very interesting personage; and
+perhaps he would like to go there with her. Nothing could suit Croft
+better than this, and off they started.
+
+As soon as they were outside the yard gate the lady remarked: "I have
+been trying hard to give you a chance to talk to me when the others were
+not by. I knew you must be perfectly wild to ask me what this all meant;
+why I never told you that Mr Keswick was my cousin, and the rest of it."
+"I can't say," said Lawrence, "that I am absolutely untamed and
+ferocious in regard to the matter, but I do really wish very much that
+you would give me some explanation of your very odd doings. In fact,
+that is the only thing that now keeps me here."
+
+"I thought so," said Mrs Null. "As I supposed you had got through with
+your business with Junius, I did not wish to detain you here any longer
+than was necessary."
+
+"Thank you," said Lawrence.
+
+"You are welcome," she said. "And when I saw you standing on the porch
+by yourself, the idea of being generous to old Aunt Patsy came into my
+mind. And here we are. Now, what do you want to know first?"
+
+"Well," said Mr Croft, "I would like very much to know how a young lady
+like you came to be Mr Candy's cashier."
+
+"I supposed you would want to know that," she said. "It's a dreadfully
+long story, and as it is a strictly family matter I had almost made up
+my mind last night that I ought not to tell it to you at all, but as I
+don't know how much you are mixed up with the family, I afterward
+thought it best, for my own sake, to explain the matter to you. So I
+will give you the principal points. My mother was a sister of Mrs
+Keswick, and Junius' mother was another sister. Both his parents died
+when he was a boy, and Aunt Keswick brought him up. My mother died here
+when I was quite small, and I stayed until I was eight years old. Aunt
+Keswick and my father were not very good friends, and when she came to
+look upon me as entirely her own child, and wished to deprive him of all
+rights and privileges as a parent, he resented it very much, and, at
+last, took me away. I don't remember exactly how this was done, but I
+know there was a tremendous quarrel, and my father and aunt never met
+again.
+
+"He took me to New York; and there we lived very happily until about two
+years ago, when my father died. He was a lawyer by profession, but at
+that time held a salaried position in a railroad company, and when he
+died, of course our income ceased. The money that was left did not last
+very long, and then I had to decide what I was to do. It would have been
+natural for me to go to my only relatives, Aunt Keswick and Junius. But
+my father had been so opposed to my aunt having anything to do with me
+that I could not bear to go to her. He had really been so much afraid
+that she would try to win me away from him, or in some way gain
+possession of me, that he would not even let her know our address, and
+never answered the few letters from her which reached him, and which he
+told me were nothing but demands that her sister's child should be given
+back to her. Junius had written to me, how many times I do not know, but
+two letters had come to me that were very good and affectionate, quite
+different from my aunt's, but even these my father would not let me
+answer; it would be all the same thing, he said, as if I opened
+communication with my Aunt Keswick. Therefore, out of respect to my
+father, and also in accordance with my own wishes, I gave up all idea of
+coming down here, and went to work to support myself. I tried several
+things, and, at last, through a friend of my father, who was a regular
+customer of Mr Candy, I got the position of cashier in the Information
+Shop. It was an awfully queer place, but the work was very easy, and I
+soon got used to it. Then you came making inquiries for an address. At
+first I did not know that the person you wanted was Junius Keswick and
+my cousin, but after I began to look into the matter I found that it
+must be he who you were after. Then I became very much troubled, for I
+liked Junius, who was the only one of my blood whom I had any reason to
+care for; and when one sees a person setting a detective--for it is all
+the same thing--upon the track of another person, one is very apt to
+think that some harm is intended to the person that is being looked up.
+I did not know what business Junius was in, nor what his condition was,
+but even if he had been doing wrong, I did not wish you to find him
+until I had first seen him, and then, if I found you could do him any
+harm, I would warn him to keep out of your way."
+
+"Do you think that was fair treatment of me?" asked Croft.
+
+"You were nothing to me, and Junius was a great deal," she answered.
+"And yet I think I was fair enough. The only money you paid was what Mr
+Candy charged; and when I spoke of receiving money for my services when
+the affair was finished I only did it that it might all be more business
+like, and that you should not drop me and set somebody else looking
+after Junius. That was the great thing I was afraid of, so I did all I
+could to make you satisfied with me."
+
+"I don't see how your conscience could allow you to do all this," said
+Croft.
+
+"My conscience was very much pleased with me," was the answer. "What I
+did was a stratagem, and perfectly fair too. If I had found that it was
+right for you to see Junius, I would have done everything I could to
+help you communicate with him. But when I did at last see him, down you
+swooped upon us before I had an opportunity of saying a word about you."
+
+"Your marriage was a very fortunate thing for you," said Mr Croft, "for
+if it had not been for that I should never have allowed you to go about
+the country looking up a gentleman in my behalf. But how did you get
+over your repugnance to your aunt?"
+
+"I didn't get over it," she said, "I conquered it, for I found that this
+was the most likely place to meet Junius. And Aunt Keswick has certainly
+treated me in the kindest manner, although she is very angry about Mr
+Null. But when I first came and she did not know who I was, she behaved
+in the most extraordinary manner."
+
+"What did she do?" asked Croft.
+
+"Never you mind," she answered, with a little laugh. "You can't expect
+to know all the family affairs."
+
+They had now arrived at Aunt Patsy's cabin, and Mrs Null entered,
+followed at a little distance by Croft. The old woman had seen them as
+they were walking along the road, and her little black eyes sparkled
+with peculiar animation behind her great spectacles. Her granddaughter
+happened not to be at home, but Aunt Patsy got up, and with her apron
+rubbed off the bottoms of two chairs, which she placed in convenient
+positions for her expected visitors. When they came in they found her in
+a very perturbed condition. She answered Mrs Null's questions with a
+very few words and a great many grunts, and kept her eyes fixed nearly
+all the time upon Mr Croft, endeavoring to find out, perhaps, if he had
+yet been subjected to any kind of conjuring.
+
+When all the questions which young people generally put to old servants
+had been asked by Mrs Null, and Croft had made as many remarks as might
+have been expected of him in regard to the age and recollections of this
+interesting old negress, Aunt Patsy began to be much more disturbed,
+fearing that the interview was about to come to an end. She actually got
+up and went to the back door to look for Eliza.
+
+"Do you want her?" anxiously inquired Mrs Null, going to the old woman's
+side.
+
+"Yaas, I wants her," said Aunt Patsy. "I 'spec' she at Aggy's house--dat
+cabin ober dar--but I can't holler loud 'nuf to make her h'yere me."
+"I'll run over there and tell her you want her," said Mrs Null,
+stepping out of the door.
+
+"Dat's a good chile," said Aunt Patsy, with more warmth than she had yet
+exhibited. "Dat's your own mudder's good chile!" And then she turned
+quickly into the room.
+
+Croft had risen as if he were about to follow Mrs Null, or, at least, to
+see where she had gone. But Aunt Patsy stopped him. "Jus' you stay h'yar
+one little minute," she said, hurriedly. "I got one word to say to you,
+sah." And she stood up before him as erect as she could, fixing her
+great spectacles directly upon him. "You look out, sah, fur ole miss,"
+she said, in a voice, naturally shrill, but now heavily handicapped by
+age and emotion, "ole Miss Keswick, I means. She boun' to do you harm,
+sah. She tole me so wid her own mouf."
+
+"Mrs Keswick!" exclaimed Croft. "Why, you must be mistaken, good aunty.
+She can have no ill feelings towards me."
+
+"Don' you b'lieve dat!" said the old woman. "Don' you b'lieve one word
+ob dat! She hate you, sah, she hate you! She not gwine to tell you dat.
+She make you think she like you fus' rate, an' den de nex' thing you
+knows, she kunjer you, an' shribble up de siners ob your legs, an' gib
+you mis'ry in your back, wot you neber git rid of no moh'. Can't tell
+you nuffin' else now, for h'yar comes Miss Annie," she added hurriedly,
+and, stepping to the bedside, she drew from under the mattrass a pair of
+little blue shoes, tied together by their strings. "Jes' you take dese
+h'yar shoes," she said, "an' ef eber you think ole miss gwine ter kunjer
+you, jes' you hol' up dem shoes right afore her face. Dar now, stuff 'em
+in your pocket. Don' you tell Miss Annie wot I done say to you. 'Member
+dat, sah. It ud kill her, shuh."
+
+At this moment Mrs Null entered, just as the shoes had been slipped into
+the side-pocket of Mr Croft's coat by the old woman. And as she did so,
+she whispered, in a tone that could not but have its effect upon him,
+"Now, nebber tell her, honey."
+
+"Here is Eliza," said Mrs Null, as she came in, followed by the great
+granddaughter. "And I think," she said to Mr Croft, "it is time for us
+to go. Good-bye, Aunt Patsy. You can send back the basket by Eliza."
+
+When the two left the cabin, Croft walked thoughtfully for a few
+moments, wondering what in the world the old woman could have meant by
+her strange words and gift to him. Concluding, however, that they could
+have been nothing but the drivelings of weak-minded old age, he
+dismissed them from his mind and turned his attention to his companion.
+"We were speaking," he said, "of Mr Null. Do you expect him shortly?"
+
+"Well, no," said the lady. "I can't say that I do."
+
+"That is odd," said Lawrence. "I thought this was your wedding journey."
+
+"So it is, in a measure," said she, "but there is no necessity of his
+coming here. Didn't I tell you that my aunt was opposed to the
+marriage?" "But she might as well make up her mind to it now," he said.
+
+"She is not in the habit of making up her mind to things she don't like.
+Do you know," she added, looking around with a half smile, as if she
+took pleasure in astonishing him, "that Aunt Keswick is going to try to
+have us divorced?"
+
+"What!" exclaimed Croft. "Divorced! Is there any ground for it?"
+
+"She has other matrimonial plans for me, that's all."
+
+"What an extraordinary individual she must be!" he exclaimed. "But she
+can never carry out such a ridiculous scheme as that."
+
+"I don't know," she said. "She has already consulted Mr Brandon on the
+subject."
+
+"What nonsense!" cried Croft. "If you and Mr Null are satisfied, nobody
+else has anything to do with it."
+
+"Mr Null and I are of one mind," said she, "and agree perfectly. But
+don't you think it is a terrible thing to know you must always face an
+irritated aunt?"
+
+"Oh," said Croft, looking around at her very coldly and sternly, "I
+begin to see. I suppose a separation would improve your prospects in
+life. But it can't be done if your husband is opposed to it."
+
+"Mr Croft," said the lady, her face flushing a good deal, "you have no
+right to speak to me in that way, and attribute such motives to me. No
+matter whom I had married, I would never give him up for the sake of
+money, or a farm, or anything you think my aunt could give me."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said Croft, "if I made a mistake, but I don't see
+what else I could infer from your remarks."
+
+"My remarks," said she, "were,--well, they have a different meaning from
+what you supposed." She walked on in silence for a few moments, and
+then, looking up to her companion, she said: "I have a great mind to
+tell you something, if you will promise, at least for the present, not
+to breathe it to a living soul."
+
+Instantly the lookout on the bow of Lawrence Croft's life action called
+out: "Breakers ahead!" and almost instantly its engine was stopped, and
+every faculty of its commander was on the alert. "I do not know," he
+said, "that I am entitled to your confidence. Would it be of any
+advantage to you to tell me what you propose?"
+
+"It would be of advantage, and you are entitled," she added quickly. "It
+is about Mr Null, and you ought to know it, for you instigated my
+wedded life."
+
+"I instigated!"--exclaimed Mr Croft. And then he stopped short, both in
+his speech and walk.
+
+"Yes," said the lady, stopping also, and turning to face him, "you did,
+and you ought to remember it. You said if I had a husband to travel
+about with me you would like very much to employ me in the search for Mr
+Keswick, and it was solely on that account that I went and got married."
+Observing the look of blank and utter amazement on his face, she smiled,
+and said: "Please don't look so horribly astonished. Mr Null is void."
+
+As she made this remark the lady looked up at her companion with a smile
+and an expression of curiosity as to how he would take the announcement.
+Lawrence gazed blankly at her for a moment, and then he broke into a
+laugh. "You don't mean to say," he exclaimed, "that Mr Null is an
+imaginary being?"
+
+"Entirely so," she replied. "My dear Freddy is nothing but a fanciful
+idea, with no attribute whatever except the name."
+
+"You are a most extraordinary young person," said Lawrence; "almost as
+extraordinary as your aunt. What in the world made you think of doing
+such a thing? and why do you wish to keep up the delusion among your
+relatives, even so far as to drive your aunt to the point of getting you
+divorced from your airy husband?" And he laughed again. "I told you
+how I came to think of it," she said, as they walked on again. "It was
+very plain that if I wanted to travel about as your agent I must be
+married, and I have found a husband quite a protection and an advantage,
+even when he doesn't go about with me; and as to keeping up the
+delusion, as you call it, in my own family, I have found that to be
+absolutely necessary, at least for the present. My aunt, even when I was
+a little girl, determined to take my marriage into her own hands; and
+since I have returned to her, this desire has come up again in the most
+astonishing way. It is her principal subject of conversation with me.
+Were it not for the protection which my dear Freddy Null gives me I
+should be thrown bodily into the arms of the person whom my aunt has
+selected, and he would be obliged to take me, whether he wanted to or
+not, or be cast forth forever. So you see how important it is that my
+aunt should think I am married; and I do hope you will not tell anybody
+about Mr Null."
+
+"Of course I will keep your secret," said Croft. "You may rely upon
+that; but don't you think--do you believe that this sort of thing is
+altogether right?"
+
+She did not answer for a few moments, and then she said: "I suppose you
+must consider me a very deceptive sort of person, but you should
+remember that these things were not done for my own good, and, as far as
+I can see, they were the only things that could be done. Do you suppose
+I was going to let you pounce down on my cousin and do him some injury,
+for, as you kept your object such a secret, I did not suppose it could
+be anything but an injury you intended him."
+
+"A fine opinion of me!" said Croft.
+
+"And then, do you suppose," she continued, "that I would allow my aunt
+to quarrel with Junius and disinherit him, as she says she will, should
+he decline to marry me. I expected to drop my married name when I came
+here, but I had not been with my aunt fifteen minutes before I saw that
+it would never do for me to be a single woman while I stayed with her;
+and so I kept my Freddy by me. I did not intend, at all, to tell you all
+these things about my cousin, and I only did it because I did not wish
+you to think that I was a sly, mean creature, deceiving others for my
+own good."
+
+"Well," said Croft, "although I can't say you are right in making your
+relatives believe you are married when you are not, still I see you had
+very fair reasons for what you did, and you certainly showed a great
+deal of ingenuity and pluck in carrying out your remarkable schemes.
+By-the-way," he continued, somewhat hesitatingly, "I am in your debt for
+your services to me."
+
+"Not a bit of it!" she exclaimed quickly. "I never did a thing for you.
+It was all for myself, or, rather, for my cousin. The only money due was
+that which you paid to Mr Candy before I took charge of the matter."
+Lawrence felt that this was rather a sore subject with his companion,
+and he dropped it. "Do you still hold the position of cashier in the
+Information Shop?"
+
+"No," she said. "When I started out on my lonely wedding tour I gave up
+that, and if I should go back to New York, I do not think I should want
+to take it again.".
+
+"Do you propose soon to return to New York?" he asked.
+
+"No; at least I have made no plans in regard to it. I think it would
+grieve my aunt very much if I were to go away from her now, and as long
+as I have Mr Null to protect me from her matrimonial schemes, I am glad
+to stay with her. She is very kind to me."
+
+"I think you are entirely right in deciding to stay here," he said,
+looking around at her, and contrasting in his mind the bright-faced, and
+somewhat plump young person walking beside him with the thin-faced girl
+in black whom he had seen behind the cashier's desk.
+
+"Now," said she, with a vivacious little laugh, "I have poured out my
+whole soul before you, and, in return, I want you to gratify a curiosity
+which is fairly eating me up. Why were you so anxious to find my Cousin
+Junius? And how did you happen to come here the very day after he
+arrived? And, more than that, how was it that you had seen him at
+Midbranch so recently? You were talking about it last night. It couldn't
+have been my letter from Howlett's that brought you down here?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "my meeting with Mr Keswick at Midbranch was
+entirely accidental. When I arrived there, a few days ago, I had no
+reason to suppose that I should meet him. But I must ask you to excuse
+me from giving my reasons for wishing to find your cousin, and for
+coming to see him here. The matter between us has now become one of no
+importance, and will be dropped."
+
+The lady's face flushed. "Oh, indeed!" she said. And during the short
+remainder of their walk to the house she made no further remark.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+When Lawrence and his companion reached the house, they found on the
+porch Mrs Keswick and her nephew; and, after a little general
+conversation, the latter remarked to Mr Croft that he had found it would
+not be in his power to attend to that matter he had spoken of; to which
+Croft replied that he was very much obliged to him for thinking of it,
+and that it was of no consequence at all, as he would probably make
+other arrangements. He then stated that he would be obliged to return to
+the Green Sulphur Springs that day, and that, as it was a long ride, he
+would like to start as soon as his horse could be brought to him. But
+this procedure was condemned utterly by the old lady, who insisted that
+Mr Croft should not leave until after dinner, which meal should be
+served earlier than usual in order to give him plenty of time to get to
+the Springs before dark, and as Lawrence had nothing to oppose to her
+very urgent protest, he consented to stay. Before dinner was ready he
+found out why the protest was made. The old lady took him aside and made
+inquiries of him in regard to Mr Null. He had already informed her that
+he was not acquainted with that gentleman, but she thought, as Mr Croft
+seemed to be going about the country a good deal, he might possibly meet
+with her niece's husband; and, if he should do so, she would be very
+glad to have him become acquainted with him.
+
+To this Lawrence replied with much gravity that he would be happy to do
+so.
+
+"Mr Null has not yet come to my house," said Mrs Keswick, "and it is
+very natural that one should desire to know the husband of her only
+niece who is, or should be, the same as a daughter to her."
+
+"A very natural wish indeed," said Lawrence.
+
+"I am not quite sure in what business Mr Null is engaged," she
+continued, "and, although I asked my niece about it, she answered in a
+very evasive way, which makes me think his occupation is one she is not
+proud of. I have reason to suppose, however, that he is an agent for
+the sale of some fertilizing compound."
+
+At this Lawrence could not help smiling very broadly.
+
+"It may appear very odd and ridiculous to you," she said, "that a person
+connected with my family should be engaged in a business like that, for
+those fertilizers, as you ought to know, are all humbugs of the vilest
+kind. The only time I bought any it took my whole wheat crop to pay for
+it, and as for the clover I got afterward, a grasshopper could have
+eaten the whole of it. I am afraid he didn't tell her his business
+before he married her, and I'm glad she's ashamed of it. As far as I can
+find out, it does not seem as if Mr Null has any intention of coming
+here for some time; and, as I said before, I do very much want to know
+something about him--that is from a disinterested outsider. One cannot
+expect a recently married young woman to give a correct account of her
+husband."
+
+"I do not believe," said Mr Croft, "that there is any probability that I
+shall ever meet the gentleman--our walks in life being so different."
+
+"I should hope so, indeed!" interrupted Mrs Keswick. "But people of all
+sorts do run across each other."
+
+"But if I do meet with him," he continued, "I shall take great pleasure
+in giving you my impressions by letter, or in person, of your
+nephew-in-law." "Don't call him that!" exclaimed the old lady with
+much asperity. "I don't acknowledge the title. But I won't say any more
+about him," with a grim smile, "or you may think I don't like him."
+
+"Some of these days," he said, "you may come to be of the opinion that
+he is exactly the husband you would wish your niece to have."
+
+"Never!" she cried. "If he were an angel in broadcloth. But I mustn't
+talk about these things. I mentioned Mr Null to you because you are the
+only person of my acquaintance who, I suppose, is likely to meet with
+him. In regard to that little company I spoke of to you, I have not
+quite made up my mind about it, and, therefore, haven't mentioned it;
+but if I carry out the plan I will write to you at the Springs, and
+shall certainly expect you to be one of us." "That would give me great
+pleasure," said Lawrence, in a tone which indicated to the quick brain
+of the old lady that he would like to make a condition, but was too
+polite to do so.
+
+"If Miss March should agree to come," she said, "it might be pleasant
+for you to make one of her party and ride over at the same time.
+However, I'll let you know if she is coming, and then you can join her
+or not, as suits your convenience."
+
+"Thank you very much," said Lawrence, in a tone which betrayed no
+reserves.
+
+As he rode away that afternoon, Lawrence Croft, as his habit was on
+such occasions, revolved in his mind what he had heard and said and done
+during this little visit to the Keswick family. "Nothing could have
+turned out better," he thought. "To be sure the young man could not or
+would not be of any assistance to me, which is probably what I ought to
+have expected, but the strong-tempered old lady, his aunt, promises to
+be of tenfold more service than he could possibly be. As to that very
+odd young lady, Mrs Keswick's niece, I imagine that she does not regard
+me very favorably, for she was quite cool after I refused to let her
+into the secret of my desire to find her cousin, but as I did not ask
+for her confidences, she had no right to expect a return for them. And,
+by-the-way, it's odd how many confidences have been reposed in me since
+I've been down here. Keswick begins it; then old Brandon takes up the
+strain; after that Mr Candy's ex-cashier tells me the story of her life,
+and entrusts me with the secret of her marriage with a man of wind--that
+most useful Mr Null; after that, her aunt makes me understand how much
+she hates Mr Null, and how she would like me to find out something
+disreputable about him; and then--, by George! I forgot the old negro
+woman in the cabin!" At this he put his hand in the side-pocket of his
+coat, and drew out the pair of little blue shoes. "Why in the name of
+common sense did the old hag give me these? And why should she suppose
+that Mrs Keswick intended me a harm? The old lady never saw or heard of
+me until yesterday, and her manner certainly indicated no dislike of me.
+But, of course, Aunt Patsy's brain is cracked, and she didn't know what
+she was talking about. I shall keep the shoes, however, and if ever the
+venerable purple sun-bonnet runs afoul of me, I shall hold them up before
+it and see what happens."
+
+And so, very well satisfied with the result of his visit to Hewlett's,
+he rode on to the Green Sulphur Springs.
+
+On the afternoon of the next day Miss March received an invitation from
+Mrs Keswick to spend a few days with her, and make the acquaintance of
+her niece who had recently returned to the home of her childhood. The
+letter, for it was much more than a note of invitation, was cordial, and
+in parts pathetic. It dwelt upon the sundered pleasant relations of the
+two families, and expressed the hope that Mr Brandon's visit to her
+might be the beginning of a renewal of the old intimacy. Mrs Keswick
+took occasion to incidentally mention that the house would be
+particularly dull for her niece just now, as Junius was on the point of
+starting for Washington, where he would be detained some weeks on
+business; and she hoped, most earnestly, that Miss Roberta would accept
+this invitation to make her acquaintance and that of her niece; and she
+designated Thursday of the following week as the day on which she would
+like her to come.
+
+As may reasonably be supposed, this letter greatly astonished Miss
+March, who carried it to her uncle, and asked him to explain, if he
+could, what it meant. The old gentleman was a good deal surprised when
+he read it; but it delighted him in a far greater degree. He perceived
+in it the first fruits of his diplomacy. Mrs Keswick saw that it would
+be to her interest, for a time at least, to make friends with him; and
+this was the way she took to do it. She would not come to Midbranch
+herself, and bring the niece, but she would have Roberta come to her. In
+the pathos and cordiality Mr Brandon believed not at all. What the old
+hypocrite probably wanted was to enlist his grateful sympathy in that
+ridiculous divorce case. But, whatever her motives might be, he would be
+very glad to have his niece go to her; for if anything could make an
+impression upon that time-hardened and seasoned old chopping-block of a
+woman, it was Roberta's personal influence. If Mrs Keswick should come
+to know Roberta, that knowledge would do more than anything else in the
+world to remove her objections to the marriage he so greatly desired.
+
+He said nothing of all this to his niece; but he most earnestly
+counselled her to accept the invitation and make a visit to the two
+ladies. Of course Roberta did not care to go, but as her uncle appeared
+to take the matter so much to heart, she consented to gratify him, and
+wrote an acceptance. She found, also, when she had thought more on the
+matter, that she had a good deal of curiosity to see this Mrs Keswick,
+of whom she had heard so much, and who had had such an important
+influence on her life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+On the afternoon of the day on which Mrs Keswick's letter arrived at
+Midbranch, Peggy had great news to communicate to Aunt Judy, the cook:
+"Miss Rob's gwine to Mahs' Junius' house in de kerridge, an' I's gwine
+'long wid her to set in front wid Sam."
+
+"Mahs' Junius aint got no house," said Aunt Judy, turning around very
+suddenly. "Does you mean she gwine ter old Miss Keswick's?"
+
+"Yaas," answered Peggy.
+
+"Well, den, why don' you say so? Dat aint Mahs' Junius' house nohow,
+though he lib dar as much as he lib anywhar. Wot she gwine dar fur?"
+
+"Gwine to git married, I reckon," said Peggy.
+
+"Git out!" ejaculated Aunt Judy. "Wid you fur bride'maid?"
+
+"Dunno," answered Peggy. "She done tole me she didn't think she'd have
+much use fur me, but Mahs' Robert, he said it were too far fur her to go
+widout a maid; but ef she want me fur bride'maid I'll do dat too."
+
+"You bawn fool!" shouted Aunt Judy. "You ain't got sense 'nuf to hock
+the frocks ob de bridesmaids. An dat's all fool talk about Miss Rob
+gwine dar to be married. When she an' Mahs' Junius hab de weddin',
+dey'll hab it h'yar, ob course. She gwine to see ole Miss Keswick, coz
+dat's de way de fus' fam'lies allus does afore dey hab dere weddin'. I's
+pow'ful glad she's gwine dar, instid ob ole Miss Keswick comin' h'yar. I
+don' wan' her kunjerin' me, an' she'd do dat as quick as winkin' ef de
+batter bread's a leetle burned, or dar's too much salt in de soup. You's
+got to keep youse'f mighty straight, you Peggy, when you gits whar ole
+Miss Keswick is. Don' you come none ob your fool tricks, or she kunjer
+you, an' one ob your legs curl up like a pig's tail, an' neber uncurl no
+moh'. How you like dat?"
+
+To this Peggy made no reply, but with her eyes steadfastly fixed on Aunt
+Judy, and her lower jaw very much dropped, she mentally resolved to keep
+herself as straight as possible during her stay at the Keswick's.
+
+"Dar's ole Aun' Patsy," continued the speaker. "It's a mighty long time
+sence I've seen Aun' Patsy. Dat was when I went ober dar wid Miss Rob's
+mudder when de two fam'lys was fren's. I was her maid, an' went wid her
+jes as Mahs' Robert wants you ter go 'long wid Miss Rob. He ain't gwine
+to furgit how they did in de ole times when de ladies went visitin' in
+dere kerridges fur to stay free, four days. Aun' Patsy were pow'ful ole
+den, but she didn't die soon 'nuf, an' ole Miss Keswick she kunjer her,
+an' now she can't die at all."
+
+"Neber die!" ejaculated Peggy.
+
+"Neber die, nohow!" answered Aunt Judy. "Mighty offen she thought she
+gwine to die but 'twarnt no use. She can't do it. An' de las' time I
+hear ob her, she alibe yit, jes' de same as eber. An' dar was Mahs' John
+Keswick. She cunjer him coz he rode de gray colt to de Coht House when
+she done tole him to let dat gray colt alone, coz 'twarnt hisen but
+hern, an' he go shoot hese'f dead by de gate pos'. You's got to go fru
+by dat pos' when you go inter de gate."
+
+"Dat same pos'!" cried Peggy.
+
+"Yaas," said Aunt Judy, "dat same one. An' dey tells me dat on third
+Chewsdays, which is Coht day, de same as when he took de gray colt, as
+soon as it git dark he ghos' climb up to de top ob dat pos', an' set dar
+all night."
+
+With a conjuring old woman in the house, and a monthly ghost on the
+gate-post outside, the Keswick residence did not appear as attractive to
+Peggy as it had done before, but she mentally determined that while she
+was there she would be very careful to look out sharp for herself, a
+performance for which she was very well adapted.
+
+It was on a pleasant autumn morning that Mr Brandon very carefully
+ensconced his niece in the family carriage, with Peggy and a trusty
+negro man, Sam, on the outside front seat. "I would gladly go with you,
+my dear," he said, "even without the formality of an invitation, but it
+is far better for you to go by yourself. My very presence would provoke
+an antagonism in the old lady, while with you, personally, it is
+impossible that any such feeling should exist. I hope your visit may do
+away with all ill feeling between our families."
+
+"I want you to understand, uncle," said Miss Roberta, "that I am making
+this visit almost entirely to please you, and I shall do everything in
+my power to make Mrs Keswick feel that you and I are perfectly well
+disposed toward her; but you can't expect me to exhibit any great warmth
+of friendship toward a person who once used such remarkable and violent
+expressions in regard to me."
+
+"But those feelings, my dear," said Mr Brandon, "if we are to believe
+Mrs Keswick's letter, have entirely disappeared."
+
+"It is quite natural that they should do so," said Roberta, "as there is
+no longer any reason for them. And there is another thing I want to
+impress on your mind, Uncle Robert, you must expect no result from this
+visit except a renewal of amity between yourself and Mrs Keswick."
+
+"I understand it perfectly," said the old gentleman, feeling quite
+confident that if his family and Mrs Keswick should once again become
+friendly, the main object of his desires would not be difficult of
+accomplishment. "And now, my dear, I will not detain you any longer. I
+hope you may have a very pleasant visit, and I advise you to cultivate
+that young Mrs Null, whom I take to be a very sensible and charming
+person." And then he kissed her good-bye and shut the carriage door.
+
+It was about the middle of the afternoon when Sam drove through the
+outer Keswick gate, and Peggy, who had jumped down to open said gate,
+had made herself positively sure that, at present, there was no ghost
+sitting upon the post. Before she reached the house, Roberta began to
+wonder a good deal if she should find Mrs Keswick the woman she had
+pictured in her mind. But when the carriage drew up in front of the
+porch there came out to meet her, not the mistress of the estate, but a
+much younger lady, who tripped down the steps and reached Roberta as she
+descended from the carriage.
+
+"We are very glad to see you, Miss March," she said. "My aunt is not
+here just now, but will be back directly."
+
+"This is Mrs Null, isn't it?" said Roberta, and as the other smiled and
+answered with a slight flush that it was, Roberta stooped just the
+little that was necessary, and kissed her. Mrs Keswick's niece had not
+expected so warm a greeting from this lady, to whom she was almost a
+stranger, and instantly she said to herself: "In that kiss Freddy dies
+to you." For some days she had been turning over and over in her mind
+the question whether or not she should tell Roberta March that she was
+not Mrs Null. She greatly disliked keeping up the deception where it was
+not necessary, and with Roberta, if she would keep the secret, there was
+no need of this aerial matrimony. Besides her natural desire to confide
+in a person of her own sex and age, she did not wish Mr Croft to be the
+only one who shared her secret; and so she had determined that her
+decision would depend on what sort of girl Roberta proved to be. "If I
+like her I'll tell her; if I don't, I won't," was the final decision.
+And when Roberta March looked down upon her with her beautiful eyes and
+kissed her, Freddy Null departed this life so far as those two were
+concerned.
+
+Mrs Keswick had, apparently, made a very great miscalculation in regard
+to the probable time of arrival of her guest, for Miss March and Peggy,
+and even Sam and the horses, had been properly received and cared for,
+and Miss March had been sitting in the parlor for some time, and still
+the old lady did not come into the house. Her niece had grown very
+anxious about this absence, and had begun to fear that her aunt had
+treated Miss March as she had treated her on her arrival, and had gone
+away to stay. But Plez, whom she had sent to tell his mistress that her
+visitor was in the house, returned with the information that "ole miss"
+was in one of the lower fields directing some men who were digging a
+ditch, and that she would return to the house in a very short time. Thus
+assured that no permanent absence was intended, she went into the parlor
+to entertain Miss March, and to explain, as well as she could, the state
+of affairs; when, as she entered the door, she saw that lady suddenly
+arise and look steadfastly out of the window.
+
+"Can that be Mr Croft?" Miss March exclaimed.
+
+The younger girl made a dash forward and also looked out of the window.
+Yes, there was Mr Croft, riding across the yard toward the tree where
+horses were commonly tied.
+
+"Did you expect him?" asked Roberta, quickly.
+
+"No more than I expected the man in the moon," was the impulsive and
+honest answer of her companion.
+
+"I am very glad to see you, Mrs Null," said Lawrence, when that lady met
+him on the porch. And when he was shown into the parlor, he greeted Miss
+March with much cordiality, but no surprise. But when he inquired after
+other members of the family, he was much surprised to find that Mr
+Keswick had gone to Washington. "Was not this very unexpected, Mrs
+Null?" he asked.
+
+"Why, no," she answered. "Junius told us, almost as soon as he came
+here, that he would have to be in Washington by the first of this week."
+
+Mr Croft did not pursue this subject further, but presently remarked:
+"Are you and I the first comers, Miss March?"
+
+Roberta looked from one of her companions to the other, and remarked: "I
+do not understand you."
+
+Lawrence now perceived that he was treading a very uncertain and,
+perhaps, dangerous path of conversation, and the sooner he got out of it
+the better; but, before he could decide what answer to make, a silent
+and stealthy figure appeared at the door, beckoning and nodding in a
+very mysterious way. This proved to be the plump black maid, Letty, who,
+having attracted the attention of the company, whispered loudly, "Miss
+Annie!" whereupon that young lady immediately left the room.
+
+"What other comers did you expect?" then asked Roberta of Mr Croft.
+
+"I certainly supposed there would be a small company here," he said,
+"probably neighborhood people, but if I was mistaken, of course I don't
+wish to say anything more about it to the family."
+
+"Were you invited yourself?" asked Roberta.
+
+Croft wished very much that he could say that he had accidentally
+dropped in. But this he could not do, and he answered that Mrs Keswick
+asked him to come about this time. He did not consider it necessary to
+add that she had written to him at the Springs, renewing her invitation
+very earnestly, and mentioning that Miss March had consented to make one
+of the party.
+
+This was as far as Roberta saw fit to continue the subject, on the
+present occasion; and she began to talk about the charming weather, and
+the pretty way in which the foliage was reddening on the side of a hill
+opposite the window. Mr Croft was delighted to enter into this new
+channel of speech, and discussed with considerable fervor the
+attractiveness of autumn in Virginia. Miss Annie found Letty in a very
+disturbed state of mind. The dinner had been postponed until the arrival
+of Miss March, and now it had been still further delayed by the
+non-arrival of the mistress of the house, and everything was becoming
+dried up, and unfit to eat. "This will never do!" exclaimed Miss Annie.
+"I will go myself and look for aunt. She must have forgotten the time of
+day, and everything else."
+
+Putting on her hat she ran out of the back door, but she did not have to
+go very far, for she found the old lady in the garden, earnestly
+regarding a bed of turnips. "Where have you been, my dear aunt?" cried
+the girl. "Miss March has been here ever so long, and Mr Croft has come,
+and dinner has been waiting until it has all dried up. I was afraid that
+you had forgotten that company was coming to-day."
+
+"Forgotten!" said the old lady, glaring at the turnips. "It isn't an
+easy thing to forget. I invited the girl, and I expected her to come,
+but I tell you, Annie, when I saw that carriage coming along the road,
+all the old feeling came back to me. I remembered what its owners had
+done to me and mine, and what they are still trying to do, and I felt I
+could not go into the house, and give her my hand. It would be like
+taking hold of a snake."
+
+"A snake!" cried her niece, with much warmth. "She is a lovely woman!
+And her coming shows what kindly feelings she has for you. But, no
+matter what you think about it, aunt, you have asked her here, and you
+must come in and see her. Dinner is waiting, and I don't know what more
+to say about your absence."
+
+"Go in and have dinner," said Mrs Keswick. "Don't wait for me. I'll come
+in and see her after a while; but I haven't yet got to the point of
+sitting down to the table and eating with her."
+
+"Oh, aunt!" exclaimed Annie, "you ought never to have asked her if you
+are going to treat her in this way! And what am I to say to her? What
+excuse am I to make? Are you not sick? Isn't something the matter with
+you?"
+
+"You can tell them I'm flustrated," said the old lady, "and that is all
+that's the matter with me. But I'm not coming in to dinner, and there is
+no use of saying anything more about it."
+
+Annie looked at her, the tears of mortification still standing in her
+eyes. "I suppose I must go and do the best I can," she said, "but, aunt,
+please tell me one thing. Did you invite any other people here? Mr Croft
+spoke as if he expected to see other visitors, and if they ask anything
+more about it, I don't know what to say."
+
+"The only other people I invited," said the old lady with a grim grin,
+"were the King of Norway, and the Prime Minister of Spain, and neither
+of them could come." Annie said no more, but hurrying back to the
+house, she ordered dinner to be served immediately. At first the meal
+was not a very lively one. The young hostess _pro tempore_ explained the
+absence of the mistress of the house by stating that she had had a
+nervous attack--which was quite true--and that she begged them to excuse
+her until after dinner. The two guests expressed their regret at this
+unfortunate indisposition, but each felt a degree of embarrassment at
+the absence of Mrs Keswick. Roberta, who had heard many stories of the
+old woman, guessed at the true reason, and if the distance had not been
+so great, she would have gone home that afternoon. Lawrence Croft, of
+course, could imagine no reason for the old lady's absence, except the
+one that had been given them, but he suspected that there must be some
+other. He did his best, however, to make pleasant conversation; and
+Roberta, who began to have a tender feeling for the little lady at the
+head of the table, who, she could easily see, had been placed in an
+unpleasant position, seconded his efforts with such effect that, when
+the little party had concluded their dinner with a course of hot pound
+cake and cream sauce, they were chatting together quite sociably.
+
+In about ten minutes after they had all gone into the parlor, Miss Annie
+excused herself, and presently returned with a message to Miss March
+that Mrs Keswick would be very glad to see her in another room. This was
+a very natural message from an elderly lady, who was not well, but
+Roberta arose and walked out of the parlor with a feeling as if she
+were about to enter the cage of an erratic tigress. But she met with no
+such creature. She saw in the back room, into which she was ushered, a
+small old woman, dressed very plainly, who came forward to meet her,
+extending both hands, into one of which Roberta placed one of her own.
+
+"I may as well say at once, Roberta March," said Mrs Keswick, "that the
+reason I didn't come to meet you when you first arrived was, that I
+couldn't get over, all of a sudden, the feelings I have had against your
+family for so many years."
+
+"Why then, Mrs Keswick," said Roberta, very coldly, "did you ask me to
+come?"
+
+"Because I wanted you to come," said Mrs Keswick, "and because I thought
+I was stronger than I turned out to be; but you must make allowances for
+the stiffness which gets into old people's dispositions as well as their
+backs. I want you to understand, however, that I meant all I said in
+that letter, and I am very glad to see you. If anything in my conduct
+has seemed to you out of the way, you must set it down to the fact that
+I was making a very sudden turn, and starting out on a new track in
+which I hope we shall all keep for the rest of our lives."
+
+Roberta could not help thinking that the sudden turn in the new track
+began with the visit of her uncle to this house, and that the old lady
+need not have inflicted upon her the disagreeable necessity of
+witnessing a hostess taking a very repulsive cold plunge; but all she
+said was that she hoped the families would now live together in friendly
+relations; and that she was sure that, if this were to be, it would give
+her uncle a great deal of pleasure. She very much wanted to ask Mrs
+Keswick how Mr Croft happened to be here at this time, but she felt that
+her very brief acquaintance with the lady would not warrant the
+discussion of a subject like that.
+
+"She is very much the kind of woman I thought she was," said Roberta to
+herself, when, after some further hospitable remarks from Mrs Keswick,
+the two went to the parlor together to find Mr Croft. But that
+gentleman, having been deserted by all the ladies, was walking up and
+down the greensward in front of the house, smoking a cigar. Mrs Keswick
+went out to him, and greeted him very cordially, begging him to excuse
+her for not being able to see him as soon as he came.
+
+Lawrence set all this aside in his politest manner, but declared himself
+very much disappointed in not seeing Mr Keswick, and also remarked that
+from what she had said to him on his last visit he had expected to find
+quite a little party here.
+
+"I am sorry," said the old lady, "that Junius is away, for he would be
+very glad to see you, and it never came into my mind to mention to you
+that he was obliged to be in Washington at this time. And, as for the
+party, I thought afterwards that it would be a great deal cosier just to
+have a few persons here."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Lawrence, "most certainly, a great deal cosier."
+
+Mrs Keswick ate supper with her guests, and behaved very well. During
+the evening she sustained the main part of the conversation, giving the
+company a great many anecdotes and reminiscences of old times and old
+families, relating them in an odd and peculiar way that was very
+interesting, especially to Croft, to whom the subject matter was quite
+new. But, although her three companions listened to the old lady with
+deferential attention, interspersed with appropriate observations, each
+one made her the object of severe mental scrutiny, and endeavored to
+discover the present object of her scheming old mind. Roberta was quite
+sure that her invitation and that of Mr Croft was a piece of artful
+management on the part of the old lady, and imagined, though she was not
+quite sure about it, that it was intended as a bit of match-making. To
+get her married to somebody else, would be, of course, the best possible
+method of preventing her marrying Junius; and this, she had reason to
+believe, was the prime object of old Mrs Keswick's existence. But why
+should Mr Croft be chosen as the man with whom she was to be thrown. She
+had learned that the old lady had seen him before, but was quite certain
+that her acquaintance with him was slight. Could Junius have told his
+aunt about the friendship between herself and Mr Croft? It was not like
+him, but a great many unlikely things take place.
+
+As for Lawrence, he knew very well there was a trick beneath his
+invitation, but he could not at all make out why it had been played. He
+had been given an admirable opportunity of offering himself to Miss
+March, but there was no reason, apparent to him, why this should have
+been done.
+
+Miss Annie, watching her aunt very carefully, and speaking but seldom,
+quite promptly made up her mind in regard to the matter. She knew very
+well the bitter opposition of the old woman to a marriage between Junius
+and Miss March; and saw, as plainly as she saw the lamp on the table,
+that Roberta had been brought here on purpose to be sacrificed to Mr
+Croft. Everything had been made ready, the altar cleared, and, as well
+as the old lady's grindstone would act, the knife sharpened. "But," said
+Miss Annie to herself, "she needn't suppose that I am going to sit quiet
+and see all this going on, with Junius away off there in Washington,
+knowing nothing about any of it."
+
+Miss Roberta retired quite early to her room, having been fatigued by
+her long drive, and she was just about to put out her light when she
+heard a little knock at the door. Opening it slightly, she saw there
+Junius Keswick's cousin, who also appeared quite ready for bed.
+
+"May I come in for a minute?" said Annie.
+
+"Certainly," replied Miss March, admitting her, and closing the door
+after her.
+
+"I have something to tell you," said the younger lady, admiring as she
+spoke, the length of her companion's braided hair. "I intended to keep
+it until to-morrow, but since I came up stairs I felt I could not let
+you sleep a night under the same roof with me without knowing it. I am
+not Mrs Null."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Roberta, in a tone which made Annie lift up her hands
+and implore her not to speak so loud, for fear that her aunt should hear
+her. "I know she hasn't come up stairs yet, for she sits up dreadfully
+late, but she can hear things, almost anywhere. No, I am not Mrs Null.
+There is no such person as Mr Null, or, at least, he is a mere gaseous
+myth, whom I married for the sake of the protection his name gave me."
+
+"This is the most extraordinary thing I ever heard," said Roberta. "You
+must tell me all about it."
+
+"I don't want to keep you up," said Annie, "you must be tired."
+
+"I am not tired," said Roberta, "for every particle of fatigue has flown
+away." And with this she made Annie sit down beside her on the lounge.
+"Now you must tell me what this means," she said. "Can it be that your
+aunt does not know about it?"
+
+"Indeed, she does not," said Annie. "I married Freddy Null in New York,
+for reasons which we need not talk of now, for that matter is all past
+and gone; but when I came here, I found almost immediately, that he
+would be more necessary to me in this house than anywhere else."
+
+"I cannot imagine," said Roberta, "why a gaseous husband should be
+necessary to you here."
+
+"It is not a very easy thing to explain," said the other, "that is, it
+is easy enough, but--"
+
+"Oh," said Roberta, catching the reason of her companion's hesitation,
+"I don't think you ought to object to tell me your reason. Does it
+relate to your cousin Junius?"
+
+"Well," said Annie, "not altogether, and not so much to him as to my
+aunt." "I think I see," said Roberta. "A marriage between you two would
+suit her very well. Are you afraid that she would try to force him on
+you?"
+
+"Oh, no;" said Annie, "that would be bad enough, but it would not be so
+embarrassing, and so dreadfully unpleasant, as forcing me on him, and
+that is what aunt wants to do. And you can easily see that, in that
+case, I could not stay in this house at all. I scarcely know my cousin
+as a man, my strongest recollection of him being that of a big and very
+nice boy, who used to climb up in the apple-trees to get me apples, and
+then come down to the very lowest branch where he could drop the ripest
+ones right into my apron, and not bruise them. But, even if I had been
+acquainted with him all these years, and liked him ever so much, I
+couldn't stay here and have aunt make him take me, whether he wanted
+to, or not. And, unless you knew my aunt very well, you could not
+conceive how unscrupulously straightforward she is in carrying out her
+plans."
+
+"And so," said Roberta, "you have quite baffled her by this little ruse
+of a marriage."
+
+"Not altogether," said Annie with a smile, "for she vows she is going to
+get me divorced from Mr Null."
+
+"That is funnier than the rest of it," said Roberta, laughing. And they
+both laughed together, but in a subdued way, so as not to attract the
+attention of the old lady below stairs. "And now, you see," said Annie,
+"why I must be Mrs Null while I stay here. And you will promise me that
+you will never tell any one?"
+
+"You may be sure I shall keep your queer secret. But have you not told
+it to any one but me?"
+
+"Yes," said Annie, "but I have only told it to one other, Mr Croft. But
+please don't speak of it to him."
+
+"Mr Croft!" exclaimed Roberta. "How in the world did you come to tell
+him? Do you know him so well as that?"
+
+"Well," said Annie, "it does seem out of the way, I admit, that I should
+tell him, but I can't give you the whole story of how I came to do it.
+It wouldn't interest you--at least, it would, but I oughtn't to tell it.
+It is a twisty sort of thing."
+
+"Twisty?" said Roberta, drawing herself up, and a little away from her
+companion.
+
+Annie looked up, and caught the glance by which this word was
+accompanied, and the tone in which it was spoken went straight to her
+soul. "Now," said she, "if you are going to look at me, and speak in
+that way, I'll tell you every bit of it." And she did tell the whole
+story, from her first meeting with Mr Croft in the Information Shop,
+down to the present moment.
+
+"What is your name, anyway?" said Roberta, when the story had been told.
+
+"My name," said the other, "is Annie Peyton."
+
+"And now, do you know, Annie Peyton," said Roberta, passing her fingers
+gently among the short, light-brown curls on her companion's forehead,
+"that I think you must have a very, very kindly recollection of the boy
+who used to come down to the lowest branches of the tree to drop apples
+into your apron."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+Shortly after Peggy arrived with her mistress at the Keswick
+residence, her mind began to be a good deal disturbed. She had been
+surprised, when the carriage drew up to the door, that "Mahs' Junius"
+had not rushed down to meet his intended bride, and when she found he
+was not in the house, and had, indeed, gone away from home, she did not
+at all know what to make of it. If Miss Rob took the trouble to travel
+all the way to the home of the man that the Midbranch people had decided
+she should marry, it was a very wonderful thing, indeed, that he should
+not be there to meet her. And while these thoughts were turning
+themselves over in the mind of this meditative girl of color, and the
+outgoing look in her eyes was extending itself farther and farther, as
+if in search of some solution of the mystery, up rode Mr Croft.
+
+"Dar _he!_" exclaimed Peggy, as she stood at the corner of the house
+where she had been pursuing her meditations. "He!" she continued in a
+voice that would have been quite audible to any one standing near. "Upon
+my libin' soul, wot brung him h'yar? Miss Rob don' wan' him round,
+nohow. I done druv him off wunst. Upon my libin' soul, he's done brung
+his bag behin' him on de saddle, an' I reckon he's gwine to stay."
+
+As Mr Croft dismounted and went into the house, Peggy glowered at him;
+sundry expressions, sounding very much like odds and ends of
+imprecations which she had picked up in the course of a short but
+investigative existence, gurgling from her lips. "I wish dat ole Miss
+Keswick kunjer him. Ef she knew how Miss Rob hate him, she curl he legs
+up, an' gib him mis'ry spranglin' down he back."
+
+The hope of seeing this intruder well "kunjered" by the old lady was the
+only thing that gave a promise of peace to the mind of Peggy; and though
+her nature was by no means a social one, she determined to make the
+acquaintance of some one or other in the house; hoping to find out how
+Mrs Keswick conducted her conjurations; at what time of day or night
+they were generally put into operation; and how persons could be brought
+under their influence.
+
+The breakfast hour in the Keswick house was a variable one. Sometimes
+the mistress of the establishment rose early and wanted her morning meal
+before she went out of doors; at other times she would go off to some
+distant point on the farm to see about something that was doing or ought
+to be done, and breakfast would be kept waiting for her. The delays,
+however, were not all due to the old lady's irregular habits. Very often
+Letty would come up stairs with the information that the "bread ain't
+riz;" and as a Virginia breakfast without hot bread would be an
+impossibility, the meal would be postponed until the bread did conclude
+to rise, or until some substitute, such as "beaten biscuit" had been
+provided.
+
+On the morning after his arrival, Lawrence Croft came down stairs about
+eight o'clock, and found the lower part of the house deserted; and
+glancing into the dining-room as he passed its open door, he saw no
+signs of breakfast. The house was cool, but the sun appeared to be
+shining warmly outside, and he stepped out of the open back door into a
+small flower garden, with a series of broad boards down the walk which
+lay along the middle of it. Up and down this board walk Lawrence strode,
+breathing the fresh air, and thinking over matters. He was not at all
+satisfied at being here during Keswick's absence, feeling that he was
+enjoying an advantage which, although it was quite honorable, did not
+appear so. What he had to do was to get an interview with Miss March as
+soon as possible, and have that matter over. When he had been definitely
+accepted or rejected, he would go away. And, whatever the result might
+be, he would write to his rival as soon as he returned to the Springs,
+and inform him of it, and would also explain how he had happened to be
+here with Miss March. While he was engaged in planning these honorable
+intentions, there came from the house Mrs Keswick's niece, with a basket
+in one hand, and a pair of scissors in the other, and she immediately
+applied herself to cutting some geraniums and chrysanthemums, which were
+about the last flowers left blooming at that season in the garden. "Good
+morning," said Croft, from the other end of the walk. "I am glad to see
+you out so early."
+
+"Good morning," she replied, with a look which indicated that she was
+not at all glad to see him, "but I don't think it is early."
+
+Croft had noticed on the preceding day that her coolness towards him
+still continued, but it did not suit him to let her know that he
+perceived it. He went up to her, and in a very friendly way remarked:
+"There is something I wish very much you would tell me. What is your
+name? It is very odd that during all the time I have been acquainted
+with you I have never known your name."
+
+"You must have taken an immense interest in it," she said, as she
+snipped some dried leaves off a twig of geranium she had cut.
+
+"It was not that I did not take any interest," said Croft, "but at first
+your name never came forward, and I soon began to know you by the title
+which your remarkable condition of wedlock gave you."
+
+"And that is the name," said the lady, very decidedly, "by which I am to
+be known in this house. I am very proud of my maiden name, but I am not
+going to tell it to you for fear that some time you will use it."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Mr Croft. "Then I suppose I am to continue even to
+think of you as Mrs Null."
+
+"You needn't think of me at all," said she, "but when you speak to me I
+most certainly expect you to use that name. It was only by a sort of
+accident that you came to know it was not my name." "I don't consider it
+an accident at all," said Croft. "I look upon it as a piece of very
+kindly confidence."
+
+Miss Annie gave a little twist to her mouth, which seemed to indicate
+that if she spoke she should express her contempt of such an opinion,
+and Croft continued:
+
+"I am very sorry that upon that occasion I should have felt myself
+obliged to refuse your request that I should make you acquainted with my
+reasons for desiring to know Mr Keswick's whereabouts. But I am sure, if
+you understood the matter, you would not be in the least degree--"
+
+"Oh, you need not trouble yourself about that," she interrupted. "I
+don't want you to tell me anything at all. It is quite easy, now, to see
+why you wished to know where my cousin was."
+
+"It is impossible that you should know!" exclaimed Croft.
+
+"We will say no more about it," replied Annie. "I am quite satisfied."
+
+"I would give a good deal," said Lawrence, after looking steadily at her
+for a few moments, "to know what you really do think."
+
+Annie had cut all the flowers she wanted, or, rather, all she could get;
+and she now stood up and looked her companion full in the face. "Mr
+Croft," she said, "it has been necessary, and it is necessary now for me
+to have some concealments, and I am sorry for it; but it isn't at all
+necessary for me to conceal my opinion of your reasons for wanting to
+know about Junius. You were really in pursuit of Miss March, and knowing
+that he was in love with her, you wanted to make sure that when you
+went to her, he wouldn't be there. It is my firm opinion that is all
+there is about it; and the fact of your turning up here just after my
+cousin left, proves it."
+
+"Miss Annie," exclaimed Croft--"I have heard you called by that name,
+and I vow I won't call you Mrs Null, when there is no need for it--you
+were never more mistaken in your life, and I am very sorry that you
+should have such a low opinion of me as to think I would wish to take
+advantage of your cousin during his absence."
+
+"Then why do you do it?" asked Miss Annie, with a little upward pitch of
+her chin.
+
+At this moment the breakfast-bell rang, and Mrs Keswick appeared in the
+back door, evidently somewhat surprised to see these two conversing in
+the garden.
+
+"I am very much vexed," said Lawrence, as he followed his companion, who
+had suddenly turned towards the house, "that you should think of me in
+this way."
+
+But to this remark Miss Annie had no opportunity to reply.
+
+After breakfast, Mrs Keswick proved the truth of what her niece had said
+about her unscrupulous straightforwardness when carrying out her
+projects. She had invited Mr Croft and Miss March to her house in order
+that the former might have the opportunity which she had discovered he
+wanted and could not get, of offering himself in marriage to the lady;
+and she now made it her business to see that Mr Croft's opportunity
+should stand up very clear and definite before him; and that all
+interfering circumstances should be carefully removed. She informed her
+niece that she wished her to go with her to a thicket on the other side
+of the wheat field which that young lady had advised should be ploughed
+for pickles, to look for a turkey-hen which she had reason to believe
+had been ridiculous enough to hatch out a brood of young at this
+improper season. Annie demurred, for she did not want to go to look for
+turkeys, nor did she want to give Mr Croft any opportunities; but the
+old lady insisted, and carried her off. Croft felt that there was
+something very bare and raw-boned about the position in which he was
+left with Miss March; and he thought that lady might readily suppose
+that Mrs Keswick's object was to leave them together. He imagined that,
+himself, though why she should be so kind to him he could not feel quite
+certain. However, his path lay straight before him, and if the old lady
+had whitewashed it to make it more distinct, he did not intend to refuse
+to walk in it.
+
+"I have been looking at that hill over yonder," said he, "with a cluster
+of pine trees on the brow of it. I should think there would be a fine
+view from that hill. Would you not like to walk up there?"
+
+Lawrence felt that this proposition was quite in keeping with the
+bareness of the previous proceedings, but he did not wish to stay in the
+house and be subject to the unexpected return of the old lady and her
+niece.
+
+"Certainly," said Miss March; "nothing would please me better." And so
+they walked up Pine Top Hill.
+
+When they reached this elevated position, they sat down on the rock on
+which Mrs Null had once conversed with Freddy, and admired the view,
+which was, indeed, a very fine one. After about five minutes of this,
+which Lawrence thought was quite enough, he turned to his companion and
+said:
+
+"Miss March, I do not wish you to suppose that I brought you up here for
+the purpose of viewing those rolling hills and distant forests."
+
+"You didn't?" exclaimed Roberta, in a tone of surprise.
+
+"No," said he; "I brought you here because it is a place where I could
+speak freely to you, and tell you I love you."
+
+"That was not at all necessary," said Miss March. "We had the lower
+floor of the house entirely to ourselves, and I am sure that Mrs
+Keswick would not have returned until you had waved a handkerchief, or
+given some signal from the back of the house that it was all over."
+
+Croft looked at her with a troubled expression. "Miss March," said he,
+"do you not think I am in earnest? Do you not believe what I have said?"
+"I have not the slightest doubt you are in earnest," she answered.
+"The magnitude of the preparation proves it." "I am glad you said that,
+for it gives me the opportunity for making an explanation," said
+Lawrence. "Our meeting at this place may be a carefully contrived
+stratagem, but it was not contrived by me. I am very well aware that Mr
+Keswick also wishes to marry you--"
+
+"Did you see that in the Richmond _Dispatch_ or in one of the New York
+papers?" interrupted Miss March.
+
+"That is a point," said Lawrence, overlooking the ridicule, "which we
+need not discuss. I am perfectly aware that Mr Keswick is my rival, but
+I wish you to understand that I am not voluntarily taking any undue
+advantage of his absence. I believe him to be a very fair and generous
+man, and I would wish to be as open and generous as he is. When I came,
+I expected to find him here, and, standing on equal ground with him, I
+intended to ask you to accept my love."
+
+"Well, then," said Roberta, "would it not be more fair and generous for
+you to go away now, and postpone this proposal until some time when you
+would each have an equal chance?"
+
+"No, it would not," said Lawrence, vehemently. "I have now an
+opportunity of telling you that I love you ardently, passionately; and
+nothing shall cause me to postpone it. Will you not consider what I
+say? Will you make no answer to this declaration of most true and honest
+love?"
+
+"I am considering what you have said," she answered; "and I am very glad
+to hear that you did not know of this cunning little trap that Mrs
+Keswick has laid for me. It is all very plain to me, but I do not know
+why she should have selected you as one of the actors in the plot. Have
+you ever told her that you are a suitor for my hand?"
+
+"Never!" exclaimed Lawrence. "She may have imagined it, for she heard I
+was a frequent visitor to Midbranch. But let us set all that aside. I am
+on fire with love for you. Will you tell me that you can return that
+love, or that I must give up all hope? This is the most important
+question of my whole life. I beg you, from the bottom of my heart, to
+decide it."
+
+"Mr Croft," said she, "when you used to come, nearly every day, to see
+me at Midbranch, and we took those long walks in the woods, you never
+talked in this way. I considered you as a gentleman whose prudence and
+good sense would not allow him to step outside of the path of perfectly
+conventional social intercourse. This is not conventional and not
+prudent."
+
+"I loved you then, and I love you now;" exclaimed Lawrence. "You must
+have known that I loved you, for my declaration does not in the least
+surprise you."
+
+"Once--it was the last time you visited Midbranch--I suspected, just a
+little, that your mind might be affected somewhat in the way you speak
+of, but I supposed that attack of weakness had passed away."
+
+"I know what you mean," said Lawrence, "but I can't endure to talk of
+such trifles. I love you, Roberta--"
+
+"Miss March," she interrupted.
+
+"And I want you to tell me if you love me in return."
+
+Miss March rose from the rock where she had been sitting, and her
+companion rose with her. After a moment's silence, during which he
+watched her with intense eagerness, she said: "Mr Croft, I am going to
+give you your choice. Would you prefer being refused under a cherry
+tree, or under a sycamore?"
+
+There was a little smile on her lips as she said this, which Lawrence
+could not interpret.
+
+"I decline being refused under any tree," he said with vehemence.
+
+"I prefer the cherry tree," said she, "there is a very pretty one over
+there on the ridge of this hill, and its leaves are nearly all gone,
+which would make it quite appropriate--but what is the meaning of this?
+There comes Peggy. It isn't possible that she thinks it's time for me to
+give out something to Aunt Judy."
+
+Croft turned, and there was the wooden Peggy, marching steadily up the
+hill, and almost upon them.
+
+"What do you want, Peggy?" asked Miss Roberta.
+
+"Dar's a man down to de house dat wants him," pointing to Mr Croft.
+
+Lawrence was very much surprised. "A man who wants me!" he exclaimed.
+"You must be mistaken."
+
+"No sah," replied Peggy, "you's de one."
+
+For a moment Lawrence hesitated. His disposition was to let any man in
+the world, be he president or king, wait until he had settled this
+matter with Miss March. But with Peggy present it was impossible to go
+on with the love-making. He might, indeed, send her back with a message,
+but the thought came to him that it would be well to postpone for a
+little the pressing of his suit, for the lady was certainly in a very
+untoward humor, and he was not altogether sorry to have an excuse for
+breaking off the interview at this point. He had not yet been discarded,
+and he would like to think over the matter, and see if he could discover
+any reason for the very disrespectful manner, to say the least of it,
+with which Miss March had received his amatory advances. "I suppose I
+must go and see the man," he said, "though I can't imagine who it can
+possibly be. Will you return to the house?"
+
+"No," said Miss Roberta, "I will stay here a little longer, and enjoy
+the view."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+As Lawrence Croft walked down Pine Top Hill his mind was in a good deal
+of a hubbub. The mind of almost any lover would be stirred up if he came
+fresh from an interview, in which his lady had pinned him, to use a
+cruel figure, in various places on the wall to see how he would spin and
+buzz in different lights. But the disdainful pin had not yet gone
+through a vital part of Lawrence's hopes, and they had strength to spin
+and buzz a good deal yet. As soon as he should have an opportunity he
+would rack his brains to find out what it was that had put Roberta March
+into such a strange humor. No one who simply desired to decline the
+addresses of a gentleman would treat her lover as Miss March had treated
+him. It was quite evident that she wished to punish him. But what had
+been his crime?
+
+But the immediate business on his hands was to go and see what man it
+was who wished to see him. Ordinarily the fact that a man had called
+upon him would not be considered by Lawrence a matter for cogitation,
+but as he walked toward the house it seemed to him very odd that any one
+should call upon him in such an out-of-the-way place as this, where so
+few people knew him to be. He was not a business man, but a large
+portion of his funds were invested in a business concern, and it might
+be that something had gone wrong, and that a message had been sent him.
+His address at the Green Sulphur Springs was known, and the man in
+charge there knew that he was visiting Mrs Keswick.
+
+These considerations made him a little anxious, and helped to keep his
+mind in the hubbub which has been mentioned.
+
+When he reached the front of the house, Lawrence saw a lean, gray horse
+tied to a tree, and a man sitting upon the porch; and as soon as he made
+his appearance the latter came down the steps to meet him.
+
+"I didn't go into the house, sir," he said, "because I thought you'd
+just as lief have a talk outside."
+
+"What is your business?" asked Croft.
+
+The man moved a few steps farther from the house, and Lawrence followed
+him.
+
+"Is it anything secret you have to tell me?" he asked.
+
+"Well, yes, sir, I should think it was," replied the other, a tall man,
+with sandy hair and beard, and dressed in a checkered business suit,
+which had lost a good deal of the freshness of its early youth. "I may
+as well tell you at once who I am. I am an anti-detective. Never heard
+of that sort of person, I suppose?"
+
+"Never," said Lawrence, curtly.
+
+"Well, sir, the organization which I belong to is one which is filling a
+long felt want. You know very well, sir, that this country is full of
+detective officers, not only those who belong to a regular police force,
+but lots of private ones, who, if anybody will pay them for it, will go
+to Jericho to hunt a man up. Now, sir, our object is to protect society
+against these people. When we get information that a man is going to be
+hounded down by any of these detectives--and we have private ways of
+knowing these things--we just go to that man, and if he is willing to
+become one of our clients, we take him into our charge; and our
+business, after that, is to keep him informed of just what is being done
+against him. He can stay at home in comfort with his wife, settle up his
+accounts, and do what he likes, and the day before he is to be swooped
+down on, he gets notice from us, and comfortably goes to Chicago, or
+Jacksonville, where he can take his ease until we post him of the next
+move of the enemy. If he wants to take extra precautions, and writes a
+letter to anybody in the place where he lives, dated from London or Hong
+Kong, and sends that letter under cover to us, we'll see that it is
+mailed from the place it is dated from, and that it gets into the hands
+of the detectives. There have been cases where a gentleman has had six
+months or a year of perfect comfort, by the detectives being thrown off
+by a letter like this. That is only one of the ways in which we help
+and protect persons in difficulties who, if it wasn't for us, would be
+dragged off, hand-cuffed, from the bosom of their families; and who,
+even if they never got convicted, would have to pay a lot of money to
+get out of the scrape. Now, I have put myself a good deal out of the
+way, sir, to come to you, and offer you our assistance."
+
+"Me!" exclaimed Croft. "What are you talking about?"
+
+The man smiled. "Of course, it's all right to know nothing about it, and
+it's just what we would advise; but I assure you we are thoroughly
+posted in your affair, and to let you know that we are, I'll just
+mention that the case is that of Croft after Keswick, through Candy."
+
+"Stuff and nonsense!" exclaimed Lawrence, getting red in the face.
+"There is no such case!"
+
+He was about to say more, when a few words from the anti-detective
+stopped him suddenly.
+
+"Look here, Mr Keswick," said the man, leveling a long fore-finger at
+him, and speaking very earnestly, "don't you go and flatter yourself
+that this thing has been dropped, because you haven't heard of it for a
+month or two; and if you'll take my advice, you'll make up your mind on
+the spot, either to let things go on and be nabbed, or to put yourself
+under our protection, and live in entire safety until this thing has
+blown over, without any trouble, except a little travelling." At the
+mention of Keswick's name, Lawrence had seen through the whole affair at
+a single mental glance. The man was after Junius Keswick, and his
+business was to Lawrence more startling and repugnant than it could
+possibly be to any one else. It was necessary to be very careful. If he
+immediately avowed who he was, the man might yet find Keswick, before
+warning and explanation could be got to him, and not only put that
+gentleman in a very unpleasant state of mind, but do a lot of mischief
+besides. He did not believe that Mr Candy had recommenced his
+investigations without consultation with him, but this person evidently
+knew that such an investigation had been set on foot, and that would be
+sufficient for his purposes. Lawrence decided to be very wary, and he
+said to the man, "Did you ask for me here by name?"
+
+"No, _sir_," said the other, "I had information that you were here, and
+that you were the only gentleman who lived here and although you are in
+your own home, I did not know but this was one of those cases in which
+names were dropped and servants changed, to suit an emergency. I asked
+the little darkey I saw at the front of the house if she lived here, and
+she told me she had only just come. That put me on my guard, and so I
+merely asked if the gentleman was in, and she went and got you. We're
+very careful about calling names, and you needn't be afraid that any of
+our people will ever give you away on that line."
+
+Lawrence reflected for a moment, and then he said: "What are your terms
+and arrangements for carrying on an affair of this kind?"
+
+"They are very simple and moderate," said the man, taking a wallet from
+his pocket. "There is one of our printed slips, which we show but don't
+give away. To become a client all you have to do is to send fifteen
+dollars to the office, or to pay it to me, if you think no time should
+be lost. That will entitle you to protection for a year. After that we
+make the nominal charge of five dollars for each letter sent you, giving
+you information of what is going on against you. For extra services,
+such as mailing letters from distant points, of course there will be
+extra charges."
+
+Lawrence glanced over the printed slip, which contained information very
+similar to that the man had given him, and as he did so, he came to the
+conclusion that there would be nothing dishonest in allowing the fellow
+to continue in his mistake, and to endeavor to find out what mischief
+was about to be done in his, Lawrence's, name, and under his apparent
+authority. "I will become a subscriber," said he, taking out his
+pocket-book, "and request that you give me all the information you
+possess, here and immediately."
+
+"That is the best thing to do," said the man, taking the money, "for, in
+my opinion, no time is to be lost. I'll give you a receipt for this."
+
+"Don't trouble yourself about that," said Lawrence; "let me have your
+information."
+
+"You're very right," said the man. "It's a great deal better not to
+have your name on anything. And now for the points. Candy, who has
+charge of Croft's job, is going more into the detective business than he
+used to be, and we have information that he has lately taken up your
+affair in good, solid earnest. He found out that Croft had put somebody
+else on your track, without regularly taking the business out of his
+hands, and this made him mad; and I don't wonder at it, for Croft, as I
+understand, has plenty of money, and if he concluded to throw Candy
+over, he ought to have done it fair and square, and paid him something
+handsome in consideration for having taken the job away. But he didn't
+do anything of the kind, and Candy considers himself still in his
+employment, and vows he's going to get hold of you before the other
+party does; so, you see, you have got two sets of detectives after you,
+and they'll be mighty sharp, for the first one that gets you will make
+the money."
+
+"Where are Candy's detectives now?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"That I can't tell you positively, as I am so far from our New York
+office, to which all information comes. But now that you are a
+subscriber, I'll communicate with head-quarters and the necessary points
+will be immediately sent to you by telegraph, if necessary. All that you
+have to do is to stay here until you hear from us."
+
+"From the way you spoke just now," said Lawrence, "I supposed the
+detective would be here to-day or to-morrow."
+
+"Oh no," said the other, "Candy has not the facilities for finding
+people that we have. But it takes some time for me to communicate with
+head-quarters and for you to hear from there; and so, as I said before,
+there isn't an hour to be lost. But you're all right now."
+
+"I expected you to give me more definite information than this," said
+Lawrence, "but now, I suppose, I must wait until I hear from New York,
+at five dollars a message."
+
+"My business is to enlist subscribers," said the other. "You couldn't
+expect me to tell you anything definite when I am in an out-of-the-way
+place like this."
+
+"Did you come down to Virginia on purpose to find me?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"No," said the man, "I am on my way to Mobile, and I only lose one train
+by stopping here to attend to your business."
+
+"How did you know I was here?"
+
+"Ah," said the anti-detective, with a smile, "as I told you, we have
+facilities. I knew you were at this house, and I came here, straight as
+a die."
+
+"It is truly wonderful," said Lawrence, "how accurate your information
+is. And now I will tell you something you can have, gratis. You have
+made one of the most stupid blunders that I ever heard of. Mr Keswick
+went away from here, nearly a week ago, and I am the Mr Croft whom you
+supposed to be in pursuit of him."
+
+The man started, and gave vent to an unpleasant ejaculation.
+
+"To prove it," said Lawrence, "there is my card, and," putting his hand
+into his pocket, "here are several letters addressed to me. And I want
+to let you know that I am not in pursuit of Mr Keswick; that he and I
+are very good friends; and that I have frequently seen him of late; and
+so you can just drop this business at once. And as for Candy, he has no
+right to take a single step for which I have not authorized him. I
+merely employed him to get Mr Keswick's address, which I wished for a
+very friendly motive. I shall write to Candy at once."
+
+The man's face was not an agreeable study. He looked angry; he looked
+baffled; and yet he looked incredulous. "Now, come," said he, "if you
+are not Keswick, what did you pay me that money for?"
+
+"I paid it to you," said Lawrence, "because I wanted to find out what
+dirty business you were doing in my name. I have had the worth of my
+money, and you can now go."
+
+The man did not go, but stood gazing at Lawrence in a very peculiar way.
+"If Mr Keswick isn't here," he said, "I believe you are here waiting
+for him, and I am going to stay and warn him. People don't set private
+detectives on other men's tracks just for friendly motives."
+
+Lawrence's face flushed and he made a step forward, but suddenly
+checking himself, he looked at the man for a moment and then said: "I
+suppose you want me to understand that if I become one of your
+subscribers in my own name, you will be willing to withhold the
+information you intended to give Mr Keswick."
+
+"Well," said the man, relapsing into his former confidential tones,
+"business is business. If I could see Mr Keswick, I don't know whether
+he would employ me or not. I have no reason to work for one person more
+than another, and, of course, if one man comes to me and another
+doesn't, I'm bound to work for the man who comes. That's business!"
+
+"You have said quite enough," said Lawrence. "Now leave this place
+instantly!"
+
+"No, I won't!" said the man, shutting his mouth very tightly, as he drew
+himself up and folded his arms on his chest.
+
+Lawrence was young, well-made, and strong, but the other man was taller,
+heavier, and perhaps stronger. To engage in a personal contest to compel
+a fellow like this to depart, would be a very unpleasant thing for
+Lawrence to do, even if he succeeded. He was a visitor here, the ladies
+would probably be witnesses of the conflict, and although the natural
+impulse of his heart, predominant over everything else at that moment,
+prompted him to spring upon the impudent fellow and endeavor to thrash
+him, still his instincts as a gentleman forbade him to enter into such a
+contest, which would probably have no good effect, no matter how it
+resulted. Never before did he feel the weakness of the moral power of a
+just cause when opposed to brutal obstinacy. Still he did not retreat
+from his position. "Did you hear what I said?" he cried. "Leave this
+place!"
+
+"You are not master here," said the other, still preserving his defiant
+attitude, "and you have no right to order me away. I am not going."
+
+Despite his inferiority in size, despite his gentlemanly instincts, and
+despite his prudent desire not to make an exhibition of himself before
+Miss March and the household, it is probable that Lawrence's anger would
+have assumed some form of physical manifestation, had not Mrs Keswick
+appeared suddenly on the porch. It was quite evident to her, from the
+aspect of the two men, that something was wrong, and she called out:
+"Who's that?"
+
+"That, madam," said Lawrence, stepping a little back, "is a very
+impertinent man who has no business here, and whom I've ordered off the
+place, and, as he has refused to go, I propose--"
+
+"Stop!" cried the old lady. And turning, she rushed into the house.
+Before either of the men could recover from their surprise at her sudden
+action, she reappeared upon the porch, carrying a double-barreled gun.
+Taking her position on the top of the flight of steps, with a quick
+movement of her thumb she cocked both barrels. Then, drawing herself up
+and resting firmly on her right leg, with the left advanced, she raised
+the gun; her right elbow well against her side, and with her extended
+left arm as steady as one of the beams of the roof above her. She hooked
+her forefinger around one of the triggers, her eagle eye glanced along
+the barrels straight at the head of the anti-detective, and, in a
+clarion voice she sang out "Go!"
+
+The man stared at her. He saw the open muzzles of the gun barrels;
+beyond them, he saw the bright tops of the two percussion caps; and
+still beyond them, he saw the bright and determined eye that was taking
+sight along the barrels. All this he took in at a glance, and, without
+word or comment, he made a quick dodge of his head, jumped to one side,
+made a dash for his horse, and, untying the bridle with a jerk, he
+mounted and galloped out of the open gate, turning as he did so to find
+himself still covered by the muzzles of that gun. When he had nearly
+reached the outer gate and felt himself out of range, he turned in his
+saddle, and looking back at Lawrence, who was still standing where he
+had left him, he violently shook his fist in the air.
+
+"Which means," said Lawrence to himself, "that he intends to make
+trouble with Keswick."
+
+"That settled him," said the old lady, with a grim smile, as she lowered
+the muzzle of the gun, and gently let down the hammers. "Madam," said
+Lawrence, advancing toward her, "may I ask if that gun is loaded?"
+
+"I should say so," replied the old lady. "In each barrel are two
+thimblefuls of powder, and half-a-box of Windfall's Teaberry Tonic
+Pills, each one of them as big and as hard as a buckshot. They were
+brought here by a travelling agent, who sold some of them to my people;
+and I tell you, sir, that those pills made them so sick that one man
+wasn't able to work for two days, and another for three. I vowed if that
+agent ever came back, I'd shoot his abominable pills into him, and I've
+kept the gun loaded for the purpose. Was this a pill man? I scarcely
+think he was a fertilizer, because it is rather late in the season for
+those bandits."
+
+"He is a man," said Lawrence, coming up the steps, "who belongs to a
+class much worse than those you have mentioned. He is what is called a
+blackmailer."
+
+"Is that so?" cried the old lady, her eyes flashing as she brought the
+butt of the gun heavily upon the porch floor. "I'm very glad I did not
+know it; very glad, indeed; for I might have been tempted to give him
+what belonged to another, without waiting for him to disobey my order to
+go. I am very much troubled, sir, that this annoyance should have
+happened to you in my house. Pray do not allow it to interfere with the
+enjoyment of your visit here, which I hope may continue as long as you
+can make it convenient." The words and manner convinced Lawrence that
+that they did not merely indicate a conventional hospitality. The old
+lady meant what she said. She wanted him to stay.
+
+That morning he had become convinced that he had been invited there
+because Mrs Keswick wished him to marry Miss March; and she had done
+this, not out of any kind feeling toward him, because that would be
+impossible, considering the shortness of their acquaintance, but because
+she was opposed to her nephew's marriage with Miss March, and because
+he, Lawrence, was the only available person who could be brought forward
+to supplant him. "But whatever her motive is," thought Lawrence, "her
+invitation comes in admirably for me, and I hope I shall get the proper
+advantage from it."
+
+Shortly after this, Lawrence sat in the parlor, by himself, writing a
+letter. It was to Junius Keswick; and in it he related the facts of his
+search for him in New York, and the reason why he desired to make his
+acquaintance. He concealed nothing but the fact that Keswick's cousin
+had had anything to do with the affair. "If she wants him to know that,"
+he thought, "she can tell him herself. It is not my business to make any
+revelations in that quarter." He concluded the letter by informing Mr
+Keswick of the visit of the anti-detective, and warning him against any
+attempts which that individual might make upon his pocket, assuring him
+that the man could tell him nothing in regard to the affair that he now
+did not know.
+
+After dinner, during which meal Miss March appeared in a very good
+humor, and talked rather more than she had yet done in the bosom of that
+family, Lawrence had his horse saddled, and rode to the railroad
+station, about six miles distant, where he posted his letter; and also
+sent a telegram to Mr Junius Keswick, warning him to pay no attention to
+any man who might call upon him on business connected with Croft and
+Keswick, and stating that an explanatory letter had been sent.
+
+The anti-detective had left on a train an hour before, but Lawrence felt
+certain that the telegram would reach Keswick before the man could
+possibly get to him, especially as the latter had probably not yet found
+out his intended victim's address.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+As Lawrence Croft rode back to Mrs Keswick's house, after having posted
+to his rival the facts in the case of Croft after Keswick, he did not
+feel in a very happy or triumphant mood. The visit of the anti-detective
+had compelled him to write to Keswick at a time when it was not at all
+desirable that he should make any disclosures whatever in regard to his
+love affair with Miss March, except that very important disclosure which
+he had made to the lady herself that morning. Of course there was no
+great danger that any intimation would reach Miss March of Mr Croft's
+rather eccentric search for his predecessor in the position which he
+wished to occupy in her affections. But the matter was particularly
+unpleasant just now, and Lawrence wished to occupy his time here in
+business very different from that of sending explanations to rivals and
+warding off unfriendly entanglements threatened by a blackmailer.
+
+It was absolutely necessary for him to find out what he had done to
+offend Miss March. Offended that lady certainly was, and he even felt
+that she was glad of the opportunity his declaration gave her to inflict
+punishment upon him. But still he did not despair. When she had made him
+pay the penalty she thought proper for whatever error he had committed,
+she might be willing to listen to him. He had not said anything to her
+in regard to his failure to make her the promised visit at Midbranch,
+for, during the only time he had been alone with her here, the subject
+of an immediate statement of his feelings toward her had wholly occupied
+his mind. But it now occurred to him that she had reason to feel
+aggrieved at his failure to keep his promise to her, and she must have
+shown that feeling, for, otherwise, her most devoted friend, Mr Junius
+Keswick, would never have made that rather remarkable visit to him at
+the Green Sulphur Springs. Of course he would not allude to that visit,
+nor to her wish to see him, for she had sent him no message, nor did he
+know what object she had in desiring an interview. But it was quite
+possible that she might have taken umbrage at his failure to come to her
+when expected, and that this was the reason for her present treatment of
+him. To this treatment Lawrence might have taken exception, but now he
+did not wish to judge her in any way. His only desire in regard to her
+was to possess her, and therefore, instead of condemning her for her
+unjust method of showing her resentment, he merely considered how he
+should set himself right with her. Cruel or kind, just or unjust, he
+wanted her.
+
+And then, as he slowly trotted along the lonely and uneven road, it
+suddenly flashed upon him, as if in mounting a hill, a far-reaching
+landscape, hitherto unseen, had in a moment, spread itself out before
+him, that, perhaps, Miss March had divined the reason of his extremely
+discreet behavior toward her. Was it possible that she had seen his
+motives, and knew the truth, and that she resented the prudence and
+caution he had shown in his intercourse with her?
+
+If she had read the truth, he felt that she had good reason for her
+resentment, and Lawrence did not trouble himself to consider if she had
+shown too much of it or not. He remembered the story of the defeated
+general, and, feeling that so far he had been thoroughly defeated, he
+determined to admit the fact, and to sound a retreat from all the
+positions he had held; but, at the same time, to make a bold dash into
+the enemy's camp, and, if possible, capture the commander-in-chief and
+the Minister of War.
+
+He would go to Roberta, tell her all that he had thought, and explain
+all that he had done. There should be no bit of truth which she could
+have reasoned out, which he would not plainly avow and set before her.
+Then he would declare to her that his love for her had become so great,
+that, rushing over every barrier, whether of prudence, doubt, or
+indecision, it had carried him with it and laid him at her feet. When he
+had come to this bold conclusion, he cheered up his horse with a thump
+of his heel and cantered rapidly over the rest of the road.
+
+Peggy, having nothing else to do, was standing by the yard gate when he
+came in sight, and she watched his approach with feelings of surprise
+and disgust. She had seen him ride away, and not considering the fact
+that he did not carry his valise with him, she supposed he had taken his
+final departure. She had conceived a violent dislike to Mr Croft,
+looking upon him in the light of an interloper and a robber, who had
+come to break up that expected marriage between Master Junius and Miss
+Rob, which the servants at Midbranch looked forward to as necessary for
+the prosperity of the family; and the preliminary stages of which she
+had taken upon herself the responsibility of describing with so much
+minuteness of detail. With the politeness natural to the Southern negro,
+she opened the gate for the gentleman, but as she closed it behind him,
+she cast after him a look of earnest malevolence. "Ef dot ole Miss
+Keswick don' kunjer you, sah," she said in an undertone, "I's gwine to
+do it myse'f. So, dar!" And she gave her foot a stamp on the ground.
+
+Lawrence, all ignorant of the malignant feeling he had excited in this,
+to him, very unimportant and uninteresting black girl, tied his horse
+and went into the house. As he passed the open door of the parlor he
+saw a lady reading by a window in the farthest corner. Hanging up his
+hat, he entered, hoping that the reader, whose form was partially
+concealed by the back of the large rocking chair in which she was
+sitting, was Miss March. But it was not; it was Mrs Keswick's niece,
+deeply engrossed by a large-paged novel. She turned her head as he
+entered, and said: "Good evening."
+
+"Good evening, Miss Annie," said Lawrence, seating himself in a chair
+opposite her on the other side of the window.
+
+"Mr Croft," said she, laying her book on her lap, and inclining herself
+slightly toward him, "you have no right to call me Miss Annie, and I
+wish you would not do it. The servants in the South call ladies by their
+first names, whether they are married or not, but people would think it
+very strange if you should imitate them. My name in this house is Mrs
+Null, and I wish you would not forget it."
+
+"The trouble with me is," said Lawrence, with a smile, "that I cannot
+forget it is not Mrs Null, but, of course, if you desire it, I will give
+you that name."
+
+"I told you before how much I desired it," said she, "and why. When my
+aunt finds out the exact state of this affair, I shall wish to stay no
+longer in this house; and I don't want my stay to come to an end at
+present. I am very happy here with the only relatives I have in the
+world, who are ever so much nicer people than I supposed they were, and
+you have no right to come here and drive me away."
+
+"My dear young lady," said Croft, "I wouldn't do such a thing for the
+world. I admit that I am very sorry that it is necessary, or appears to
+you to be so, that you should be here under false colors, but--"
+
+"_Appears_ to be," said she, with much emphasis on the first word. "Why,
+can't you see that it would be impossible for me, as a young unmarried
+woman, to come to the house of a man, whose proprietor, as Aunt Keswick
+considers herself to be, has been trying to marry to me, even before I
+was grown up; for the letters that used to make my father most angry
+were about this. I hate to talk of these family affairs, and I only do
+it so that you can be made understand things."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "do not think I wish to blame you. You have
+had a hard time of it, and I can see the peculiarities of your residence
+here. Don't be afraid of me; I will not betray your secret. While I am
+here, I will address you, and will try to think of you as a very grave
+young matron. But I wish very much that you were not quite so grave and
+severe when you address me. When I was here last week your manner was
+very different. We were quite friendly then."
+
+"I see no particular reason," said Annie, "why we should be friendly."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, after a little pause, during which he
+looked at her attentively, "I don't believe you approve of me."
+
+"No," said she, "I don't."
+
+He could not help smiling at the earnest directness of her answer,
+though he did not like it. "I am sorry," he said, "that you should have
+so poor an opinion of me. And, now, let me tell you what I was going to
+say this morning, that my only object in finding your cousin was to know
+the man who had been engaged to Miss March."
+
+"So that you could find out what she probably objected to in him, and
+could then try and not let her see anything of that sort in you."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "you are unjust. There is no reason why you
+should speak to me in this way."
+
+"I would like to know," she said, "what cause there could possibly be
+for your wanting to become acquainted with a man who had been engaged to
+the lady you wished to marry, if you didn't intend to study him up, and
+try to do better yourself."
+
+"My motive in desiring to become acquainted with Mr Keswick," said
+Lawrence, "is one you could scarcely understand, and all I can say about
+it is, that I believed that if I knew the gentleman who had formerly
+been the accepted lover of a lady, I should better know the lady."
+
+"You must be awfully suspicious," said she.
+
+"No, I am not," he answered, "and I knew you would not understand me. My
+only desire in speaking to you upon this subject is that you may not
+unreasonably judge me."
+
+"But I am not unreasonable," said Annie. "You are trying to get Miss
+March away from my cousin; and I don't think it is fair, and I don't
+want you to do it. When you were here before, I thought you two were
+good friends, but now I don't believe it."
+
+How friendly might be the relations between himself and Keswick, when
+the latter should read his letter about the Candy affair, and should
+know that he was in this house with Miss March, Lawrence could not say;
+but he did not allude to this point in his companion's remarks. "I do
+not think," he said, "that you have any reason to object to my
+endeavoring to win Miss March. Even if she accepts me, it will be to the
+advantage of your cousin, because if he still hopes to obtain her, the
+sooner he knows he cannot do so, the better it will be for him. My
+course is perfectly fair. I am aware that the lady is not at present
+engaged to any one, and I am endeavoring to induce her to engage herself
+to me. If I fail, then I step aside."
+
+"Entirely aside, and out of the way?" asked Mrs Null.
+
+"Entirely," answered Lawrence.
+
+"Well," said Annie, leaning back in her chair, in which before she had
+been sitting very upright, "you have, at last, given me a good deal of
+your confidence; almost as much as I gave you. Some of the things you
+say I believe, others I don't."
+
+Lawrence was annoyed, but he would not allow himself to get angry. "I am
+not accustomed to being disbelieved," he said, gravely. "It is a very
+unusual experience, I assure you. Which of my statements do you doubt?"
+
+"I don't believe," said Annie, "that you will give her up if she rejects
+you while you are here. You are too wilful. You will follow her, and try
+again."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "I do not feel justified in speaking to a
+third person of these things, but this is a peculiar case, and,
+therefore, I assure you, and request you to believe me, that if Miss
+March shall now positively refuse me, I shall feel convinced that her
+affections are already occupied, and that I have no right to press my
+suit any longer."
+
+"Would you like to begin now?" said Annie. "She is coming down stairs."
+
+"You are entirely too matter-of-fact," said Lawrence, smiling in spite
+of himself, and, in a moment, Roberta entered the room.
+
+If the young lady in the high-backed rocking-chair had any idea of
+giving Mr Croft and Miss March an opportunity of expressing their
+sentiments toward each other, she took no immediate steps to do so; for
+she gently rocked herself; she talked about the novel she had been
+reading; she blamed Miss March for staying so long in her room on such a
+beautiful afternoon; and she was the primary cause of a conversation
+among the three upon the differences between New York weather and that
+of Virginia; and this continued until old Mrs Keswick joined the party,
+and changed the conversation to the consideration of the fact that a
+fertilizer agent, a pill man, or a blackmailer would find out a person's
+whereabouts, even if he were attending the funeral of his grandmother on
+a desert island.
+
+The next morning, about an hour after breakfast, Lawrence was walking up
+and down on the grass in front of the house, smoking a cigar, and
+troubling his mind. He had had no opportunity on the previous evening to
+be alone with Miss March, for the little party sat together in the
+parlor until they separated for bed; and so, of course, nothing was yet
+settled. He was overstaying the time he had expected to spend here, and
+he felt nervous about it. He had hoped to see Miss March after
+breakfast, but she seemed to have withdrawn herself entirely from
+observation. Perhaps she considered that she had sufficiently rejected
+him on the previous morning, and that she now intended, except when she
+was sure of the company of the others, to remain in her room until he
+should go away. But he had no such opinion in regard to their interview
+on Pine Top Hill. He believed that he had been punished, not rejected,
+and that when he should be able to explain everything to her, he would
+be forgiven. That, at least, was his earnest hope, and hope makes us
+believe almost anything.
+
+But, although there were so many difficulties in his way, Lawrence had a
+friend in that household who still remained true to him. Mrs Keswick,
+with sun-bonnet and umbrella, came out upon the porch, and said
+cheerily: "I should think a gentleman like you would prefer to be with
+the ladies than to be walking about here by yourself. They have gone to
+take a walk in the woods. I should have said that Miss March has gone on
+ahead, with her little maid Peggy. My niece was going with her, but I
+called her back to attend to some housekeeping matters for me, and I
+think she will be kept longer than she expected, for I have just sent
+Letty to her to be shown how to cut out a frock. But you needn't wait;
+you can go right through the flower-garden, and take the path over the
+fields into the woods." And, having concluded this bit of conscienceless
+and transparent management, the old lady remarked that she, herself, was
+going for a walk, and left him.
+
+Lawrence lost no time in following her suggestions. Throwing away his
+cigar, he hurried through the house and the little flower-garden, a gate
+at the back of which opened into a wide pasture-field. This field sloped
+down gently to a branch, or little stream, which ran through the middle
+of it, and then the ground ascended until it reached the edge of the
+woods. Following the well-defined path, he looked across the little
+valley before him, and could see, just inside the edge of the woods--the
+trees and bushes being much more thinly attired than in the summer
+time--the form of a lady in a light-colored dress with a red scarf upon
+her shoulders, sometimes moving slowly, sometimes stopping. This was
+Roberta, and those woods were a far better place than the exposed summit
+of Pine Top Hill, in which to plight his troth, if it should be so that
+he should be able to do it, and there were doubtless paths in those
+woods through which they might afterwards wander, if things should turn
+out propitiously. At all events, in those woods would he settle this
+affair.
+
+His intention was still strong to make a very clean breast of it to
+Roberta. If she had blamed him for his prudent reserve, she should have
+full opportunity to forgive him. All that he had been she should know,
+but far more important than that, he would try to make her know, better
+than he had done before, what he was now. Abandoning all his previous
+positions, and mounted on these strong resolutions, thus would he dash
+into her camp, and hope to capture her.
+
+Reaching the little ravine, at the bottom of which flowed the branch,
+now but two or three feet wide, he ran down the rather steep slope and
+stepped upon the stout plank which bridged the stream. The instant he
+did so, the plank turned beneath him as if it had been hung on pivots,
+and he fell into the stony bed of the branch. It was an awkward fall,
+for the leg which was undermost came down at an angle, and his foot,
+striking a slippery stone, turned under him. In a moment he was on his
+feet, and scrambled up the side of the ravine, down which he had just
+come. When he reached the top he sat down and put both his hands on his
+right ankle, in which he felt considerable pain. In a few minutes he
+arose, and began to walk toward the house, but he had not taken a dozen
+steps before he sat down again. The pain in his ankle was very severe,
+and he felt quite sure that he had sprained it. He knew enough about
+such things to understand that if he walked upon this injured joint, he
+would not only make the pain worse, but the consequences might be
+serious. He was very much annoyed, not only that this thing had happened
+to him, but that it had happened at such an inauspicious moment. Of
+course, he could not now go on to the woods, and he must get somebody to
+help him to the house. Looking about, he saw, at a distance, Uncle
+Isham, and he called loudly to him. As soon as Lawrence was well away
+from the edge of the ravine, there emerged from some thick bushes on the
+other side of it, and at a short distance from the crossing-place, a
+negro girl, who slipped noiselessly down to the branch; moved with quick
+steps and crouching body to the plank; removed the two round stones on
+which it had been skilfully poised, and replaced it in its usual firm
+position. This done, she slipped back into the bushes, and by the time
+Isham had heard the call of Mr Croft, she was slowly walking down the
+opposite hill, as if she were coming from the woods to see why the
+gentleman was shouting.
+
+Miss March also heard the call, and came out of the woods, and when she
+saw Lawrence sitting on the grass on the other side of the branch, with
+one hand upon his ankle, she knew that something had happened, and came
+down toward him. Lawrence saw her approaching, and before she was even
+near enough to hear him, he began to shout to her to be careful about
+crossing the branch, as the board was unsafe. Peggy joined her, and
+walked on in front of her; and when Miss March understood what Lawrence
+was saying, she called back that she would be careful. When they reached
+the ravine, Peggy ran down, stepped upon the plank, jumped on the middle
+of it, walked over it, and then back again, and assured her mistress
+that it was just as good as ever it was, and that she reckoned the city
+gentleman didn't know how to walk on planks, and that "he jes' done fall
+off."
+
+Miss March crossed, stepping a little cautiously, and reached Lawrence
+just as Uncle Isham, with strong arms and many words of sympathy, had
+assisted him to his feet. "What has happened to you, Mr Croft?" she
+exclaimed.
+
+"I was coming to you," he said; "and in crossing the stream the plank
+turned under me, and I am afraid I have sprained my ankle. I can't walk
+on it."
+
+"I am very sorry," she said.
+
+"Because I was coming to you," he said, grimly, "or because I hurt
+myself?"
+
+"You ought to be ashamed to speak in that way," she answered, "but I
+won't find fault with you, now that you are in such pain. Is there
+anything I can do for you?"
+
+"No, thank you," said Lawrence. "I will lean on this good man, and I
+think I can hop to the house."
+
+"Peggy," said Miss Roberta, "walk on the other side of the gentleman,
+and let him lean upon your shoulder. I will go on and have something
+prepared to put on his ankle."
+
+With one side supported by the stout Isham, and his other hand resting
+on the shoulder of the good little Peggy, who bore up as strongly under
+it as if she had been a big walking-stick, Lawrence slowly made his way
+to the house. Miss March got there sometime before he did, and was very
+glad to find that Mrs Keswick had not yet gone out on the walk for which
+she was prepared. That circumspect old lady had found this and that to
+occupy her, while she so managed her household matters, that one thing
+should follow another, to detain her niece. But when she heard what had
+happened, all other impulses gave way to those which belonged to a head
+nurse and a mistress of emergencies. She set down her umbrella; shouted
+an order to Letty to put a kettle of water on the fire; brought from her
+own room some flannel and two bottles of embrocation; and then stopping
+a moment to reflect, ordered that the office should be prepared for Mr
+Croft, for it would be a shame to make a gentleman, with a sprained
+ankle, clamber up stairs.
+
+The office was a small building in the wide front yard, not very far
+from the house, and opposite to the arbor, which has been before
+mentioned. It was one story high, and contained one large and
+comfortable room. Such buildings are quite common on Virginian farms,
+and although called offices are seldom used in an official way, being
+generally appropriated to the bachelors of the family or their gentleman
+visitors. This one was occupied by Junius Keswick, when he was at home,
+and a good many of his belongings were now in it; but as it was at
+present unoccupied, nothing could be more proper than that Mr Croft
+should have it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+About noon of the day of Mr Croft's accident, Uncle Isham had occasion
+to go to the cabin of the venerable Aunt Patsy, and, of course he told
+her what had happened to the gentleman whom he and Aunt Patsy still
+supposed to be Miss Annie's husband. The news produced a very marked
+effect upon the old woman. She put down the crazy quilt, upon the
+unfinished corner of which she was making a few feeble stitches, and
+looked at Uncle Isham with a troubled frown. She was certain that this
+was the work of old Mrs Keswick, who had succeeded, at last, in
+conjuring the young husband; and the charm she had given him, and upon
+which she had relied to avert the ill will of "ole miss," had proved
+unavailing. The conjuring had been accomplished so craftily and slyly,
+the bewitched plank in one place, and Mrs Keswick far off in another,
+that there had been no chance to use the counteracting charm. And yet
+Aunt Patsy had thought it a good charm, a very good one indeed.
+
+Early in her married life Mrs Keswick had been the mother of a little
+girl. It had died when it was very small, and it was the only child she
+ever had. Of this infant she preserved, as a memento, a complete suit of
+its clothes, which she regarded with a feeling almost religious. Years
+ago, however, Aunt Patsy, in order to protect herself against the
+conjuring powers of the mistress of the house, in which she then served
+as a sort of supervising cook, had possessed herself of the shoes
+belonging to the cherished suit of clothes. She knew the sacred light in
+which they were regarded by their owner, and she felt quite sure that if
+"ole miss" ever attempted, in one of her fits of anger, to exercise her
+power of limb twisting or back contortion upon her, that the sight of
+those little blue shoes would create a revulsion of feeling, and, as she
+put it to herself, "stop her mighty short." The shoes had never been
+missed, for the box containing the suit was only opened on one day of
+the year, and then all the old lady could endure was a peep at the
+little white frock which covered the rest of the contents; and Aunt
+Patsy well knew that the sight of those little blue shoes would be to
+her mistress like two little feet coming back from the grave.
+
+Patsy had been much too old to act as nurse to the infant, Annie Peyton,
+then regarded as the daughter of the house, but she had always felt for
+the child the deepest affection; and now that she herself was so near
+the end of her career that she had little fear of being bewitched, she
+was willing to give up the safeguards she had so long possessed, in
+order that they might protect the man whom Miss Annie had loved and
+married. But they had failed, or rather it had been impossible to use
+them, and Miss Annie's husband had been stricken down. "It's pow'ful
+hard to git roun' ole miss," she groaned. "She too much fur ole folks
+like I is."
+
+At this remark Uncle Isham fired up. Although the conduct of his
+mistress troubled him at times very much he was intensely loyal to her,
+and he instantly caught the meaning of this aspersion against her. "Now,
+look h'yar, Aun' Patsy," he exclaimed, "wot you talkin' 'bout? Wot ole
+miss got to do wid Mister Crof' sprainin' he ankle? Ole miss warn't dar;
+an' when I done fotch him up to de house, she cut roun' an' do more fur
+him dan anybody else. She got de hot water, an' she dipped de flannels
+in it, an' she wrop up de ankle all herse'f, an' when she got him all
+fixed comfable in de offis, she says to me, says she, 'Now, Isham, you
+wait on Mister Crof', an' you gib him eberything he want, an' when de
+cool ob de ebenin' comes on you make a fire in dat fireplace, an' stay
+whar he kin call you wheneber he wants you to wait on him.' I didn't
+eben come down h'yar till I axed him would he want me fur half an hour."
+
+"Well," said Aunt Patsy, her eyes softening a little, "p'raps she didn't
+do it dis time. It mout a been his own orkardness. I hopes to mussiful
+goodness dat dat was so. But wot fur you call him Mister Crof'? Is dat
+he fus' name?"
+
+"I reckon so," said Isham. "He one ob de fam'ly now, an' I reckon dey
+calls him by he fus' name. An' now, look h'yar, Aun' Patsy, I wants you
+not to disremember dis h'yar. Don' you go imaginin' ebery time anything
+happens to folks, that ole miss done been kunjerin' 'em. Dat ain't
+pious, an' 'taint suitable fur a ole pusson like you, Aun' Patsy, wot's
+jus' settin' on de poach steps ob heaben, a waitin' till somebody finds
+out you's dar, an' let's you in."
+
+Aunt Patsy turned her great spectacles full upon him, and then she said:
+"You, Isham, ef eber you gits a call to preach to folks, you jus' sing
+out: 'Oh, Lor', I aint fit!' And den you go crack your head wid a
+mill-stone, fur fear you git called agin, fru mistake."
+
+Uncle Isham made no answer to this piece of advice, but taking up some
+clothes which Aunt Patsy's great granddaughter had washed and ironed for
+him, he left the cabin. He was a man much given to attending to his own
+business, and paying very little attention to those affairs of his
+mistress's household, with which he had no personal concern. When Mr
+Croft first came to the house he, as well as Aunt Patsy, had been told
+that it was Mr Null, the husband of Miss Annie; and although not
+thinking much about it, he had always supposed this to be the case. But
+now it struck him as a very strange thing that Miss Annie did not attend
+to her husband, but allowed his mistress and himself to do everything
+that was done for him. It was a question which his mind was totally
+incapable of solving, but when he reached the house, he spoke to Letty
+on the subject. "Bress your soul!" exclaimed that well-nourished
+person, "dat's not Mister Null, wot married Miss Annie. Dat's Mister
+Crof', an' he aint married to nobody. Mister Null he aint come yet, but
+I reckon he'll be along soon."
+
+"Well den," exclaimed Isham, much surprised, "how come Aun' Patsy to
+take he for Miss Annie's husband?"
+
+"Oh, git out!" contemptuously exclaimed Letty, "don' you go put no
+'count on dem fool notions wot Aun' Patsy got in she old head. Nobody
+knows how dey come dar, no more'n how dey eber manage to git out. 'Taint
+no use splainin nothin' to Aun' Patsy, an' if she b'lieves dat's Miss
+Annie's husband, you can't make her b'lieve it's anybody else. Jes' you
+lef her alone. Nuffin she b'lieves aint gwine to hurt her."
+
+And Isham, remembering his frequent ill success in endeavoring to make
+Aunt Patsy think as she ought to think, concluded that this was good
+advice.
+
+At the time of the conversation just mentioned, Lawrence was sitting in
+a large easy chair in front of the open door of the room of which he had
+been put in possession. His injured foot was resting upon a cushioned
+stool, a small table stood by him, on which were his cigar and match
+cases; a pitcher of iced water and a glass, and a late copy of a
+semi-weekly paper. Through the doorway, which was but two steps higher
+than the grass sward before it, his eyes fell upon a very pleasing
+scene. To the right was the house, with its vine-covered porch and
+several great oak trees overhanging it, which still retained their heavy
+foliage, although it was beginning to lose something of its summer
+green. In front of him, at the opposite end of the grassy yard, was the
+pretty little arbor in which he had told Mr Junius Keswick of the
+difficulties in the way of his speaking his mind to Miss March. Beyond
+the large garden, at the back of this arbor, stretched a wide field with
+a fringe of woods at its distant edge, gay with the colors of autumn.
+The sky was bright and blue, and fair white clouds moved slowly over its
+surface; the air was sunny and warm, with bumble-bees humming about some
+late-flowering shrubs; and, high in the air, floated two great
+turkey-buzzards, with a beauty of motion surpassed by no other flying
+thing, with never a movement of their wide-spread wings, except to give
+them the necessary inclination as they rose with the wind, and then
+turned and descended in a long sweep, only to rise again and complete
+the circle; sailing thus for hours, around and around, their shadows
+moving over the fields below them.
+
+Fearing that he had sustained some injury more than a mere sprain,
+Lawrence had had the Howlett's doctor summoned, and that general
+practitioner had come and gone, after having assured Mr Croft that no
+bones had been broken; that Mrs Keswick's treatment was exactly what it
+should be, and that all that was necessary for him was to remain quiet
+for a few days, and be very careful not to use the injured ankle. Thus
+he had the prospect of but a short confinement; he felt no present pain;
+and there was nothing of the sick-room atmosphere in his surroundings,
+for his position close to the door almost gave him the advantage of
+sitting in the open air of this bright autumnal day.
+
+But Lawrence's mind dwelt not at all on these ameliorating
+circumstances; it dwelt only upon the fact that he was in one house and
+Miss March was in another. It was impossible for him to go to her, and
+he had no reason to believe that she would come to him. Under ordinary
+circumstances it would be natural enough for her to look in upon him and
+inquire into his condition, but now the case was very different. She
+knew that he desired to see her, that he had been coming to her when he
+met with his accident, and she knew, too, exactly what he wanted to say;
+and it was not to be supposed that a lady would come to a man to be
+wooed, especially this lady, who had been in such an unfavorable humor
+when he had wooed her the day before.
+
+But it was quite impossible for Lawrence, at this most important crisis
+of his life, to sit without action for three or four days, during which
+time it was not unlikely that Miss March might go home. But what was he
+to do? It would be rediculous to think of sending for her, she knowing
+for what purpose she was wanted; and as for writing a letter, that did
+not suit him at all. There was too much to be explained, too much to be
+urged, too much to be avowed, and, probably, too many contingencies to
+be met, for him to even consider the subject of writing a letter. A
+proposal on paper would most certainly bring a rejection on paper. He
+could think of no plan; he must trust to chance. If his lucky star, and
+it had shone a good deal in his life, should give him an opportunity of
+speaking to her, he would lose not an instant in broaching the important
+subject. He was happy to think he had a friend in the old lady. Perhaps
+she might bring about the desired interview. But although this thought
+was encouraging, he could not but tremble when he remembered the very
+plain and unvarnished way she had of doing such things.
+
+While these thoughts were passing through his mind, a lady came out upon
+the porch, and descended the steps. At the first sight of her through
+the vines, Lawrence had thought it might be Miss March, and his heart
+had given a jump. But it was not; it was Mrs Null, and she came over the
+grass toward him, and stopped in front of his door. "How are you feeling
+now?" she asked. "Does your foot still hurt you?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Lawrence, "I am in no pain. The only thing that troubles
+me is that I have to stay just here."
+
+"It might have been better on some accounts," said she, "if you had been
+taken into the house; but it would have hurt you dreadfully to go up
+stairs, unless Uncle Isham carried you on his back, which I don't
+believe he could do."
+
+"Of course it's a great deal better out here," said Lawrence. "In fact
+this is a perfectly charming place to be laid up in, but I want to get
+about. I want to see people." "Many people?" asked she, with a
+significant little smile.
+
+Lawrence smiled in return. "You must know, Mrs Null, from what I have
+told you," he said, "that there is one person I want to see very much,
+and that is why I am so annoyed at being kept here in this chair."
+
+"You must be of an uncommonly impatient turn of mind," she said, "for
+you haven't been here three hours, altogether, and hundreds of persons
+sit still that long, just because they want to."
+
+"I don't want to sit still a minute," said Lawrence. "I very much wish
+to speak to Miss March. Couldn't you contrive an opportunity for me to
+do so?"
+
+"It is possible that I might," she said, "but I won't. Haven't I told
+you that I don't approve of this affair of yours? My cousin is in love
+with Miss March, and all I should do for you would be directly against
+him. Aunt so managed things this morning that I was actually obliged to
+give you an opportunity to be with her, but I had intended going with
+Roberta to the woods, as she had asked me to do."
+
+"You are very cruel," said Lawrence.
+
+"No, I am not," said she, "I am only just." "I explained to you
+yesterday," said he, "that your course of thinking and acting is not
+just, and is of no possible advantage to anybody. How can it injure your
+cousin if Miss March refuses me and I go away and never see her again?
+And, if she accepts me, then you should be glad that I had put an end to
+your cousin's pursuit of a woman who does not love him."
+
+"That is nonsense," said she. "I shouldn't be glad at all to see him
+disappointed. I should feel like a traitor if I helped you. But I did
+not come to talk about these things. I came to ask you what you would
+have for dinner."
+
+"I had an idea," said Lawrence, not regarding this remark, "that you
+were a young lady of a kindly disposition."
+
+"And you don't think so, now?" she said.
+
+"No," answered Lawrence, "I cannot. I cannot think a woman kind who will
+refuse to assist a man, situated as I am, to settle the most important
+question of his life, especially as I have told you, before, that it is
+really to the interest of the one you are acting for, that it should be
+settled."
+
+Miss Annie, still standing in front of the door, now regarded Lawrence
+with a certain degree of thoughtfullness on her countenance, which
+presently changed to a half smile. "If I were perfectly sure," she said,
+"that she would reject you, I would try to get her here, and have the
+matter settled, but I don't know her very well yet, and can't feel at
+all certain as to what she might do."
+
+"I like your frankness," said Lawrence, "but, as I said before, you are
+very cruel."
+
+"Not at all," said she, "I am very kind, only--"
+
+"You don't show it," interrupted Lawrence.
+
+At this Miss Annie laughed. "Kindness isn't of much use, if it is shut
+up, is it?" she said. "I suppose you think it is one of those virtues
+that we ought to act out, as well as feel, if we want any credit. And
+now, isn't there something I can do for you besides bringing another
+man's sweetheart to you?"
+
+Lawrence smiled. "I don't believe she is his sweetheart," he said, "and
+I want to find out if I am right."
+
+"It is my opinion," said Miss Annie, "that you ought to think more about
+your sprained ankle and your general health, than about having your mind
+settled by Miss March. I should think that keeping your blood boiling,
+in this way, would inflame your joints."
+
+"The doctor didn't tell me what to think about," said Lawrence. "He only
+said I must not walk."
+
+"I haven't heard yet," said Miss Annie, "what you would like to have to
+eat." "I don't wish to give the slightest trouble," answered Lawrence.
+"What do you generally give people in such scrapes as this? Tea and
+toast?"
+
+Annie laughed. "Nonsense," said she. "What you want is the best meal you
+can get. Aunt said if there was anything you particularly liked she
+would have it made for you."
+
+"Do not think of such a thing," said Lawrence. "Give me just what the
+family has."
+
+"Would you like Miss March to bring it out to you?" she asked.
+
+"The word cruel cannot express your disposition," said Lawrence. "I pity
+Mr Null." "Poor man," said she; "but it would be a good thing for you if
+you could keep your mind as quiet as his is." And with that she went
+into the house.
+
+After dinner, Miss March did come out to inquire into Mr Croft's
+condition, but she was accompanied by Mrs Keswick. Lawrence invited the
+ladies to come in and be seated, but Roberta stood on the grass in front
+of the door, as Miss Annie had done, while Mrs Keswick entered the room,
+looked into the ice-water pitcher, and examined things generally, to see
+if Uncle Isham had been guilty of any sins of omission.
+
+"Do you feel quite at ease now?" said Miss March.
+
+"My ankle don't trouble me," said Lawrence, "but I never felt so
+uncomfortable and dissatisfied in my life." And with these latter words
+he gave the lady a look which was intended to be, and which probably
+was, full of meaning to her.
+
+"Wouldn't you like some books?" said Mrs Keswick, now appearing from the
+back of the room. "You haven't anything to read. There are plenty of
+books in the house, but they are all old."
+
+"I think those are the most delightful of books," said Miss March. "I
+have been looking over the volumes on your shelves, Mrs Keswick. I am
+sure there are a good many of them Mr Croft would like to read, even if
+he has read them before. There are lots of queer old-time histories and
+biographies, and sets of bound magazines, some of them over a hundred
+years old. Would you like me to select some for you, Mr Croft? Or shall
+I write some of the titles on a slip of paper, and let you select for
+yourself?"
+
+"I shall be delighted," said Lawrence, "to have you make a choice for
+me; and I think the list would be the better plan, because books would
+be so heavy to carry about."
+
+"I will do it immediately," said Miss March, and she walked rapidly to
+the house.
+
+"Now then," said Mrs Keswick, "I'll put a chair out here on the grass,
+close to the door. It's shady there, and I should think it would be
+pleasant for both of you, if she would sit there and read to you out of
+those books. She is a fine woman, that Miss March--a much finer woman
+than I thought she could be, before I knew her."
+
+"She is, indeed," said Lawrence.
+
+"I suppose you think she is the finest woman in the world?" said the old
+lady, with a genial grin.
+
+"What makes you suppose so?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Haven't I eyes?" said Mrs Keswick. "But you needn't make any excuses.
+You have made an excellent choice, and I hope you may succeed in getting
+her. Perhaps you have succeeded?" she added, giving Lawrence an earnest
+look, with a question in it.
+
+Lawrence did not immediately reply. It was not in his nature to confide
+his affairs to other people, and yet he had done so much of it, of late,
+that he did not see why he should make an exception against Mrs Keswick,
+who was, indeed, the only person who seemed inclined to be friendly to
+his suit. He might as well let her know how matters stood. "No," he
+said, "I have not yet succeeded, and I am very sorry that this accident
+has interfered with my efforts to do so."
+
+"Don't let it interfere," said the old lady, her eyes sparkling, while
+her purple sun-bonnet was suddenly and severely bobbed. "You have just
+as good a chance now as you ever had, and all you have to do is to make
+the most of it. When she comes out here to read to you, you can talk to
+her just as well as if you were in the woods, or on top of a hill.
+Nobody'll come here to disturb you; I'll take care of that."
+
+"You are very kind," said Lawrence, somewhat wondering at her
+enthusiasm.
+
+"I intended to go away and leave her here with you," continued Mrs
+Keswick, "if I could find a good opportunity to do so, but she hit on
+the best plan herself. And now I'll be off and leave the coast clear. I
+will come again before dark and put some more of that stuff on your
+ankle. If you want anything, ring this bell, and if Isham doesn't hear
+you, somebody will call him. He has orders to keep about the house."
+
+"You are putting me under very great obligations to you, madam," said
+Lawrence.
+
+But the old lady did not stop to hear any thanks, and hastened to clear
+the coast.
+
+Lawrence had to wait a long time for his list of books, but at last it
+came; and, much to his surprise and chagrin, Mrs Null brought it. "Miss
+March asked me to give you this," she said, "so that you can pick out
+just what books you want."
+
+Lawrence took the paper, but did not look at it. He was deeply
+disappointed and hurt. His whole appearance showed it.
+
+"You don't seem glad to get it," said Miss Annie. Lawrence looked at
+her, his face darkening. "Did you persuade Miss March," he said, "to
+stay in the house and let you bring this?"
+
+"Now, Mr Croft," said the young lady, a very decided flush coming into
+her face, "that is going too far. You have no right to accuse me of such
+a thing. I am not going to help in your love affairs, but I don't intend
+to be mean about it, either. Miss March asked me to bring that list, and
+at first I wouldn't do it, for I knew, just as well as I know anything,
+that you expected her to come to you with it, and I was very sure you
+wanted to see her more than the paper. I refused two or three times, but
+she said, at last, that if I didn't take it, she'd send it by some one
+in the house; so I just picked it up and brought it right along. I don't
+like her as much as I did."
+
+"Why not?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"You needn't accept a man if you don't want him," said Miss Annie, "but
+there is no need of being cruel to him, especially when he is laid up.
+If she didn't intend to come out to you again, she ought not to have
+made you believe so. You did expect her to come, didn't you?"
+
+"Most certainly," said Lawrence, in rather a doleful tone. "Yes, and
+there is the chair she was to sit in," said Miss Annie, "while you said
+seven words about the books and ten thousand about the way your heart
+was throbbing. I see Aunt Keswick's hand in that, as plain as can be. I
+don't say I'd put her in that chair if I could do it, but I certainly
+am sorry she disappointed you so. Would you like to have any of those
+books? If you would, I'll get them for you."
+
+"I am much obliged, Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "but I don't think I care
+for any books. And let me say that I am very sorry for the way I spoke
+to you, just now."
+
+"Oh, don't mention that," said she. "If I'd been in your place, I should
+have been mad enough to say anything. But it's no use to sit here and be
+grumpy. You'd better let me go and get you a book. The "Critical
+Magazine" for 1767 and 1768, is on that list, and I know there are lots
+of queer, interesting things in it, but it takes a good while to hunt
+them out from the other things for which you would not care at all. And
+then there are all the "Spectators," and "Ramblers," and "The World
+Displayed" in eight volumes, which, from what I saw when I looked
+through it, seems to be a different kind of world from the one I live
+in; and there are others that you will see on your list. But there is
+one book which I have been reading lately which I think you will find
+odder and funnier than any of the rest. It is the "Geographical Grammar"
+by Mr Salmon. Suppose I bring you that. It is a description of the whole
+world, written more than a hundred years ago, by an Irish gentleman who,
+I think, never went anywhere."
+
+"Thank you," said Lawrence, "I shall be obliged to you if you will be
+kind enough to bring me that one." He was glad for her to go away, even
+for a little time, that he might think. The smart of the disappointment
+caused by the non-appearance of Miss March was beginning to subside a
+little. Looking at it more quietly and reasonably, he could see that, in
+her position, it would be actually unmaidenly for her to come to him by
+herself. It was altogether another thing for this other girl, and,
+therefore, perhaps it was quite proper to send her. But, in spite of
+whatever reasonableness there might have been in it, he chafed under
+this propriety. It would have been far better, he thought, if she had
+come and told him that she could not possibly accept him, and that
+nothing more must be said about it. But then he did not believe, if she
+had given him time to say the words he wished to say, that she would
+have come to such a decision; and as he called up her lovely face and
+figure, as it stood framed in the open doorway, with a background of the
+sunlit arbor and fields, the gorgeous distant foliage, with the blue sky
+and its white clouds and circling birds, he thought of the rapture and
+ecstasy which would have come to him, if she had listened to his words,
+and had given him but a smile of encouragement.
+
+But here came Mrs Null, with a fat brown book in her hand. "One of the
+funniest things," she said, as she came to the door, "is Mr Salmon's
+chapter on paradoxes. He thinks it would be quite improper to issue a
+book of this kind without alluding to geographical paradoxes. Listen to
+this one." And then she read to him the elucidation of the apparent
+paradox that there is a certain place in this world where the wind
+always blows from the south; and another explaining the statement that
+in certain cannibal islands the people eat themselves. "There is
+something he says about Virginia," said she, turning over the pages,
+"which I want you to be sure to read."
+
+"Won't you sit down," said Lawrence, "and read to me some of those
+extracts? You know just where to find them."
+
+"That chair wasn't put there for me," said Miss Annie, with a smile.
+
+"Nonsense," said Lawrence. "Won't you please sit down? I ought to have
+asked you before. Perhaps it is too cool for you, out there."
+
+"Oh, not at all," said she. "The air is still quite warm." And she took
+her seat on the chair which was placed close to the door-step, and she
+read to him some of the surprising and interesting facts which Mr Salmon
+had heard, in a Dublin coffee-house, about Virginia and the other
+colonies, and also some of those relating to the kindly way in which
+slave-holders in South America, when they killed a slave to feed their
+hounds, would send a quarter to a neighbor, expecting some day to
+receive a similar favor in return. When they had laughed over these, she
+read some very odd and surprising statements about Southern Europe, and
+the people of far-away lands; and so she went on, from one thing to
+another, talking a good deal about what she had read, and always on the
+point of stopping and giving the book to Lawrence, until the short
+autumnal afternoon began to draw to its close, and he told her that it
+was growing too chilly for her to sit out on the grass any longer.
+
+"Very well," said she, closing the book, and handing it to him, "you can
+read the rest of it yourself, and if you want any other books on the
+list, just let me know by Uncle Isham, and I will send them to you. He
+is coming now to see after you. I wonder," she said, stopping for a
+moment as she turned to leave, "if Miss March had been sitting in that
+chair, if you would have had the heart to tell her to go away; or if you
+would have let her sit still, and take cold."
+
+Lawrence smiled, but very slightly. "That subject," said he, "is one on
+which I don't joke."
+
+"Goodness!" exclaimed Miss Annie, clasping her hands and gazing with an
+air of comical commiseration at Mr Croft's serious face. "I should think
+not!" and away she went.
+
+Just before supper time, when Lawrence's door had been closed, and his
+lamp lighted, there came a knock, and Mrs Keswick appeared. "That plan
+of mine didn't work," she said, "but I will bring Miss March out here,
+and manage it so that she'll have to stay till I come back. I have an
+idea about that. All that you have to do is to be ready when you get
+your chance."
+
+Lawrence thanked her, and assured her he would be very glad to have a
+chance, although he hoped, without much ground for it, that Roberta
+would not see through the old lady's schemes.
+
+Mrs Keswick lotioned and rebandaged the sprained ankle, and then she
+said. "I think it would be pleasant if we were all to come out here
+after supper, and have a game of whist. I used to play whist, and
+shouldn't mind taking a hand. You could have the table drawn up to your
+chair, and,--let me see--yes, there are three more chairs. It won't be
+like having her alone with you," she said, with the cordial grin in
+which she sometimes indulged, "but you will have her opposite to you for
+an hour, and that will be something."
+
+Lawrence approved heartily of the whist party, and assured Mrs Keswick
+that she was his guardian angel.
+
+"Not much of that," she said, "but I have been told often enough that
+I'm a regular old matchmaker, and I expect I am."
+
+"If you make this match," said Lawrence, "you will have my eternal
+gratitude."
+
+The supper sent out to Lawrence was a very good one, and the
+anticipation of what was to follow made him enjoy it still more, for his
+passion had now reached such a point that even to look at his love,
+although he could only speak to her of trumps and of tricks, would be a
+refreshing solace which would go down deep into his thirsty soul.
+
+But bedtime and old Isham came, and the whist players came not. It
+needed no one to tell Lawrence whose disinclination it was that had
+prevented their coming.
+
+"I reckon," said Uncle Isham, as he looked in at Letty's cabin on his
+way to his own, "dat dat ar Mister Crof' aint much use to gittin'
+hisse'f hurt. All de time I was helpin' him to go to bed he was a
+growlin' like de bery debbil."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+Although October in Southern Virginia can generally be counted upon as a
+very charming month, it must not be expected that her face will wear one
+continuous smile. On the day after Lawrence Croft's misadventure the sky
+was gray with low-hanging clouds, there was a disagreeable wind from the
+north-east, and the air was filled with the slight drizzle of rain. The
+morning was so cool that Lawrence was obliged to keep his door shut, and
+Uncle Isham had made him a small wood fire on the hearth. As he sat
+before this fire, after breakfast, his foot still upon a stool, and
+vigorously puffed at a cigar, he said to himself that it mattered very
+little to him whether the sun shone, or all the rains of heaven
+descended, so long as Roberta March would not come out to him; and that
+she did not intend to come, rain or shine, was just as plain as the
+marks on the sides of the fireplace, probably made by the heels of Mr
+Junius Keswick during many a long, reflective smoke.
+
+On second thoughts, however, Lawrence concluded that a rainy day was
+worse for his prospects than a bright one. If the sun shone, and
+everything was fair, Miss March might come across the grassy yard and
+might possibly stop before his open door to bid him good morning, and to
+tell him that she was sorry that a headache had prevented her from
+coming to play whist the evening before. But this last, he presently
+admitted, was rather too much to expect, for he did not think she was
+subject to headaches, or to making excuses. At any rate he might have
+caught sight of her, and if he had, he certainly would have called to
+her, and would have had his say with her, even had she persisted in
+standing six feet from the door-step. But now this dreary day had shut
+his door and put an interdict upon strolls across the grass. Therefore
+it was that he must resign any opportunity, for that day, at least, of
+soothing the harrowing perturbations of his passion by either the
+comforting warmth of hope, or by the deadening frigidity of a
+consummated despair. This last, in truth, he did not expect, but still,
+if it came, it would be better than perturbations; they must be soothed
+at any cost. But how to incur this cost was a difficult question
+altogether. So, puffing, gazing into the fire, and knitting his brows,
+he sat and thought.
+
+As a good-looking young man, as a well-dressed young man, as an educated
+and cultured man, as a man of the clubs, and of society, and, when
+occasion required, as a very sensible man of business, Mr Croft might
+be looked upon as essentially a commonplace personage, and in our walks
+abroad we meet a great many like him. But there dwelt within him a
+certain disposition, which, at times, removed him to quite a distance
+from the arena in which commonplace people go through their prescribed
+performances. He would come to a determination, generally quite
+suddenly, to attain a desired end in his own way, without any reference
+to traditionary or conventional methods; and the more original and
+startling these plans the better he liked it.
+
+This disposition it was which made Lawrence read with so much interest
+the account of the defeated general who made the cavalry charge into the
+camp of his victorious enemy. Defeat had been his, all through his short
+campaign, and it now seemed that the time had come to make another bold
+effort to get the better of his bad luck. As he could not woo Miss March
+himself, he must get some one else to do it for him, or, if not actually
+to woo the lady, to get her at least into such a frame of mind that she
+would allow him to woo her, even in spite of his present disadvantages.
+This would be a very bold stroke, but Lawrence put a good deal of faith
+in it.
+
+If Miss March were properly talked to by one of her own sex, she might
+see, as perhaps she did not now see, how cruel was her line of conduct
+toward him, and might be persuaded to relent, at least enough to allow
+his voice to reach her; and that was all he asked for. He had not the
+slightest doubt that the widow Keswick would gladly consent to carry any
+message he chose to send to Miss March, and, more than that, to throw
+all the force of her peculiar style of persuasion into the support of
+his cause. But this, he knew very well, would finish the affair, and not
+at all in the way he desired. The person he wanted to act as his envoy
+was Mrs Null. To be sure, she had refused to act for him, but he thought
+he could persuade her. She was quiet, she was sensible, and could talk
+very gently and confidingly when she chose; she would say just what he
+told her to say, and if a contingency demanded that she should add
+anything, she would probably do it very prudently. But then it would be
+almost as difficult to communicate with her as with Miss March.
+
+While he was thus thinking, in came the old lady, very cross. "You
+didn't get any rubber of whist last night, did you?" said she, without
+salutatory preface. "But I can tell you it wasn't my fault. I did all
+that I could, and more than I ought, to make her come, but she just put
+her foot down and wouldn't stir an inch, and at last I got mad and went
+to bed. I don't know whether she saw it or not, but I was as mad as
+hops; and I am that way yet. I had a plan that would have given you a
+chance to talk to her, but that ain't any good, now that it is raining.
+Let me look at your ankle; I hope that is getting along all right, any
+way."
+
+While the old lady was engaged in ministering to his needs, he told her
+of his plan. He said he wished to send a message to Miss March by some
+one, and if he could get the message properly delivered, it would help
+him very much.
+
+"I'll take it," said she, looking up suddenly from the piece of soft,
+old linen she was folding; "I'll go to her this very minute, and tell
+her just what you want me to."
+
+"Mrs Keswick," said Lawrence, "you are as kind as you can possibly be,
+but I do not think it would be right for you to go on an errand like
+this. Miss March might not receive you well, and that would annoy me
+very much. And, besides, to speak frankly, you have taken up my cause so
+warmly, and have been such a good friend to me, that I am afraid your
+earnest desire to assist me might perhaps carry you a little too far.
+Please do not misunderstand me. I don't mean that you would say anything
+imprudent, but as you are kind enough to say that you really desire this
+match, it will be very natural for you to show your interest in it to a
+degree that would arouse Miss March's opposition."
+
+"Yes, I see," said the old lady, reflectively, "she'd suspect what was
+at the bottom of my interest. She's a sharp one. I've found that out. I
+reckon it will be better for me not to meddle with her. I came very near
+quarreling with her last night, and that wouldn't do at all."
+
+"You see, madam," said Lawrence, well satisfied that he had succeeded in
+warding off the old lady's offer without offending her, "that I do not
+want any one to go to Miss March and make a proposal for me. I could do
+that in a letter. But I very much object to a letter. In fact it
+wouldn't do at all. All I wish is, that some one, by the exercise of a
+little female diplomacy, should induce her to let me speak to her. Now,
+I think that Mrs Null might do this, very well."
+
+"That is so," said the old lady, who, having now finished her bandaging,
+was seated on a chair by the fireplace. "My niece is smart and quick,
+and could do this thing for you just as well as not. But she has her
+quips and her cranks, like the rest of us. I called her out of the room
+last night to know why she didn't back me up better about the whist
+party, and she said she couldn't see why a gentleman, who hadn't been
+confined to the house for quite a whole day, should be so desperately
+lonely that people must go to his room to play whist with him. It seemed
+to me exactly as if she thought that Mr Null wouldn't like it. Mr Null
+indeed! As if his wishes and desires were to be considered in my house!
+I never mention that man now, and Annie does not speak of him either.
+What I want is that he shall stay away just as long as he will; and if
+he will only stay away long enough to make his absence what the law
+calls desertion, I'll have those two divorced before they know it. Can
+you tell me, sir, how long a man must stay away from his wife before he
+can be legally charged with desertion?"
+
+"No, madam, I can not," said Lawrence. "The laws, I believe, differ in
+the various States."
+
+"Well, I'm going to make it my business to find out all about it," said
+Mrs Keswick. "Mr Brandon has promised to attend to this matter for me,
+and I must write to him, to know what he has been doing. Well, Mrs Null
+and Miss March seem to be very good friends, and I dare say my niece
+could manage things so as to give you the chance you want. I'll go to
+the house now, and send her over to you, so that you can tell her what
+you want her to say or do."
+
+"Do you think she will come, madam?" asked Lawrence.
+
+The old lady rose to her feet, and knitted her brows until something
+like a perpendicular mouth appeared on her forehead. "No," said she,
+"now I come to think of it I don't believe she will. In fact I know she
+won't. Bother take it all, sir! What these young women want is a good
+whipping. Nothing else will ever bring them to their senses. What
+possible difference could it make to Mr Null whether she came to you and
+took a message for you, or whether she didn't come; especially in a case
+like this, when you can't walk, or go to anybody?"
+
+"I don't think it ought to make any difference whatever," said Lawrence.
+"In fact I don't believe it would."
+
+"It's no use talking about it, Mr Croft," said the old lady, moving
+toward the door. "I can go to my niece and talk to her, but the first
+thing I'd know I'd blaze out at her, and then, as like as not, she'd
+blaze back again, and then the next thing would be that she'd pack up
+her things and go off to hunt up her fertilizer agent. And that mustn't
+be. I don't want to get myself in any snarls, just now. There is nothing
+for you to do, Mr Croft, but to wait till it clears off, so that dainty
+young woman can come out of doors, and then I think I can manage it so
+that you can get a chance to speak to her."
+
+"I am very much obliged to you," said Lawrence. "I suppose I must wait."
+
+"I'll see that Isham brings you a lot of dry hickory, so that you can
+have a cheerful fire, even if you can't have cheerful company," said Mrs
+Keswick, as she closed the door after her.
+
+Lawrence looked through the window at the sky, which gave no promise of
+clearing. And then he gazed into the fire, and considered his case. He
+had spent a large portion of his life in considering his case, and,
+therefore, the operation was a familiar one to him. This time the case
+was not a satisfactory one. Everything in this love affair with Miss
+March had gone on in a manner in which he had not intended, and of which
+he greatly disapproved. No one in the world could have planned the
+affair more prudently than he had planned it. He had been so careful not
+to do anything rash, that he had, at first, concealed, even from the
+lady herself, the fact that he was in love with her, and nothing could
+be farther from his thoughts and desires than that any one else should
+know of it. And yet, how had it all turned out? He had taken into his
+confidence Mr Junius Keswick, Mr Brandon, old Mrs Keswick, Mrs Null, as
+she wished to be called, and almost lastly, the lady herself. "If I
+should lay bare my heart to the colored man, Isham," he said to himself,
+"and the old centenarian in the cabin down there, I believe there would
+be no one else to tell. Oh, yes, there is Candy, and the anti-detective.
+By rights, they ought to know." He did not include the good little Peggy
+in this category, because he was not aware that there was such a person.
+
+After about an hour of these doleful cogitations, he again turned to
+look out of his front window, which commanded a view of the larger
+house, when he saw, coming down the steps of the porch, a not very tall
+figure, wrapped in a waterproof cloak, with the hood drawn over its
+head. He did not see the face of the figure, but he thought from the
+light way in which it moved that it was Mrs Null; and when it stepped
+upon the grass and turned its head, he saw that he was right.
+
+"Can her aunt have induced her to come to me?" was Lawrence's first
+thought. But his second was very different, for she began to walk toward
+the large gate which led out of the yard. Instantly Lawrence rose, and
+hopped on one foot to the window, where he tapped loudly on the glass.
+The lady turned, and then he threw up the sash.
+
+"Won't you step here, please?" he called out.
+
+Without answering, she immediately came over the wet grass to the
+window.
+
+"I have something to say to you," he said, "and I don't want to keep you
+standing in the rain. Won't you come inside for a few minutes?"
+
+"No, thank you," said she. "I don't mind a slight rain like this. I
+have lived so long in the city that I can't imagine how country people
+can bear to shut themselves in, when it happens to be a little wet. I
+can't stand it, and I am going out for a walk." "It is a very sensible
+thing to do," said Lawrence, "and I wish I could go with you and have a
+good long talk."
+
+"What about?" said she.
+
+"About Miss March."
+
+"Well, I am rather tired of that subject," she said, "and so I reckon it
+is just as well that you should stay here by your fire--I see you have
+one there--and that I should take my walk by myself."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "I want to implore you to do a favor for me.
+I don't see how it can be disagreeable to you, and I am sure it will
+confer the greatest possible obligation upon me."
+
+"What is it?" she asked.
+
+"I want you to go to Miss March, and endeavor, in some way--you will
+know how, better than I can tell you--to induce her to let me have a few
+words with her. If it is only here at this open window it will do."
+
+Mrs Null laughed. "Imagine," she said, "a woman putting on a waterproof
+and overshoes, and coming out in the rain, to stand with an umbrella
+over her head, to be proposed to! That would be the funniest proceeding
+I ever heard of!"
+
+Lawrence could not help smiling, though he was not in the mood for it.
+"It may seem amusing to you," he said, "but I am very much in earnest. I
+am in constant fear that she will go away while I am confined to this
+house. Do you know how long she intends to stay?"
+
+"She has not told me," was the answer.
+
+"If you will carry it," he said, "I will give you a message for her."
+
+"Why don't you write it?" said Miss Annie.
+
+"I don't want to write anything," he said. "I should not know how it had
+been received, nor would it be likely to get me any satisfaction. I want
+a live, sympathetic medium, such as you are. Won't you do this favor for
+me?"
+
+"No, I won't," said Miss Annie, her very decided tone appearing to give
+a shade of paleness to her features. "How often must I tell you that I
+will not help you in this thing?"
+
+"I would not ask you," said Lawrence, "if I could help myself."
+
+"It is not right that you should ask me any more," she said. "I am not
+in favor of your coming here to court Miss March, while my cousin is
+away, and I should feel like a traitor if I helped you at all,
+especially if I were to carry messages to her. Of course, I am very
+sorry for you, shut up here, and I will do anything I can to make you
+more comfortable and contented; but what you ask is too hard for me."
+And, as she said this, a little air of trouble came into the large eyes
+with which she was steadfastly regarding him. "I don't want to seem
+unkind to you, and I wish you would ask me something that I can do for
+you. I'll walk down to Howlett's and get you anything you may like to
+have. I'll bring you a lot of novels which I found in the house, and
+which I expect, anyway, you will like better than those old-time books.
+And I'll cook you anything that is in the cook-book. But I really cannot
+go wooing for you, and if you ask me to do that, every time I come near
+you, I really must--"
+
+"My dear Mrs Null," interrupted Lawrence, "I promise not to say any more
+to you on this subject. I see it is distasteful to you, and I beg your
+pardon for having mentioned it so often. You have been very kind to me,
+indeed, and I should be exceedingly sorry to do anything to offend you.
+It would be very bad for me to lose one of my friends, now that I am
+shut up in this box, and feel so very dependent."
+
+"Oh, indeed," said Miss Annie. "But I suppose if you were able to step
+around, as you used to do, it wouldn't matter whether you offended me or
+not."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "you know I did not mean anything like that.
+Do you intend to be angry with me, no matter what I say?"
+
+"Not a bit of it," she answered, with a little smile that brought back
+to her face that warm brightness which had grown upon it since she had
+come down here. "I haven't the least wish in the world to be angry with
+you, and I promise you I won't be, provided you'll stop everlastingly
+asking me to go about helping you to make love to people."
+
+Lawrence laughed. "Very good," said he. "I have promised to ask nothing
+more of that sort. Let us shake hands on it."
+
+He stretched his hand from the window, and Miss Annie withdrew from the
+folds of her waterproof a very soft and white little hand, and put it
+into his. "And now I must be off," she said. "Are you certain you don't
+want anything from the store at Howlett's?"
+
+"Surely, you are not going as far as that," he said.
+
+"Not if you don't want anything," she answered. "Have you tobacco enough
+to last through your imprisonment? They keep it."
+
+"Now, miss," said Lawrence; "do you want to make me angry by supposing I
+would smoke any tobacco that they sell in that country store?"
+
+"It ought to be better than any other," said Miss Annie. "They grow it
+in the fields all about here, and the storekeepers can get it perfectly
+fresh and pure, and a great deal better for you, no doubt, than the
+stuff they manufacture in the cities."
+
+"When you learn to smoke," said Lawrence, "your opinion concerning
+tobacco will be more valuable."
+
+"Thank you," she said, "and I will wait till then before I give you any
+more of it. Good morning." And away she went.
+
+Lawrence shut down the window, and hopped back to the fire. "There is my
+last chance gone," said he to himself. "I suppose I may as well take old
+Mrs Keswick's advice, and wait for fair weather. But, even then, who can
+say what sort of sky Roberta March will show?" And, not being able to
+answer this question, he put two fresh sticks on the fire, and then
+sedately sat and watched their gradual annihilation. As for Miss Annie,
+she took her walk, and stepped along the road as lightly and blithely as
+if the skies had been blue, and the sun shining; and almost before she
+knew it, she had reached the store at Howlett's. Ascending the high
+steps to the porch, quite deserted on this damp, unpleasant morning, she
+entered the store, the proprietor of which immediately jumped up from
+the mackerel kit at the extreme end of the room, where he had been
+sitting in converse with some of his neighbors, and hurried behind the
+counter.
+
+"Have you any tea," said Miss Annie, "better than the kind which you
+usually sell to Mrs Keswick?"
+
+"No, ma'am," said he. "We send her the very best tea we have."
+
+"I am not finding fault with it," she said, "but I thought you might
+have some extra kind, more expensive than people usually buy for common
+use."
+
+"No, ma'am," said he, "there is fancy teas of that kind, but you'd have
+to send to Philadelphia or New York for them."
+
+"How long would that take?" she asked.
+
+"I reckon it would be four or five days before you'd get it, ma'am,"
+said the storekeeper.
+
+"I am afraid," said Miss Annie, looking reflectively along the counter,
+"that that would be too long." And then she turned to go, but suddenly
+stopped. "Have you any guava jelly?" she asked.
+
+The man smiled. "We don't have no call for anything as fancy as that,
+ma'am," he said. "Is there anything else?"
+
+"Not to-day," answered Miss Annie, after throwing a despairing glance
+upon the rolls of calicoes, the coils of clothes-lines, the battered tin
+boxes of tea and sugar, the dusty and chimneyless kerosene lamps, and
+the long rows of canned goods with their gaudy labels; and then she
+departed.
+
+When she had gone, the storekeeper returned to his seat on the mackerel
+kit, and was accosted by a pensive neighbor in high boots who sat upon
+the upturned end of a case of brogans. "You didn't make no sale that
+time, Peckett," said he.
+
+"No," said the storekeeper, "her idees is a little too fancy for our
+stock of goods."
+
+"Whar's her husband, anyway?" asked a stout, elderly man in linen
+trousers and faded alpaca coat, who was seated on two boxes of pearl
+starch, one on top of the other. "I've heard that he was a member of the
+legislatur'. Is that so?"
+
+"He's not that, you can take my word for it," said Tom Peckett. "Old
+Miss Keswick give me to understand that he was in the fertilizing
+business."
+
+"That ought to be a good thing for the old lady," said the man on the
+starch boxes. "She'll git a discount off her gwarner."
+
+"I never did see," said the pensive neighbor on the brogan case, "how
+such things do git twisted. It was only yesterday that I met a man at
+Tyson's Mill, who'd just come over from the Valley, and he said he'd
+seen this Mr Noles over thar. He's a hoss doctor, and he's going up
+through all the farms along thar."
+
+"I reckon when he gits up as fur as he wants to go," said the man on the
+starch boxes, "he'll come here and settle fur awhile."
+
+"That won't be so much help to the old lady," said the storekeeper,
+"for it wouldn't pay to keep a neffy-in-law just to doctor one sorrel
+horse and a pa'r o' oxen."
+
+"I reckon his wife must be 'spectin' him," said the man on the brogan
+case, "from her comin' after fancy vittles."
+
+"If he do come," said the stout, elderly neighbor, "I wish you'd let me
+know, Tom Peckett, fur my black mar has got a hitch in her shoulder I
+can't understand, and I'd like him to look at her."
+
+The storekeeper smiled at the pensive man, and the pensive man smiled
+back at the storekeeper. "You needn't trouble yourself about that young
+woman's husband," said Mr Peckett. "There'll be a horse doctor coming
+along afore you know it, and he'll attend to that old mar of yourn
+without chargin' you a cent."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+The second afternoon of Lawrence Croft's confinement in the little
+building in Mrs Keswick's yard, passed drearily enough. The sky retained
+its sombre covering of clouds, and the rain came down in a melancholy,
+capricious way, as if it were tears shed by a child who was crying
+because it was bad. The monotony of the slowly moving hours was broken
+only by a very brief visit from the old lady, who was going somewhere in
+the covered spring wagon, and who looked in, before she started, to see
+if her patient wanted anything; and by the arrival of a bundle of old
+novels sent by Mrs Null. These books Lawrence looked over with
+indifferent interest, hoping to find one among them that was not a love
+story, but he was disappointed. They were all based upon, and most of
+them permeated with, the tender passion, and Lawrence was not in the
+mood for reading about that sort of thing. A person afflicted with a
+disease is not apt to find agreeable occupation in reading hospital
+reports upon his particular ailment.
+
+The novels were put aside, and although Lawrence felt that he had smoked
+almost too much during that day, he was about to light another cigar,
+when he heard a carriage drive into the yard. Turning to the window he
+saw a barouche, evidently a hired one, drawn by a pair of horses, very
+lean and bony, but with their heads reined up so high that they had an
+appearance of considerable spirit, and driven by a colored man, sitting
+upon a very elevated seat, with a jaunty air and a well-worn whip. The
+carriage drove over the grass to the front of the house--there was no
+roadway in the yard, the short, crisp, tough grass having long resisted
+the occasional action of wheels and hoofs--and there stopping, a
+gentleman, with a valise, got out. He paid the driver, who immediately
+turned the vehicle about, and drove away. The gentleman put his foot
+upon the bottom step as if he were about to ascend, and then, apparently
+changing his mind, he picked up his valise, and came directly toward the
+office, drawing a key from his pocket as he walked. It was Junius
+Keswick, and in a few minutes his key was heard in the lock. As it was
+not locked the key merely rattled, and Lawrence called out: "Come in."
+The door opened, and Junius looked in, evidently surprised. "I beg your
+pardon," said he, "I didn't know you were in here."
+
+"Please walk in," said Lawrence. "I know I am occupying your room, and
+it is I who should ask your pardon. But you see the reason why it was
+thought well that I should not have stairs to ascend." And he pointed to
+his bandaged foot.
+
+"Have you hurt yourself?" asked Junius, with an air of concern.
+
+And then Lawrence gave an account of his accident, expressing at the
+same time his regret that he found himself occupying the room which
+belonged to the other.
+
+"Oh, don't mention that," said Junius, who had taken a seat near the
+window. "There are rooms enough in the house, and I shall be perfectly
+comfortable. It was quite right in my aunt to have you brought in here,
+and I should have insisted upon it, myself, if I had been at home. I
+expected to be away for a week or more, but I have now come back on
+account of your letter."
+
+"Does that need explanation?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Not at all," said Junius. "I had no difficulty in understanding it,
+although I must say that it surprised me. But I came because I am not
+satisfied with the condition of things here, and I wish to be on the
+spot. I do not understand why you and Miss March should be invited here
+during my absence."
+
+"That I do not understand either," said Lawrence, quickly, "and I wish
+to impress it on your mind, Mr Keswick, that when I came here, I not
+only expected to find you, but a party of invited guests. I will say,
+however, that I came with the express intention of meeting Miss March,
+and having that interview with her which I could not have in her uncle's
+house."
+
+"I was not entirely correct," said Junius, "when I said that I did not
+know why these rather peculiar arrangements had been made. My aunt is a
+very managing person, and I think I perceive her purpose in this piece
+of management." "She is opposed to a marriage between you and Miss
+March?"
+
+"Most decidedly," said Junius. "Has she told you so?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "but it has gradually dawned upon me that such is
+the case. I believe she would be glad to have Miss March married, and
+out of your way."
+
+Junius made no answer to this remark, but sat silent for a few moments.
+Then he said: "Well, have you settled it with Miss March?"
+
+"No, I have not," said Lawrence. "If the matter had been decided, one
+way or the other, I should not be here. I have no right to trespass on
+your aunt's hospitality, and I should have departed as soon as I had
+discovered Miss March's sentiments in regard to me. But I have not been
+able to settle the matter, at all. I had one opportunity of seeing the
+lady, and that was not a satisfactory interview. Yesterday morning, I
+made another attempt, but before I could get to her I sprained my ankle.
+And here I am; I can not go to her, and, of course, she will not come to
+me. You cannot imagine how I chafe under this harassing restraint."
+
+"I can imagine it very easily," said Junius.
+
+"The only thing I have to hope for," said Lawrence, "is that to-morrow
+may be a fine day, and that the lady may come outside and give me the
+chance of speaking to her at this open door."
+
+Junius smiled grimly. "It appears to me," he said, "as if it were likely
+to rain for several days. But now I must go into the house and see the
+family. I hope you believe me, sir, when I say I am sorry to find you in
+your present predicament."
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, smiling, although he did not feel at all gay,
+"for, otherwise, I might have been finally rejected and far away."
+
+"If you had been rejected," said Junius, "I should have been very glad,
+indeed, to have you stay with us."
+
+"Thank you," said Lawrence.
+
+"I will look in upon you again," said Junius, as he left the room.
+
+Lawrence's mind, which had been in a very unpleasant state of troubled
+restiveness for some days, was now thrown into a sad turmoil by this
+arrival of Junius Keswick. As he saw that tall and good-looking young
+man going up the steps of the house porch, with his valise in his hand,
+he clinched both his fists as they rested on the arm of his chair, and
+objurgated the anti-detective.
+
+"If it had not been for that rascal," he said to himself, "I should not
+have written to Keswick, and he would not have thought of coming back at
+this untimely moment. The only advantage I had was a clear coast, and
+now that is gone. Of course Keswick was frightened when he found I was
+staying in the same house with Roberta March, and hurried back to attend
+to his own interests. The first thing he will do now will be to propose
+to her himself; and, as they have been engaged once, it is as like as
+not she will take him again. If I could use this foot, I would go into
+the house, this minute, and have the first word with her." At this he
+rose to his feet and made a step with his sprained ankle, but the sudden
+pain occasioned by this action caused him to sit down again with a
+groan. Lawrence Croft was not a man to do himself a physical injury
+which might be permanent, if such doing could possibly be avoided, and
+he gave up the idea of trying to go into the house.
+
+"I tell you what it is, Letty," said Uncle Isham, when he returned to
+the kitchen after having carried Lawrence's supper to him, "dat ar
+Mister Croft in de offis is a gittin wuss an' wuss in he min', ebery
+day. I neber seed a man more pow'ful glowerin' dan he is dis ebenin."
+
+"I reckin' he j'ints is healin' up," said Letty. "Dey tells me dat de
+healin' pains mos' gen'rally runs into de min'."
+
+About nine o'clock in the evening Junius Keswick paid Lawrence a visit;
+and, taking a seat by one side of the fireplace, accepted the offer of a
+cigar.
+
+"How are things going on in the house?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Well," said Keswick, speaking slowly, "as you know so much of our
+family affairs, I might as well tell you that they are in a somewhat
+upset condition. When I went in, I saw, at first, no one but my cousin,
+and she seemed so extraordinarily glad to see me that I thought
+something must be wrong, somewhere; and when my aunt returned--she was
+not at home when I arrived--she was thrown into such a state of mind on
+seeing me, that I didn't know whether she was going to order me out of
+the house or go herself. But she restrained herself, wonderfully,
+considering her provocation, for, of course, I have entirely disordered
+her plans by appearing here, when she had arranged everything for you to
+have Miss March to yourself. But, so far, the peace has been kept
+between us, although she scarcely speaks to me."
+
+"And Miss March?" said Lawrence. "You have seen her?"
+
+"Yes," said Junius, "I saw her at supper, and for a short time
+afterwards, but she soon retired to her room."
+
+"Do you think she was disturbed by your return?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"I won't say that," said Junius, "but she was certainly not herself. Mrs
+Null tells me that she expects to go home to-morrow morning, having
+written to her uncle to send for her."
+
+"That is bad, bad, very bad," said Lawrence.
+
+After that there was a pause in the conversation, during which Mr Croft,
+with brows very much knit, gazed steadfastly into the fire. "Mr
+Keswick," he said presently, "what you tell me fills me with
+consternation. It is quite plain that I shall have no chance to see Miss
+March, and, as there is no one else in the world who will do it for me,
+I am going to ask you to go to her, to-morrow morning, and speak to her
+in my behalf."
+
+When this had been said, Junius Keswick dropped his cigar upon the
+floor, and sat up very straight in his chair, gazing fixedly at
+Lawrence. "Upon my word!" he said, "I knew you were a cool man, but that
+request freezes my imagination. I cannot conceive how any man can ask
+another to try to win for him a lady whom he knows the other man
+desires to win for himself. You have made some requests before that
+were rather astounding, but this one overshadows them all."
+
+"I admit," said Lawrence, "that what I ask is somewhat out of the way,
+but you must consider the circumstances. Suppose I had met you in mortal
+combat, and I had dropped my sword where you could reach it and I could
+not; would you pick it up and give it to me? or would you run me
+through?"
+
+"I don't think that comparison is altogether a good one," said Junius.
+
+"Yes, it is," said Lawrence, "and covers the case entirely. I am here,
+disabled, and if you pick up my sword, as I have just asked you to do,
+it is not to be assumed that your action gives me the victory. It merely
+gives me an equal chance with yourself."
+
+"Do you mean," said Junius, "that you want me to go to Miss March, and
+deliberately ask her if she will marry you?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "I have done that myself. But there are certain
+points in regard to which I want to be set right with Miss March. And
+now I wish you to understand me, Mr Keswick. I speak to you, not only as
+a generous and honorable man, which I have found you to be, but as a
+rival. I cannot believe that you would be willing to profit by my
+present disadvantages, and, as I have said two or three times before, it
+would certainly be for your interest, as a suitor for the lady, to have
+this matter settled."
+
+"Wouldn't it be better, then," said Junius, "if I were to go
+immediately, and speak to her for myself?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "I don't think that would settle the affair at all.
+From what I understand of your relations with Miss March, she knows you
+are her lover, and yet she neither accepts nor declines you. If you were
+to go to her now, it is not likely she would give you any definite
+answer. But in regard to me, it would be different. She would say yes or
+no. And if she made the latter answer I think you could walk over the
+course. I am not vain enough to say that I have been an obstacle to your
+success, but I assure you that I have tried very hard to make myself
+such an obstacle."
+
+"It seems to me," said Junius, imitating his companion in the matter of
+knitting his brows and gazing into the fire, "that this affair could be
+managed very simply. Miss March is not going at the break of day. Why
+don't you contrive to see her before she starts, and say for yourself
+what you have to say?"
+
+"Nothing would please me better than that," said Croft, "but I don't
+believe she would give me any chance to speak with her. Since my
+accident, she has persistently and pointedly refused to grant me even
+the shortest interview."
+
+"That ought to prove to you," said Keswick, "that she does not desire
+your attentions. You should consider it as a positive answer."
+
+"Not at all," said Lawrence, "not at all. And I don't think you would
+consider it a positive answer if you were in my place. I think she has
+taken some offence which is entirely groundless, and if you will consent
+to act for me it will enable me to set straight this misunderstanding."
+
+"Confound it!" exclaimed Keswick. "Can't you write to her? or get some
+one else to take your love messages?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "I cannot write to her, for I am not sure that
+under the circumstances she would answer my letter. And I have already
+asked Mrs Null, the only other person I could ask, to speak for me, but
+she has declined."
+
+"By the Lord Harry!" exclaimed Junius, "you are the rarest wooer I ever
+heard of."
+
+"I assure you," said Lawrence, his face flushing somewhat, "that it is
+not my desire to carry on my wooing in this fashion. My whole soul is
+opposed to it, but circumstances will have it so. And as I don't intend,
+if I can help it, to have my life determined by circumstances, I must go
+ahead in despite of them, although I admit that it makes the road very
+rough."
+
+"I should think it would," said Junius. And then there was a pause in
+the conversation.
+
+"Well, Mr Keswick," said Lawrence, presently, "Will you do this thing
+for me?"
+
+"Am I to understand," said Junius, "that if I don't do it, it won't be
+done?"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, "you are positively my last chance. I have racked
+my brains to think of some other way of presenting my case to Miss
+March, but there is no other way. I might stand at my door, and call to
+her as she entered the carriage, but that would be the height of
+absurdity. I might hop on one foot into the house, but, even if I wished
+to present myself in that way, I don't believe I could get up that long
+flight of steps. It would be worse than useless to write, for I should
+not know what was thought of my letter, or even if it had been read. Mrs
+Keswick cannot carry my message; Mrs Null will not; and I have only you
+to call upon. I know it is a great deal to ask, but it means so much to
+me--to both of us, in fact--that I ask it."
+
+"You were kind enough to say a little while ago," said Junius, "that you
+considered me an honorable man. I try to be such, and, therefore, will
+frankly state to you that I can think of but three motives, satisfactory
+to myself, for undertaking this business for you, and not one of them is
+a generous one. In the first place, I might care to do it in order to
+have this matter settled, for you are such an extraordinary suitor, that
+I don't know in what form you may turn up, the next time. Secondly, from
+what you tell me of Miss March's repugnance to meet you, I don't believe
+my mission will have an issue favorable to you, and the more
+unfavorable it is, the better I shall like it. My third reason for
+acting for you is, that the whole affair is such an original one that it
+will rather interest me to be engaged in it. This last reason would not
+hold, however, if I had the least expectation of being successful."
+
+"You consent then?" said Lawrence, quickly, turning towards the other.
+"You'll go to Miss March for me?"
+
+"Yes, I think I will," said Junius, "if you will accept the services of
+a man who is decidedly opposed to your interests."
+
+"Of course I never expected you to favor them," said Lawrence, "nor is
+it necessary that you should. All I ask is, that you carry a message to
+Miss March, and if she needs any explanation of it, that you will
+explain in the way that I shall indicate; that you shall tell me how she
+received my message; and that you shall bring me back her answer. There
+is no need of your making any proposition to her; that has already been
+done; what I want is, that she should not go away from here with a
+misunderstanding between us, and that she shall give me at least the
+promise of a hearing."
+
+"Very good," said Junius, "now, what is it that you want me to say?"
+
+This was not an easy question for Lawrence to answer. He knew very well
+what he wanted to say, if he had a chance of saying it himself. He
+wanted to pour his whole heart out to Roberta March, and, showing her
+its present passion, to ask her to forgive those days in which his mind
+only had appeared to be engaged. He believed he could say things that
+would force from her the pardon of his previous short-comings, if she
+considered them as such. She had been very gracious to him in time past,
+and he did not see why she should not be still more gracious now, if he
+could remove the feelings of resentment, which he believed were
+occasioned by her womanly insight into the motives of his conduct toward
+her, during those delightful summer days at Midbranch.
+
+But to get another person to say all this was a very different thing. He
+was sure, however, that if it were not said now, it would never be said.
+It would be death to all his hopes if Miss March went away, feeling
+towards him as she now felt; therefore he stiffened his purpose which
+was quite used to being stiffened; hardened his sensibilities; and took
+his plunge. Gazing steadfastly at the back of the fireplace while he
+spoke, he endeavored to make Junius Keswick understand the nature, and
+the probable force of the objections to his line of action as a suitor,
+which had grown up in the mind of Miss March; and he also endeavored to
+show how completely and absolutely he had been changed by the vigor and
+ardor of his present affection; and how he was entitled to be considered
+by Miss March as a lover who had but one thought and purpose, and that
+was to win her; and, as such, he asked her to give him an opportunity to
+renew his proposal to her. "Now, then," said Lawrence, "I have placed
+the case before you, and I beg you will present it, as nearly as
+possible, in the form in which I have given it to you."
+
+"Mr Croft," said Junius, "this case of yours is worse than I thought it
+was. What woman of spirit would accept a man who admitted, that during
+the whole of his acquaintance with her he had had his doubts in regard
+to suitability, etc., but who, when a crisis arrived, and another man
+turned up, had determined to overlook all his objections and take her,
+anyway."
+
+"That is a very cold-blooded way of putting it," said Lawrence, "and I
+don't believe at all that she will look upon it in that light. If you
+will set the matter before her as I have put it to you, I believe she
+will see it as I wish her to see it."
+
+"Very well," said Junius, rising, and taking out his watch, "I will make
+your statement as accurately as I can, and without any interpretations
+of my own. And now I must bid you good-night. I had no idea it was after
+twelve o'clock."
+
+"And you will observe her moods?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Yes," said Junius as he opened the door, "I will carefully observe her
+moods."
+
+When Junius had gone, Lawrence turned his face again toward the
+fireplace, where the last smouldering stick had just broken apart in the
+middle, and the two ends had wearily fallen over the andirons as if they
+wished it understood that they could do no more burning that night.
+Taking this as a hint, Lawrence prepared to retire. "Old Isham must have
+gone to bed long ago," he said, "but as I have asked for so much
+assistance to-day, I think it is well that I should try to do some
+things for myself."
+
+It was, indeed, very late, but behind the partially closed shutters of a
+lower room of the house sat old Mrs Keswick, gazing at the light that
+was streaming from the window of the office, and wondering what those
+two men were saying to each other that was keeping them sitting up
+together until after midnight.
+
+Annie Peyton, too, had not gone to bed, and looking through her chamber
+window at the office, she hoped that cousin Junius would come away
+before he lost his temper. Of course she thought he must have been very
+angry when he came home and found Mr Croft here at the only time that
+Roberta March had ever visited the house, and it was quite natural that
+he should go to his rival, and tell him what he thought about it. But he
+had been there a long, long time, and she did hope they would not get
+very angry with each other, and that nothing would happen. One thought
+comforted her very much. Mr Croft was disabled, and Junius would scorn
+to take advantage of a man in that condition.
+
+At an upper window, at the other end of the house, sat Roberta March,
+ready for bed, but with no intention of going there until Junius Keswick
+had come out of the office. Knowing the two men as she did, she had no
+fear that any harm would come to either of them during this long
+conference, whatever its subject might be. That she, herself, was that
+subject she had not the slightest doubt, and although it was of no
+earthly use for her to sit there and gaze upon that light streaming into
+the darkness of the yard, but revealing to her no more of what was going
+on inside the room than if it had been the light of a distant star,
+still she sat and speculated. At last the office door opened, and Junius
+came out, turning to speak to the occupant of the room as he did so. The
+brief vision of him which the watchers caught, as he stood for a moment
+in the lighted doorway before stepping out into the darkness, showed
+that his demeanor was as quiet and composed as usual; and one of the
+three women went to bed very much relieved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+From breakfast time the next morning until ten o'clock in the
+forenoon, at which hour the Midbranch carriage arrived, Junius Keswick
+had been vainly endeavoring to get an opportunity to speak with Miss
+March. That lady had remained in her own room nearly all the morning,
+where his cousin had been with her; and his aunt, who had her own
+peculiar ways of speeding the parting guest, had retired to some
+distant spot on the estate, either to plan out some farming operation
+for the ensuing season, or to prevent her pent-up passion from boiling
+over in her own house.
+
+Thus Junius had the lower floor to himself, and he strode about in
+much disquietude, debating whether he ought to send a message to
+Roberta, or whether he should wait till she had finished her packing,
+or whatever it was, that was keeping her up-stairs. His last private
+interview with her had not been a pleasant one, and if he had intended
+to speak to her for himself, he would not have felt much encouraged
+by her manner of the preceding evening; but he was now engaged on the
+affairs of another, and he believed that a failure to attend to them
+would be regarded as a breach of faith.
+
+When Mr Brandon's carriage drove into the yard he began to despair,
+but now Roberta came running down stairs to speak to Sam, the driver,
+and ask him how long it would be necessary to rest his horses. Sam
+thought an hour would be long enough, as they would have a good rest
+when they got home; and this matter having been settled, Junius came
+forward, and requested Roberta to step in the parlor, as he had
+something to say to her. Without reply, she followed him into the
+room, and he closed the door. They sat down, one on one side of
+the round centre table, and one on the other, and Junius began his
+statement.
+
+He was by profession a lawyer, and he had given a great deal of
+attention to the art of putting things plainly, and with a view to a
+just effect. He had carefully prepared in his mind what he should
+say to Roberta. He wished to present this man's message without the
+slightest exhibition of desire for its success, and yet without any
+tendency to that cold-blooded way of stating it, to which Croft had
+objected. He had, indeed, picked up his adversary's sword, and while
+he did not wish, in handing it to him, to prick him with it, or do him
+some such underhand injury, he did not think it at all necessary to
+sharpen the weapon before giving it back.
+
+What Junius had to say occupied a good deal of time. He expressed
+himself carefully and deliberately; and as nearly as a skilfully
+stuffed and prepared animal in a museum resembles its wild original of
+the forest, so did his remarks resemble those that Lawrence would have
+made had he been there. Roberta listened to him in silence until he
+had finished, and then she rose to her feet, and her manner was
+such that Junius rose also. "Junius Keswick," she said, "you have
+deliberately come to me, and offered me the hand of another man in
+marriage."
+
+"Not that," said Junius, "I merely came to explain----."
+
+"Do not split hairs," she interrupted, "you did exactly that. You came
+to me because he could not come himself, and offered him to me. Now go
+to him from me, and tell him that I accept him." And, with that, she
+swept out of the room, and came down stairs no more until bonneted,
+and accompanied by Miss Annie, she hurried to the front door, and
+entered the carriage which was there waiting for her, with Peggy by
+the driver. With some quick good-byes and kisses to Annie, but never a
+word to Junius, or anybody else, she drove away.
+
+If Junius Keswick had been nervous and anxious that morning, as he
+strode about the house, waiting for an opportunity to speak to Miss
+March, it may well be supposed that Lawrence Croft, shut up in his
+little room at the end of the yard, would be more so. He had sat at
+his window, waiting, and waiting. He had occasionally seen Mr Keswick
+come out on the porch, and with long strides pace backward and
+forward, and he knew by that sign that he had yet no message to bring
+him. He had seen the Midbranch carriage drive into the yard; he had
+seen Miss March come out on the porch, and speak to the driver, and
+then go in again; he had seen the carriage driven under a large tree,
+where the horses were taken out and led away to be refreshed; in an
+hour or more, he saw them brought back and harnessed to the vehicle,
+which was turned and driven up again to the door, when some baggage
+was brought down and strapped on a little platform behind. Shortly
+afterwards Peggy came round the end of the house, with a hat on, and
+a little bundle under her arm, and approached the carriage, making,
+however, a wide turn toward the office, at which, and a mile or two
+beyond, her far-off gaze was steadily directed.
+
+Lawrence threw up the sash and called to her, and his guardian imp
+approached the window. "Are you Miss March's maid? I think I have seen
+you at Midbranch."
+
+"Yaas, sah, you's done seen me, offen," said Peggy.
+
+"Does Miss March intend to start immediately?" he asked.
+
+"Yaas, sah," said the good Peggy, "she'll be out in a minute, soon
+as she done kissin' Mah's Junius good-bye in de parlor." And then,
+noticing a look of astonishment on the gentleman's face, she added:
+"Dey's gwine to be mar'ed, Chris'mus."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Lawrence.
+
+"Good-bye, Mister Crof,'" said Peggy, "I's got to hurry up."
+
+Lawrence made no answer, but mechanically tossed her a coin, which,
+picking up, she gave him a farewell grin, and hastened to take her
+seat by the driver.
+
+Very soon afterward Lawrence saw Roberta come out, accompanied only by
+Mrs Null, and hurry down the steps. Forgetting his injured ankle, he
+sprang to his feet, and stepping quickly to the door, opened it, and
+stood on the threshold. But Miss March did not even look his way. He
+gazed at her with wide-open eyes as she hastily kissed Mrs Null, and
+sprang into the carriage, which was immediately driven off. As Mrs
+Null turned to go into the house, she looked toward the office and
+nodded to him. He believed that she would have come to him if he had
+called her, but he did not call. His mind was in such a condition that
+he would not have been capable of framing a question, had she come. He
+felt that he could speak to no one until he had seen Keswick. Closing
+the door he went back to his chair; and as he did so, his ankle pained
+him sadly, but of this he scarcely thought.
+
+He did not have to wait long for Junius Keswick, for in about ten
+minutes that individual entered. Lawrence turned, as his visitor
+opened the door; and he saw a countenance which had undergone a very
+noticeable change. It was not dark or lowering; it was not pale; but
+it was gray and hard; and the eyes looked larger than Lawrence had
+remembered them.
+
+Without preface or greeting Junius approached him, and said: "I have
+taken your message to Miss March, and have brought you one in return.
+You are accepted."
+
+Lawrence pushed back his chair, and stared blankly at the other. "What
+do you mean?" he presently asked.
+
+"I mean what I say," said Keswick. "Miss March has accepted you."
+
+A crowd of emotions rushed through the brain of Lawrence Croft; joy
+was among them, but it was a joy that was jostled and shaken and
+pushed, this way and that. "I do not understand," he said. "I did not
+expect such a decisive message. I supposed she might send me some
+encouragement, some--. Why didn't she see me before she left?"
+
+"I am not here to explain her actions if I could," said Junius, who
+had not sat down. "She said: 'Tell him I accept him.' That is all.
+Good morning."
+
+"But, stop!" cried Lawrence, on his feet again. "You must tell me more
+than that. Did you say to her only what I said to you? How did it
+affect her?"
+
+"Oh," said Junius, turning suddenly at the door, "I forgot that you
+asked me to observe her mood. Well, she was very angry."
+
+"With me?" cried Lawrence.
+
+"With me," said Junius. And closing the door behind him, he strode
+away.
+
+The accepted lover sat down. He had never spoken more truly than when
+he said he did not understand it. "Is she really mine?" he exclaimed.
+And with his eyes fixed on the blank wall over the mantel-piece, he
+repeated over and over again: "Is she mine? Is she really mine?" He
+had well developed mental powers, but the work of setting this matter
+straight and plain was too difficult for him.
+
+If she had sent him some such message as this: "I am very angry with
+you, but some day you can come and explain yourself to me;" his heart
+would have leaped for joy. He would have believed that his peace had
+been made, and that he had only to go to her to call her his own. Now
+his heart desired to leap with joy, but it did not seem to know how to
+do it. The situation was such an anomalous one. After such a message
+as this, why had she not let him see her? Why had she been angry with
+Keswick? Was that pique? And then a dark thought crossed his mind. Had
+he been accepted to punish the other? No, he could not believe that;
+no woman such as Roberta March would give herself away from such a
+motive. Had Keswick been joking with him? No, he could not believe
+that; no man could joke with such a face.
+
+Even the fact that Mrs Keswick had not bid Miss March farewell,
+troubled the mind of Lawrence. It was true that she might not yet know
+that the match, which she had so much encouraged, had been finally
+made, but something must be very wrong, or she would not have been
+absent at the moment of her guest's departure. And what did that
+beastly little negro mean by telling him that Keswick and Miss March
+were to be married at Christmas, and that the two were kissing each
+other good-bye in the parlor? Why, the man had not even come out to
+put her in the carriage, and the omission of this courtesy was very
+remarkable. These questions were entirely too difficult for him to
+resolve by himself. It was absolutely necessary that more should be
+told to him, and explained to him. Seeing the negro boy Plez crossing
+the yard, he called him and asked him to tell Mr Keswick that Mr Croft
+wished to see him immediately.
+
+"Mahs' Junius," said the boy, "he done gone to de railroad to take
+de kyars. He done took he knapsack on he back, an' walk 'cross de
+fiel's."
+
+When, about an hour or two afterwards, Uncle Isham brought Mr Croft
+his dinner, the old negro appeared to have lost that air of attentive
+geniality which he usually put on while waiting on the gentleman.
+Lawrence, however, took no notice of this, but before the man reached
+the table, on which he was to place the tray he carried, he asked: "Is
+it true that Mr Keswick has gone away by train?"
+
+"Yaas, sah," answered Isham.
+
+"And where is Mrs Keswick?" asked Lawrence. "Isn't she in the house?"
+
+"No, sah, done gwine vis'tin, I 'spec."
+
+"When will she return?"
+
+"Dunno," said Isham. "She nebber comes to me an' tells me whar she
+gwine, an' when she comin' back."
+
+And then, after satisfying himself that nothing more was needed of him
+for the present, Isham left the room; and when he reached the kitchen,
+he addressed himself to its plump mistress: "Letty," said he, "when
+dat ar Mister Crof has got froo wid his dinner, you go an' fotch back
+de plates an' dishes. He axes too many questions to suit me, dis day."
+
+"You is poh'ly to-day, Uncle Isham," said Letty.
+
+"Yaas," said the old man, "I's right much on the careen."
+
+Uncle Isham, perhaps, was not more loyal to the widow Keswick than
+many old servants were and are to their former mistresses, but his
+loyalty was peculiar in that it related principally to his regard for
+her character. This regard he wished to be very high, and it always
+troubled and unsettled his mind, when the old lady herself or anybody
+else interfered with his efforts to keep it high. For years he had
+been hoping that the time would come when she would cease to "rar and
+chawge," but she had continued, at intervals, to indulge in that most
+unsuitable exercise; and now that it appeared that she had reared and
+charged again, her old servant was much depressed. She had gone away
+from the house, and, for all he knew, she might stay away for days or
+weeks, as she had done before, and Uncle Isham was never so much "on
+the careen" as when he found himself forced to believe that his old
+mistress was still a woman who could do a thing like that.
+
+Letty had no objections to answering questions, but much to her
+disappointment, Lawrence asked her none. He had had enough of
+catechising negroes. But he requested her to ask Mrs Null if she would
+be kind enough to step out, for a few minutes, and speak to him. When,
+very shortly thereafter, that lady appeared, Lawrence was seated at
+his open door ready to receive her.
+
+"How are you?" she said. "And how is your ankle to-day? You have had
+nobody to attend to it."
+
+"It has hurt me a good deal," he answered. "I think I must have given
+it a wrench this morning, but I put on it some of the lotion Mrs
+Keswick left with me, and it feels better."
+
+"It is too bad," said Mrs Null, "that you have to attend to it
+yourself."
+
+"Not at all," said Lawrence. "Now that I know how, I can do it,
+perfectly well, and I don't care a snap about my ankle, except that it
+interferes with more important affairs. Why do you suppose Miss March
+went away without speaking to me, or taking leave of me in any way?"
+
+"I thought that would trouble you," said she, "and, to speak honestly,
+I don't think it was right. But Roberta was in a very agitated
+condition, when she left here, and I don't believe she ever thought of
+taking leave of you, or any one, except me. She and I are very good
+friends, but she don't confide much in me. But one thing I am pretty
+sure of, and that is that she is dreadfully angry with my cousin
+Junius, and I am very sorry for that."
+
+"How did he anger her?" asked Lawrence, wishing to find out how much
+this young woman knew. "I haven't the least idea," said Miss Annie.
+"All I know is, she had quite a long talk with him, in the parlor, and
+after that she came flying up-stairs, just as indignant as she could
+be. She didn't say much, but I could see how her soul raged within
+her." And now the young lady stopped speaking, and looked straight
+into Lawrence's face. "It isn't possible," she said, "that you have
+been sending my cousin to propose to her for you?"
+
+This was not a pleasant question to answer, and, besides, Lawrence had
+made up his mind that the period had passed for making confidants of
+other persons, in regard to his love affairs. "Do you suppose I would
+do that?" he said.
+
+"No, I don't," Miss Annie answered. "Cousin Junius would never have
+undertaken such a thing, and I don't believe you would be cruel enough
+to ask him."
+
+"Thank you for your good opinion," said Lawrence. "And now can you
+tell me when Mr Keswick is expected to return?"
+
+"He has gone back to Washington, and he told me he should stay there
+some time."
+
+"And why has not Mrs Keswick been out to see me?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"You are dreadfully inquisitive," said Miss Annie, "but to tell you
+the simple truth, Mr Croft, I don't believe Aunt Keswick takes any
+further interest in you, now that Roberta has gone. She had set her
+heart on making a match between you two, and doing it here without
+delay; and I think that everything going wrong about this has put her
+into the state of mind she is in now."
+
+"Has she really gone away?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Oh, that don't amount to anything," said Miss Annie. "She went over
+the fields to Howlett's, to see the postmistress, who is an old
+friend, to whom she often goes for comfort, when things are not right
+at home. But I am going after her this afternoon in the spring wagon.
+I'll take Plez along with me to open the gates. I am sure I shall
+bring her back."
+
+"I must admit, Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "that I am very inquisitive,
+but you can easily understand how much I am troubled and perplexed."
+
+"I expect Miss March's going away troubled you more than anything
+else," said she.
+
+"That is true," he answered, "but then there are other things which
+give me a great deal of anxiety. I came here to be, for a day or two,
+the guest of a lady on whom I have no manner of claim for prolonged
+hospitality. And now here I am, compelled to stay in this room and
+depend on her kindness or forbearance for everything I have. I would
+go away, immediately, but I know it would injure me to travel. The few
+steps I took yesterday have probably set me back for several days."
+
+"Oh, it would never do for you to travel," said she, "with such a
+sprained ankle as you have. It would certainly injure you very much to
+be driven all the way to the Green Sulphur Springs. I am told the road
+is very rough, between here and there, but perhaps you didn't notice
+it, having come over on horseback."
+
+"Yes, I did notice it, and I could not stand that drive. And, even if
+I could be got to the train, to go North, I should have to walk a good
+deal at the stations."
+
+"You simply must not think of it," said Miss Annie. "And now let me
+give you a piece of advice. I am a practical person, as you may know,
+and I like to do things in a practical way. The very best thing that
+you can do, is to arrange with Aunt Keswick to stay here as a boarder,
+until your ankle is well. She has taken boarders, and in this case
+I don't think she would refuse. As I told you before, you must not
+expect her to take the same interest in you, that she did when you
+first came, but she is really a kind woman, though she has such
+dreadfully funny ways, and she wouldn't have neglected you to-day, if
+it hadn't been that her mind is entirely wrapped up in other things.
+If you like, I'll propose such an arrangement to her, this afternoon."
+
+"You are very kind, indeed," said Lawrence, "but is there not danger
+of offending her by such a proposition?"
+
+"Yes, I think there is," answered Miss Annie, "and I have no doubt she
+will fly out into a passion when she hears that the gentleman, whom
+she invited here as a guest, proposes to stay as a boarder, but I
+think I can pacify her, and make her look at the matter in the proper
+way." "But why mention it at all, and put yourself to all that trouble
+about it?" said Lawrence.
+
+"Why, of course, because I think you will be so much better satisfied,
+and content to keep quiet and get well, if you feel that you have a
+right to stay here. If Aunt Keswick wasn't so very different from
+other people, I wouldn't have mentioned this matter for, really, there
+is no necessity for it; but I know very well that if you were to drop
+out of her mind for two or three days, and shouldn't see anything of
+her, that you would become dreadfully nervous about staying here."
+
+"You are certainly very practical, Mrs Null, and very sensible,
+and very, very kind; and nothing could suit me better under the
+circumstances than the plan you propose. But I am extremely anxious
+not to give offence to your aunt. She has treated me with the utmost
+kindness and hospitality."
+
+"Oh, don't trouble yourself about that," said Miss Annie, with a
+little laugh. "I am getting to know her so well that I think I can
+manage an affair like this, very easily. And now I must be off, or it
+will be too late for me to go to Howlett's, this afternoon, and I am a
+very slow driver. Are you sure there is nothing you want? I shall go
+directly past the store, and can stop as well as not."
+
+"Thank you very much," said Lawrence, "but I do not believe that
+Howlett's possesses an article that I need. One thing I will ask you
+to do for me before you go. I want to write a letter, and I find that
+I am out of paper; therefore I shall be very much obliged to you, if
+you will let me have some, and some envelopes."
+
+"Why, certainly," said Miss Annie, and she went into the house.
+
+She looked over the stock of paper which her aunt kept in a desk in
+the dining-room, but she did not like it. "I don't believe he will
+want to write on such ordinary paper as this," she said to herself.
+Whereupon she went up-stairs and got some of her own paper and
+envelopes, which were much finer in material and more correct in
+style. "I don't like it a bit," she thought, "to give this to him to
+write that letter on, but I suppose it's bound to be written, anyway,
+so he might as well have the satisfaction of good paper."
+
+"You must excuse these little sheets," she said, when she took it to
+him, "but you couldn't expect anything else, in an Amazonian household
+like ours. Cousin Junius has manly stationery, of course, but I
+suppose it is all locked up in that secretary in your room."
+
+"Oh, this will do very well indeed," said Lawrence; "and I wish I
+could come out and help you into your vehicle," regarding the spring
+wagon which now stood at the door, with Plez at the head of the solemn
+sorrel.
+
+"Thank you," said Miss Annie, "that is not at all necessary." And she
+tripped over to the spring wagon, and mounting into its altitudes
+without the least trouble in the world, she took up the reins. With
+these firmly grasped in her little hands, which were stretched very
+far out, and held very wide apart, she gave the horse a great jerk and
+told him to "Get up!" As she moved off, Lawrence from his open door
+called out: "_Bon voyage_" and in a full, clear voice she thanked
+him, but did not dare to look around, so intent was she upon her
+charioteering.
+
+Slowly turning the horse toward the yard gate, which Plez stood
+holding open, her whole soul was absorbed in the act of guiding the
+equipage through the gateway. Quickly glancing from side to side, and
+then at the horse's back, which ought to occupy a medium position
+between the two gateposts, she safely steered the front wheels through
+the dangerous pass, although a grin of delight covered the face of
+Plez as he noticed that the hub of one of the hind wheels almost
+grazed a post. Then the observant boy ran on to open the other gate,
+and with many jerks and clucks, Miss Annie induced the sorrel to break
+into a gentle trot.
+
+As Lawrence looked after her, a little pang made itself noticeable in
+his conscience. This girl was certainly very kind to him, and most
+remarkably considerate of him in the plan she had proposed. And yet he
+felt that he had prevaricated to her, and, in fact, deceived her, in
+the answer he had made when she asked him if he had sent her cousin
+to speak for him to Miss March. Would she have such friendly feelings
+toward him, and be so willing to oblige him, if she knew that he had
+in effect done the thing which she considered so wrong and so cruel?
+But it could not be helped; the time had passed for confidences. He
+must now work out this affair for himself, without regard to persons
+who really had nothing whatever to do with it.
+
+Closing his door, he hopped back to his table, and, seating himself at
+it, he opened his travelling inkstand and prepared to write to Miss
+March. It was absolutely necessary that he should write this letter,
+immediately, for, after the message he had received from the lady of
+his love, no time should be lost in putting himself in communication
+with her. But, before beginning to write, he must decide upon the
+spirit of his letter.
+
+Under the very peculiar circumstances of his acceptance, he did not
+feel that he ought to indulge in those rapturous expressions of
+ecstacy in which he most certainly would have indulged, if the lady
+had personally delivered her decision to him. He did not doubt her,
+for what woman would play a joke like that on a man--upon two men, in
+fact? Even if there were no other reason she would not dare to do it.
+Nor did he doubt Keswick. It would have been impossible for him to
+come with such a message, if it had not been delivered to him. And
+yet Lawrence could not bring himself to be rapturous. If he had been
+accepted in cold blood, and a hand, and not a heart, had been given to
+him, he would gladly take that hand and trust to himself to so warm
+the heart that it, also, would soon be his. But he did not know what
+Roberta March had given him.
+
+On the other hand, he knew very well if, in his first letter as an
+accepted lover, he should exhibit any of that caution and prudence
+which, in the course of his courtship, had proved to be shoals on
+which he had very nearly run aground, that Roberta's resentment, which
+had shown itself very marked in this regard, would probably be roused
+to such an extent that the affair would be brought to a very speedy
+and abrupt termination. If she had been obliged to forgive him, once,
+for this line of conduct, he could not expect her to do it again. To
+write a letter, which should err in neither of these respects, was a
+very difficult thing to do, and required so much preparatory thought,
+that when, toward the close of the afternoon, Miss Annie drove in at
+the yard gate, with Mrs Keswick on the seat beside her, not a line had
+been written.
+
+Mrs Keswick descended from the spring wagon and went into the house,
+but Miss Annie remained at the bottom of the steps, for the apparent
+purpose of speaking to Plez; perhaps to give him some instructions in
+regard to the leading of a horse to its stable, or to instil into his
+mind some moral principle or other; but the moment the vehicle moved
+away, she ran over to the office and tapped at the window, which was
+quickly opened by Lawrence.
+
+"I have spoken to her about it," she said, "and although she blazed
+up at first, so that I thought I should be burned alive, I made her
+understand just how matters really are, and she has agreed to let you
+stay here as a boarder."
+
+"You are extremely good," said Lawrence, "and must be a most admirable
+manager. This arrangement makes me feel much better satisfied than I
+could have been, otherwise." Then leaning a little further out of the
+window, he asked: "But what am I to do for company, while I am shut up
+here?"
+
+"Oh, you will have Uncle Isham, and Aunt Keswick, and sometimes me.
+But I hope that you will soon be able to come into the house, and take
+your meals, and spend your evenings with us."
+
+"You have nothing but good wishes for me," he said, "and I believe, if
+you could manage it, you would have me cured by magic, and sent off,
+well and whole, to-morrow."
+
+"Of course," said Miss Annie, very promptly. "Good night."
+
+Just before supper, Mrs Keswick came in to see Lawrence. She was very
+grave, almost severe, and her conversation was confined to inquiries
+as to the state of his ankle, and his general comfort. But Lawrence
+took no offence at her manner, and was very gracious, saying some
+exceedingly neat things about the way he had been treated; and, after
+a little, her manner slightly mollified, and she remarked: "And so you
+let Miss March go away, without settling anything."
+
+Now Lawrence considered this a very incorrect statement, but he had no
+wish to set the old lady right. He knew it would joy her heart, and
+make her more his friend than, ever if he should tell her that Miss
+March had accepted him, but this would be a very dangerous piece of
+information to put in her hands. He did not know what use she would
+make of it, or what damage she might unwittingly do to his prospects.
+And so he merely answered: "I had no idea she would leave so soon."
+
+"Well," said the old lady, "I suppose, after all, that you needn't
+give it up yet. I understand that she is not going to New York before
+the end of the month, and you may be well enough before that to ride
+over to Midbranch."
+
+"I hope so, most assuredly," said he.
+
+Lawrence devoted that evening to his letter. It was a long one, and
+was written with a most earnest desire to embrace all the merits of
+each of the two kinds of letters, which have before been alluded to,
+and to avoid all their faults. When it was finished, he read it, tore
+it up, and threw it in the fire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+The next day opened bright and clear, and before ten o'clock, the
+thermometer had risen to seventy degrees. Instead of sitting in front
+of the fireplace, Lawrence had his chair and table brought close to
+his open doorway, where he could look out on the same beautiful scene
+which had greeted his eyes a few days before. "But what is the good,"
+he thought, "of this green grass, this sunny air, that blue sky, those
+white clouds, and the distant tinted foliage, without that figure,
+which a few days ago stood in the foreground of the picture?" But,
+as the woman to whom, in his soul's sight, the whole world was but a
+background, was not there, he turned his eyes from the warm autumnal
+scene, and prepared again to write to her. He had scarcely taken up
+his pen, however, when he was interrupted by the arrival of Miss
+Annie, who came to bring him a book she had just finished reading, a
+late English novel which she thought might be more interesting than
+those she had sent him. The book was one which Lawrence had not seen
+and wanted to see, but in talking about it, to the young lady, he
+discovered that she had not read all of it.
+
+"Don't let me deprive you of the book," said Lawrence. "If you have
+begun it, you ought to go on with it."
+
+"Oh, don't trouble your mind about that," she said, with a laugh. "I
+have finished it, but I have not read a word of the beginning. I only
+looked at the end of it, to see how the story turned out. I always do
+that, before I read a novel."
+
+This remark much amused Lawrence. "Do you know," said he, "that I
+would rather not read novels at all, than to read them in that way. I
+must begin at the beginning, and go regularly through, as the author
+wishes his readers to do."
+
+"And perhaps, when you get to the end," said Miss Annie, "you'll find
+that the wrong man got her, and then you'll wish you had not read the
+story."
+
+"As you appear to be satisfied with this novel," said Lawrence, "I
+wish you would read it to me, and then I would feel that I was not
+taking an uncourteous precedence of you."
+
+"I'll read it to you," said she, "or, at least, as much as you want
+me to, for I feel quite sure that after you get interested in it,
+you will want to take it, yourself, and read straight on till it is
+finished, instead of waiting for some one to come and give you a
+chapter or two at a time. That would be the way with me, I know."
+
+"I shall be delighted to have you read to me," said Lawrence. "When
+can you begin?"
+
+"Now," she said, "if you choose. But perhaps you wish to write."
+
+"Not at this moment," said Lawrence, turning from the table.
+"Unfortunately I have plenty of leisure. Where will you sit?" And he
+reached out his hand for a chair.
+
+"Oh, I don't want a chair," said Annie, taking her seat on the broad
+door-step. "This is exactly what I like. I am devoted to sitting on
+steps. Don't you think there is something dreadfully stiff about
+always being perched up in a chair?"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, "on some occasions."
+
+And, forthwith, she began upon the first chapter; and having read
+five lines of this, she went back and read the title page, suddenly
+remembering that Mr Croft liked to begin a book at the very beginning.
+Miss Annie had been accustomed to read to her father, and she read
+aloud very well, and liked it. As she sat there, shaded by a great
+locust tree, which had dropped so many yellow leaves upon the grass,
+that, now and then, it could not help letting a little fleck of
+sunshine come down upon her, sometimes gilding for a moment her
+light-brown hair, sometimes touching the end of a crimson ribbon she
+wore, and again resting for a brief space on the toe of a very small
+boot just visible at the edge of her dress, Lawrence looked at her,
+and said to himself: "Is it possible that this is the rather pale
+young girl in black, who gave me change from behind the desk of Mr
+Candy's Information Shop? I don't believe it. That young person sprang
+up, temporarily, and is defunct. This is some one else."
+
+She read three chapters before she considered it time to go into the
+house to see if it was necessary for her to do anything about dinner.
+When she left him, Lawrence turned again to his writing.
+
+That afternoon, he sent Mrs Null a little note on the back of a card,
+asking her if she could let him have a few more sheets of paper.
+Lawrence found this request necessary, as he had used up that day
+all the paper she had sent him, and the small torn pieces of it now
+littered the fireplace.
+
+"He must be writing a diary letter," said Miss Annie to herself when,
+she received this message, "such as we girls used to write when we
+were at school." And, bringing down a little the corners of her mouth,
+she took from her stationery box what she thought would be quite paper
+enough to send to a man for such a purpose.
+
+But, although the means were thus made abundant, the letter to Miss
+March was not then written. Lawrence finally determined that it was
+simply impossible for him to write to the lady, until he knew more.
+What Keswick had told him had been absurdly little, and he had hurried
+away before there had been time to ask further questions. Instead of
+sending a letter to Miss March, he would write to Keswick, and would
+put to him a series of interrogations, the answers to which would make
+him understand better the position in which he stood. Then he would
+write to Miss March.
+
+The next day Miss Annie could not read to him in the morning, because,
+as she came and told him, she was going to Howlett's, on an errand for
+her aunt. But there would be time to give him a chapter or two before
+dinner, when she came back.
+
+"Would it be any trouble," said Lawrence, "for you to mail a letter
+for me?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Miss Annie, but not precisely in the same tone in which
+she would have told him that it would be no trouble to read to him two
+or three chapters of a novel. And yet she would pass directly by the
+residence of Miss Harriet Corvey, the post-mistress.
+
+As Miss Annie walked along the narrow path which ran by the roadside
+to Howlett's, with the blue sky above her, and the pleasant October
+sunshine all about her, and followed at a little distance by the boy
+Plez, carrying a basket, she did not seem to be taking that enjoyment
+in her walk which was her wont. Her brows were slightly contracted
+and she looked straight in front of her, without seeing anything in
+particular, after the manner of persons whose attention is entirely
+occupied in looking into their own minds, at something they do not
+like. "It is too much!" she said, almost loud, her brows contracting
+a little more as she spoke. "It was bad enough to have to furnish the
+paper, but for me to have to carry the letter, is entirely too much!"
+And, at this, she involuntarily glanced at the thick and double
+stamped missive, which, having no pocket, she carried in her hand. She
+had not looked at it before, and as her eyes fell upon the address,
+she stopped so suddenly that Plez, who was dozing as he walked, nearly
+ran into her. "What!" she exclaimed, "'Junius Keswick, five Q street,
+Washington, District of Columbia!' Is it possible that Mr Croft has
+been writing to him, all this time?" She now walked on; and although
+she still seemed to notice not the material objects around her, the
+frown disappeared from her brow, and her mental vision seemed to be
+fixed upon something more pleasant than that which had occupied it
+before. As it will be remembered, she had refused positively to have
+anything to do with Lawrence's suit to Miss March, and it was a relief
+to her to know that the letter she was carrying was not for that lady.
+"But why," thought she, "should he be writing, for two whole evenings,
+to Junius. I expected that he would write to her, to find out why she
+went off and left him in that way, but I did not suppose he would want
+to write to Junius. It seems to me they had time enough, that night
+they were together, to talk over everything they had to say."
+
+And then she began to wonder what they had to say, and, gradually, the
+conviction grew upon her that Mr Croft was a very, very honorable man.
+Of course it was wrong that he should have come here to try to win a
+lady who, if one looked at it in the proper light, really belonged to
+another. But it now came into her mind that Mr Croft must, by degrees,
+have seen this, for himself, and that it was the subject of his long
+conference with Junius, and also, most probably, of this letter.
+The conference certainly ended amicably, and, in that case, it was
+scarcely possible that Junius had given up his claim. He was not that
+kind of a man.
+
+If Mr Croft had become convinced that he ought to retire from this
+contest, and had done so, and Roberta had been informed of it, that
+would explain everything that had happened. Roberta's state of mind,
+after she had had the talk in the parlor with Junius, and her hurried
+departure, without taking the slightest notice of either of the
+gentlemen, was quite natural. What woman would like to know that she
+had been bargained about, and that her two lovers had agreed which of
+them should have her? It was quite to be expected that she would be
+very angry, at first, though there was no doubt she would get over it,
+so far as Junius was concerned.
+
+Having thus decided, entirely to her own satisfaction, that this was
+the state of affairs, she thought it was a grand thing that there were
+two such young men in the world, as her cousin and Mr Croft, who could
+arrange such an affair in so kindly and honorable a manner, without
+feeling that they were obliged to fight--that horribly stupid way in
+which such things used to be settled.
+
+This vision of masculine high-mindedness, which Miss Annie had called
+up, seemed very pleasant to her, and her mental satisfaction was
+denoted by a pretty little glow which came into her face, and by a
+certain increase of sprightliness in her walk. "Now then,--" she said
+to herself; and although she did not finish the sentence, even in her
+own mind, the sky increased the intensity of its beautiful blue; the
+sun began to shine with a more golden radiance; the little birds who
+had not yet gone South, chirped to each other as merrily as if it had
+been early summer; the yellow and purple wild flowers of autumn threw
+into their blossoms a richer coloring; and even the blades of grass
+seemed to stretch themselves upward, green, tender, and promising;
+and when the young lady skipped up the step of the post-office, she
+dropped the letter into Miss Harriet Corvey's little box, with the air
+of a mother-bird feeding a young one with the first ripe cherry of the
+year.
+
+A day or two after this, Lawrence found himself able, by the aid of a
+cane and a rude crutch, which Uncle Isham had made for him and the top
+of which Mrs Keswick had carefully padded, to make his way from the
+office to the house; and, after that, he took his meals, and passed
+the greater part of his time in the larger edifice. Sometimes, he
+ransacked the old library; sometimes, Miss Annie read to him; and
+sometimes, he read to her. In the evening, there were games of cards,
+in which the old lady would occasionally take a hand, although more
+frequently Miss Annie and Mr Croft were obliged to content themselves
+with some game at which two could play. But the pleasantest hours,
+perhaps, were those which were spent in talking, for Lawrence had
+travelled a good deal, and had seen so many of the things in foreign
+lands which Miss Annie had always wished, that she could see. Lawrence
+was waiting until he should hear from Mr Keswick; so that, with some
+confidence in his position, he could write to Miss March. His trunk
+had been sent over from the Green Sulphur Springs, and he was much
+better satisfied to wait here than at that deserted watering-place. It
+was, indeed, a very agreeable spot in which to wait, and quite near
+enough to Midbranch for him to carry on his desired operations, when
+the time should arrive. He was a little annoyed that Keswick's answer
+should be so long in coming, but he resolved not to worry himself
+about it. The answer was, probably, a difficult letter to write, and
+one which Keswick would not be likely to dash off in a hurry. He
+remembered, too, that the mail was sent and received only twice a week
+at Howlett's.
+
+Old Mrs Keswick was kind to him, but grave, and rather silent. Once
+she passed the open door of the parlor, by the window of which sat
+Miss Annie and Lawrence, deeply engaged, their heads together, in
+studying out something on a map, and as she went up-stairs she grimly
+grinned, and said to herself: "If that Null could look in and see them
+now, I reckon our young man would wish he had the use of all his arms
+and legs."
+
+But if Mr Null should disapprove of his wife and that gentleman from
+New York spending so much of their time together, old Mrs Keswick had
+not the least objection in the world. She was well satisfied that Mr
+Croft should find it interesting enough to stay here until the time
+came when he should be able to go to Midbranch. When that period
+arrived she would not be slow to urge him to his duty, in spite of any
+obstacles Mr Brandon might put in his way. So, for the present, she
+possessed her soul in as much peace as the soul of a headstrong and
+very wilful old lady is capable of being possessed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+The letter which Lawrence Croft had written to Junius Keswick was not
+answered for more than a week, and when the answer arrived, it did not
+come through the Howlett's post-office, but was brought from a mail
+station on the railway by a special messenger. In this epistle Mr
+Keswick stated that he would have written much sooner but for the fact
+that he had been away from Washington, and having just returned, had
+found Mr Croft's letter waiting for him. The answer was written in a
+tone which Lawrence did not at all expect. It breathed the spirit of a
+man who was determined, and almost defiant. It told Mr Croft that the
+writer did not now believe that Miss March's acceptance of the said Mr
+Croft, should be considered of any value, whatever. It was the result
+of a very peculiar condition of things, in which he regretted having
+taken a part, and it was given in a moment of pique and indignation,
+which gave Miss March a right to reconsider her hasty decision, if she
+chose to do so. It would not be fair for either of them to accept, as
+conclusive, words said under the extraordinary circumstances which
+surrounded Miss March when she said those words. "You asked me to
+do you a favor," wrote Junius Keswick, "and, very much against my
+inclination, and against what is now my judgment, I did it. I now ask
+you to do me a favor, and I do not think you should refuse it. I ask
+you not to communicate with Miss March until I have seen her, and have
+obtained from her an explanation of the acceptance in question. I have
+a right to this explanation, and I feel confident that it will be
+given to me. You ask me what I truly believe Miss March meant by her
+message to you. I answer that I do not know, but I intend to find out
+what she meant, and as soon as I do so, I will write to you. I think,
+therefore, considering what you have asked me to do, and what you
+have written to me, about what I have done, that you cannot refuse to
+abstain from any further action in the matter, until I am enabled to
+answer you. I cannot leave Washington immediately, but I shall go to
+Midbranch in a very few days."
+
+This letter was very far from being a categorical answer to Lawrence's
+questions, and it disappointed and somewhat annoyed that gentleman;
+but after he had read it for the second time, and carefully considered
+it, he put it in his pocket and said to himself, "This ends all
+discussion of this subject. Mr Keswick may be right in the position
+he takes, or he may be wrong. He may go to Midbranch; he may get his
+explanation; and he may send it to me. But, without any regard to what
+he does, or says, or writes, I shall go to Miss March as soon as I am
+able to use my ankle, and, whether she be at her uncle's house, or
+whether she has gone to New York, or to any other place, I shall see
+her, and, myself, obtain from her an explanation of this acceptance.
+This is due to me as well as to Mr Keswick, and if he thinks he ought
+to get it, for himself, I also think I ought to get it, for myself."
+
+The good results of Lawrence's great care in regard to his injured
+ankle soon began to show themselves. The joint had slowly but steadily
+regained its strength and usual healthy condition; and Lawrence now
+found that he could walk about without the assistance of his rude
+crutch. He was still prudent, however, and took but very short walks,
+and in these he leaned upon his trusty cane. The charming autumn days,
+which often come to Virginia in late October and early November, were
+now at their best. Day after day, the sun shone brightly, but there
+was in the air an invigorating coolness, which made its radiance
+something to be sought for and not avoided.
+
+It was just after dinner, and it was Saturday afternoon, when Miss
+Annie announced that she was going to see old Aunt Patsy, whom she had
+somewhat neglected of late.
+
+"May I go with you?" said Lawrence.
+
+Miss Annie shook her head doubtfully. "I should be very glad to have
+your company," she said, "but I am afraid it will be entirely too much
+of a walk for you. The days are so short that the sun will be low
+before we could get back, and if you should be tired, it would not do
+for you to sit down and rest, at that time of day."
+
+"I believe," said Lawrence, "that my ankle is quite strong enough for
+me to walk to Aunt Patsy's and back, without sitting down to rest. I
+would be very glad to go with you, and I would like, too, to see that
+venerable colored woman again."
+
+"Well," said Miss Annie, "if you really think you can walk so far, it
+will be very nice indeed to have you go, but you ought to feel very
+sure that it will not hurt you."
+
+"Come along," said Lawrence, taking up his hat and cane.
+
+After a man has been shut up, as Lawrence had been, a pleasant ramble
+like this is a most delightful change, and he did not hesitate to
+manifest his pleasure. This touched the very sensitive soul of
+his companion, and with such a sparkle of talk did she evince her
+gratification, that almost any one would have been able to see that
+she was a young lady who had an earnest sympathy with those who had
+undergone afflictions, but were now freed from them.
+
+Aunt Patsy was glad to see her visitors, particularly glad, it seemed,
+to see Mr Croft. She was quite loquacious, considering the great
+length of her days, and the proverbial shortness of her tongue.
+
+"Why, Aunt Patsy," said Miss Annie, "you seem to have grown younger
+since I last saw you! I do believe you are getting old backwards! What
+are you going to do with that dress-body?" "I's lookin' at dis h'yar,"
+said Aunt Patsy, turning over the well-worn body of a black woollen
+dress which lay in her lap, instead of the crazy quilt on which she
+was usually occupied, "to see if it's done gib way in any ob de seams,
+or de elbers. 'Twas a right smart good frock once, an' I's gwine to
+wear it ter-morrer."
+
+"To-morrow!" exclaimed Annie. "You don't mean to say you are going to
+church!"
+
+"Dat's jus' wot I's gwine to do, Miss Annie. I's gwine to chu'ch
+ter-morrer mawnin'. Dar's gwine to be a big preachin'. Brudder Enick
+Hines is to be dar, an' dey tell me dey allus has pow'ful wakenin's
+when Brudder Enick preaches. I ain't ever heered Brudder Enick yit,
+coz he was a little boy when I use to go to chu'ch."
+
+"Will it be in the old church, in the woods just beyond Howlett's?"
+asked Annie.
+
+"Right dar," replied Aunt Patsy, with an approving glance towards the
+young lady. "You 'members dem ar places fus' rate, Miss Annie. Why you
+didn't tole me, when you fus' come h'yar, dat you was dat little Miss
+Annie dat I use to tote roun' afore I gin up walkin'?"
+
+"Oh, that's too long a story," said Miss Annie, with a laugh. "You
+know I hadn't seen Aunt Keswick, then. I couldn't go about introducing
+myself to other people before I had seen her."
+
+Aunt Patsy gave a sagacious nod of her head. "I reckon you thought
+she'd be right much disgruntled when she heered you was mar'ed, an'
+you wanted to tell her youse'f. But I's pow'ful glad dat it's all
+right now. You all don' know how pow'ful glad I is." And she looked
+at Mr Croft and Miss Annie with a glance as benignant as her time-set
+countenance was capable of.
+
+"But Aunt Patsy," said Annie, quite willing to change the
+conversation, although she did not know the import of the old woman's
+last remark, "I thought you were not able to go out."
+
+The old woman gave a little chuckle. "Dat's wot eberybody thought, an'
+to tell you de truf, Miss Annie, I thought so too. But ef I was strong
+'nuf to go to de pos' offis,--an' I did dat, Miss Annie, an' not long
+ago nuther,--I reckon I's strong 'nuf to go to chu'ch, an' Uncle Isham
+is a comin' wid de oxcart to take me ter-morrer mawnin'. Dar'll be
+pow'ful wakenin's, an' I ain't seen de Jerus'lum Jump in a mighty long
+time."
+
+"Are they going to have the Jerusalem Jump?" asked Miss Annie.
+
+"Oh, yaas, Miss Annie," said the old woman, "dey's sartin shuh to hab
+dat, when dey gits waken'd."
+
+"I should so like to see the Jerusalem Jump again," said Miss Annie.
+"I saw it once, when I was a little girl. Did you ever see it?" she
+said, turning to Mr Croft.
+
+"I have not," he answered. "I never even heard of it."
+
+"Suppose we go to-morrow, and hear Brother Enoch," she said. "I should
+like it very much," answered Lawrence.
+
+"Aunt Patsy," said Miss Annie, "would there be any objection to our
+going to your church to-morrow?"
+
+The old woman gave her head a little shake. "Dunno," she said. "As a
+gin'ral rule we don't like white folks at our preachin's. Dey's got
+dar chu'ches, an' dar ways, an' we's got our chu'ches, an' our ways.
+But den it's dif'rent wid you all. An' you all's not like white folks
+in gin'ral, an' 'specially strawngers. You all isn't strawngers now. I
+don't reckon dar'll be no 'jections to your comin', ef you set sollum,
+an' I know you'll do dat, Miss Annie, coz you did it when you was a
+little gal. An' I reckon it'll be de same wid him?" looking at Mr
+Croft.
+
+Miss Annie assured her that she and her companion would be certain to
+"sit solemn," and that they would not think of such a thing as going
+to church and behaving indecorously.
+
+"Dar is white folks," said Aunt Patsy, "wot comes to a culled chu'ch
+fur nothin' else but to larf. De debbil gits dem folks, but dat don'
+do us no good, Miss Annie, an' we'd rudder dey stay away. But you
+all's not dat kine. I knows dat, sartin shuh."
+
+When the two had taken leave of the old woman, and Miss Annie had gone
+out of the door, Aunt Patsy leaned very far forward, and stretching
+out her long arm, seized Mr Croft by the skirt of his coat. He stepped
+back, quite surprised, and then she said to him, in a low but very
+earnest voice: "I reckon dat dat ar sprain ankle was nuffin but a
+acciden'; but you look out, sah, you look out! Hab you got dem little
+shoes handy?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Lawrence. "I have them in my trunk."
+
+"Keep 'em whar you kin put your han' on 'em," said Aunt Patsy,
+impressively. "You may want 'em yit. You min' my wuds."
+
+"I shall be sure to remember," said Lawrence, as he hastened out to
+rejoin Annie.
+
+"What in the world had Aunt Patsy to say to you?" asked that somewhat
+surprised young lady.
+
+Then Lawrence told her how some time before Aunt Patsy had given him a
+pair of blue shoes, which she said would act as a preventive charm, in
+case Mrs Keswick should ever wish to do him harm, and that she had now
+called him back to remind him not to neglect this means of personal
+protection. "I can't imagine," said Lawrence, "that your aunt would
+ever think of such a thing as doing me a harm, or how those little
+shoes would prevent her, if she wanted to, but I suppose Aunt Patsy is
+crack-brained on some subjects, and so I thought it best to humor her,
+and took the shoes."
+
+"Do you know," said Miss Annie, after walking a little distance in
+silence, "that I am afraid Aunt Patsy has done a dreadful thing, and
+one I never should have suspected her of. Aunt Keswick had a little
+baby once, and it died very young. She keeps its clothes in a box, and
+I remember when I was a little girl that she once showed them to me,
+and told me I was to take the place of that little girl, and that
+frightened me dreadfully, because I thought that I would have to die,
+and have my clothes put in a box. I recollect perfectly that there was
+a pair of little blue shoes among these clothes, and Aunt Patsy must
+have stolen them."
+
+"That surprises me," said Lawrence. "I supposed, from what I had heard
+of the old woman, that she was perfectly honest."
+
+"So she is," said Annie. "She has been a trusted servant in our family
+nearly all her life. But some negroes have very queer ideas about
+taking certain things, and I suppose Aunt Patsy had some particular
+reason for taking those shoes, for, of course, they could be of no
+value to her."
+
+"I am very sorry," said Lawrence, "that such sacred relics should have
+come into my possession, but I must admit that I would not like to
+give them back to your aunt."
+
+"Oh, no," said Annie, "that would never do; and I wouldn't dare to try
+to find her box, and put them in it. It would seem like a desecration
+for any hand but her own to touch those things."
+
+"That is true," said Lawrence, "and you might get yourself into a lot
+of trouble by endeavoring to repair the mischief. Before I leave here,
+we may think of some plan of disposing of the little trotters. It
+might be well to give them back to Aunt Patsy and tell her to restore
+them."
+
+"I don't know," said Miss Annie, with a slowness of reply, and an
+irrelevance of demeanor, which indicated she was not thinking of the
+words she was speaking.
+
+The sun was now very near the horizon, and that evening coolness
+which, in the autumn, comes on so quickly after the sunshine fades out
+of the air, made Lawrence give a little shrug with his shoulders. He
+proposed that they should quicken their pace, and as his companion
+made no objection, they soon reached the house.
+
+The next day being Sunday, breakfast was rather later than usual, and
+as Lawrence looked out on the bright morning, with the mists just
+disengaging themselves from the many-hued foliage which crowned the
+tops of the surrounding hills; and on the recently risen sun, hanging
+in an atmosphere of grey and lilac, with the smile of Indian summer on
+its face; he thought he would like to take a stroll, before that meal;
+but either the length of his walk on the previous day, or the rapidity
+of the latter portion of it, had been rather too much for the
+newly-recovered strength of his ankle, which now felt somewhat stiff
+and sore. When he mentioned this at the breakfast table, he received a
+good deal of condolence from the two ladies, especially Mrs Keswick.
+And, at first, it was thought that it might be well for him to give
+up his proposed attendance at the negro church. But to this Lawrence
+strongly objected, for he very much desired to see some of the
+peculiar religious services of the negroes. He had been talking on the
+subject the evening before with Mrs Keswick, who had told him that in
+this part of the country, which lay in the "black belt" of Virginia,
+where the negro population had always been thickest, these ceremonies
+were more characteristic of the religious disposition of the African,
+than in those sections of the State where the white race exerted a
+greater influence upon the manners and customs of the colored people.
+
+"But it will not be necessary to walk much," said Miss Annie. "We can
+take the spring-wagon, and you can go with us, aunt."
+
+The old lady permitted herself a little grin. "When I go to church,"
+she said, "I go to a white folks' church, and try to see what I can of
+white folks' Christianity, though I must say that Christianity of
+the other color is often just as good, as far as works go. But it is
+natural that a stranger should want to see what kind of services
+the colored people have, so you two might as well get into the
+spring-wagon and go along."
+
+"But shall we not deprive you of the vehicle?" said Lawrence.
+
+"I never go to church in the spring-wagon," said the old lady, "so
+long as I am able to walk. And, besides, this is not our Sunday for
+preaching."
+
+It seemed to Lawrence that an elderly person who went about in a
+purple calico sun-bonnet, and with an umbrella of the same material,
+might go to church in a wheelbarrow, so far as appearances were
+concerned, but he had long ceased to wonder at Mrs Keswick's
+idiosyncrasies. "I remember very well," said Miss Annie, after the
+old lady had left the table, which she always did as soon as she had
+finished a meal, "when Aunt Keswick used to go to church in a big
+family carriage, which is now sleeping itself to pieces out there in
+the barn. But then she had a pair of big gray horses, one of them
+named Doctor and the other Colonel. But now she has only one horse,
+and I am going to tell Uncle Isham to harness that one up before he
+goes to church himself. You know he is to take Aunt Patsy in the
+ox-cart, so he will have to go early."
+
+They went to the negro church in the spring-wagon, Lawrence driving
+the jogging sorrel, and Miss Annie on the seat beside him. When they
+reached the old frame edifice in the woods beyond Howlett's, they
+found gathered there quite a large assemblage, for this was one of
+those very attractive occasions called a "big preaching." Horses and
+mules, and wagons of various kinds, many of the latter containing
+baskets of refreshments, were standing about under the trees; and Mrs
+Keswick's cart and oxen, tethered to a little pine tree, gave proof
+that Aunt Patsy had arrived. The inside of the church was nearly full,
+and outside, around the door, stood a large number of men and boys.
+The white visitors were looked upon with some surprise, but way was
+made for them to approach the door, and as soon as they entered the
+building two of the officers of the church came forward to show them
+to one of the uppermost seats; but this honor Miss Annie strenuously
+declined. She preferred a seat near the open door, and therefore she
+and Mr Croft were given a bench in that vicinity, of which they had
+sole possession.
+
+To Lawrence, who had never seen anything of the sort, the services
+which now began were exceedingly interesting; and as Annie had not
+been to a negro church since she was a little girl, and very seldom
+then, she gave very earnest and animated attention to what was going
+on. The singing, as it always is among the negroes, was powerful and
+melodious, and the long prayer of Brother Enoch Hines was one of those
+spirited and emotional statements of personal condition, and wild and
+ardent supplication, which generally pave the way for a most powerful
+awakening in an assemblage of this kind. Another hymn, sung in more
+vigorous tones than the first one, warmed up the congregation to
+such a degree that when Brother Hines opened the Bible, and made
+preparations for his discourse, he looked out upon an audience as
+anxious to be moved and stirred as he was to move and stir it. The
+sermon was intended to be a long one, for, had it been otherwise,
+Brother Hines had lost his reputation; and, therefore, the preacher,
+after a few prefatory statements, delivered in a grave and solemn
+manner, plunged boldly into the midst of his exhortations, knowing
+that he could go either backward or forward, presenting, with equal
+acceptance, fresh subject matter, or that already used, so long as his
+strength held out. He had not preached half an hour before his hearers
+were so stirred and moved, that a majority of them found it utterly
+impossible to merely sit still and listen. In different ways their
+awakening was manifested; some began to sing in a low voice; others
+gently rocked their bodies; while fervent ejaculations of various
+kinds were heard from all parts of the church. From this beginning,
+arose gradually a scene of religious activity, such as Lawrence had
+never imagined. Each individual allowed his or her fervor to express
+itself according to the method which best pleased the worshipper.
+Some kept to their seats, and listened to the words of the preacher,
+interrupting him occasionally by fervent ejaculations; others sang
+and shouted, sometimes standing up, clapping their hands and stamping
+their feet; while a large proportion of the able-bodied members left
+their seats, and pushed their way forward to the wide, open space
+which surrounded the preacher's desk, and prepared to engage in the
+exhilarating ceremony of the "Jerusalem Jump."
+
+Two concentric rings were formed around the preacher, the inner one
+composed of women, the outer one of men, the faces of those forming
+the inner ring being turned towards those in the outer. As soon as all
+were in place, each brother reached forth his hand, and took the hand
+of the sister opposite to him, and then each couple began to jump up
+and down violently, shaking hands and singing at the top of their
+voices. After about a minute of this, the two circles moved, one, one
+way and one another, so that each brother found himself opposite
+a different sister. Hands were again immediately seized, and the
+jumping, hand-shaking, and singing went on. Minute by minute the
+excitement increased; faster the worshippers jumped, and louder they
+sang. Through it all Brother Enoch Hines kept on with his sermon.
+It was very difficult now to make himself heard, and the time for
+explanation or elucidation had long since passed; all he could do was
+to shout forth certain important and moving facts, and this he did
+over and over again, holding his hand at the side of his mouth, as if
+he were hailing a vessel in the wind. Much of what he said was lost
+in the din of the jumpers, but ever and anon could be heard ringing
+through the church the announcement: "De wheel ob time is a turnin'
+roun'!"
+
+In a group by themselves, in an upper corner of the congregation, were
+four or five very old women, who were able to manifest their pious
+enthusiasm in no other way than by rocking their bodies backwards
+and forwards, and singing with their cracked voices a gruesome
+and monotonous chant. This rude song had something of a wild and
+uncivilized nature, as if it had come down to these old people from
+the savage rites of their African ancestors. They did not sing in
+unison, but each squeaked or piped out her, "Yi, wiho, yi, hoo!"
+according to the strength of her lungs, and the degree of her
+exaltation. Prominent among these was old Aunt Patsy; her little black
+eyes sparkling through her great iron-bound spectacles; her head and
+body moving in unison with the wild air of the unintelligible chant
+she sang; her long, skinny hands clapping up and down upon her
+knees; while her feet, encased in their great green baize slippers,
+unceasingly beat time upon the floor.
+
+So many persons being absent from their seats, the group of old women
+was clearly visible to Annie and Lawrence, and Aunt Patsy also could
+easily see them. Whenever her head, in its ceaseless moving from side
+to side, allowed her eyes to fall upon the two white visitors, her
+ardor and fervency increased, and she seemed to be expressing a pious
+gratitude that Miss Annie and he, whom she supposed to be her husband,
+were still together in peace and safety.
+
+Annie was much affected by all she saw and heard. Her face was
+slightly pale, and occasionally she was moved by a little nervous
+tremor. Mr Croft, too, was very attentive. His soul was not moved to
+enthusiasm, and he did not feel, as his companion did, now and
+then, that he would like to jump up and join in the dancing and the
+shouting; but the scene made a very strong impression upon him.
+
+Around and around went the two rings of men and women, jumping,
+singing, and hand-shaking. Out from the centre of them came the
+stentorian shout: "De wheel ob time is a turnin' roun'!" From all
+parts of the church rose snatches of hymns, exultant shouts, groans,
+and prayers; and, in the corner, the shrill chants of the old women
+were fitfully heard through the storm of discordant worship.
+
+In the midst of all the wild din and hubbub, the soul of Aunt Patsy
+looked out from the habitation where it had dwelt so long, and,
+without giving the slightest notice to any one, or attracting the
+least attention by its movements, it silently slipped away.
+
+The old habitation of the soul still sat in its chair, but no one
+noticed that it no longer sang, or beat time with its hands and feet.
+
+Not long after this, Lawrence looked round at his companion, and
+noticed that she was slightly trembling. "Don't you think we have had
+enough of this?" he whispered.
+
+"Yes," she answered. And they rose and went out. They thought they
+were the first who had left.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+When Mr Croft and Miss Annie got into the spring-wagon, and the head
+of the sorrel was turned away from the church, Lawrence looked at his
+watch, and remarked that, as it was still quite early, there might be
+time for a little drive before going back to the house for dinner. The
+face of the young lady beside him was still slightly pale, and the
+thought came to him that it would be very well for her if her mind
+could be diverted from the abnormally inspiriting scene she had just
+witnessed.
+
+"Dinner will be late to-day," she said, "for I saw Letty doing her
+best among the Jerusalem Jumpers."
+
+"Very well," said he, "we will drive. And now, where shall we go?"
+
+"If we take the cross-road at the store," said Miss Annie, "and go on
+for about half a mile, we can turn into the woods, and then there is a
+beautiful road through the trees, which will bring us out on the other
+side of Aunt Keswick's house. Junius took me that way not long ago."
+
+So they turned at the store, much to the disgust of the plodding
+sorrel, who thought he was going directly home, and they soon reached
+the road that led through the woods. This was hard and sandy, as are
+many of the roads through the forests in that part of the country, and
+it would have been a very good driving road, had it not been for the
+occasional protrusion of tree roots, which gave the wheels a little
+bump, and for the branches which, now and then, hung down somewhat too
+low for the comfort of a lady and gentleman, riding in a rather high
+spring-wagon without a cover. But Lawrence drove slowly, and so the
+root bumps were not noticed; and when the low-hanging boughs were on
+his side, he lifted them so that his companion's head could pass under
+and, when they happened to be on her side, Annie ducked her head,
+and her hat was never brushed off. But, at times, they drove quite a
+distance without overhanging boughs, and the pine trees, surrounded by
+their smooth carpet of brown spines, gave forth a spicy fragrance in
+the warm, but sparkling air; the oak trees stood up still dark and
+green; while the chestnuts were all dressed in rich yellow, with the
+chinquepin bushes by the roadside imitating them in color, as they
+tried to do in fruit. Sometimes a spray of purple flowers could be
+seen among the trees, and great patches of sunlight which, here
+and there, came through the thinning foliage, fell, now upon the
+brilliantly scarlet leaves of a sweet-gum, and now upon the polished
+and brown-red dress of a neighboring black-gum.
+
+The woods were very quiet. There was no sound of bird or insect, and
+the occasional hare, or "Molly Cotton-tail," as Annie delightedly
+called it, who hopped across the road, made no noise at all. A gentle
+wind among the tops of the taller trees made a sound as of a distant
+sea; but, besides this, little was heard but the low, crunching noise
+of the wheels, and the voices of Lawrence and Miss Annie.
+
+Reaching a place where the road branched, Lawrence stopped the horse,
+and looked up each leafy lane. They were completely deserted. White
+people seldom walked abroad at this hour on Sunday, and the negroes
+of the neighborhood were at church. "Is not this a frightfully lonely
+place?" he said. "One might imagine himself in a desert."
+
+"I like it," replied Annie. "It is so different from the wild,
+exciting tumult of that church. I am glad you took me away. At first I
+would not have missed it for the world, but there seemed to come into
+the stormy scene something oppressive, and almost terrifying."
+
+"I am glad I took you away," said Lawrence, "but it seems to me that
+your impression was not altogether natural. I thought that, amid all
+that mad enthusiasm, you were over-excited, not depressed. A solemn
+solitude like this would, to my thinking, be much more likely to lower
+your spirits. I don't like solitude, myself, and therefore, I suppose
+it is that I thought an impressible nature, like yours, would find
+something sad in the loneliness of these silent woods."
+
+Annie turned, and fixed on him her large blue eyes. "But I am not
+alone," she said.
+
+As Lawrence looked into her eyes he saw that they were as clear as the
+purest crystal, and that he could look through them straight into her
+soul, and there he saw that this woman loved him. The vision was
+as sudden as if it had been a night scene lighted up by a flash of
+lightning, but it was as clear and plain as if it had been that same
+scene under the noonday sun.
+
+There are times in the life of a man, when the goddess of Reasonable
+Impulse raises her arms above her head, and allows herself a little
+yawn. Then she takes off her crown and hangs it on the back of her
+throne; after which she rests her sceptre on the floor, and, rising,
+stretches herself to her full height, and goes forth to take a long,
+refreshing walk by the waters of Unreflection. Then her minister,
+Prudence, stretches himself upon a bench, and, with his handkerchief
+over his eyes, composes himself for a nap. Discretion, Worldly Wisdom,
+and other trusted officers of her court, and even, sometimes, that
+agile page called Memory, no sooner see their royal mistress depart
+than, by various doors, they leave the palace and wander far away.
+Then, silently, with sparkling eyes, and parted lips, comes that fair
+being, Unthinking Love. She puts one foot upon the lower step of
+the throne; she looks about her; and, with a quick bound, she seats
+herself. Upon her tumbled curls she hastily puts the crown; with her
+small white hand she grasps the sceptre; and then, rising, waves it,
+and issues her commands. The crowd of emotions which serve as her
+satellites, seize the great seal from the sleeping Prudence, and the
+new Queen reigns!
+
+All this now happened to Lawrence. Never before had he looked into the
+eyes of a woman who loved him; and, leaning over towards this one, he
+put his arm around her and drew her towards him. "And never shall you
+be alone," he said.
+
+She looked up at him with tears starting to her eyes, and then she put
+her head against his breast. She was too happy to say anything, and
+she did not try.
+
+It was about a minute after this, that the sober sorrel, who took no
+interest in what had occurred behind him, and a great deal of interest
+in his stable at home, started in an uncertain and hesitating way;
+and, finding that he was not checked, began to move onward. Lawrence
+looked up from the little head upon his breast, and called out,
+"Whoa!" To this, however, the sorrel paid no attention. Lawrence
+then put forth his right hand to grasp the reins, but having lately
+forgotten all about them, they had fallen out of the spring-wagon, and
+were now dragging upon the ground. It was impossible for him to reach
+them, and so, seizing the whip, he endeavored with its aid to hook
+them up. Failing in this, he was about to jump out and run to the
+horse's head; but, perceiving his intention, Annie seized his arm.
+"Don't you do it!" she exclaimed. "You'll ruin your ankle!"
+
+Lawrence could not but admit to himself that he was not in condition
+to execute any feats of agility, and he also felt that Annie had a
+very charming way of holding fast to his arm, as if she had a right
+to keep him out of danger. And now the sorrel broke into the jog-trot
+which was his usual pace. "It is very provoking," said Lawrence, "I
+don't think I ever allowed myself to drop the reins before."
+
+"It doesn't make the slightest difference," said Annie, comfortingly.
+"This old horse knows the road perfectly well, and he doesn't need a
+bit of driving. He will take us home just as safely as if you held
+the reins, and now don't you try to get them, for you will only hurt
+yourself."
+
+"Very well," said Lawrence, putting his arm around her again, "I am
+resigned. But I think you are very brave to sit so quiet and composed,
+under the circumstances."
+
+She looked at him with a smile. "Such a little circumstance don't
+count, just now," she said. "You must stop that," she added,
+presently, "when we get to the edge of the woods."
+
+Before long, they came out into the open country and found themselves
+in a lane which led by a wide circuit to the road passing Mrs
+Keswick's house. The old sorrel certainly behaved admirably; he held
+back when he descended a declivity; he walked over the rough places;
+and he trotted steadily where the road was smooth.
+
+"It seems like our Fate," said Annie, who now sat up without an arm
+around her, the protecting woods having been left behind, "he just
+takes us along without our having anything to do with it."
+
+"He is not much of a horse," said Lawrence, clasping, in an
+unobservable way, the little hand which lay by his side, "but the Fate
+is charming."
+
+Fortunately there was no one upon the road to notice the reinless
+plight in which these two young people found themselves, and they were
+quite as well satisfied as if they had been doing their own driving.
+After a little period of thought, Annie turned an earnest face to
+Lawrence, and she said: "Do you know that I never believed that you
+were really in love with Roberta March."
+
+Lawrence squeezed her hand, but did not reply. He knew very well that
+he had loved Roberta March, and he was not going to lie about it.
+
+"I thought so," she continued, "because I did not believe that any
+one, who was truly in love, would want to send other people about, to
+propose for him, as you did."
+
+"That is not exactly the state of the case," he said, "but we must not
+talk of those things now. That is all passed and gone."
+
+"But if there ever was any love," she persisted, "are you sure that it
+is all gone?"
+
+"Gone," he answered, earnestly, "as utterly and completely as the days
+of last summer."
+
+And now the sorrel, of his own accord, stopped at Mrs Keswick's outer
+gate; and Lawrence, getting down, took up the reins, opened the gate,
+and drove to the house in quite a proper way.
+
+When Mr Croft helped Annie to descend from the spring-wagon, he did
+not squeeze her hand, nor exchange with her any tender glances, for
+old Mrs Keswick was standing at the top of the steps. "Have you seen
+Letty?" she asked.
+
+"Letty?" said Miss Annie. "Oh, yes," she added, as if she suddenly
+remembered that such a person existed, "Letty was at church, and she
+was very active."
+
+"Well," said the old lady, "she must have taken more interest in the
+exercises than you did, for it is long past the time when I told her
+she must be home."
+
+"I do not believe, madam," said Lawrence, "that any one could have
+taken more interest in the exercises of this morning, than we have."
+
+At this, Annie could not help giving him a little look which would
+have provoked reflection in the mind of the old lady, had she not been
+very earnestly engaged in gazing out into the road, in the hope of
+seeing Letty.
+
+When Lawrence had gone into the office, and had closed the door behind
+him, he stood in a meditative mood before the empty fireplace. He was
+making inquiries of himself in regard to what he had just done. He
+was not accusing himself, nor indulging in regrets; he was simply
+investigating the matter. Here he stood, a man accepted by two women.
+If he had ever heard of any other man in a like condition, he would
+have called that man a scoundrel, and yet he did not deem himself a
+scoundrel.
+
+The facts in the case were easy enough to understand. For the first
+time in his life he had looked into the eyes of a woman who loved him,
+and he had discovered to his utter surprise that he loved her. There
+had been no plan; no prudent outlook into her nature and feelings;
+no cautious insight into his own. He had taken part in a most
+unpremeditated act of pure and simple love; and that it was real and
+pure love on each side, he no more doubted than he doubted that he
+lived. And yet, had he been an impostor when, on that hill over there,
+he told Roberta March he loved her? No, he had been honest, he had
+loved her; and, since the time that he had been roused to action by
+the discovery of Junius Keswick's intentions to renew his suit, it had
+been a love full of a rare and alluring beauty. But its charm, its
+fascination, its very existence, had disappeared in the first flash of
+his knowledge that Annie Peyton loved him. Had his love for Roberta
+been a perfect one, had he been sure that she returned it, then it
+could not have been overthrown; but it had gone, and a love, complete
+and perfect, stood in its place. He had seen that he was loved, and he
+loved. That was all, but it would stand forever.
+
+This was the state of the case, and now Lawrence set himself to
+discover if, in all ways, he had acted truly and honestly. He had been
+accepted by Miss March, but what sort of acceptance was it? Should he,
+as a man true to himself, accept such an acceptance? What was he to
+think of a woman who, very angry as he had been informed, had sent him
+a message, which meant everything in the world to him, if it meant
+anything, and had then dashed away without allowing him a chance to
+speak to her, or even giving him a nod of farewell. The last thing she
+had really said to him in this connection were those cruel words on
+Pine Top Hill, with which she had asked him to choose a spot in which
+to be rejected. Could he consider himself engaged? Would a woman who
+cared for him act towards him in such a manner? After all, was that
+acceptance anything more than the result of pique? And could he not,
+quite as justly, accept the rejection which she had professed herself
+anxious to give him.
+
+A short time before, Lawrence had done his best to explain to his
+advantage these peculiarities of his status in regard to Miss March.
+He had said to himself that she had threatened to reject him because
+she wished to punish him, and he had intended to implore her pardon,
+and expected to receive it. Over and over again, had he argued with
+himself in this strain, and yet, in spite of it all, he had not been
+able to bring himself into a state of mind in which he could sit down
+and write to her a letter, which, in his estimation, would be certain
+to seal and complete the engagement. "How very glad I am," he now said
+to himself, "that I never wrote that letter!" And this was the only
+decision at which he had arrived, when he heard Mrs Keswick calling to
+him from the yard.
+
+He immediately went to the door, when the old lady informed him, that
+as Letty had not come back, and did not appear to be intending to come
+back, and that as none of the other servants on the place had made
+their appearance, he might as well come into the house, and try to
+satisfy his hunger on what cold food she and Mrs Null had managed to
+collect.
+
+The most biting and spicy condiments of the little meal, to which the
+three sat down, were supplied by Mrs Keswick, who reviled without
+stint those utterly thoughtless and heedless colored people, who, once
+in the midst of their crazy religious exercises, totally forgot that
+they owed any duty whatever to those who employed them. Lawrence and
+Annie did not say much, but there was something peculiarly piquant in
+the way in which Annie brought and poured out the tea she had made,
+and which, with the exception of the old lady's remarks, was the only
+warm part of the repast; and there was an element of buoyancy in the
+manner of Mr Croft, as he took his cup to drink the tea. Although he
+said little at this meal, he thought a great deal, listening not at
+all to Mrs Keswick's tirades. "What a charmingly inconsiderate affair
+this has been!" he said to himself. "Nothing planned, nothing provided
+for, or against; all spontaneous, and from our very hearts. I never
+thought to tell her that she must say nothing to her aunt, until we
+had agreed how everything should, be explained, and I don't believe
+the idea that it is necessary to say anything to anybody, has entered
+her mind. But I must keep my eyes away from her if I don't want to
+bring on a premature explosion."
+
+Whatever might be the result of the reasoning which this young man
+had to do with himself, it was quite plain that he was abundantly
+satisfied with things as they were.
+
+It was beginning to be dark, when Letty and Uncle Isham returned and
+explained why they had been so late in returning.
+
+Old Aunt Patsy had died in church.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+"Lawrence," said Annie, on the forenoon of the next day, as they were
+sitting together in the parlor with the house to themselves, Mrs
+Keswick having gone to Aunt Patsy's cabin to supervise proceedings
+there, "Lawrence, don't you feel glad that we did not have a chance to
+speak to dear old Aunt Patsy about those little shoes? Perhaps she had
+forgotten that she had stolen them, and so went to heaven without that
+sin on her soul."
+
+"That is a very comfortable way of looking at it," said Lawrence, "but
+wouldn't it be better to assume that she did not steal them?"
+
+"I am very sorry," said Annie, "but that is not easy to do. But don't
+let us think anything more about that. And, don't you feel very glad
+that the poor old creature, who looked so happy as she sat singing and
+clapping her hands on her knees, didn't die until after we had left
+the church? If it had happened while we were there, I don't believe--"
+
+"Don't believe what?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Well, that you now would be sitting with your arm on the back of my
+chair."
+
+Lawrence was quite sure, from what had been told him, that Aunt
+Patsy's demise had taken place before they left the church, but he
+did not say so to Annie. He merely took his arm from the back of her
+chair, and placed it around her.
+
+"And do you know," said she, "that Letty told me something, this
+morning, that is so funny and yet in a certain way so pathetic, that
+it made me laugh and cry both. She said that Aunt Patsy always thought
+that you were Mr Null."
+
+At this, Lawrence burst out laughing, but Annie checked him and went
+on; "And she told Letty in church, when she saw us two come in, that
+she believed she could die happy now, since she had seen Miss Annie
+married to such a peart gentleman, and that it looked as if old miss
+had got over her grudge against him."
+
+"And didn't Letty undeceive her?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"No, she said it would be a pity to upset the mind of such an old
+woman, and she didn't do it."
+
+"Then the good Aunt Patsy died," said Lawrence, "thinking I was that
+wretched tramp of a bone-dust pedler, which the fancy of your aunt has
+conjured up. That explains the interest the venerable colored woman
+took in me. It is now quite easy to understand; for, if your aunt
+abused your mythical husband to everybody, as she did to me, I don't
+wonder Aunt Patsy thought I was in danger."
+
+"Poor old woman," said Annie, looking down at the floor, "I am so glad
+that we helped her to die happy."
+
+"As she was obliged to anticipate the truth," said Lawrence, "in order
+to derive any comfort from it, I am glad she did it. But although I am
+delighted, more than my words can tell you, to take the place of your
+Mr Null, you must not expect me to have any of his attributes."
+
+"Now just listen to me, sir," said Annie. "I don't want you to say one
+word against Mr Null. If it had not been for that good Freddy, things
+would have been very different from what they are now. If you care for
+me at all, you owe me entirely to Freddy Null."
+
+"Entirely?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Of course I mean in regard to opportunities of finding out things and
+saying them. If Aunt Keswick had supposed I was only Annie Peyton, she
+would not have allowed Mr Croft to interfere with her plans for Junius
+and me. I expected Mr Null to be of service to me, but no one could
+have imagined that he would have brought about anything like this."
+
+"Blessed be Null!" exclaimed Lawrence.
+
+Annie asked him to please to be more careful, for how did he know that
+one of the servants might not be sweeping the front porch, and of
+course, they would look in at the windows.
+
+"But, my dear child," said Lawrence, pushing back his chair to a
+prudent distance, "we must seriously consider this Null business. We
+shall have to inform your aunt of the present state of affairs, and
+before we do that, we must explain what sort of person Frederick Null,
+Esquire, really was--I am not willing to admit that he exists, even as
+a myth."
+
+"Oh dear! oh dear!" exclaimed Annie. "We shall have a dreadful time!
+When Aunt Keswick knows that there never was any Mr Null, and then
+hears that you and I are engaged, it will throw her into the most
+dreadful state of mind that she has ever been in, in her life; and
+father has told me of some of the awful family earthquakes that Aunt
+Keswick has brought about, when things went wrong with her."
+
+"We must be very cautious," said Lawrence, "and neither of us must say
+a word, or do anything that may arouse her suspicions, until we have
+settled upon the best possible method of making the facts known to
+her. The case is indeed a complicated one."
+
+"And what makes it more so," said Annie, "is Aunt Keswick's belief
+that you are in love with Miss March, and that you want to get a
+chance to propose to her. She does think that, doesn't she?"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, "I must admit that she does."
+
+"And she must be made to understand that that is entirely at an end,"
+continued Annie. "All this will be a very difficult task, Lawrence,
+and I don't see how it is to be done."
+
+"But we shall do it," he answered, "and we must not forget to be very
+prudent, until it is fully settled how we shall do it."
+
+When Lawrence retired to his room, and sat down to hold that peculiar
+court in which he was judge, jury, lawyers, and witnesses, as well as
+the prisoner at the bar, he had to do with a case, a great deal more
+complicated and difficult than that which perplexed the mind of Miss
+Annie Peyton. He began by the very unjudicial act of pledging himself,
+to himself, that nothing should interfere with this new, this true
+love. In spite of all that might be said, done, or thought, Annie
+Peyton should be his wife. There was no indecision, whatever, in
+regard to the new love; the only question was: "What is to be done
+about the old one?"
+
+Lawrence could not admit, for a moment, that he could have spoken to
+Roberta March as he had spoken, if he had not loved her; but he could
+now perceive that that love had been in no small degree impaired and
+weakened by the manner of its acceptance. The action of Miss March on
+her last day here had much more chilled his ardor than her words
+on Pine Top Hill. He had not, before, examined thoroughly into the
+condition of that ardor after the departure of the lady, but it was
+plain enough now.
+
+There was, therefore, no doubt whatever in regard to his love for Miss
+March; he was quite ready and able to lay that aside. But what about
+her acceptance of it? How could he lay that aside?
+
+This was the real case before the court. The witnesses could give no
+available testimony, the lawyers argued feebly, the jury disagreed,
+and Lawrence, in his capacity of judge, dismissed the case. In his
+efforts to conduct his mind through the channels of law and equity,
+Lawrence had not satisfied himself, and his thoughts began to be moved
+by what might be termed his military impulses. "I made a charge into
+the camp," he said with a little downward drawing of the corners of
+his mouth, "and I did not capture the commander-in-chief. And now I
+intend to charge out again."
+
+He sat down to his table, and wrote the following note:
+
+"My Dear Miss March:
+
+"I have been waiting for a good many days, hoping to receive,
+either from you or Mr Keswick, an explanation of the message you
+sent to me by him. I now believe that it will be impossible to give a
+satisfactory explanation of that message. I therefore recur to our last
+private interview, and wish to say to you that I am ready, at any time,
+to meet you under either a sycamore or a cherry tree."
+
+And then he signed it, and addressed it to Miss March at Midbranch.
+This being done, he put on his hat, and stepped out to see if a
+messenger could be found to carry the letter to its destination, for
+he did not wish to wait for the semi-weekly mail. Near the house he
+met Annie.
+
+"What have you been doing all this time?" she asked.
+
+"I have been writing a letter," he said, "and am now looking for some
+colored boy who will carry it for me."
+
+"Who is it to?" she asked.
+
+"Miss March," was his answer.
+
+"Let me see it," said Annie.
+
+At this, Lawrence looked at her with wide-open eyes, and then he
+laughed. Never, since he had been a child, had there been any one who
+would have thought of such a thing as asking to see a private letter
+which he had written to some one else; and that this young girl should
+stand up before him with her straightforward expectant gaze and make
+such a request of him, in the first instance, amused him.
+
+"You don't mean to say," she added, "that you would write anything to
+Miss March which you would not let me see."
+
+"This letter," said Lawrence, "was written for Miss March, and no one
+else. It is simply the winding up of that old affair."
+
+"Give it to me," said Annie, "and let me see how you wound it up."
+
+Lawrence smiled, looked at her in silence for a moment, and then
+handed her the letter.
+
+"I don't want you to think," she said, as she took it, "that I am
+going to ask you to show me all the letters you write. But when you
+write one to a lady like Miss March, I want to know what you say to
+her." And then she read the letter. When she had finished, she turned
+to Lawrence, and with her countenance full of amazement, exclaimed: "I
+haven't the least idea in the world what all this means! What message
+did she send you? And why should you meet her under a tree?"
+
+These questions went so straight to the core of the affair, and were
+so peculiarly difficult to answer, that Lawrence, for the moment,
+found himself in the very unusual position of not knowing what to say,
+but he presently remarked: "Do you think it is of any advantage to
+either of us to talk over this affair, which is now past and gone?"
+
+"I don't want to talk over any of it," said Annie, very promptly,
+"except the part of it which is referred to in this letter; but I want
+to know about that."
+
+"That covers the most important part of it," said Lawrence.
+
+"Very good," she answered, "and so you can tell it to me. And now,
+that I think of it, you can tell me, at the same time, why you wanted
+to find my cousin Junius. You refused once to tell me that, you know."
+
+"I remember," said Lawrence. "And if you have the least feeling about
+it I will relate the whole affair, from beginning to end."
+
+"That, perhaps, will be the best thing to do, after all," said Annie.
+"And suppose we take a walk over the fields, and then you can tell it
+without being interrupted."
+
+But Lawrence did not feel that his ankle would allow him to accept
+this invitation, for it had hurt him a good deal since his walk to
+Aunt Patsy's cabin. He said so to Annie, and excited in her the
+deepest feelings of commiseration.
+
+"You must take no more walks of any length," she exclaimed, "until you
+are quite, quite well! It was my fault that you took that tramp to
+Aunt Patsy's. I ought to have known better. But then," she said,
+looking up at him, "you were not under my charge. I shall take very
+good care of you now."
+
+"For my part," he said, "I am glad I have this little relapse, for now
+I can stay here longer."
+
+"I am very, very sorry for the relapse," said she, "but awfully glad
+for the stay. And you mustn't stand another minute. Let us go and sit
+in the arbor. The sun is shining straight into it, and that will make
+it all the more comfortable, while you are telling me about those
+things."
+
+They sat down in the arbor, and Lawrence told Annie the whole history
+of his affair with Miss March, from the beginning to the end; that is
+if the end had been reached; although he intimated to her no doubt
+upon this point. This avowal he had never expected to make. In fact
+he had never contemplated its possibility. But now he felt a certain
+satisfaction in telling it. Every item, as it was related, seemed
+thrown aside forever. "And now then, my dear Annie," he said, when he
+had finished, "what do you think of all that?"
+
+"Well," she said, "in the first place, I am still more of the opinion
+than I was before, that you never were really in love with her. You
+did entirely too much planning, and investigating, and calculating;
+and when, at last, you did come to the conclusion to propose to her,
+you did not do it so much of your own accord, as because you found
+that another man would be likely to get her, if you did not make a
+pretty quick move yourself. And as to that acceptance, I don't think
+anything of it at all. I believe she was very angry at Junius because
+he consented to bring your messages, when he ought to have been his
+own messenger, and that she gave him that answer just to rack his soul
+with agony. I don't believe she ever dreamed that he would take it to
+you. And, to tell the simple truth, I believe, from what I saw of her
+that morning, that she was thinking very little of you, and a great
+deal of him. To be sure, she was fiery angry with him, but it is
+better to be that way with a lover, than to pay no attention to him at
+all."
+
+This was a view of the case which had never struck Lawrence before,
+and although it was not very flattering to him, it was very
+comforting. He felt that it was extremely likely that this young woman
+had been able to truthfully divine, in a case in which he had failed,
+the motives of another young woman. Here was a further reason for
+congratulating himself that he had not written to Miss March.
+
+"And as to the last part of the letter," said Annie, "you are not
+going under any cherry tree, or sycamore either, to be refused by her.
+What she said to you was quite enough for a final answer, without any
+signing or sealing under trees, or anywhere else. I think the best
+thing that can be done with this precious epistle is to tear it up."
+
+Lawrence was amused by the piquant earnestness of this decision. "But
+what am I to do," he asked, "I can't let the matter rest in this
+unfinished and unsatisfactory condition."
+
+"You might write to her," said Annie, "and tell her that you have
+accepted what she said to you on Pine Top Hill as a conclusive answer,
+and that you now take back everything you ever said on the subject
+you talked of that day. And do you think it would be well to put in
+anything about your being otherwise engaged?"
+
+At this Lawrence laughed. "I think that expression would hardly
+answer," he said, "but I will write another note, and we shall see how
+you like it."
+
+"That will be very well," said the happy Annie, "and if I were you I'd
+make it as gentle as I could. It's of no use to hurt her feelings."
+
+"Oh, I don't want to do that," said Lawrence, "and now that we have
+the opportunity, let us consider the question of informing your aunt
+of our engagement."
+
+"Oh dear, dear, dear!" said Annie, "that is a great deal worse than
+informing Miss March that you don't want to be engaged to her."
+
+"That is true," said Lawrence. "It is not by any means an easy piece
+of business. But we might as well look it square in the face, and
+determine what is to be done about it."
+
+"It is simple enough, just as we look at it," said Annie. "All we have
+to do, is to say that, knowing that Aunt Keswick had written to my
+father that she was determined to make a match between cousin Junius
+and me, I was afraid to come down here without putting up some
+insurmountable obstacle between me and a man that I had not seen since
+I was a little girl. Of course I would say, very decidedly, that I
+wouldn't have married him if I hadn't wanted to; but then, considering
+Aunt Keswick's very open way of carrying out her plans, it would have
+been very unpleasant, and indeed impossible for me to be in the house
+with him unless she saw that there was no hope of a marriage between
+us; and for this reason I took the name of Mrs Null, or Mrs Nothing;
+and came down here, secure under the protection of a husband who
+never existed. And then, we could say that you and I were a good deal
+together, and that, although you had supposed, when you came here,
+that you were in love with Miss March, you had discovered that this
+was a mistake, and that afterwards we fell in love with each other,
+and are now engaged. That would be a straightforward statement of
+everything, just as it happened; but the great trouble is: How are we
+going to tell it to Aunt Keswick?"
+
+"You are right," said Lawrence. "How are we going to tell it?"
+
+"It need not be told!" thundered a strong voice close to their ears.
+And then there was a noise of breaking lattice-work and cracking
+vines, and through the back part of the arbor came an old woman
+wearing a purple sun-bonnet, and beating down all obstacles before
+her with a great purple umbrella. "You needn't tell it!" cried Mrs
+Keswick, standing in the middle of the arbor, her eyes glistening, her
+form trembling, and her umbrella quivering in the air. "You needn't
+tell it! It's told!"
+
+Graphic and vivid descriptions have been written of those furious
+storms of devastating wind and deluging rain, which suddenly sweep
+away the beauty of some fair tropical scene; and we have read, too, of
+dreadful cyclones and tornadoes, which rush, in mad rage, over land
+and sea, burying great ships in a vast tumult of frenzied waves, or
+crushing to the earth forests, buildings, everything that may lie in
+their awful paths; but no description could be written which could
+give an adequate idea of the storm which now burst upon Lawrence and
+Annie. The old lady had seen these two standing together in the yard,
+conversing most earnestly. She had then seen Annie read a letter
+that Lawrence gave her; and then she had perceived the two, in close
+converse, enter the arbor, and sit down together without the slightest
+regard for the rights of Mr Null.
+
+Mrs Keswick looked upon all this as somewhat more out-of-the-way than
+the usual proceedings of these young people, and there came into her
+mind a curiosity to know what they were saying to each other. So she
+immediately repaired to the large garden, and quietly made her way to
+the back of the arbor, in which advantageous position she heard the
+whole of Lawrence's story of his love-affair with Miss March; Annie's
+remarks upon the same, and the facts of this young lady's proposed
+confession in regard to her marriage with Mr Null, and her engagement
+to Mr Croft.
+
+Then she burst in upon them; the tornado and the cyclone raged; the
+thunder rolled and crashed; and the white lightning of her wrath
+flashed upon the two, as if it would scathe and annihilate them, as
+they stood before her. Neither of them had ever known or imagined
+anything like this. It had been long since Mrs Keswick had had an
+opportunity of exercising that power of vituperative torment, which
+had driven a husband to the refuge of a reverted pistol; which had
+banished, for life, relatives and friends; and which, in the shape of
+a promissory curse, had held apart those who would have been husband
+and wife; and now, like the long stored up venom of a serpent, it
+burst out with the direful force given by concentration and retention.
+
+At the first outburst, Annie had turned pale and shrunk back, but now
+she clung to the side of Lawrence, who, although his face was somewhat
+blanched and his form trembled a little with excitement, still stood
+up bravely, and endeavored, but ineffectually, to force upon the old
+lady's attention a denial of her bitter accusations. With face almost
+as purple as the bonnet she wore, or the umbrella she shook in
+the air, the old lady first addressed her niece. With scorn and
+condemnation she spoke of the deceit which the young girl had
+practised upon her. But this part of the exercises was soon over. She
+seemed to think that although nothing could be viler than Annie's
+conduct towards her, still the fact that Mr Null no longer existed,
+put Annie again within her grasp and control, and made it unnecessary
+to say much to her on this occasion. It was upon Lawrence that the
+main cataract of her fury poured. It would be wrong to say that she
+could not find words to express her ire towards him. She found plenty
+of them, and used them all. He had deceived her most abominably; he
+had come there, the expressed and avowed lover of Miss March; he had
+connived with her niece in her deceit; he had taken advantage of all
+the opportunities she gave him to attain the legitimate object of his
+visit, to inveigle into his snares this silly and absurd young woman;
+and he had dared to interfere with the plans, which, by day and by
+night, she had been maturing for years. In vain did Lawrence endeavor
+to answer or explain. She stopped not, nor listened to one word.
+
+"And you need not imagine," she screamed at him, "that you are going
+to turn round, when you like, and marry anybody you please. You are
+engaged, body and soul, to Roberta March, and have no right, by laws
+of man or heaven, to marry anybody else. If you breathe a word of love
+to any other woman it makes you a vile criminal in the eyes of the
+law, and renders you liable to prosecution, sir. Your affianced bride
+knows nothing of what her double-faced snake of a lover is doing here,
+but she shall know speedily. That is a matter which I take into my own
+hands. Out of my way, both of you!"
+
+And with these words she charged by them, and rushed out of the arbor,
+and into the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+They were not a happy pair, Lawrence Croft and Annie Peyton, as they
+stood together in the arbor, after old Mrs Keswick had left them. They
+were both a good deal shaken by the storm they had passed through.
+
+"Lawrence," said Annie, looking up to him with her large eyes full of
+earnestness, "there surely is no truth in what she said about your
+being legally bound to Miss March?"
+
+"None in the least," said Lawrence. "No man, under the circumstances,
+would consider himself engaged to a woman. At any rate, there is
+one thing which I wish you to understand, and that is that I am not
+engaged to Miss March, and that I am engaged to you. No matter what is
+said or done, you and I belong to each other."
+
+Annie made no answer, but she pressed his hand tightly as she looked
+up into his face. He kissed her as she stood, notwithstanding his
+belief that old Mrs Keswick was fully capable of bounding down on him,
+umbrella in hand, from an upper window.
+
+"What do you think she is going to do?" Annie asked presently.
+
+"My dear Annie," said he, "I do not believe that there is a person on
+earth who could divine what your Aunt Keswick is going to do. As to
+that, we must simply wait and see. But, for my part, I know what I
+must do. I must write a letter to Miss March, and inform her, plainly
+and definitely, that I have ceased to be a suitor for her hand. I
+think also that it will be well to let her know that we are engaged?"
+
+"Yes," said Annie, "for she will be sure to hear it now. But she will
+think it is a very prompt proceeding."
+
+"That's exactly what it was," said Lawrence, smiling, "prompt and
+determined. There was no doubt or indecision about any part of our
+affair, was there, little one?"
+
+"Not a bit of it," said Annie, proudly.
+
+At dinner that day Annie took her place at one end of the table,
+and Lawrence his at the other, but the old lady did not make her
+appearance. She was so erratic in her goings and comings, and had so
+often told them they must never wait for her, that Annie cut the ham,
+and Lawrence carved the fowl, and the meal proceeded without her. But
+while they were eating Mrs Keswick was heard coming down stairs from
+her room, the front door was opened and slammed violently, and from
+the dining-room windows they saw her go down the steps, across the
+yard, and out of the gate.
+
+"I do hope," ejaculated Annie, "that she has not gone away to stay!"
+
+If Annie had remembered that the boy Plez, in a clean jacket and long
+white apron, officiated as waiter, she would not have said this, but
+then she would have lost some information. "Ole miss not gone to
+stay," he said, with the license of an untrained retainer. "She gone
+to Howlettses, an' she done tole Aun' Letty she'll be back agin dis
+ebenin'."
+
+"If Aunt Keswick don't come back," said Annie, when the two were in
+the parlor after dinner, "I shall go after her. I don't intend to
+drive her out of the house."
+
+"Don't you trouble yourself about that, my dear," said Lawrence. "She
+is too angry not to come back."
+
+"There is one thing," said Annie, after a while, "that we really ought
+to do. To-morrow Aunt Patsy is to be buried, and before she is put
+into the ground, those little shoes should be returned to Aunt
+Keswick. It seems to me that justice to poor Aunt Patsy requires that
+this should be done. Perhaps now she knows how wicked it was to steal
+them."
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, "I think it would be well to put them back where
+they belong; but how can you manage it?"
+
+"If you will give them to me," said Annie, "I will go up to aunt's
+room, now that she is away, and if she keeps the box in the same place
+where it used to be, I'll slip them into it. I hate dreadfully to do
+it, but I really feel that it is a duty."
+
+When Lawrence, with some little difficulty, walked across the yard to
+get the shoes from his trunk, Annie ran after him, and waited at the
+office door. "You must not take a step more than necessary," she said,
+"and so I won't make you come back to the house."
+
+When Lawrence gave her the shoes, and her hand a little squeeze at the
+same time, he told her that he should sit down immediately and write
+his letter.
+
+"And I," said Annie, "will go, and see what I can do with these."
+
+With the shoes in her pocket, she went up stairs into her aunt's room,
+and, after looking around hastily, as if to see that the old lady had
+not left the ghost of herself in charge, she approached the closet in
+which the sacred pasteboard box had always been kept. But the closet
+was locked. Turning away she looked about the room. There was no other
+place in which there was any probability that the box would be kept.
+Then she became nervous; she fancied she heard the click of the yard
+gate; she would not for anything have her aunt catch her in that room;
+nor would she take the shoes away with her. Hastily placing them upon
+a table she slipped out, and hurried into her own room.
+
+It was about an hour after this, that Mrs Keswick came rapidly up the
+steps of the front porch. She had been to Howlett's to carry a letter
+which she had written to Miss March, and had there made arrangements
+to have that letter taken to Midbranch very early the next morning.
+She had wished to find some one who would start immediately, but as
+there was no moon, and as the messenger would arrive after the family
+were all in bed, she had been obliged to abandon this more energetic
+line of action. But the letter would get there soon enough; and if it
+did not bring down retribution on the head of the man who lodged in
+her office, and who, she said to herself, had worked himself into her
+plans, like the rot in a field of potatoes, she would ever after admit
+that she did not know how to write a letter. All the way home she had
+conned over her method of action until Mr Brandon, or a letter, should
+come from Midbranch.
+
+She had already attacked, together, the unprincipled pair who found
+shelter in her house, and she now determined to come upon them
+separately, and torment each soul by itself. Annie, of course, would
+come in for the lesser share of the punishment, for the fact that
+the wretched and depraved Null was no more, had, in a great measure,
+mitigated her offence. She was safe, and her aunt intended to hold her
+fast, and do with her as she would, when the time and Junius came. But
+upon Lawrence she would have no mercy. When she had delivered him into
+the hands of Mr Brandon, or those of Roberta's father, or the clutches
+of the law, she would have nothing more to do with him, but until that
+time she would make him bewail the day when he deceived and imposed
+upon her by causing her to believe that he was in love with another
+when he was, in reality, trying to get possession of her niece. There
+were a great many things which she had not thought to say to him in
+the arbor, but she would pour the whole hot mass upon his head that
+evening.
+
+Stamping up the stairs, and thumping her umbrella upon every step as
+she went, hot vengeance breathing from between her parted lips, and
+her eyes flashing with the delight of prospective fury, she entered
+her room. The light of the afternoon had but just begun to wane, and
+she had not made three steps into the apartment, before her eyes fell
+upon a pair of faded, light blue shoes, which stood side by side upon
+a table. She stopped suddenly, and stood, pale and rigid. Her grasp
+upon her umbrella loosened, and, unnoticed, it fell upon the floor.
+Then, her eyes still fixed upon the shoes, she moved slowly sidewise
+towards the closet. She tried the door, and found it still locked;
+then she put her hand in her pocket, drew out the key, looked at it,
+and dropped it. With faltering steps she drew near the table, and
+stood supporting herself by the back of a chair. Any one else would
+have seen upon that table merely a pair of baby's shoes; but she saw
+more. She saw the tops of the little socks which she had folded away
+for the last time so many years before; she saw the first short dress
+her child had ever worn; it was tied up with pink ribbons at the
+shoulders, from which hung two white, plump, little arms. There was a
+little neck, around which was a double string of coral fastened by a
+small gold clasp. Above this was a face, a baby face, with soft, pale
+eyes, and its head covered with curls of the lightest yellow, not
+arranged in artistic negligence, but smooth, even, and regular, as she
+so often had turned, twisted, and set them. It was indeed her baby
+girl who had come to her as clear and vivid in every feature, limb,
+and garment, as were the real shoes upon the table. For many minutes
+she stood, her eyes fixed upon the little apparition, then, slowly,
+she sank upon her knees by the chair, her sun-bonnet, which she had
+not removed, was bowed, so the pale eyes of the little one could not
+see her face, and from her own eyes came the first tears that that old
+woman had shed since her baby's clothes had been put away in the box.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lawrence's letter to Miss March was a definitely expressed document,
+intended to cover all the ground necessary, and no more; but it could
+not be said that it was entirely satisfactory to himself. His case, to
+say the least of it, was a difficult one to defend. He was aware that
+his course might be looked upon by others as dishonorable, although he
+assured himself that he had acted justly. It might have been better
+to wait for a positive declaration from Miss March, that she had not
+truly accepted him, before engaging himself to another lady. But then,
+he said to himself, true love never waits for anything. At all events,
+he could write no better letter than the one he had produced, and he
+hoped he should have an opportunity to show it to Annie before he sent
+it.
+
+He need not have troubled himself in this regard, for he and Annie
+were not disturbed during the rest of that day by the appearance
+of Mrs Keswick; but after the letter had been duly considered and
+approved, he found it difficult to obtain a messenger. There was no
+one on the place who would undertake to walk to Midbranch, and he
+could not take the liberty of using Mrs Keswick's horse for the trip,
+so it was found necessary to wait until the morrow, when the letter
+could be taken to Howlett's, where, if no one could be found to carry
+it immediately, it would have to be entrusted to the mail which went
+out the next day. Lawrence, of course, knew nothing of Mrs Keswick's
+message to Midbranch, or he would have been still more desirous that
+his letter should be promptly dispatched.
+
+The evening was not a very pleasant one; the lovers did not know at
+what moment the old lady might descend upon them, and the element of
+unpleasant expectancy which pervaded the atmosphere of the house was
+somewhat depressing. They talked a good deal of the probabilities of
+Mrs Keswick's action. Lawrence expected that she would order him away,
+although Annie had stoutly maintained that her aunt would have no
+right to do this, as he was not in a condition to travel. This
+argument, however, made little impression upon Lawrence, who was not
+the man to stay in any house where he was not wanted; besides, he knew
+very well that for any one to stay in Mrs Keswick's house when she did
+not want him, would be an impossibility. But he did not intend to slip
+away in any cowardly manner, and leave Annie to bear alone the brunt
+of the second storm. He felt sure that such a storm was impending, and
+he was also quite certain that its greatest violence would break upon
+him. He would stay, therefore, and meet the old lady when she next
+descended upon them, and, before he went away, he would endeavor to
+utter some words in defence of himself and Annie.
+
+They separated early, and a good deal of thinking was done by them
+before they went to sleep.
+
+The next morning they had only each other for company at breakfast,
+but they had just risen from that meal when they were startled by the
+entrance of Mrs Keswick. Having expected her appearance during the
+whole of the time they were eating, they had no reason to be startled
+by her coming now, but for their subsequent amazement at her
+appearance and demeanor, they had every reason in the world. Her face
+was pale and grave, with an air of rigidity about it, which was
+not common to her, for, in general, she possessed a very mobile
+countenance. Without speaking a word, she advanced towards Lawrence,
+and extended her hand to him. He was so much surprised that while he
+took her hand in his he could only murmur some unintelligible form of
+morning salutation. Then Mrs Keswick turned to Annie, and shook hands
+with her. The young girl grew pale, but said not a word, but some
+tears came into her eyes, although why this happened she could not
+have explained to herself. Having finished this little performance,
+the old lady walked to the back window, and looked out into the flower
+garden, although there was really nothing there to see. Now Annie
+found voice to ask her aunt if she would not have some breakfast.
+
+"No," said Mrs Keswick, "my breakfast was brought up-stairs to me."
+And with that she turned and went out of the room. She closed the door
+behind her, but scarcely had she done so, when she opened it again
+and looked in. It was quite plain, to the two silent and astonished
+observers of her actions, that she was engaged in the occupation, very
+unusual with her, of controlling an excited condition of mind. She
+looked first at one, and then at the other, and then she said, in a
+voice which seemed to meet with occasional obstructions in its course:
+"I have nothing more to say about anything. Do just what you please,
+only don't talk to me about it." And she closed the door.
+
+"What is the meaning of all this?" said Lawrence, advancing towards
+Annie. "What has come over her?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know," said Annie, and with this she burst into
+tears, and cried as she would have scorned to cry, during the terrible
+storm of the day before.
+
+That morning, Lawrence Croft was a very much puzzled man. What had
+happened to Mrs Keswick he could not divine, and at times he imagined
+that her changed demeanor was perhaps nothing but an artful cover to
+some new and more ruthless attack.
+
+Annie took occasion to be with her aunt a good deal during the
+morning, but she reported to Lawrence that the old lady had said very
+little, and that little related entirely to household affairs.
+
+Mrs Keswick ate dinner with them. Her manner was grave, and even
+stern; but she made a few remarks in regard to the weather and some
+neighborhood matters; and before the end of the meal both Lawrence and
+Annie fancied that they could see some little signs of a return to her
+usual humor, which was pleasant enough when nothing happened to make
+it otherwise. But expectations of an early return to her ordinary
+manner of life were fallacious; she did not appear at supper; and she
+spent the evening in her own room. Lawrence and Annie had thus ample
+opportunity to discuss this novel and most unexpected state of
+affairs. They did not understand it, but it could not fail to cheer
+and encourage them. Only one thing they decided upon, and that was
+that Lawrence could not go away until he had had an opportunity of
+fully comprehending the position, in relation to Mrs Keswick, in which
+he and Annie stood.
+
+About the middle of the evening, as Lawrence was thinking that it was
+time for him to retire to his room in the little house in the yard,
+Letty came in with a letter which she said had been brought from
+Midbranch by a colored man on a horse; the man had said there was no
+answer, and had gone back to Howlett's, where he belonged.
+
+The letter was for Mr Croft and from Miss March. Very much surprised
+at receiving such a missive, Lawrence opened the envelope. His letter
+to Miss March had not yet been sent, for the new state of affairs had
+not only very much occupied his mind, but it also seemed to render
+unnecessary any haste in the matter, and he had concluded to mail the
+letter the next day. This, therefore, was not in answer to anything
+from him; and why should she have written?
+
+It was with a decidedly uneasy sensation that Lawrence began to read
+the letter, Annie watching him anxiously as he did so. The letter was
+a somewhat long one, and the purport of it was as follows: The writer
+stated that, having received a most extraordinary and astounding
+epistle from old Mrs Keswick, which had been sent by a special
+messenger, she had thought it her duty to write immediately on the
+subject to Mr Croft, and had detained the man that she might send this
+letter by him. She did not pretend to understand the full purport of
+what Mrs Keswick had written, but it was evident that the old lady
+believed that an engagement of marriage existed between herself (Miss
+March) and Mr Croft. That that gentleman had given such information
+to Mrs Keswick she could hardly suppose, but, if he had, it must have
+been in consequence of a message which, very much to her surprise and
+grief, had been delivered to Mr Croft by Mr Keswick. In order that
+this message might be understood, Miss March had determined to make a
+full explanation of her line of conduct towards Mr Croft.
+
+During the latter part of their pleasant intercourse at Midbranch
+during the past summer, she had reason to believe that Mr Croft's
+intentions in regard to her were becoming serious, but she had also
+perceived that his impulses, however earnest they might have been,
+were controlled by an extraordinary caution and prudence, which,
+although it sometimes amused her, was not in the least degree
+complimentary to her. She could not prevent herself from resenting
+this somewhat peculiar action of Mr Croft, and this resentment grew
+into a desire, which gradually became a very strong one, that she
+might have an opportunity of declining a proposal from him. That
+opportunity came while they were both at Mrs Keswick's, and she had
+intended that what she said at her last interview with Mr Croft should
+be considered a definite refusal of his suit, but the interview had
+terminated before she had stated her mind quite as plainly as she had
+purposed doing. She had not, however, wished to renew the conversation
+on the subject, and had concluded to content herself with what she had
+already said; feeling quite sure that her words had been sufficient
+to satisfy Mr Croft that it would be useless to make any further
+proposals.
+
+When, on the eve of her departure from the house, Mr Keswick had
+brought her Mr Croft's message, she was not only amazed, but
+indignant; not so much at Mr Croft for sending it, as at Mr Keswick
+for bringing it. Miss March was not ashamed to confess that she was
+irritated and incensed to a high degree that a gentleman who had held
+the position towards her that Mr Keswick had held, should bring her
+such a message from another man. She was, therefore, seized with a
+sudden impulse to punish him, and, without in the least expecting that
+he would carry such an answer, she had given him the one which he had
+taken to Mr Croft. Having, until the day on which she was writing,
+heard nothing further on the subject, she had supposed that her
+expectations had been realized. But on this day the astonishing letter
+from Mrs Keswick had arrived, and it made her understand that not
+only had her impulsive answer been delivered, but that Mr Croft
+had informed other persons that he had been accepted. She wished,
+therefore, to lose no time in stating to Mr Croft that what she had
+said to him, with her own lips, was to be received as her final
+resolve; and that the answer given to Mr Keswick was not intended for
+Mr Croft's ears.
+
+Miss March then went on to say that it might be possible that she owed
+Mr Croft an apology for the somewhat ungracious manner in which she
+had treated him at Mrs Keswick's house; but she assured herself
+that Mr Croft owed her an apology, not only for the manner of his
+attentions, but for the peculiar publicity he had given them. In that
+case the apologies neutralized each other. Miss March had no intention
+of answering Mrs Keswick's letter. Under no circumstances could
+she have considered, for a moment, its absurd suggestions and
+recommendations; and it contained allusions to Mr Croft and another
+person which, if not founded upon the imagination of Mrs Keswick,
+certainly concerned nothing with which Miss March had anything to do.
+
+The proud spirit of Lawrence Croft was a good deal ruffled when he
+read this letter, but he made no remark about it. "Would you like to
+read it?" he said to Annie.
+
+She greatly desired to read it, but there was something in her lover's
+face, and in the tone in which he spoke, which made her suspect that
+the reading of that letter might be, in some degree, humiliating to
+him. She was certain, from the expression of his face as he read it,
+that the letter contained matter very unpleasant to Lawrence, and it
+might be that it would wound him to have another person, especially
+herself, read them; and so she said: "I don't care to read it if you
+will tell me why she wrote to you, and the point of what she says."
+
+"Thank you," said Lawrence. And he crumpled the letter in his hand as
+he spoke. "She wrote," he continued, "in consequence of a letter she
+has had from your aunt."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Annie. "Did Aunt Keswick write to her?"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, "and sent it by a special messenger. She must
+have told her all the heinous crimes with which she charged you and
+me, particularly me; and this must have been the first intimation to
+Miss March that her cousin had given me the answer she made to him;
+therefore Miss March writes in haste to let me know that she did not
+intend that that answer should be given to me, and that she wishes it
+generally understood that I have no more connection with her than I
+have with the Queen of Spain. That is the sum and substance of the
+letter."
+
+"I knew as well as I know anything in the world," said Annie, "that
+that message Junius brought you meant nothing." And, taking the
+crumpled letter from his hand, she threw it on the few embers that
+remained in the fireplace; and, as it blazed and crumbled into black
+ashes, she said: "Now that is the end of Roberta March!"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, emphasizing his remark with an encircling arm,
+"so far as we are concerned, that is the end of her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+On the next day, old Aunt Patsy was buried. Mrs Keswick and Annie
+attended the ceremonies in the cabin, but they did not go to the
+burial. After a time, it might be in a week or two, or it might be in
+a year, the funeral sermon would be preached in the church, and they
+would go to hear that. Aunt Patsy never finished her crazy quilt,
+several pieces being wanted to one corner of it; but in the few days
+preceding her burial two old women of the congregation, with trembling
+hands and uncertain eyes, sewed in these pieces, and finished the
+quilt, in which the body of the venerable sister was wrapped,
+according to her well-known wish and desire. It is customary among the
+negroes to keep the remains of their friends a very short time after
+death, but Aunt Patsy had lived so long upon this earth that it was
+generally conceded that her spirit would not object to her body
+remaining above ground until all necessary arrangements should be
+completed, and until all people who had known or heard of her had had
+an opportunity of taking a last look at her. As she had been so very
+well known to almost everybody's grandparents, a good many people
+availed themselves of this privilege.
+
+After Mrs Keswick's return from Aunt Patsy's cabin, where, according
+to her custom, she made herself very prominent, it was noticeable that
+she had dropped some of the grave reserve in which she had wrapped
+herself during the preceding day. It was impossible for her, at least
+but for a very short time, to act in a manner unsuited to her nature;
+and reserve and constraint had never been suited to her nature. She,
+therefore, began to speak on general subjects in her ordinary free
+manner to the various persons in her house; but it must not be
+supposed that she exhibited any contrition for the outrageous way in
+which she had spoken to Annie and Lawrence, or gave them any reason
+to suppose that the laceration of their souls on that occasion was a
+matter which, at present, needed any consideration whatever from her.
+An angel, born of memory and imagination, might come to her from
+heaven, and so work upon her superstitious feelings as to induce her
+to stop short in her course of reckless vengeance; but she would not,
+on that account, fall upon anybody's neck, or ask forgiveness for
+anything she had done to anybody. She did not accuse herself, nor
+repent; she only stopped. "After this," she said, "you all can do as
+you please. I have no further concern with your affairs. Only don't
+talk to me about them."
+
+She told Lawrence, in a manner that would seem to indicate a moderate,
+but courteous, interest in his welfare, that he must not think of
+leaving her house until his ankle had fully recovered its strength;
+and she even went so far as to suggest the use of a patent lotion
+which she had seen at the store at Howlett's. She resumed her former
+intercourse with Annie, but it seemed impossible for her to entirely
+forget the deception which that young lady had practised upon her. The
+only indication, however, of this resentment was the appellation which
+she now bestowed upon her niece. In speaking of her to Lawrence, or
+any of the household, she invariably called her "the late Mrs Null,"
+and this title so pleased the old lady that she soon began to use it
+in addressing her niece. Annie occasionally remonstrated in a manner
+which seemed half playful, but was in fact quite earnest, but her aunt
+paid no manner of attention to her words, and continued to please
+herself by this half-sarcastic method of alluding to her niece's
+fictitious matrimonial state.
+
+Letty, and the other servants, were at first much astonished by the
+new title given to Miss Annie, and the only way in which they could
+explain it was by supposing that Mr Null had gone off somewhere and
+died; and although they could not understand why Miss Annie should
+show so little grief in the matter, and why she had not put on
+mourning, they imagined that these were customs which she had learned
+in the North.
+
+Lawrence advised Annie to pay no attention to this whim of her aunt.
+"It don't hurt either of us," he said, "and we ought to be very glad
+that she has let us off so easily. But there is one thing I think you
+ought to do; you should write to your cousin Junius, and tell him of
+our engagement; but I would not refer at all to the other matter; you
+are not supposed to have anything to do with it, and Miss March can
+tell him as much about it as she chooses, Mr Keswick wrote me that he
+was going to Midbranch, and that he would communicate with me while
+there, but, as I have not since heard from him, I presume he is still
+in Washington."
+
+A letter was, therefore, written by Annie, and addressed to Junius,
+in Washington, and Lawrence drove her to the railroad station in the
+spring-wagon, where it was posted. The family mail came bi-weekly to
+Howlett's, as the post-office at the railroad station was entirely too
+distant for convenience; and as Saturday approached it was evident,
+from Mrs Keswick's occasional remarks and questions, that she expected
+a letter. It was quite natural for Lawrence and Annie to surmise that
+this letter was expected from Miss March, for Mrs Keswick had not
+heard of any rejoinder having been made to her epistle to that lady.
+When, late on Saturday afternoon, the boy Plez returned from
+Howlett's, Mrs Keswick eagerly took from him the well-worn
+letter-bag, and looked over its contents. There was a letter for her
+and from Midbranch, but the address was written by Junius, not by Miss
+March. There was another in the same hand-writing for Annie. As
+the old lady looked at the address on her letter, and then on its
+post-mark, she was evidently disappointed and displeased, but she said
+nothing, and went away with it to her room. Annie's letter was in
+answer to the one she had sent to Washington, which had been promptly
+forwarded to Midbranch where Junius had been for some days. It began
+by expressing much surprise at the information his cousin had given
+him in regard to her assumption of a married title, and although she
+had assured him she had very good reasons, he could not admit that it
+was right and proper for her to deceive his aunt and himself in this
+way. If it were indeed necessary that other persons should suppose
+that she were a married woman, her nearest relatives, at least, should
+have been told the truth.
+
+At this passage, Annie, who was reading the letter aloud, and Lawrence
+who was listening, both laughed. But they made no remarks, and the
+reading proceeded.
+
+Junius next alluded to the news of his cousin's engagement to Mr
+Croft. His guarded remarks on this subject showed the kindness of his
+heart. He did not allude to the suddenness of the engagement, nor to
+the very peculiar events that had so recently preceded it; but reading
+between the lines, both Annie and Lawrence thought that the writer had
+probably given these points a good deal of consideration. In a general
+way, however, it was impossible for him to see any objection to such
+a match for his cousin, and this was the impression he endeavored to
+give in a very kindly way, in his congratulations. But, even here,
+there seemed to be indications of a hope, on the part of the writer,
+that Mr Croft would not see fit to make another short tack in his
+course of love.
+
+Like the polite gentleman he was, Mr Keswick allowed his own affairs
+to come in at the end of the letter. Here he informed his cousin that
+his engagement with Miss March had been renewed, and that they were to
+be married shortly after Christmas. As it must have been very plain to
+those who were present when Miss March left his aunt's house, that she
+left in anger with him, he felt impelled to say that he had explained
+to her the course of action to which she had taken exception, and
+although she had not admitted that that course had been a justifiable
+one, she had forgiven him. He wished also to say at this point that
+he, himself, was not at all proud of what he had done.
+
+"That was intended for me," interrupted Lawrence.
+
+"Well, if you understand it, it is all right," said Annie.
+
+Junius went on to say that the renewal of his engagement was due, in
+great part, to Miss March's visit to his aunt; and to a letter she had
+received from her. A few days of intercourse with Mrs Keswick, whom
+she had never before seen, and the tenor and purpose of that letter,
+had persuaded Miss March that his aunt was a person whose mind had
+passed into a condition when its opposition or its action ought not to
+be considered by persons who were intent upon their own welfare. His
+own arrival at Midbranch, at this juncture, had resulted in the happy
+renewal of their engagement.
+
+"I don't know Junius half as well as I wish I did," said Annie, as she
+finished the letter, "but I am very sure, indeed, that he will make
+a good husband, and I am glad he has got Roberta March--as he wants
+her."
+
+"Did you emphasize 'he'?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"I will emphasize it, if you would like to hear me do it," said she.
+
+"It's very queer," remarked Annie, after a little pause, "that
+I should have been so anxious to preserve poor Junius from your
+clutches, and that, after all I did to save him, I should fall into
+those clutches myself."
+
+Whereupon Lawrence, much to her delight, told her the story of the
+anti-detective.
+
+Mrs Keswick sat down in her room, and read her letter. She had no
+intention of abandoning her resolution to let things go as they would;
+and, therefore, did not expect to follow up, with further words or
+actions, anything she had written in her letter to Roberta March. But
+she had had a very strong curiosity to know what that lady would say
+in answer to said letter, and she was therefore disappointed and
+displeased that the missive she had received was from her nephew, and
+not from Miss March. She did not wish to have a letter from Junius.
+She knew, or rather very much feared, that it would contain news which
+would be bad news to her, and although she was sure that such news
+would come to her sooner or later, she was very much averse to
+receiving it.
+
+His letter to her merely touched upon the points of Mrs Null, and his
+cousin's engagement to Mr Croft; but it was almost entirely filled
+with the announcement, and most earnest defence, of his own engagement
+to Roberta March. He said a great deal upon this subject, and he said
+it well. But it is doubtful if his fervid, and often affectionate,
+expressions made much impression upon his aunt. Nothing could make the
+old lady like this engagement, but she had made up her mind that he
+might do as he pleased, and it didn't matter what he said about it; he
+had done it, and there was an end of it.
+
+But there was one thing that did matter: That unprincipled and
+iniquitous old man Brandon had had his own way at last; and she and
+her way had been set aside. This was the last of a series of injuries
+to her and her family with which she charged Mr Brandon and his
+family; but it was the crowning wrong. The injury itself she did not
+so much deplore, as that the injurer would profit by it. Arrested
+in her course of raging passion by a sudden flood of warm and
+irresistible emotion, she had resigned, as impetuously as she had
+taken them up, her purposes of vengeance, and consequently, her plans
+for her nephew and niece. But she was a keen-minded, as well as
+passionate old woman, and when she had considered the altered state
+of affairs, she was able to see in it advantages as well as
+disappointment and defeat. From what she had learned of Lawrence
+Croft's circumstances and position, and she had made a good many
+inquiries on this subject of Roberta March, he was certainly a good
+match for Annie; and, although she hated to have anything to do with
+Midbranch, it could not be a bad thing for Junius to be master of that
+large estate, and that Mr Brandon had repeatedly declared he would be,
+if he married Roberta. Thus, in the midst of these reverses, there was
+something to comfort her, and reconcile her to them. But there was no
+balm for the wound caused by Mr Brandon's success and her failure.
+
+With the letter of Junius open in her hand, she sat, for a long time,
+in bitter meditation. At length a light gradually spread itself over
+her gloomy countenance. Her eyes sparkled; she sat up straight in her
+chair, and a broad smile changed the course of the wrinkles on her
+cheeks. She arose to her feet; she gave her head a quick jerk of
+affirmation; she clapped one hand upon the other; and she said aloud:
+"I will bless, not curse!"
+
+And with that she went happy to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+On the following Monday, Lawrence announced that his ankle was now
+quite well enough for him to go to New York, where his affairs
+required his presence. Neither he, nor the late Mrs Null, regarded
+this parting with any satisfaction, but their very natural regrets at
+the necessary termination of these happy autumn days were a good deal
+tempered by the fact that Lawrence intended to return in a few weeks,
+and that then the final arrangements would be made for their marriage.
+It was not easy to decide what these arrangements would be, for in
+spite of the many wrongnesses of the old lady's head and heart, Annie
+had conceived a good deal of affection for her aunt, and felt a strong
+disinclination to abandon her to her lonely life, which would be more
+lonely than before, now that Junius was to be married. On the other
+hand, Lawrence, although he had discovered some estimable points in
+the very peculiar character of Mrs Keswick, had no intention of living
+in the same house with her. This whole matter, therefore, was left in
+abeyance until the lovers should meet again, some time in December.
+
+Lawrence and Annie had desired very much that Junius should visit them
+before Mr Croft's departure for the North, for they both had a high
+esteem for him, and both felt a desire that he should be as well
+satisfied with their matrimonial project as they were with his. But
+they need not have expected him. Junius had conceived a dislike for Mr
+Croft, which was based in great part upon disapprobation of what he
+himself had done in connection with that gentleman; and this manner
+of dislike is not easily set aside. The time would come when he would
+take Lawrence Croft and Annie by the hand, and honestly congratulate
+them, but for that time they must wait.
+
+Lawrence departed in the afternoon; and the next day Mrs Keswick set
+about that general renovation and rearrangement of her establishment
+which many good housewives consider necessary at certain epochs, such
+as the departure of guests, the coming in of spring, or the advent of
+winter. These arrangements occupied two days, and on the evening that
+they were finished to her satisfaction, the old lady informed her
+niece, that early the next morning, she was going to start for
+Midbranch, and that it was possible, nay, quite probable, that she
+would stay there over a night. "I might go and come back the same
+day," she said, "but thirty miles a day is too much for Billy, and
+besides, I am not sure I could get through what I have to do, if I do
+not stay over. I would take you with me but this is not to be a mere
+visit; I have important things to attend to, and you would be in the
+way. You got along so well without me when you first came here that
+I have no doubt you will do very well for one night. I shall drive
+myself, and take Plez along with me, and leave Uncle Isham and Letty
+to take care of you."
+
+Under ordinary circumstances Annie would have been delighted to go to
+Midbranch, a place she had never seen, and of which she had heard so
+much, but she had no present desire to see Roberta March, and said so;
+further remarking that she was very willing to stay by herself for
+a night. She hoped much that her aunt would proceed with the
+conversation, and tell her why she had determined upon such an
+extraordinary thing as a visit to Midbranch; where she knew the old
+lady had not been for many, many years. But Mrs Keswick had nothing
+further to say upon this subject, and began to talk of other matters.
+
+After a very early breakfast next morning, Mrs Keswick set out
+upon her journey, driving the sorrel horse with much steadiness,
+intermingled with severity whenever he allowed himself to drop out of
+his usual jogging pace. Plez sat in the back part of the spring-wagon,
+and whenever the old lady saw an unusually large stone lying in the
+track of the road, she would stop, and make him get out and throw it
+to one side.
+
+"I believe," she said, on one of these occasions, "that a thousand men
+in buggies might pass along this road thrice a day for a year, and
+never think of stopping to throw that rock out of the way of people's
+wheels. They would steer around it every time, or bump over it, but
+such a thing as moving it would never enter their heads."
+
+The morning was somewhat cool, but fine, and the smile which
+occasionally flitted over the corrugated countenance of Mrs Keswick
+seemed to indicate that she was in a pleasant state of mind, which
+might have been occasioned by the fine weather and the good condition
+of the roads, or by cheerful anticipations connected with her visit.
+
+It was not very long after noonday that, with a stifled remark of
+disapprobation upon her lips, she drew up at the foot of the broad
+flight of steps by which one crossed the fence into the Midbranch
+yard. Giving Billy into the charge of Plez, with directions to take
+him round to the stables and tell somebody to put him up and feed him,
+she mounted the steps, and stopped for a minute or so on the broad
+platform at the top; looking about her as she stood. Everything, the
+house, the yard, the row of elms along the fence, the wide-spreading
+fields, and the farm buildings and cabins, some of which she could see
+around the end of the house, were all on a scale so much larger and
+more imposing than those of her own little estate that, although
+nothing had changed for the better since the days when she was
+familiar with Midbranch, she was struck with the general superiority
+of the Brandon possessions to her own. Her eyes twinkled, and she
+smiled; but there did not appear to be anything envious about her.
+
+She presented a rather remarkable figure as she stood in this
+conspicuous position. Annie had insisted, when she was helping her
+aunt to array herself for the journey, that she should wear a bonnet
+which for many years had been her head-gear on Sundays and important
+occasions, but to this the old lady positively objected. She was not
+going on a mere visit of state or ceremony; her visit at Midbranch
+would require her whole attention, and she did not wish to distract
+her mind by wondering whether her bonnet was straight on her head or
+not, and she was so unaccustomed to the feel of it that she would
+never know if it got turned hind part foremost. She could never be at
+her ease, nor say freely what she wished to say, if she were dressed
+in clothes to which she was not accustomed. She was perfectly
+accustomed to her sun-bonnet, and she intended to wear that. Of course
+she carried her purple umbrella, and she wore a plain calico dress,
+blue spotted with white, which was very narrow and short in the
+skirt, barely touching the tops of her shoes, the stoutest and most
+serviceable that could be procured in the store at Howlett's. She
+covered her shoulders with a small red shawl which, much to Annie's
+surprise, she fastened with a large and somewhat tarnished silver
+brooch, an ornament her niece had never before seen. Attired thus, she
+certainly would have attracted attention, had there been any one
+there to see, but the yard was empty, and the house door closed. She
+descended the steps, crossed the yard with what might be termed a
+buoyant gait, and, mounting the porch, knocked on the door with the
+handle of her umbrella. After some delay a colored woman appeared, and
+as soon as the door was opened, Mrs Keswick walked in.
+
+"Where is your master?" said she, forgetting all about the
+Emancipation Act.
+
+"Mahs' Robert is in the libery," said the woman.
+
+"And where are Miss Roberta March and Master Junius Keswick?"
+
+"Miss Rob went Norf day 'fore yestiddy," was the answer, "an' Mahs'
+Junius done gone 'long to 'scort her. Who shall I tell Mahs' Robert is
+come?"
+
+"There is no need to tell him who I am," said Mrs Keswick. "Just take
+me in to him. That's all you have to do."
+
+A good deal doubtful of the propriety of this proceeding, but
+more doubtful of the propriety of opposing the wishes of such a
+determined-looking visitor, the woman stepped to the back part of the
+hall, and opened the door. The moment she did so, Mrs Keswick entered,
+and closed the door behind her.
+
+Mr Brandon was seated in an arm chair by a table, and not very far
+from a wood fire of a size suited to the season. His slippered feet
+were on a cushioned stool; his eye-glasses were carefully adjusted on
+the capacious bridge of his nose; and, intent upon a newspaper which
+had arrived by that morning's mail, he presented the appearance of a
+very well satisfied old gentleman, in very comfortable circumstances.
+But when he turned his head and saw the Widow Keswick close the door
+behind her, every idea of satisfaction or comfort seemed to vanish
+from his mind. He dropped the paper; he rose to his feet; he took
+off his eye-glasses; he turned somewhat red in the face; and he
+ejaculated: "What! madam! So it is you, Mrs Keswick?"
+
+The old lady did not immediately answer. Her head dropped a little on
+one side, a broad smile bewrinkled the lower part of her well-worn
+visage, and with her eyes half-closed, behind her heavy spectacles,
+she held out both her hands, the purple umbrella in one of them, and
+exclaimed in a voice of happy fervor: "Robert! I am yours!"
+
+Mr Brandon, recovered from his first surprise, had made a step forward
+to go round the table and greet his visitor; but at these words he
+stopped as if he had been shot. Perception, understanding, and even
+animation, seemed to have left him as he vacantly stared at the
+elderly female with purple sun-bonnet and umbrella, blue calico gown,
+red shawl and coarse boots, who held out her arms towards him, and who
+gazed upon him with an air of tender, though decrepit, fondness.
+
+"Don't you understand me, Robert?" she continued. "Don't you remember
+the day, many a good long year ago, it is true, when we walked
+together down there by the branch, and you asked me to be yours? I
+refused you, Robert, and, although you went down on your knees in the
+damp grass and besought me to give you my heart, I would not do it.
+But I did not know you then as I know you now, Robert, and the words
+of true love which you spoke to me that morning come to me now with
+a sweetness which I was too young and trifling to notice then. That
+heart is yours now, Robert. I am yours." And, with these words, she
+made a step forward.
+
+At this demonstration Mr Brandon appeared suddenly to recover his
+consciousness and he precipitately made two steps backwards, just
+missing tumbling over his footstool into the fireplace.
+
+"Madam!" he exclaimed, "what are you talking about?"
+
+"Of the days of our courtship, and your love, Robert," she said. "My
+love did not come then, but it is here now. Here now," she repeated,
+putting the hand with the umbrella in it on her breast.
+
+"Madam," exclaimed the old gentleman, "you must be raving crazy! Those
+things to which you allude, happened nearly half a century ago; and
+since that you have been married and settled, and----"
+
+"Robert," interrupted the Widow Keswick, "you are mistaken. It is not
+quite forty-five years since that morning, and why should hearts like
+ours allow the passage of time or the mere circumstance of what might
+be called an outside marriage, but now extinct, to come between them?
+There is many a spring, Robert, which does not show when a man first
+begins to dig, but it will bubble up in time. And, Robert, it bubbles
+now." And with her head bent a little downwards, although her eyes
+were still fixed upon him, she made another step in his direction.
+
+Mr Brandon now backed himself flat against some book-shelves in his
+rear. The perspiration began to roll from his face, and his whole form
+trembled. "Mrs Keswick! Madam!" he exclaimed, "You will drive me mad!"
+
+The old lady dropped the end of her umbrella on the floor, rested her
+two hands on the head of it, settled herself into an easy position to
+speak, and, with her head thrown back, fixed a steady gaze upon the
+trembling old gentleman. "Robert," she said, "do not try to crush
+emotions which always were a credit to you, although in those days
+gone by I didn't tell you so. Your hair was black then, Robert, and
+you looked taller, for you hadn't a stoop, and your face was very
+smooth, and so was mine, and I remember I had on a white dress with a
+broad ribbon around the waist, and neither of us wore specs. What you
+said to me was very fresh and sweet, Robert, and it all comes to me
+now as it never came before. You have never loved another, Robert, and
+you don't know how happy it makes me to think that, and to know that I
+can come to you and find you the same true and constant lover that you
+were when, forty-five years ago, you went down on your knees to me by
+the branch. We can't stifle those feelings of by-gone days which well
+up in our bosoms, Robert. After all these years I have learned what a
+prize your true love is, and I return it. I am yours."
+
+At this Mr Brandon opened his mouth with a spasmodic gasp, but no word
+came from him. He looked to the right and left, and then made a lunge
+to one side, as if he would run around the old lady and gain the door.
+But Mrs Keswick was too quick for him. With two sudden springs she
+reached the door and put her back against it.
+
+"Don't leave me, Robert," she said, "I have not told you all. Don't
+you remember this breastpin?" unfastening the large silver brooch from
+her shawl and holding it out to him. "You gave it to me, Robert; there
+were almost tears of joy in your eyes on the first day I wore it,
+although I was careful to let you know it meant nothing. Where are
+those tears to-day, Robert? It means something now. I have kept it
+all these years, although in the lifetime of Mr Keswick it was never
+cleaned, and I wore it to-day, Robert, that your eyes might rest upon
+it once again, and that you might speak to me the words you spoke to
+me the day after I let you pin it on my white neckerchief. You waited
+then, Robert, a whole day before you spoke, but you needn't wait now.
+Let your heart speak out, dear Robert."
+
+But dear Robert appeared to have no power to speak, on this or any
+other subject. He was half sitting, half leaning on the corner of a
+table which stood by a window, out of which he gave sudden agonized
+and longing glances, as if, had he strength enough, he would raise the
+sash and leap out.
+
+The old lady, however, had speech enough for two. "Robert," she
+exclaimed, "how happy may we be, yet! If you wish to give up, to a
+younger couple, this spacious mansion, these fine grounds and noble
+elms, and come to my humble home, I shall only say to you, 'Robert,
+come!' I shall be alone there, Robert, and shall welcome you with joy.
+I have nobody now to give anything to. The late Mrs Null, by which I
+mean my niece, will marry a man who, if reports don't lie, is rich
+enough to make her want nothing that I have; and as for Junius, he is
+to have your property, as we all know. So all I have is yours, if you
+choose to come to me, Robert. But, if you would rather live here, I
+will come to you, and the young people can board with us until your
+decease; after that, I'll board with them. And I'm not sure,
+Robert, but I like the plan of coming here best. There are lots of
+improvements we could make on this place, with you to furnish the
+money, and me to advise and direct. The first thing I'd do would be
+to have down those abominable steps over the front fence, and put a
+decent gate in its place; and then we would have a gravelled walk
+across the yard to the porch, wide enough for you and me, Robert,
+to walk together arm-in-arm when we would go out to look over the
+plantation, or stroll down to that spot on the branch, Robert, where
+the first plightings of our troth began."
+
+The words of tender reminiscence, and of fond though rather late
+devotion, with which Mrs Keswick had stabbed and gashed the soul of
+the poor old gentleman, had at first deranged his senses, and then
+driven him into a state of abject despair, but the practical remarks
+which succeeded seemed to have a more direful effect upon him. The
+idea of the being with the sun-bonnet and the umbrella entering into
+his life at Midbranch, tearing down the broad steps which his honored
+father had built, cutting a gravelled path across the green turf which
+had been the pride of generations, and doing, no man could say what
+else, of advice and direction, seemed to strike a chill of terror into
+his very bones.
+
+The quick perception of Mrs Keswick told her that it was time to
+terminate the interview. "I will not say anything more to you now,
+Robert," she said. "Of course you have been surprised at my coming to
+you to-day, and accepting your offer of marriage, and you must have
+time to quiet your mind, and think it over. I don't doubt your
+affection, Robert, and I don't want to hurry you. I am going to stay
+here to-night, so that we can have plenty of time to settle everything
+comfortably. I'll go now and get one of the servants to show me to a
+room where I can take off my things. I'll see you again at dinner."
+
+And, with a smile of antiquated coyness, she left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+Mr Brandon was not a weak man, nor one very susceptible to outside
+influences, but, in the whole course of his life, nothing so
+extraordinarily nerve-stirring had occurred to him as this visit of
+old Mrs Keswick, endeavoring to appear in the character of the young
+creature he had wooed some forty-five years before. For a long time,
+Mrs Keswick had been the enemy of himself and his family; and many a
+bitter onslaught she had made upon him, both by letter, and by word of
+mouth. These he had borne with the utmost bravery and coolness, and
+there were times when they even afforded him entertainment. But this
+most astounding attack was something against which no man could have
+been prepared; and Mr Brandon, suddenly pounced upon in the midst of
+his comfortable bachelordom by a malevolent sorceress and hurled back
+to the days of his youth, was shown himself kneeling, not at the feet
+of a fair young girl, but before a horrible old woman.
+
+This amazing and startling state of affairs was too much for him
+immediately to comprehend. It stunned and bewildered him. Such,
+indeed, was the effect upon him that the first act of his mind, when
+he was left alone, and it began to act, was to ask of itself if there
+were really any grounds upon which Mrs Keswick could, with any reason,
+take up her position? The absolute absurdity of her position, however,
+became more and more evident, as Mr Brandon's mind began to straighten
+itself and stand up. And now he grew angry. Anger was a passion with
+which he was not at all unfamiliar, and the exercise of it seemed to
+do him good. When he had walked up and down his library for a quarter
+of an hour, he felt almost like his natural self; and with many nods
+of his head and shakes of his fist, he declared that the old woman was
+crazy, and that he would bundle her home just as soon as he could.
+
+By dinner-time he had cooled down a good deal, and he resolved to
+treat her with the respect due to her age and former condition of
+sanity; but to take care that she should not again be alone with him,
+and to arrange that she should return to her home that day.
+
+Mrs Keswick came to the table with a smiling face, and wearing a
+close-fitting white cap, which looked like a portion of her night
+gear, tied under her chin with broad, stiff strings. In this she
+appeared to her host as far more hideous than when wearing her
+sun-bonnet. Mr Brandon had arranged that two servants should wait upon
+the table, so that one of them should always be in the room, but in
+his supposition that the presence of a third person would have any
+effect upon the expression of Mrs Keswick's fond regard, he was
+mistaken. The meal had scarcely begun, when she looked around the room
+with wide-open eyes, and exclaimed: "Robert, if we should conclude
+to remain here, I think we will have this room re-papered with some
+light-colored paper. I like a light dining-room. This is entirely too
+dark."
+
+The two servants, one of whom was our old friend, Peggy, actually
+stopped short in their duties at this remark; and as for Mr Brandon,
+his appetite immediately left him, to return no more during that meal.
+
+He was obliged to make some answer to this speech, and so he briefly
+remarked that he had no desire to alter the appearance of his
+dining-room, and then hastened to change the conversation by making
+some inquiries about that interesting young woman, her niece, who, he
+had been informed, was not a married lady, as he had supposed her to
+be.
+
+At this intelligence, Peggy dropped two spoons and a fork; she had
+never heard it before.
+
+"The late Mrs Null," said Mrs Keswick, "is a young woman who likes to
+cut her clothes after her own patterns. They may be becoming to her
+when they are made up, or they may not be. But I am inclined to think
+she has got a pretty good head on her shoulders, and perhaps she
+knows what suits her as well as any of us. I can't say it was easy to
+forgive the trick she played on me, her own aunt, and just the same,
+in fact, as her mother. But Robert," and as she said this the old lady
+laid down her knife and fork, and looked tenderly at Mr Brandon, "I
+have determined to forgive everybody, and to overlook everything,
+and I do this as much for your sake, dear Robert, as for my own. It
+wouldn't do for a couple of our age to be keeping up grudges against
+the young people for their ways of getting out of marriages or getting
+into them. We will have my niece and her husband here sometimes, won't
+we, Robert?"
+
+Mr Brandon straightened himself and remarked: "Mr Croft, whom I have
+heard your niece is to marry, will be quite welcome here, with his
+wife." Then, putting his napkin on the table, and pushing back his
+chair, he said: "Now, madam, you must excuse me, for I have orders to
+give to some of my people which I had forgotten until this moment. But
+do not let me interfere with your dinner. Pray continue your meal."
+
+Never before had Mr Brandon been known to leave his dinner until he
+had finished it, and he was not at all accustomed to give such a poor
+reason for his actions as the one he gave now, but it was simply
+impossible for him to sit any longer at table, and have that old woman
+talk in that shocking manner before the servants.
+
+"Robert," cried Mrs Keswick, as he left the room, "I'll save some
+dessert for you, and we'll eat it together."
+
+Mr Brandon's first impulse, when he found himself out of the
+dining-room, was to mount his horse and ride away; but there was no
+place to which he wished to ride; and he was a man who was very loath
+to leave the comforts of his home. "No," he said. "She must go, and
+not I." And then he went into his parlor, and strode up and down. As
+soon as Mrs Keswick had finished her dinner, he would see her there,
+and speak his mind to her. He had determined that he would not again
+be alone with her, but, since the presence of others was no restraint
+whatever upon her, it had become absolutely necessary that he should
+speak with her alone.
+
+It was not long before the Widow Keswick, with a brisk, blithe step,
+entered the parlor. "I couldn't eat without you, Robert," she cried,
+"and so I really haven't half finished my dinner. Did you have to come
+in here to speak to your people?"
+
+Mr Brandon stepped to the door, and closed it. "Madam," he said, "it
+will be impossible for me, in the absence of my niece, to entertain
+you here to-night, and so it would be prudent for you to start for
+home as soon as possible, as the days are short. It would be too much
+of a journey for your horse to go back again to-day, and your vehicle
+is an open one; therefore I have ordered my carriage to be prepared,
+and you may trust my driver to take you safely home, even if it should
+be dark before you get there. If you desire it, there is a young
+maid-servant here who will go with you."
+
+"Robert," said Mrs Keswick, approaching the old gentleman and gazing
+fondly upward at him, "you are so good, and thoughtful, and sweet. But
+you need not put yourself to all that trouble for me. I shall stay
+here to-night, and in your house, dear Robert, I can take care of
+myself a great deal better than any lady could take care of me."
+
+"Madam," exclaimed Mr Brandon, "I want you to stop calling me by my
+first name. You have no right to do so, and I won't stand it."
+
+"Robert," said the old lady, looking at him with an air of tender
+upbraiding, "you forget that I am yours, now, and forever."
+
+Never, since he had arrived at man's estate, and probably not before,
+had Mr Brandon spoken in improper language to a lady, but now it was
+all he could do to restrain himself from the ejaculation of an oath,
+but he did restrain himself, and only exclaimed: "Confound it, madam,
+I cannot stand this! Why do you come here, to drive me crazy with your
+senseless ravings?"
+
+"Robert," said Mrs Keswick, very composedly "I do not wonder that my
+coming to you and accepting the proposals which you once so heartily
+made to me, and from which you have never gone back, should work a
+good deal upon your feelings. It is quite natural, and I expected it.
+Therefore don't hesitate about speaking out your mind; I shall not be
+offended. So that we belong to each other for the rest of our days, I
+don't mind what you say now, when it is all new and unexpected to you.
+You and I have had many a difference of opinion, Robert, and your
+plans were not my plans. But things have turned out as you wished, and
+you have what you have always wanted; and with the other good things,
+Robert, you can take me." And, as she finished speaking, she held out
+both hands to her companion.
+
+With a stamp of his foot, and a kick at a chair which stood in his
+way, Mr Brandon precipitately left the room, and slammed the door
+after him; and if Peggy had not nimbly sprung to one side, he would
+have stumbled over her, and have had a very bad fall for a man of his
+age.
+
+It was not ten minutes after this, that, looking out of a window, Mrs
+Keswick saw a saddled horse brought into the back yard. She hastened
+into the hall, and found Peggy. "Run to Mr Brandon," she said, "and
+bid him good-bye for me. I am going up stairs to get ready to go home,
+and haven't, time to speak to him, myself, before he starts on his
+ride."
+
+At the receipt of this message the heart of Mr Brandon gave a bound
+which actually helped him to get into the saddle, but he did not
+hesitate in his purpose of instant departure. If he staid, but for
+a moment, she might come out to him, and change her mind, so he put
+spurs to his horse and galloped away, merely stopping long enough, as
+he passed the stables, to give orders that the carriage be prepared
+for Mrs Keswick, and taken round to the front.
+
+As he rode through the cool air of that fine November afternoon, the
+spirits of Mr Brandon rose. He felt a serene satisfaction in assuring
+himself that, although he had been very angry, indeed, with Mrs
+Keswick, on account of her most unheard of and outrageous conduct, yet
+he had not allowed his indignation to burst out against her in any way
+of which he would afterward be ashamed. Some hasty words had escaped
+him, but they were of no importance, and, under the circumstances, no
+one could have avoided speaking them. But, when he had addressed her
+at any length, he had spoken dispassionately and practically, and she,
+being at bottom a practical woman, had seen the sense of his advice,
+and had gone home comfortably in his carriage. Whether she took her
+insane fancies home with her, or dropped them on the road, it mattered
+very little to him, so that he never saw her again; and he did not
+intend to see her again. If she came again to his house, he would
+leave it and not return until she had gone; but he had no reason to
+suppose that he would be forced into any such exceedingly disagreeable
+action as this. He did not believe she would ever come back. For,
+unless she were really crazy--crazy--and in that case she ought to be
+put in the lunatic asylum--she could not keep up, for any length of
+time, the extraordinary and outrageous delusion that he would be
+willing to renew the feelings that he had entertained for her in her
+youth.
+
+Mr Brandon rode until nearly dark, for it took a good while to free
+his mind from the effects of the excitements and torments of that day.
+But, when he entered the house and took his seat in his library chair
+by the fire, he had almost regained his usual composed and well
+satisfied frame of mind.
+
+Then, through the quietly opened door, came Mrs Keswick, and
+stealthily stepping towards him in the fitful light of the blazing
+logs, she put her hand on his arm and said: "Dear Robert, how glad I
+am to see you back!"
+
+The next morning, about ten o'clock, Mrs Keswick sent her eighteenth
+or twentieth message to Mr Brandon, who had shut himself up in his
+room since a little before supper-time on the previous evening. The
+message was sent by Peggy, and she was instructed to shout it outside
+of her master's door until he took notice of it. Its purport was that
+it was necessary that Mrs Keswick should go home to-day, and that her
+horse was harnessed and she was now ready to go, but that she could
+not think of leaving until she had seen Mr Brandon again. She would
+therefore wait until he was ready to come down.
+
+Mr Brandon looked out of the window and saw the spring-wagon at the
+outside of the broad stile, with Plez standing at the sorrel's head.
+He remembered that the venerable demon had said, at the first, that
+she intended to stay but one night, and he could but believe that she
+was now really going. Knowing her as he did, however, he was very well
+aware that if she had said she would not leave until she had seen him,
+she would stay in his house for a year, unless he sooner went down to
+her; therefore he opened his door, and slowly and feebly descended the
+stairs.
+
+"My dear, dear Robert!" exclaimed Mrs Keswick, totally regardless of
+the fact that Peggy was standing at the front door with her valise in
+her hand, and that there was another servant in the hall, "how pale,
+and haggard, and worn you look! You must be quite unwell, and I don't
+know but that I ought to stay here and take care of you."
+
+At these words a look of agony passed over the old man's face, but he
+said nothing.
+
+"But I am afraid I cannot stay any longer this time," continued the
+Widow Keswick, "for my niece would not know what had become of me, and
+there are things at home that I must attend to; but I will come again.
+Don't think I intend to desert you, dear Robert. You shall see me soon
+again. But while I am gone," she said, turning to the two servants, "I
+want you maids to take good care of your master. You must do it for
+his sake, for he has always been kind to you, but I also want you
+to do it for my sake. Don't you forget that. And now, dear Robert,
+good-bye." As she spoke, she extended her hand towards the old
+gentleman.
+
+Without a word, but with a good deal of apparent reluctance, he took
+the long, bony hand in his, and probably, would have instantly dropped
+it again, had not Mrs Keswick given him a most hearty clutch, and a
+vigorous and long-continued shake.
+
+"It is hard, dear Robert," she said, "for us to part, with nothing but
+a hand-shake, but there are people about, and this will have to
+do." And then, after urging him to take good care of his health, so
+valuable to them both, and assuring him that he would soon see her
+again, she gave his hand a final shake, and left him. Accompanied by
+Peggy, she went out to the spring-wagon and clambered into it. It
+almost surpasses belief that Mr Brandon, a Virginia gentleman of the
+old school, should have stood in his hall, and have seen an old lady
+leave his house and get into a vehicle, without accompanying and
+assisting her; but such was the case on this occasion. He seemed to
+have forgotten his traditions, and to have lost his impulses. He
+simply stood where the Widow Keswick had left him, and gazed at her.
+
+When she was seated, and ready to start, the old lady turned towards
+him, called out to him in a cheery voice: "Good-bye, Robert!" and
+kissed her hand to him.
+
+Mrs Keswick slowly drove away, and Mr Brandon stood at his hall
+door, gazing after her until she was entirely out of sight. Then he
+ejaculated: "The Devil's daughter!" and went into his library.
+
+"I wonders," said Peggy when she returned to the kitchen, "how you
+all's gwine to like habin dat ole Miss Keswick libin h'yar as you
+all's mistiss."
+
+"Who's gwine to hab her?" growled Aunt Judy.
+
+"You all is," sturdily retorted Peggy. "Dar ain't no use tryin' to git
+out ob dat. Dat old Miss Keswick done gone an' kunjered Mahs' Robert,
+an' dey's boun' to git mar'ed. I done heered all 'bout it, an' she's
+comin' h'yar to lib wid Mahs' Robert. But dat don' make no dif'rence
+to me. I's gwine to lib wid Mahs' Junius an' Miss Rob in New York, I
+is. But I's mighty sorry for you all."
+
+"You Peggy," shouted the irate Aunt Judy, "shut up wid your fool talk!
+When Mahs' Robert marry dat ole jimpsun weed, de angel Gabr'el blow
+his hohn, shuh."
+
+Slowly driving along the road to her home, the Widow Keswick gazed
+cheerfully at the blue sky above her, and the pleasant autumn scenery
+around her; sniffed the fine fresh air, delicately scented with the
+odor of falling leaves; and settling herself into a more comfortable
+position on her seat, she complacently said to herself: "Well, I
+reckon the old scapegrace has got his money's worth this time!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+There were two reasons why Peggy could not go to live with "Mahs'
+Junius and Miss Rob" in New York. In the first place, this couple
+had no intention of setting up an establishment in that city; and
+secondly, Peggy, as Roberta well knew, was not adapted by nature to be
+her maid, or the maid of any one else. Peggy's true vocation in life
+was to throw her far-away gaze into futurity, and, as far as in her
+lay, to adapt present circumstances to what she supposed was going to
+happen. It would have delighted her soul if she could have been the
+adept in conjuring, which she firmly believed the Widow Keswick to be;
+but, as she possessed no such gift, she made up the deficiency, as
+well as she could, by mixing up her mind, her soul, and her desires,
+into a sort of witch's hodge-podge, which she thrust as a spell
+into the affairs of other people. Twice had the devices of this
+stupid-looking wooden peg of a negro girl stopped Lawrence Croft in
+the path he was following in his pursuit of Roberta March. If Lawrence
+had known, at the time, what Peggy was doing, he would have considered
+her an unmitigated little demon; but afterward, if he could have
+known of it, he would have thought her a very unprepossessing and
+conscienceless guardian angel.
+
+As it was, he knew not what she had done, and never considered her at
+all.
+
+Junius Keswick took much more delight in farming than he did in the
+practice of the law, and it was only because he had felt himself
+obliged to do so, that he had adopted the legal profession. To be
+a farmer, one must have a farm; but a lawyer can frequently make a
+living from the lands of other men. He was very willing, therefore,
+to agree to the plan which, for years, had been Mr Brandon's most
+cherished scheme; that he and Roberta should make their home at
+Midbranch, and that he should take charge of the estate, which would
+be his wife's property after the old gentleman's decease. Roberta was
+as fond of the country as was Junius, but she was also a city woman;
+and it was arranged that the couple should spend a portion of each
+winter in New York, at the house of Mr March.
+
+Junius, and Roberta, as well as her father, hoped very much that they
+might be able to induce Mr Brandon to come to New York to attend the
+wedding, which was to take place the middle of January; but they were
+not confident of success, for they knew the old gentleman disliked
+very much to travel, especially in winter. Three very pressing letters
+were therefore written to Mr Brandon; and the writers were much
+surprised to receive, in a short time, a collective answer, in which
+he stated that he would not only be present at the wedding, but that
+he thought of spending several months in New York. It would be very
+lonely at Midbranch, he wrote, without Roberta--though why it should
+be more so this year, than during preceding winters, he did not
+explain--and he felt a desire to see the changes that had taken place
+in the metropolis since he had visited it, years ago.
+
+They would not have been so much surprised had they known that Mr
+Brandon did not feel himself safe in his own home, by night or by day.
+Frequently had he gazed out of a window at the point in the road on
+which the first sight of an approaching spring-wagon could have been
+caught; and had said to himself: "If only Roberta were here, that old
+hag would not dare to speak a word to me! I don't want to go away,
+but, by George! I don't see how I can stay here without Rob."
+
+There was a short, very black, and somewhat bowlegged negro man on the
+place, named Israel Bonaparte, who lived in a little cabin by himself,
+and was noted for his unsocial disposition, and his taciturnity. To
+him Mr Brandon went one day, and said: "Israel, I want you to go to
+work on the fence rows on my side of the road to Howlett's. Grub up
+the bushes, clear out the vines and weeds, and see that the rails and
+posts are all in order. That will be a job that I expect will last you
+until the roads begin to get heavy. And, by the way, Israel, while you
+are at work, I want you to keep a lookout for any visitors that may
+turn into our road, especially if they happen to be ladies. Now that
+Miss Rob is away, I am very particular about knowing, beforehand, when
+ladies are coming to visit me; and when you see any wagon or carriage
+turn in, I want you to make a short cut across the fields, and let me
+know it, and I will give you a quarter of a dollar every time you do
+so." This was a very pleasant job of work for the meditative Israel.
+He was not very fond of grubbing, but he earned the greater part of
+his ten dollars a month and rations, by sitting on the fence, smoking
+a corn-cob pipe, and attending to the second division of the work
+which his employer had set him to do.
+
+Lawrence Croft was in New York at this time, a very busy man,
+arranging his affairs in that city, so that they would not need
+his personal attention for some time to come; he sub-let, for the
+remainder of his lease, the suite of bachelor apartments he had
+occupied, and he stored his furniture and books. One might have
+imagined that he was taking in all possible sails; close reefing the
+others; battening down the hatches; and preparing to run before a
+storm; and yet his demeanor did not indicate that he expected any
+violent commotion of the elements. On the contrary, his friends and
+acquaintances thought him particularly blithe and gay. He told them he
+was going to be married.
+
+"To that Virginia lady, I suppose," said one. "I remember her very
+well; and consider you fortunate."
+
+"I don't think you ever met her," said Mr Croft. "She is a Miss
+Peyton, from King Thomas County."
+
+"Ah!" remarked his interlocutor. Lawrence walked to the window of the
+club-room, and stood there, slowly puffing his cigar. Had anybody met
+this one? he thought. He knew she had seen but little company during
+her father's life, but was it likely that any of his acquaintances had
+had business at Candy's Information Shop? As this idea came into his
+mind, there seemed to be something unpleasant in the taste of his
+cigar, and he threw it into the fire. A few turns, however, up and
+down the now almost deserted rooms, restored his tone; he lighted
+another cigar, and now there came up before him a vision of the girl
+who, from loyalty to her dead father, preferred to sit all day behind
+Candy's money desk rather than go to a relative who had not been his
+friend. And then he saw the young girl who took up so courageously the
+cause of one of her own blood--the boy cousin of her childhood; and
+with a lover's pride, Lawrence thought of the dash, the spirit, and
+the bravery with which she had done it.
+
+"By George!" he said to himself, his eyes sparkling, and his step
+quickening, "she has more in her than all the rest of them put
+together!"
+
+Who were included in "the rest of them," Lawrence was not prepared
+just then to say, but the expression was intended to have a very wide
+range.
+
+It was about the middle of December, when Lawrence paid another visit
+to Mrs Keswick's house. The day was cold, but clear, and as he drove
+up to the outer gate, he saw the old lady returning from a walk to
+Howlett's. She stepped along briskly, and was in a very good humor,
+for she had just posted a carefully concocted letter to Mr Brandon, in
+which she had expatiated, in her peculiar style, on the pleasure
+which she expected from an early visit to Midbranch. She had not the
+slightest idea of going there, at present, but she thought it quite
+time to freshen up the old gentleman's anticipations.
+
+Descending from his carriage to meet her, Lawrence was very warmly
+greeted, and the two went up to the house together.
+
+"I expect the late Mrs Null will be very glad to see you," said Mrs
+Keswick. "I think she has burned up all her widow's weeds."
+
+"You should be very much obliged to your niece," said Mr Croft, "for
+so delicately ridding you of that dreadful fertilizer man."
+
+"Humph!" said the old lady. "She cheated me out of the pleasure of
+telling him what I thought of him, and I shall never forgive her for
+that."
+
+As Lawrence and Annie sat together in the parlor that evening, he told
+her what he had been doing in New York, and this brought to her lips a
+question, which she was very anxious to have answered. She knew that
+Lawrence was rich; that his methods of life and thought made him a man
+of the cities; and she felt quite certain that the position to
+which he would conduct her was that of the mistress of a handsome
+town-house, and the wife of a man of society. She liked handsome
+town-houses, and she was sure she would like society; but it would all
+be very new and strange to her, and, although she was a brave girl at
+heart, she shrank from making such a plunge as this.
+
+"How are we going to live?" repeated Lawrence. "That, of course, is
+to be as you shall choose, but I have a plan to propose to you, and I
+want very much to hear what you think about it. And the plan is, that
+we shall not live anywhere for a year or two, but wander, fancy free,
+over as much of the world as pleases us; and then decide where we
+shall settle down, and how we shall like to do it."
+
+If Annie's answer had been expressed in words, it might have been
+given here. It may be said, however, that it was very quick, very
+affirmative, and, in more ways than one, highly satisfactory to
+Lawrence.
+
+"Is it London, and a landlady, and tea?" she presently asked.
+
+"Yes, it is that," he said.
+
+"Is it the shops on the Boulevards?"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence.
+
+"And the Appian Way? And the Island of Capri? And snow mountains in
+the distance?" she asked.
+
+"In their turn, most certainly," said her lover, "and it shall be the
+midnight sun, and the Nile, if you like."
+
+"Freddy," exclaimed the late Mrs Null, "I thank thee for what thou
+hast given me!" And she clasped the hand of Lawrence in both her own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+The marriage of Junius Keswick and Roberta March was appointed for the
+fifteenth of January, and Mr Brandon had arranged to be in New York a
+few days before the event. He intended, however, to leave Midbranch
+soon after the first of the year, and to spend a week with some of his
+friends in Richmond.
+
+It was on the afternoon of New Year's Day, and Mr Brandon was sitting
+in his library with Colonel Pinckney Macon, an elderly gentleman
+of social habits and genial temper, whom Mr Brandon had invited to
+Midbranch to spend the holidays, and who was afterwards to be his
+travelling companion as far as Richmond. The two had had a very good
+dinner, and were now sitting before the fire smoking their pipes, and
+paying occasional attention to two tumblers of egg-nogg, which stood
+on a small table between them. They were telling anecdotes of olden
+times, and were in very good humor indeed, when a servant came in with
+a note, which had just been brought for Mr Brandon. The old gentleman
+took the missive, and put on his eye-glasses, but the moment he read
+the address, he let his hand fall on his knee, and gave vent to an
+angry ejaculation.
+
+"It's from that rabid old witch, the Widow Keswick!" he exclaimed,"
+I've a great mind to throw it into the fire without reading it."
+
+"Don't do that," cried Colonel Macon. "It is a New Year present she is
+sending you. Read it, sir, read it by all means."
+
+Mr Brandon had given his friend an account of his unexampled and
+astounding persecutions by the Widow Keswick, and the old colonel had
+been much interested thereby; and it would have greatly grieved his
+soul not to become acquainted with this new feature of the affair.
+"Read it, sir," he cried; "I would like to know what sort of New Year
+congratulations she offers you."
+
+"Congratulations indeed!" said Mr Brandon; "you needn't expect
+anything of that kind." But he opened the note; and, turning, so that
+he could get a good light upon it, began to read aloud, as follows:
+
+"MY DEAREST ROBERT."
+
+"Confound it, sir," exclaimed the reader, "did you ever hear of such a
+piece of impertinence as that?"
+
+Colonel Pinckney Macon leaned back in his chair, and laughed aloud.
+"It is impertinent," he cried, "but it's confoundedly jolly! Go on,
+sir. Go on, I beg of you."
+
+Mr Brandon continued:
+
+"It is not for me to suggest anything of the kind, but I write this
+note simply to ask you what you would think of a triple wedding? There
+would certainly be something very touching about it, and it would be
+very satisfactory and comforting, I am sure, to our nieces and their
+husbands to know that they were not leaving either of us to a lonely
+life. Would we not make three happy pairs, dear Robert? Remember, I do
+not propose this, I only lay it before your kindly and affectionate
+heart.
+
+"Your own
+
+"Martha Ann Keswick."
+
+
+Colonel Macon, who, with much difficulty and redness of face, had
+restrained himself during the reading of this note, now burst into a
+shout of laughter, while Mr Brandon sprang to his feet, and crumpling
+the note in his hand, threw it into the fire; and then, turning
+around, he exclaimed: "Did the world ever hear anything like that!
+Triple wedding, indeed! Does the pestiferous old shrew imagine that
+anything in this world would induce me to marry her?"
+
+"Why, my dear sir," cried Colonel Macon, "of course she don't. I know
+the Widow Keswick as well as you do. She wouldn't marry you to save
+your soul, sir. All she wants to do is to worry and persecute you, and
+to torment your senses out of you, in revenge for your having got the
+better of her. Now, take my advice, sir, and don't let her do it.
+
+"I'd like to know how I am going to hinder her," said Mr Brandon.
+
+"Hinder her!" exclaimed Colonel Macon. "Nothing easier in this world,
+sir! Just you turn right square round, and face her, sir; and you'll
+see that she'll stop short, sir; and, what's more, she'll run, sir!"
+
+"How am I to face her?" asked Mr Brandon. "I have faced her, and I
+assure you, sir, she didn't run."
+
+"That was because you did not go to work in the right way," said the
+colonel. "Now, if I were in your place, sir, this is what I would do.
+I'd turn on her and I'd scare her out of all the wits she has left.
+I'd say to her: 'Madam, I think your proposition is an excellent one.
+I am ready to marry you to-day, or, at the very latest, to-morrow
+morning. I'll come to your house, and bring a clergyman, and some of
+my friends. Don't let there be the least delay, for I desire to start
+immediately for New York, and to take you with me.' Now, sir, a note
+like that would frighten that old woman so that she would leave her
+house, and wouldn't come back for six weeks; and the letter you have
+just burned would be the last attack she would make on you. Now, sir,
+that is what I would do if I were in your place."
+
+Mr Brandon sat down, drained his tumbler of egg-nogg, and began to
+think of what his friend had said. And, as he thought of it, the
+conviction forced itself upon him that this idea of Colonel Macon's
+was a good one; in fact, a splendid one. Now that he came to look upon
+the matter more clearly than he had done before, he saw that this
+persecution on the part of the Widow Keswick was not only base, but
+cowardly. He had been entirely too yielding, had given way too much.
+Yes, he would face her! By George! that was a royal idea! He would
+turn round, and make a dash at her, and scare her out of her five
+senses.
+
+Pens, ink, and paper were brought out; more egg-nogg was ordered; and
+Mr Brandon, aided and abetted by Colonel Macon, wrote a letter to Mrs
+Keswick.
+
+This letter took a long time to write, and was very carefully
+constructed. With outstretched hands, Mr Brandon met the old lady on
+the very threshold of her proposition. He stated that nothing would
+please him better than an immediate wedding, and that he would have
+proposed it himself had he not feared that the lady would consider him
+too importunate. (This expression was suggested by Colonel Macon.)
+In order that they might lose no time in making themselves happy, Mr
+Brandon proposed that the marriage should take place in a week, and
+that the ceremony should be performed in Richmond. (The colonel wished
+him to say that he would immediately go to her house for the purpose,
+but Mr Brandon would not consent to write this. He was afraid that the
+widow would sit at her front door with a shot-gun and wait for him,
+and that some damage might thereby come to an unwary neighbor.)
+Each of them had many old friends in Richmond, and it would be very
+pleasant to be married there. He intended to start for that city in a
+day or two, and he would be rejoiced to meet her at eleven o'clock on
+the morning of the fifth instant, in the corridor, or covered bridge,
+connecting the Exchange and Ballard hotels, and there arrange all the
+details for an immediate marriage. The letter closed with an earnest
+hope that she would accede to this proposed plan, which would so soon
+make them the happiest couple upon earth; and was signed "Your devoted
+Robert."
+
+"By which I mean," said Mr Brandon, "that I am devoted to her
+destruction."
+
+The letter was read over by Colonel Macon, and highly approved by him.
+"If you had met that woman, sir, when she first came to you," he said
+to Mr Brandon, "with the spirit that is shown in this letter, you
+would have put a shiver through her, sir, that would have shaken the
+bones out of her umbrella, and she would have cut and run, sir, before
+you knew it."
+
+The messenger from Howlett's was kept at Midbranch all night, and
+the next morning he was sent back with Mr Brandon's note. Two days
+afterward Colonel Macon and Mr Brandon started for Richmond, and in
+the course of a few hours, they were comfortably sipping their "peach
+and honey" at the Exchange and Ballard's.
+
+The next day was most enjoyably spent with a number of old friends;
+and in reminiscences of the past war, and in discussions of the coming
+political campaign, Mr Brandon had thrown off every sign of the
+annoyance and persecution to which he had lately been subjected.
+
+"By George, sir!" said Colonel Macon to him the next morning, "do you
+know that you are a most untrustworthy and perfidious man?"
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed Mr Brandon, "what do you mean?"
+
+"I mean," replied Colonel Pinckney Macon, with much dignity, "that
+you promised at eleven o'clock to-day to meet a lady in the corridor
+connecting these two hotels. It wants three minutes of that time now,
+sir, and here you are reading the 'Dispatch' as if you never made a
+promise in your life."
+
+"I declare," said Mr Brandon, rising, "my conduct is indefensible,
+but I am going to my room, and, on my way, will keep my part of the
+contract."
+
+"I will go with you," said the colonel.
+
+Together they mounted the stairs, and approached the corridor; and, as
+they opened its glass doors, they saw, sitting in a chair on one side
+of the passage, the Widow Keswick.
+
+If Mr Brandon had not been caught by his friend he would have fallen
+over backwards. Regaining an upright position, he made a frantic turn,
+as if he would fly, but he was not quick enough; Mrs Keswick had him
+by the arm.
+
+"Robert!" she exclaimed. "I knew how true and faithful you would be.
+It has just struck eleven. How do you do, Colonel Macon?" And she
+extended her hand.
+
+There was no one in the corridor at the time but these three, but the
+place was much used as a passageway, and Colonel Macon, who was very
+pale, but still retained his presence of mind, knew well, that if
+any one were to come along at this moment, it would be decidedly
+unpleasant, not only for his friend, but himself. "I am glad to meet
+you again, Mrs Keswick," he said. "Let us go into one of the parlors.
+It will be more comfortable."
+
+"How kind," murmured Mrs Keswick, as she clung to the arm of Mr
+Brandon, "for you to bring our good friend, Colonel Macon."
+
+They went into a parlor, which was empty, and where they were not
+likely to be disturbed. Mr Brandon walked there without saying a word.
+His face was as pallid as its well-seasoned color would allow, and he
+looked straight before him with an air which seemed to indicate that
+he was trying to remember something terrible, or else trying to forget
+it, and that he himself did not know which it was.
+
+Colonel Macon did not stay long in the parlor. There was that in the
+air of Mrs Keswick which made him understand that there were other
+places in Richmond where he would be much more welcome than in that
+room. He went down into the large hall where the gentlemen generally
+congregate; and there, in great distress of mind, he paced up and down
+the marble floor, exchanging nothing but the briefest salutations and
+answers with the acquaintances he occasionally encountered. The clerk,
+behind his desk at one side of the hall, had seen men walking up and
+down in that way, and he thought that the colonel had probably been
+speculating in tobacco or wheat; but he knew he was good for the
+amount of his bill, and he retained his placidity.
+
+In about half an hour, there came down the stairs, at one end of
+the hall, an elderly person who somewhat resembled Mr Brandon of
+Midbranch. The clothes and the hat were the same that that gentleman
+wore, and the same heavy gold chain with dangling seal-rings hung
+across his ample waistcoat; but there was a general air of haggardness
+and stoop about him which did not in the least suggest the upright and
+portly gentleman who had written his name in the hotel register the
+day before yesterday.
+
+Colonel Macon made five strides towards him, and seized his hand.
+"What," said he, "how----?"
+
+Mr Brandon did not look at him; he let his eyes fall where they chose;
+it mattered not to him what they gazed upon; and, in a low voice, he
+said: "It is all over."
+
+"Over!" repeated the colonel.
+
+Mr Brandon put a feeble hand on his friend's arm, and together they
+walked into the reading room, where they sat down in a corner.
+
+"Have you settled it then?" asked Colonel Macon with great anxiety.
+"Is she gone?"
+
+"It is settled," said Mr Brandon. "We are to be married."
+
+"Married!" cried Colonel Macon, springing to his feet. "Great Heavens,
+man! What do you mean?"
+
+Not very fluently, and in sentences with a very few words in each of
+them, but words that sank like hot coals into the soul of his hearer,
+Mr Brandon explained what he meant. It had been of no use, he said, to
+try to get out of it; the old woman had him with the grip of a vise.
+That letter had done it all. He ought to have known that she was not
+to be frightened, but it was needless to talk about that. It was all
+over now, and he was as much bound to her as if he had promised before
+a magistrate.
+
+"But you don't mean to say," exclaimed the colonel in a voice of
+anguish, "that you are really going to marry her?"
+
+"Sir," said Mr Brandon, solemnly, "there is no way to get out of it.
+If you think there is, you don't know the woman."
+
+"I would have died first!" said the colonel. "I never would have
+submitted to her!"
+
+"I did not submit," replied Mr Brandon. "That was done when the
+letter was written. I roused myself, and I said everything I could
+say, but it was all useless, she held me to my promise. I told her I
+would fly to the ends of the earth rather than marry her, and then,
+sir, she threatened me with a prosecution for breach of promise; and
+think of the disgrace that that would bring upon me; upon my family
+name; and on my niece and her young husband. It was a mistake, sir, to
+suppose that she merely wished to persecute me. She wished to marry
+me, and she is going to do it."
+
+The colonel bowed his face upon his hands, and groaned. Mr Brandon
+looked at him with a dim compassion in his eyes. "Do not reproach
+yourself, sir," he said. "We thought we were acting for the best."
+
+But little more was said, and two crushed old gentlemen retired to
+their rooms.
+
+In the days of her youth, Mrs Keswick had been very well known in
+Richmond; and there were a good many elderly ladies and gentlemen, now
+living in that city, who remembered her as a handsome, sparkling, and
+somewhat eccentric young woman, and who had since heard of her as a
+decidedly eccentric old one. Mr Brandon, also, had a large circle of
+friends and acquaintances in the city; and when it became known that
+these two elderly persons were to be married--and the news began to
+spread shortly after Mrs Keswick reached the house of the friend with
+whom she was staying--it excited a great deal of excusable interest.
+
+Mrs Keswick, according to her ordinary methods of action, took all the
+arrangements into her own hands. She appointed the wedding for the
+eighth of January, in order that the happy pair might go to New York,
+and be present at the nuptials of Junius and Roberta. Mr Brandon had
+thought of writing to Junius, in the hope that the young man might do
+something to avert his fate, but remembering how utterly unable Junius
+had always been to move his aunt one inch, this way or that, he did
+not believe that he could be of any service in this case, in which
+all the energies of her mind were evidently engaged, and he readily
+consented that she should attend to all the correspondence. It would,
+indeed, have been too hard for him to break the direful truth to his
+niece and Junius. He ventured to suggest that Miss Peyton be sent for,
+having a faint hope that he might in some manner lean upon her; but
+Mrs Keswick informed him that her niece must stay at home to take
+charge of the place. There were two women in the house, who were
+busy sewing for her, and it would be impossible for her to come to
+Richmond.
+
+Her correspondence kept the Widow Keswick very busy. She decided that
+she would be married in a church which she used to attend in her
+youth; and to all of her old friends, and to all those of Mr Brandon
+whose names she could learn by diligent inquiry, invitations were sent
+to attend the ceremony; but no one outside of Richmond was invited.
+
+The old lady did not come to the city with a purple sun-bonnet and
+a big umbrella. She wore her best bonnet, which had been used for
+church-going purposes for many years, and arrayed herself in a
+travelling suit which was of excellent material, although of most
+antiquated fashion. She discussed very freely, with her friends, the
+arrangements she had made, and protuberant candor being at times
+one of her most noticeable characteristics, she did not leave it
+altogether to others to say that the match she was about to make was
+a most remarkably good one. For years it had been a hard struggle for
+her to keep up the Keswick farm, but now she had fought a battle, and
+won a victory, which ought to make her comfortable and satisfied for
+the rest of her life. If Mr Brandon's family had taken a great deal
+from her, she would more than repay herself by appropriating the old
+gentleman, together with his possessions.
+
+After the depression following the first shock, Mr Brandon endeavored
+to stiffen himself. There was a great deal of pride in him, and if he
+was obliged to go to the altar, he did not wish his old friends to
+suppose that he was going there to be sacrificed. He had brought this
+dreadful thing upon himself, but he would try to stand up like a man,
+and bear it; and, after all, it might not be for long; the Widow
+Keswick was a good deal older than he was. Other thoughts occasionally
+came to comfort him; she could not make him continually live with her,
+and he had plans for visits to Richmond, and even to New York; and,
+better than that, she might want to spend a good deal of time at her
+own farm.
+
+"For the sake of my name, and my niece," he said to himself, "I must
+bear it like a man."
+
+And, in answer to an earnest adjuration, Colonel Pinckney Macon
+solemnly promised that he would never reveal, to man or woman, that
+his friend did not marry the Widow Keswick entirely of his own wish
+and accord.
+
+It was the desire of Mrs Keswick that the marriage, although conducted
+in church, should be very simple in its arrangements. There would be
+no bridesmaids or groomsmen; no flowers; no breakfast; and the couple
+would be dressed in travelling costume. The friends of the old lady
+persuaded her to make considerable changes in her attire, and a
+costume was speedily prepared, which, while it suggested the fashions
+of the present day, was also calculated to recall reminiscences of
+those of a quarter of a century ago. This simplicity was the only
+thing connected with the affair which satisfied Mr Brandon, and he
+would have been glad to have the marriage entirely private, with no
+more witnesses than the law demanded. But to this Mrs Keswick would
+not consent. She wanted to have her former friends about her.
+Accordingly, the church was pretty well filled with old colonels,
+old majors, old generals, and old judges, with their wives and their
+sisters, and, in a few cases, their daughters. All the elderly people
+in Richmond, who, in the days of their youth, had known the gay
+Miss Matty Pettigrew, and the handsome Bob Brandon, felt a certain
+rejuvenation of spirit as they went to the wedding of the couple, who
+had once been these two.
+
+The old lady looked full of life and vigor, and, despite the
+circumstances, Mr Brandon preserved a good deal of his usual manly
+deportment. But, when in the course of the marriage service, the
+clergyman came to the question in which the bride-groom was asked if
+he would have this woman to be his wedded wife, to love and keep her
+for the rest of their lives, the answer, "I will," came forth in a
+feeble tone, which was not wholly divested of a tinge of despondency.
+
+With the lady it was quite otherwise. When the like question was put
+to her, she stepped back, and in a loud, clear voice, exclaimed:
+"Not I! Marry that man, there?" she continued in a higher tone, and
+pointing her finger at the astounded Mr Brandon. "Not for the world,
+sir! Before he was born, his family defrauded and despoiled my people,
+and as soon as he took affairs into his own hands, he continued the
+villainous law robberies until we are poor, and he is rich; and, not
+content with that, he basely wrecks and destroys the plans I had made
+for the comfort of my old age, in order that his paltry purposes may
+be carried out. After all that, does anybody here suppose that I would
+take him for a husband? Marry him! Not I!" And, with these words, the
+old lady turned her back on the clergyman, and walked rapidly down the
+centre aisle, until she reached the church door. There she stopped,
+and turning towards the stupefied assemblage, she snapped her bony
+fingers in the air, and exclaimed: "Now, Mr Robert Brandon of
+Midbranch, our account is balanced."
+
+She then went out of the door, and took a street car for the train
+that would carry her to her home.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Late Mrs. Null, by Frank Richard Stockton
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10973 ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Late Mrs. Null, by Frank Richard Stockton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Late Mrs. Null
+
+Author: Frank Richard Stockton
+
+Release Date: February 7, 2004 [EBook #10973]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LATE MRS. NULL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, William Bumgarner and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LATE MRS NULL
+
+BY
+
+FRANK R. STOCKTON
+
+1886
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+There was a wide entrance gate to the old family mansion of Midbranch,
+but it was never opened to admit the family or visitors; although
+occasionally a load of wood, drawn by two horses and two mules, came
+between its tall chestnut posts, and was taken by a roundabout way among
+the trees to a spot at the back of the house, where the chips of several
+generations of sturdy wood-choppers had formed a ligneous soil deeper
+than the arable surface of any portion of the nine hundred and fifty
+acres which formed the farm of Midbranch. This seldom opened gate was in
+a corner of the lawn, and the driving of carriages, or the riding of
+horses through it to the porch at the front of the house would have been
+the ruin of the short, thick grass which had covered that lawn, it was
+generally believed, ever since Virginia became a State.
+
+But there had to be some way for people who came in carriages or on
+horseback to get into the house, and therefore the fence at the bottom
+of the lawn, at a point directly in front of the porch, was crossed by a
+set of broad wooden steps, five outside and five inside, with a platform
+at the top. These stairs were wide enough to accommodate eight people
+abreast; so that if a large carriage load of visitors arrived, none of
+them need delay in crossing the fence. At the outside of the steps ran
+the narrow road which entered the plantation a quarter of a mile away,
+and passed around the lawn and the garden to the barns and stables at
+the back.
+
+On the other side of the road, undivided from it by hedge or fence,
+stretched, like a sea gently moved by a groundswell, a vast field,
+sometimes planted in tobacco, and sometimes in wheat. In the midst of
+this field stood a tall persimmon tree which yearly dropped its
+half-candied fruit upon the first light snow of the winter. It is true
+that persimmons, quite fit to eat, were to be found on this tree at an
+earlier period than this, but such fruit was never noticed by the people
+in those parts, who would not rudely wrench from Jack Frost his one
+little claim to rivalry with the sun as a fruit-ripener. To the right of
+the field was a wide extent of pasture land, running down to a small
+stream, or "branch," which, flowing between two other streams of the
+same kind a mile or two on either side of it, had given its name to the
+place. In front, to the left, lay a great forest of chestnut, oak,
+sassafras, and sweet gum, with here and there a clump of tall pines,
+standing up straight and stiff with an air of Puritanic condemnation of
+the changing fashions of the foliage about them.
+
+On one side of the platform of the broad stile, which has been
+mentioned, sat one summer afternoon, the lady of the house. She was a
+young woman, and although her face was a good deal shadowed by her
+far-spreading hat, it was easy to perceive that she was a handsome one.
+She was the niece of Mr Robert Brandon, the elderly bachelor who owned
+Midbranch; and her mother, long since dead, had called her Roberta,
+which was as near as she could come to the name of her only brother.
+
+Miss Roberta's father was a man whose mind and time were entirely given
+up to railroads; and although he nominally lived in New York, he was,
+for the greater part of the year, engaged in endeavors to forward his
+interests somewhere west of the Mississippi. Two or three months of the
+winter were generally spent in his city home. At these times he had his
+daughter with him, but the rest of the year she lived with her uncle,
+whose household she directed with much good will and judgment. The old
+gentleman did not keep her all the summer at Midbranch. He knew what was
+necessary for a young lady who had been educated in Germany and
+Switzerland, and who had afterwards made a very favorable impression in
+Paris and London; and so, during the hot weather, he took her with him
+to one of the fashionable Southern resorts, where they always stayed
+exactly six weeks.
+
+The gentleman who was sitting on the other side of the platform, with
+his face turned towards her, had known Miss Roberta for a year or more,
+having met her at the North, and also in the Virginia mountains; and
+being now on a visit to the Green Sulphur Springs, about four miles from
+Midbranch, he rode over to see her nearly every day. There was nothing
+surprising in this, because the Green Sulphur, once a much frequented
+resort, had seen great changes, and now, although the end of the regular
+season had not arrived, it had Mr Lawrence Croft for its only guest.
+There was a spacious hotel there; there was a village of cottages of
+varying sizes; there were buildings for servants and managers; there was
+a ten-pin alley and a quiet ground; there were arbors and swings; and a
+square hole in a stone slab, through which a little pool of greenish
+water could be seen, with a tin cup, somewhat rusty, lying by it. But
+all was quiet and deserted, except one cottage, in which the man lived
+who had charge of the place, and where Mr Croft boarded. It was very
+pleasant for him to ride over to Midbranch and take a walk with Miss
+Roberta; and this was what they had been doing to-day.
+
+Horseback rides had been suggested, but Mr Brandon objected to these. He
+knew Mr Croft to be a young man of good family and very comfortable
+fortune, and he liked him very much when he had him there to dinner, but
+he did not wish his niece to go galloping around the country with him.
+To quiet walks in the woods, and through the meadows, he could, of
+course, have no objection. A good many of Mr Brandon's principles, like
+certain of his books, were kept upon a top shelf, but Miss Roberta
+always liked to humor the few which the old gentleman was wont to
+have within easy reach.
+
+This afternoon they had rambled through the woods, where the hard,
+smooth road wound picturesquely through the places in which it had been
+easiest to make a road, and where the great trunks of the trees were
+partly covered by clinging vines, which Miss Roberta knew to be either
+Virginia creeper or poison oak, although she did not remember which of
+these had clusters of five leaves, and which of three.
+
+The horse on which Mr Croft had ridden over from the Springs was tied to
+a fence near by, and he now seemed to indicate by his restless movements
+that it was quite time for the gentleman to go home; but with this
+opinion Mr Croft decidedly differed. He had had a long walk with the
+lady and plenty of opportunities to say anything that he might choose,
+but still there was something very important which had not been said,
+and which Mr Croft very much wished to say before he left Miss Roberta
+that afternoon. His only reason for hesitation was the fact that he did
+not know what he wished to say.
+
+He was a man who always kept a lookout on the bows of his daily action;
+in storm or in calm, in fog or in bright sunshine that lookout must be
+at his post; and upon his reports it depended whether Mr Croft set more
+sail, put on more steam, reversed his engine, or anchored his vessel. A
+report from this lookout was what he hoped to elicit by the remark
+which he wished to make. He desired greatly to know whether Miss Roberta
+March looked upon him in the light of a lover, or in that of an intimate
+acquaintance, whose present intimacy depended a good deal upon the
+propinquity of Midbranch and the Green Sulphur Springs. He had
+endeavored to produce upon her mind the latter impression. If he ever
+wished her to regard him as a lover he could do this in the easiest and
+most straightforward way, but the other procedure was much more
+difficult, and he was not certain that he had succeeded in it. How to
+find out in what light she viewed him without allowing the lady to
+perceive his purpose was a very delicate operation.
+
+"I wish," said Miss Roberta, poking with the end of her parasol at some
+half-withered wild flowers which lay on the steps beneath her, "that you
+would change your mind, and take supper with us."
+
+Mr Croft's mind was very busy in endeavoring to think of some casual
+remark, some observation regarding man, nature, or society, or even an
+anecdote or historical incident, which, if brought into the
+conversation, might produce upon the lady's countenance some shade of
+expression, or some variation in her tone or words which would give him
+the information he sought for. But what he said was: "Are they really
+suppers that you have, or are they only teas?"
+
+"Now I know," said the lady, "why you have sometimes taken dinner with
+us, but never supper. You were afraid that it would be a tea."
+
+Lawrence Croft was thinking that if this girl believed that he was in
+love with her, it would make a great deal of difference in his present
+course of action. If such were the case, he ought not to come here so
+often, or, in fact, he ought not to come at all, until he had decided
+for himself what he was going to do. But what could he say that would
+cause her, for the briefest moment, to unveil her idea of himself. "I
+never could endure," he said, "those meals which consist of thin
+shavings of bread with thick plasters of butter, aided and abetted by
+sweet cakes, preserves, and tea."
+
+"You should have reserved those remarks," she said, "until you had found
+out what sort of evening meal we have."
+
+He could certainly say something, he thought. Perhaps it might be some
+little fanciful story which would call up in her mind, without his
+appearing to intend it, some thought of his relationship to her as a
+lover--that is, if she had ever had such a notion. If this could be
+done, her face would betray the fact. But, not being ready to make such
+a remark, he said: "I beg your pardon, but do you really have suppers in
+the English fashion?"
+
+"Oh, no," answered Miss Roberta, "we don't have a great cold joint, with
+old cheese, and pitchers of brown stout and ale, but neither do we
+content ourselves with thin bread and butter, and preserves. We have
+coffee as well as tea, hot rolls, fleecy and light, hot batter bread
+made of our finest corn meal, hot biscuits and stewed fruit, with plenty
+of sweet milk and buttermilk; and, if anybody wants it, he can always have
+a slice of cold ham."
+
+"If I could only feel sure," thought Mr Croft, "that she looked upon me
+merely as an acquaintance, I would cease to trouble my mind on this
+subject, and let everything go on as before. But I am not sure, and I
+would rather not come here again until I am." "And at what hour," he
+asked, "do you partake of a meal like that?"
+
+"In summer time," said Miss Roberta, "we have supper when it is dark
+enough to light the lamps. My uncle dislikes very much to be deprived,
+by the advent of a meal, of the out-door enjoyment of a late afternoon,
+or, as we call it down here, the evening."
+
+"It would be easy enough," thought Mr Croft, "for me to say something
+about my being suddenly obliged to go away, and then notice its effect
+upon her. But, apart from the fact that I would not do anything so
+vulgar and commonplace, it would not advantage me in the slightest
+degree. She would see through the flimsiness of my purpose, and, no
+matter how she looked upon me, would show nothing but a well-bred regret
+that I should be obliged to go away at such a pleasant season." "I think
+the hour for your supper," said he, "is a very suitable one, but I am
+not sure that such a variety of hot bread would agree with me."
+
+"Did you ever see more healthy-looking ladies and gentlemen than you
+find in Virginia?" asked Miss March.
+
+"It is not that I want to know if she looks favorably upon me," said
+Lawrence Croft to himself, "for when I wish to discover that, I shall
+simply ask her. What I wish now to know is whether, or not, she
+considers me at all as a lover. There surely must be something I can say
+which will give me a clew." "The Virginians, as a rule," he replied,
+"are certainly a very well-grown and vigorous race."
+
+"In spite of the hot bread," she said with a smile.
+
+Just then Mr Croft believed himself struck by a happy thought. "You are
+not prepared, I suppose, to say, in consequence of it; and that recalls
+the fact that so much in this world happens in spite of things, instead
+of in consequence of them."
+
+"I don't know that I exactly understand," said Miss Roberta.
+
+"Well, for instance," said Mr Croft, "take the case of marriage. Don't
+you think that a man is more apt to marry in spite of his belief that he
+would be much better off as a bachelor, than in consequence of a
+conviction that a Benedict's life would suit him better?"
+
+"That," said she, "depends a good deal on the woman."
+
+As she said this Lawrence glanced quickly at her to observe the
+expression of her countenance. The countenance plainly indicated that
+its owner had suddenly been made aware that the afternoon was slipping
+away, and that she had forgotten certain household duties that devolved
+upon her.
+
+"Here comes Peggy," she said, "and I must go into the house and give out
+supper. Don't you now think it would be well for you to follow our
+discussion of a Virginia supper by eating one?"
+
+At this moment, there arrived at the bottom of the inside steps, a small
+girl, very black, very solemn, and very erect, with her hands folded in
+front of her very straight up-and-down calico frock, her features
+expressive of a wooden stolidity which nothing but a hammer or chisel
+could alter, and with large eyes fixed upon a far-away, which,
+apparently, had disappeared, leaving the eyes in a condition of idle
+out-go.
+
+"Miss Rob," said this wooden Peggy, "Aun' Judy says it's more'n time to
+come housekeep."
+
+"Which means," said Miss Roberta, rising, "that I must go and get my key
+basket, and descend into the store-room. Won't you come in? We shall
+find uncle on the back porch."
+
+Mr Croft declined with thanks, and took his leave, and the lady walked
+across the smooth grass to the house, followed by the rigid Peggy.
+
+The young man approached his impatient horse, and, not without some
+difficulty, got himself mounted. He had not that facility of
+sympathetically combining his own will and that of his horse which comes
+to men who from their early boyhood are wont to consider horses as
+objects quite as necessary to locomotion as shoes and stockings. But
+Lawrence Croft was a fair graduate of a riding school, and he went away
+in very good style to his cottage at the Green Sulphur Springs. "I
+believe," he said to himself, as he rode through the woods, "that Miss
+March expects no more of me than she would expect of any very intimate
+friend. I shall feel perfectly free, therefore, to continue my
+investigations regarding two points: First, is she worth having? and:
+Second, will she have me? And I must be very careful not to get the
+position of these points reversed."
+
+When Miss Roberta went into the store-room, it was Peggy, who, under the
+supervision of her mistress, measured out the fine white flour for the
+biscuits for supper. Peggy was being educated to do these things
+properly, and she knew exactly how many times the tin scoop must fill
+itself in the barrel for the ordinary needs of the family. Miss Roberta
+stood, her eyes contemplatively raised to the narrow window, through
+which she could see a flush of sunset mingling itself with the outer
+air; and Peggy scooped once, twice, thrice, four times; then she
+stopped, and, raising her head, there came into the far-away gloom of
+her eyes a quick sparkle like a flash of black lightning. She made
+another and entirely supplementary scoop, and then she stopped, and let
+the tin utensil fall into the barrel with a gentle thud.
+
+"That will do," said Miss Roberta.
+
+That night, when she should have been in her bed, Peggy sat alone by the
+hearth in Aunt Judy's cabin, baking a cake. It was a peculiar cake, for
+she could get no sugar for it, but she had supplied this deficiency with
+molasses. It was made of Miss Roberta's finest white flour, and eggs there
+were in it and butter, and it contained, besides, three raisins, an olive,
+and a prune. When the outside of the cake had been sufficiently baked, and
+every portion of it had been scrupulously eaten, the good little Peggy
+murmured to herself: "It's pow'ful comfortin' for Miss Rob to have sumfin'
+on her min'."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+About a week after Mr Lawrence Croft had had his conversation with Miss
+March on the stile steps at Midbranch, he was obliged to return to his
+home in New York. He was not a man of business, but he had business;
+and, besides this, he considered if he continued much longer to reside
+in the utterly attractionless cottage at the Green Sulphur Springs, and
+rode over every day to the very attractive house at Midbranch, that the
+points mentioned in the previous chapter might get themselves reversed.
+He was a man who was proud of being, under all circumstances, frank and
+honest with himself. He did not wish, if it could be avoided, to deceive
+other people, but he was prudent and careful about exhibiting his
+motives and intended course of action to his associates. Himself,
+however, he took into his strictest confidence. He was fond of the idea
+that he went into the battle of life covered and protected by a great
+shield, but that the inside of the shield was a mirror in which he could
+always see himself. Looking into this mirror, he now saw that, if he did
+not soon get away from Miss Roberta, he would lay down his shield and
+surrender, and it was his intent that this should not happen until he
+wished it to happen.
+
+It was very natural when Lawrence reached New York, that he should take
+pleasure in talking about Miss Roberta March and her family with any one
+who knew them. He was particularly anxious, if he could do so delicately
+and without exciting any suspicion of his object, to know as much as
+possible about Sylvester March, the lady's father. In doing this, he did
+not feel that he was prying into the affairs of others, but he could not
+be true to himself unless he looked well in advance before he made the
+step on which his mind was set. It was in this way that he happened to
+learn that about two years before, Miss March had been engaged to be
+married, but that the engagement had been broken off for reasons not
+known to his informants, and he could find out nothing about the
+gentleman, except that his name was Junius Keswick.
+
+The fact that the lady had had a lover, put her in a new light before
+Lawrence Croft. He had had an idea, suggested by the very friendly
+nature of their intercourse, that she was a woman whose mind did not run
+out to love or marriage, but now that he knew that she was susceptible
+of being wooed and won, because these things had actually happened to
+her, he was very glad that he had come away from Midbranch.
+
+The impression soon became very strong upon the mind of Lawrence that he
+would like to know what kind of man was this former lover. He had known
+Miss March about a year, and at the time of his first acquaintaince with
+her, she must have come very fresh from this engagement. To study the
+man to whom Roberta March had been willing to engage herself, was, to
+Lawrence's mode of thinking, if not a prerequisite procedure in his
+contemplated course of action, at least a very desirable one.
+
+But he was rather surprised to find that no one knew much about Mr
+Junius Keswick, or could give him any account of his present
+whereabouts, although he had been, at the time when his engagement was
+in force, a resident of New York. To consult a directory was, therefore,
+an obvious first step in the affair; and, with this intent, Mr Croft
+entered, one morning, an apothecary's shop in a street which, though a
+busy one, was in a rather out-of-the-way part of the city.
+
+"We haven't any directory, sir," said the clerk, "but if you will step
+across the street you can find one at that little shop with the green
+door. Everybody goes there to look at the directory."
+
+The green door on the opposite side of the street, approached by a
+single flat step of stone, had a tin sign upon it, on which was painted:
+
+"INFORMATION
+OF EVERY VARIETY
+FURNISHED WITHIN."
+
+Pushing open the door, Lawrence entered a long, narrow room, not very
+well lighted, with a short counter on one side, and some desks,
+partially screened by a curtain, at the farther end. A boy was behind
+the counter, and to him Lawrence addressed himself, asking permission to
+look at a city directory.
+
+"One cent, if you look yourself; three cents, if we look," said the boy,
+producing a thick volume from beneath the counter.
+
+"One cent?" said Lawrence, smiling at the oddity of this charge, as he
+opened the book and turned to the letter K.
+
+"Yes," said the boy, "and if the fine print hurts your eyes, we'll look
+for three cents."
+
+At this moment a man came from one of the desks at the other end of the
+room, and handed the boy a letter with which that young person
+immediately departed. The new-comer, a smooth-shaven man of about
+thirty, with the air of the proprietor or head manager very strong upon
+him, took the boy's position behind the counter, and remarked to
+Lawrence: "Most people, when they first come here, think it rather queer
+to pay for looking at the directory, but you see we don't keep a
+directory to coax people to come in to buy medicines or anything else.
+We sell nothing but information, and part of our stock is what you get
+out of a directory. But it's the best plan all round, for we can afford
+to give you a clean, good book instead of one all jagged and worn; and
+as you pay your money, you feel you can look as long as you like, and
+come when you please."
+
+"It is a very good plan," said Lawrence, closing the book, "but the name
+I want is not here."
+
+"Perhaps it is in last year's directory," said the man, producing
+another volume from under the counter.
+
+"That wouldn't do me much good," said Lawrence. "I want to know where
+some one resides this year."
+
+"It will do a great deal of good," said the other, "for if we know where
+a person has lived, inquiries can be made there as to where he has gone.
+Sometimes we go back three or four years, and when we have once found a
+man's name, we follow him up from place to place until we can give the
+inquirer his present address. What is the name you wanted, sir? You were
+looking in the K's."
+
+"Keswick," said Lawrence, "Junius Keswick."
+
+The man ran his finger and his eyes down a column, and remarked: "There
+is Keswick, but it is Peter, laborer; I suppose that isn't the party."
+
+Lawrence smiled, and shook his head.
+
+"We will take the year before that," said the man with cheerful
+alacrity, heaving up another volume. "Here's two Keswicks," he said in a
+moment, "one John, and the other Stephen W. Neither of them right?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "my man is Junius, and we need not go any farther
+back. I am afraid the person I am looking for was only a sojourner in
+the city, and that his name did not get into the directory. I know that
+he was here year before last."
+
+"All right, sir," said the other, pushing aside the volume he had
+been consulting. "We'll find the man for you from the hotel books, and
+what is more, we can see those two Keswicks that I found last. Perhaps
+they were relations of his, and he was staying with them. If you put the
+matter in our hands, we'll give you the address to-morrow night,
+provided it's an ordinary case. But if he has gone to Australia or
+Japan, of course, it'll take longer. Is it crime or relationship?"
+
+"Neither," replied Lawrence.
+
+"It is generally one of them," said the man, "and if it's crime we carry
+it on to a certain point, and then put it into the hands of the
+detectives, for we've nothing to do with police business, private or
+otherwise. But if it's relationship, we'll go right through with it to
+the end. Any kind of information you may want we'll give you here;
+scientific, biographical, business, healthfulness of localities,
+genuineness of antiquities, age and standing of individuals, purity of
+liquors or teas from sample, Bible items localized, china verified; in
+fact, anything you want to know we can tell you. Of course we don't
+pretend that we know all these things, but we know the people who do
+know, or who can find them out. By coming to us, and paying a small sum,
+the most valuable information, which it would take you years to find
+out, can be secured with certainty, and generally in a few days. We know
+what to do, and where to go, and that's the point. If it's a new bug, or
+a microscope insect we put it into the hands of a man who knows just
+what high scientific authority to apply to; if it's the middle name of
+your next door neighbor we'll give it to you from his baptismal record.
+I'm getting up a pamphlet-circular which will be ready in about a week,
+and which will fully explain our methods of business, with the charges
+for the different items, etc."
+
+"Well," said Lawrence, taking out his pocket-book, "I want the address
+of Junius Keswick, and I think I will let you look it up for me. What is
+your charge?"
+
+"It will be two dollars," said the man, "ordinary; and if we find
+inquiries run into other countries we will make special terms. And then
+there's seven cents, one for your look, and two threes for ours. You
+shall hear from us to-morrow night at your hotel or residence, unless
+you prefer to call here."
+
+"I will call the day after to-morrow," said Lawrence, producing a
+five-dollar note.
+
+"Very good," replied the proprietor. "Will you please pay the cashier?"
+pointing at the same time to a desk behind Lawrence which the latter had
+not noticed.
+
+Approaching this desk, the top of which, except for a small space in
+front, was surrounded by short curtains, he saw a young girl busily
+engaged in reading a book. He proffered her the note, the proprietor at
+the same time calling out: "Two, seven."
+
+The girl turned the book down to keep the place; then she took the note,
+and opened a small drawer, in which she fumbled for some moments.
+Closing the drawer, she rose to her feet and waved the note over the
+curtain to her right. "Haven't any change, eh?" said the man, coming
+from behind the counter, and putting on his hat. "As the boy's not here,
+I'll step out and get it."
+
+The girl turned up her book, and began to read again, and Lawrence stood
+and looked at her, wondering what need there was of a cashier in a place
+like this. She appeared to be under twenty, rather thin-faced, and was
+plainly dressed. In a few moments she raised her eyes from her book, and
+said: "Won't you sit down, sir? I am sorry you have to wait, but we are
+short of change to-day, and sometimes it is hard to get it in this
+neighborhood."
+
+Lawrence declined to be seated, but was very willing to talk. "Was it
+the proprietor of this establishment," he asked, "who went out to get
+the money changed??"
+
+"Yes, sir," she answered. "That is Mr Candy."
+
+"A queer name," said Lawrence, smiling.
+
+The girl looked up at him, and smiled in return. There was a very
+perceptible twinkle in her eyes, which seemed to be eyes that would like
+to be merry ones, and a slight movement of the corners of her mouth
+which indicated a desire to say something in reply, but, restrained
+probably by loyalty to her employer, or by prudent discretion regarding
+conversation with strangers, she was silent.
+
+Lawrence, however, continued his remarks. "The whole business seems to
+me very odd. Suppose I were to come here and ask for information as to
+where I could get a five-dollar note changed; would Mr Candy be able to
+tell me?"
+
+"He would do in that case just as he does in all others," she said;
+"first, he would go and find out, and then he would let you know. Giving
+information is only half the business; finding things out is the other
+half. That's what he's doing now."
+
+"So, when he comes back," said Lawrence, "he'll have a new bit of
+information to add to his stock on hand, which must be a very peculiar
+one, I fancy."
+
+The cashier smiled. "Yes," she said, "and a very useful one, too, if
+people only knew it."
+
+"Don't they know it?" asked Lawrence. "Don't you have plenty of custom?"
+
+At this moment the door opened, Mr Candy entered, and the conversation
+stopped.
+
+"Sorry to keep you waiting, sir," said the proprietor, passing some
+money to the cashier over the curtain, who, thereupon, handed two
+dollars and ninety-three cents to Lawrence through the little opening in
+front.
+
+"If you call the day after to-morrow, the information will be ready for
+you," said Mr Candy, as the gentleman departed.
+
+On the appointed day, Lawrence came again, and found nobody in the place
+but the cashier, who handed him a note.
+
+"Mr Candy left this for you, in case he should not be in when you
+called," she said.
+
+The note stated that the search for the address of Junius Keswick had
+opened very encouragingly, but as it was quite evident that said person
+was not now in the city, the investigations would have to be carried on
+on a more extended scale, and a deposit of three dollars would be
+necessary to meet expenses.
+
+Lawrence looked from the note to the cashier, who had been watching him
+as he read. "Does Mr Candy want me to leave three dollars with you?" he
+asked.
+
+"That's what he said, sir."
+
+"Well," said Lawrence, "I don't care about paying for unlimited
+investigation in this way. If the gentleman I am in search of has left
+the city, and Mr Candy has been able to find out to what place he went,
+he should have told me that, and I would have decided whether or not I
+wanted him to do anything more."
+
+The face of the cashier appeared troubled. "I think, sir," she said,
+"that if you leave the money, Mr Candy will do all he can to discover
+what you wish to know, and that it will not be very long before you have
+the address of the person you are seeking."
+
+"Do you really think he has any clew?" asked Lawrence.
+
+This question did not seem to please the cashier, and she answered
+gravely, though without any show of resentment: "That is a strange
+question after I advised you to leave the money."
+
+Lawrence had a kind heart, and it reproached him. "I beg your pardon,"
+said he. "I will leave the money with you, but I desire that Mr Candy
+will, in his next communication, give me all the information he has
+acquired up to the moment of writing, and then I will decide whether it
+is worth while to go on with the matter, or not."
+
+He, thereupon, took out his pocket-book and handed three dollars to the
+cashier, who, with an air of deliberate thoughtfulness, smoothed out the
+two notes, and placed them in her drawer. Then she said: "If you will
+leave your address, sir, I will see that you receive your information as
+soon as possible. That will be better than for you to call, because I
+can't tell you when to come."
+
+"Very well," said Lawrence, "and I will be obliged to you if you will
+hurry up Mr Candy as much as you can." And, handing her his card, he
+went his way.
+
+The way of Lawrence Croft was generally a very pleasant one, for the
+fortunate conditions of his life made it possible for him to go around
+most of the rough places which might lie in it. His family was an old
+one, and a good one, but there was very little of it left, and of its
+scattered remnants he was the most important member. But although
+circumstances did not force him to do anything in particular, he liked
+to believe that he was a rigid master to himself, and whatever he did
+was always done with a purpose. When he travelled he had an object in
+view; when he stayed at home the case was the same.
+
+His present purpose was the most serious one of his life: he wished to
+marry; and, if she should prove to be the proper person, he wished to
+marry Roberta March; and as a preliminary step in the carrying out of
+his purpose, he wanted very much to know what sort of man Miss March had
+once been willing to marry.
+
+When five days had elapsed without his hearing from Mr Candy, he became
+impatient and betook himself to the green door with the tin sign.
+Entering, he found only the boy and the cashier. Addressing himself to
+the latter, he asked if anything had been done in his business.
+
+"Yes, sir," she said, "and I hoped Mr Candy would write you a letter
+this morning before he went out, but he didn't. He traced the gentleman
+to Niagara Falls, and I think you'll hear something very soon."
+
+"If inquiries have to be carried on outside of the city," said Lawrence,
+"they will probably cost a good deal, and come to nothing. I think I
+will drop the matter as far as Mr Candy is concerned."
+
+"I wish you would give us a little more time," said the girl. "I am sure
+you will hear something in a few days, and you need not be afraid there
+will be anything more to pay unless you are satisfied that you have
+received the full worth of the money."
+
+Lawrence reflected for a few moments, and then concluded to let the
+matter go on. "Tell Mr Candy to keep me frequently informed of the
+progress of the affair," said he, "and if he is really of any service to
+me I am willing to pay him, but not otherwise."
+
+"That will be all right," said the cashier, "and if Mr Candy is--is
+prevented from doing it, I'll write to you myself, and keep you
+posted."
+
+As soon as the customer had gone, the boy, who had been sitting on the
+counter, thus spoke to the cashier: "You know very well that old
+Mintstick has given that thing up!"
+
+"I know he has," said the girl, "but I have not."
+
+"You haven't anything to do with it," said the boy.
+
+"Yes, I have," she answered. "I advised that gentleman to pay his money,
+and I'm not going to see him cheated out of it. Of course, Mr Candy
+doesn't mean to cheat him, but he has gone into that business about the
+origin of the tame blackberry, and there's no knowing when he'll get
+back to this thing, which is not in his line, anyway."
+
+"I should say it wasn't!" exclaimed the boy with a loud laugh. "Sendin'
+me to look up them two Keswicks, who was both put down as cordwainers in
+year before last's directory, and askin' 'em if there was any Juniuses
+in their families."
+
+"Junius Keswick, did you say? Is that the name of the gentleman Mr Candy
+was looking for?"
+
+"Yes," said the boy.
+
+Presently the cashier remarked: "I am going to look at the books." And
+she betook herself to the desk at the back part of the shop.
+
+In about half an hour she returned and handed to the boy a memorandum
+upon a scrap of paper. "You go out now to your lunch," she said, "and
+while you are out, stop at the St. Winifred Hotel, where Mr Candy found
+the name of Junius Keswick, and see if it is not down again not long
+after the date which I have put on this slip of paper. I think if a
+person went to Niagara Falls he'd be just as likely to make a little
+trip of it and come back again as to keep travelling on, which Mr Candy
+supposes he did. If you find the name again, put down the date of arrival
+on this, and see if there was any memorandum about forwarding letters."
+
+"All right," said the boy. "But I'll be gone an hour and a half. Can't
+cut into my lunch time."
+
+In the course of a few days Lawrence Croft received a note signed Candy
+& Co. "per" some illegible initials, which stated that Mr Junius Keswick
+had been traced to a boarding-house in the city, but as the
+establishment had been broken up for some time, endeavors were now being
+made to find the lady who had kept the house, and when this was done it
+would most likely be possible to discover from her where Mr Keswick had
+gone.
+
+Lawrence waited a few days and then called at the Information Shop.
+Again was Mr Candy absent; and so was the boy. The cashier informed him
+that she had found--that is, that the lady who kept the boarding-house
+had been found--and she thought she remembered the gentlemen in
+question, and promised, as soon as she could, to look through a book, in
+which she used to keep directions for the forwarding of letters, and in
+this way another clew might soon be expected.
+
+"This seems to be going on better," said Lawrence, "but Mr Candy doesn't
+show much in the affair. Who is managing it? You?"
+
+The girl blushed and then laughed, a little confusedly. "I am only the
+cashier," she said.
+
+"And the laborious duties of your position would, of course, give you no
+time for anything else," remarked Lawrence.
+
+"Oh, well," said the girl, "of course it is easy enough for any one to
+see that I haven't much to do as cashier, but the boy and Mr Candy are
+nearly always out, looking up things, and I have to do other business
+besides attending to cash."
+
+"If you are attending to my business," said Lawrence, "I am very glad,
+especially now that it has reached the boarding-house stage, where I
+think a woman will be better able to work than a man. Are you doing this
+entirely independent of Mr Candy?"
+
+"Well, sir," said the cashier, with an honest, straightforward look
+from her gray eyes that pleased Lawrence, "I may as well confess that I
+am. But there's nothing mean about it. He has all the same as given it
+up, for he's waiting to hear from a man at Niagara, who will never write
+to him, and probably hasn't any thing to write, and as I advised you to
+pay the money I feel bound in honor to see that the business is done, if
+it can be done."
+
+"Have you a brother or a husband to help you in these investigations and
+searches?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"No," said the cashier with a smile. "Sometimes I send our boy, and as
+to boarding houses, I can go to them myself after we shut up here."
+
+"I wish," said Lawrence, "that you were married, and that you had a
+husband who would not interfere in this matter at all, but who would go
+about with you, and so enable you to follow up your clew thoroughly. You
+take up the business in the right spirit, and I believe you would
+succeed in finding Mr Keswick, but I don't like the idea of sending you
+about by yourself."
+
+"I won't deny," said the cashier, "that since I have begun this affair I
+would like very much to carry it out; so, if you don't object, I won't
+give it up just yet, and as soon as anything happens I'll let you know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Autumn in Virginia, especially if one is not too near the mountains, is
+a season in which greenness sails very close to Christmas, although
+generally veering away in time to prevent its verdant hues from tingeing
+that happy day with the gloomy influence of the prophetic proverb about
+churchyards. Long after the time when the people of the regions watered
+by the Hudson and the Merrimac are beginning to button up their
+overcoats, and to think of weather strips for their window-sashes, the
+dwellers in the land through which flow the Appomattox and the James may
+sit upon their broad piazzas, and watch the growing glories of the
+forests, where the crimson stars of the sweet gum blaze among the rich
+yellows of the chestnuts, the lingering green of the oaks, and the
+enduring verdure of the pines. The insects still hum in the sunny air,
+and the sun is now a genial orb whose warm rays cheer but not excoriate.
+
+The orb just mentioned was approaching the horizon, when, in an
+adjoining county to that in which was situated the hospitable mansion of
+Midbranch, a little negro boy about ten years old was driving some cows
+through a gateway that opened on a public road. The cows, as they were
+going homeward, filed willingly through the gateway, which led into a
+field, at the far end of which might be dimly discerned a house behind a
+mass of foliage; but the boy, whose head and voice were entirely too big
+for the rest of him, assailed them with all manner of reproaches and
+impellent adjectives, addressing each cow in turn as: "You, sah!" When
+the compliant beasts had hustled through, the youngster got upon the
+gate, and giving it a push with one bare foot, he swung upon it as far
+as it would go; then lifting the end from the surface of the ground he
+shut it with a bang, fastened it with a hook, and ran after the cows,
+his wild provocatives to bovine haste ringing high into the evening air.
+
+This youth was known as Plez, his whole name being Pleasant Valley, an
+inspiration to his mother from the label on a grape box, which had
+drifted into that region from the North. He had just stooped to pick up
+a clod of earth with which to accentuate his vociferations, when, on
+rising, he was astounded by the apparition of an elderly woman wearing a
+purple sun-bonnet, and carrying a furled umbrella of the same color.
+Behind the spectacles, which were fixed upon him, blazed a pair of fiery
+eyes, and the soul of Plez shrivelled and curled up within him. His
+downcast eyes were bent upon his upturned toes, the clod dropped from
+his limp fingers, and his mouth which had been opened for a yell,
+remained open, but the yell had apparently swooned.
+
+The words of the old lady were brief, but her umbrella was full of jerky
+menace, and when she left him, and passed on toward the outer gate,
+Plez followed the cows to the house with the meekness of a suspected
+sheep dog.
+
+The cows had been milked, some by a rotund black woman named Letty, and
+some, much to their discomfort, by Plez himself, and it was beginning to
+grow dark, when an open spring wagon driven by a colored man, and with a
+white man on the back seat came along the road, and stopped at the gate.
+The driver having passed the reins to the occupant on the back seat, got
+down, opened the gate, and stood holding it while the other drove the
+horse into the road which ran by the side of the field to the house
+behind the trees. At this time a passer-by, if there had been one, might
+have observed, partly protruding from behind some bushes on the other
+side of the public road, and at a little distance from the gate, the
+lower portion of a purple umbrella. As the spring wagon approached, and
+during the time that it was turning into the gate, and while it was
+waiting for the driver to resume his seat, this umbrella was
+considerably agitated, so much so indeed as to cause a little rustling
+among the leaves. When the gate had been shut, and the wagon had passed
+on toward the house, the end of the umbrella disappeared, and then, on
+the other side of the bush, there came into view a sun-bonnet of the
+same color as the umbrella. This surmounted the form of an old lady, who
+stepped into the pathway by the side of the road, and walked away with a
+quick, active step which betokened both energy and purpose.
+
+The house, before which, not many minutes later, this spring wagon
+stopped, was not a fine old family mansion like that of Midbranch, but
+it was a comfortable dwelling, though an unpretending one. The gentleman
+on the back seat, and the driver, who was an elderly negro, both turned
+toward the hall door, which was open and lighted by a lamp within, as if
+they expected some one to come out on the porch. But nobody came, and,
+after a moment's hesitation, the gentleman got down, and taking a valise
+from the back of the wagon, mounted the steps of the porch. While he was
+doing this the face of the negro man, which could be plainly seen in the
+light from the hall door, grew anxious and troubled. When the gentleman
+set his valise on the porch, and stood by it without making any attempt
+to enter, the old man put down the reins and quickly descending from his
+seat, hurried up the steps.
+
+"Dunno whar ole miss is, but I reckon she done gone to look after de
+tukkies. She dreffle keerful dat dey all go to roos' ebery night. Walk
+right in, Mahs' Junius." And, taking up the valise, he followed the
+gentleman into the hall.
+
+There, near the back door, stood the rotund black woman, and, behind
+her, Plez. "Look h'yar Letty," said the negro man, "whar ole miss?"
+
+"Dunno," said the woman. "She done gib out supper, an' I ain't seed her
+sence. Is dis Mahs' Junius? Reckon' you don' 'member Letty?"
+
+"Yes I do," said the gentleman, shaking hands with her; "but the Letty
+I remember was a rather slim young woman."
+
+"Dat's so," said Letty, with a respectful laugh, 'but, shuh 'nuf, my
+food's been blessed to me, Mahs' Junius."
+
+"But whar's ole miss?" persisted the old man. "You, Letty, can't you go
+look her up?"
+
+Now was heard the voice of Plez, who meekly emerged from the shade of
+Letty. "Ole miss done gone out to de road gate," said he. "I seen her
+when I brung de cows."
+
+"Bress my soul!" ejaculated Letty. "Out to de road gate! An' 'spectin'
+you too, Mahs' Junius!"
+
+"Didn't she say nuffin to you?" said the old man, addressing Plez.
+
+"She didn't say nuffin to me, Uncle Isham," answered the boy, "'cept if
+I didn't quit skeerin' dem cows, an' makin' 'em run wid froin' rocks
+till dey ain't got a drip drap o' milk lef' in 'em, she'd whang me ober
+de head wid her umbril."
+
+"'Tain't easy to tell whar she done gone from dat," said Letty.
+
+The face of Uncle Isham grew more troubled. "Walk in de parlor, Mahs'
+Junius," he said, "an' make yourse'f comf'ble. Ole miss boun' to be back
+d'reckly. I'll go put up de hoss."
+
+As the old man went heavily down the porch steps he muttered to himself:
+"I was feared o' sumfin like dis; I done feel it in my bones."
+
+The gentleman took a seat in the parlor where Letty had preceded him
+with a lamp. "Reckon ole miss didn't spec' you quite so soon, Mahs'
+Junius, cos de sorrel hoss is pow'ful slow, and Uncle Isham is mighty
+keerful ob rocks in de road. Reckon she's done gone ober to see ole Aun'
+Patsy, who's gwine to die in two or free days, to take her some red an'
+yaller pieces for a crazy quilt. I know she's got some pieces fur her."
+
+"Aunt Patsy alive yet?" exclaimed Master Junius. "But if she's about to
+die, what does she want with a crazy quilt?"
+
+"Dat's fur she shroud," said Letty. "She 'tends to go to glory all wrap
+up in a crazy quilt, jus chockfull ob all de colors of the rainbow. Aun'
+Patsy neber did 'tend to have a shroud o' bleached domestic like common
+folks. She wants to cut a shine 'mong de angels, an' her quilt's most
+done, jus' one corner ob it lef'. Reckon ole miss done gone to carry her
+de pieces fur dat corner. Dere ain't much time lef', fur Aun' Patsy is
+pretty nigh dead now. She's ober two hunnerd years ole."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Master Junius, "two hundred?"
+
+"Yes, sah," answered Letty. "Doctor Peter's old Jim was more'n a hunnerd
+when he died, an' we all knows Aun' Patsy is twice as ole as ole Jim."
+
+"I'll wait here," said Master Junius, taking up a book. "I suppose she
+will be back before long."
+
+In about half an hour Uncle Isham came into the kitchen, his appearance
+indicating that he had had a hurried walk, and told Letty that she had
+better give Master Junius his supper without waiting any longer for her
+mistress. "She ain't at Aun' Patsy's," said the old man, "and she's jus'
+done gone somewhar else, and she'll come back when she's a mind to, an'
+dar ain't nuffin else to say 'bout it."
+
+Supper was eaten; a pipe was smoked on the porch; and Master Junius went
+to bed in a room which had been carefully prepared for him under the
+supervision of the mistress; but the purple sun-bonnet, and the umbrella
+of the same color did not return to the house that night.
+
+Master Junius was a quiet man, and fond of walking; and the next day he
+devoted to long rambles, sometimes on the roads, sometimes over the
+fields, and sometimes through the woods; but in none of his walks, nor
+when he came back to dinner and supper, did he meet the elderly mistress
+of the house to which he had come. That evening, as he sat on the top
+step of the porch with his pipe, he summoned to him Uncle Isham, and
+thus addressed the old man:
+
+"I think it is impossible, Isham, that your mistress started out to meet
+me, and that an accident happened to her. I have walked all over this
+neighborhood, and I know that no accident could have occurred without my
+seeing or hearing something of it."
+
+Uncle Isham stood on the ground, his feet close to the bottom step; his
+hat was in his hand, and his upturned face wore an expression of
+earnestness which seemed to set uncomfortably upon it. "Mahs' Junius,"
+said he, "dar ain't no acciden' come to ole miss; she's done gone cos she
+wanted to, an' she ain't come back cos she didn't want to. Dat's ole
+miss, right fru."
+
+"I suppose," said the young man, "that as she went away on foot she must
+be staying with some of the neighbors. If we were to make inquiries, it
+certainly would not be difficult to find out where she is."
+
+"Mahs' Junius," said Uncle Isham, his black eyes shining brighter and
+brighter as he spoke, "dar's culled people, an' white folks too in dis
+yer county who'd put on dere bes' clothes an' black dere shoes, an' skip
+off wid alacrousness, to do de wus kin' o sin, dat dey knowed for sartin
+would send 'em down to de deepes' and hottes' gullies ob de lower
+regions, but nuffin in dis worl' could make one o' dem people go
+'quirin' 'bout ole miss when she didn't want to be 'quired about."
+
+The smoker put down his pipe on the top step beside him, and sat for a
+few moments in thought. Then he spoke. "Isham," he began, "I want you to
+tell me if you have any notion or idea----"
+
+"Mahs' Junius," exclaimed the old negro, "scuse me fur int'ruptin', but
+I can't help it. Don' you go, an ax an ole man like me if I tinks dat
+ole miss went away cos you was comin' an' if it's my true b'lief dat
+she'll neber come back while you is h'yar. Don' ask me nuffin like dat,
+Mahs' Junius. Ise libed in dis place all my bawn days, an' I ain't neber
+done nuffin to you, Mahs' Junius, 'cept keepin' you from breakin' you
+neck when you was too little to know better. I neber 'jected to you
+marryin' any lady you like bes', an' 'tain't f'ar Mahs' Junius, now Ise
+ole an' gittin' on de careen, fur you to ax me wot I tinks about ole
+miss gwine away an' comin' back. I begs you, Mahs' Junius, don' ax me
+dat."
+
+Master Junius rose to his feet. "All right, Isham," he said; "I shall
+not worry your good old heart with questions." And he went into the
+house.
+
+The next day this quiet gentleman and good walker went to see old Aunt
+Patsy, who had apparently consented to live a day or two longer; gave
+her a little money in lieu of pieces for her crazy bed-quilt; and told
+her he was going away to stay. He told Uncle Isham he was going away to
+stay away; and he said the same thing to Letty, and to Plez, and to two
+colored women of the neighborhood whom he happened to see. Then he took
+his valise, which was not a very large one, and departed. He refused to
+be conveyed to the distant station in the spring wagon, saying that he
+much preferred to walk. Uncle Isham took leave of him with much sadness,
+but did not ask him to stay; and Letty and Plez looked after him
+wistfully, still holding in their hands the coins he had placed there.
+With the exception of these coins, the only thing he left behind him was
+a sealed letter on the parlor table, directed to the mistress of the
+house.
+
+Toward the end of that afternoon, two women came along the public road
+which passed the outer gate. One came from the south, and rode in an
+open carriage, evidently hired at the railroad station; the other was
+on foot, and came from the north; she wore a purple sun-bonnet, and
+carried an umbrella of the same color. When this latter individual
+caught sight of the approaching carriage, then at some distance, she
+stopped short and gazed at it. She did not retire behind a bush, as she
+had done on a former occasion, but she stood in the shade of a tree on
+the side of the road, and waited. As the carriage came nearer to the
+gate the surprise upon her face became rapidly mingled with indignation.
+The driver had checked the speed of his horses, and, without doubt,
+intended to stop at the gate. This might not have been sufficient to
+excite her emotions, but she now saw clearly, having not been quite
+certain of it before, that the occupant of the carriage was a lady, and,
+apparently, a young one, for she wore in her hat some bright-colored
+flowers. The driver stopped, got down, opened the gate, and then,
+mounting to his seat, drove through, leaving the gate standing wide
+open.
+
+This contempt of ordinary proprietary requirements made the old lady
+spring out from the shelter of the shade. Brandishing her umbrella, she
+was about to cry out to the man to stop and shut the gate, but she
+restrained herself. The distance was too great, and, besides, she
+thought better of it. She went again into the shade, and waited. In
+about ten minutes the carriage came back, but without the lady. This
+time the driver got down, shut the gate after him, and drove rapidly
+away.
+
+If blazing eyes could crack glass, the spectacles of the old lady would
+have been splintered into many pieces as she stood by the roadside, the
+end of her umbrella jabbed an inch or two into the ground. After
+standing thus for some five minutes, she suddenly turned and walked
+vigorously away in the direction from which she had come.
+
+Uncle Isham, Letty, and the boy Plez, were very much surprised at the
+arrival of the lady in the carriage. She had asked for the mistress of
+the house, and on being assured that she was expected to return very
+soon, had alighted, paid and dismissed her driver, and had taken a seat
+in the parlor. Her valise, rather larger than that of the previous
+visitor, was brought in and put in the hall. She waited for an hour or
+two, during which time Letty made several attempts to account for the
+non-appearance of her mistress, who, she said, was away on a visit, but
+was expected back every minute; and when supper was ready she partook of
+that meal alone, and after a short evening spent in reading she went to
+bed in the chamber which Letty prepared for her.
+
+Before she retired, Letty, who had shown herself a very capable
+attendant, said to her: "Wot's your name, miss? I allus likes to know
+the names o' ladies I waits on.''
+
+"My name," said the lady, "is Mrs Null."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The Autumn sun was shining very pleasantly when, about nine o'clock in
+the morning, Mrs Null came out on the porch, and, standing at the top of
+the steps, looked about her. She had on her hat with the red flowers,
+and she wore a short jacket, into the pockets of which her hands were
+thrust with an air which indicated satisfaction with the circumstances
+surrounding her. The old dog, lying on the grass at the bottom of the
+steps, looked up at her and flopped his tail upon the ground. Mrs Null
+called to him in a cheerful tone and the dog arose, and, hesitatingly,
+put his forefeet on the bottom step; then, when she held out her hand
+and spoke to him again, he determined that, come what might, he would go
+up those forbidden steps, and let her pat his head. This he did, and
+after looking about him to assure himself that this was reality and not
+a dog dream, he lay down upon the door-mat, and, with a sigh of relief,
+composed himself to sleep. A black turkey gobbler, who looked as if he
+had been charred in a fire, followed by five turkey hens, also
+suggesting the idea that water had been thrown over them before anything
+but their surfaces had been burned, came timidly around the house and
+stopped before venturing upon the greensward in front of the porch;
+then, seeing nobody but Mrs Null, they advanced with bobbing heads and
+swaying bodies to look into the resources of this seldom explored
+region. Plez, who was coming from the spring with a pail of water on his
+head, saw the dog on the porch and the turkeys on the grass, and stopped
+to regard the spectacle. He looked at them, and he looked at Mrs Null,
+and a grin of amused interest spread itself over his face.
+
+Mrs Null went down the steps and approached the boy. "Plez," said she,
+"if your mistress, or anybody, should come here this morning, you must
+run over to Pine Top Hill and call me. I'm going there to read."
+
+"Don' you want me to go wid yer, and show you de way, Miss Null?" asked
+Plez, preparing to set down his pail.
+
+"Oh, no," said she, "I know the way." And with her hands still in her
+pockets, from one of which protruded a rolled-up novel, she walked down
+to the little stream which ran from the spring, crossed the plank and
+took the path which led by the side of the vineyard to Pine Top Hill.
+
+This lady visitor had now been here two days waiting for the return of
+the mistress of the little estate; and the sojourn had evidently been of
+benefit to her. Good air, the good meals with which Letty had provided
+her, and a sort of sympathy which had sprung up in a very sudden way
+between her and everything on the place, had given brightness to her
+eyes. She even looked a little plumper than when she came, and
+certainly very pretty. She climbed Pine Top Hill without making any
+mistake as to the best path, and went directly to a low piece of
+sun-warmed rock which cropped out from the ground not far from the bases
+of the cluster of pines which gave the name to the hill. An extended and
+very pretty view could be had from this spot, and Mrs Null seemed to
+enjoy it, looking about her with quick turns of the head as if she
+wanted to satisfy herself that all of the scenery was there. Apparently
+satisfied that it was, she stretched out her feet, withdrew her gaze
+from the surrounding country, and regarded the toes of her boots. Now
+she smiled a little and began to speak.
+
+"Freddy," said she, "I must think over matters, and have a talk with you
+about them. Nothing could be more proper than this, since we are on our
+wedding tour. You keep beautifully in the background, which is very nice
+of you, for that's what I married you for. But we must have a talk now,
+for we haven't said a word to each other, nor, perhaps, thought of each
+other during the whole three nights and two days that we have been here.
+I expect these people think it very queer that I should keep on waiting
+for their mistress to come back, but I can't help it; I must stay till
+she comes, or he comes, and they must continue to think it funny. And as
+for Mr Croft, I suppose I should get a letter from him if he knew where
+to write, but you know, Freddy, we are travelling about on this wedding
+tour without letting anybody, especially Mr Croft, know exactly where
+we are. He must think it an awfully wonderful piece of good luck that a
+young married couple should happen to be journeying in the very
+direction taken by a gentleman whom he wants to find, and that they are
+willing to look for the gentleman without charging anything but the
+extra expenses to which they may be put. We wouldn't charge him a cent,
+you know, Freddy Null, but for the fear that he would think we would not
+truly act as his agents if we were not paid, and so would employ
+somebody else. We don't want him to employ anybody else. We want to find
+Junius Keswick before he does, and then, maybe, we won't want Mr Croft
+to find him at all. But I hope it will not turn out that way. He said,
+it was neither crime nor relationship and, of course, it couldn't be.
+What I hope is, that it is good fortune; but that's doubtful. At any
+rate, I must see Junius first, if I can possibly manage it. If she would
+only come back and open her letter, there might be no more trouble about
+it, for I don't believe he would go away without leaving her his
+address. Isn't all this charming, Freddy? And don't you feel glad that
+we came here for our wedding tour? Of course you don't enjoy it as much
+as I do, for it can't seem so natural to you; but you are bound to like
+it. The very fact of my being here should make the place delightful in
+your eyes, Mr Null, even if I have forgotten all about you ever since I
+came."
+
+That afternoon, as Mrs Null was occupying some of her continuous leisure
+in feeding the turkeys at the back of the house, she noticed two
+colored men in earnest conversation with Isham. When they had gone she
+called to the old man. "Uncle Isham," she said, "what did those men
+want?"
+
+"Tell you what 'tis, Miss Null," said Isham, removing his shapeless felt
+hat, "dis yere place is gittin' wus an' wus on de careen, an' wat's
+gwine to happen if ole miss don' come back is more'n I kin tell. Dar's
+no groun' ploughed yit for wheat, an' dem two han's been 'gaged to come
+do it, an' dey put it off, an' put it off till ole miss got as mad as
+hot coals, an' now at las' dey've come, an' she's not h'yar, an' nuffin'
+can be done. De wheat'll be free inches high on ebery oder farm 'fore
+ole miss git dem plough han's agin."
+
+"That is too bad, Uncle Isham," said Mrs Null. "When land that ought to
+be ploughed isn't ploughed, it all grows up in old field pines, don't
+it?"
+
+"It don' do dat straight off, Miss Null," said the old negro, his gray
+face relaxing into a smile.
+
+"No, I suppose not," said she. "I have heard that it takes thirty years
+for a whole forest of old field pines to grow up. But they will do it if
+the land isn't ploughed. Now, Uncle Isham, I don't intend to let
+everything be at a standstill here just because your mistress is away.
+That is one reason why I feed the turkeys. If they died, or the farm all
+went wrong, I should feel that it was partly my fault."
+
+"Yaas'm," said Uncle Isham, passing his hat from one hand to the other,
+as he delivered himself a little hesitatingly--"yaas'm, if you wasn't
+h'yar p'raps ole miss mought come back."
+
+"Now, Uncle Isham," said Mrs Null, "you mustn't think your mistress is
+staying away on account of me. She left home, as Letty has told me over
+and over, because your Master Junius came. Of course she thinks he's
+here yet, and she don't know anything about me. But if her affairs
+should go to rack and ruin while I am here and able to prevent it, I
+should think it was my fault. That's what I mean, Uncle Isham. And now
+this is what I want you to do. I want you to go right after those men,
+and tell them to come here as soon as they can, and begin to plough. Do
+you know where the ploughing is to be done?"
+
+"Oh, yaas'm," said Uncle Isham, "dar ain't on'y one place fur dat. It's
+de clober fiel', ober dar, on de udder side ob de gyarden."
+
+"And what is to be planted in it?" asked Mrs Null.
+
+"Ob course dey's gwine to plough for wheat," answered Uncle Isham, a
+little surprised at the question.
+
+"I don't altogether like that," said Mrs Null, her brows slightly
+contracting. "I've read a great deal about the foolishness of Southern
+people planting wheat. They can't compete with the great wheat farms of
+the West, which sometimes cover a whole county, and, of course, having
+so much, they can afford to sell it a great deal cheaper than you can
+here. And yet you go on, year after year, paying every cent you can
+rake and scrape for fertilizing drugs, and getting about a teacupful of
+wheat,--that is, proportionately speaking. I don't think this sort of
+thing should continue, Uncle Isham. It would be a great deal better to
+plough that field for pickles. Now there is a steady market for pickles,
+and, so far as I know, there are no pickle farms in the West."
+
+"Pickles!" ejaculated the astonished Isham. "Do you mean, Miss Null, to
+put dat fiel' down in kukumbers at dis time o' yeah?"
+
+"Well," said Mrs Null, thoughtfully, "I don't know that I feel
+authorized to make the change at present, but I do know that the things
+that pay most are small fruits, and if you people down here would pay
+more attention to them you would make more money. But the land must be
+ploughed, and then we'll see about planting it afterward; your mistress
+will, probably, be home in time for that. You go after the men, and tell
+them I shall expect them to begin the first thing in the morning. And if
+there is anything else to be done on the farm, you come and tell me
+about it to-morrow. I'm going to take the responsibility on myself to
+see that matters go on properly until your mistress returns."
+
+Letty and her son, Plez, occupied a cabin not far from the house, while
+Uncle Isham lived alone in a much smaller tenement, near the barn and
+chicken house. That evening he went over to Letty's, taking with him, as
+a burnt offering, a partially consumed and still glowing log of hickory
+wood from his own hearth-stone. "Jes' lemme tell you dis h'yar, Letty,"
+said he, after making up the fire and seating himself on a stool near
+by, "ef you want to see ole miss come back rarin' an' chargin', jes' you
+let her know dat Miss Null is gwine ter plough de clober fiel' for
+pickles."
+
+"Wot's dat fool talk?" asked Letty.
+
+"Miss Null's gwine to boss dis farm, dat's all," said Isham. "She tole
+me so herse'f, an' ef she's lef' alone she's gwine ter do it city
+fashion. But one thing's sartin shuh, Letty, if ole miss do fin' out
+wot's gwine on, she'll be back h'yar in no time! She know well 'nuf dat
+dat Miss Null ain't got no right to come an' boss dis h'yar farm. Who's
+she, anyway?"
+
+"Dunno," answered Letty. "I done ax her six or seben time, but 'pears
+like I dunno wot she mean when she tell me. P'raps she's one o' ole
+miss' little gal babies growed up. I tell you, Uncle Isham, she know dis
+place jes as ef she bawn h'yar."
+
+Uncle Isham looked steadily into the fire and rubbed the sides of his
+head with his big black fingers. "Ole miss nebber had no gal baby 'cept
+one, an' dat died when 'twas mighty little."
+
+"Does you reckon she kill her ef she come back an' fin' her no kin?"
+asked Letty.
+
+Uncle Isham pushed his stool back and started to his feet with a noise
+which woke Plez, who had been soundly sleeping on the other side of the
+fireplace; and striding to the door, the old man went out into the open
+air. Returning in less than a minute, he put his head into the doorway
+and addressed the astonished woman who had turned around to look after
+him. "Look h'yar, you Letty, I don' want to hear no sech fool talk 'bout
+ole miss. You dunno ole miss, nohow. You only come h'yar seben year ago
+when dat Plez was trottin' roun' wid nuffin but a little meal bag for
+clothes. Mahs' John had been dead a long time den; you nebber knowed
+Mahs' John. You nebber was woke up at two o'clock in the mawnin wid de
+crack ob a pistol, an' run out 'spectin' 'twas somebody stealin' chickens
+an' Mahs' John firin' at 'em, an' see ole miss a cuttin' for de road
+gate wid her white night-gown a floppin' in de win' behind her, an' when
+we got out to de gate dar we see Mahs' John a stannin' up agin de pos',
+not de pos' wid de hinges on, but de pos' wid de hook on, an' a hole in
+de top ob de head which he made hese'f wid de pistol. One-eyed Jim see
+de whole thing. He war stealin' cohn in de fiel' on de udder side de
+road. He see Mahs' John come out wid de pistol, an' he lay low. Not dat
+it war Mahs' John's cohn dat he was stealin', but he knowed well 'nuf
+dat Mahs' John take jes' as much car' o' he neighbus cohn as he own. An'
+den he see Mahs' John stan' up agin de pos' an' shoot de pistol, an' he
+see Mahs' John's soul come right out de hole in de top ob his head an'
+go straight up to heben like a sky-racket."
+
+"Wid a whizz?" asked the open-eyed Letty."
+
+"Like a sky-racket, I tell you," continued the old man, "an' den me an'
+ole miss come up. She jes' tuk one look at him and then she said in a
+wice, not like she own wice, but like Mahs' John's wice, wot had done
+gone forebber: 'You Jim, come out o' dat cohn and help carry him in!'
+And we free carried him in. An' you dunno ole miss, nohow, an' I don'
+want to hear no fool talk from you, Letty, 'bout her. Jes' you 'member
+dat!"
+
+And with this Uncle Isham betook himself to the solitude of his own
+cabin.
+
+"Well," said Letty to herself, as she rose and approached the bed in the
+corner of the room, "Ise pow'ful glad dat somebody's gwine to take de
+key bahsket, for I nebber goes inter dat sto'-room by myse'f widout
+tremblin' all froo my back bone fear ole miss come back, an' fin' me dar
+'lone."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+When Lawrence Croft now took his afternoon walks in the city, he was
+very glad to wear a light overcoat, and to button it, too. But, although
+the air was getting a little nipping in New York, he knew that it must
+still be balmy and enjoyable in Virginia. He had never been down there
+at this season, but he had heard about the Virginia autumns, and,
+besides he had seen a lady who had had a letter from Roberta March. In
+this letter Miss March had written that as her father intended making a
+trip to Texas, and, therefore, would not come to New York as early as
+usual, she would stay at least a month longer with her Uncle Brandon;
+and she was glad to do it, for the weather was perfectly lovely, and she
+could stay out-of-doors all day if she wanted to.
+
+Lawrence's walks, although very invigorating on account of the fine,
+sharp air, were not entirely cheering, for they gave him an opportunity
+to think that he was making no progress whatever in his attempt to study
+the character of Junius Keswick. He had entrusted the search for that
+gentleman's address to Mr Candy's cashier, who had informed him, most
+opportunely, that she was about to set out on a wedding tour, and that
+she had possessed herself of clues of much value which could be readily
+followed up in connection with the projected journey. But a fortnight or
+more had elapsed without his hearing anything from her, and he had come
+to the conclusion that hymeneal joys must have driven all thoughts of
+business out of her little head.
+
+After hearing that Roberta March intended protracting her stay in the
+country the desire came to him to go down there himself. He would like
+to have the novel experience of that region in autumn, and he would like
+to see Roberta, but he could not help acknowledging to himself that the
+proceeding would scarcely be a wise one, especially as he must go
+without the desired safeguard of knowing what kind of man Miss March had
+once been willing to accept. He felt that if he went down to the
+neighborhood of Midbranch one of the battles of his life would begin,
+and that when he held up before him his figurative shield, he would see
+in its inner mirror that, on account of his own disposition toward the
+lady, he was in a condition of great peril. But, for all that, he wanted
+very much to go, and no one will be surprised to learn that he did go.
+
+He was a little embarrassed at first in regard to the pretext which he
+should make to himself for such a journey. Whatever satisfactory excuse
+he could make to himself in this case would, of course, do for other
+people. Although he was not prone to make excuses for his conduct to
+other people in general, he knew he would have to give some reason to Mr
+Brandon and Miss Roberta for his return to Virginia so soon after having
+left it. He determined to make a visit to the mountains of North
+Carolina, and as Midbranch would lie in his way, of course he
+would stop there. This he assured himself was not a subterfuge.
+It was a very sensible thing to do. He had a good deal of time
+on his hands before the city season, at least for him, would begin,
+and he had read that the autumn was an admirable time to visit the
+country of the French Broad. How long a stop he would make at Midbranch
+would be determined by circumstances. He was sorry that he would not be
+able to look upon Miss Roberta with the advantage of knowing her former
+lover, but it was something to know that she had had a lover. With this
+fact in his mind he would be able to form a better estimate of her than
+he had formed before.
+
+The man who lived in the cottage at the Green Sulphur Springs was
+somewhat surprised when Mr Croft arrived there, and desired to make
+arrangements, as before, for board, and the use of a saddle horse. But,
+although it was not generally conceded, this man knew very well that
+there was no water in the world so suitable to remedy the wear and tear
+of a city life as that of the Green Sulphur Springs, and therefore
+nobody could consider the young gentleman foolish for coming back again
+while the season permitted.
+
+Lawrence arrived at his cottage in the morning; and early in the
+afternoon of the same day he rode over to Midbranch. He found the
+country a good deal changed, and he did not like the changes. His road,
+which ran for much of its distance through the woods, was covered with
+leaves, some green, and some red and yellow, and he did not fancy the
+peculiar smell of these leaves, which reminded him, in some way, of that
+gathering together of the characters in old-fashioned comedies shortly
+before the fall of the curtain. In many places where there used to be a
+thick shade, the foliage was now quite thin, and through it he could see
+a good deal of the sky. The Virginia creepers, or "poison oaks,"
+whichever they were, were growing red upon the trunks of the trees as if
+they had been at table too long and showed it, and when he rode out of
+the woods he saw that the fields, which he remembered as wide, swelling
+slopes of green, with cattle and colts feeding here and there, were now
+being ploughed into corrugated stretches of monotonous drab and brown.
+If he had been there through all the gradual changes of the season, he,
+probably, would have enjoyed them as much as people ordinarily do; but
+coming back in this way, the altered landscape slightly shocked him.
+
+When he had turned into the Midbranch gate, but was still a considerable
+distance from the house, he involuntarily stopped his horse. He could
+see the broad steps which crossed the fence of the lawn, and on one side
+of the platform on the top sat a lady whom he instantly recognized as
+Miss Roberta; and on the other side of the platform sat a gentleman.
+These two occupied very much the same positions as Lawrence, himself,
+and Miss March had occupied when we first became acquainted with them.
+Lawrence looked very sharply and earnestly at the gentleman. Could it be
+Mr Brandon? No, it was a much younger person.
+
+His first impulse was to turn and ride away, but this would be silly and
+unmanly, and he continued his way to the stile. His disposition to treat
+the matter with contempt made him feel how important the matter was to
+him. The gentleman on the platform first saw Lawrence, and announced to
+the lady that some one was coming. Miss March turned around, and then
+rose to her feet.
+
+"Upon my word!" she exclaimed, elevating her eyebrows a good deal more
+than was usual with her, "if that isn't Mr Croft!"
+
+"Who is he?" asked the other, also rising.
+
+"He is a New York gentleman whom I know very well. He was down here last
+summer, but I can't imagine what brings him here again."
+
+Lawrence dismounted, tied his horse, and approached the steps. Miss
+Roberta welcomed him cordially, coming down a little way to shake hands
+with him. Then she introduced the two gentlemen.
+
+"Mr Croft," she said, "let me make you acquainted with Mr Keswick."
+
+The afternoon, or the portion of it that was left, was spent on the
+porch, Mr Brandon joining the party. It was to him that Lawrence chiefly
+talked, for the most part about the game and scenery of North Carolina,
+with which the old gentleman was quite familiar. But Lawrence had
+sufficient regard for himself and his position in the eyes of this
+family, to help make a good deal of general conversation. What he said
+or heard, however, occupied only the extreme corners of his mind, the
+main portion of which was entirely filled with the chilling fear that
+that man might be the Keswick he was looking for. Of course, there was a
+bare chance that it was not, for there might be a numerous family, but
+even this little stupid glimmer of comfort was extinguished when Mr
+Brandon familiarly addressed the gentleman as "Junius."
+
+Lawrence took a good look at the man he was anxious to study, and as far
+as outward appearances were concerned he could find no fault with
+Roberta for having accepted him. He was taller than Croft, and not so
+correctly dressed. He seemed to be a person whom one would select as a
+companion for a hunt, a sail, or a talk upon Political Economy. There
+was about him an air of present laziness, but it was also evident that
+this was a disposition that could easily be thrown off.
+
+Lawrence's mind was not only very much occupied, but very much
+perturbed. It must have been all a mistake about the engagement having
+been broken off. If this had been the case, the easy friendliness of the
+relations between Keswick and the old gentleman and his niece would have
+been impossible. Once or twice the thought came to Lawrence that he
+should congratulate himself for not having avowed his feelings toward
+Miss Roberta when he had an opportunity of doing so; but his
+predominant emotion was one of disgust with his previous mode of action.
+If he had not weighed and considered the matter so carefully, and had
+been willing to take his chances as other men take them, he would, at
+least, have known in what relation he stood to Roberta, and would not
+have occupied the ridiculous position in which he now felt himself to
+be.
+
+When he took his leave, Roberta went with him to the stile. As they
+walked together across the smooth, short grass, a new set of emotions
+arose in Lawrence's mind which drove out every other. They were grief,
+chagrin, and even rage, at not having won this woman. As to actual
+speech, there was nothing he could say, although his soul boiled and
+bubbled within him in his desire to speak. But if he had anything to
+say, now was his chance, for he had told them that he would proceed with
+his journey the next day.
+
+Miss Roberta had a way of looking up, and looking down at the same time,
+particularly when she had asked a question and was waiting for the
+answer. Her face would be turned a little down, but her eyes would look
+up and give a very charming expression to those upturned eyes; and if
+she happened to allow the smile, with which she ceased speaking, to
+remain upon her pretty lips, she generally had an answer of some sort
+very soon. If for no other reason, it would be given that she might ask
+another question. It was in this manner she said to Lawrence: "Do you
+really go away from us to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes," said he, "I shall push on."
+
+"Do you not find the country very beautiful at this season?" asked Miss
+Roberta, after a few steps in silence.
+
+"I don't like autumn," answered Lawrence. "Everything is drying up and
+dying. I would rather see things dead."
+
+Roberta looked at him without turning her head. "But it will be just as
+bad in North Carolina," she said.
+
+"There is an autumn in ourselves," he answered, "just as much as there
+is in Nature. I won't see so much of that down there."
+
+"In some cases," said Roberta, slowly, "autumn is impossible."
+
+They had reached the bottom of the steps, and Lawrence turned and looked
+toward her. "Do you mean," he asked, "when there has been no real
+summer?"
+
+Roberta laughed. "Of course," said she, "if there has been no summer
+there can be no autumn. But you know there are places where it is summer
+all the time. Would you like to live in such a clime?"
+
+Lawrence Croft put one foot on the step, and then he drew it back. "Miss
+March," said he, "my train does not leave until the afternoon, and I am
+coming over here in the morning to have one more walk in the woods with
+you. May I?"
+
+"Certainly," she said, "I shall be delighted; that is, if you can
+overlook the fact that it is autumn."
+
+When Miss Roberta returned to the house she found Junius Keswick
+sitting on a bench on the porch. She went over to him, and took a seat
+at the other end of the bench.
+
+"So your gentleman is gone," he said.
+
+"Yes," she answered, "but only for the present. He is coming back in the
+morning."
+
+"What for?" asked Keswick, a little abruptly.
+
+Miss Roberta took off her hat, for there was no need of a hat on a
+shaded porch, and holding it by the ribbons, she let it gently slide
+down toward her feet. "He is coming," she said, speaking rather slowly,
+"to take a walk with me, and I know very well that when we have reached
+some place where he is sure there is no one to hear him, he is going to
+tell me that he loves me; that he did not intend to speak quite so soon,
+but that circumstances have made it impossible for him to restrain
+himself any longer, and he will ask me to be his wife."
+
+"And what are you going to say to him?" asked Keswick.
+
+"I don't know," replied Roberta, her eyes fixed upon the hat which she
+still held by its long ribbons.
+
+The next morning Junius Keswick, who had been up a long, long time
+before breakfast, sat, after that meal, looking at Roberta who was
+reading a book in the parlor. "She is a strange girl," thought he. "I
+cannot understand her. How is it possible that she can sit there so
+placidly reading that volume of Huxley, which I know she never saw
+before and which she has opened just about the middle, on a morning
+when she is expecting a man who will say things to her which may change
+her whole life. I could almost imagine that she has forgotten all about
+it."
+
+Peggy, who had just entered the room to inform her mistress that Aunt
+Judy was ready for her, stood in rigid uprightness, her torpid eyes
+settled upon the lady. "I reckon," so ran the thought within the mazes
+of her dark little interior, "dat Miss Rob's wuss disgruntled dan she
+was dat ebenin' when I make my cake, fur she got two dif'ent kinds o'
+shoes on."
+
+The morning went on, and Keswick found that he must go out again for a
+walk, although he had rambled several miles before breakfast. After her
+household duties had been completed, Miss Roberta took her book out to
+the porch; and about noon when her uncle came out and made some remarks
+upon the beauty of the day, she turned over the page at which she had
+opened the volume just after breakfast. An hour later Peggy brought her
+some luncheon, and felt it to be her duty to inform Miss Rob that she
+still wore one old boot and a new one. When Roberta returned to the
+porch after making a suitable change, she found Keswick there looking a
+little tired.
+
+"Has your friend gone?" he asked, in a very quiet tone.
+
+"He has not come yet," she answered.
+
+"Not come!" exclaimed Keswick. "That's odd! However, there are two hours
+yet before dinner."
+
+The two hours passed and no Lawrence Croft appeared; nor came he at all
+that day. About dusk the man at the Green Sulphur Springs rode over with
+a note from Mr Croft. The note was to Miss March, of course, and it
+simply stated that the writer was very sorry he could not keep the
+appointment he had made with her, but that it had suddenly become
+necessary for him to return to the North without continuing the journey
+he had planned; that he was much grieved to be deprived of the
+opportunity of seeing her again; but that he would give himself the
+pleasure, at the earliest possible moment, of calling on Miss March when
+she arrived in New York.
+
+When Miss Roberta had read this note she handed it to Keswick, who, when
+he returned it, asked: "Does that suit you?"
+
+"No," said she, "it does not suit me at all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+It was mail day at the very small village known as Howlett's, and to the
+fence in front of the post-office were attached three mules and a horse.
+Inside the yard, tied to the low bough of a tree, was a very lean and
+melancholy horse, on which had lately arrived Wesley Green, the negro
+man who, twice a week, brought the mail from Pocohontas, a railway
+station, twenty miles away. There was a station not six miles from
+Howlett's, but, for some reason, the mail bag was always brought from
+and carried to Pocohontas; Wesley Green requiring a whole day for a
+deliberate transit between the two points.
+
+In the post-office, which was the front room of a small wooden house
+approached by a high flight of steps, was the postmistress, Miss Harriet
+Corvey, who sat on the floor in one corner, while before her extended a
+semicircle of men and boys. In this little assemblage certain elderly
+men occupied seats which were considered to belong to them quite as much
+as if they had been hired pews in a church, and behind them stood up a
+row of tall young men and barefooted boys of the neighborhood, while,
+farthest in the rear, were some quiet little darkies with mail bags
+slung across their shoulders.
+
+On a chair to the right, and most convenient to
+
+Miss Harriet, sat old Madison Chalkley, the biggest and most venerable
+citizen of the neighborhood. Mr Chalkley never, by any chance, got a
+letter, the only mail matter he received being, "The Southern Baptist
+Recorder," which came on Saturdays, but, like most of the people
+present, he was at the post-office every mail day to see who got
+anything. Next to him sat Colonel Iston, a tall, lean, quiet old
+gentleman, who had, for a long series of years, occupied the position of
+a last apple on a tree. He had no relatives, no friends with whom he
+corresponded, no business that was not conducted by word of mouth. In
+the last fifteen years he had received but one letter, and that had so
+surprised him that he carried it about with him three days before he
+opened it, and then he found that it was really intended for a gentleman
+of the same name in another county. And yet everybody knew that if
+Colonel Iston failed to appear in his place on mail day, it would be
+because he was dead or prostrated by sickness.
+
+With the mail bag on the floor at her left, Miss Harriet, totally
+oblivious of any law forbidding the opening of the mails in public,
+would put her hand into its open mouth, draw forth a letter or a paper,
+hold it up in front of her spectacles, and call out the name of its
+owner. Most of the letters went to the black boys with the mail bags who
+came from country houses in the neighborhood, but whoever received
+letter, journal, or agricultural circular, received also at the same
+time the earnest gaze of everybody else in the room. Sometimes there
+was a letter for which there was no applicant present and then Miss
+Harriet would say: "Is anybody going past Mrs Willis Summerses?" And
+if anybody was, he would take the letter, and it is to be hoped he
+remembered to deliver it in the course of a week.
+
+In spite of the precautions of the postmistress uncalled for letters
+would gradually accumulate, and there was a little bundle of these in
+one of the few pigeon holes in a small desk in the corner of the room,
+in the drawer of which the postage stamps were kept. Now and then a
+registered letter would arrive, and this always created considerable
+sensation in the room, and if the legal recipient did not happen to be
+present, Miss Harriet never breathed a quiet breath until he or she had
+been sent for, had taken the letter, and given her a receipt. Sometimes
+she sat up as late as eleven o'clock at night on mail days, hoping that
+some one who had been sent for would arrive to relieve her of a
+registered letter.
+
+All the mail matter had been distributed, everybody but Mr Madison
+Chalkley had left the room; and when the old gentleman, as was his wont
+on the first day of the month, had gone up to the desk, untied the
+bundle of uncalled-for letters, the outer ones permanently rounded by
+the tightness of the cord, and after carefully looking over them, one by
+one, had made his usual remark about the folly of people who wouldn't
+stay in a place until their letters could get to them, had tied up the
+bundle and taken his departure; then Miss Harriet put the empty mail
+bag under the desk, and went up-stairs where an old lady sat by the
+window, sewing in the fading light.
+
+"No letters for you to-day, Mrs Keswick," said she.
+
+"Of course not," was the answer, "I didn't expect any."
+
+"Don't you think," said Miss Harriet, taking a seat opposite the old
+lady, "that it is about time for you to go home and attend to your
+affairs?"
+
+"Well, upon my word!" said Mrs Keswick, letting her hands and her work
+fall in her lap, "that's truly hospitable. I didn't expect it of you,
+Harriet Corvey."
+
+"I wouldn't have said it," returned the postmistress, "if I hadn't felt
+dead certain that you knew you were always welcome here. But Tony Miles
+told me, just before the mail came in, that the lady who's at your place
+is running it herself, and that she's going to use pickle brine for a
+fertilizer."
+
+"Very likely," said Mrs Keswick, her face totally unmoved by this
+intelligence--"very likely. That's the way they used to do in ancient
+times, or something of the same kind. They used to sow salt over their
+enemy's land so that nothing would ever grow there. That woman's family
+has sowed salt over the lands of me and mine for three generations, and
+it's quite natural she should come here to finish up."
+
+There was a little silence after this, and then Miss
+
+Harriet remarked: "Your people must know where you are. Why don't they
+come and tell you about these things?"
+
+"They know better," answered Mrs Keswick, with a grim smile. "I went
+away once before, and Uncle Isham hunted me up, and he got a lesson that
+he'll never forget. When I want them to know where I am, I'll tell
+them."
+
+"But really and truly"--said Miss Harriet "and you know I only speak to
+you for your own good, for you pay your board here, and if you didn't
+you'd be just as welcome--do you intend to keep away from your own house
+as long as that lady chooses to stay there?"
+
+"Exactly so long," answered the old lady. "I shall not keep them out of
+my house if they choose to come to it. No member of my family ever did
+that. There is the house, and they are free to enter it, but they shall
+not find me there. If there was any reason to believe that everything
+was dropped and done with, I would be as glad to see him as anybody
+could be, but I knew from his letter just what he was going to say when
+he came, and as things have turned out, I see that it was all worse than
+I expected. He and Roberta March were both coming, and they thought that
+together they could talk me down, and make me forgive and be happy, and
+all that stuff. But as I wasn't there, of course he wouldn't stay, and
+so there she is now by herself. She thinks I must come home after a
+while, and the minute I do that, back he'll come, and then they'll have
+just what they wanted. But I reckon she'll find that I can stick it out
+just as long as she can. If Roberta March turns things upside down
+there, it'll be because she can't keep her hands out of mischief, and
+that proves that she belongs to her own family. If there's any harm
+done, it don't matter so much to me, and it will be worse for him in the
+end. And now, Harriet Corvey, if you've got to make up the mail to go
+away early in the morning, you'd better have supper over and get about
+it."
+
+Meanwhile, at Mrs Keswick's house Mrs Null was acting just as
+conscientiously as she knew how. She had had some conversations with
+Freddy on the subject, and she had assured him, and at the same time
+herself, that what she was doing was the only thing that could be done.
+"It was dreadfully hard for me to get the money to come down here," she
+said to him,--"you not helping me a bit, as ordinary husbands do--and I
+can't afford to go back until I have accomplished something. It's very
+strange that she stays away so long, without telling anybody where she
+has gone to, but I know she is queer, and I suppose she has her own
+reasons for what she does. She can't be staying away on my account, for
+she doesn't know who I am, and wouldn't have any objections to me if she
+did know. I suspect it is something about Junius which keeps her away,
+and I suppose she thinks he is still here. But one of them must soon
+come back, and if I can see him, or find out from her where he is, it
+will be all right. It seems to me, Freddy, that if I could have a good
+talk with Junius things would begin to look better for you and me. And
+then I want to put him on his guard about this gentleman who is looking
+for him. By the way, I suppose I ought to write a letter to Mr Croft, or
+he'll think I have given up the job, and will set somebody else on the
+track, and that is what I don't want him to do. I can't say that I have
+positively anything to report, but I can say that I have strong hopes of
+success, considering where I am. As soon as I found that Junius had
+really left the North, I concluded that this would be the best place to
+come to for him. And now, Freddy, there's nothing for us to do but to
+wait, and if we can make ourselves useful here I'm sure we will be glad
+to do it. We both hate being lazy, and a little housekeeping and farm
+managing will be good practice for us during our honeymoon."
+
+Putting on her hat, she went down into the garden where uncle Isham was
+at work. She could find little to do there, for he was merely pulling
+turnips, and she could see nothing to suggest in regard to his method of
+work. She had found, too, that the old negro had not much respect for
+her agricultural opinions. He attended to his work as if his mistress
+had been at home, and although, in regard to the ploughing, he had
+carried out the orders of Mrs Null, he had done it because it ought to
+be done, and because he was very glad for some one else to take the
+responsibility.
+
+"Uncle Isham," said she, after she had watched the process of turnip
+pulling for a few minutes, "if you haven't anything else to do when you
+get through with this, you might come up to the house, and I will talk
+to you about the flower beds, I suppose they ought to be made ready for
+the winter."
+
+"Miss Null," said the old man, slowly unbending his back, and getting
+himself upright, "dar's allus sumfin' else to do. Eber sence I was fus'
+bawn dar was sumfin else to do, an' I spec's it'll keep on dat ar way
+till de day I dies."
+
+"Of course there will be nothing else to do then but to die," observed
+Mrs Null; "but I hope that day is far off, Uncle Isham."
+
+"Dunno 'bout dat, Miss Null," said he. "But den some people do lib
+dreffle long. Look at ole Aun' Patsy. Ise got to live a long time afore
+I's as ole as Aun' Patsy is now."
+
+"You don't mean to say," exclaimed Mrs Null, "that Aunt Patsy is alive
+yet!"
+
+"Ob course she is. Miss Null," said Uncle Isham. "If she'd died sence
+you've been here we'd a tole you, sartin. She was gwine to die las'
+week, but two or free days don' make much dif'rence to Aun' Patsy, she
+done lib so long anyhow."
+
+"Aunt Patsy alive!" exclaimed Mrs Null again. "I'm going straight off to
+see her."
+
+When she had reached the house, and had informed Letty where she was
+going, the rotund maid expressed high approbation of the visit, and
+offered to send Plez to show Miss Null the way.
+
+"I don't need any one to go with me," said that lady, and away she
+started.
+
+"She don' neber want nobody to show her nowhar," said Plez, returning
+with looks of much disapprobation to his business of peeling potatoes
+for dinner.
+
+When Mrs Null reached the cabin of Aunt Patsy, after about fifteen
+minutes' walk, she entered without ceremony, and found the old woman
+sitting on a very low chair by the window, with the much-talked-of,
+many-colored quilt in her lap. Her white woolly head was partially
+covered with a red and yellow handkerchief, and an immense pair of
+iron-bound spectacles obstructed the view of her small black face, lined
+and seamed in such a way that it appeared to have shrunk to half its
+former size. In her long, bony fingers, rusty black on the outside, and
+a very pale tan on the inside, she held a coarse needle and thread and a
+corner of the quilt. Near by, in front of a brick-paved fireplace, was
+one of her great-granddaughters, a girl about eighteen years old, who
+was down upon her hands and knees, engaged with lungs, more powerful
+than ordinary bellows, in blowing into flame a coal upon the hearth.
+
+"How d'ye Aunt Patsy?" said Mrs Null. "I didn't expect to see you
+looking so well."
+
+"Dat's Miss Null," said the girl, raising her eyes from the fire, and
+addressing her ancestor.
+
+The old woman stuck her needle into the quilt, and reached out her hand
+to her visitor, who took it cordially.
+
+"How d'ye, miss?" said Aunt Patsy, in a thin but quite firm voice,
+while the young woman got up and brought Mrs Null a chair, very short in
+the legs, very high in the back, and with its split-oak bottom very much
+sunken.
+
+"How are you feeling to-day, Aunt Patsy?" asked Mrs Null, gazing with
+much interest on the aged face.
+
+"'Bout as common," replied the old woman. "I didn't spec' to be libin'
+dis week, but I ain't got my quilt done yit, an' I can't go 'mong de
+angels wrop in a shroud wid one corner off."
+
+"Certainly not," answered Mrs Null. "Haven't you pieces enough to finish
+it?"
+
+"Oh, yaas, I got bits enough, but de trouble is to sew 'em up. I can't
+sew very fas' nowadays."
+
+"It's a pity for you to have to do it yourself," said Mrs Null. "Can't
+this young person, your daughter, do it for you?"
+
+"Dat's not my darter," said the old woman. "Dat's my son Tom's yaller
+boy Bob's chile. Bob's dead. She can't do no sewin' for me. I'm 'not
+gwine ter hab folks sayin', Aun' Patsy done got so ole she can't do her
+own sewin'."
+
+"If you are not going to die till you get your quilt finished, Aunt
+Patsy," said Mrs Null, "I hope it won't be done for a long time."
+
+"Don' do to be waitin' too long, Miss. De fus' thing you know some udder
+culled pusson'll be dyin' wrop up in a quilt like dis, and git dar fus'."
+
+Mrs Null now looked about her with much interest, and asked many
+questions in regard to the old woman's comfort and ailments. To these
+the answers, though on the whole satisfactory, were quite short, Aunt
+Patsy, apparently, much preferring to look at her visitor than to talk
+to her. And a very pretty young woman she was to look at, with a face
+which had grown brighter and plumper during every day of her country
+sojourn.
+
+When Mrs Null had gone, promising to send Aunt Patsy something nice to
+eat, the old woman turned to her great-grand-daughter, and said, "Did
+anybody come wid her?"
+
+"Nobody comed," said the girl. "Reckon' she done git herse'f los' some
+o' dese days."
+
+The old woman made no answer, but folding up the maniac coverlid, she
+handed it to the girl, and told her to put it away.
+
+That night Uncle Isham, by Mrs Null's orders, carried to Aunt Patsy a
+basket, containing various good things considered suitable for an aged
+colored woman without teeth.
+
+"Miss Annie sen' dese h'yar?" asked the old woman, taking the basket and
+lifting the lid.
+
+"Miss Annie!" exclaimed Uncle Isham. "Who she?"
+
+"Git out, Uncle Isham!" said Aunt Patsy, somewhat impatiently. "She was
+h'yar dis mawnin'."
+
+"Dat was Miss Null," said Isham.
+
+"Miss Annie all de same," said Aunt Patsy, "on'y growed up an' married.
+D'ye mean to stan' dar, Uncle Isham, an' tell me you don' know de little
+gal wot Mahs' John use ter carry in he arms ter feed de tukkies?"
+
+"She and she mudder dead long ago," said Isham. "You is pow'ful ole,
+Aun' Patsy, an' you done forgit dese things."
+
+"Done forgit nuffin," curtly replied the old woman. "Don' tell me no
+moh' fool stuff. Dat Miss Annie, growed up an' married."
+
+"Did she tell you dat?" asked Isham.
+
+"She didn't tell me nuffin'. She kep' her mouf shet 'bout dat, an' I
+kep' my mouf shet. Don' talk to me! Dat's Miss Annie, shuh as shootin'.
+Ef she hadn't fotch nuffin' 'long wid her but her eyes I'd a knowed dem;
+same ole eyes dey all had. An' 'sides dat, you fool Isham, ef she not
+Miss Annie, wot she come down h'yar fur?"
+
+"Neber thinked o' dat!" said Uncle Isham, reflectively. "Ef you's so
+pow'ful shuh, Aun' Patsy, I reckon dat _is_ Miss Annie. Couldn't 'spec
+me to 'member her. I wasn't much up at de house in dem times, an' she
+was took away 'fore I give much 'tention ter her."
+
+"Don' ole miss know she dar?" asked Aunt Patsy.
+
+'"She dunno nuffin' 'bout it," answered Isham. "She's stayin' away cos
+she think Mahs' Junius dar yit."
+
+"Why don' you tell her, now you knows it's Miss Annie wot's dar?"
+
+"You don' ketch me tellin her nuffin'," replied the old man shaking his
+head. "Wish you was spry 'nuf ter go, Aun' Patsy. She'd b'lieve you; an'
+she couldn't rar an' charge inter a ole pusson like you, nohow."
+
+"Ain't dar nobody else in dis h'yar place to go tell her?" asked Aunt
+Patsy.
+
+"Not a pusson," was Isham's decided answer.
+
+"Well den I _is_ spry 'nuf!" exclaimed Aunt Patsy, with a vigorous nod
+of her head which sent her spectacles down to her mouth, displaying a
+pair of little eyes sparkling with a fire, long thought to be extinct.
+"Ef you'll carry me dar, to Miss Harriet Corvey's, I'll tell ole miss
+myse'f. I didn't 'spec to go out dat dohr till de fun'ral, but I'll go
+dis time. I spected dar was sumfin' crooked when Miss Annie didn't tole
+me who she was. Ise not 'feared to tell ole miss, an' you jes' carry me
+up dar, Uncle Isham."
+
+"I'll do dat," said the old man, much delighted with the idea of doing
+something which he supposed would remove the clouds which overhung the
+household of his mistress. "I'll fotch de hoss an' de spring waggin an'
+dribe you ober dar."
+
+"No, you don' do no sech thing!" exclaimed Aunt Patsy, angrily. "I ain't
+gwine to hab no hosses to run away, an' chuck me out on de road. Ef you
+kin fotch de oxen an' de cart, I go 'long wid you, but I don' want no
+hosses."
+
+"Dat's fus' rate," said Isham. "I'll fotch de ox cart, an' carry you
+ober. When you want ter go?"
+
+"Dunno jes' now," said Aunt Patsy, pushing away a block of wood which
+served for a footstool, and making elaborate preparations to rise from
+her chair. "I'll sen' fur you when I's ready."
+
+The next morning was a very busy one for Aunt Patsy's son Tom's yellow
+boy Bob's child; and by afternoon it was necessary to send for two
+colored women from a neighboring cabin to assist in the preparations
+which Aunt Patsy was making for her projected visit. An old hair covered
+trunk, which had not been opened for many years, was brought out, and
+the contents exposed to the unaccustomed light of day; two coarse cotton
+petticoats were exhumed and ordered to be bleached and ironed; a yellow
+flannel garment of the same nature was put aside to be mended with some
+red pieces which were rolled up in it; out of several yarn stockings of
+various ages and lengths two were selected as being pretty much alike,
+and laid by to be darned; an old black frock with full "bishop sleeves,"
+a good deal mended and dreadfully wrinkled, was given to one of the
+neighbors, expert in such matters, to be ironed; and the propriety of
+making use of various other ancient duds was eagerly and earnestly
+discussed. Aunt Patsy, whose vitality had been wonderfully aroused, now
+that there was some opportunity for making use of it, spent nearly two
+hours turning over, examining, and reflecting upon a pair of
+old-fashioned corsets, which, although they had been long cherished, she
+had never worn. She now hoped that the occasion for their use had at
+last arrived but the utter impossibility of getting herself into them
+was finally made apparent to her, and she mournfully returned them to
+the trunk.
+
+Washing, starching, ironing, darning, patching, and an immense deal of
+talk and consultation, occupied that and a good deal of the following
+day, the rest of which was given up to the repairing of an immense pair
+of green baize shoes, without which Aunt Patsy could not be persuaded to
+go into the outer air. It was Saturday morning when she began to dress
+for the trip, and although Isham, wearing a high silk hat, and a long
+black coat which had once belonged to a clergyman, arrived with the ox
+cart about noon, the old woman was not ready to start till two or three
+hours afterward. Her assistants, who had increased in number, were
+active and assiduous. Aunt Patsy was very particular as to the manner of
+her garbing, and gave them a great deal of trouble. It had been fifteen
+years since she had set foot outside of her house, and ten more since
+she had ridden in any kind of vehicle. This was a great occasion, and
+nothing concerning it was to be considered lightly.
+
+"'Tain't right," she said to Uncle Isham when he arrived, "fur a pow'ful
+ole pusson like me to set out on a jarney ob dis kin' 'thout 'ligious
+sarvices. 'Tain't 'spectable."
+
+Uncle Isham rubbed his head a good deal at this remark. "Dunno wot we
+gwine to do 'bout dat," he said. "Brudder Jeemes lib free miles off, an'
+mos' like he's out ditchin'. Couldn't git him h'yar dis ebenin', nohow."
+
+"Well den," said Aunt Patsy, "you conduc' sarvices yourse'f, Uncle
+Isham, an' we kin have prar meetin', anyhow."
+
+Uncle Isham having consented to this, he put his oxen under the care of
+a small boy, and collecting in Aunt Patsy's room the five colored women
+and girls who were in attendance upon her, he conducted "prars," making
+an extemporaneous petition which comprehended all the probable
+contingencies of the journey, even to the accident of the right wheel of
+the cart coming off, which the old man very reverently asserted that he
+would have lynched with a regular pin instead of a broken poker handle,
+if he could have found one. After the prayer, with which Aunt Patsy
+signified her entire satisfaction by frequent Amens, the company joined
+in the vigorous singing of a hymn, in which they stated that they were
+"gwine down to Jurdun, an' tho' the road is rough, when once we shuh we
+git dar, we all be glad enough; de rocks an' de stones, an' de jolts to
+de bones will be nuffin' to de glory an' de jiy."
+
+The hymn over, Uncle Isham clapped on his hat, and hurried menacingly
+after the small boy, who had let the oxen wander along the roadside
+until one wheel of the cart was nearly in the ditch. Aunt Patsy now
+partook of a collation, consisting of a piece of hoe-cake dipped in pork
+fat, and a cup of coffee, which having finished, she declared herself
+ready to start. A chair was put into the cart, and secured by ropes to
+keep it from slipping; and then, with two women on one side and Uncle
+Isham on the other, while another woman stood in the cart to receive and
+adjust her, she was placed in position.
+
+Once properly disposed she presented a figure which elicited the lively
+admiration of her friends, whose number was now increased by the arrival
+of a couple of negro boys on mules, who were going to the post-office,
+it being Saturday, and mail day. Around Aunt Patsy's shoulders was a
+bright blue worsted shawl, and upon her head a voluminous turban of
+vivid red and yellow. Since their emancipation, the negroes in that part
+of the country had discarded the positive and gaudy colors that were
+their delight when they were slaves, and had transferred their fancy to
+delicate pinks, pale blues, and similar shades. But Aunt Patsy's ideas
+about dress were those of by-gone days, and she was too old now to
+change them, and her brightest handkerchief had been selected for her
+head on this important day. Above her she held a parasol, which had been
+graciously loaned by her descendant of the fourth generation. It was
+white, and lined with pink, and on the edges still lingered some
+fragments of cotton lace.
+
+Uncle Isham now took his position by the side of his oxen, and started
+them; and slowly creaking, Aunt Patsy's vehicle moved off, followed by
+the two boys on mules, three colored women and two girls on foot, and by
+two little black urchins who were sometimes on foot, but invariably on
+the tail of the cart when they could manage to evade the backward turn
+of Uncle Isham's eye.
+
+"Ef I should go to glory on de road, Uncle Isham," said Aunt Patsy, as
+the right wheel of the cart emerged from a rather awkward rut, "I don'
+want no fuss made 'bout me. You kin jes' bury me in de clothes I got
+on, 'cep'n de pararsol, ob course, which is Liza's. Jes' wrop de quilt
+all roun' me, an' hab a extry size coffin. You needn't do nuffin' more'n
+dat."
+
+"Oh, you's not gwine to glory dis time, Aun' Patsy," replied Uncle
+Isham, who did not want to encourage the idea of the old woman's
+departure from life while in his ox cart. But after this remark of the
+old woman he was extraordinarily careful in regard to jolts and bumps.
+
+When the procession reached the domain of Miss Harriet Corvey, there was
+gathered inside the yard quite a number of the usual attendants on mail
+days, awaiting the arrival of Wesley Green with his waddling horse and
+leather bag. But all interest in the coming of the mail was lost in the
+surprise and admiration excited by the astounding apparition of old Aunt
+Patsy in the ox cart, attended by her retinue. As the oxen, skilfully
+guided by Uncle Isham's long prod, turned into the yard, everybody came
+forward to find out the reason of this unlooked-for occurrence. Even old
+Madison Chalkley, his stout legs swaddled in home-made overalls,
+dismounted from his horse, and Colonel Iston raised his tall form from
+the porch step where he had been sitting, and approached the cart.
+
+"Upon my word," said a young fellow, with high boots, slouched hat, and
+a riding whip, "if here ain't old Aunt Patsy come after a letter! Where
+do you expect a letter from, Aunt Patsy?"
+
+The old woman fixed her spectacles on him for an instant, and then said
+in a clear voice which could be heard by all the little crowd: "'Tain't
+from nobody dat I owes any money to, nohow, Mahs' Bill Trimble."
+
+A general laugh followed this rejoinder, and Uncle Isham grinned with
+gratified pride in the enduring powers of his charge. The old woman now
+put down her parasol, and made as if she would descend from the cart.
+
+"You needn't git out, Aun' Patsy," said several negro boys at once.
+"We'll fotch your letters to you."
+
+"Git 'long wid you!" said the old woman angrily. "I didn't come here fur
+no letters. Ef I wanted letters I'd sen' 'Liza fur 'em. Git out de way."
+
+A chair was now brought, and placed near the cart; a woman mounted into
+the vehicle to assist her; Uncle Isham and another colored man stood
+ready to receive her, and Aunt Patsy began her descent. This, to her
+mind, was a much more difficult and dangerous proceeding than getting
+into the cart, and she was very slow and cautious about it. First, one
+of her great green baize feet was put over the tail of the cart, and
+resting her weight upon the two men, Aunt Patsy allowed it to descend to
+the chair, where it was gradually followed by the other foot. Having
+safely accomplished this much, the old woman ejaculated: "Bress de
+Lor'!" When, in the same prudent manner, she had reached the ground,
+she heaved a sigh of relief, and fervently exclaimed: "De Lor' be
+bressed!"
+
+Supported by Uncle Isham, and the other man, Aunt Patsy now approached
+the steps. She was so old, so little, so bowed, and so apparently
+feeble, that several persons remonstrated with her for attempting to go
+into the house when anything she wanted would be gladly done for her.
+"Much 'bliged," said the old woman, "but I don' want no letters nor
+nuffin'. I's come to make a call on de white folks, an' I's gwine in."
+
+This announcement was received with a laugh, and she was allowed to
+proceed without further hindrance. She got up the porch steps without
+much difficulty, her supporters taking upon themselves most of the
+necessary exertion; but when she reached the top, she dispensed with
+their assistance. Shuffling to the front door, she there met Miss
+Harriet Corvey, who greeted the old woman with much surprise, but shook
+hands with her very cordially.
+
+"Ebenin', Miss Har'et," said Aunt Patsy. And then, lowering her voice
+she asked: "Is ole miss h'yar?"
+
+Miss Harriet hesitated a moment, and then she answered: "Yes, she is,
+but I don't believe she'll come down to see you."
+
+"Oh, I'll go up-stars," said Aunt Patsy. "Whar she?"
+
+"She's in the spare chamber," said Miss Harriet; and Aunt Patsy, with a
+nod of the head signifying that she knew all about that room, crossed
+the hall, and began, slowly but steadily, to ascend the stairs. Miss
+Harriet gazed upon her with amazement, for Aunt Patsy had been considered
+chair-ridden when the postmistress was a young woman. Arrived at the end
+of her toilsome ascent, Aunt Patsy knocked at the door of the spare
+chamber, and as the voice of her old mistress said, "Come in!" she went
+in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+When Lawrence Croft reached the Green Sulphur Springs, after his
+interview with Miss March, his soul was still bubbling and boiling with
+emotion, and it continued in that condition all night, at least during
+that great part of the night of which he was conscious. The sight of the
+lady he loved, under the new circumstances in which he found her, had
+determined him to throw prudence and precaution to the winds, and to ask
+her at once to be his wife.
+
+But the next morning Lawrence arose very late. His coffee had evidently
+been warmed over, and his bacon had been cooked for a long, long time.
+The world did not appear to him in a favorable light, and he was obliged
+to smoke two cigars before he was at all satisfied with it. While he was
+smoking he did a good deal of thinking, and it was then that he came to
+the conclusion that he would not go over to Midbranch and propose to
+Roberta March. Such precipitate action would be unjust to himself and
+unjust to her. In her eyes it would probably appear to be the act of a
+man who had been suddenly spurred to action by the sight of a rival, and
+this, if Roberta was the woman he believed her to be, would prejudice
+her against him. And yet he knew very well that these reasons would
+avail nothing if he should see her as he intended. He had found that he
+was much more in love with her than he had supposed, and he felt
+positively certain that the next time he was alone with her he would
+declare his passion.
+
+Another thing that he felt he should consider was that the presence of
+Keswick, if looked upon with a philosophic eye, was not a reason for
+immediate action. If the old engagement had positively been broken off,
+he was at the house merely as a family friend; while, on the other hand,
+if the rupture had not been absolute, and if Roberta really loved this
+tall Southerner and wished to marry him, there was a feeling of honor
+about Lawrence which forbade him to interfere at this moment. When she
+came to New York he would find out how matters really stood, and then he
+would determine on his own action.
+
+And yet he would have proposed to Roberta that moment if he had had the
+opportunity. Her personal presence would have banished philosophy, and
+even honor.
+
+Lawrence was a long time in coming to these conclusions, and it was late
+in the afternoon when he despatched his note. Having now given up his
+North Carolina trip--one object of which had been still another visit to
+Midbranch on his return--he was obliged to wait until the next day for a
+train to the North; and, consequently, he had another evening to devote
+to reflections. These, after a time, became unsatisfactory. He had told
+the exact truth in his note to Roberta, for he felt that it was
+necessary for him to leave that part of the country in order to make
+impossible an interview for which he believed the proper time had not
+arrived. He was consulting his best interests, and also, no doubt, those
+of the lady. And yet, in spite of this reasoning, he was not satisfied
+with himself. He felt that his note was not entirely honest and true.
+There was subterfuge about it, and something of duplicity. This he
+believed was foreign to his nature, and he did not like it.
+
+Lawrence had scarcely finished his breakfast the next morning when Mr
+Junius Keswick arrived at the door of his cottage. This gentleman had
+walked over from Midbranch and was a little dusty about his boots and
+the lower part of his trousers. Lawrence greeted him politely, but was
+unable to restrain a slight indication of surprise. It being more
+pleasant on the porch than in the house, Mr Croft invited his visitor to
+take a seat there, and the latter very kindly accepted the cigar which
+was offered him, although he would have preferred the pipe he had in his
+pocket.
+
+"I thought it possible," said Keswick, as soon as the two had fairly
+begun to smoke, "that you might not yet have left here, and so came over
+in the hope of seeing you."
+
+"Very kind," said Lawrence.
+
+Keswick smiled. "I must admit," said he, "that it was not solely for the
+pleasure of meeting you again that I came, although I am very glad to
+have an opportunity for renewing our acquaintance. I came because I am
+quite convinced that Miss March wished very much to see you at the time
+arranged between you, and that she was annoyed and discomposed by your
+failure to keep your engagement. Considering that you did not, and
+probably could not, know this, I deemed I would do you a service by
+informing you of the fact."
+
+"Did Miss March send you to tell me this?" exclaimed Lawrence.
+
+"Miss March knows nothing whatever of my coming," was the answer.
+
+"Then I must say, sir," exclaimed Lawrence, "that you have taken a great
+deal upon yourself."
+
+Keswick leaned forward, and after knocking off the ashes of his cigar on
+the outside of the railing, he replied in a tone quite unmoved by the
+reproach of his companion: "It may appear so on the face of it, but, in
+fact I am actuated only by a desire to serve Miss March, for whom I
+would do any service that I thought she desired. And, looking at it from
+your side, I am sure that I would be very much obliged to any one who
+would inform me, if I did not know it, that a lady greatly wished to see
+me."
+
+"Why does she want to see me?" asked Croft. "What has she to say to me?"
+
+"I do not know," said Keswick. "I only know that she was very much
+disappointed in not seeing you yesterday."
+
+"If that is the case, she might have written to me," said Lawrence.
+
+"I do not think you quite understand the situation," observed his
+companion. "Miss March is not a lady who would even intimate to a
+gentleman that she wished him to come to her when it was obvious that
+such was not his desire. But it seemed to me that if the gentleman
+should become aware of the lady's wishes through the medium of a third
+party, the matter would arrange itself without difficulty."
+
+"By the gentleman going to her, I suppose," remarked Croft.
+
+"Of course," said Keswick.
+
+"There is no 'of course' about it," was Lawrence's rather quick reply.
+
+At that moment some letters were brought to him from a little
+post-office near by, to which he had ordered his mail to be forwarded.
+As the address on one of these letters caught his eye, the somewhat
+stern expression on his face gave place to a smile, and begging his
+visitor to excuse him, he put his other letters into his pocket, and
+opened this one. It was very short, and was from Mr Candy's cashier. It
+was written from Howlett's, Virginia, a place unknown to him, and stated
+that the writer expected in a very short time to give him some accurate
+information in regard to Mr Keswick, and expressed the hope that he
+would allow the affair to remain entirely in her hands until she should
+write again. It was quite natural that, under the circumstances,
+Lawrence should smile broadly as he folded up this note. The man in
+question was sitting beside him, and, in a measure, was turning the
+tables upon him. Lawrence had been very anxious to find out what sort
+of a man was Keswick, and the latter now seemed in the way of making
+some discoveries in the same line in regard to Lawrence. One thing he
+must certainly do; he must write as soon as possible to his enterprising
+agent, and tell her that her services were no longer needed. She must
+have pushed the matter with a great deal of energy to have brought her
+down to Virginia, and he could not help hoping that her discretion was
+equal to her investigative capacity.
+
+When, after this little interruption, Lawrence again addressed Junius
+Keswick his manner was so much more affable that the other could not
+fail but notice it.
+
+"Mr Keswick," he said, "as our conversation seems to be based upon
+personalities, perhaps you will excuse me if I ask you if I am mistaken
+in believing that you were once engaged to be married to Miss March?"
+
+"You are entirely correct," said Junius. "I was engaged to her, and I
+hope to be engaged to her again."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Croft, turning in his chair with a start.
+
+"Yes," continued Keswick, "our engagement was dissolved in consequence
+of a certain family complication, and as I said before, I hope in time
+to be able to renew it."
+
+Lawrence threw away his cigar, and sat for a few moments in thought. The
+engagement, then, did not exist. Roberta was free. Recollections came
+to him of his own intercourse with her during the past summer, and his
+heart gave a bound. "Mr Keswick," said he, "upon consideration of the
+matter I think I will call upon Miss March this morning."
+
+If Keswick had expressed himself entirely satisfied with this decision
+he would have done injustice to his feelings. The service he had taken
+upon himself to perform for Miss March he had considered a duty, but if
+his mission had failed he would have been better pleased than with its
+success. He made, however, a courteous reply to Croft's remark, and rose
+to depart. But this the other would not allow.
+
+"You told me," said Croft, "that you walked over here; but it is much
+warmer now, and you must not think of such a thing as walking back. The
+man here has a horse and buggy. I will get him to harness up, and I will
+drive you over to Midbranch."
+
+As there was no good reason why he should decline this offer, Junius
+accepted it, and in half an hour the two were on their way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+Old Mr Brandon of Midbranch was not in a very happy frame of mind, and
+he had good reasons for dissatisfaction. He was an ardent supporter of a
+marriage between his niece and Junius Keswick; and when the engagement
+had been broken off he had considered that both these young people had
+acted in a manner very foolish and contrary to their best interests.
+There was no opposition to the match except from old Mrs Keswick, who
+was the aunt of Junius, but who considered herself as occupying the
+position of a mother. Junius was the son of a sister who had also
+married into the Keswick family, and his parents having died while he
+was a boy, his aunt had taken him under her charge, and her house had
+then became his home; although of late years some of his absences had
+been long ones. Mrs Keswick had no personal objections to Roberta, never
+having seen that lady, and knowing little of her; but an alliance
+between her Junius and any member of that branch of the Brandons,
+"which," to use the old lady's own words, "had for four generations
+cheated, stripped, and scornfully used my people, scattering their atoms
+over the face of three counties," was monstrous. Nothing could make her
+consent to such an enormity, and she had informed Junius that if he
+married that March girl three of them should live together--himself, his
+wife, and her undying curse. In order that Miss March might not fail to
+hear of this post-connubial arrangement, she had been informed of it by
+letter. Of course this had broken off the engagement, for Roberta would
+not live under a curse, nor would she tear a man from the only near
+relative he had in the world. Keswick himself, like most men, would have
+been willing to have this tearing take place for the sake of uniting
+himself to such a charming creature as Roberta March. But the lady on
+one side was as inflexible as the lady on the other, and the engagement
+was definitely and absolutely ended.
+
+Mr Brandon considered all this as stuff and nonsense. He could not deny
+that his branch of the Brandons had certainly got a good deal out of Mrs
+Keswick's family. But here was a chance to make everything all right
+again, and he would be delighted to see Junius, a relative, although a
+distant one, come into possession of Midbranch. As for the old lady's
+opposition, that should not be considered at all, he thought. It was his
+opinion that her mind had been twisted by her bad temper, and nothing
+she could say could hurt anybody.
+
+Of late Mr Brandon had been much encouraged by the fact that Junius had
+begun to resume his position as a friend of the family. This was all
+very well. If the young people, by occasional meetings, could keep alive
+their sentiments toward each other, the time would come when all
+opposition would cease, and the marriage would become an assured fact.
+He did not believe either of the young people would care enough for a
+post-mortem curse, if there should be one, to keep themselves separated
+from each other on its account for the rest of their lives.
+
+But the recent quite unexpected return of Lawrence Croft to Midbranch,
+combined with the evident discomposure into which Roberta had been
+thrown by his failure to come the next day, had given the old gentleman
+some unpleasant ideas. His niece had mentioned that she expected Mr
+Croft that day, and although she said nothing in regard to her
+subsequent disappointment and vexation, his mind was quite acute enough
+to perceive it. Exactly what it all meant he knew not, but it augured
+danger. For the first time he began to look upon Mr Croft in the light
+of a suitor for Roberta. If a jealous feeling at finding another person
+on the ground was the cause of his not coming again, it showed that he
+was in earnest, and this, added to the evident disturbance of mind of
+both Roberta and Junius, was enough to give Mr Brandon most serious
+fears that an obstacle to his cherished plan was arising. Roberta was
+fond of city life, of society, of travel, and if she had really made up
+her mind that her union with Junius was no longer to be thought of, the
+advent of a man like Croft, who had been making her acquaintance all
+summer, and who had now returned to Virginia, no doubt for the sole
+purpose of seeing her again was, to say the least, exceedingly ominous.
+One thing only could correct this deplorable state of affairs. The
+absurd bar to the union of Junius and Roberta should be removed, and
+they should be allowed to enter upon the happiness that was their right.
+
+Above all, the estate of Midbranch should not be suffered to go into the
+possession of an outsider, who might be good enough, but who was of no
+earthly moment or interest to the Brandons. He would go himself, and see
+the widow Keswick, and talk her out of her nonsense. It was a long time
+since he had met the old wild cat, as he termed her, and his
+recollection of the last interview was not pleasant, but he was not
+afraid of her, and he hoped that the common sense of what he would say
+would bring her to reason.
+
+Mr Brandon made up his mind during the night; and when he came down to
+breakfast he was very glad to find that Junius had already gone out for
+a walk. The distance to the widow Keswick's house was about fifteen
+miles, a pleasant day's ride for the old gentleman, and as he did not
+expect to return until the next day, he felt obliged to inform Roberta
+of his destination, although, of course, he said nothing about the
+object of his visit. He told his niece that he was obliged to see the
+widow Keswick on business, to which remark she listened without reply.
+
+Soon after breakfast he mounted his good horse, Albemarle, and early in
+the afternoon he arrived at the widow Keswick's gate. He had looked for
+a stormy reception, in which the thunder-bolts of rage should burst
+around him, and he was surprised, therefore, to be received with the
+frigidity of the North Pole.
+
+"I never expected," she said, without any previous courtesy, "to see one
+of your people under my roof, and it is not very long ago since I would
+have gone away from it the moment any one of you came near it."
+
+"I am happy, madam," said Mr Brandon, in his most courteous manner,
+"that that day is past."
+
+"My staying won't do you any good," said the old lady, whose purple
+sun-bonnet seemed to heave with the uprisal of her hair, "except,
+perhaps, to get you a better meal than the servants would have given
+you. But I want a lawyer, and I can't afford to pay for one either, and
+when I saw you coming I just made up my mind to get something out of
+you, and if I do it, it'll be the first red mark for my side of the
+family."
+
+Mr Brandon assured her that nothing would give him more pleasure than to
+assist her in any way in his power.
+
+"Very well, then," said Mrs Keswick, "just sit down on that bench, and,
+when we have got through, your horse can be taken, and you can rest a
+while, though it seems a very curious thing that you should want to stop
+here to rest."
+
+"Well, madam," said Mr Brandon, seating himself as comfortably as
+possible on a wooden bench, "I shall be happy to hear anything you have
+to say."
+
+The old lady did not sit down, but stood up in front of him, leaning on
+her umbrella, with which faithful companion she had been about to set
+out on her walk. "When my son Junius came home a while ago--" she began.
+
+"Do you still call him your son?" interrupted Mr Brandon.
+
+"Indeed I do!" was the very prompt answer. "That's just what he is. And,
+as I was going to say, when he wrote me a short time ago that he was
+coming here, I believed, from his letter, that he had some scheme on
+hand in regard to your niece, and I made up my mind I wouldn't stay in
+the house to hear anything more said on that subject. I had told him
+that I never wanted him to say another word about it; and it made my
+blood boil, sir, to think that he had come again to try to cozen me into
+the vile compact."
+
+"Madam!" exclaimed Mr Brandon.
+
+"The next day," continued Mrs Keswick, "a lady arrived; and as soon as I
+saw her drive into the gate I felt sure it was Roberta March, and that
+the two had hatched up a plot to come and work on my feelings, and so I
+wouldn't come near the house."
+
+"Madam!" exclaimed Mr Brandon, "how could you dream such a thing of my
+niece? You don't know her, madam."
+
+"No," said the old lady, "I don't know her, but I knew she belonged to
+your family, and so I was not to be surprised at anything she did. But I
+found out I was mistaken. An old negro woman recognized this young
+person as the daughter of my younger sister you know there were three of
+us. The child was born and raised here, but I have not seen and have
+scarcely heard of her since she was eight years old."
+
+"That's very extraordinary, madam," said Mr Brandon.
+
+"No, it isn't, when you consider the stubbornness, the obstinacy, and
+the wickedness of some people. My sister sickened when the child was
+about six years old, and her husband, Harvey Peyton--"
+
+"I have frequently heard of him, madam," said Mr Brandon.
+
+"And I wish I never had," said she. "Well, he was travelling most of the
+time, a thing my sister couldn't do; but he came here then and stayed,
+off and on, till she died. And not long afterward, just because I told
+him that I intended to consider the child as my child, and that she
+should have the name of Keswick instead of his name, and should know me
+as her mother, and live with me always, he got angry and flared up, and
+actually took the child away. I gave it to him hot, I can tell you,
+before he left, and I never saw him again. He was so eaten up with rage
+because I wanted to take the little Annie for my own, that he filled her
+mind with such prejudices against me that when he died a year or two
+ago, she actually went to work to get her own living instead of applying
+to me for help. But now she has come down here, and I was really filled
+with joy to have her again and carry out the plan on which my heart had
+long been set--that is to marry her to her cousin Junius, and let them
+have this farm when I am gone,----?"
+
+At this Mr Brandon raised his eyebrows, and lowered the corners of his
+mouth.
+
+"But I suddenly discover," continued the old, lady, "that the little
+wretch is married--actually married."
+
+At this Mr Brandon lowered his eyebrows and raised the corners of his
+mouth. "Did her husband come with her?" he asked, pleasantly. And he
+gave a few long, free breaths as if he had just passed in safety a very
+dangerous and unsuspected rock.
+
+"No, he didn't," replied the old lady. "I don't know where he is, and,
+from what I can make out, he is an utterly good-for-nothing fellow,
+allowing his wife to go where she pleases, and take care of herself. Now
+this abominable marriage stands square in the way of the plan which
+again rose up in my mind the moment I heard that the girl was in my
+house. If Junius and she should marry, there would be no more dangers
+for me to look out for."
+
+"But the existence of a husband," said Mr Brandon blandly, "puts an end
+to all thoughts of such an alliance."
+
+"No it don't," said the old lady, bringing her umbrella down with force
+on the porch. "Not a bit of it. Such an outrageous marriage should not
+be suffered to exist. They should be divorced. He does nothing for her,
+and neglects and deserts her absolutely. There's every ground for a
+divorce, or enough grounds, at any rate. All that's necessary is for a
+lawyer to take it up. I don't know any lawyers, and when I saw you
+riding up from the road gate I said to myself: 'Here's the very man I
+want,--and it's full time I should get something from people who have
+taken nearly everything from me.'"
+
+Mr Brandon bowed.
+
+"And now," continued the old lady, "I am going to put the case into your
+hands. The man is, evidently, a good-for-nothing scoundrel, and has
+probably spent the little money that her miserable father left her. It's
+a clear case of desertion, and there should be no trouble at all in
+getting the divorce."
+
+Mr Brandon looked down upon the floor of the porch, and smiled. This was
+a pretty case, he thought, to put into his hands. Here was a marriage
+which was the strongest protection in the promotion of his own plan, and
+he was asked to annul it. "Very good," thought Mr Brandon, "very good."
+And he smiled again. But he was an old-fashioned gentleman, and not used
+to refuse requests made to him by ladies. "I will look into it, madam,"
+said he. "I will look into it, and see what can be done."
+
+"Something must be done," said the old lady; "and the right thing too.
+How long do you intend to stay here?"
+
+"I thought of spending the night, madam, as my horse and myself are
+scarcely in condition to continue our journey to-day."
+
+"Stay as long as you like," said Mrs Keswick. "I turn nobody from my
+doors, even if they belong to the Brandon family. I want you to talk to
+my niece, and get all you can out of her about this thing, and then you
+can go to work and blot out this contemptible marriage as soon as
+possible."
+
+"The first thing," said Mr Brandon, "will be to talk to the lady."
+
+This reply being satisfactory to Mrs Keswick, Uncle Isham was called to
+take the horse and attend to him, while the master was invited into the
+house.
+
+Mr Brandon first met Mrs Null at supper time, and her appearance very
+much pleased him. "It is not likely," he said to himself, "that the man
+lives who would willingly give up such a charming young creature as
+this." They were obliged to introduce themselves to each other, as the
+lady of the house had not yet appeared. After a while Letty, who was in
+attendance, advised them to sit down as "de light bread an' de
+batter-bread was gittin' cole."
+
+"We could not think of such a thing as sitting at table before Mrs
+Keswick arrives," said Mr Brandon.
+
+"Oh, dar's no knowin' when she'll come," said the blooming Letty. "She
+may be h'yar by breakfus time, but dar ain't nobuddy in dis yere worl'
+kin tell. She's down at de bahn now, blowin' up Plez fur gwine to sleep
+when he was a shellin' de cohnfiel' peas. An' when she's got froo wid
+him she's got a bone to pick wid Uncle Isham 'bout de gyardin'. 'Tain't
+no use waitin' fur ole miss. She nebber do come when de bell rings. She
+come when she git ready, an' not afore."
+
+Mr Brandon now felt quite sure that it was the intention of his hostess
+not to break bread with one of his family, and so he seated himself, Mrs
+Null taking the head of the table and pouring out the tea and coffee.
+
+"It has been a long time, madam, since you were in this part of the
+country," said the old gentleman, as he drew the smoking batter-bread
+toward him and began to cut it.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs Null, "not since I was a little girl. I suppose you have
+heard, sir, that Aunt Keswick and my father were on very bad terms, and
+would not have anything to do with each other?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Mr Brandon, "I have heard that."
+
+"But my father is not living now, and I am down here again."
+
+"And your husband? He did not accompany you?" said Mr Brandon.
+
+"No," replied Mrs Null, very quickly. "We were both very sorry that it
+was not possible for him to come with me."
+
+Mr Brandon's spirits began to rise. This did not look quite like
+desertion. "I have no doubt you have a very good husband. I am sure you
+deserve such a one," he said with the air of a father, and the purpose
+of a lawyer.
+
+"Good!" exclaimed Mrs Null, her eyes sparkling.
+
+"He couldn't be better if he tried! Will you have sweet milk, or
+buttermilk?"
+
+"Buttermilk, if you please," said Mr Brandon. "Of course your aunt was
+delighted to have you with her again."
+
+"Oh," said Mrs Null, with a laugh, "she was not at home when I arrived,
+but when she returned nothing could be too good for me. Why, she had
+been here scarcely half an hour, and hadn't taken off her sun-bonnet,
+before she told me I was to marry Junius and we two were to have this
+farm."
+
+"A very pleasant plan, truly," said Mr Brandon.
+
+"But then, you see," continued the young girl, "Mr Null stood dreadfully
+in the way of such an arrangement; and when Aunt Keswick heard about him
+you can't imagine what a change came over her."
+
+"Oh, yes I can; yes I can," exclaimed Mr Brandon--"I can imagine it
+very well."
+
+"But she didn't give up a bit," said Mrs Null. "I don't think she ever
+does give up."
+
+"You are right, there," said Mr Brandon, "quite right. But what does she
+propose to do?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure; but she said I had no right to marry without
+the consent of my surviving relatives, and that she was going to look
+into it. I can't think what she means by that."
+
+Mr Brandon made no immediate answer. He gave Mrs Null some damson
+preserves, and he took some himself, and then he helped himself to a
+great hot roll, from a plate that Letty had just brought in, and
+carefully opening it he buttered it on the inside, and covered one-half
+of it with the damson preserves. This he began slowly to eat, drinking
+at times from the foaming glass of buttermilk at the side of his plate,
+from which the coffee-cup had been removed. When he had finished the
+half roll he again spoke. "I think, my dear young lady, that your aunt
+is desirous of having your marriage set aside."
+
+"How can she do that?" exclaimed the girl, her face flushing. "Has she
+been talking to you about it?"
+
+"I cannot deny that she has spoken to me on the subject," he answered,
+"I being a lawyer. But I will say to you, in strict confidence, please,
+that if you and your husband are sincerely attached to each other there
+is nothing on earth she can do to separate you."
+
+"Attached!" exclaimed Mrs Null. "It would be impossible for us to be
+more attached than we are. We never have had the slightest difference,
+even of opinion, since our wedding day. Why, I believe that we are more
+like one person than any married couple in the world."
+
+"I am very glad to hear it," said Mr Brandon, finishing his
+buttermilk--"very glad indeed. And, feeling as you do, I am certain
+that nothing your aunt can say will make any impression on you in regard
+to seeking a divorce."
+
+"I should think not!" said Mrs Null, sitting up very straight. "Divorce
+indeed!"
+
+"I fully uphold you in the stand you have taken," said Mr Brandon. "But
+I beg you will not mention this conversation to your aunt. It would only
+annoy her. Is your cousin expected here shortly?"
+
+"I believe so," she said. "To be sure, my aunt left the house the last
+time he came, but she has his address, and has written for him. I think
+she wants us to get acquainted as soon as possible, so that no time will
+be lost in marrying us after poor Mr Null is disposed of."
+
+"Very good, very good," said Mr Brandon with a laugh. "And now, my dear
+young friend, I want to give you a piece of advice. Stay here as long as
+you can. Your aunt will soon perceive the absurdity of her ideas in
+regard to your husband, and will cease to annoy you. Make a friend of
+your cousin Junius, whom I know and respect highly; and he certainly
+will be of advantage to you. Above all things, endeavor to thoroughly
+reconcile him and Mrs Keswick, so that she will cease to oppose his
+wishes, and to interfere with his future fortune. If you can bring back
+good feeling between these two, you will be the angel of the family."
+
+"Thank you," said Mrs Null, as they rose from the table.
+
+The next morning, after Mr Brandon and Mrs Null had breakfasted
+together, the mistress of the house, having apparently finished the
+performance of the duties which had kept her from the breakfast-table,
+had some conversation with her visitor. In this he repeated very little
+of what he had said to the younger lady the night before, but he
+assured Mrs Keswick that he had discovered that it would be a very
+delicate thing to propose to her niece a divorce from her husband, a
+thing to which she was not at all inclined, as he had found.
+
+"Of course not! of course not!" exclaimed Mrs Keswick. "She can't be
+expected to see what a wretched plight she has got herself into by
+marrying this straggler from nobody knows where."
+
+"But, madam," said Mr Brandon, "if you worry her about it, she will
+leave you, and then all will be at an end. Now, let me advise you as
+your lawyer. Keep her here as long as you can. Do everything possible to
+foster friendship and good feeling between her and Junius; and to do
+this you must forget as far as possible all that has gone by, and be
+friendly with both of them yourself."
+
+"Humph!" said the widow Keswick. "I didn't ask you for advice of that
+sort."
+
+"It is all a part of the successful working of the case, madam," said Mr
+Brandon. "A thorough good feeling must be established before anything
+else can be done."
+
+"I suppose so," said the old lady. "She must learn to like us before she
+begins to hate him. And how about your niece? Are you going to send her
+down here to help on in the good feeling?"
+
+"I have not brought my niece into this affair," replied Mr Brandon, with
+dignity.
+
+"Well, then, see that you don't," was the widow Keswick's reply. And the
+interview terminated.
+
+When Mr Brandon rode away on his good horse Albemarle, he looked at the
+post of the road gate from which he was lifting the latch by means of
+the long wooden handle arranged for the convenience of riders, and said
+to himself: "John Keswick was a good man, but I don't wonder he came out
+here and shot himself. It is a great pity though that it wasn't his wife
+who did it, instead of him. That would have been a blessing to all of
+us. But," he added, contemplatively, as he closed the gate, "the people
+in this world who ought to blow out their brains, never do."
+
+Soon after he had gone, Mrs Null went up Pine Top Hill, and sat down on
+the rock to have a "think." "Now, then, Freddy," she said, "everything
+depends on you. If you don't stand by me I am lost--that is to say, I
+must go away from here before Junius comes; and you know I don't want to
+do that. I want to see him on my account, and on his account too; but I
+don't want him crammed down my throat for a husband the moment he
+arrives, and that is just what will happen if you don't do your duty, Mr
+Null. Even if it wasn't for you, I don't want to look at him from the
+husband point of view, because, of course, he is a very different person
+from what he used to be, and is a total stranger to me.
+
+"It is actually more than twelve years since I have seen him, and
+besides that, he is just as good as engaged to that niece of Mr
+Brandon's, who is a horrible mixture of a she-wolf and a female mule, if
+I am to believe Aunt Keswick, but I expect she is, truly, a very nice
+girl. Though, to be sure, she can't have much spirit if she consented to
+break off her marriage just on account of the back-handed benediction
+which Aunt Keswick told me she offered her as a wedding gift. If I had
+wanted to marry a man I would have let the old lady curse the heels off
+her boots before I would have paid any attention to her. Cursing don't
+hurt anybody but the curser.
+
+"What I want of Junius is to make a friend of him, if he turns out to be
+the right kind of a person, and to tell him about this Mr Croft who is
+so anxious to find him. The only person I have met yet who seems like an
+ordinary Christian is old Mr Brandon, and he's a sly one, I'm afraid.
+Aunt Keswick thinks he stopped here on his way somewhere, but I don't
+believe a word of it. I believe he came for reasons of his own, and went
+right straight back again. You are almost as much to him, Freddy, as you
+are to me. It would have made you laugh if you could have seen how his
+face lighted up when he heard we were happy together, and that I would
+not listen to a divorce. And yet I am sure he has promised Aunt Keswick
+to see what he can do about getting one. He wants me to stay here and
+make friends of Aunt Keswick and Junius, but he wouldn't like that if it
+were not for you, Mr Null. You make everything safe for him.
+
+"And now, Freddy, I tell you again, that all depends upon you. If I'm to
+stay here--and I want to do that, for a time any way, for although Aunt
+Keswick is so awfully queer, she's my own aunt, and that's more than I
+can say for anybody else in the world--you must stiffen up, and stand by
+me. It won't do to give way for a minute. If necessary you must take
+tonics, and have a steel rod down your back, if you can't keep yourself
+erect without it. You must have your legs padded, and your chest thrown
+out; and you must stand up very strong and sturdy, Freddy, and not let
+them push you an inch this way or that. And now that we have made up our
+minds on this subject, we'll go down, for it's getting a little cool on
+the top of this hill."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+On the morning of her uncle's departure from Midbranch, Roberta came out
+on the porch, and took her seat in a large wooden arm-chair, putting
+down her key basket on the floor beside her. The day was bright and
+sunny, and the shadows of two or three turkey buzzards, who were
+circling in the air, moved over the field in front of the house. In this
+field also moved, not so fast, nor so gracefully as the shadows, two
+ploughs, one near by, and the other at quite a distance. The woods which
+shut out a great part of the horizon showed many a bit of color, but the
+scene, although bright enough in some of its tones, was not a cheering
+one to Roberta; and she needed cheering.
+
+Had it not been for the delay of her father in making his winter visit
+to New York, she would now be in that city, but if things had gone on as
+she expected they would, she would have been perfectly satisfied to
+remain several weeks longer at Midbranch. Junius Keswick, who had not
+visited the house for a long time, had come to them again; and, now that
+the subject of love and marriage had been set aside, it was charming to
+have him there as a friend. They not only walked in the woods, but they
+took long rides over the country, Mr Brandon having waived his
+objections in regard to his niece riding about with gentlemen. She had
+even been pleased with the unexpected return of Lawrence Croft, for, for
+reasons of her own, she wished very much to have a talk with him. But he
+had not fulfilled his promise to her, and had gone away in a very
+unsatisfactory manner.
+
+This morning she felt a little lonely, too, for Junius had left the
+place before breakfast, and she did not know where he had gone; and her
+uncle had actually ridden away to see that horrible widow Keswick,
+merely stating that his errand was a business one, and that he would be
+back the next day. Roberta knew that there had been a great deal of
+business, particularly that of an unpleasant kind, between the two
+families, but she did not believe that there was any ordinary affair
+concerning dollars and cents which would require the presence of her
+uncle at the house of his old enemy. She was very much afraid that he
+had gone there to try to smooth up matters in regard to Junius and
+herself. The thought of this made her indignant. She did not know what
+her uncle would say, and she did not want him to say anything. He could
+not make the horrible old creature change her mind in regard to the
+marriage, and if this was not done, there was no use discussing the
+matter at all, and she did not wish people to think she was anxious for
+the match.
+
+It was plain, however, that her uncle's desire for it had experienced a
+strong revival; and the unexpected return of Lawrence Croft had probably
+had a great effect on him. He had not objected to the visits of that
+gentleman during the summer, but he had never shown any strong liking
+for him, and Roberta said to herself that she could not see, for her
+part, why this should be; Mr Croft was a thorough gentleman, an
+exceedingly well educated and agreeable man.
+
+As to Junius, she was afraid that he had not the spirit which she used
+to think he possessed. There was something about him she could not
+understand. In former days, when Junius was in New York, she compared
+him with the young men there, very much to his advantage, but now Mr
+Croft seemed to throw him somewhat in the background. When Croft wanted
+to do anything he did it; even his failure to come to her when he said
+he would do so showed strength of will. If Junius had promised to come
+he would have come, even if he had not wanted to do so, and there would
+have been something weak about that.
+
+While she thus sat thinking, and gazing over the landscape, she saw afar
+off, on a portion of the road which ran along-side the woods, a vehicle
+slowly making its way to the house. Roberta had large and beautiful
+eyes, but they were not of the kind which would enable her to discover
+at so great a distance what sort of vehicle this was, and who was in it.
+As the road led nowhere but to Midbranch she was naturally desirous to
+know who was coming. She stepped into the hall, and, taking a small
+bell, rang it vigorously, and in a moment her youthful handmaiden,
+Peggy, appeared upon the scene. Peggy's habit of projecting her eyes
+into the far away could often be turned to practical account for her
+vision was, in a measure, telescopic.
+
+"What is that coming here along the road?" asked Miss Roberta, stepping
+upon the porch, and pointing out the distant vehicle.
+
+Peggy stood up straight, let her arms hang close to her sides, and
+looked steadfastly forth. "Wot's comin', Miss Rob," said she, "is the
+buggy 'longin' to Mister Michaels, at de Springs, an' his ole
+mud-colored hoss is haulin' it. Dem dat's in it is Mahs' Junius an'
+Mister Crof'."
+
+"Are you sure of that?" exclaimed Miss Roberta in astonishment. "Look
+again."
+
+"Yaas'm," replied Peggy. "I's sartin shuh. But dey jes gwine behin' de
+trees now."
+
+The road was not again visible for some distance, but when the buggy
+reappeared Peggy gave a start, and exclaimed: "Dar's on'y one pusson in
+it now, Miss Rob."
+
+"Which is it?" exclaimed her mistress quickly, shading her eyes, and
+endeavoring to see for herself.
+
+"It's Mister Crof'," said Peggy. "Mahs' Junius mus' done gone back."
+
+"It is too bad!" exclaimed Miss Roberta. "I will not see him. Peggy,"
+she said, snatching up the key basket, and stepping toward the hall
+door, "when that gentleman, Mr Croft, comes, you must tell him that I am
+up-stairs lying down, that I am not well, and cannot see him, and that
+your Master Robert is not at home."
+
+"Ef Mahs' Junius come, does you want me to tell him de same thing?"
+
+"But you said he was not in the buggy," said her mistress.
+
+"No'm," answered Peggy, "but p'raps he done cut acrost de plough fiel',
+an' git h'yar fus'."
+
+"If he comes first," said Miss Roberta, a shade of severity pervading
+her handsome features, "I want to see him." And with this, she went
+up-stairs.
+
+Peggy, with her shoes on, possessed the stolid steadiness of a wooden
+grenadier, for the heaviness of the massive boots seemed to permeate her
+whole being, and communicated what might be considered a slow and heavy
+footfall to her intellect. Peggy, without shoes, was a panther on two
+legs, and her mind, like her body, was capable of enormous leaps.
+Slipping off her heavy brogans, she made a single bound, and stood upon
+the railing of the porch, and, throwing her arm around a post, gazed
+forth from this point of vantage.
+
+"Bress my eberlastin' soul!" she exclaimed, "if Mister Crof ain't got
+ter de road gate, and is a waitin' dar fur somebody to come open it!
+Does he think anybody gwine to see him all de way from de house, and
+come open de gate? Reckin' he don' know dat ole mud-color hoss. He
+mought git out and let down de whole fence, an' dat ole hoss ud nebber
+move. Bress my soul moh' p'intedly! ef Mahs' Junius ain't comin' 'long
+ter open de gate!"
+
+For a few moments Peggy stood and stared, her mind not capable of
+grasping this astounding situation. "No, he ain't nudder!" she presently
+exclaimed with an air of relief. "Mahs' Junius done tole him dat ef he
+want dat gate open he better git down and open it hese'f. Dat's right
+Mahs' Junius! Stick up to dat! Dar go Mahs' Junius into de woods an'
+Mister Crof' he git out, an' go after him. Dey's gwine to fight, sartin,
+shuh! Lordee! wot fur dey 'low dem bushes ter grow 'long de fence to
+keep folks from seein' wot's gwine on!"
+
+There was nothing now to be seen from the railing, and Peggy jumped down
+on the porch. Her activity seemed to pervade her being. She ran down the
+front steps, crossed the lawn, and mounted the stile. Here she could
+catch sight of the two men who seemed to be disputing. This was too much
+for Peggy. If there was to be a fight she wanted to see it; and, apart
+from her curiosity, she had a loyal interest in the event. Down the
+steps, and along the road she went at the top of her speed, and soon
+reached the gate. Her arrival was not noticed by any one except the
+mud-colored horse, who gazed at her inquiringly; and looking through the
+bars, without opening the gate, Peggy had a good view of the gentlemen.
+
+The situation was a more simple one than Peggy had imagined. The road,
+for the last half mile, had been an up-hill one, and Keswick, as much to
+stretch his own legs as to save those of the horse, had alighted to
+walk, while Lawrence, as in duty bound, had waited for him at the gate.
+Here a little argument had arisen. Keswick, who did not wish to be at the
+house, or indeed about the place while Roberta was having her conference
+with Mr Croft, had said that he had concluded not to go up to the house at
+present, but would take a walk through the woods instead. Lawrence, who
+thought he divined his reason, felt an honorable indisposition to accept
+this advantage at the hands of a man who was, most indisputably, his
+rival. If they went together it would not appear as if he had waited for
+Keswick's absence to return; and there would still be no reason why he
+should not have his private walk and talk with Miss March.
+
+At all events, it seemed to him unfair to leave Keswick at the gate
+while he went up to the house by himself, and the notion of it did not
+please him at all. Keswick, however, was very resolute in his
+opposition. He objected even to seeing Roberta and Croft together. He
+thought, besides, if he and Croft came to the house at the same time it
+would appear very much as if he, Junius, had brought the other, and this
+was an appearance he wished very much to avoid. He had walked away, and
+Lawrence had jumped from the buggy to continue the friendly argument
+which was not finished when Peggy arrived. Almost immediately after this
+event Keswick positively insisted that he would go for a walk, and
+Lawrence reluctantly turned toward the vehicle.
+
+Peggy's mind was filled with horror. Master Junius had been frightened
+away, and the other man was coming up to the house! She could not stand
+there and allow such a catastrophe. Jerking open the gate, she rushed
+into the road and confronted Keswick.
+
+"Mahs' Junius," she exclaimed, "Miss Rob's orful sick wid her back an'
+her j'ints, an' she say she can't see no kump'ny folks, an' Mahs' Robert
+he done gone away to see ole Miss Keswick. I jes run down h'yar to tell
+you to hurry up."
+
+Keswick started. "Where did you say your Master Robert had gone?"
+
+"To ole Miss Keswick's. He went dis mawnin'."
+
+Junius turned slightly pale, and addressing Mr Croft, said: "Something
+very strange must have happened here! Miss March is ill, and Mr Brandon
+has gone to a place to which I think nothing but a matter of the utmost
+importance could take him."
+
+"In that case," said Mr Croft, "it will be highly improper for me to go
+to the house just now. I am very glad that I heard the news before I got
+there. I will return to the Springs, and will call to-morrow and inquire
+after Miss March's health. Do not let me detain you as your presence is
+evidently much needed at the house."
+
+"Thank you," said Keswick, hurriedly shaking hands with him. "I am
+afraid something very unexpected has happened, and so beg you will
+excuse me. Good-morning." And passing through the gateway, he rapidly
+strode toward the house, while Lawrence prepared to turn his horse's
+head toward the Springs.
+
+But, although Junius Keswick walked rapidly, Peggy, who had started
+first for the house, kept well in advance of him. Away she went,
+skipping, running, dancing. Once she stopped and turned, and saw that
+the buggy, with the mud-colored horse, was being driven away, and that
+Master Junius was coming along the road to the house. Then she started
+off, and ran steadily, the rapid show of the light-colored soles of her
+feet behind her suggestive of a steamer's wake. Up the broad stile she
+went, two steps at a time, and down the other side in a couple of jumps;
+a dozen skips took her across the lawn; and she bounded up to the porch
+as if each wooden step had been a springing board. She rushed up-stairs,
+and stood at the open door of Miss Roberta's room where that lady
+reclined upon a lounge.
+
+"Hi', Miss Rob!" she exclaimed, involuntarily snapping her fingers as
+she spoke. "Mahs' Junius comin', all by hese'f, an' I done sent de udder
+gemman clean off, kitin'!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Junius Keswick was received by Miss Roberta in the parlor. Her face was
+colder and sterner than he had ever seen it before, and his countenance
+was very much troubled. Each wished to speak first, and ask questions,
+but the lady went immediately to the front.
+
+"How did it happen that you and Mr Croft were coming here together?
+Where had you been?"
+
+"We came from the Green Sulphur Springs, where I called on him this
+morning."
+
+"I thought he was obliged to return immediately to the North. What made
+him change his mind?"
+
+"Perhaps it will be better not to discuss that now," said Junius.
+
+"I wish to discuss it," was the reply. "What induced him not to go?"
+
+"I did," answered Junius, looking steadfastly at her. "Did you not wish
+to see him?"
+
+For a moment Miss Roberta did not answer, but her face grew pale, and
+she threw herself back in the chair in which she was sitting. "Never in
+my life," she said, "have I been subjected to such mortification! Of
+course I wished him to come, but to come of his own accord, and not at
+my bidding. How do you suppose I would have felt if he had presented
+himself, and asked me what I wished to say to him? It is an insult you
+have offered me."
+
+"It is not an insult," said Keswick quietly. "It was a service of--of
+affection. I saw that you were annoyed and troubled by Mr Croft's
+failure to keep his engagement, and what I did was simply--"
+
+"Stop!" said Roberta peremptorily. "I do not wish to talk of it any
+more."
+
+Junius stood before her a moment in silence, and then he said: "Will you
+tell me if my Aunt Keswick is ill or dead, and why did Mr Brandon go
+there?"
+
+"She is neither;" answered Roberta, "and he went there on business." And
+with this she arose and left the room.
+
+Peggy, who had been in the hall, now made a bolt down the back stairs
+into the basement regions, where was situated the kitchen. In this
+spacious apartment she found Aunt Judy, the cook, sitting before a large
+wood fire, and holding in her hand a long iron ladle. There was nothing
+near her which she could dip or stir with a ladle, and it was probably
+retained during her period of leisure as a symbol of her position and
+authority.
+
+Peggy squatted on her heels, close to Aunt Judy's side, and thus
+addressed her: "Aun' Judy, ef I tell you sumfin', soul an' honor, hope
+o' glory, you'll neber tell?"
+
+"Hope o' glory, neber!" said Aunt Judy, turning a look of interest on
+the girl.
+
+"Well, den, look h'yar. You know Miss Rob she got two beaux; one is
+Mahs' Junius, an' de udder is de gemman wid de speckle trousers from de
+Norf."
+
+"Yes, I know dat," said Aunt Judy. "Has dey fit?"
+
+"Not yit, but dey wos gwine to," said Peggy, "but I seed 'em, an' I tore
+down de road to de gate whar dey wos gittin ready to fight, an' I jes'
+let dat dar Mister Crof' know wot low-down white trash Miss Rob think he
+wos, an' den he said ef dat war so 'twant no use fur to come in, an' he
+turn' roun' de buggy, an' cl'ar'd out. Den Mahs' Junius he come to de
+house, an' dar Miss Rob in de parlor waitin' fur him. I stood jes'
+outside de doh', so's to be out de way, but Mahs' Junius he kinder back
+agin de doh', an' shet it. But I clap'd my year ter de crack, an' I hear
+eberything dey said."
+
+"Wot dey say?" asked Aunt Judy, her mouth open, her eyes dilated, and
+the long ladle trembling in her hand.
+
+"Mahs' Junius he say to Miss Rob that he lub her better'n his own skin,
+or de clouds in de sky, or de flowers in de fiel' wot perish, an' dat de
+udder man he done cut an' run, an' would she be Miss Junius all de res'
+ob der libes foreber an' eber, amen?"
+
+"Dat wos pow'ful movin'!" ejaculated Aunt Judy. "An' wot did Miss Rob
+say?"
+
+"Miss Rob she say, 'I 'cept your kind offer, sah, wid pleasure.' An' den
+I hearn 'em comin', an' I cut down h'yar."
+
+"Glory! Hallelujah!" exclaimed Aunt Judy, bringing her ladle down upon
+the brick hearth. "Now is I ready to die when my time comes, fur Mahs'
+Junius 'll have dis farm, an' de house, an' de cabins, an' dey won't
+go to no strahnger from de Norf."
+
+"Amen," said Peggy. "An' Aun' Judy, dat ar piece ob pie ain't no 'count
+to nobuddy."
+
+"You kin hab it, chile," said Aunt Judy, rising, and taking from a shelf
+a large piece of cold apple pie, "an' bressed be de foots ob dem wot
+fotch good tidin's."
+
+Junius Keswick did not see Miss Roberta again that day, and early in the
+morning he borrowed one of the Midbranch horses, and rode away. He did
+not wish to be at the house when Mr Croft should come; and, besides, he
+was very anxious and disturbed in regard to matters at the Keswick farm.
+Of all places in the world why should Mr Brandon go there?
+
+It was not a very pleasant ride that Junius Keswick took that morning.
+He had anxieties in regard to what he would meet with at his aunt's
+house, and he had even greater anxieties as to what he was leaving
+behind him at Midbranch. It was quite evident that Roberta was angry
+with him, and this was enough to sadden the soul of a man who loved her
+as he loved her, who would have married her at any moment, in spite of
+all opposition, all threats, all curses. He was not in the habit of
+looking at himself after the manner of Lawrence Croft, but on this
+occasion he could not help a little self-survey.
+
+Was it a purely disinterested motive he asked himself, that took him
+over to the Springs to bring back Lawrence Croft? Did he not believe in
+his soul that Roberta would never have spoken so freely to him in regard
+to what the gentleman from the North would probably say to her if she
+had not intended to decline that gentleman's offer? And was there not a
+wish in his heart that this matter might be definitely and
+satisfactorily settled before Roberta and Mr Croft went to New York for
+the winter? He could not deny that this issue to the affair had been in
+his mind; and yet he felt that he could conscientiously assure himself
+that if he had thought things would turn out otherwise, he still would
+have endeavored to make the man perform the duty expected of him by
+Roberta, in whose service Junius always felt himself to be. But,
+apparently, he had not benefited himself or anybody else, except,
+perhaps, Croft, by this service which he had performed.
+
+It was late in the forenoon when Junius met Mr Brandon returning to
+Midbranch. In answer to his expressions of surprise, Mr Brandon, who
+appeared in an exceptionally good humor, informed Junius of his reasons
+for the visit to the widow Keswick, and what he had found when he
+arrived there.
+
+"Your little cousin," said he, "is a most charming young creature, and
+on interested motives I should oppose your going to your aunt's house,
+were it not for the fact that she is married, and, therefore, of no
+danger to you. I was very glad to find her there. Her influence over
+your aunt will, I think, be highly advantageous, and the first fruit of
+it is that the old lady will now welcome you with open arms. Would you
+believe it! she has already announced that she wishes to make a match
+between you and this little cousin; and in order to do so, has actually
+engaged me to endeavor to bring about a divorce between the young lady
+and her absent husband. The widow Keswick has as many cranks and
+crotchets in her head as there are seeds in a tobacco pod; but this is
+the queerest and the wildest of them all. The couple seem very much
+attached to each other, and nothing can be said against the husband
+except that he did not accompany his wife on her visit to her relatives;
+and if he knew anything about the old lady I don't blame him a bit. Now
+your course, my dear boy, is perfectly plain. Let your aunt talk as much
+as she pleases about this divorce, and your union with the little Annie.
+It won't hurt anybody, and she must talk herself out in time. In the
+mean time take advantage of the present circumstances to mollify and
+tone down, so to speak, the good old lady. Make her understand that we
+are all her friends, and that there is no one in the connection who
+would wish to do her the slightest harm. This would be our Christian
+duty at any time, but it is more particularly our duty now. I would like
+you to bring your cousin over to see us before Roberta goes away. I
+invited her to come, and told her that my niece would first call upon
+her were it not for the peculiar circumstances. But if the families can
+be in a measure brought together--and I shall make it a point to ride
+over there occasionally--if your aunt can be made to understand the
+kindly feelings we really have toward her, and can be induced to set
+aside, even in a slight degree, the violent prejudice she now holds
+against us, all may yet turn out well. Now go, my boy, and may the best
+of success go with you. Don't trouble yourself about sending back the
+horse. Keep him as long as you want him."
+
+Mr Brandon rode on, leaving Junius to pursue his way. "It is very
+pleasant," thought the young man, who had said scarcely a word during
+the interview, "to hear Mr Brandon talk about all turning out well, but
+when he gets home he may discover that there is something to be done at
+Midbranch as well as on the Keswick place."
+
+Mr Brandon's reflections were very different from those of Junius. It
+appeared to him that a reconciliation between the two families, even
+though it should be a partial one, was reasonably to be expected. That
+newly arrived cousin was an angel. She was bound to do good. A marriage
+between his niece and Junius Keswick was the great object of the old
+gentleman's heart, and he longed to see the former engagement between
+them re-established before Roberta went to New York, where her beauty
+and attractiveness would expose his cherished plan to many dangers.
+
+The road he was on led directly north, and it was joined about a
+quarter of a mile above by the road which ran through the woods to the
+Green Sulphur Springs. On this road, at a point nearly opposite to him,
+he could see, through the foliage, a horseman riding toward the point of
+junction. Something about this person attracted his attention, and Mr
+Brandon took out a pair of eye-glasses and put them on. As soon as he
+had obtained another good view of the horseman he recognized him as Mr
+Croft. The old gentleman took off his glasses and returned them to his
+vest pocket, and his face began to flush. In his early acquaintance with
+Mr Croft he had not objected to him, because he wished his niece to have
+company, and he had a firm belief in the enduring quality of her
+affection for Junius. But, latterly, his ideas in regard to the New York
+gentleman had changed. He had thought him somewhat too assiduous, and
+when he had unexpectedly returned from the North, Mr Brandon had not
+been at all pleased, although he had been careful not to show his
+displeasure. This condition of things made him feel uneasy, and had
+prompted his visit to the widow Keswick. And now that everything looked
+so fair and promising, here was that man, whom he had supposed to have
+left this part of the country, riding toward his house.
+
+Mr Brandon was an easy-going man, but he had a backbone which could be
+greatly stiffened on occasion. He sat up very straight on his horse, and
+urged the animal to a better pace, so that he arrived first at the point
+where the roads met. Here he awaited Mr Croft, who soon rode up. The
+old gentleman's greeting was very courteous.
+
+"You are on the way to my house, I presume," he said.
+
+Mr Croft assured him that he was, and hoped that Miss March was quite
+well.
+
+"I have been from home for a little while," said Mr Brandon, "but I
+believe my niece enjoys her usual health. I have had a long ride this
+morning," he continued, "and feel a little tired. Would it inconvenience
+you, sir, if we should dismount and sit for a time on yonder log by the
+roadside? It would rest me, and I would like to have a little talk with
+you."
+
+Lawrence wondered very much that the old gentleman should want to rest
+when he was not a mile from his own house, but of course he consented to
+the proposed plan, and imitated Mr Brandon by riding under a large tree,
+and fastening his bridle to a low-hanging bough. The two gentlemen
+seated themselves on the log, and Mr Brandon, without preface, began his
+remarks.
+
+"May I be pardoned for supposing, sir," he said, "that your present
+visit to my house is intended for my niece?"
+
+Lawrence looked at him a little earnestly, and replied that it was so
+intended.
+
+"Then, sir, I think I have the right to ask, as my niece's present
+guardian, and almost indeed as her father, whether or not your visit is
+connected in any way with matrimonial overtures toward that lady?"
+
+Not wishing to foolishly and dishonorably deny that such was his purpose
+in going to Midbranch; and feeling that it would be as unwise to decline
+answering the question as it would be unmanly to resort to subterfuge
+about it, Lawrence replied, that his object in visiting Miss March that
+day was to make matrimonial overtures to her.
+
+"I think," said Mr Brandon, "that you will be obliged to me if I make
+you acquainted with the present condition of affairs between Miss March
+and Mr Junius Keswick."
+
+"Has not their engagement been broken off?" interrupted Lawrence.
+
+"Only conditionally," answered the old gentleman. "They love each other.
+They wish to be married. With one exception, all their relatives desire
+that they should marry. It would be a union, not only congenial in the
+highest degree to the parties concerned, but of the greatest advantage
+to our family and our family fortunes. There is but a single obstacle to
+this most desirable union, and that is the unwarrantable opposition of
+one person. But, I am happy to say that this opposition is on the point
+of being removed. I consider it to be but a matter of days when my niece
+and Mr Keswick, with the full approbation of the relatives on either
+side, will renew in the eyes of the world that engagement which I
+consider still exists in fact."
+
+"If this is so," said Lawrence, grinding his heel very deeply into the
+ground, "why was I not told of it?"
+
+"My dear sir!" exclaimed Mr Brandon, "have you ever intimated to me or
+to any of my family, that your intentions in visiting Midbranch were
+other than those of an ordinary friend or acquaintance?"
+
+Lawrence admitted that he had never made any such intimation.
+
+"Then, sir," said Mr Brandon, "what reason could we have for mentioning
+this subject to you--a subject that would not have been referred to now,
+had it not been for your admission of your intended object in visiting
+my house?"
+
+Lawrence had no answer to make to this, but it was not easy to turn him
+from his purpose. "Excuse me, sir," he said, "but I think a matter of
+this sort should be left to the lady. If she is not inclined to receive
+my addresses she will say so, and there is an end of it."
+
+The face of Mr Brandon slightly reddened, but his voice remained as
+quiet and courteous as before. "You do not comprehend, sir, the state of
+affairs, or you would see that a procedure of that kind would be
+extremely ill-judged at this time. Were it known that at this critical
+moment Miss March was addressed by another suitor, it would seriously
+jeopardize the success of plans which we all have very much at heart."
+
+Lawrence did not immediately reply to this crafty speech. His teeth were
+very firmly set, and he looked steadfastly before him. "I do not
+understand all this," he said, presently, "nor do I see that there is
+any need for my understanding it. In fact I have nothing to do with it.
+I wish to propose marriage to Miss March. If she declines my offer there
+is an end of the matter. If she accepts me, then it is quite proper that
+all your plans should fall to the ground. She is the principal in the
+affair, and it is due to her and due to me that she should make the
+decision in this case."
+
+Mr Brandon had not quite so many teeth as his younger companion, but the
+very fair number which remained with him were set together quite as
+firmly as those of Lawrence had been. He remarked, speaking very
+distinctly but without any show of emotion: "I see, sir, that it is
+quite impossible for us to think alike on this subject, and there is,
+therefore, nothing left for me to do but to ask you--and I assure you,
+sir, that the request is as destitute of any intention of discourtesy as
+if it were based upon the presence of sickness or family
+affliction--that you will not visit my house at present."
+
+Lawrence rose to his feet with a good deal of color in his face. "That
+settles the matter for the present," he said. "Of course I shall not go
+to a house which is forbidden to me. I wish you good-morning, sir." And
+he stalked to his horse, and endeavored to pull down the limb to which
+its bridle was attached.
+
+Mr Brandon followed him. "You must mount before you can unfasten your
+bridle," he said. "And allow me to assure you, sir, that as soon as this
+little affair is settled I shall be very happy indeed to see you again
+at my house."
+
+
+Lawrence having succeeded in loosening his bridle from the tree, made
+answer with a bow, and galloped away to the Green Sulphur Springs.
+
+Mr Brandon now mounted and rode home. This was the first time in his
+life that he had ever forbidden any one to visit Midbranch, and yet he
+did not feel that he had been either discourteous or inhospitable.
+"There are times," he said to himself, "when a man must stand up for his
+own interest; and this is one of the times."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+In the little dining-room of the cottage at the Green Sulphur Springs
+sat that evening Lawrence Croft, a perturbed and angry, but a resolute
+man. He had been quite a long time coming to the conclusion to propose
+to Roberta March, and now that he had made up his mind to do so, even in
+spite of certain convictions, it naturally aroused his indignation to
+find himself suddenly stopped short by such an insignificant person as
+Mr Brandon, a gentleman to whom, in this affair, he had given no
+consideration whatever. The fact that the lady wished to see him added
+much to his annoyance and discomfiture. He had no idea what reason she
+had for desiring an interview with him, but, whatever she should say to
+him, he intended to follow by a declaration of his sentiments. He had
+not the slightest notion in the world of giving up the prosecution of
+his suit; but, having been requested not to come to Midbranch, what was
+he to do? He might write to Miss March, but that would not suit him. In
+a matter like this he would wish to adapt his words and his manner to
+the moods and disposition of the lady, and he could not do this in a
+letter. When he wooed a woman, he must see her and speak to her. To any
+clandestine approach, any whispered conversation beneath her window, he
+would give no thought. Having been asked by the master of the house not
+to go there, he would not go; but he would see her, and tell his love.
+And, more than that, he would win her.
+
+That morning, while waiting for the time to approach when it would be
+proper for him to go to Midbranch, he had been reading in a bound volume
+of an old English magazine, which was one of the five books the cottage
+possessed, an account of a battle which had interested him very much.
+The commander of one army had massed his forces along and below the
+crest of a line of low hills, the extreme right of his line being
+occupied by a strong force of cavalry. The army opposed to him was much
+stronger than his own, and it was not long before the battle began to go
+very much against him. His positions on the left were carried by the
+combined charge of the larger portion of the enemy's forces, and, in
+spite of a vigorous resistance, his lines were forced back, down the
+hill, and into the valley. It was quite evident he could make no stand,
+and was badly beaten. Thereupon, he sent orders to his generals on the
+left to retreat, in as good order as possible, across a small river in
+their rear. While this movement was in progress, and the enemy was
+making the greatest efforts to prevent it, the commander put himself at
+the head of his cavalry and led them swiftly from the scene of battle.
+He took them diagonally over the crest of the hill, down the other side,
+and then charging with this fresh body of horse upon the rear and camp
+of the enemy, he swiftly captured the general-in-chief, his staff, and
+the Minister of War, who had come down to see how things were going on.
+With these important prisoners he dashed away, leaving the acephalous
+enemy to capture his broken columns if he could.
+
+This was the kind of thing Lawrence Croft would like to do. For an hour
+or more he puzzled his brains as to how he should make such a cavalry
+charge, and at last he came to a determination; he would ask Junius
+Keswick to assist him. There was something odd about this plan which
+pleased Croft. Keswick was his rival, with the powerful backing of Mr
+Brandon and a whole tribe of relatives, and it might naturally be
+supposed that he was the last man in the world of whom he would ask
+assistance. But, looking at it from his point of view, Lawrence thought
+that not only would he be taking no undue advantage of the other in
+asking him to help him in this matter, but that Keswick ought not and
+would not object to it. If Miss March really preferred Croft, Keswick
+should feel himself bound in honor to do everything he could to let the
+two settle the affair between themselves. This was drawing the point
+very fine, but Lawrence persuaded himself that if the case were reversed
+he would not marry a girl who had not chosen another man, simply because
+she had had no opportunity of doing so. He had a strong belief that
+Keswick was of his way of thinking, and before he went to bed he wrote
+his rival a note, asking him to call upon him the following day.
+
+Early the next morning the note was carried over to Midbranch by a
+messenger, who returned, saying that Mr Keswick had gone away, and that
+his present address was Howlett's in the same county. This piece of
+information caused Lawrence Croft to open his eyes very wide. A few days
+before he had received a letter from Mrs Null, written at Howlett's, and
+now Keswick had gone there. He had been very much surprised when he
+found that the cashier had so successfully carried on the search for
+Keswick as to come into the very county in Virginia where he was; and he
+intended to write to her that he had no further occasion for her
+services; but he had not done so, and here were the pursuer and the
+pursued in the same town, or village, or whatever Howlett's was. He gave
+Mrs Null credit for being one of the best detectives he had ever heard
+of; for, apparently, she had not only been able to successfully track
+the man she was in search of, but to find out where he was going, and
+had reached the place in question before he did. But he also berated her
+soundly in his mind for her over-officiousness. He had not wished her to
+swoop down upon the man, but only to inform him of his whereabouts. The
+next thing that would probably happen would be the appearance of Mrs
+Null at the Green Sulphur Springs, holding Keswick by the collar. He
+deeply regretted that he had ever intrusted this young woman with the
+investigation, not because he had since met Keswick himself, but for
+the reason that she was entirely too energetic and imprudent. If Keswick
+should find out from her that she had been in search of him, and why, it
+might bring about a very unpleasant state of affairs.
+
+Croft saw now, quite plainly, what he must do. He must go to Howlett's
+as quickly as possible. Perhaps Keswick and the cashier had not yet met,
+and, in that case, all he would have to do would be to remunerate the
+young woman and her husband--for she had informed him that she intended
+to combine this business with a wedding tour--and send them off
+immediately. He could then have his conference with Keswick there as
+well as at the Springs. If any mischief had already been done, he did
+not know what course he might have to pursue, but it was highly
+necessary for him to be on the spot as soon as possible. He greatly
+disliked to leave the neighborhood of Roberta March, but his absence
+would only be temporary.
+
+After an early dinner, he mounted the horse which he had hired from his
+host of the Springs, and, with a valise strapped behind him, set out for
+Howlett's. He had made careful inquiries in regard to the road, and
+after a ride somewhat tiresome to a man not used to such protracted
+horseback exercise, arrived at his destination about sundown. When he
+reached the scattered houses which formed, as he supposed, the outskirts
+of the village, for such he had been told it was, he rode on, but soon
+found that he had left Howlett's behind him, and that those supposed
+outskirts were the place itself. Hewlett's was nothing, in fact, but a
+collection of eight or ten houses quite widely separated from each
+other, and the only one of them which exhibited any public character
+whatever, was the store, a large frame building standing a little back
+from the road. Turning his horse, Lawrence rode up to the store and
+inquired if there was any house in the neighborhood where he could get
+lodging for the night.
+
+The storekeeper, who came out to him, was a very little man whose
+appearance recalled to Croft the fact that he had noticed, in this part
+of the State, a great many men who were extremely tall, and a great many
+who were extremely small, which peculiarity, he thought, might assist a
+physiologist in discovering the different effects of hot bread upon
+different organizations. He was quite as cordial, however, as the
+biggest, burliest, and jolliest host who ever welcomed a guest to his
+inn, as he informed Mr Croft that there was no house in the village
+which made a business of entertaining strangers, but if he chose to stop
+with him he would keep him and his horse for the night, and do what he
+could to make him comfortable.
+
+Lawrence ate supper that night with the storekeeper, his wife, and five
+of his children; but as he was very hungry, and the meal was a plentiful
+one, he enjoyed the experience.
+
+"I suppose you're goin' on to Westerville in the mornin'?" said the
+little host.
+
+"No," replied Croft, "I am not going any farther than this place. Do you
+know if a gentleman named Keswick arrived here recently?"
+
+"Why, yaas," said the man, "if you mean Junius Keswick."
+
+"Certainly he did," said Mrs Storekeeper. "He rode through here
+yesterday, and he stopped at the store to see if we had any of that
+Lynchburg tobacco he used to smoke when he lived here. He's gone on to
+his aunt's."
+
+"Where is that?" asked Croft.
+
+"It's about two miles out on the Westerville road," said the little man.
+"If I'd knowed you wanted to see him, I'd 'a told you to keep right on,
+and you could 'a stopped with Mrs Keswick over night."
+
+Lawrence wished to ask some questions about Mrs Null, but he was afraid
+to do so lest he might excite suspicions by connecting her with Keswick.
+If the latter had gone two miles out of town, perhaps she had not yet
+seen him.
+
+The room in which Lawrence slept that night was to him a very odd one.
+It was a long apartment, at one end of which was a clean, comfortable
+bed, a couple of chairs, and a table on which was a basin and pitcher.
+At the other end were piles of new-looking boxes, containing groceries
+of various kinds, rolls of cotton cloth and other dry goods, and, what
+attracted his attention more than anything else, a vast number of bright
+tin cans, bearing on their sides brilliant pictures of tomatoes,
+peaches, green corn, and other preservable eatables. These were
+evidently the reserved stores of the establishment, and they were so
+different from the bedroom decorations to which he was accustomed, that
+it quite pleased Lawrence to think that with all his experience in life
+he was now lodged in a manner entirely novel to him. As he lay awake
+looking at the moonlight glittering on the sides of the multitude of
+cans, the thought came into his mind that this had probably been the
+room of the Nulls when they were here.
+
+"As this is the only house in the place where travellers are
+entertained," he said to himself, "of course they must have come to it.
+And as they are not here now, it is quite plain that they must have gone
+away. I am very glad of it, especially if they left before Keswick
+arrived, for their departure probably prevented an awkward situation.
+But I shall ask the storekeeper no questions about these people. There
+is no better way of giving inquisitive folk the _entrée_ to your affairs
+than by asking questions. Of course there was no reason why they should
+stay here after they had successfully traced Keswick to this part of the
+country; and every reason, if they wanted to enjoy themselves, why they
+should go away. But I can't help being sorry that I did not meet the
+young woman, and have an opportunity of paying her for her trouble, and
+giving her a few words of advice in regard to her action, or, rather,
+non-action in this matter. She has a fine head for business, but I
+should like to feel certain that she understands that her business with
+me is over."
+
+And he turned his eyes from the glittering cans, and slept.
+
+The next morning, Lawrence Croft rode on to Mrs Keswick's house, and
+when he reached the second, or inner gate, he saw, on the other side of
+it, an elderly female, wearing a purple sun-bonnet and carrying a purple
+umbrella. There was something very eccentric about the garb of this
+elderly personage, and many an inexperienced city man would have taken
+her for a retired nurse, or some other domestic retainer of the family,
+but there was a steadfastness in her gaze, and a fire in her eye, which
+indicated to Lawrence that she was one much more accustomed to give
+orders than to take them. He raised his hat very politely, and asked if
+Mr Keswick was to be found there.
+
+If the commander of the army, about whom Mr Croft had recently been
+reading, had beheld in the earlier stages of the battle a strong,
+friendly force advancing to his aid, he would not have been more
+delighted than Lawrence would have been had he known what a powerful
+ally to his cause stood beneath that purple sun-bonnet.
+
+"Do you mean Junius Keswick?" said the old lady.
+
+"Yes, madam," answered Croft.
+
+"He is here, and you will find him at the house."
+
+The gate was partly open, and Lawrence rode in. The old lady stepped
+aside to let him pass.
+
+"Do you want to see him on business?" she said. "How did you know he was
+here?"
+
+
+"I inquired at Howlett's, madam."
+
+Mrs Keswick would have liked to ask some further questions, but there
+was something about Lawrence's appearance that deterred her.
+
+"You can tie your horse under that tree over there," she said, pointing
+to a spot more trampled by hoofs than the old lady wished any other
+portion of her house-yard to be.
+
+When Lawrence had tied his bridle to a hook suspended by a strap from
+one of the lower branches of the indicated tree, he advanced to the
+house; and a very much astonished man was he to see, sitting side by
+side on the porch, Junius Keswick and Mr Candy's cashier. They were
+seated in the shade of a mass of honeysuckle vines, and were so busily
+engaged in conversation that they had not perceived his approach. Even
+now Lawrence had time to look at them for a few moments before they
+turned their eyes upon him.
+
+Equally astonished were the two people on the porch, who now arose to
+their feet. Junius Keswick naturally wondered very much why Mr Croft
+should come to see him here; and as for the young lady, she was almost
+as much terrified as surprised. Had this man come down from New York to
+swoop upon her cousin? Had it been possible that she could have given
+him any idea of the whereabouts of Junius? In her last note to him she
+had been very careful to promise information, but not to give any,
+hoping thus to gain time to get an insight into the matter, and to keep
+her cousin out of danger, if, indeed, any danger threatened. But here
+the pursuer had found Junius in less than a day after she had first met
+him herself. But when she saw Junius advance and shake hands in a very
+friendly way with Mr Croft, her terror began to decrease, although her
+surprise continued at the same high-water mark, and Keswick found
+himself in a flood of the same emotion when Croft very politely saluted
+his cousin by name, which salutation was returned in a manner which
+indicated that the parties were acquainted.
+
+At first Croft had been prompted to ignore all knowledge of the cashier,
+and meet her as a stranger, but his better sense prevented this, for how
+could he know what she had been saying about him.
+
+"I was about to introduce you to my cousin," said Keswick, "but I see
+that you already know each other."
+
+"I have had the pleasure of meeting Mrs Null in New York," said
+Lawrence, to whom the word cousin gave what might be called a more
+important surprise than anything with which this three-sided interview
+had yet furnished its participants. He gave a quick glance at the lady,
+and discovered her very steadfastly gazing at him. "I hope," he said,
+"that you and your husband have had a very pleasant trip."
+
+"Mr Null did not come with me," she quietly replied.
+
+Lawrence Croft was a man to whom it gave pleasure to deal with
+problematic situations, unexpected developments, and the like; but this
+was too much of a conundrum for him. That the man, whose address he had
+employed this girl to find out, should prove to be her cousin, and that
+she should start on her bridal trip without her husband, were points on
+which his reason had no power to work. One thing, however, he quickly
+determined upon. He would have an interview with Madam Cashier, and have
+her explain these mysteries. She was, virtually, his agent, and had no
+right to conceal from him what she had been doing, and why she had done
+it.
+
+It was necessary, however, that he should waste no time in thoughts of
+this kind, but should immediately state to Mr Keswick the reason of his
+visit; for it could not be supposed he had called in a merely social
+way. "I wish to speak to you," he said, "on a little matter of
+business."
+
+At these words Mrs Null excused herself, and went into the house. Her
+mind was troubled as she wondered what the business was which had made
+this New York gentleman so extraordinarily desirous to find her cousin.
+Was it anything that would injure Junius? She looked back as she entered
+the door, but the object of her solicitude was sitting with a face so
+calm and composed that it showed very plainly he did not expect any
+communication which would be harmful to him.
+
+"It is a satisfaction," thought Mr Croft, "a very great satisfaction
+that I can enter upon the object of my visit knowing that my affairs and
+my actions have not been discussed by this gentleman and Mrs Null."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+Old Mrs Keswick would willingly have followed the strange gentleman to
+the house in order to know the object of his visit, but as he had come
+to see Junius she refrained, for she knew her nephew would not like any
+appearance of curiosity on her part. Her reception of Junius had been
+very different indeed from that she had previously accorded him when she
+declined to be found under the same roof with him. Now he was here under
+very different auspices, and for him the very plumpest poultry was
+slain, and everything was done to make him comfortable and willing to
+stay and become acquainted with his cousin, Mrs Null. A match between
+these two young people was the present object of the old lady's
+existence, and she set about making it with as much determination and
+confidence as if there had been no such person as Mr Null. Of this
+individual she had the most contemptible opinion. She had never asked
+many questions about him, because, in her intercourse with her niece,
+she wished, as far as possible, to ignore him. Having mentally pictured
+him in various mean conditions of life, she had finally settled it in
+her mind that he was an agent for some patent fertilizer; a man of this
+kind being a very obnoxious person to her. This avocation, however,
+constituted in the old lady's mind no excusable reason for his
+protracted absence; and if ever a wife was deserted, she believed that
+her niece Annie was such a wife.
+
+"If he should stay away much longer," she said to herself, "we shall
+have no more trouble in getting a divorce than to have his funeral
+sermon preached. And if there is any talk of his coming here, or of her
+going to him, I'll put my foot down on that sort of thing, if I've a
+foot left to do it with."
+
+When she had first perceived the approach of Mr Croft, a fear had seized
+her that this might be the recreant husband, but the gentlemanly
+appearance of the stranger soon dispelled this idea from her prejudiced
+mind. Apart from the fact that she had no business at the house with her
+nephew's visitor, she had positive business in the garden with old Uncle
+Isham, and there she repaired. There was some work to be done in regard
+to a flower pit, in which some of her choicest plants were to be
+domiciled during the winter, and this she wished personally to oversee.
+Although the autumn was well advanced, the day was somewhat warm; and as
+the pair, whom Mr Croft had seen on the porch, had been glad to shelter
+themselves in the shade of the honeysuckle vines, so Mrs Keswick seated
+herself on a little bench behind a large arbor, still covered by heavy
+vines, which stood on the boundary line between the garden and the front
+yard, and opened on the latter. This bench, which was always shady in
+the morning, she had had placed there that she might comfortably direct
+the labors of old Isham, the boy Plez, or whoever, for the time being,
+happened to be her gardener.
+
+Mr Croft did not immediately begin the statement of the business which
+had brought him to see Junius Keswick. Several windows of the house
+opened on the porch, and he did not wish what he had to say to be heard
+by any one except the person he was addressing. "I desire to talk to you
+on some private matters," he said. "Could we not walk a little away from
+the house?"
+
+"Certainly," said Junius, rising. "We will step over to that arbor by
+the garden. We shall be quite comfortable and secluded there. This is
+the place," said Junius, as they seated themselves in the arbor, "where,
+when a boy, I used to come to smoke. My aunt did not allow this
+diversion, but I managed to do a good deal of puffing before I was found
+out."
+
+"Then you used to live here?" asked Croft.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Keswick, "my parents died when I was quite a little
+fellow, and my aunt had charge of me until I had grown up."
+
+"Was that your aunt whom I met at the gate? There was something about
+her bearing and general appearance which greatly interested me."
+
+"She is a most estimable lady," returned Junius. And not wishing further
+to discuss his relative, he added: "And now, what is it, sir, that I
+can have the pleasure of doing for you?"
+
+"The matter regards Miss March," said Croft.
+
+"I presumed so," remarked the other. "I will state it as briefly as
+possible," continued Croft. "In consequence of your visit to me at the
+the Springs, I set out, the day before yesterday, to make another
+attempt to call on Miss March, the first one having been frustrated, as
+you may remember, by the information we received at the gate in regard
+to Miss March's indisposition, which, as I have heard nothing more of
+it, I hope was of no importance."
+
+"Of none whatever," said Junius.
+
+"When I was within a mile or so of Midbranch," continued Croft, "I met
+Mr Brandon, who requested me not to come to his house, and, in fact, to
+cease my visits altogether."
+
+"What!" cried Keswick, very much surprised. "That is not at all like Mr
+Brandon. What reason could he have for treating you in such a manner?"
+
+"The very best in the world," said Croft. "Having, as the guardian of
+his niece, asked me the object of my visit to Miss March, and, having
+been informed by me that it was my intention to propose matrimony to the
+lady, he requested that I would not visit at his house." "On what
+ground did he base his objection to your visit?" asked Keswick.
+
+"He made no objection to me; he simply stated that he did not desire me
+to come, because he wished his niece to marry you."
+
+"Quite plainly spoken," remarked Keswick.
+
+"Nothing could be more so," replied Croft. "I could not expect any one
+to be franker with me than he was. He went on to inform me that a match
+between the lady and yourself was greatly desired by the whole family
+connection, with a single exception, which, however, he did not name,
+and, while he gave me to understand that he had no reason to fear that,
+so far as the lady was concerned, my proposal would interfere with your
+prospects, still, were it known that there was another aspirant in the
+field, a very undesirable state of things might ensue. What this state
+of affairs was he did not state, but I presume it had something to do
+with the exceptional opposition to which he referred."
+
+"And what did you say to all that?" asked Junius.
+
+"I said very little. When a man asks me not to come to his house, I
+don't go. But, nevertheless, I have fully made up my mind to propose to
+Miss March as soon as I can get an opportunity. I have nothing to do
+with family arrangements or family opposition. You have told me that
+you are not engaged to her, and I am going to try to be engaged to her.
+She is the one to decide this matter. And now I have called upon you, Mr
+Keswick, to see if there is any way in which you can assist me in
+obtaining an interview with Miss March."
+
+"Don't you think," said Junius, "that it is rather cool in you to ask me
+to assist you in this matter?"
+
+"Not at all," replied the other. "If it had not been for you I should
+now be in New York, with no thought of present proposals of marriage.
+But you came to me, and insisted that I should see the lady." "That was
+simply because she had expressed a strong desire to see you."
+
+"Very good," said Lawrence. "I tried to go to her, as you know, and was
+prevented. Now all I ask of you is to help me to do what you so strongly
+urged me to do. There is nothing particularly cool in that, I think."
+
+Keswick did not immediately reply. "I am not sure," he said, "that Miss
+March still wishes to see you."
+
+"That may be," replied Croft, speaking a little warmly. "None of us
+exactly know what she thinks or wishes. But I want to find out what she
+thinks about me by distinctly asking her. And I should suppose you would
+consider it to your advantage, as well as mine, that I should do so."
+"I have my own opinion on that point," said Keswick, "which it is not
+necessary to discuss at present. If I were to assist you to an interview
+with Miss March it would be on the lady's account, not on yours or mine.
+But apart from the fact that I do not know if she now desires an
+interview, I would not do anything that would offend or annoy Mr
+Brandon."
+
+"I don't ask that of you," said Croft, "but couldn't you use your
+influence with him to give me a fair chance with the lady? That is all I
+ask, and, whether she accepts me or rejects me, I am sure everybody
+ought to be satisfied."
+
+Keswick smiled. "You don't leave any margin for sentiment," he said,
+"but I suppose it is just as well to deal with this matter in a
+practical way. I do not think, however, that any influence I can exert
+on Mr Brandon would induce him to allow you to address his niece if he
+is opposed to it, and I am sure he would have a very strange opinion of
+me if I attempted such a thing. At present I do not see that I can help
+you at all, but I will think over the matter, and we will talk of it
+again."
+
+"Thank you," said Croft, rising. "And when shall I call upon you to hear
+your decision?"
+
+It was rather difficult for Junius Keswick to answer a question like
+this on the spur of the moment. He arose and walked with Croft out of
+the arbor. His first impulse, as a Virginia gentleman, was to invite
+his visitor to stay at the house until the matter should be settled, but
+he did not know what extraordinary freak on the part of his aunt might
+be caused by such an invitation. But before he had decided what to say,
+they were met by Mrs Keswick coming from the garden. Junius thereupon
+presented Mr Croft, who was welcomed by the old lady with extended hand
+and exceeding cordiality.
+
+"I am very glad," she said, "to meet a friend of my nephew. But where
+are you going, Sir? Certainly not toward your horse. You must stay and
+dine with us."
+
+Lawrence hesitated. He had no claims on the hospitality of these people,
+but he wished very much to have an opportunity to speak to Mrs Null.
+"Thank you," he said, "but I am staying down here at the village, and it
+is but a short ride." "Staying at Hewlett's?" exclaimed Mrs Keswick. "At
+which hotel, may I ask?"
+
+Lawrence laughed. "I am stopping with the storekeeper," he said.
+
+"That settles it!" said the old lady, giving her umbrella a jab into the
+ground. "Tom Peckett's accommodations may be good enough for pedlers and
+travelling agents, but they are not fit for gentlemen, especially one of
+my nephew's friends. You must stay with us, sir, as long as you are in
+this neighborhood. I insist upon it." Junius was very much astonished
+at his aunt's speech and manner. The old lady was not at all
+inhospitable; so far was it otherwise the case, that, rather than
+deprive an objectionable visitor of the shelter of her roof, she would
+go from under it herself; but he had never known her to "gush" in this
+manner upon a stranger. He now felt at liberty, however, to obey his own
+impulses, and urged Mr Croft to stay with them.
+
+"You are very kind, indeed," said Lawrence, "and I shall be glad to
+defer for the present my return to my 'hotel.' This will give me the
+additional pleasure of renewing my acquaintance with Mrs Null."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Mrs Keswick, "do you know her, too? And to think of
+you stopping at Peckett's! Your home, sir, while you stay in these
+parts, is here."
+
+Before the three reached the house, Mrs Keswick had inquired how long Mr
+Croft had known her niece; and had discovered, much to her
+disappointment, that he had never met Mr Null. Shortly after the arrival
+at the house of the gentleman on horseback little Plez ran into the
+kitchen, where Letty was engaged in preparing vegetables for dinner.
+
+"Who d'ye think is done come?" he exclaimed. "Miss Annie's husband! Jes'
+rid up to de house."
+
+"Dat so?" cried Letty, dropping into her lap the knife and the potato
+she was peeling. "Well, truly, when things does happen in dis worl' dey
+comes all in a lump. None ob de fam'ly been nigh de house for ebber so
+long; an' den, 'long comes Mahs' Junius hisse'f, an' Miss Annie dat's
+been away sence she was a chile, an' ole Mr Brandon, wot Uncle Isham say
+ain't been h'yar fur years and years, an' now Miss Annie's husband comes
+kitin' up! An' dar's ole Aun' Patsy wot says dat if dat gemman ebber
+come h'yar she want to know it fus' thing. She was dreffle p'inted about
+dat. An' now, look h'yar, you Plez, jus' you cut round to your Aun'
+Patsy's, an' tell her Miss Annie's husband's done come."
+
+"Whar ole Miss?" inquired Plez. "She 'sleep?"
+
+"No, she mighty wide awake," said Letty. "But you take dem knives an'
+dat board an' brick, an' run down to de branch to clean 'em. An', when
+you gits dar, you jus' slip along, 'hind de bushes, till you's got ter
+de cohn fiel', an' den you cut 'cross dar to Aun' Patsy's. An' don' you
+stop no time dar, fur if ole Miss finds you's done gone, she'll chop you
+up wid dem knives."
+
+Plez was quite ready for a reckless dash of this kind, and in less than
+twenty minutes old Patsy was informed that Mr Null had arrived. The old
+woman was much affected by the information. She was uneasy and restless,
+and talked a good deal to herself, occasionally throwing out a moan or a
+lament in the direction of her "son Tom's yaller boy Bob's chile." The
+crazy quilt, which was not yet finished, though several pieces had been
+added since we last saw it, was laid aside; and by the help of the above
+mentioned great granddaughter the old hair trunk was hauled out and
+opened. Over this hoard of treasures, Aunt Patsy spent nearly two hours,
+slowly taking up the various articles it contained, turning them over,
+mumbling over them, and mentally referring many of them to periods which
+had become historic. At length she pulled out from one of the corners of
+the trunk a pair of very little blue morocco shoes tied together by
+their strings. These she took into her lap, and, shortly afterward, had
+the trunk locked, and pushed back into its place. The shoes, having been
+thoroughly examined through her great iron-bound spectacles, were thrust
+under the mattress of her bed.
+
+That evening, Uncle Isham stepped in to see the old woman, who was
+counteracting the effects of the cool evening air by sitting as close as
+possible to the remains of the fire which had cooked the supper. She was
+very glad to see him. She wanted somebody to whom she could unburden her
+mind. "Wot you got to say 'bout Miss Annie's husband," she asked, "wot
+done come to-day?"
+
+"Was dat him?" exclaimed the old man. "Nobody tole me dat."
+
+This was true, for the good-natured Letty, having discovered the
+mistake that had been made, had concluded to say nothing about it and to
+keep away from Aunt Patsy's for a few days, until the matter should be
+forgotten.
+
+"Well, I spec Miss Annie's mighty glad to git him back agin," continued
+the old man, after a moment's reflection. "He's right much of a nice
+lookin' gemman. I seed him this ebenin' a ridin' wid Mahs' Junius."
+
+"P'raps Miss Annie is glad," said the ole woman, "coz she don' know. But
+I ain't."
+
+"Wot's de reason fur dat?" inquired Isham.
+
+"It's a pow'ful dreffle thing dat Miss Annie's husband's done come down
+h'yar. He don' know ole miss."
+
+"Wot's de matter wid ole miss?" asked Isham, in a quick tone.
+
+"She done talk to me 'bout him," said the old woman. "She done tole me
+jus' wot she think of him. She hate him from he heel up. I dunno wot
+she'll do to him now she got him. Mighty great pity fur pore Miss Annie
+dat he ever come h'yar."
+
+"Ole miss ain't gwine ter do nuffin' to him," said Isham, in a gruff and
+troubled tone.
+
+"Don' you b'lieve dat," said Aunt Patsy. "When ole miss don' like a
+pusson, dat pusson had better look out. But I ain't gwine to be sottin'
+h'yar an' see mis'ry comin' to Miss Annie."
+
+"Wot you gwine to do?" asked Isham.
+
+"I's gwine ter speak my min' to ole miss. I's gwine to tell her not to
+do no kunjerin' to Miss Annie's husban'. She gwine to hurt dat little
+gal more'n she hurt anybody else."
+
+Old Isham sat looking into the fire with a very worried and anxious
+expression on his face. He was intensely loyal to his mistress, aware as
+he was of her short-comings, or rather her long-goings. Although he felt
+a good deal of fear that there might be some truth in Aunt Patsy's
+words, he was very sure that if she took it upon herself to give warning
+or reproof to old Mrs Keswick, a storm would ensue; and where the
+lightning would strike he did not know. "You better look out, Aun'
+Patsy," he said. "You an' ole miss been mighty good fren's fur a pow'ful
+long time, an' now don' you go gittin' yourse'f in no fraction wid her,
+jus' as you' bout to die."
+
+"Ain't gwine to die," said the old woman, "till I done tole her wot's on
+my min'."
+
+"Aun' Patsy," said Uncle Isham, after gazing silently in the fire for a
+minute or two, "dar was a brudder wot come up from 'Melia County to de
+las' big preachin', an' he tole in his sarment a par'ble wot I b'lieve
+will 'ply fus rate to dis 'casion. I's gwine to tell you dat."
+
+"Go 'long wid it," said Aunt Patsy.
+
+"Well, den," said Isham, "dar was once a cullud angel wot went up to de
+gate ob heaben to git in. He didn't know nuffin' 'bout de ways ob de
+place, bein' a strahnger, an' when he see all de white angels a crowdin'
+in at de gate where Sent Peter was a settin', he sorter looked round to
+see if dar warn't no gate wot he might go in at. Den ole Sent Peter he
+sings out: 'Look h'yar, uncle, whar you gwine? Dar ain't no cullud
+gal'ry in dis 'stablishment. You's got to come in dis same gate wid de
+udder folks.' So de cullud angel he come up to de gate, but he kin' a
+hung back till de udders had got in. Jus' den 'long comes a white angel
+on hossback, wot was in a dreffle hurry to git in to de gate. De cullud
+angel, he mighty p'lite, an' he went up an' tuk de hoss, an' when de
+white angel had got down an' gone in, he went roun' lookin' fur a tree
+to hitch him to. But when he went back agin to de gate, Sent Peter had
+jus' shet it, and was lockin' it up wid a big padlock. He jus' looks
+ober de gate at de cullud angel an' he says: 'No 'mittance ahfter six
+o'clock.' An' den he go in to his supper."
+
+"An' wot dat cullud angel do den?" asked Eliza, who had been listening
+breathlessly to this narrative.
+
+"Dunno," said Isham, "but I reckin de debbil come 'long in de night an'
+tuk him off. Dar's a lesson in dis h'yar par'ble wot 'ud do you good to
+clap to your heart, Aun' Patsy. Don' you be gwine roun' tryin' to help
+udder people jus' as you is all ready to go inter de gate ob heaben. Ef
+you try any ob dat dar foolishness, de fus' thing you know you'll find
+dat gate shet."
+
+"Is dat your 'Melia County par'ble?" asked the old woman.
+
+"Dat's it," answered Isham.
+
+"Reckon dat country's better fur 'bacca dan fur par'bles," grunted Aunt
+Patsy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+Lawrence Croft had no idea of leaving the neighborhood of Howlett's
+until Keswick had made up his mind what he was going to do, and until he
+had had a private talk with Mrs Null; and, as it was quite evident that
+the family would be offended if a visitor to them should lodge at
+Peckett's store, he accepted the invitation to spend the night at the
+Keswick house; and in the afternoon Junius rode with him to Howlett's,
+where he got his valise, and paid his account.
+
+But no opportunity occurred that day for a _tête-a-tête_ with Mrs Null.
+Keswick was with him nearly all the afternoon; and in the evening the
+family sat together in the parlor, where the conversation was a general
+one, occasionally very much brightened by some of the caustic remarks of
+the old lady in regard to particular men and women, as well as society
+at large. Of course he had many opportunities of judging, to the best of
+his capacity, of certain phases of character appertaining to Mr Candy's
+cashier; and, among other things, he came to the conclusion that
+probably she was a young woman who would get up early in the morning,
+and he, therefore, determined to do that thing himself, and see if he
+could not have a talk with her before the rest of the family were astir.
+
+Early rising was not one of Croft's accustomed habits, but the next
+morning he arose a good hour before breakfast time. He found the lower
+part of the house quite deserted, and when he went out on the porch he
+was glad to button up his coat, for the morning air was very cool. While
+walking up and down with his hands in his pockets, and looking in at the
+front door every time he passed it, in hopes that he might see Mrs Null
+coming down the stairs, he was greeted with a cheery "good morning," by
+a voice in the front yard. Turning hastily, he beheld Mrs Keswick,
+wearing her purple sun-bonnet, but without her umbrella.
+
+"Glad you like to be up betimes, sir," said she. "That's my way, and I
+find it pays. Nobody works as well, and I don't believe the plants and
+stock grow as well, while we are asleep."
+
+Lawrence replied that in the city he did not get up so early, but that
+the morning air in the country was very fine.
+
+"And pretty sharp, too," said Mrs Keswick. "Come down here in the
+sunshine, and you will find it pleasanter. Step back a little this way,
+sir," she said, when Lawrence had joined her, "and give me your opinion
+of that locust tree by the corner of the porch. I am thinking of having
+it cut down. Locusts are very apt to get diseased inside, and break off,
+and I am afraid that one will blow over some day and fall on the house."
+Lawrence said he thought it looked like a very good tree, and it would
+be a pity to lose the shade it made.
+
+"I might plant one of another sort," said the old lady, "but trees grow
+too slow for old people, though plenty fast enough for young ones. I
+reckon I'll let it stand awhile yet. You were talking last night of
+Midbranch, sir. There used to be fine trees there, though it's many
+years since I've seen them. Have you been long acquainted with the
+family there?"
+
+Lawrence replied that he had known Miss March a good while, having met
+her in New York.
+
+"She is said to be a right smart young lady," said Mrs Keswick, "well
+educated, and has travelled in Europe. I am told that she is not only a
+regular town lady, but that she makes a first-rate house-keeper when she
+is down here in the country."
+
+Lawrence replied that he had no doubt that all this was very true.
+
+"I have never seen her," continued the old lady, "for there has not been
+much communication between the two families of late years, although they
+used to be intimate enough. But my nephew and niece have been away a
+great deal, and old people can't be expected to do much in the way of
+visiting. But I have a notion," she said, after gazing a few moments in
+a reflective way at the corner of the house, "that it would be well now
+to be a little more sociable again. My niece has no company here of her
+own sex, except me, and I think it would do her good to know a young
+lady like Miss March. Mr Brandon has asked me to let Annie come there,
+but I think it would be a great deal better for his niece to visit us.
+Mrs Null is the latest comer."
+
+Lawrence, speaking much more earnestly than when discussing the locust
+tree, replied that he thought this would be quite proper.
+
+"I think I may invite her to come here next week," said Mrs Keswick,
+still meditatively and without apparent regard to the presence of Croft,
+"probably on Friday, and ask her to spend a week. And, by the way,
+sir," she said, turning to her companion, "if you are still in this part
+of the country I would be glad to have you ride over and stay a day or
+two while Miss March is here. I will have a little party of young folks
+in honor of Mrs Null. I have done nothing of the kind for her, so far."
+
+Lawrence said he had no doubt that he would stay at the Green Sulphur a
+week or two longer, and that he would be most happy to accept Mrs
+Keswick's kind invitation.
+
+They then moved toward the house, but, suddenly stopping, as if she had
+just thought of something, Mrs Keswick remarked: "I shall be obliged to
+you, sir, if you will not say anything about this little plan of mine,
+just now. I have not spoken of it to any one, having scarcely made up my
+mind to it, and I suppose I should not have mentioned it to you if we
+had not been talking about Midbranch. There is nothing I hate so much as
+to have people hear I am going to give them an invitation, or that I am
+going to do anything, in fact, before I have fully made up my mind about
+it."
+
+Lawrence assured her that he would say nothing on the subject, and she
+promised to send him a note to the Green Sulphur, in case she finally
+determined on having the little company at her house.
+
+"Now," triumphantly thought Croft, "it matters not what Keswick decides
+to do, for I don't need his assistance. An elderly angel in a purple
+sun-bonnet has come to my aid. She is about to do ever so much more for
+me than I could expect of him, and I prefer her assistance to that of my
+rival. Altogether it is the most unexpected piece of good luck."
+
+After breakfast there came to Lawrence the opportunity of a private
+conference with Mrs Null. He was standing alone on the porch when she
+came out of the door with her hat on and a basket in her hand, and said
+she was going to see a very old colored woman who lived in the
+neighborhood, who was considered a very interesting personage; and
+perhaps he would like to go there with her. Nothing could suit Croft
+better than this, and off they started.
+
+As soon as they were outside the yard gate the lady remarked: "I have
+been trying hard to give you a chance to talk to me when the others were
+not by. I knew you must be perfectly wild to ask me what this all meant;
+why I never told you that Mr Keswick was my cousin, and the rest of it."
+"I can't say," said Lawrence, "that I am absolutely untamed and
+ferocious in regard to the matter, but I do really wish very much that
+you would give me some explanation of your very odd doings. In fact,
+that is the only thing that now keeps me here."
+
+"I thought so," said Mrs Null. "As I supposed you had got through with
+your business with Junius, I did not wish to detain you here any longer
+than was necessary."
+
+"Thank you," said Lawrence.
+
+"You are welcome," she said. "And when I saw you standing on the porch
+by yourself, the idea of being generous to old Aunt Patsy came into my
+mind. And here we are. Now, what do you want to know first?"
+
+"Well," said Mr Croft, "I would like very much to know how a young lady
+like you came to be Mr Candy's cashier."
+
+"I supposed you would want to know that," she said. "It's a dreadfully
+long story, and as it is a strictly family matter I had almost made up
+my mind last night that I ought not to tell it to you at all, but as I
+don't know how much you are mixed up with the family, I afterward
+thought it best, for my own sake, to explain the matter to you. So I
+will give you the principal points. My mother was a sister of Mrs
+Keswick, and Junius' mother was another sister. Both his parents died
+when he was a boy, and Aunt Keswick brought him up. My mother died here
+when I was quite small, and I stayed until I was eight years old. Aunt
+Keswick and my father were not very good friends, and when she came to
+look upon me as entirely her own child, and wished to deprive him of all
+rights and privileges as a parent, he resented it very much, and, at
+last, took me away. I don't remember exactly how this was done, but I
+know there was a tremendous quarrel, and my father and aunt never met
+again.
+
+"He took me to New York; and there we lived very happily until about two
+years ago, when my father died. He was a lawyer by profession, but at
+that time held a salaried position in a railroad company, and when he
+died, of course our income ceased. The money that was left did not last
+very long, and then I had to decide what I was to do. It would have been
+natural for me to go to my only relatives, Aunt Keswick and Junius. But
+my father had been so opposed to my aunt having anything to do with me
+that I could not bear to go to her. He had really been so much afraid
+that she would try to win me away from him, or in some way gain
+possession of me, that he would not even let her know our address, and
+never answered the few letters from her which reached him, and which he
+told me were nothing but demands that her sister's child should be given
+back to her. Junius had written to me, how many times I do not know, but
+two letters had come to me that were very good and affectionate, quite
+different from my aunt's, but even these my father would not let me
+answer; it would be all the same thing, he said, as if I opened
+communication with my Aunt Keswick. Therefore, out of respect to my
+father, and also in accordance with my own wishes, I gave up all idea of
+coming down here, and went to work to support myself. I tried several
+things, and, at last, through a friend of my father, who was a regular
+customer of Mr Candy, I got the position of cashier in the Information
+Shop. It was an awfully queer place, but the work was very easy, and I
+soon got used to it. Then you came making inquiries for an address. At
+first I did not know that the person you wanted was Junius Keswick and
+my cousin, but after I began to look into the matter I found that it
+must be he who you were after. Then I became very much troubled, for I
+liked Junius, who was the only one of my blood whom I had any reason to
+care for; and when one sees a person setting a detective--for it is all
+the same thing--upon the track of another person, one is very apt to
+think that some harm is intended to the person that is being looked up.
+I did not know what business Junius was in, nor what his condition was,
+but even if he had been doing wrong, I did not wish you to find him
+until I had first seen him, and then, if I found you could do him any
+harm, I would warn him to keep out of your way."
+
+"Do you think that was fair treatment of me?" asked Croft.
+
+"You were nothing to me, and Junius was a great deal," she answered.
+"And yet I think I was fair enough. The only money you paid was what Mr
+Candy charged; and when I spoke of receiving money for my services when
+the affair was finished I only did it that it might all be more business
+like, and that you should not drop me and set somebody else looking
+after Junius. That was the great thing I was afraid of, so I did all I
+could to make you satisfied with me."
+
+"I don't see how your conscience could allow you to do all this," said
+Croft.
+
+"My conscience was very much pleased with me," was the answer. "What I
+did was a stratagem, and perfectly fair too. If I had found that it was
+right for you to see Junius, I would have done everything I could to
+help you communicate with him. But when I did at last see him, down you
+swooped upon us before I had an opportunity of saying a word about you."
+
+"Your marriage was a very fortunate thing for you," said Mr Croft, "for
+if it had not been for that I should never have allowed you to go about
+the country looking up a gentleman in my behalf. But how did you get
+over your repugnance to your aunt?"
+
+"I didn't get over it," she said, "I conquered it, for I found that this
+was the most likely place to meet Junius. And Aunt Keswick has certainly
+treated me in the kindest manner, although she is very angry about Mr
+Null. But when I first came and she did not know who I was, she behaved
+in the most extraordinary manner."
+
+"What did she do?" asked Croft.
+
+"Never you mind," she answered, with a little laugh. "You can't expect
+to know all the family affairs."
+
+They had now arrived at Aunt Patsy's cabin, and Mrs Null entered,
+followed at a little distance by Croft. The old woman had seen them as
+they were walking along the road, and her little black eyes sparkled
+with peculiar animation behind her great spectacles. Her granddaughter
+happened not to be at home, but Aunt Patsy got up, and with her apron
+rubbed off the bottoms of two chairs, which she placed in convenient
+positions for her expected visitors. When they came in they found her in
+a very perturbed condition. She answered Mrs Null's questions with a
+very few words and a great many grunts, and kept her eyes fixed nearly
+all the time upon Mr Croft, endeavoring to find out, perhaps, if he had
+yet been subjected to any kind of conjuring.
+
+When all the questions which young people generally put to old servants
+had been asked by Mrs Null, and Croft had made as many remarks as might
+have been expected of him in regard to the age and recollections of this
+interesting old negress, Aunt Patsy began to be much more disturbed,
+fearing that the interview was about to come to an end. She actually got
+up and went to the back door to look for Eliza.
+
+"Do you want her?" anxiously inquired Mrs Null, going to the old woman's
+side.
+
+"Yaas, I wants her," said Aunt Patsy. "I 'spec' she at Aggy's house--dat
+cabin ober dar--but I can't holler loud 'nuf to make her h'yere me."
+"I'll run over there and tell her you want her," said Mrs Null,
+stepping out of the door.
+
+"Dat's a good chile," said Aunt Patsy, with more warmth than she had yet
+exhibited. "Dat's your own mudder's good chile!" And then she turned
+quickly into the room.
+
+Croft had risen as if he were about to follow Mrs Null, or, at least, to
+see where she had gone. But Aunt Patsy stopped him. "Jus' you stay h'yar
+one little minute," she said, hurriedly. "I got one word to say to you,
+sah." And she stood up before him as erect as she could, fixing her
+great spectacles directly upon him. "You look out, sah, fur ole miss,"
+she said, in a voice, naturally shrill, but now heavily handicapped by
+age and emotion, "ole Miss Keswick, I means. She boun' to do you harm,
+sah. She tole me so wid her own mouf."
+
+"Mrs Keswick!" exclaimed Croft. "Why, you must be mistaken, good aunty.
+She can have no ill feelings towards me."
+
+"Don' you b'lieve dat!" said the old woman. "Don' you b'lieve one word
+ob dat! She hate you, sah, she hate you! She not gwine to tell you dat.
+She make you think she like you fus' rate, an' den de nex' thing you
+knows, she kunjer you, an' shribble up de siners ob your legs, an' gib
+you mis'ry in your back, wot you neber git rid of no moh'. Can't tell
+you nuffin' else now, for h'yar comes Miss Annie," she added hurriedly,
+and, stepping to the bedside, she drew from under the mattrass a pair of
+little blue shoes, tied together by their strings. "Jes' you take dese
+h'yar shoes," she said, "an' ef eber you think ole miss gwine ter kunjer
+you, jes' you hol' up dem shoes right afore her face. Dar now, stuff 'em
+in your pocket. Don' you tell Miss Annie wot I done say to you. 'Member
+dat, sah. It ud kill her, shuh."
+
+At this moment Mrs Null entered, just as the shoes had been slipped into
+the side-pocket of Mr Croft's coat by the old woman. And as she did so,
+she whispered, in a tone that could not but have its effect upon him,
+"Now, nebber tell her, honey."
+
+"Here is Eliza," said Mrs Null, as she came in, followed by the great
+granddaughter. "And I think," she said to Mr Croft, "it is time for us
+to go. Good-bye, Aunt Patsy. You can send back the basket by Eliza."
+
+When the two left the cabin, Croft walked thoughtfully for a few
+moments, wondering what in the world the old woman could have meant by
+her strange words and gift to him. Concluding, however, that they could
+have been nothing but the drivelings of weak-minded old age, he
+dismissed them from his mind and turned his attention to his companion.
+"We were speaking," he said, "of Mr Null. Do you expect him shortly?"
+
+"Well, no," said the lady. "I can't say that I do."
+
+"That is odd," said Lawrence. "I thought this was your wedding journey."
+
+"So it is, in a measure," said she, "but there is no necessity of his
+coming here. Didn't I tell you that my aunt was opposed to the
+marriage?" "But she might as well make up her mind to it now," he said.
+
+"She is not in the habit of making up her mind to things she don't like.
+Do you know," she added, looking around with a half smile, as if she
+took pleasure in astonishing him, "that Aunt Keswick is going to try to
+have us divorced?"
+
+"What!" exclaimed Croft. "Divorced! Is there any ground for it?"
+
+"She has other matrimonial plans for me, that's all."
+
+"What an extraordinary individual she must be!" he exclaimed. "But she
+can never carry out such a ridiculous scheme as that."
+
+"I don't know," she said. "She has already consulted Mr Brandon on the
+subject."
+
+"What nonsense!" cried Croft. "If you and Mr Null are satisfied, nobody
+else has anything to do with it."
+
+"Mr Null and I are of one mind," said she, "and agree perfectly. But
+don't you think it is a terrible thing to know you must always face an
+irritated aunt?"
+
+"Oh," said Croft, looking around at her very coldly and sternly, "I
+begin to see. I suppose a separation would improve your prospects in
+life. But it can't be done if your husband is opposed to it."
+
+"Mr Croft," said the lady, her face flushing a good deal, "you have no
+right to speak to me in that way, and attribute such motives to me. No
+matter whom I had married, I would never give him up for the sake of
+money, or a farm, or anything you think my aunt could give me."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said Croft, "if I made a mistake, but I don't see
+what else I could infer from your remarks."
+
+"My remarks," said she, "were,--well, they have a different meaning from
+what you supposed." She walked on in silence for a few moments, and
+then, looking up to her companion, she said: "I have a great mind to
+tell you something, if you will promise, at least for the present, not
+to breathe it to a living soul."
+
+Instantly the lookout on the bow of Lawrence Croft's life action called
+out: "Breakers ahead!" and almost instantly its engine was stopped, and
+every faculty of its commander was on the alert. "I do not know," he
+said, "that I am entitled to your confidence. Would it be of any
+advantage to you to tell me what you propose?"
+
+"It would be of advantage, and you are entitled," she added quickly. "It
+is about Mr Null, and you ought to know it, for you instigated my
+wedded life."
+
+"I instigated!"--exclaimed Mr Croft. And then he stopped short, both in
+his speech and walk.
+
+"Yes," said the lady, stopping also, and turning to face him, "you did,
+and you ought to remember it. You said if I had a husband to travel
+about with me you would like very much to employ me in the search for Mr
+Keswick, and it was solely on that account that I went and got married."
+Observing the look of blank and utter amazement on his face, she smiled,
+and said: "Please don't look so horribly astonished. Mr Null is void."
+
+As she made this remark the lady looked up at her companion with a smile
+and an expression of curiosity as to how he would take the announcement.
+Lawrence gazed blankly at her for a moment, and then he broke into a
+laugh. "You don't mean to say," he exclaimed, "that Mr Null is an
+imaginary being?"
+
+"Entirely so," she replied. "My dear Freddy is nothing but a fanciful
+idea, with no attribute whatever except the name."
+
+"You are a most extraordinary young person," said Lawrence; "almost as
+extraordinary as your aunt. What in the world made you think of doing
+such a thing? and why do you wish to keep up the delusion among your
+relatives, even so far as to drive your aunt to the point of getting you
+divorced from your airy husband?" And he laughed again. "I told you
+how I came to think of it," she said, as they walked on again. "It was
+very plain that if I wanted to travel about as your agent I must be
+married, and I have found a husband quite a protection and an advantage,
+even when he doesn't go about with me; and as to keeping up the
+delusion, as you call it, in my own family, I have found that to be
+absolutely necessary, at least for the present. My aunt, even when I was
+a little girl, determined to take my marriage into her own hands; and
+since I have returned to her, this desire has come up again in the most
+astonishing way. It is her principal subject of conversation with me.
+Were it not for the protection which my dear Freddy Null gives me I
+should be thrown bodily into the arms of the person whom my aunt has
+selected, and he would be obliged to take me, whether he wanted to or
+not, or be cast forth forever. So you see how important it is that my
+aunt should think I am married; and I do hope you will not tell anybody
+about Mr Null."
+
+"Of course I will keep your secret," said Croft. "You may rely upon
+that; but don't you think--do you believe that this sort of thing is
+altogether right?"
+
+She did not answer for a few moments, and then she said: "I suppose you
+must consider me a very deceptive sort of person, but you should
+remember that these things were not done for my own good, and, as far as
+I can see, they were the only things that could be done. Do you suppose
+I was going to let you pounce down on my cousin and do him some injury,
+for, as you kept your object such a secret, I did not suppose it could
+be anything but an injury you intended him."
+
+"A fine opinion of me!" said Croft.
+
+"And then, do you suppose," she continued, "that I would allow my aunt
+to quarrel with Junius and disinherit him, as she says she will, should
+he decline to marry me. I expected to drop my married name when I came
+here, but I had not been with my aunt fifteen minutes before I saw that
+it would never do for me to be a single woman while I stayed with her;
+and so I kept my Freddy by me. I did not intend, at all, to tell you all
+these things about my cousin, and I only did it because I did not wish
+you to think that I was a sly, mean creature, deceiving others for my
+own good."
+
+"Well," said Croft, "although I can't say you are right in making your
+relatives believe you are married when you are not, still I see you had
+very fair reasons for what you did, and you certainly showed a great
+deal of ingenuity and pluck in carrying out your remarkable schemes.
+By-the-way," he continued, somewhat hesitatingly, "I am in your debt for
+your services to me."
+
+"Not a bit of it!" she exclaimed quickly. "I never did a thing for you.
+It was all for myself, or, rather, for my cousin. The only money due was
+that which you paid to Mr Candy before I took charge of the matter."
+Lawrence felt that this was rather a sore subject with his companion,
+and he dropped it. "Do you still hold the position of cashier in the
+Information Shop?"
+
+"No," she said. "When I started out on my lonely wedding tour I gave up
+that, and if I should go back to New York, I do not think I should want
+to take it again.".
+
+"Do you propose soon to return to New York?" he asked.
+
+"No; at least I have made no plans in regard to it. I think it would
+grieve my aunt very much if I were to go away from her now, and as long
+as I have Mr Null to protect me from her matrimonial schemes, I am glad
+to stay with her. She is very kind to me."
+
+"I think you are entirely right in deciding to stay here," he said,
+looking around at her, and contrasting in his mind the bright-faced, and
+somewhat plump young person walking beside him with the thin-faced girl
+in black whom he had seen behind the cashier's desk.
+
+"Now," said she, with a vivacious little laugh, "I have poured out my
+whole soul before you, and, in return, I want you to gratify a curiosity
+which is fairly eating me up. Why were you so anxious to find my Cousin
+Junius? And how did you happen to come here the very day after he
+arrived? And, more than that, how was it that you had seen him at
+Midbranch so recently? You were talking about it last night. It couldn't
+have been my letter from Howlett's that brought you down here?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "my meeting with Mr Keswick at Midbranch was
+entirely accidental. When I arrived there, a few days ago, I had no
+reason to suppose that I should meet him. But I must ask you to excuse
+me from giving my reasons for wishing to find your cousin, and for
+coming to see him here. The matter between us has now become one of no
+importance, and will be dropped."
+
+The lady's face flushed. "Oh, indeed!" she said. And during the short
+remainder of their walk to the house she made no further remark.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+When Lawrence and his companion reached the house, they found on the
+porch Mrs Keswick and her nephew; and, after a little general
+conversation, the latter remarked to Mr Croft that he had found it would
+not be in his power to attend to that matter he had spoken of; to which
+Croft replied that he was very much obliged to him for thinking of it,
+and that it was of no consequence at all, as he would probably make
+other arrangements. He then stated that he would be obliged to return to
+the Green Sulphur Springs that day, and that, as it was a long ride, he
+would like to start as soon as his horse could be brought to him. But
+this procedure was condemned utterly by the old lady, who insisted that
+Mr Croft should not leave until after dinner, which meal should be
+served earlier than usual in order to give him plenty of time to get to
+the Springs before dark, and as Lawrence had nothing to oppose to her
+very urgent protest, he consented to stay. Before dinner was ready he
+found out why the protest was made. The old lady took him aside and made
+inquiries of him in regard to Mr Null. He had already informed her that
+he was not acquainted with that gentleman, but she thought, as Mr Croft
+seemed to be going about the country a good deal, he might possibly meet
+with her niece's husband; and, if he should do so, she would be very
+glad to have him become acquainted with him.
+
+To this Lawrence replied with much gravity that he would be happy to do
+so.
+
+"Mr Null has not yet come to my house," said Mrs Keswick, "and it is
+very natural that one should desire to know the husband of her only
+niece who is, or should be, the same as a daughter to her."
+
+"A very natural wish indeed," said Lawrence.
+
+"I am not quite sure in what business Mr Null is engaged," she
+continued, "and, although I asked my niece about it, she answered in a
+very evasive way, which makes me think his occupation is one she is not
+proud of. I have reason to suppose, however, that he is an agent for
+the sale of some fertilizing compound."
+
+At this Lawrence could not help smiling very broadly.
+
+"It may appear very odd and ridiculous to you," she said, "that a person
+connected with my family should be engaged in a business like that, for
+those fertilizers, as you ought to know, are all humbugs of the vilest
+kind. The only time I bought any it took my whole wheat crop to pay for
+it, and as for the clover I got afterward, a grasshopper could have
+eaten the whole of it. I am afraid he didn't tell her his business
+before he married her, and I'm glad she's ashamed of it. As far as I can
+find out, it does not seem as if Mr Null has any intention of coming
+here for some time; and, as I said before, I do very much want to know
+something about him--that is from a disinterested outsider. One cannot
+expect a recently married young woman to give a correct account of her
+husband."
+
+"I do not believe," said Mr Croft, "that there is any probability that I
+shall ever meet the gentleman--our walks in life being so different."
+
+"I should hope so, indeed!" interrupted Mrs Keswick. "But people of all
+sorts do run across each other."
+
+"But if I do meet with him," he continued, "I shall take great pleasure
+in giving you my impressions by letter, or in person, of your
+nephew-in-law." "Don't call him that!" exclaimed the old lady with
+much asperity. "I don't acknowledge the title. But I won't say any more
+about him," with a grim smile, "or you may think I don't like him."
+
+"Some of these days," he said, "you may come to be of the opinion that
+he is exactly the husband you would wish your niece to have."
+
+"Never!" she cried. "If he were an angel in broadcloth. But I mustn't
+talk about these things. I mentioned Mr Null to you because you are the
+only person of my acquaintance who, I suppose, is likely to meet with
+him. In regard to that little company I spoke of to you, I have not
+quite made up my mind about it, and, therefore, haven't mentioned it;
+but if I carry out the plan I will write to you at the Springs, and
+shall certainly expect you to be one of us." "That would give me great
+pleasure," said Lawrence, in a tone which indicated to the quick brain
+of the old lady that he would like to make a condition, but was too
+polite to do so.
+
+"If Miss March should agree to come," she said, "it might be pleasant
+for you to make one of her party and ride over at the same time.
+However, I'll let you know if she is coming, and then you can join her
+or not, as suits your convenience."
+
+"Thank you very much," said Lawrence, in a tone which betrayed no
+reserves.
+
+As he rode away that afternoon, Lawrence Croft, as his habit was on
+such occasions, revolved in his mind what he had heard and said and done
+during this little visit to the Keswick family. "Nothing could have
+turned out better," he thought. "To be sure the young man could not or
+would not be of any assistance to me, which is probably what I ought to
+have expected, but the strong-tempered old lady, his aunt, promises to
+be of tenfold more service than he could possibly be. As to that very
+odd young lady, Mrs Keswick's niece, I imagine that she does not regard
+me very favorably, for she was quite cool after I refused to let her
+into the secret of my desire to find her cousin, but as I did not ask
+for her confidences, she had no right to expect a return for them. And,
+by-the-way, it's odd how many confidences have been reposed in me since
+I've been down here. Keswick begins it; then old Brandon takes up the
+strain; after that Mr Candy's ex-cashier tells me the story of her life,
+and entrusts me with the secret of her marriage with a man of wind--that
+most useful Mr Null; after that, her aunt makes me understand how much
+she hates Mr Null, and how she would like me to find out something
+disreputable about him; and then--, by George! I forgot the old negro
+woman in the cabin!" At this he put his hand in the side-pocket of his
+coat, and drew out the pair of little blue shoes. "Why in the name of
+common sense did the old hag give me these? And why should she suppose
+that Mrs Keswick intended me a harm? The old lady never saw or heard of
+me until yesterday, and her manner certainly indicated no dislike of me.
+But, of course, Aunt Patsy's brain is cracked, and she didn't know what
+she was talking about. I shall keep the shoes, however, and if ever the
+venerable purple sun-bonnet runs afoul of me, I shall hold them up before
+it and see what happens."
+
+And so, very well satisfied with the result of his visit to Hewlett's,
+he rode on to the Green Sulphur Springs.
+
+On the afternoon of the next day Miss March received an invitation from
+Mrs Keswick to spend a few days with her, and make the acquaintance of
+her niece who had recently returned to the home of her childhood. The
+letter, for it was much more than a note of invitation, was cordial, and
+in parts pathetic. It dwelt upon the sundered pleasant relations of the
+two families, and expressed the hope that Mr Brandon's visit to her
+might be the beginning of a renewal of the old intimacy. Mrs Keswick
+took occasion to incidentally mention that the house would be
+particularly dull for her niece just now, as Junius was on the point of
+starting for Washington, where he would be detained some weeks on
+business; and she hoped, most earnestly, that Miss Roberta would accept
+this invitation to make her acquaintance and that of her niece; and she
+designated Thursday of the following week as the day on which she would
+like her to come.
+
+As may reasonably be supposed, this letter greatly astonished Miss
+March, who carried it to her uncle, and asked him to explain, if he
+could, what it meant. The old gentleman was a good deal surprised when
+he read it; but it delighted him in a far greater degree. He perceived
+in it the first fruits of his diplomacy. Mrs Keswick saw that it would
+be to her interest, for a time at least, to make friends with him; and
+this was the way she took to do it. She would not come to Midbranch
+herself, and bring the niece, but she would have Roberta come to her. In
+the pathos and cordiality Mr Brandon believed not at all. What the old
+hypocrite probably wanted was to enlist his grateful sympathy in that
+ridiculous divorce case. But, whatever her motives might be, he would be
+very glad to have his niece go to her; for if anything could make an
+impression upon that time-hardened and seasoned old chopping-block of a
+woman, it was Roberta's personal influence. If Mrs Keswick should come
+to know Roberta, that knowledge would do more than anything else in the
+world to remove her objections to the marriage he so greatly desired.
+
+He said nothing of all this to his niece; but he most earnestly
+counselled her to accept the invitation and make a visit to the two
+ladies. Of course Roberta did not care to go, but as her uncle appeared
+to take the matter so much to heart, she consented to gratify him, and
+wrote an acceptance. She found, also, when she had thought more on the
+matter, that she had a good deal of curiosity to see this Mrs Keswick,
+of whom she had heard so much, and who had had such an important
+influence on her life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+On the afternoon of the day on which Mrs Keswick's letter arrived at
+Midbranch, Peggy had great news to communicate to Aunt Judy, the cook:
+"Miss Rob's gwine to Mahs' Junius' house in de kerridge, an' I's gwine
+'long wid her to set in front wid Sam."
+
+"Mahs' Junius aint got no house," said Aunt Judy, turning around very
+suddenly. "Does you mean she gwine ter old Miss Keswick's?"
+
+"Yaas," answered Peggy.
+
+"Well, den, why don' you say so? Dat aint Mahs' Junius' house nohow,
+though he lib dar as much as he lib anywhar. Wot she gwine dar fur?"
+
+"Gwine to git married, I reckon," said Peggy.
+
+"Git out!" ejaculated Aunt Judy. "Wid you fur bride'maid?"
+
+"Dunno," answered Peggy. "She done tole me she didn't think she'd have
+much use fur me, but Mahs' Robert, he said it were too far fur her to go
+widout a maid; but ef she want me fur bride'maid I'll do dat too."
+
+"You bawn fool!" shouted Aunt Judy. "You ain't got sense 'nuf to hock
+the frocks ob de bridesmaids. An dat's all fool talk about Miss Rob
+gwine dar to be married. When she an' Mahs' Junius hab de weddin',
+dey'll hab it h'yar, ob course. She gwine to see ole Miss Keswick, coz
+dat's de way de fus' fam'lies allus does afore dey hab dere weddin'. I's
+pow'ful glad she's gwine dar, instid ob ole Miss Keswick comin' h'yar. I
+don' wan' her kunjerin' me, an' she'd do dat as quick as winkin' ef de
+batter bread's a leetle burned, or dar's too much salt in de soup. You's
+got to keep youse'f mighty straight, you Peggy, when you gits whar ole
+Miss Keswick is. Don' you come none ob your fool tricks, or she kunjer
+you, an' one ob your legs curl up like a pig's tail, an' neber uncurl no
+moh'. How you like dat?"
+
+To this Peggy made no reply, but with her eyes steadfastly fixed on Aunt
+Judy, and her lower jaw very much dropped, she mentally resolved to keep
+herself as straight as possible during her stay at the Keswick's.
+
+"Dar's ole Aun' Patsy," continued the speaker. "It's a mighty long time
+sence I've seen Aun' Patsy. Dat was when I went ober dar wid Miss Rob's
+mudder when de two fam'lys was fren's. I was her maid, an' went wid her
+jes as Mahs' Robert wants you ter go 'long wid Miss Rob. He ain't gwine
+to furgit how they did in de ole times when de ladies went visitin' in
+dere kerridges fur to stay free, four days. Aun' Patsy were pow'ful ole
+den, but she didn't die soon 'nuf, an' ole Miss Keswick she kunjer her,
+an' now she can't die at all."
+
+"Neber die!" ejaculated Peggy.
+
+"Neber die, nohow!" answered Aunt Judy. "Mighty offen she thought she
+gwine to die but 'twarnt no use. She can't do it. An' de las' time I
+hear ob her, she alibe yit, jes' de same as eber. An' dar was Mahs' John
+Keswick. She cunjer him coz he rode de gray colt to de Coht House when
+she done tole him to let dat gray colt alone, coz 'twarnt hisen but
+hern, an' he go shoot hese'f dead by de gate pos'. You's got to go fru
+by dat pos' when you go inter de gate."
+
+"Dat same pos'!" cried Peggy.
+
+"Yaas," said Aunt Judy, "dat same one. An' dey tells me dat on third
+Chewsdays, which is Coht day, de same as when he took de gray colt, as
+soon as it git dark he ghos' climb up to de top ob dat pos', an' set dar
+all night."
+
+With a conjuring old woman in the house, and a monthly ghost on the
+gate-post outside, the Keswick residence did not appear as attractive to
+Peggy as it had done before, but she mentally determined that while she
+was there she would be very careful to look out sharp for herself, a
+performance for which she was very well adapted.
+
+It was on a pleasant autumn morning that Mr Brandon very carefully
+ensconced his niece in the family carriage, with Peggy and a trusty
+negro man, Sam, on the outside front seat. "I would gladly go with you,
+my dear," he said, "even without the formality of an invitation, but it
+is far better for you to go by yourself. My very presence would provoke
+an antagonism in the old lady, while with you, personally, it is
+impossible that any such feeling should exist. I hope your visit may do
+away with all ill feeling between our families."
+
+"I want you to understand, uncle," said Miss Roberta, "that I am making
+this visit almost entirely to please you, and I shall do everything in
+my power to make Mrs Keswick feel that you and I are perfectly well
+disposed toward her; but you can't expect me to exhibit any great warmth
+of friendship toward a person who once used such remarkable and violent
+expressions in regard to me."
+
+"But those feelings, my dear," said Mr Brandon, "if we are to believe
+Mrs Keswick's letter, have entirely disappeared."
+
+"It is quite natural that they should do so," said Roberta, "as there is
+no longer any reason for them. And there is another thing I want to
+impress on your mind, Uncle Robert, you must expect no result from this
+visit except a renewal of amity between yourself and Mrs Keswick."
+
+"I understand it perfectly," said the old gentleman, feeling quite
+confident that if his family and Mrs Keswick should once again become
+friendly, the main object of his desires would not be difficult of
+accomplishment. "And now, my dear, I will not detain you any longer. I
+hope you may have a very pleasant visit, and I advise you to cultivate
+that young Mrs Null, whom I take to be a very sensible and charming
+person." And then he kissed her good-bye and shut the carriage door.
+
+It was about the middle of the afternoon when Sam drove through the
+outer Keswick gate, and Peggy, who had jumped down to open said gate,
+had made herself positively sure that, at present, there was no ghost
+sitting upon the post. Before she reached the house, Roberta began to
+wonder a good deal if she should find Mrs Keswick the woman she had
+pictured in her mind. But when the carriage drew up in front of the
+porch there came out to meet her, not the mistress of the estate, but a
+much younger lady, who tripped down the steps and reached Roberta as she
+descended from the carriage.
+
+"We are very glad to see you, Miss March," she said. "My aunt is not
+here just now, but will be back directly."
+
+"This is Mrs Null, isn't it?" said Roberta, and as the other smiled and
+answered with a slight flush that it was, Roberta stooped just the
+little that was necessary, and kissed her. Mrs Keswick's niece had not
+expected so warm a greeting from this lady, to whom she was almost a
+stranger, and instantly she said to herself: "In that kiss Freddy dies
+to you." For some days she had been turning over and over in her mind
+the question whether or not she should tell Roberta March that she was
+not Mrs Null. She greatly disliked keeping up the deception where it was
+not necessary, and with Roberta, if she would keep the secret, there was
+no need of this aerial matrimony. Besides her natural desire to confide
+in a person of her own sex and age, she did not wish Mr Croft to be the
+only one who shared her secret; and so she had determined that her
+decision would depend on what sort of girl Roberta proved to be. "If I
+like her I'll tell her; if I don't, I won't," was the final decision.
+And when Roberta March looked down upon her with her beautiful eyes and
+kissed her, Freddy Null departed this life so far as those two were
+concerned.
+
+Mrs Keswick had, apparently, made a very great miscalculation in regard
+to the probable time of arrival of her guest, for Miss March and Peggy,
+and even Sam and the horses, had been properly received and cared for,
+and Miss March had been sitting in the parlor for some time, and still
+the old lady did not come into the house. Her niece had grown very
+anxious about this absence, and had begun to fear that her aunt had
+treated Miss March as she had treated her on her arrival, and had gone
+away to stay. But Plez, whom she had sent to tell his mistress that her
+visitor was in the house, returned with the information that "ole miss"
+was in one of the lower fields directing some men who were digging a
+ditch, and that she would return to the house in a very short time. Thus
+assured that no permanent absence was intended, she went into the parlor
+to entertain Miss March, and to explain, as well as she could, the state
+of affairs; when, as she entered the door, she saw that lady suddenly
+arise and look steadfastly out of the window.
+
+"Can that be Mr Croft?" Miss March exclaimed.
+
+The younger girl made a dash forward and also looked out of the window.
+Yes, there was Mr Croft, riding across the yard toward the tree where
+horses were commonly tied.
+
+"Did you expect him?" asked Roberta, quickly.
+
+"No more than I expected the man in the moon," was the impulsive and
+honest answer of her companion.
+
+"I am very glad to see you, Mrs Null," said Lawrence, when that lady met
+him on the porch. And when he was shown into the parlor, he greeted Miss
+March with much cordiality, but no surprise. But when he inquired after
+other members of the family, he was much surprised to find that Mr
+Keswick had gone to Washington. "Was not this very unexpected, Mrs
+Null?" he asked.
+
+"Why, no," she answered. "Junius told us, almost as soon as he came
+here, that he would have to be in Washington by the first of this week."
+
+Mr Croft did not pursue this subject further, but presently remarked:
+"Are you and I the first comers, Miss March?"
+
+Roberta looked from one of her companions to the other, and remarked: "I
+do not understand you."
+
+Lawrence now perceived that he was treading a very uncertain and,
+perhaps, dangerous path of conversation, and the sooner he got out of it
+the better; but, before he could decide what answer to make, a silent
+and stealthy figure appeared at the door, beckoning and nodding in a
+very mysterious way. This proved to be the plump black maid, Letty, who,
+having attracted the attention of the company, whispered loudly, "Miss
+Annie!" whereupon that young lady immediately left the room.
+
+"What other comers did you expect?" then asked Roberta of Mr Croft.
+
+"I certainly supposed there would be a small company here," he said,
+"probably neighborhood people, but if I was mistaken, of course I don't
+wish to say anything more about it to the family."
+
+"Were you invited yourself?" asked Roberta.
+
+Croft wished very much that he could say that he had accidentally
+dropped in. But this he could not do, and he answered that Mrs Keswick
+asked him to come about this time. He did not consider it necessary to
+add that she had written to him at the Springs, renewing her invitation
+very earnestly, and mentioning that Miss March had consented to make one
+of the party.
+
+This was as far as Roberta saw fit to continue the subject, on the
+present occasion; and she began to talk about the charming weather, and
+the pretty way in which the foliage was reddening on the side of a hill
+opposite the window. Mr Croft was delighted to enter into this new
+channel of speech, and discussed with considerable fervor the
+attractiveness of autumn in Virginia. Miss Annie found Letty in a very
+disturbed state of mind. The dinner had been postponed until the arrival
+of Miss March, and now it had been still further delayed by the
+non-arrival of the mistress of the house, and everything was becoming
+dried up, and unfit to eat. "This will never do!" exclaimed Miss Annie.
+"I will go myself and look for aunt. She must have forgotten the time of
+day, and everything else."
+
+Putting on her hat she ran out of the back door, but she did not have to
+go very far, for she found the old lady in the garden, earnestly
+regarding a bed of turnips. "Where have you been, my dear aunt?" cried
+the girl. "Miss March has been here ever so long, and Mr Croft has come,
+and dinner has been waiting until it has all dried up. I was afraid that
+you had forgotten that company was coming to-day."
+
+"Forgotten!" said the old lady, glaring at the turnips. "It isn't an
+easy thing to forget. I invited the girl, and I expected her to come,
+but I tell you, Annie, when I saw that carriage coming along the road,
+all the old feeling came back to me. I remembered what its owners had
+done to me and mine, and what they are still trying to do, and I felt I
+could not go into the house, and give her my hand. It would be like
+taking hold of a snake."
+
+"A snake!" cried her niece, with much warmth. "She is a lovely woman!
+And her coming shows what kindly feelings she has for you. But, no
+matter what you think about it, aunt, you have asked her here, and you
+must come in and see her. Dinner is waiting, and I don't know what more
+to say about your absence."
+
+"Go in and have dinner," said Mrs Keswick. "Don't wait for me. I'll come
+in and see her after a while; but I haven't yet got to the point of
+sitting down to the table and eating with her."
+
+"Oh, aunt!" exclaimed Annie, "you ought never to have asked her if you
+are going to treat her in this way! And what am I to say to her? What
+excuse am I to make? Are you not sick? Isn't something the matter with
+you?"
+
+"You can tell them I'm flustrated," said the old lady, "and that is all
+that's the matter with me. But I'm not coming in to dinner, and there is
+no use of saying anything more about it."
+
+Annie looked at her, the tears of mortification still standing in her
+eyes. "I suppose I must go and do the best I can," she said, "but, aunt,
+please tell me one thing. Did you invite any other people here? Mr Croft
+spoke as if he expected to see other visitors, and if they ask anything
+more about it, I don't know what to say."
+
+"The only other people I invited," said the old lady with a grim grin,
+"were the King of Norway, and the Prime Minister of Spain, and neither
+of them could come." Annie said no more, but hurrying back to the
+house, she ordered dinner to be served immediately. At first the meal
+was not a very lively one. The young hostess _pro tempore_ explained the
+absence of the mistress of the house by stating that she had had a
+nervous attack--which was quite true--and that she begged them to excuse
+her until after dinner. The two guests expressed their regret at this
+unfortunate indisposition, but each felt a degree of embarrassment at
+the absence of Mrs Keswick. Roberta, who had heard many stories of the
+old woman, guessed at the true reason, and if the distance had not been
+so great, she would have gone home that afternoon. Lawrence Croft, of
+course, could imagine no reason for the old lady's absence, except the
+one that had been given them, but he suspected that there must be some
+other. He did his best, however, to make pleasant conversation; and
+Roberta, who began to have a tender feeling for the little lady at the
+head of the table, who, she could easily see, had been placed in an
+unpleasant position, seconded his efforts with such effect that, when
+the little party had concluded their dinner with a course of hot pound
+cake and cream sauce, they were chatting together quite sociably.
+
+In about ten minutes after they had all gone into the parlor, Miss Annie
+excused herself, and presently returned with a message to Miss March
+that Mrs Keswick would be very glad to see her in another room. This was
+a very natural message from an elderly lady, who was not well, but
+Roberta arose and walked out of the parlor with a feeling as if she
+were about to enter the cage of an erratic tigress. But she met with no
+such creature. She saw in the back room, into which she was ushered, a
+small old woman, dressed very plainly, who came forward to meet her,
+extending both hands, into one of which Roberta placed one of her own.
+
+"I may as well say at once, Roberta March," said Mrs Keswick, "that the
+reason I didn't come to meet you when you first arrived was, that I
+couldn't get over, all of a sudden, the feelings I have had against your
+family for so many years."
+
+"Why then, Mrs Keswick," said Roberta, very coldly, "did you ask me to
+come?"
+
+"Because I wanted you to come," said Mrs Keswick, "and because I thought
+I was stronger than I turned out to be; but you must make allowances for
+the stiffness which gets into old people's dispositions as well as their
+backs. I want you to understand, however, that I meant all I said in
+that letter, and I am very glad to see you. If anything in my conduct
+has seemed to you out of the way, you must set it down to the fact that
+I was making a very sudden turn, and starting out on a new track in
+which I hope we shall all keep for the rest of our lives."
+
+Roberta could not help thinking that the sudden turn in the new track
+began with the visit of her uncle to this house, and that the old lady
+need not have inflicted upon her the disagreeable necessity of
+witnessing a hostess taking a very repulsive cold plunge; but all she
+said was that she hoped the families would now live together in friendly
+relations; and that she was sure that, if this were to be, it would give
+her uncle a great deal of pleasure. She very much wanted to ask Mrs
+Keswick how Mr Croft happened to be here at this time, but she felt that
+her very brief acquaintance with the lady would not warrant the
+discussion of a subject like that.
+
+"She is very much the kind of woman I thought she was," said Roberta to
+herself, when, after some further hospitable remarks from Mrs Keswick,
+the two went to the parlor together to find Mr Croft. But that
+gentleman, having been deserted by all the ladies, was walking up and
+down the greensward in front of the house, smoking a cigar. Mrs Keswick
+went out to him, and greeted him very cordially, begging him to excuse
+her for not being able to see him as soon as he came.
+
+Lawrence set all this aside in his politest manner, but declared himself
+very much disappointed in not seeing Mr Keswick, and also remarked that
+from what she had said to him on his last visit he had expected to find
+quite a little party here.
+
+"I am sorry," said the old lady, "that Junius is away, for he would be
+very glad to see you, and it never came into my mind to mention to you
+that he was obliged to be in Washington at this time. And, as for the
+party, I thought afterwards that it would be a great deal cosier just to
+have a few persons here."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Lawrence, "most certainly, a great deal cosier."
+
+Mrs Keswick ate supper with her guests, and behaved very well. During
+the evening she sustained the main part of the conversation, giving the
+company a great many anecdotes and reminiscences of old times and old
+families, relating them in an odd and peculiar way that was very
+interesting, especially to Croft, to whom the subject matter was quite
+new. But, although her three companions listened to the old lady with
+deferential attention, interspersed with appropriate observations, each
+one made her the object of severe mental scrutiny, and endeavored to
+discover the present object of her scheming old mind. Roberta was quite
+sure that her invitation and that of Mr Croft was a piece of artful
+management on the part of the old lady, and imagined, though she was not
+quite sure about it, that it was intended as a bit of match-making. To
+get her married to somebody else, would be, of course, the best possible
+method of preventing her marrying Junius; and this, she had reason to
+believe, was the prime object of old Mrs Keswick's existence. But why
+should Mr Croft be chosen as the man with whom she was to be thrown. She
+had learned that the old lady had seen him before, but was quite certain
+that her acquaintance with him was slight. Could Junius have told his
+aunt about the friendship between herself and Mr Croft? It was not like
+him, but a great many unlikely things take place.
+
+As for Lawrence, he knew very well there was a trick beneath his
+invitation, but he could not at all make out why it had been played. He
+had been given an admirable opportunity of offering himself to Miss
+March, but there was no reason, apparent to him, why this should have
+been done.
+
+Miss Annie, watching her aunt very carefully, and speaking but seldom,
+quite promptly made up her mind in regard to the matter. She knew very
+well the bitter opposition of the old woman to a marriage between Junius
+and Miss March; and saw, as plainly as she saw the lamp on the table,
+that Roberta had been brought here on purpose to be sacrificed to Mr
+Croft. Everything had been made ready, the altar cleared, and, as well
+as the old lady's grindstone would act, the knife sharpened. "But," said
+Miss Annie to herself, "she needn't suppose that I am going to sit quiet
+and see all this going on, with Junius away off there in Washington,
+knowing nothing about any of it."
+
+Miss Roberta retired quite early to her room, having been fatigued by
+her long drive, and she was just about to put out her light when she
+heard a little knock at the door. Opening it slightly, she saw there
+Junius Keswick's cousin, who also appeared quite ready for bed.
+
+"May I come in for a minute?" said Annie.
+
+"Certainly," replied Miss March, admitting her, and closing the door
+after her.
+
+"I have something to tell you," said the younger lady, admiring as she
+spoke, the length of her companion's braided hair. "I intended to keep
+it until to-morrow, but since I came up stairs I felt I could not let
+you sleep a night under the same roof with me without knowing it. I am
+not Mrs Null."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Roberta, in a tone which made Annie lift up her hands
+and implore her not to speak so loud, for fear that her aunt should hear
+her. "I know she hasn't come up stairs yet, for she sits up dreadfully
+late, but she can hear things, almost anywhere. No, I am not Mrs Null.
+There is no such person as Mr Null, or, at least, he is a mere gaseous
+myth, whom I married for the sake of the protection his name gave me."
+
+"This is the most extraordinary thing I ever heard," said Roberta. "You
+must tell me all about it."
+
+"I don't want to keep you up," said Annie, "you must be tired."
+
+"I am not tired," said Roberta, "for every particle of fatigue has flown
+away." And with this she made Annie sit down beside her on the lounge.
+"Now you must tell me what this means," she said. "Can it be that your
+aunt does not know about it?"
+
+"Indeed, she does not," said Annie. "I married Freddy Null in New York,
+for reasons which we need not talk of now, for that matter is all past
+and gone; but when I came here, I found almost immediately, that he
+would be more necessary to me in this house than anywhere else."
+
+"I cannot imagine," said Roberta, "why a gaseous husband should be
+necessary to you here."
+
+"It is not a very easy thing to explain," said the other, "that is, it
+is easy enough, but--"
+
+"Oh," said Roberta, catching the reason of her companion's hesitation,
+"I don't think you ought to object to tell me your reason. Does it
+relate to your cousin Junius?"
+
+"Well," said Annie, "not altogether, and not so much to him as to my
+aunt." "I think I see," said Roberta. "A marriage between you two would
+suit her very well. Are you afraid that she would try to force him on
+you?"
+
+"Oh, no;" said Annie, "that would be bad enough, but it would not be so
+embarrassing, and so dreadfully unpleasant, as forcing me on him, and
+that is what aunt wants to do. And you can easily see that, in that
+case, I could not stay in this house at all. I scarcely know my cousin
+as a man, my strongest recollection of him being that of a big and very
+nice boy, who used to climb up in the apple-trees to get me apples, and
+then come down to the very lowest branch where he could drop the ripest
+ones right into my apron, and not bruise them. But, even if I had been
+acquainted with him all these years, and liked him ever so much, I
+couldn't stay here and have aunt make him take me, whether he wanted
+to, or not. And, unless you knew my aunt very well, you could not
+conceive how unscrupulously straightforward she is in carrying out her
+plans."
+
+"And so," said Roberta, "you have quite baffled her by this little ruse
+of a marriage."
+
+"Not altogether," said Annie with a smile, "for she vows she is going to
+get me divorced from Mr Null."
+
+"That is funnier than the rest of it," said Roberta, laughing. And they
+both laughed together, but in a subdued way, so as not to attract the
+attention of the old lady below stairs. "And now, you see," said Annie,
+"why I must be Mrs Null while I stay here. And you will promise me that
+you will never tell any one?"
+
+"You may be sure I shall keep your queer secret. But have you not told
+it to any one but me?"
+
+"Yes," said Annie, "but I have only told it to one other, Mr Croft. But
+please don't speak of it to him."
+
+"Mr Croft!" exclaimed Roberta. "How in the world did you come to tell
+him? Do you know him so well as that?"
+
+"Well," said Annie, "it does seem out of the way, I admit, that I should
+tell him, but I can't give you the whole story of how I came to do it.
+It wouldn't interest you--at least, it would, but I oughtn't to tell it.
+It is a twisty sort of thing."
+
+"Twisty?" said Roberta, drawing herself up, and a little away from her
+companion.
+
+Annie looked up, and caught the glance by which this word was
+accompanied, and the tone in which it was spoken went straight to her
+soul. "Now," said she, "if you are going to look at me, and speak in
+that way, I'll tell you every bit of it." And she did tell the whole
+story, from her first meeting with Mr Croft in the Information Shop,
+down to the present moment.
+
+"What is your name, anyway?" said Roberta, when the story had been told.
+
+"My name," said the other, "is Annie Peyton."
+
+"And now, do you know, Annie Peyton," said Roberta, passing her fingers
+gently among the short, light-brown curls on her companion's forehead,
+"that I think you must have a very, very kindly recollection of the boy
+who used to come down to the lowest branches of the tree to drop apples
+into your apron."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+Shortly after Peggy arrived with her mistress at the Keswick
+residence, her mind began to be a good deal disturbed. She had been
+surprised, when the carriage drew up to the door, that "Mahs' Junius"
+had not rushed down to meet his intended bride, and when she found he
+was not in the house, and had, indeed, gone away from home, she did not
+at all know what to make of it. If Miss Rob took the trouble to travel
+all the way to the home of the man that the Midbranch people had decided
+she should marry, it was a very wonderful thing, indeed, that he should
+not be there to meet her. And while these thoughts were turning
+themselves over in the mind of this meditative girl of color, and the
+outgoing look in her eyes was extending itself farther and farther, as
+if in search of some solution of the mystery, up rode Mr Croft.
+
+"Dar _he!_" exclaimed Peggy, as she stood at the corner of the house
+where she had been pursuing her meditations. "He!" she continued in a
+voice that would have been quite audible to any one standing near. "Upon
+my libin' soul, wot brung him h'yar? Miss Rob don' wan' him round,
+nohow. I done druv him off wunst. Upon my libin' soul, he's done brung
+his bag behin' him on de saddle, an' I reckon he's gwine to stay."
+
+As Mr Croft dismounted and went into the house, Peggy glowered at him;
+sundry expressions, sounding very much like odds and ends of
+imprecations which she had picked up in the course of a short but
+investigative existence, gurgling from her lips. "I wish dat ole Miss
+Keswick kunjer him. Ef she knew how Miss Rob hate him, she curl he legs
+up, an' gib him mis'ry spranglin' down he back."
+
+The hope of seeing this intruder well "kunjered" by the old lady was the
+only thing that gave a promise of peace to the mind of Peggy; and though
+her nature was by no means a social one, she determined to make the
+acquaintance of some one or other in the house; hoping to find out how
+Mrs Keswick conducted her conjurations; at what time of day or night
+they were generally put into operation; and how persons could be brought
+under their influence.
+
+The breakfast hour in the Keswick house was a variable one. Sometimes
+the mistress of the establishment rose early and wanted her morning meal
+before she went out of doors; at other times she would go off to some
+distant point on the farm to see about something that was doing or ought
+to be done, and breakfast would be kept waiting for her. The delays,
+however, were not all due to the old lady's irregular habits. Very often
+Letty would come up stairs with the information that the "bread ain't
+riz;" and as a Virginia breakfast without hot bread would be an
+impossibility, the meal would be postponed until the bread did conclude
+to rise, or until some substitute, such as "beaten biscuit" had been
+provided.
+
+On the morning after his arrival, Lawrence Croft came down stairs about
+eight o'clock, and found the lower part of the house deserted; and
+glancing into the dining-room as he passed its open door, he saw no
+signs of breakfast. The house was cool, but the sun appeared to be
+shining warmly outside, and he stepped out of the open back door into a
+small flower garden, with a series of broad boards down the walk which
+lay along the middle of it. Up and down this board walk Lawrence strode,
+breathing the fresh air, and thinking over matters. He was not at all
+satisfied at being here during Keswick's absence, feeling that he was
+enjoying an advantage which, although it was quite honorable, did not
+appear so. What he had to do was to get an interview with Miss March as
+soon as possible, and have that matter over. When he had been definitely
+accepted or rejected, he would go away. And, whatever the result might
+be, he would write to his rival as soon as he returned to the Springs,
+and inform him of it, and would also explain how he had happened to be
+here with Miss March. While he was engaged in planning these honorable
+intentions, there came from the house Mrs Keswick's niece, with a basket
+in one hand, and a pair of scissors in the other, and she immediately
+applied herself to cutting some geraniums and chrysanthemums, which were
+about the last flowers left blooming at that season in the garden. "Good
+morning," said Croft, from the other end of the walk. "I am glad to see
+you out so early."
+
+"Good morning," she replied, with a look which indicated that she was
+not at all glad to see him, "but I don't think it is early."
+
+Croft had noticed on the preceding day that her coolness towards him
+still continued, but it did not suit him to let her know that he
+perceived it. He went up to her, and in a very friendly way remarked:
+"There is something I wish very much you would tell me. What is your
+name? It is very odd that during all the time I have been acquainted
+with you I have never known your name."
+
+"You must have taken an immense interest in it," she said, as she
+snipped some dried leaves off a twig of geranium she had cut.
+
+"It was not that I did not take any interest," said Croft, "but at first
+your name never came forward, and I soon began to know you by the title
+which your remarkable condition of wedlock gave you."
+
+"And that is the name," said the lady, very decidedly, "by which I am to
+be known in this house. I am very proud of my maiden name, but I am not
+going to tell it to you for fear that some time you will use it."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Mr Croft. "Then I suppose I am to continue even to
+think of you as Mrs Null."
+
+"You needn't think of me at all," said she, "but when you speak to me I
+most certainly expect you to use that name. It was only by a sort of
+accident that you came to know it was not my name." "I don't consider it
+an accident at all," said Croft. "I look upon it as a piece of very
+kindly confidence."
+
+Miss Annie gave a little twist to her mouth, which seemed to indicate
+that if she spoke she should express her contempt of such an opinion,
+and Croft continued:
+
+"I am very sorry that upon that occasion I should have felt myself
+obliged to refuse your request that I should make you acquainted with my
+reasons for desiring to know Mr Keswick's whereabouts. But I am sure, if
+you understood the matter, you would not be in the least degree--"
+
+"Oh, you need not trouble yourself about that," she interrupted. "I
+don't want you to tell me anything at all. It is quite easy, now, to see
+why you wished to know where my cousin was."
+
+"It is impossible that you should know!" exclaimed Croft.
+
+"We will say no more about it," replied Annie. "I am quite satisfied."
+
+"I would give a good deal," said Lawrence, after looking steadily at her
+for a few moments, "to know what you really do think."
+
+Annie had cut all the flowers she wanted, or, rather, all she could get;
+and she now stood up and looked her companion full in the face. "Mr
+Croft," she said, "it has been necessary, and it is necessary now for me
+to have some concealments, and I am sorry for it; but it isn't at all
+necessary for me to conceal my opinion of your reasons for wanting to
+know about Junius. You were really in pursuit of Miss March, and knowing
+that he was in love with her, you wanted to make sure that when you
+went to her, he wouldn't be there. It is my firm opinion that is all
+there is about it; and the fact of your turning up here just after my
+cousin left, proves it."
+
+"Miss Annie," exclaimed Croft--"I have heard you called by that name,
+and I vow I won't call you Mrs Null, when there is no need for it--you
+were never more mistaken in your life, and I am very sorry that you
+should have such a low opinion of me as to think I would wish to take
+advantage of your cousin during his absence."
+
+"Then why do you do it?" asked Miss Annie, with a little upward pitch of
+her chin.
+
+At this moment the breakfast-bell rang, and Mrs Keswick appeared in the
+back door, evidently somewhat surprised to see these two conversing in
+the garden.
+
+"I am very much vexed," said Lawrence, as he followed his companion, who
+had suddenly turned towards the house, "that you should think of me in
+this way."
+
+But to this remark Miss Annie had no opportunity to reply.
+
+After breakfast, Mrs Keswick proved the truth of what her niece had said
+about her unscrupulous straightforwardness when carrying out her
+projects. She had invited Mr Croft and Miss March to her house in order
+that the former might have the opportunity which she had discovered he
+wanted and could not get, of offering himself in marriage to the lady;
+and she now made it her business to see that Mr Croft's opportunity
+should stand up very clear and definite before him; and that all
+interfering circumstances should be carefully removed. She informed her
+niece that she wished her to go with her to a thicket on the other side
+of the wheat field which that young lady had advised should be ploughed
+for pickles, to look for a turkey-hen which she had reason to believe
+had been ridiculous enough to hatch out a brood of young at this
+improper season. Annie demurred, for she did not want to go to look for
+turkeys, nor did she want to give Mr Croft any opportunities; but the
+old lady insisted, and carried her off. Croft felt that there was
+something very bare and raw-boned about the position in which he was
+left with Miss March; and he thought that lady might readily suppose
+that Mrs Keswick's object was to leave them together. He imagined that,
+himself, though why she should be so kind to him he could not feel quite
+certain. However, his path lay straight before him, and if the old lady
+had whitewashed it to make it more distinct, he did not intend to refuse
+to walk in it.
+
+"I have been looking at that hill over yonder," said he, "with a cluster
+of pine trees on the brow of it. I should think there would be a fine
+view from that hill. Would you not like to walk up there?"
+
+Lawrence felt that this proposition was quite in keeping with the
+bareness of the previous proceedings, but he did not wish to stay in the
+house and be subject to the unexpected return of the old lady and her
+niece.
+
+"Certainly," said Miss March; "nothing would please me better." And so
+they walked up Pine Top Hill.
+
+When they reached this elevated position, they sat down on the rock on
+which Mrs Null had once conversed with Freddy, and admired the view,
+which was, indeed, a very fine one. After about five minutes of this,
+which Lawrence thought was quite enough, he turned to his companion and
+said:
+
+"Miss March, I do not wish you to suppose that I brought you up here for
+the purpose of viewing those rolling hills and distant forests."
+
+"You didn't?" exclaimed Roberta, in a tone of surprise.
+
+"No," said he; "I brought you here because it is a place where I could
+speak freely to you, and tell you I love you."
+
+"That was not at all necessary," said Miss March. "We had the lower
+floor of the house entirely to ourselves, and I am sure that Mrs
+Keswick would not have returned until you had waved a handkerchief, or
+given some signal from the back of the house that it was all over."
+
+Croft looked at her with a troubled expression. "Miss March," said he,
+"do you not think I am in earnest? Do you not believe what I have said?"
+"I have not the slightest doubt you are in earnest," she answered.
+"The magnitude of the preparation proves it." "I am glad you said that,
+for it gives me the opportunity for making an explanation," said
+Lawrence. "Our meeting at this place may be a carefully contrived
+stratagem, but it was not contrived by me. I am very well aware that Mr
+Keswick also wishes to marry you--"
+
+"Did you see that in the Richmond _Dispatch_ or in one of the New York
+papers?" interrupted Miss March.
+
+"That is a point," said Lawrence, overlooking the ridicule, "which we
+need not discuss. I am perfectly aware that Mr Keswick is my rival, but
+I wish you to understand that I am not voluntarily taking any undue
+advantage of his absence. I believe him to be a very fair and generous
+man, and I would wish to be as open and generous as he is. When I came,
+I expected to find him here, and, standing on equal ground with him, I
+intended to ask you to accept my love."
+
+"Well, then," said Roberta, "would it not be more fair and generous for
+you to go away now, and postpone this proposal until some time when you
+would each have an equal chance?"
+
+"No, it would not," said Lawrence, vehemently. "I have now an
+opportunity of telling you that I love you ardently, passionately; and
+nothing shall cause me to postpone it. Will you not consider what I
+say? Will you make no answer to this declaration of most true and honest
+love?"
+
+"I am considering what you have said," she answered; "and I am very glad
+to hear that you did not know of this cunning little trap that Mrs
+Keswick has laid for me. It is all very plain to me, but I do not know
+why she should have selected you as one of the actors in the plot. Have
+you ever told her that you are a suitor for my hand?"
+
+"Never!" exclaimed Lawrence. "She may have imagined it, for she heard I
+was a frequent visitor to Midbranch. But let us set all that aside. I am
+on fire with love for you. Will you tell me that you can return that
+love, or that I must give up all hope? This is the most important
+question of my whole life. I beg you, from the bottom of my heart, to
+decide it."
+
+"Mr Croft," said she, "when you used to come, nearly every day, to see
+me at Midbranch, and we took those long walks in the woods, you never
+talked in this way. I considered you as a gentleman whose prudence and
+good sense would not allow him to step outside of the path of perfectly
+conventional social intercourse. This is not conventional and not
+prudent."
+
+"I loved you then, and I love you now;" exclaimed Lawrence. "You must
+have known that I loved you, for my declaration does not in the least
+surprise you."
+
+"Once--it was the last time you visited Midbranch--I suspected, just a
+little, that your mind might be affected somewhat in the way you speak
+of, but I supposed that attack of weakness had passed away."
+
+"I know what you mean," said Lawrence, "but I can't endure to talk of
+such trifles. I love you, Roberta--"
+
+"Miss March," she interrupted.
+
+"And I want you to tell me if you love me in return."
+
+Miss March rose from the rock where she had been sitting, and her
+companion rose with her. After a moment's silence, during which he
+watched her with intense eagerness, she said: "Mr Croft, I am going to
+give you your choice. Would you prefer being refused under a cherry
+tree, or under a sycamore?"
+
+There was a little smile on her lips as she said this, which Lawrence
+could not interpret.
+
+"I decline being refused under any tree," he said with vehemence.
+
+"I prefer the cherry tree," said she, "there is a very pretty one over
+there on the ridge of this hill, and its leaves are nearly all gone,
+which would make it quite appropriate--but what is the meaning of this?
+There comes Peggy. It isn't possible that she thinks it's time for me to
+give out something to Aunt Judy."
+
+Croft turned, and there was the wooden Peggy, marching steadily up the
+hill, and almost upon them.
+
+"What do you want, Peggy?" asked Miss Roberta.
+
+"Dar's a man down to de house dat wants him," pointing to Mr Croft.
+
+Lawrence was very much surprised. "A man who wants me!" he exclaimed.
+"You must be mistaken."
+
+"No sah," replied Peggy, "you's de one."
+
+For a moment Lawrence hesitated. His disposition was to let any man in
+the world, be he president or king, wait until he had settled this
+matter with Miss March. But with Peggy present it was impossible to go
+on with the love-making. He might, indeed, send her back with a message,
+but the thought came to him that it would be well to postpone for a
+little the pressing of his suit, for the lady was certainly in a very
+untoward humor, and he was not altogether sorry to have an excuse for
+breaking off the interview at this point. He had not yet been discarded,
+and he would like to think over the matter, and see if he could discover
+any reason for the very disrespectful manner, to say the least of it,
+with which Miss March had received his amatory advances. "I suppose I
+must go and see the man," he said, "though I can't imagine who it can
+possibly be. Will you return to the house?"
+
+"No," said Miss Roberta, "I will stay here a little longer, and enjoy
+the view."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+As Lawrence Croft walked down Pine Top Hill his mind was in a good deal
+of a hubbub. The mind of almost any lover would be stirred up if he came
+fresh from an interview, in which his lady had pinned him, to use a
+cruel figure, in various places on the wall to see how he would spin and
+buzz in different lights. But the disdainful pin had not yet gone
+through a vital part of Lawrence's hopes, and they had strength to spin
+and buzz a good deal yet. As soon as he should have an opportunity he
+would rack his brains to find out what it was that had put Roberta March
+into such a strange humor. No one who simply desired to decline the
+addresses of a gentleman would treat her lover as Miss March had treated
+him. It was quite evident that she wished to punish him. But what had
+been his crime?
+
+But the immediate business on his hands was to go and see what man it
+was who wished to see him. Ordinarily the fact that a man had called
+upon him would not be considered by Lawrence a matter for cogitation,
+but as he walked toward the house it seemed to him very odd that any one
+should call upon him in such an out-of-the-way place as this, where so
+few people knew him to be. He was not a business man, but a large
+portion of his funds were invested in a business concern, and it might
+be that something had gone wrong, and that a message had been sent him.
+His address at the Green Sulphur Springs was known, and the man in
+charge there knew that he was visiting Mrs Keswick.
+
+These considerations made him a little anxious, and helped to keep his
+mind in the hubbub which has been mentioned.
+
+When he reached the front of the house, Lawrence saw a lean, gray horse
+tied to a tree, and a man sitting upon the porch; and as soon as he made
+his appearance the latter came down the steps to meet him.
+
+"I didn't go into the house, sir," he said, "because I thought you'd
+just as lief have a talk outside."
+
+"What is your business?" asked Croft.
+
+The man moved a few steps farther from the house, and Lawrence followed
+him.
+
+"Is it anything secret you have to tell me?" he asked.
+
+"Well, yes, sir, I should think it was," replied the other, a tall man,
+with sandy hair and beard, and dressed in a checkered business suit,
+which had lost a good deal of the freshness of its early youth. "I may
+as well tell you at once who I am. I am an anti-detective. Never heard
+of that sort of person, I suppose?"
+
+"Never," said Lawrence, curtly.
+
+"Well, sir, the organization which I belong to is one which is filling a
+long felt want. You know very well, sir, that this country is full of
+detective officers, not only those who belong to a regular police force,
+but lots of private ones, who, if anybody will pay them for it, will go
+to Jericho to hunt a man up. Now, sir, our object is to protect society
+against these people. When we get information that a man is going to be
+hounded down by any of these detectives--and we have private ways of
+knowing these things--we just go to that man, and if he is willing to
+become one of our clients, we take him into our charge; and our
+business, after that, is to keep him informed of just what is being done
+against him. He can stay at home in comfort with his wife, settle up his
+accounts, and do what he likes, and the day before he is to be swooped
+down on, he gets notice from us, and comfortably goes to Chicago, or
+Jacksonville, where he can take his ease until we post him of the next
+move of the enemy. If he wants to take extra precautions, and writes a
+letter to anybody in the place where he lives, dated from London or Hong
+Kong, and sends that letter under cover to us, we'll see that it is
+mailed from the place it is dated from, and that it gets into the hands
+of the detectives. There have been cases where a gentleman has had six
+months or a year of perfect comfort, by the detectives being thrown off
+by a letter like this. That is only one of the ways in which we help
+and protect persons in difficulties who, if it wasn't for us, would be
+dragged off, hand-cuffed, from the bosom of their families; and who,
+even if they never got convicted, would have to pay a lot of money to
+get out of the scrape. Now, I have put myself a good deal out of the
+way, sir, to come to you, and offer you our assistance."
+
+"Me!" exclaimed Croft. "What are you talking about?"
+
+The man smiled. "Of course, it's all right to know nothing about it, and
+it's just what we would advise; but I assure you we are thoroughly
+posted in your affair, and to let you know that we are, I'll just
+mention that the case is that of Croft after Keswick, through Candy."
+
+"Stuff and nonsense!" exclaimed Lawrence, getting red in the face.
+"There is no such case!"
+
+He was about to say more, when a few words from the anti-detective
+stopped him suddenly.
+
+"Look here, Mr Keswick," said the man, leveling a long fore-finger at
+him, and speaking very earnestly, "don't you go and flatter yourself
+that this thing has been dropped, because you haven't heard of it for a
+month or two; and if you'll take my advice, you'll make up your mind on
+the spot, either to let things go on and be nabbed, or to put yourself
+under our protection, and live in entire safety until this thing has
+blown over, without any trouble, except a little travelling." At the
+mention of Keswick's name, Lawrence had seen through the whole affair at
+a single mental glance. The man was after Junius Keswick, and his
+business was to Lawrence more startling and repugnant than it could
+possibly be to any one else. It was necessary to be very careful. If he
+immediately avowed who he was, the man might yet find Keswick, before
+warning and explanation could be got to him, and not only put that
+gentleman in a very unpleasant state of mind, but do a lot of mischief
+besides. He did not believe that Mr Candy had recommenced his
+investigations without consultation with him, but this person evidently
+knew that such an investigation had been set on foot, and that would be
+sufficient for his purposes. Lawrence decided to be very wary, and he
+said to the man, "Did you ask for me here by name?"
+
+"No, _sir_," said the other, "I had information that you were here, and
+that you were the only gentleman who lived here and although you are in
+your own home, I did not know but this was one of those cases in which
+names were dropped and servants changed, to suit an emergency. I asked
+the little darkey I saw at the front of the house if she lived here, and
+she told me she had only just come. That put me on my guard, and so I
+merely asked if the gentleman was in, and she went and got you. We're
+very careful about calling names, and you needn't be afraid that any of
+our people will ever give you away on that line."
+
+Lawrence reflected for a moment, and then he said: "What are your terms
+and arrangements for carrying on an affair of this kind?"
+
+"They are very simple and moderate," said the man, taking a wallet from
+his pocket. "There is one of our printed slips, which we show but don't
+give away. To become a client all you have to do is to send fifteen
+dollars to the office, or to pay it to me, if you think no time should
+be lost. That will entitle you to protection for a year. After that we
+make the nominal charge of five dollars for each letter sent you, giving
+you information of what is going on against you. For extra services,
+such as mailing letters from distant points, of course there will be
+extra charges."
+
+Lawrence glanced over the printed slip, which contained information very
+similar to that the man had given him, and as he did so, he came to the
+conclusion that there would be nothing dishonest in allowing the fellow
+to continue in his mistake, and to endeavor to find out what mischief
+was about to be done in his, Lawrence's, name, and under his apparent
+authority. "I will become a subscriber," said he, taking out his
+pocket-book, "and request that you give me all the information you
+possess, here and immediately."
+
+"That is the best thing to do," said the man, taking the money, "for, in
+my opinion, no time is to be lost. I'll give you a receipt for this."
+
+"Don't trouble yourself about that," said Lawrence; "let me have your
+information."
+
+"You're very right," said the man. "It's a great deal better not to
+have your name on anything. And now for the points. Candy, who has
+charge of Croft's job, is going more into the detective business than he
+used to be, and we have information that he has lately taken up your
+affair in good, solid earnest. He found out that Croft had put somebody
+else on your track, without regularly taking the business out of his
+hands, and this made him mad; and I don't wonder at it, for Croft, as I
+understand, has plenty of money, and if he concluded to throw Candy
+over, he ought to have done it fair and square, and paid him something
+handsome in consideration for having taken the job away. But he didn't
+do anything of the kind, and Candy considers himself still in his
+employment, and vows he's going to get hold of you before the other
+party does; so, you see, you have got two sets of detectives after you,
+and they'll be mighty sharp, for the first one that gets you will make
+the money."
+
+"Where are Candy's detectives now?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"That I can't tell you positively, as I am so far from our New York
+office, to which all information comes. But now that you are a
+subscriber, I'll communicate with head-quarters and the necessary points
+will be immediately sent to you by telegraph, if necessary. All that you
+have to do is to stay here until you hear from us."
+
+"From the way you spoke just now," said Lawrence, "I supposed the
+detective would be here to-day or to-morrow."
+
+"Oh no," said the other, "Candy has not the facilities for finding
+people that we have. But it takes some time for me to communicate with
+head-quarters and for you to hear from there; and so, as I said before,
+there isn't an hour to be lost. But you're all right now."
+
+"I expected you to give me more definite information than this," said
+Lawrence, "but now, I suppose, I must wait until I hear from New York,
+at five dollars a message."
+
+"My business is to enlist subscribers," said the other. "You couldn't
+expect me to tell you anything definite when I am in an out-of-the-way
+place like this."
+
+"Did you come down to Virginia on purpose to find me?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"No," said the man, "I am on my way to Mobile, and I only lose one train
+by stopping here to attend to your business."
+
+"How did you know I was here?"
+
+"Ah," said the anti-detective, with a smile, "as I told you, we have
+facilities. I knew you were at this house, and I came here, straight as
+a die."
+
+"It is truly wonderful," said Lawrence, "how accurate your information
+is. And now I will tell you something you can have, gratis. You have
+made one of the most stupid blunders that I ever heard of. Mr Keswick
+went away from here, nearly a week ago, and I am the Mr Croft whom you
+supposed to be in pursuit of him."
+
+The man started, and gave vent to an unpleasant ejaculation.
+
+"To prove it," said Lawrence, "there is my card, and," putting his hand
+into his pocket, "here are several letters addressed to me. And I want
+to let you know that I am not in pursuit of Mr Keswick; that he and I
+are very good friends; and that I have frequently seen him of late; and
+so you can just drop this business at once. And as for Candy, he has no
+right to take a single step for which I have not authorized him. I
+merely employed him to get Mr Keswick's address, which I wished for a
+very friendly motive. I shall write to Candy at once."
+
+The man's face was not an agreeable study. He looked angry; he looked
+baffled; and yet he looked incredulous. "Now, come," said he, "if you
+are not Keswick, what did you pay me that money for?"
+
+"I paid it to you," said Lawrence, "because I wanted to find out what
+dirty business you were doing in my name. I have had the worth of my
+money, and you can now go."
+
+The man did not go, but stood gazing at Lawrence in a very peculiar way.
+"If Mr Keswick isn't here," he said, "I believe you are here waiting
+for him, and I am going to stay and warn him. People don't set private
+detectives on other men's tracks just for friendly motives."
+
+Lawrence's face flushed and he made a step forward, but suddenly
+checking himself, he looked at the man for a moment and then said: "I
+suppose you want me to understand that if I become one of your
+subscribers in my own name, you will be willing to withhold the
+information you intended to give Mr Keswick."
+
+"Well," said the man, relapsing into his former confidential tones,
+"business is business. If I could see Mr Keswick, I don't know whether
+he would employ me or not. I have no reason to work for one person more
+than another, and, of course, if one man comes to me and another
+doesn't, I'm bound to work for the man who comes. That's business!"
+
+"You have said quite enough," said Lawrence. "Now leave this place
+instantly!"
+
+"No, I won't!" said the man, shutting his mouth very tightly, as he drew
+himself up and folded his arms on his chest.
+
+Lawrence was young, well-made, and strong, but the other man was taller,
+heavier, and perhaps stronger. To engage in a personal contest to compel
+a fellow like this to depart, would be a very unpleasant thing for
+Lawrence to do, even if he succeeded. He was a visitor here, the ladies
+would probably be witnesses of the conflict, and although the natural
+impulse of his heart, predominant over everything else at that moment,
+prompted him to spring upon the impudent fellow and endeavor to thrash
+him, still his instincts as a gentleman forbade him to enter into such a
+contest, which would probably have no good effect, no matter how it
+resulted. Never before did he feel the weakness of the moral power of a
+just cause when opposed to brutal obstinacy. Still he did not retreat
+from his position. "Did you hear what I said?" he cried. "Leave this
+place!"
+
+"You are not master here," said the other, still preserving his defiant
+attitude, "and you have no right to order me away. I am not going."
+
+Despite his inferiority in size, despite his gentlemanly instincts, and
+despite his prudent desire not to make an exhibition of himself before
+Miss March and the household, it is probable that Lawrence's anger would
+have assumed some form of physical manifestation, had not Mrs Keswick
+appeared suddenly on the porch. It was quite evident to her, from the
+aspect of the two men, that something was wrong, and she called out:
+"Who's that?"
+
+"That, madam," said Lawrence, stepping a little back, "is a very
+impertinent man who has no business here, and whom I've ordered off the
+place, and, as he has refused to go, I propose--"
+
+"Stop!" cried the old lady. And turning, she rushed into the house.
+Before either of the men could recover from their surprise at her sudden
+action, she reappeared upon the porch, carrying a double-barreled gun.
+Taking her position on the top of the flight of steps, with a quick
+movement of her thumb she cocked both barrels. Then, drawing herself up
+and resting firmly on her right leg, with the left advanced, she raised
+the gun; her right elbow well against her side, and with her extended
+left arm as steady as one of the beams of the roof above her. She hooked
+her forefinger around one of the triggers, her eagle eye glanced along
+the barrels straight at the head of the anti-detective, and, in a
+clarion voice she sang out "Go!"
+
+The man stared at her. He saw the open muzzles of the gun barrels;
+beyond them, he saw the bright tops of the two percussion caps; and
+still beyond them, he saw the bright and determined eye that was taking
+sight along the barrels. All this he took in at a glance, and, without
+word or comment, he made a quick dodge of his head, jumped to one side,
+made a dash for his horse, and, untying the bridle with a jerk, he
+mounted and galloped out of the open gate, turning as he did so to find
+himself still covered by the muzzles of that gun. When he had nearly
+reached the outer gate and felt himself out of range, he turned in his
+saddle, and looking back at Lawrence, who was still standing where he
+had left him, he violently shook his fist in the air.
+
+"Which means," said Lawrence to himself, "that he intends to make
+trouble with Keswick."
+
+"That settled him," said the old lady, with a grim smile, as she lowered
+the muzzle of the gun, and gently let down the hammers. "Madam," said
+Lawrence, advancing toward her, "may I ask if that gun is loaded?"
+
+"I should say so," replied the old lady. "In each barrel are two
+thimblefuls of powder, and half-a-box of Windfall's Teaberry Tonic
+Pills, each one of them as big and as hard as a buckshot. They were
+brought here by a travelling agent, who sold some of them to my people;
+and I tell you, sir, that those pills made them so sick that one man
+wasn't able to work for two days, and another for three. I vowed if that
+agent ever came back, I'd shoot his abominable pills into him, and I've
+kept the gun loaded for the purpose. Was this a pill man? I scarcely
+think he was a fertilizer, because it is rather late in the season for
+those bandits."
+
+"He is a man," said Lawrence, coming up the steps, "who belongs to a
+class much worse than those you have mentioned. He is what is called a
+blackmailer."
+
+"Is that so?" cried the old lady, her eyes flashing as she brought the
+butt of the gun heavily upon the porch floor. "I'm very glad I did not
+know it; very glad, indeed; for I might have been tempted to give him
+what belonged to another, without waiting for him to disobey my order to
+go. I am very much troubled, sir, that this annoyance should have
+happened to you in my house. Pray do not allow it to interfere with the
+enjoyment of your visit here, which I hope may continue as long as you
+can make it convenient." The words and manner convinced Lawrence that
+that they did not merely indicate a conventional hospitality. The old
+lady meant what she said. She wanted him to stay.
+
+That morning he had become convinced that he had been invited there
+because Mrs Keswick wished him to marry Miss March; and she had done
+this, not out of any kind feeling toward him, because that would be
+impossible, considering the shortness of their acquaintance, but because
+she was opposed to her nephew's marriage with Miss March, and because
+he, Lawrence, was the only available person who could be brought forward
+to supplant him. "But whatever her motive is," thought Lawrence, "her
+invitation comes in admirably for me, and I hope I shall get the proper
+advantage from it."
+
+Shortly after this, Lawrence sat in the parlor, by himself, writing a
+letter. It was to Junius Keswick; and in it he related the facts of his
+search for him in New York, and the reason why he desired to make his
+acquaintance. He concealed nothing but the fact that Keswick's cousin
+had had anything to do with the affair. "If she wants him to know that,"
+he thought, "she can tell him herself. It is not my business to make any
+revelations in that quarter." He concluded the letter by informing Mr
+Keswick of the visit of the anti-detective, and warning him against any
+attempts which that individual might make upon his pocket, assuring him
+that the man could tell him nothing in regard to the affair that he now
+did not know.
+
+After dinner, during which meal Miss March appeared in a very good
+humor, and talked rather more than she had yet done in the bosom of that
+family, Lawrence had his horse saddled, and rode to the railroad
+station, about six miles distant, where he posted his letter; and also
+sent a telegram to Mr Junius Keswick, warning him to pay no attention to
+any man who might call upon him on business connected with Croft and
+Keswick, and stating that an explanatory letter had been sent.
+
+The anti-detective had left on a train an hour before, but Lawrence felt
+certain that the telegram would reach Keswick before the man could
+possibly get to him, especially as the latter had probably not yet found
+out his intended victim's address.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+As Lawrence Croft rode back to Mrs Keswick's house, after having posted
+to his rival the facts in the case of Croft after Keswick, he did not
+feel in a very happy or triumphant mood. The visit of the anti-detective
+had compelled him to write to Keswick at a time when it was not at all
+desirable that he should make any disclosures whatever in regard to his
+love affair with Miss March, except that very important disclosure which
+he had made to the lady herself that morning. Of course there was no
+great danger that any intimation would reach Miss March of Mr Croft's
+rather eccentric search for his predecessor in the position which he
+wished to occupy in her affections. But the matter was particularly
+unpleasant just now, and Lawrence wished to occupy his time here in
+business very different from that of sending explanations to rivals and
+warding off unfriendly entanglements threatened by a blackmailer.
+
+It was absolutely necessary for him to find out what he had done to
+offend Miss March. Offended that lady certainly was, and he even felt
+that she was glad of the opportunity his declaration gave her to inflict
+punishment upon him. But still he did not despair. When she had made him
+pay the penalty she thought proper for whatever error he had committed,
+she might be willing to listen to him. He had not said anything to her
+in regard to his failure to make her the promised visit at Midbranch,
+for, during the only time he had been alone with her here, the subject
+of an immediate statement of his feelings toward her had wholly occupied
+his mind. But it now occurred to him that she had reason to feel
+aggrieved at his failure to keep his promise to her, and she must have
+shown that feeling, for, otherwise, her most devoted friend, Mr Junius
+Keswick, would never have made that rather remarkable visit to him at
+the Green Sulphur Springs. Of course he would not allude to that visit,
+nor to her wish to see him, for she had sent him no message, nor did he
+know what object she had in desiring an interview. But it was quite
+possible that she might have taken umbrage at his failure to come to her
+when expected, and that this was the reason for her present treatment of
+him. To this treatment Lawrence might have taken exception, but now he
+did not wish to judge her in any way. His only desire in regard to her
+was to possess her, and therefore, instead of condemning her for her
+unjust method of showing her resentment, he merely considered how he
+should set himself right with her. Cruel or kind, just or unjust, he
+wanted her.
+
+And then, as he slowly trotted along the lonely and uneven road, it
+suddenly flashed upon him, as if in mounting a hill, a far-reaching
+landscape, hitherto unseen, had in a moment, spread itself out before
+him, that, perhaps, Miss March had divined the reason of his extremely
+discreet behavior toward her. Was it possible that she had seen his
+motives, and knew the truth, and that she resented the prudence and
+caution he had shown in his intercourse with her?
+
+If she had read the truth, he felt that she had good reason for her
+resentment, and Lawrence did not trouble himself to consider if she had
+shown too much of it or not. He remembered the story of the defeated
+general, and, feeling that so far he had been thoroughly defeated, he
+determined to admit the fact, and to sound a retreat from all the
+positions he had held; but, at the same time, to make a bold dash into
+the enemy's camp, and, if possible, capture the commander-in-chief and
+the Minister of War.
+
+He would go to Roberta, tell her all that he had thought, and explain
+all that he had done. There should be no bit of truth which she could
+have reasoned out, which he would not plainly avow and set before her.
+Then he would declare to her that his love for her had become so great,
+that, rushing over every barrier, whether of prudence, doubt, or
+indecision, it had carried him with it and laid him at her feet. When he
+had come to this bold conclusion, he cheered up his horse with a thump
+of his heel and cantered rapidly over the rest of the road.
+
+Peggy, having nothing else to do, was standing by the yard gate when he
+came in sight, and she watched his approach with feelings of surprise
+and disgust. She had seen him ride away, and not considering the fact
+that he did not carry his valise with him, she supposed he had taken his
+final departure. She had conceived a violent dislike to Mr Croft,
+looking upon him in the light of an interloper and a robber, who had
+come to break up that expected marriage between Master Junius and Miss
+Rob, which the servants at Midbranch looked forward to as necessary for
+the prosperity of the family; and the preliminary stages of which she
+had taken upon herself the responsibility of describing with so much
+minuteness of detail. With the politeness natural to the Southern negro,
+she opened the gate for the gentleman, but as she closed it behind him,
+she cast after him a look of earnest malevolence. "Ef dot ole Miss
+Keswick don' kunjer you, sah," she said in an undertone, "I's gwine to
+do it myse'f. So, dar!" And she gave her foot a stamp on the ground.
+
+Lawrence, all ignorant of the malignant feeling he had excited in this,
+to him, very unimportant and uninteresting black girl, tied his horse
+and went into the house. As he passed the open door of the parlor he
+saw a lady reading by a window in the farthest corner. Hanging up his
+hat, he entered, hoping that the reader, whose form was partially
+concealed by the back of the large rocking chair in which she was
+sitting, was Miss March. But it was not; it was Mrs Keswick's niece,
+deeply engrossed by a large-paged novel. She turned her head as he
+entered, and said: "Good evening."
+
+"Good evening, Miss Annie," said Lawrence, seating himself in a chair
+opposite her on the other side of the window.
+
+"Mr Croft," said she, laying her book on her lap, and inclining herself
+slightly toward him, "you have no right to call me Miss Annie, and I
+wish you would not do it. The servants in the South call ladies by their
+first names, whether they are married or not, but people would think it
+very strange if you should imitate them. My name in this house is Mrs
+Null, and I wish you would not forget it."
+
+"The trouble with me is," said Lawrence, with a smile, "that I cannot
+forget it is not Mrs Null, but, of course, if you desire it, I will give
+you that name."
+
+"I told you before how much I desired it," said she, "and why. When my
+aunt finds out the exact state of this affair, I shall wish to stay no
+longer in this house; and I don't want my stay to come to an end at
+present. I am very happy here with the only relatives I have in the
+world, who are ever so much nicer people than I supposed they were, and
+you have no right to come here and drive me away."
+
+"My dear young lady," said Croft, "I wouldn't do such a thing for the
+world. I admit that I am very sorry that it is necessary, or appears to
+you to be so, that you should be here under false colors, but--"
+
+"_Appears_ to be," said she, with much emphasis on the first word. "Why,
+can't you see that it would be impossible for me, as a young unmarried
+woman, to come to the house of a man, whose proprietor, as Aunt Keswick
+considers herself to be, has been trying to marry to me, even before I
+was grown up; for the letters that used to make my father most angry
+were about this. I hate to talk of these family affairs, and I only do
+it so that you can be made understand things."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "do not think I wish to blame you. You have
+had a hard time of it, and I can see the peculiarities of your residence
+here. Don't be afraid of me; I will not betray your secret. While I am
+here, I will address you, and will try to think of you as a very grave
+young matron. But I wish very much that you were not quite so grave and
+severe when you address me. When I was here last week your manner was
+very different. We were quite friendly then."
+
+"I see no particular reason," said Annie, "why we should be friendly."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, after a little pause, during which he
+looked at her attentively, "I don't believe you approve of me."
+
+"No," said she, "I don't."
+
+He could not help smiling at the earnest directness of her answer,
+though he did not like it. "I am sorry," he said, "that you should have
+so poor an opinion of me. And, now, let me tell you what I was going to
+say this morning, that my only object in finding your cousin was to know
+the man who had been engaged to Miss March."
+
+"So that you could find out what she probably objected to in him, and
+could then try and not let her see anything of that sort in you."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "you are unjust. There is no reason why you
+should speak to me in this way."
+
+"I would like to know," she said, "what cause there could possibly be
+for your wanting to become acquainted with a man who had been engaged to
+the lady you wished to marry, if you didn't intend to study him up, and
+try to do better yourself."
+
+"My motive in desiring to become acquainted with Mr Keswick," said
+Lawrence, "is one you could scarcely understand, and all I can say about
+it is, that I believed that if I knew the gentleman who had formerly
+been the accepted lover of a lady, I should better know the lady."
+
+"You must be awfully suspicious," said she.
+
+"No, I am not," he answered, "and I knew you would not understand me. My
+only desire in speaking to you upon this subject is that you may not
+unreasonably judge me."
+
+"But I am not unreasonable," said Annie. "You are trying to get Miss
+March away from my cousin; and I don't think it is fair, and I don't
+want you to do it. When you were here before, I thought you two were
+good friends, but now I don't believe it."
+
+How friendly might be the relations between himself and Keswick, when
+the latter should read his letter about the Candy affair, and should
+know that he was in this house with Miss March, Lawrence could not say;
+but he did not allude to this point in his companion's remarks. "I do
+not think," he said, "that you have any reason to object to my
+endeavoring to win Miss March. Even if she accepts me, it will be to the
+advantage of your cousin, because if he still hopes to obtain her, the
+sooner he knows he cannot do so, the better it will be for him. My
+course is perfectly fair. I am aware that the lady is not at present
+engaged to any one, and I am endeavoring to induce her to engage herself
+to me. If I fail, then I step aside."
+
+"Entirely aside, and out of the way?" asked Mrs Null.
+
+"Entirely," answered Lawrence.
+
+"Well," said Annie, leaning back in her chair, in which before she had
+been sitting very upright, "you have, at last, given me a good deal of
+your confidence; almost as much as I gave you. Some of the things you
+say I believe, others I don't."
+
+Lawrence was annoyed, but he would not allow himself to get angry. "I am
+not accustomed to being disbelieved," he said, gravely. "It is a very
+unusual experience, I assure you. Which of my statements do you doubt?"
+
+"I don't believe," said Annie, "that you will give her up if she rejects
+you while you are here. You are too wilful. You will follow her, and try
+again."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "I do not feel justified in speaking to a
+third person of these things, but this is a peculiar case, and,
+therefore, I assure you, and request you to believe me, that if Miss
+March shall now positively refuse me, I shall feel convinced that her
+affections are already occupied, and that I have no right to press my
+suit any longer."
+
+"Would you like to begin now?" said Annie. "She is coming down stairs."
+
+"You are entirely too matter-of-fact," said Lawrence, smiling in spite
+of himself, and, in a moment, Roberta entered the room.
+
+If the young lady in the high-backed rocking-chair had any idea of
+giving Mr Croft and Miss March an opportunity of expressing their
+sentiments toward each other, she took no immediate steps to do so; for
+she gently rocked herself; she talked about the novel she had been
+reading; she blamed Miss March for staying so long in her room on such a
+beautiful afternoon; and she was the primary cause of a conversation
+among the three upon the differences between New York weather and that
+of Virginia; and this continued until old Mrs Keswick joined the party,
+and changed the conversation to the consideration of the fact that a
+fertilizer agent, a pill man, or a blackmailer would find out a person's
+whereabouts, even if he were attending the funeral of his grandmother on
+a desert island.
+
+The next morning, about an hour after breakfast, Lawrence was walking up
+and down on the grass in front of the house, smoking a cigar, and
+troubling his mind. He had had no opportunity on the previous evening to
+be alone with Miss March, for the little party sat together in the
+parlor until they separated for bed; and so, of course, nothing was yet
+settled. He was overstaying the time he had expected to spend here, and
+he felt nervous about it. He had hoped to see Miss March after
+breakfast, but she seemed to have withdrawn herself entirely from
+observation. Perhaps she considered that she had sufficiently rejected
+him on the previous morning, and that she now intended, except when she
+was sure of the company of the others, to remain in her room until he
+should go away. But he had no such opinion in regard to their interview
+on Pine Top Hill. He believed that he had been punished, not rejected,
+and that when he should be able to explain everything to her, he would
+be forgiven. That, at least, was his earnest hope, and hope makes us
+believe almost anything.
+
+But, although there were so many difficulties in his way, Lawrence had a
+friend in that household who still remained true to him. Mrs Keswick,
+with sun-bonnet and umbrella, came out upon the porch, and said
+cheerily: "I should think a gentleman like you would prefer to be with
+the ladies than to be walking about here by yourself. They have gone to
+take a walk in the woods. I should have said that Miss March has gone on
+ahead, with her little maid Peggy. My niece was going with her, but I
+called her back to attend to some housekeeping matters for me, and I
+think she will be kept longer than she expected, for I have just sent
+Letty to her to be shown how to cut out a frock. But you needn't wait;
+you can go right through the flower-garden, and take the path over the
+fields into the woods." And, having concluded this bit of conscienceless
+and transparent management, the old lady remarked that she, herself, was
+going for a walk, and left him.
+
+Lawrence lost no time in following her suggestions. Throwing away his
+cigar, he hurried through the house and the little flower-garden, a gate
+at the back of which opened into a wide pasture-field. This field sloped
+down gently to a branch, or little stream, which ran through the middle
+of it, and then the ground ascended until it reached the edge of the
+woods. Following the well-defined path, he looked across the little
+valley before him, and could see, just inside the edge of the woods--the
+trees and bushes being much more thinly attired than in the summer
+time--the form of a lady in a light-colored dress with a red scarf upon
+her shoulders, sometimes moving slowly, sometimes stopping. This was
+Roberta, and those woods were a far better place than the exposed summit
+of Pine Top Hill, in which to plight his troth, if it should be so that
+he should be able to do it, and there were doubtless paths in those
+woods through which they might afterwards wander, if things should turn
+out propitiously. At all events, in those woods would he settle this
+affair.
+
+His intention was still strong to make a very clean breast of it to
+Roberta. If she had blamed him for his prudent reserve, she should have
+full opportunity to forgive him. All that he had been she should know,
+but far more important than that, he would try to make her know, better
+than he had done before, what he was now. Abandoning all his previous
+positions, and mounted on these strong resolutions, thus would he dash
+into her camp, and hope to capture her.
+
+Reaching the little ravine, at the bottom of which flowed the branch,
+now but two or three feet wide, he ran down the rather steep slope and
+stepped upon the stout plank which bridged the stream. The instant he
+did so, the plank turned beneath him as if it had been hung on pivots,
+and he fell into the stony bed of the branch. It was an awkward fall,
+for the leg which was undermost came down at an angle, and his foot,
+striking a slippery stone, turned under him. In a moment he was on his
+feet, and scrambled up the side of the ravine, down which he had just
+come. When he reached the top he sat down and put both his hands on his
+right ankle, in which he felt considerable pain. In a few minutes he
+arose, and began to walk toward the house, but he had not taken a dozen
+steps before he sat down again. The pain in his ankle was very severe,
+and he felt quite sure that he had sprained it. He knew enough about
+such things to understand that if he walked upon this injured joint, he
+would not only make the pain worse, but the consequences might be
+serious. He was very much annoyed, not only that this thing had happened
+to him, but that it had happened at such an inauspicious moment. Of
+course, he could not now go on to the woods, and he must get somebody to
+help him to the house. Looking about, he saw, at a distance, Uncle
+Isham, and he called loudly to him. As soon as Lawrence was well away
+from the edge of the ravine, there emerged from some thick bushes on the
+other side of it, and at a short distance from the crossing-place, a
+negro girl, who slipped noiselessly down to the branch; moved with quick
+steps and crouching body to the plank; removed the two round stones on
+which it had been skilfully poised, and replaced it in its usual firm
+position. This done, she slipped back into the bushes, and by the time
+Isham had heard the call of Mr Croft, she was slowly walking down the
+opposite hill, as if she were coming from the woods to see why the
+gentleman was shouting.
+
+Miss March also heard the call, and came out of the woods, and when she
+saw Lawrence sitting on the grass on the other side of the branch, with
+one hand upon his ankle, she knew that something had happened, and came
+down toward him. Lawrence saw her approaching, and before she was even
+near enough to hear him, he began to shout to her to be careful about
+crossing the branch, as the board was unsafe. Peggy joined her, and
+walked on in front of her; and when Miss March understood what Lawrence
+was saying, she called back that she would be careful. When they reached
+the ravine, Peggy ran down, stepped upon the plank, jumped on the middle
+of it, walked over it, and then back again, and assured her mistress
+that it was just as good as ever it was, and that she reckoned the city
+gentleman didn't know how to walk on planks, and that "he jes' done fall
+off."
+
+Miss March crossed, stepping a little cautiously, and reached Lawrence
+just as Uncle Isham, with strong arms and many words of sympathy, had
+assisted him to his feet. "What has happened to you, Mr Croft?" she
+exclaimed.
+
+"I was coming to you," he said; "and in crossing the stream the plank
+turned under me, and I am afraid I have sprained my ankle. I can't walk
+on it."
+
+"I am very sorry," she said.
+
+"Because I was coming to you," he said, grimly, "or because I hurt
+myself?"
+
+"You ought to be ashamed to speak in that way," she answered, "but I
+won't find fault with you, now that you are in such pain. Is there
+anything I can do for you?"
+
+"No, thank you," said Lawrence. "I will lean on this good man, and I
+think I can hop to the house."
+
+"Peggy," said Miss Roberta, "walk on the other side of the gentleman,
+and let him lean upon your shoulder. I will go on and have something
+prepared to put on his ankle."
+
+With one side supported by the stout Isham, and his other hand resting
+on the shoulder of the good little Peggy, who bore up as strongly under
+it as if she had been a big walking-stick, Lawrence slowly made his way
+to the house. Miss March got there sometime before he did, and was very
+glad to find that Mrs Keswick had not yet gone out on the walk for which
+she was prepared. That circumspect old lady had found this and that to
+occupy her, while she so managed her household matters, that one thing
+should follow another, to detain her niece. But when she heard what had
+happened, all other impulses gave way to those which belonged to a head
+nurse and a mistress of emergencies. She set down her umbrella; shouted
+an order to Letty to put a kettle of water on the fire; brought from her
+own room some flannel and two bottles of embrocation; and then stopping
+a moment to reflect, ordered that the office should be prepared for Mr
+Croft, for it would be a shame to make a gentleman, with a sprained
+ankle, clamber up stairs.
+
+The office was a small building in the wide front yard, not very far
+from the house, and opposite to the arbor, which has been before
+mentioned. It was one story high, and contained one large and
+comfortable room. Such buildings are quite common on Virginian farms,
+and although called offices are seldom used in an official way, being
+generally appropriated to the bachelors of the family or their gentleman
+visitors. This one was occupied by Junius Keswick, when he was at home,
+and a good many of his belongings were now in it; but as it was at
+present unoccupied, nothing could be more proper than that Mr Croft
+should have it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+About noon of the day of Mr Croft's accident, Uncle Isham had occasion
+to go to the cabin of the venerable Aunt Patsy, and, of course he told
+her what had happened to the gentleman whom he and Aunt Patsy still
+supposed to be Miss Annie's husband. The news produced a very marked
+effect upon the old woman. She put down the crazy quilt, upon the
+unfinished corner of which she was making a few feeble stitches, and
+looked at Uncle Isham with a troubled frown. She was certain that this
+was the work of old Mrs Keswick, who had succeeded, at last, in
+conjuring the young husband; and the charm she had given him, and upon
+which she had relied to avert the ill will of "ole miss," had proved
+unavailing. The conjuring had been accomplished so craftily and slyly,
+the bewitched plank in one place, and Mrs Keswick far off in another,
+that there had been no chance to use the counteracting charm. And yet
+Aunt Patsy had thought it a good charm, a very good one indeed.
+
+Early in her married life Mrs Keswick had been the mother of a little
+girl. It had died when it was very small, and it was the only child she
+ever had. Of this infant she preserved, as a memento, a complete suit of
+its clothes, which she regarded with a feeling almost religious. Years
+ago, however, Aunt Patsy, in order to protect herself against the
+conjuring powers of the mistress of the house, in which she then served
+as a sort of supervising cook, had possessed herself of the shoes
+belonging to the cherished suit of clothes. She knew the sacred light in
+which they were regarded by their owner, and she felt quite sure that if
+"ole miss" ever attempted, in one of her fits of anger, to exercise her
+power of limb twisting or back contortion upon her, that the sight of
+those little blue shoes would create a revulsion of feeling, and, as she
+put it to herself, "stop her mighty short." The shoes had never been
+missed, for the box containing the suit was only opened on one day of
+the year, and then all the old lady could endure was a peep at the
+little white frock which covered the rest of the contents; and Aunt
+Patsy well knew that the sight of those little blue shoes would be to
+her mistress like two little feet coming back from the grave.
+
+Patsy had been much too old to act as nurse to the infant, Annie Peyton,
+then regarded as the daughter of the house, but she had always felt for
+the child the deepest affection; and now that she herself was so near
+the end of her career that she had little fear of being bewitched, she
+was willing to give up the safeguards she had so long possessed, in
+order that they might protect the man whom Miss Annie had loved and
+married. But they had failed, or rather it had been impossible to use
+them, and Miss Annie's husband had been stricken down. "It's pow'ful
+hard to git roun' ole miss," she groaned. "She too much fur ole folks
+like I is."
+
+At this remark Uncle Isham fired up. Although the conduct of his
+mistress troubled him at times very much he was intensely loyal to her,
+and he instantly caught the meaning of this aspersion against her. "Now,
+look h'yar, Aun' Patsy," he exclaimed, "wot you talkin' 'bout? Wot ole
+miss got to do wid Mister Crof' sprainin' he ankle? Ole miss warn't dar;
+an' when I done fotch him up to de house, she cut roun' an' do more fur
+him dan anybody else. She got de hot water, an' she dipped de flannels
+in it, an' she wrop up de ankle all herse'f, an' when she got him all
+fixed comfable in de offis, she says to me, says she, 'Now, Isham, you
+wait on Mister Crof', an' you gib him eberything he want, an' when de
+cool ob de ebenin' comes on you make a fire in dat fireplace, an' stay
+whar he kin call you wheneber he wants you to wait on him.' I didn't
+eben come down h'yar till I axed him would he want me fur half an hour."
+
+"Well," said Aunt Patsy, her eyes softening a little, "p'raps she didn't
+do it dis time. It mout a been his own orkardness. I hopes to mussiful
+goodness dat dat was so. But wot fur you call him Mister Crof'? Is dat
+he fus' name?"
+
+"I reckon so," said Isham. "He one ob de fam'ly now, an' I reckon dey
+calls him by he fus' name. An' now, look h'yar, Aun' Patsy, I wants you
+not to disremember dis h'yar. Don' you go imaginin' ebery time anything
+happens to folks, that ole miss done been kunjerin' 'em. Dat ain't
+pious, an' 'taint suitable fur a ole pusson like you, Aun' Patsy, wot's
+jus' settin' on de poach steps ob heaben, a waitin' till somebody finds
+out you's dar, an' let's you in."
+
+Aunt Patsy turned her great spectacles full upon him, and then she said:
+"You, Isham, ef eber you gits a call to preach to folks, you jus' sing
+out: 'Oh, Lor', I aint fit!' And den you go crack your head wid a
+mill-stone, fur fear you git called agin, fru mistake."
+
+Uncle Isham made no answer to this piece of advice, but taking up some
+clothes which Aunt Patsy's great granddaughter had washed and ironed for
+him, he left the cabin. He was a man much given to attending to his own
+business, and paying very little attention to those affairs of his
+mistress's household, with which he had no personal concern. When Mr
+Croft first came to the house he, as well as Aunt Patsy, had been told
+that it was Mr Null, the husband of Miss Annie; and although not
+thinking much about it, he had always supposed this to be the case. But
+now it struck him as a very strange thing that Miss Annie did not attend
+to her husband, but allowed his mistress and himself to do everything
+that was done for him. It was a question which his mind was totally
+incapable of solving, but when he reached the house, he spoke to Letty
+on the subject. "Bress your soul!" exclaimed that well-nourished
+person, "dat's not Mister Null, wot married Miss Annie. Dat's Mister
+Crof', an' he aint married to nobody. Mister Null he aint come yet, but
+I reckon he'll be along soon."
+
+"Well den," exclaimed Isham, much surprised, "how come Aun' Patsy to
+take he for Miss Annie's husband?"
+
+"Oh, git out!" contemptuously exclaimed Letty, "don' you go put no
+'count on dem fool notions wot Aun' Patsy got in she old head. Nobody
+knows how dey come dar, no more'n how dey eber manage to git out. 'Taint
+no use splainin nothin' to Aun' Patsy, an' if she b'lieves dat's Miss
+Annie's husband, you can't make her b'lieve it's anybody else. Jes' you
+lef her alone. Nuffin she b'lieves aint gwine to hurt her."
+
+And Isham, remembering his frequent ill success in endeavoring to make
+Aunt Patsy think as she ought to think, concluded that this was good
+advice.
+
+At the time of the conversation just mentioned, Lawrence was sitting in
+a large easy chair in front of the open door of the room of which he had
+been put in possession. His injured foot was resting upon a cushioned
+stool, a small table stood by him, on which were his cigar and match
+cases; a pitcher of iced water and a glass, and a late copy of a
+semi-weekly paper. Through the doorway, which was but two steps higher
+than the grass sward before it, his eyes fell upon a very pleasing
+scene. To the right was the house, with its vine-covered porch and
+several great oak trees overhanging it, which still retained their heavy
+foliage, although it was beginning to lose something of its summer
+green. In front of him, at the opposite end of the grassy yard, was the
+pretty little arbor in which he had told Mr Junius Keswick of the
+difficulties in the way of his speaking his mind to Miss March. Beyond
+the large garden, at the back of this arbor, stretched a wide field with
+a fringe of woods at its distant edge, gay with the colors of autumn.
+The sky was bright and blue, and fair white clouds moved slowly over its
+surface; the air was sunny and warm, with bumble-bees humming about some
+late-flowering shrubs; and, high in the air, floated two great
+turkey-buzzards, with a beauty of motion surpassed by no other flying
+thing, with never a movement of their wide-spread wings, except to give
+them the necessary inclination as they rose with the wind, and then
+turned and descended in a long sweep, only to rise again and complete
+the circle; sailing thus for hours, around and around, their shadows
+moving over the fields below them.
+
+Fearing that he had sustained some injury more than a mere sprain,
+Lawrence had had the Howlett's doctor summoned, and that general
+practitioner had come and gone, after having assured Mr Croft that no
+bones had been broken; that Mrs Keswick's treatment was exactly what it
+should be, and that all that was necessary for him was to remain quiet
+for a few days, and be very careful not to use the injured ankle. Thus
+he had the prospect of but a short confinement; he felt no present pain;
+and there was nothing of the sick-room atmosphere in his surroundings,
+for his position close to the door almost gave him the advantage of
+sitting in the open air of this bright autumnal day.
+
+But Lawrence's mind dwelt not at all on these ameliorating
+circumstances; it dwelt only upon the fact that he was in one house and
+Miss March was in another. It was impossible for him to go to her, and
+he had no reason to believe that she would come to him. Under ordinary
+circumstances it would be natural enough for her to look in upon him and
+inquire into his condition, but now the case was very different. She
+knew that he desired to see her, that he had been coming to her when he
+met with his accident, and she knew, too, exactly what he wanted to say;
+and it was not to be supposed that a lady would come to a man to be
+wooed, especially this lady, who had been in such an unfavorable humor
+when he had wooed her the day before.
+
+But it was quite impossible for Lawrence, at this most important crisis
+of his life, to sit without action for three or four days, during which
+time it was not unlikely that Miss March might go home. But what was he
+to do? It would be rediculous to think of sending for her, she knowing
+for what purpose she was wanted; and as for writing a letter, that did
+not suit him at all. There was too much to be explained, too much to be
+urged, too much to be avowed, and, probably, too many contingencies to
+be met, for him to even consider the subject of writing a letter. A
+proposal on paper would most certainly bring a rejection on paper. He
+could think of no plan; he must trust to chance. If his lucky star, and
+it had shone a good deal in his life, should give him an opportunity of
+speaking to her, he would lose not an instant in broaching the important
+subject. He was happy to think he had a friend in the old lady. Perhaps
+she might bring about the desired interview. But although this thought
+was encouraging, he could not but tremble when he remembered the very
+plain and unvarnished way she had of doing such things.
+
+While these thoughts were passing through his mind, a lady came out upon
+the porch, and descended the steps. At the first sight of her through
+the vines, Lawrence had thought it might be Miss March, and his heart
+had given a jump. But it was not; it was Mrs Null, and she came over the
+grass toward him, and stopped in front of his door. "How are you feeling
+now?" she asked. "Does your foot still hurt you?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Lawrence, "I am in no pain. The only thing that troubles
+me is that I have to stay just here."
+
+"It might have been better on some accounts," said she, "if you had been
+taken into the house; but it would have hurt you dreadfully to go up
+stairs, unless Uncle Isham carried you on his back, which I don't
+believe he could do."
+
+"Of course it's a great deal better out here," said Lawrence. "In fact
+this is a perfectly charming place to be laid up in, but I want to get
+about. I want to see people." "Many people?" asked she, with a
+significant little smile.
+
+Lawrence smiled in return. "You must know, Mrs Null, from what I have
+told you," he said, "that there is one person I want to see very much,
+and that is why I am so annoyed at being kept here in this chair."
+
+"You must be of an uncommonly impatient turn of mind," she said, "for
+you haven't been here three hours, altogether, and hundreds of persons
+sit still that long, just because they want to."
+
+"I don't want to sit still a minute," said Lawrence. "I very much wish
+to speak to Miss March. Couldn't you contrive an opportunity for me to
+do so?"
+
+"It is possible that I might," she said, "but I won't. Haven't I told
+you that I don't approve of this affair of yours? My cousin is in love
+with Miss March, and all I should do for you would be directly against
+him. Aunt so managed things this morning that I was actually obliged to
+give you an opportunity to be with her, but I had intended going with
+Roberta to the woods, as she had asked me to do."
+
+"You are very cruel," said Lawrence.
+
+"No, I am not," said she, "I am only just." "I explained to you
+yesterday," said he, "that your course of thinking and acting is not
+just, and is of no possible advantage to anybody. How can it injure your
+cousin if Miss March refuses me and I go away and never see her again?
+And, if she accepts me, then you should be glad that I had put an end to
+your cousin's pursuit of a woman who does not love him."
+
+"That is nonsense," said she. "I shouldn't be glad at all to see him
+disappointed. I should feel like a traitor if I helped you. But I did
+not come to talk about these things. I came to ask you what you would
+have for dinner."
+
+"I had an idea," said Lawrence, not regarding this remark, "that you
+were a young lady of a kindly disposition."
+
+"And you don't think so, now?" she said.
+
+"No," answered Lawrence, "I cannot. I cannot think a woman kind who will
+refuse to assist a man, situated as I am, to settle the most important
+question of his life, especially as I have told you, before, that it is
+really to the interest of the one you are acting for, that it should be
+settled."
+
+Miss Annie, still standing in front of the door, now regarded Lawrence
+with a certain degree of thoughtfullness on her countenance, which
+presently changed to a half smile. "If I were perfectly sure," she said,
+"that she would reject you, I would try to get her here, and have the
+matter settled, but I don't know her very well yet, and can't feel at
+all certain as to what she might do."
+
+"I like your frankness," said Lawrence, "but, as I said before, you are
+very cruel."
+
+"Not at all," said she, "I am very kind, only--"
+
+"You don't show it," interrupted Lawrence.
+
+At this Miss Annie laughed. "Kindness isn't of much use, if it is shut
+up, is it?" she said. "I suppose you think it is one of those virtues
+that we ought to act out, as well as feel, if we want any credit. And
+now, isn't there something I can do for you besides bringing another
+man's sweetheart to you?"
+
+Lawrence smiled. "I don't believe she is his sweetheart," he said, "and
+I want to find out if I am right."
+
+"It is my opinion," said Miss Annie, "that you ought to think more about
+your sprained ankle and your general health, than about having your mind
+settled by Miss March. I should think that keeping your blood boiling,
+in this way, would inflame your joints."
+
+"The doctor didn't tell me what to think about," said Lawrence. "He only
+said I must not walk."
+
+"I haven't heard yet," said Miss Annie, "what you would like to have to
+eat." "I don't wish to give the slightest trouble," answered Lawrence.
+"What do you generally give people in such scrapes as this? Tea and
+toast?"
+
+Annie laughed. "Nonsense," said she. "What you want is the best meal you
+can get. Aunt said if there was anything you particularly liked she
+would have it made for you."
+
+"Do not think of such a thing," said Lawrence. "Give me just what the
+family has."
+
+"Would you like Miss March to bring it out to you?" she asked.
+
+"The word cruel cannot express your disposition," said Lawrence. "I pity
+Mr Null." "Poor man," said she; "but it would be a good thing for you if
+you could keep your mind as quiet as his is." And with that she went
+into the house.
+
+After dinner, Miss March did come out to inquire into Mr Croft's
+condition, but she was accompanied by Mrs Keswick. Lawrence invited the
+ladies to come in and be seated, but Roberta stood on the grass in front
+of the door, as Miss Annie had done, while Mrs Keswick entered the room,
+looked into the ice-water pitcher, and examined things generally, to see
+if Uncle Isham had been guilty of any sins of omission.
+
+"Do you feel quite at ease now?" said Miss March.
+
+"My ankle don't trouble me," said Lawrence, "but I never felt so
+uncomfortable and dissatisfied in my life." And with these latter words
+he gave the lady a look which was intended to be, and which probably
+was, full of meaning to her.
+
+"Wouldn't you like some books?" said Mrs Keswick, now appearing from the
+back of the room. "You haven't anything to read. There are plenty of
+books in the house, but they are all old."
+
+"I think those are the most delightful of books," said Miss March. "I
+have been looking over the volumes on your shelves, Mrs Keswick. I am
+sure there are a good many of them Mr Croft would like to read, even if
+he has read them before. There are lots of queer old-time histories and
+biographies, and sets of bound magazines, some of them over a hundred
+years old. Would you like me to select some for you, Mr Croft? Or shall
+I write some of the titles on a slip of paper, and let you select for
+yourself?"
+
+"I shall be delighted," said Lawrence, "to have you make a choice for
+me; and I think the list would be the better plan, because books would
+be so heavy to carry about."
+
+"I will do it immediately," said Miss March, and she walked rapidly to
+the house.
+
+"Now then," said Mrs Keswick, "I'll put a chair out here on the grass,
+close to the door. It's shady there, and I should think it would be
+pleasant for both of you, if she would sit there and read to you out of
+those books. She is a fine woman, that Miss March--a much finer woman
+than I thought she could be, before I knew her."
+
+"She is, indeed," said Lawrence.
+
+"I suppose you think she is the finest woman in the world?" said the old
+lady, with a genial grin.
+
+"What makes you suppose so?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Haven't I eyes?" said Mrs Keswick. "But you needn't make any excuses.
+You have made an excellent choice, and I hope you may succeed in getting
+her. Perhaps you have succeeded?" she added, giving Lawrence an earnest
+look, with a question in it.
+
+Lawrence did not immediately reply. It was not in his nature to confide
+his affairs to other people, and yet he had done so much of it, of late,
+that he did not see why he should make an exception against Mrs Keswick,
+who was, indeed, the only person who seemed inclined to be friendly to
+his suit. He might as well let her know how matters stood. "No," he
+said, "I have not yet succeeded, and I am very sorry that this accident
+has interfered with my efforts to do so."
+
+"Don't let it interfere," said the old lady, her eyes sparkling, while
+her purple sun-bonnet was suddenly and severely bobbed. "You have just
+as good a chance now as you ever had, and all you have to do is to make
+the most of it. When she comes out here to read to you, you can talk to
+her just as well as if you were in the woods, or on top of a hill.
+Nobody'll come here to disturb you; I'll take care of that."
+
+"You are very kind," said Lawrence, somewhat wondering at her
+enthusiasm.
+
+"I intended to go away and leave her here with you," continued Mrs
+Keswick, "if I could find a good opportunity to do so, but she hit on
+the best plan herself. And now I'll be off and leave the coast clear. I
+will come again before dark and put some more of that stuff on your
+ankle. If you want anything, ring this bell, and if Isham doesn't hear
+you, somebody will call him. He has orders to keep about the house."
+
+"You are putting me under very great obligations to you, madam," said
+Lawrence.
+
+But the old lady did not stop to hear any thanks, and hastened to clear
+the coast.
+
+Lawrence had to wait a long time for his list of books, but at last it
+came; and, much to his surprise and chagrin, Mrs Null brought it. "Miss
+March asked me to give you this," she said, "so that you can pick out
+just what books you want."
+
+Lawrence took the paper, but did not look at it. He was deeply
+disappointed and hurt. His whole appearance showed it.
+
+"You don't seem glad to get it," said Miss Annie. Lawrence looked at
+her, his face darkening. "Did you persuade Miss March," he said, "to
+stay in the house and let you bring this?"
+
+"Now, Mr Croft," said the young lady, a very decided flush coming into
+her face, "that is going too far. You have no right to accuse me of such
+a thing. I am not going to help in your love affairs, but I don't intend
+to be mean about it, either. Miss March asked me to bring that list, and
+at first I wouldn't do it, for I knew, just as well as I know anything,
+that you expected her to come to you with it, and I was very sure you
+wanted to see her more than the paper. I refused two or three times, but
+she said, at last, that if I didn't take it, she'd send it by some one
+in the house; so I just picked it up and brought it right along. I don't
+like her as much as I did."
+
+"Why not?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"You needn't accept a man if you don't want him," said Miss Annie, "but
+there is no need of being cruel to him, especially when he is laid up.
+If she didn't intend to come out to you again, she ought not to have
+made you believe so. You did expect her to come, didn't you?"
+
+"Most certainly," said Lawrence, in rather a doleful tone. "Yes, and
+there is the chair she was to sit in," said Miss Annie, "while you said
+seven words about the books and ten thousand about the way your heart
+was throbbing. I see Aunt Keswick's hand in that, as plain as can be. I
+don't say I'd put her in that chair if I could do it, but I certainly
+am sorry she disappointed you so. Would you like to have any of those
+books? If you would, I'll get them for you."
+
+"I am much obliged, Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "but I don't think I care
+for any books. And let me say that I am very sorry for the way I spoke
+to you, just now."
+
+"Oh, don't mention that," said she. "If I'd been in your place, I should
+have been mad enough to say anything. But it's no use to sit here and be
+grumpy. You'd better let me go and get you a book. The "Critical
+Magazine" for 1767 and 1768, is on that list, and I know there are lots
+of queer, interesting things in it, but it takes a good while to hunt
+them out from the other things for which you would not care at all. And
+then there are all the "Spectators," and "Ramblers," and "The World
+Displayed" in eight volumes, which, from what I saw when I looked
+through it, seems to be a different kind of world from the one I live
+in; and there are others that you will see on your list. But there is
+one book which I have been reading lately which I think you will find
+odder and funnier than any of the rest. It is the "Geographical Grammar"
+by Mr Salmon. Suppose I bring you that. It is a description of the whole
+world, written more than a hundred years ago, by an Irish gentleman who,
+I think, never went anywhere."
+
+"Thank you," said Lawrence, "I shall be obliged to you if you will be
+kind enough to bring me that one." He was glad for her to go away, even
+for a little time, that he might think. The smart of the disappointment
+caused by the non-appearance of Miss March was beginning to subside a
+little. Looking at it more quietly and reasonably, he could see that, in
+her position, it would be actually unmaidenly for her to come to him by
+herself. It was altogether another thing for this other girl, and,
+therefore, perhaps it was quite proper to send her. But, in spite of
+whatever reasonableness there might have been in it, he chafed under
+this propriety. It would have been far better, he thought, if she had
+come and told him that she could not possibly accept him, and that
+nothing more must be said about it. But then he did not believe, if she
+had given him time to say the words he wished to say, that she would
+have come to such a decision; and as he called up her lovely face and
+figure, as it stood framed in the open doorway, with a background of the
+sunlit arbor and fields, the gorgeous distant foliage, with the blue sky
+and its white clouds and circling birds, he thought of the rapture and
+ecstasy which would have come to him, if she had listened to his words,
+and had given him but a smile of encouragement.
+
+But here came Mrs Null, with a fat brown book in her hand. "One of the
+funniest things," she said, as she came to the door, "is Mr Salmon's
+chapter on paradoxes. He thinks it would be quite improper to issue a
+book of this kind without alluding to geographical paradoxes. Listen to
+this one." And then she read to him the elucidation of the apparent
+paradox that there is a certain place in this world where the wind
+always blows from the south; and another explaining the statement that
+in certain cannibal islands the people eat themselves. "There is
+something he says about Virginia," said she, turning over the pages,
+"which I want you to be sure to read."
+
+"Won't you sit down," said Lawrence, "and read to me some of those
+extracts? You know just where to find them."
+
+"That chair wasn't put there for me," said Miss Annie, with a smile.
+
+"Nonsense," said Lawrence. "Won't you please sit down? I ought to have
+asked you before. Perhaps it is too cool for you, out there."
+
+"Oh, not at all," said she. "The air is still quite warm." And she took
+her seat on the chair which was placed close to the door-step, and she
+read to him some of the surprising and interesting facts which Mr Salmon
+had heard, in a Dublin coffee-house, about Virginia and the other
+colonies, and also some of those relating to the kindly way in which
+slave-holders in South America, when they killed a slave to feed their
+hounds, would send a quarter to a neighbor, expecting some day to
+receive a similar favor in return. When they had laughed over these, she
+read some very odd and surprising statements about Southern Europe, and
+the people of far-away lands; and so she went on, from one thing to
+another, talking a good deal about what she had read, and always on the
+point of stopping and giving the book to Lawrence, until the short
+autumnal afternoon began to draw to its close, and he told her that it
+was growing too chilly for her to sit out on the grass any longer.
+
+"Very well," said she, closing the book, and handing it to him, "you can
+read the rest of it yourself, and if you want any other books on the
+list, just let me know by Uncle Isham, and I will send them to you. He
+is coming now to see after you. I wonder," she said, stopping for a
+moment as she turned to leave, "if Miss March had been sitting in that
+chair, if you would have had the heart to tell her to go away; or if you
+would have let her sit still, and take cold."
+
+Lawrence smiled, but very slightly. "That subject," said he, "is one on
+which I don't joke."
+
+"Goodness!" exclaimed Miss Annie, clasping her hands and gazing with an
+air of comical commiseration at Mr Croft's serious face. "I should think
+not!" and away she went.
+
+Just before supper time, when Lawrence's door had been closed, and his
+lamp lighted, there came a knock, and Mrs Keswick appeared. "That plan
+of mine didn't work," she said, "but I will bring Miss March out here,
+and manage it so that she'll have to stay till I come back. I have an
+idea about that. All that you have to do is to be ready when you get
+your chance."
+
+Lawrence thanked her, and assured her he would be very glad to have a
+chance, although he hoped, without much ground for it, that Roberta
+would not see through the old lady's schemes.
+
+Mrs Keswick lotioned and rebandaged the sprained ankle, and then she
+said. "I think it would be pleasant if we were all to come out here
+after supper, and have a game of whist. I used to play whist, and
+shouldn't mind taking a hand. You could have the table drawn up to your
+chair, and,--let me see--yes, there are three more chairs. It won't be
+like having her alone with you," she said, with the cordial grin in
+which she sometimes indulged, "but you will have her opposite to you for
+an hour, and that will be something."
+
+Lawrence approved heartily of the whist party, and assured Mrs Keswick
+that she was his guardian angel.
+
+"Not much of that," she said, "but I have been told often enough that
+I'm a regular old matchmaker, and I expect I am."
+
+"If you make this match," said Lawrence, "you will have my eternal
+gratitude."
+
+The supper sent out to Lawrence was a very good one, and the
+anticipation of what was to follow made him enjoy it still more, for his
+passion had now reached such a point that even to look at his love,
+although he could only speak to her of trumps and of tricks, would be a
+refreshing solace which would go down deep into his thirsty soul.
+
+But bedtime and old Isham came, and the whist players came not. It
+needed no one to tell Lawrence whose disinclination it was that had
+prevented their coming.
+
+"I reckon," said Uncle Isham, as he looked in at Letty's cabin on his
+way to his own, "dat dat ar Mister Crof' aint much use to gittin'
+hisse'f hurt. All de time I was helpin' him to go to bed he was a
+growlin' like de bery debbil."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+Although October in Southern Virginia can generally be counted upon as a
+very charming month, it must not be expected that her face will wear one
+continuous smile. On the day after Lawrence Croft's misadventure the sky
+was gray with low-hanging clouds, there was a disagreeable wind from the
+north-east, and the air was filled with the slight drizzle of rain. The
+morning was so cool that Lawrence was obliged to keep his door shut, and
+Uncle Isham had made him a small wood fire on the hearth. As he sat
+before this fire, after breakfast, his foot still upon a stool, and
+vigorously puffed at a cigar, he said to himself that it mattered very
+little to him whether the sun shone, or all the rains of heaven
+descended, so long as Roberta March would not come out to him; and that
+she did not intend to come, rain or shine, was just as plain as the
+marks on the sides of the fireplace, probably made by the heels of Mr
+Junius Keswick during many a long, reflective smoke.
+
+On second thoughts, however, Lawrence concluded that a rainy day was
+worse for his prospects than a bright one. If the sun shone, and
+everything was fair, Miss March might come across the grassy yard and
+might possibly stop before his open door to bid him good morning, and to
+tell him that she was sorry that a headache had prevented her from
+coming to play whist the evening before. But this last, he presently
+admitted, was rather too much to expect, for he did not think she was
+subject to headaches, or to making excuses. At any rate he might have
+caught sight of her, and if he had, he certainly would have called to
+her, and would have had his say with her, even had she persisted in
+standing six feet from the door-step. But now this dreary day had shut
+his door and put an interdict upon strolls across the grass. Therefore
+it was that he must resign any opportunity, for that day, at least, of
+soothing the harrowing perturbations of his passion by either the
+comforting warmth of hope, or by the deadening frigidity of a
+consummated despair. This last, in truth, he did not expect, but still,
+if it came, it would be better than perturbations; they must be soothed
+at any cost. But how to incur this cost was a difficult question
+altogether. So, puffing, gazing into the fire, and knitting his brows,
+he sat and thought.
+
+As a good-looking young man, as a well-dressed young man, as an educated
+and cultured man, as a man of the clubs, and of society, and, when
+occasion required, as a very sensible man of business, Mr Croft might
+be looked upon as essentially a commonplace personage, and in our walks
+abroad we meet a great many like him. But there dwelt within him a
+certain disposition, which, at times, removed him to quite a distance
+from the arena in which commonplace people go through their prescribed
+performances. He would come to a determination, generally quite
+suddenly, to attain a desired end in his own way, without any reference
+to traditionary or conventional methods; and the more original and
+startling these plans the better he liked it.
+
+This disposition it was which made Lawrence read with so much interest
+the account of the defeated general who made the cavalry charge into the
+camp of his victorious enemy. Defeat had been his, all through his short
+campaign, and it now seemed that the time had come to make another bold
+effort to get the better of his bad luck. As he could not woo Miss March
+himself, he must get some one else to do it for him, or, if not actually
+to woo the lady, to get her at least into such a frame of mind that she
+would allow him to woo her, even in spite of his present disadvantages.
+This would be a very bold stroke, but Lawrence put a good deal of faith
+in it.
+
+If Miss March were properly talked to by one of her own sex, she might
+see, as perhaps she did not now see, how cruel was her line of conduct
+toward him, and might be persuaded to relent, at least enough to allow
+his voice to reach her; and that was all he asked for. He had not the
+slightest doubt that the widow Keswick would gladly consent to carry any
+message he chose to send to Miss March, and, more than that, to throw
+all the force of her peculiar style of persuasion into the support of
+his cause. But this, he knew very well, would finish the affair, and not
+at all in the way he desired. The person he wanted to act as his envoy
+was Mrs Null. To be sure, she had refused to act for him, but he thought
+he could persuade her. She was quiet, she was sensible, and could talk
+very gently and confidingly when she chose; she would say just what he
+told her to say, and if a contingency demanded that she should add
+anything, she would probably do it very prudently. But then it would be
+almost as difficult to communicate with her as with Miss March.
+
+While he was thus thinking, in came the old lady, very cross. "You
+didn't get any rubber of whist last night, did you?" said she, without
+salutatory preface. "But I can tell you it wasn't my fault. I did all
+that I could, and more than I ought, to make her come, but she just put
+her foot down and wouldn't stir an inch, and at last I got mad and went
+to bed. I don't know whether she saw it or not, but I was as mad as
+hops; and I am that way yet. I had a plan that would have given you a
+chance to talk to her, but that ain't any good, now that it is raining.
+Let me look at your ankle; I hope that is getting along all right, any
+way."
+
+While the old lady was engaged in ministering to his needs, he told her
+of his plan. He said he wished to send a message to Miss March by some
+one, and if he could get the message properly delivered, it would help
+him very much.
+
+"I'll take it," said she, looking up suddenly from the piece of soft,
+old linen she was folding; "I'll go to her this very minute, and tell
+her just what you want me to."
+
+"Mrs Keswick," said Lawrence, "you are as kind as you can possibly be,
+but I do not think it would be right for you to go on an errand like
+this. Miss March might not receive you well, and that would annoy me
+very much. And, besides, to speak frankly, you have taken up my cause so
+warmly, and have been such a good friend to me, that I am afraid your
+earnest desire to assist me might perhaps carry you a little too far.
+Please do not misunderstand me. I don't mean that you would say anything
+imprudent, but as you are kind enough to say that you really desire this
+match, it will be very natural for you to show your interest in it to a
+degree that would arouse Miss March's opposition."
+
+"Yes, I see," said the old lady, reflectively, "she'd suspect what was
+at the bottom of my interest. She's a sharp one. I've found that out. I
+reckon it will be better for me not to meddle with her. I came very near
+quarreling with her last night, and that wouldn't do at all."
+
+"You see, madam," said Lawrence, well satisfied that he had succeeded in
+warding off the old lady's offer without offending her, "that I do not
+want any one to go to Miss March and make a proposal for me. I could do
+that in a letter. But I very much object to a letter. In fact it
+wouldn't do at all. All I wish is, that some one, by the exercise of a
+little female diplomacy, should induce her to let me speak to her. Now,
+I think that Mrs Null might do this, very well."
+
+"That is so," said the old lady, who, having now finished her bandaging,
+was seated on a chair by the fireplace. "My niece is smart and quick,
+and could do this thing for you just as well as not. But she has her
+quips and her cranks, like the rest of us. I called her out of the room
+last night to know why she didn't back me up better about the whist
+party, and she said she couldn't see why a gentleman, who hadn't been
+confined to the house for quite a whole day, should be so desperately
+lonely that people must go to his room to play whist with him. It seemed
+to me exactly as if she thought that Mr Null wouldn't like it. Mr Null
+indeed! As if his wishes and desires were to be considered in my house!
+I never mention that man now, and Annie does not speak of him either.
+What I want is that he shall stay away just as long as he will; and if
+he will only stay away long enough to make his absence what the law
+calls desertion, I'll have those two divorced before they know it. Can
+you tell me, sir, how long a man must stay away from his wife before he
+can be legally charged with desertion?"
+
+"No, madam, I can not," said Lawrence. "The laws, I believe, differ in
+the various States."
+
+"Well, I'm going to make it my business to find out all about it," said
+Mrs Keswick. "Mr Brandon has promised to attend to this matter for me,
+and I must write to him, to know what he has been doing. Well, Mrs Null
+and Miss March seem to be very good friends, and I dare say my niece
+could manage things so as to give you the chance you want. I'll go to
+the house now, and send her over to you, so that you can tell her what
+you want her to say or do."
+
+"Do you think she will come, madam?" asked Lawrence.
+
+The old lady rose to her feet, and knitted her brows until something
+like a perpendicular mouth appeared on her forehead. "No," said she,
+"now I come to think of it I don't believe she will. In fact I know she
+won't. Bother take it all, sir! What these young women want is a good
+whipping. Nothing else will ever bring them to their senses. What
+possible difference could it make to Mr Null whether she came to you and
+took a message for you, or whether she didn't come; especially in a case
+like this, when you can't walk, or go to anybody?"
+
+"I don't think it ought to make any difference whatever," said Lawrence.
+"In fact I don't believe it would."
+
+"It's no use talking about it, Mr Croft," said the old lady, moving
+toward the door. "I can go to my niece and talk to her, but the first
+thing I'd know I'd blaze out at her, and then, as like as not, she'd
+blaze back again, and then the next thing would be that she'd pack up
+her things and go off to hunt up her fertilizer agent. And that mustn't
+be. I don't want to get myself in any snarls, just now. There is nothing
+for you to do, Mr Croft, but to wait till it clears off, so that dainty
+young woman can come out of doors, and then I think I can manage it so
+that you can get a chance to speak to her."
+
+"I am very much obliged to you," said Lawrence. "I suppose I must wait."
+
+"I'll see that Isham brings you a lot of dry hickory, so that you can
+have a cheerful fire, even if you can't have cheerful company," said Mrs
+Keswick, as she closed the door after her.
+
+Lawrence looked through the window at the sky, which gave no promise of
+clearing. And then he gazed into the fire, and considered his case. He
+had spent a large portion of his life in considering his case, and,
+therefore, the operation was a familiar one to him. This time the case
+was not a satisfactory one. Everything in this love affair with Miss
+March had gone on in a manner in which he had not intended, and of which
+he greatly disapproved. No one in the world could have planned the
+affair more prudently than he had planned it. He had been so careful not
+to do anything rash, that he had, at first, concealed, even from the
+lady herself, the fact that he was in love with her, and nothing could
+be farther from his thoughts and desires than that any one else should
+know of it. And yet, how had it all turned out? He had taken into his
+confidence Mr Junius Keswick, Mr Brandon, old Mrs Keswick, Mrs Null, as
+she wished to be called, and almost lastly, the lady herself. "If I
+should lay bare my heart to the colored man, Isham," he said to himself,
+"and the old centenarian in the cabin down there, I believe there would
+be no one else to tell. Oh, yes, there is Candy, and the anti-detective.
+By rights, they ought to know." He did not include the good little Peggy
+in this category, because he was not aware that there was such a person.
+
+After about an hour of these doleful cogitations, he again turned to
+look out of his front window, which commanded a view of the larger
+house, when he saw, coming down the steps of the porch, a not very tall
+figure, wrapped in a waterproof cloak, with the hood drawn over its
+head. He did not see the face of the figure, but he thought from the
+light way in which it moved that it was Mrs Null; and when it stepped
+upon the grass and turned its head, he saw that he was right.
+
+"Can her aunt have induced her to come to me?" was Lawrence's first
+thought. But his second was very different, for she began to walk toward
+the large gate which led out of the yard. Instantly Lawrence rose, and
+hopped on one foot to the window, where he tapped loudly on the glass.
+The lady turned, and then he threw up the sash.
+
+"Won't you step here, please?" he called out.
+
+Without answering, she immediately came over the wet grass to the
+window.
+
+"I have something to say to you," he said, "and I don't want to keep you
+standing in the rain. Won't you come inside for a few minutes?"
+
+"No, thank you," said she. "I don't mind a slight rain like this. I
+have lived so long in the city that I can't imagine how country people
+can bear to shut themselves in, when it happens to be a little wet. I
+can't stand it, and I am going out for a walk." "It is a very sensible
+thing to do," said Lawrence, "and I wish I could go with you and have a
+good long talk."
+
+"What about?" said she.
+
+"About Miss March."
+
+"Well, I am rather tired of that subject," she said, "and so I reckon it
+is just as well that you should stay here by your fire--I see you have
+one there--and that I should take my walk by myself."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "I want to implore you to do a favor for me.
+I don't see how it can be disagreeable to you, and I am sure it will
+confer the greatest possible obligation upon me."
+
+"What is it?" she asked.
+
+"I want you to go to Miss March, and endeavor, in some way--you will
+know how, better than I can tell you--to induce her to let me have a few
+words with her. If it is only here at this open window it will do."
+
+Mrs Null laughed. "Imagine," she said, "a woman putting on a waterproof
+and overshoes, and coming out in the rain, to stand with an umbrella
+over her head, to be proposed to! That would be the funniest proceeding
+I ever heard of!"
+
+Lawrence could not help smiling, though he was not in the mood for it.
+"It may seem amusing to you," he said, "but I am very much in earnest. I
+am in constant fear that she will go away while I am confined to this
+house. Do you know how long she intends to stay?"
+
+"She has not told me," was the answer.
+
+"If you will carry it," he said, "I will give you a message for her."
+
+"Why don't you write it?" said Miss Annie.
+
+"I don't want to write anything," he said. "I should not know how it had
+been received, nor would it be likely to get me any satisfaction. I want
+a live, sympathetic medium, such as you are. Won't you do this favor for
+me?"
+
+"No, I won't," said Miss Annie, her very decided tone appearing to give
+a shade of paleness to her features. "How often must I tell you that I
+will not help you in this thing?"
+
+"I would not ask you," said Lawrence, "if I could help myself."
+
+"It is not right that you should ask me any more," she said. "I am not
+in favor of your coming here to court Miss March, while my cousin is
+away, and I should feel like a traitor if I helped you at all,
+especially if I were to carry messages to her. Of course, I am very
+sorry for you, shut up here, and I will do anything I can to make you
+more comfortable and contented; but what you ask is too hard for me."
+And, as she said this, a little air of trouble came into the large eyes
+with which she was steadfastly regarding him. "I don't want to seem
+unkind to you, and I wish you would ask me something that I can do for
+you. I'll walk down to Howlett's and get you anything you may like to
+have. I'll bring you a lot of novels which I found in the house, and
+which I expect, anyway, you will like better than those old-time books.
+And I'll cook you anything that is in the cook-book. But I really cannot
+go wooing for you, and if you ask me to do that, every time I come near
+you, I really must--"
+
+"My dear Mrs Null," interrupted Lawrence, "I promise not to say any more
+to you on this subject. I see it is distasteful to you, and I beg your
+pardon for having mentioned it so often. You have been very kind to me,
+indeed, and I should be exceedingly sorry to do anything to offend you.
+It would be very bad for me to lose one of my friends, now that I am
+shut up in this box, and feel so very dependent."
+
+"Oh, indeed," said Miss Annie. "But I suppose if you were able to step
+around, as you used to do, it wouldn't matter whether you offended me or
+not."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "you know I did not mean anything like that.
+Do you intend to be angry with me, no matter what I say?"
+
+"Not a bit of it," she answered, with a little smile that brought back
+to her face that warm brightness which had grown upon it since she had
+come down here. "I haven't the least wish in the world to be angry with
+you, and I promise you I won't be, provided you'll stop everlastingly
+asking me to go about helping you to make love to people."
+
+Lawrence laughed. "Very good," said he. "I have promised to ask nothing
+more of that sort. Let us shake hands on it."
+
+He stretched his hand from the window, and Miss Annie withdrew from the
+folds of her waterproof a very soft and white little hand, and put it
+into his. "And now I must be off," she said. "Are you certain you don't
+want anything from the store at Howlett's?"
+
+"Surely, you are not going as far as that," he said.
+
+"Not if you don't want anything," she answered. "Have you tobacco enough
+to last through your imprisonment? They keep it."
+
+"Now, miss," said Lawrence; "do you want to make me angry by supposing I
+would smoke any tobacco that they sell in that country store?"
+
+"It ought to be better than any other," said Miss Annie. "They grow it
+in the fields all about here, and the storekeepers can get it perfectly
+fresh and pure, and a great deal better for you, no doubt, than the
+stuff they manufacture in the cities."
+
+"When you learn to smoke," said Lawrence, "your opinion concerning
+tobacco will be more valuable."
+
+"Thank you," she said, "and I will wait till then before I give you any
+more of it. Good morning." And away she went.
+
+Lawrence shut down the window, and hopped back to the fire. "There is my
+last chance gone," said he to himself. "I suppose I may as well take old
+Mrs Keswick's advice, and wait for fair weather. But, even then, who can
+say what sort of sky Roberta March will show?" And, not being able to
+answer this question, he put two fresh sticks on the fire, and then
+sedately sat and watched their gradual annihilation. As for Miss Annie,
+she took her walk, and stepped along the road as lightly and blithely as
+if the skies had been blue, and the sun shining; and almost before she
+knew it, she had reached the store at Howlett's. Ascending the high
+steps to the porch, quite deserted on this damp, unpleasant morning, she
+entered the store, the proprietor of which immediately jumped up from
+the mackerel kit at the extreme end of the room, where he had been
+sitting in converse with some of his neighbors, and hurried behind the
+counter.
+
+"Have you any tea," said Miss Annie, "better than the kind which you
+usually sell to Mrs Keswick?"
+
+"No, ma'am," said he. "We send her the very best tea we have."
+
+"I am not finding fault with it," she said, "but I thought you might
+have some extra kind, more expensive than people usually buy for common
+use."
+
+"No, ma'am," said he, "there is fancy teas of that kind, but you'd have
+to send to Philadelphia or New York for them."
+
+"How long would that take?" she asked.
+
+"I reckon it would be four or five days before you'd get it, ma'am,"
+said the storekeeper.
+
+"I am afraid," said Miss Annie, looking reflectively along the counter,
+"that that would be too long." And then she turned to go, but suddenly
+stopped. "Have you any guava jelly?" she asked.
+
+The man smiled. "We don't have no call for anything as fancy as that,
+ma'am," he said. "Is there anything else?"
+
+"Not to-day," answered Miss Annie, after throwing a despairing glance
+upon the rolls of calicoes, the coils of clothes-lines, the battered tin
+boxes of tea and sugar, the dusty and chimneyless kerosene lamps, and
+the long rows of canned goods with their gaudy labels; and then she
+departed.
+
+When she had gone, the storekeeper returned to his seat on the mackerel
+kit, and was accosted by a pensive neighbor in high boots who sat upon
+the upturned end of a case of brogans. "You didn't make no sale that
+time, Peckett," said he.
+
+"No," said the storekeeper, "her idees is a little too fancy for our
+stock of goods."
+
+"Whar's her husband, anyway?" asked a stout, elderly man in linen
+trousers and faded alpaca coat, who was seated on two boxes of pearl
+starch, one on top of the other. "I've heard that he was a member of the
+legislatur'. Is that so?"
+
+"He's not that, you can take my word for it," said Tom Peckett. "Old
+Miss Keswick give me to understand that he was in the fertilizing
+business."
+
+"That ought to be a good thing for the old lady," said the man on the
+starch boxes. "She'll git a discount off her gwarner."
+
+"I never did see," said the pensive neighbor on the brogan case, "how
+such things do git twisted. It was only yesterday that I met a man at
+Tyson's Mill, who'd just come over from the Valley, and he said he'd
+seen this Mr Noles over thar. He's a hoss doctor, and he's going up
+through all the farms along thar."
+
+"I reckon when he gits up as fur as he wants to go," said the man on the
+starch boxes, "he'll come here and settle fur awhile."
+
+"That won't be so much help to the old lady," said the storekeeper,
+"for it wouldn't pay to keep a neffy-in-law just to doctor one sorrel
+horse and a pa'r o' oxen."
+
+"I reckon his wife must be 'spectin' him," said the man on the brogan
+case, "from her comin' after fancy vittles."
+
+"If he do come," said the stout, elderly neighbor, "I wish you'd let me
+know, Tom Peckett, fur my black mar has got a hitch in her shoulder I
+can't understand, and I'd like him to look at her."
+
+The storekeeper smiled at the pensive man, and the pensive man smiled
+back at the storekeeper. "You needn't trouble yourself about that young
+woman's husband," said Mr Peckett. "There'll be a horse doctor coming
+along afore you know it, and he'll attend to that old mar of yourn
+without chargin' you a cent."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+The second afternoon of Lawrence Croft's confinement in the little
+building in Mrs Keswick's yard, passed drearily enough. The sky retained
+its sombre covering of clouds, and the rain came down in a melancholy,
+capricious way, as if it were tears shed by a child who was crying
+because it was bad. The monotony of the slowly moving hours was broken
+only by a very brief visit from the old lady, who was going somewhere in
+the covered spring wagon, and who looked in, before she started, to see
+if her patient wanted anything; and by the arrival of a bundle of old
+novels sent by Mrs Null. These books Lawrence looked over with
+indifferent interest, hoping to find one among them that was not a love
+story, but he was disappointed. They were all based upon, and most of
+them permeated with, the tender passion, and Lawrence was not in the
+mood for reading about that sort of thing. A person afflicted with a
+disease is not apt to find agreeable occupation in reading hospital
+reports upon his particular ailment.
+
+The novels were put aside, and although Lawrence felt that he had smoked
+almost too much during that day, he was about to light another cigar,
+when he heard a carriage drive into the yard. Turning to the window he
+saw a barouche, evidently a hired one, drawn by a pair of horses, very
+lean and bony, but with their heads reined up so high that they had an
+appearance of considerable spirit, and driven by a colored man, sitting
+upon a very elevated seat, with a jaunty air and a well-worn whip. The
+carriage drove over the grass to the front of the house--there was no
+roadway in the yard, the short, crisp, tough grass having long resisted
+the occasional action of wheels and hoofs--and there stopping, a
+gentleman, with a valise, got out. He paid the driver, who immediately
+turned the vehicle about, and drove away. The gentleman put his foot
+upon the bottom step as if he were about to ascend, and then, apparently
+changing his mind, he picked up his valise, and came directly toward the
+office, drawing a key from his pocket as he walked. It was Junius
+Keswick, and in a few minutes his key was heard in the lock. As it was
+not locked the key merely rattled, and Lawrence called out: "Come in."
+The door opened, and Junius looked in, evidently surprised. "I beg your
+pardon," said he, "I didn't know you were in here."
+
+"Please walk in," said Lawrence. "I know I am occupying your room, and
+it is I who should ask your pardon. But you see the reason why it was
+thought well that I should not have stairs to ascend." And he pointed to
+his bandaged foot.
+
+"Have you hurt yourself?" asked Junius, with an air of concern.
+
+And then Lawrence gave an account of his accident, expressing at the
+same time his regret that he found himself occupying the room which
+belonged to the other.
+
+"Oh, don't mention that," said Junius, who had taken a seat near the
+window. "There are rooms enough in the house, and I shall be perfectly
+comfortable. It was quite right in my aunt to have you brought in here,
+and I should have insisted upon it, myself, if I had been at home. I
+expected to be away for a week or more, but I have now come back on
+account of your letter."
+
+"Does that need explanation?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Not at all," said Junius. "I had no difficulty in understanding it,
+although I must say that it surprised me. But I came because I am not
+satisfied with the condition of things here, and I wish to be on the
+spot. I do not understand why you and Miss March should be invited here
+during my absence."
+
+"That I do not understand either," said Lawrence, quickly, "and I wish
+to impress it on your mind, Mr Keswick, that when I came here, I not
+only expected to find you, but a party of invited guests. I will say,
+however, that I came with the express intention of meeting Miss March,
+and having that interview with her which I could not have in her uncle's
+house."
+
+"I was not entirely correct," said Junius, "when I said that I did not
+know why these rather peculiar arrangements had been made. My aunt is a
+very managing person, and I think I perceive her purpose in this piece
+of management." "She is opposed to a marriage between you and Miss
+March?"
+
+"Most decidedly," said Junius. "Has she told you so?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "but it has gradually dawned upon me that such is
+the case. I believe she would be glad to have Miss March married, and
+out of your way."
+
+Junius made no answer to this remark, but sat silent for a few moments.
+Then he said: "Well, have you settled it with Miss March?"
+
+"No, I have not," said Lawrence. "If the matter had been decided, one
+way or the other, I should not be here. I have no right to trespass on
+your aunt's hospitality, and I should have departed as soon as I had
+discovered Miss March's sentiments in regard to me. But I have not been
+able to settle the matter, at all. I had one opportunity of seeing the
+lady, and that was not a satisfactory interview. Yesterday morning, I
+made another attempt, but before I could get to her I sprained my ankle.
+And here I am; I can not go to her, and, of course, she will not come to
+me. You cannot imagine how I chafe under this harassing restraint."
+
+"I can imagine it very easily," said Junius.
+
+"The only thing I have to hope for," said Lawrence, "is that to-morrow
+may be a fine day, and that the lady may come outside and give me the
+chance of speaking to her at this open door."
+
+Junius smiled grimly. "It appears to me," he said, "as if it were likely
+to rain for several days. But now I must go into the house and see the
+family. I hope you believe me, sir, when I say I am sorry to find you in
+your present predicament."
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, smiling, although he did not feel at all gay,
+"for, otherwise, I might have been finally rejected and far away."
+
+"If you had been rejected," said Junius, "I should have been very glad,
+indeed, to have you stay with us."
+
+"Thank you," said Lawrence.
+
+"I will look in upon you again," said Junius, as he left the room.
+
+Lawrence's mind, which had been in a very unpleasant state of troubled
+restiveness for some days, was now thrown into a sad turmoil by this
+arrival of Junius Keswick. As he saw that tall and good-looking young
+man going up the steps of the house porch, with his valise in his hand,
+he clinched both his fists as they rested on the arm of his chair, and
+objurgated the anti-detective.
+
+"If it had not been for that rascal," he said to himself, "I should not
+have written to Keswick, and he would not have thought of coming back at
+this untimely moment. The only advantage I had was a clear coast, and
+now that is gone. Of course Keswick was frightened when he found I was
+staying in the same house with Roberta March, and hurried back to attend
+to his own interests. The first thing he will do now will be to propose
+to her himself; and, as they have been engaged once, it is as like as
+not she will take him again. If I could use this foot, I would go into
+the house, this minute, and have the first word with her." At this he
+rose to his feet and made a step with his sprained ankle, but the sudden
+pain occasioned by this action caused him to sit down again with a
+groan. Lawrence Croft was not a man to do himself a physical injury
+which might be permanent, if such doing could possibly be avoided, and
+he gave up the idea of trying to go into the house.
+
+"I tell you what it is, Letty," said Uncle Isham, when he returned to
+the kitchen after having carried Lawrence's supper to him, "dat ar
+Mister Croft in de offis is a gittin wuss an' wuss in he min', ebery
+day. I neber seed a man more pow'ful glowerin' dan he is dis ebenin."
+
+"I reckin' he j'ints is healin' up," said Letty. "Dey tells me dat de
+healin' pains mos' gen'rally runs into de min'."
+
+About nine o'clock in the evening Junius Keswick paid Lawrence a visit;
+and, taking a seat by one side of the fireplace, accepted the offer of a
+cigar.
+
+"How are things going on in the house?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Well," said Keswick, speaking slowly, "as you know so much of our
+family affairs, I might as well tell you that they are in a somewhat
+upset condition. When I went in, I saw, at first, no one but my cousin,
+and she seemed so extraordinarily glad to see me that I thought
+something must be wrong, somewhere; and when my aunt returned--she was
+not at home when I arrived--she was thrown into such a state of mind on
+seeing me, that I didn't know whether she was going to order me out of
+the house or go herself. But she restrained herself, wonderfully,
+considering her provocation, for, of course, I have entirely disordered
+her plans by appearing here, when she had arranged everything for you to
+have Miss March to yourself. But, so far, the peace has been kept
+between us, although she scarcely speaks to me."
+
+"And Miss March?" said Lawrence. "You have seen her?"
+
+"Yes," said Junius, "I saw her at supper, and for a short time
+afterwards, but she soon retired to her room."
+
+"Do you think she was disturbed by your return?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"I won't say that," said Junius, "but she was certainly not herself. Mrs
+Null tells me that she expects to go home to-morrow morning, having
+written to her uncle to send for her."
+
+"That is bad, bad, very bad," said Lawrence.
+
+After that there was a pause in the conversation, during which Mr Croft,
+with brows very much knit, gazed steadfastly into the fire. "Mr
+Keswick," he said presently, "what you tell me fills me with
+consternation. It is quite plain that I shall have no chance to see Miss
+March, and, as there is no one else in the world who will do it for me,
+I am going to ask you to go to her, to-morrow morning, and speak to her
+in my behalf."
+
+When this had been said, Junius Keswick dropped his cigar upon the
+floor, and sat up very straight in his chair, gazing fixedly at
+Lawrence. "Upon my word!" he said, "I knew you were a cool man, but that
+request freezes my imagination. I cannot conceive how any man can ask
+another to try to win for him a lady whom he knows the other man
+desires to win for himself. You have made some requests before that
+were rather astounding, but this one overshadows them all."
+
+"I admit," said Lawrence, "that what I ask is somewhat out of the way,
+but you must consider the circumstances. Suppose I had met you in mortal
+combat, and I had dropped my sword where you could reach it and I could
+not; would you pick it up and give it to me? or would you run me
+through?"
+
+"I don't think that comparison is altogether a good one," said Junius.
+
+"Yes, it is," said Lawrence, "and covers the case entirely. I am here,
+disabled, and if you pick up my sword, as I have just asked you to do,
+it is not to be assumed that your action gives me the victory. It merely
+gives me an equal chance with yourself."
+
+"Do you mean," said Junius, "that you want me to go to Miss March, and
+deliberately ask her if she will marry you?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "I have done that myself. But there are certain
+points in regard to which I want to be set right with Miss March. And
+now I wish you to understand me, Mr Keswick. I speak to you, not only as
+a generous and honorable man, which I have found you to be, but as a
+rival. I cannot believe that you would be willing to profit by my
+present disadvantages, and, as I have said two or three times before, it
+would certainly be for your interest, as a suitor for the lady, to have
+this matter settled."
+
+"Wouldn't it be better, then," said Junius, "if I were to go
+immediately, and speak to her for myself?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "I don't think that would settle the affair at all.
+From what I understand of your relations with Miss March, she knows you
+are her lover, and yet she neither accepts nor declines you. If you were
+to go to her now, it is not likely she would give you any definite
+answer. But in regard to me, it would be different. She would say yes or
+no. And if she made the latter answer I think you could walk over the
+course. I am not vain enough to say that I have been an obstacle to your
+success, but I assure you that I have tried very hard to make myself
+such an obstacle."
+
+"It seems to me," said Junius, imitating his companion in the matter of
+knitting his brows and gazing into the fire, "that this affair could be
+managed very simply. Miss March is not going at the break of day. Why
+don't you contrive to see her before she starts, and say for yourself
+what you have to say?"
+
+"Nothing would please me better than that," said Croft, "but I don't
+believe she would give me any chance to speak with her. Since my
+accident, she has persistently and pointedly refused to grant me even
+the shortest interview."
+
+"That ought to prove to you," said Keswick, "that she does not desire
+your attentions. You should consider it as a positive answer."
+
+"Not at all," said Lawrence, "not at all. And I don't think you would
+consider it a positive answer if you were in my place. I think she has
+taken some offence which is entirely groundless, and if you will consent
+to act for me it will enable me to set straight this misunderstanding."
+
+"Confound it!" exclaimed Keswick. "Can't you write to her? or get some
+one else to take your love messages?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "I cannot write to her, for I am not sure that
+under the circumstances she would answer my letter. And I have already
+asked Mrs Null, the only other person I could ask, to speak for me, but
+she has declined."
+
+"By the Lord Harry!" exclaimed Junius, "you are the rarest wooer I ever
+heard of."
+
+"I assure you," said Lawrence, his face flushing somewhat, "that it is
+not my desire to carry on my wooing in this fashion. My whole soul is
+opposed to it, but circumstances will have it so. And as I don't intend,
+if I can help it, to have my life determined by circumstances, I must go
+ahead in despite of them, although I admit that it makes the road very
+rough."
+
+"I should think it would," said Junius. And then there was a pause in
+the conversation.
+
+"Well, Mr Keswick," said Lawrence, presently, "Will you do this thing
+for me?"
+
+"Am I to understand," said Junius, "that if I don't do it, it won't be
+done?"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, "you are positively my last chance. I have racked
+my brains to think of some other way of presenting my case to Miss
+March, but there is no other way. I might stand at my door, and call to
+her as she entered the carriage, but that would be the height of
+absurdity. I might hop on one foot into the house, but, even if I wished
+to present myself in that way, I don't believe I could get up that long
+flight of steps. It would be worse than useless to write, for I should
+not know what was thought of my letter, or even if it had been read. Mrs
+Keswick cannot carry my message; Mrs Null will not; and I have only you
+to call upon. I know it is a great deal to ask, but it means so much to
+me--to both of us, in fact--that I ask it."
+
+"You were kind enough to say a little while ago," said Junius, "that you
+considered me an honorable man. I try to be such, and, therefore, will
+frankly state to you that I can think of but three motives, satisfactory
+to myself, for undertaking this business for you, and not one of them is
+a generous one. In the first place, I might care to do it in order to
+have this matter settled, for you are such an extraordinary suitor, that
+I don't know in what form you may turn up, the next time. Secondly, from
+what you tell me of Miss March's repugnance to meet you, I don't believe
+my mission will have an issue favorable to you, and the more
+unfavorable it is, the better I shall like it. My third reason for
+acting for you is, that the whole affair is such an original one that it
+will rather interest me to be engaged in it. This last reason would not
+hold, however, if I had the least expectation of being successful."
+
+"You consent then?" said Lawrence, quickly, turning towards the other.
+"You'll go to Miss March for me?"
+
+"Yes, I think I will," said Junius, "if you will accept the services of
+a man who is decidedly opposed to your interests."
+
+"Of course I never expected you to favor them," said Lawrence, "nor is
+it necessary that you should. All I ask is, that you carry a message to
+Miss March, and if she needs any explanation of it, that you will
+explain in the way that I shall indicate; that you shall tell me how she
+received my message; and that you shall bring me back her answer. There
+is no need of your making any proposition to her; that has already been
+done; what I want is, that she should not go away from here with a
+misunderstanding between us, and that she shall give me at least the
+promise of a hearing."
+
+"Very good," said Junius, "now, what is it that you want me to say?"
+
+This was not an easy question for Lawrence to answer. He knew very well
+what he wanted to say, if he had a chance of saying it himself. He
+wanted to pour his whole heart out to Roberta March, and, showing her
+its present passion, to ask her to forgive those days in which his mind
+only had appeared to be engaged. He believed he could say things that
+would force from her the pardon of his previous short-comings, if she
+considered them as such. She had been very gracious to him in time past,
+and he did not see why she should not be still more gracious now, if he
+could remove the feelings of resentment, which he believed were
+occasioned by her womanly insight into the motives of his conduct toward
+her, during those delightful summer days at Midbranch.
+
+But to get another person to say all this was a very different thing. He
+was sure, however, that if it were not said now, it would never be said.
+It would be death to all his hopes if Miss March went away, feeling
+towards him as she now felt; therefore he stiffened his purpose which
+was quite used to being stiffened; hardened his sensibilities; and took
+his plunge. Gazing steadfastly at the back of the fireplace while he
+spoke, he endeavored to make Junius Keswick understand the nature, and
+the probable force of the objections to his line of action as a suitor,
+which had grown up in the mind of Miss March; and he also endeavored to
+show how completely and absolutely he had been changed by the vigor and
+ardor of his present affection; and how he was entitled to be considered
+by Miss March as a lover who had but one thought and purpose, and that
+was to win her; and, as such, he asked her to give him an opportunity to
+renew his proposal to her. "Now, then," said Lawrence, "I have placed
+the case before you, and I beg you will present it, as nearly as
+possible, in the form in which I have given it to you."
+
+"Mr Croft," said Junius, "this case of yours is worse than I thought it
+was. What woman of spirit would accept a man who admitted, that during
+the whole of his acquaintance with her he had had his doubts in regard
+to suitability, etc., but who, when a crisis arrived, and another man
+turned up, had determined to overlook all his objections and take her,
+anyway."
+
+"That is a very cold-blooded way of putting it," said Lawrence, "and I
+don't believe at all that she will look upon it in that light. If you
+will set the matter before her as I have put it to you, I believe she
+will see it as I wish her to see it."
+
+"Very well," said Junius, rising, and taking out his watch, "I will make
+your statement as accurately as I can, and without any interpretations
+of my own. And now I must bid you good-night. I had no idea it was after
+twelve o'clock."
+
+"And you will observe her moods?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Yes," said Junius as he opened the door, "I will carefully observe her
+moods."
+
+When Junius had gone, Lawrence turned his face again toward the
+fireplace, where the last smouldering stick had just broken apart in the
+middle, and the two ends had wearily fallen over the andirons as if they
+wished it understood that they could do no more burning that night.
+Taking this as a hint, Lawrence prepared to retire. "Old Isham must have
+gone to bed long ago," he said, "but as I have asked for so much
+assistance to-day, I think it is well that I should try to do some
+things for myself."
+
+It was, indeed, very late, but behind the partially closed shutters of a
+lower room of the house sat old Mrs Keswick, gazing at the light that
+was streaming from the window of the office, and wondering what those
+two men were saying to each other that was keeping them sitting up
+together until after midnight.
+
+Annie Peyton, too, had not gone to bed, and looking through her chamber
+window at the office, she hoped that cousin Junius would come away
+before he lost his temper. Of course she thought he must have been very
+angry when he came home and found Mr Croft here at the only time that
+Roberta March had ever visited the house, and it was quite natural that
+he should go to his rival, and tell him what he thought about it. But he
+had been there a long, long time, and she did hope they would not get
+very angry with each other, and that nothing would happen. One thought
+comforted her very much. Mr Croft was disabled, and Junius would scorn
+to take advantage of a man in that condition.
+
+At an upper window, at the other end of the house, sat Roberta March,
+ready for bed, but with no intention of going there until Junius Keswick
+had come out of the office. Knowing the two men as she did, she had no
+fear that any harm would come to either of them during this long
+conference, whatever its subject might be. That she, herself, was that
+subject she had not the slightest doubt, and although it was of no
+earthly use for her to sit there and gaze upon that light streaming into
+the darkness of the yard, but revealing to her no more of what was going
+on inside the room than if it had been the light of a distant star,
+still she sat and speculated. At last the office door opened, and Junius
+came out, turning to speak to the occupant of the room as he did so. The
+brief vision of him which the watchers caught, as he stood for a moment
+in the lighted doorway before stepping out into the darkness, showed
+that his demeanor was as quiet and composed as usual; and one of the
+three women went to bed very much relieved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+From breakfast time the next morning until ten o'clock in the
+forenoon, at which hour the Midbranch carriage arrived, Junius Keswick
+had been vainly endeavoring to get an opportunity to speak with Miss
+March. That lady had remained in her own room nearly all the morning,
+where his cousin had been with her; and his aunt, who had her own
+peculiar ways of speeding the parting guest, had retired to some
+distant spot on the estate, either to plan out some farming operation
+for the ensuing season, or to prevent her pent-up passion from boiling
+over in her own house.
+
+Thus Junius had the lower floor to himself, and he strode about in
+much disquietude, debating whether he ought to send a message to
+Roberta, or whether he should wait till she had finished her packing,
+or whatever it was, that was keeping her up-stairs. His last private
+interview with her had not been a pleasant one, and if he had intended
+to speak to her for himself, he would not have felt much encouraged
+by her manner of the preceding evening; but he was now engaged on the
+affairs of another, and he believed that a failure to attend to them
+would be regarded as a breach of faith.
+
+When Mr Brandon's carriage drove into the yard he began to despair,
+but now Roberta came running down stairs to speak to Sam, the driver,
+and ask him how long it would be necessary to rest his horses. Sam
+thought an hour would be long enough, as they would have a good rest
+when they got home; and this matter having been settled, Junius came
+forward, and requested Roberta to step in the parlor, as he had
+something to say to her. Without reply, she followed him into the
+room, and he closed the door. They sat down, one on one side of
+the round centre table, and one on the other, and Junius began his
+statement.
+
+He was by profession a lawyer, and he had given a great deal of
+attention to the art of putting things plainly, and with a view to a
+just effect. He had carefully prepared in his mind what he should
+say to Roberta. He wished to present this man's message without the
+slightest exhibition of desire for its success, and yet without any
+tendency to that cold-blooded way of stating it, to which Croft had
+objected. He had, indeed, picked up his adversary's sword, and while
+he did not wish, in handing it to him, to prick him with it, or do him
+some such underhand injury, he did not think it at all necessary to
+sharpen the weapon before giving it back.
+
+What Junius had to say occupied a good deal of time. He expressed
+himself carefully and deliberately; and as nearly as a skilfully
+stuffed and prepared animal in a museum resembles its wild original of
+the forest, so did his remarks resemble those that Lawrence would have
+made had he been there. Roberta listened to him in silence until he
+had finished, and then she rose to her feet, and her manner was
+such that Junius rose also. "Junius Keswick," she said, "you have
+deliberately come to me, and offered me the hand of another man in
+marriage."
+
+"Not that," said Junius, "I merely came to explain----."
+
+"Do not split hairs," she interrupted, "you did exactly that. You came
+to me because he could not come himself, and offered him to me. Now go
+to him from me, and tell him that I accept him." And, with that, she
+swept out of the room, and came down stairs no more until bonneted,
+and accompanied by Miss Annie, she hurried to the front door, and
+entered the carriage which was there waiting for her, with Peggy by
+the driver. With some quick good-byes and kisses to Annie, but never a
+word to Junius, or anybody else, she drove away.
+
+If Junius Keswick had been nervous and anxious that morning, as he
+strode about the house, waiting for an opportunity to speak to Miss
+March, it may well be supposed that Lawrence Croft, shut up in his
+little room at the end of the yard, would be more so. He had sat at
+his window, waiting, and waiting. He had occasionally seen Mr Keswick
+come out on the porch, and with long strides pace backward and
+forward, and he knew by that sign that he had yet no message to bring
+him. He had seen the Midbranch carriage drive into the yard; he had
+seen Miss March come out on the porch, and speak to the driver, and
+then go in again; he had seen the carriage driven under a large tree,
+where the horses were taken out and led away to be refreshed; in an
+hour or more, he saw them brought back and harnessed to the vehicle,
+which was turned and driven up again to the door, when some baggage
+was brought down and strapped on a little platform behind. Shortly
+afterwards Peggy came round the end of the house, with a hat on, and
+a little bundle under her arm, and approached the carriage, making,
+however, a wide turn toward the office, at which, and a mile or two
+beyond, her far-off gaze was steadily directed.
+
+Lawrence threw up the sash and called to her, and his guardian imp
+approached the window. "Are you Miss March's maid? I think I have seen
+you at Midbranch."
+
+"Yaas, sah, you's done seen me, offen," said Peggy.
+
+"Does Miss March intend to start immediately?" he asked.
+
+"Yaas, sah," said the good Peggy, "she'll be out in a minute, soon
+as she done kissin' Mah's Junius good-bye in de parlor." And then,
+noticing a look of astonishment on the gentleman's face, she added:
+"Dey's gwine to be mar'ed, Chris'mus."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Lawrence.
+
+"Good-bye, Mister Crof,'" said Peggy, "I's got to hurry up."
+
+Lawrence made no answer, but mechanically tossed her a coin, which,
+picking up, she gave him a farewell grin, and hastened to take her
+seat by the driver.
+
+Very soon afterward Lawrence saw Roberta come out, accompanied only by
+Mrs Null, and hurry down the steps. Forgetting his injured ankle, he
+sprang to his feet, and stepping quickly to the door, opened it, and
+stood on the threshold. But Miss March did not even look his way. He
+gazed at her with wide-open eyes as she hastily kissed Mrs Null, and
+sprang into the carriage, which was immediately driven off. As Mrs
+Null turned to go into the house, she looked toward the office and
+nodded to him. He believed that she would have come to him if he had
+called her, but he did not call. His mind was in such a condition that
+he would not have been capable of framing a question, had she come. He
+felt that he could speak to no one until he had seen Keswick. Closing
+the door he went back to his chair; and as he did so, his ankle pained
+him sadly, but of this he scarcely thought.
+
+He did not have to wait long for Junius Keswick, for in about ten
+minutes that individual entered. Lawrence turned, as his visitor
+opened the door; and he saw a countenance which had undergone a very
+noticeable change. It was not dark or lowering; it was not pale; but
+it was gray and hard; and the eyes looked larger than Lawrence had
+remembered them.
+
+Without preface or greeting Junius approached him, and said: "I have
+taken your message to Miss March, and have brought you one in return.
+You are accepted."
+
+Lawrence pushed back his chair, and stared blankly at the other. "What
+do you mean?" he presently asked.
+
+"I mean what I say," said Keswick. "Miss March has accepted you."
+
+A crowd of emotions rushed through the brain of Lawrence Croft; joy
+was among them, but it was a joy that was jostled and shaken and
+pushed, this way and that. "I do not understand," he said. "I did not
+expect such a decisive message. I supposed she might send me some
+encouragement, some--. Why didn't she see me before she left?"
+
+"I am not here to explain her actions if I could," said Junius, who
+had not sat down. "She said: 'Tell him I accept him.' That is all.
+Good morning."
+
+"But, stop!" cried Lawrence, on his feet again. "You must tell me more
+than that. Did you say to her only what I said to you? How did it
+affect her?"
+
+"Oh," said Junius, turning suddenly at the door, "I forgot that you
+asked me to observe her mood. Well, she was very angry."
+
+"With me?" cried Lawrence.
+
+"With me," said Junius. And closing the door behind him, he strode
+away.
+
+The accepted lover sat down. He had never spoken more truly than when
+he said he did not understand it. "Is she really mine?" he exclaimed.
+And with his eyes fixed on the blank wall over the mantel-piece, he
+repeated over and over again: "Is she mine? Is she really mine?" He
+had well developed mental powers, but the work of setting this matter
+straight and plain was too difficult for him.
+
+If she had sent him some such message as this: "I am very angry with
+you, but some day you can come and explain yourself to me;" his heart
+would have leaped for joy. He would have believed that his peace had
+been made, and that he had only to go to her to call her his own. Now
+his heart desired to leap with joy, but it did not seem to know how to
+do it. The situation was such an anomalous one. After such a message
+as this, why had she not let him see her? Why had she been angry with
+Keswick? Was that pique? And then a dark thought crossed his mind. Had
+he been accepted to punish the other? No, he could not believe that;
+no woman such as Roberta March would give herself away from such a
+motive. Had Keswick been joking with him? No, he could not believe
+that; no man could joke with such a face.
+
+Even the fact that Mrs Keswick had not bid Miss March farewell,
+troubled the mind of Lawrence. It was true that she might not yet know
+that the match, which she had so much encouraged, had been finally
+made, but something must be very wrong, or she would not have been
+absent at the moment of her guest's departure. And what did that
+beastly little negro mean by telling him that Keswick and Miss March
+were to be married at Christmas, and that the two were kissing each
+other good-bye in the parlor? Why, the man had not even come out to
+put her in the carriage, and the omission of this courtesy was very
+remarkable. These questions were entirely too difficult for him to
+resolve by himself. It was absolutely necessary that more should be
+told to him, and explained to him. Seeing the negro boy Plez crossing
+the yard, he called him and asked him to tell Mr Keswick that Mr Croft
+wished to see him immediately.
+
+"Mahs' Junius," said the boy, "he done gone to de railroad to take
+de kyars. He done took he knapsack on he back, an' walk 'cross de
+fiel's."
+
+When, about an hour or two afterwards, Uncle Isham brought Mr Croft
+his dinner, the old negro appeared to have lost that air of attentive
+geniality which he usually put on while waiting on the gentleman.
+Lawrence, however, took no notice of this, but before the man reached
+the table, on which he was to place the tray he carried, he asked: "Is
+it true that Mr Keswick has gone away by train?"
+
+"Yaas, sah," answered Isham.
+
+"And where is Mrs Keswick?" asked Lawrence. "Isn't she in the house?"
+
+"No, sah, done gwine vis'tin, I 'spec."
+
+"When will she return?"
+
+"Dunno," said Isham. "She nebber comes to me an' tells me whar she
+gwine, an' when she comin' back."
+
+And then, after satisfying himself that nothing more was needed of him
+for the present, Isham left the room; and when he reached the kitchen,
+he addressed himself to its plump mistress: "Letty," said he, "when
+dat ar Mister Crof has got froo wid his dinner, you go an' fotch back
+de plates an' dishes. He axes too many questions to suit me, dis day."
+
+"You is poh'ly to-day, Uncle Isham," said Letty.
+
+"Yaas," said the old man, "I's right much on the careen."
+
+Uncle Isham, perhaps, was not more loyal to the widow Keswick than
+many old servants were and are to their former mistresses, but his
+loyalty was peculiar in that it related principally to his regard for
+her character. This regard he wished to be very high, and it always
+troubled and unsettled his mind, when the old lady herself or anybody
+else interfered with his efforts to keep it high. For years he had
+been hoping that the time would come when she would cease to "rar and
+chawge," but she had continued, at intervals, to indulge in that most
+unsuitable exercise; and now that it appeared that she had reared and
+charged again, her old servant was much depressed. She had gone away
+from the house, and, for all he knew, she might stay away for days or
+weeks, as she had done before, and Uncle Isham was never so much "on
+the careen" as when he found himself forced to believe that his old
+mistress was still a woman who could do a thing like that.
+
+Letty had no objections to answering questions, but much to her
+disappointment, Lawrence asked her none. He had had enough of
+catechising negroes. But he requested her to ask Mrs Null if she would
+be kind enough to step out, for a few minutes, and speak to him. When,
+very shortly thereafter, that lady appeared, Lawrence was seated at
+his open door ready to receive her.
+
+"How are you?" she said. "And how is your ankle to-day? You have had
+nobody to attend to it."
+
+"It has hurt me a good deal," he answered. "I think I must have given
+it a wrench this morning, but I put on it some of the lotion Mrs
+Keswick left with me, and it feels better."
+
+"It is too bad," said Mrs Null, "that you have to attend to it
+yourself."
+
+"Not at all," said Lawrence. "Now that I know how, I can do it,
+perfectly well, and I don't care a snap about my ankle, except that it
+interferes with more important affairs. Why do you suppose Miss March
+went away without speaking to me, or taking leave of me in any way?"
+
+"I thought that would trouble you," said she, "and, to speak honestly,
+I don't think it was right. But Roberta was in a very agitated
+condition, when she left here, and I don't believe she ever thought of
+taking leave of you, or any one, except me. She and I are very good
+friends, but she don't confide much in me. But one thing I am pretty
+sure of, and that is that she is dreadfully angry with my cousin
+Junius, and I am very sorry for that."
+
+"How did he anger her?" asked Lawrence, wishing to find out how much
+this young woman knew. "I haven't the least idea," said Miss Annie.
+"All I know is, she had quite a long talk with him, in the parlor, and
+after that she came flying up-stairs, just as indignant as she could
+be. She didn't say much, but I could see how her soul raged within
+her." And now the young lady stopped speaking, and looked straight
+into Lawrence's face. "It isn't possible," she said, "that you have
+been sending my cousin to propose to her for you?"
+
+This was not a pleasant question to answer, and, besides, Lawrence had
+made up his mind that the period had passed for making confidants of
+other persons, in regard to his love affairs. "Do you suppose I would
+do that?" he said.
+
+"No, I don't," Miss Annie answered. "Cousin Junius would never have
+undertaken such a thing, and I don't believe you would be cruel enough
+to ask him."
+
+"Thank you for your good opinion," said Lawrence. "And now can you
+tell me when Mr Keswick is expected to return?"
+
+"He has gone back to Washington, and he told me he should stay there
+some time."
+
+"And why has not Mrs Keswick been out to see me?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"You are dreadfully inquisitive," said Miss Annie, "but to tell you
+the simple truth, Mr Croft, I don't believe Aunt Keswick takes any
+further interest in you, now that Roberta has gone. She had set her
+heart on making a match between you two, and doing it here without
+delay; and I think that everything going wrong about this has put her
+into the state of mind she is in now."
+
+"Has she really gone away?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Oh, that don't amount to anything," said Miss Annie. "She went over
+the fields to Howlett's, to see the postmistress, who is an old
+friend, to whom she often goes for comfort, when things are not right
+at home. But I am going after her this afternoon in the spring wagon.
+I'll take Plez along with me to open the gates. I am sure I shall
+bring her back."
+
+"I must admit, Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "that I am very inquisitive,
+but you can easily understand how much I am troubled and perplexed."
+
+"I expect Miss March's going away troubled you more than anything
+else," said she.
+
+"That is true," he answered, "but then there are other things which
+give me a great deal of anxiety. I came here to be, for a day or two,
+the guest of a lady on whom I have no manner of claim for prolonged
+hospitality. And now here I am, compelled to stay in this room and
+depend on her kindness or forbearance for everything I have. I would
+go away, immediately, but I know it would injure me to travel. The few
+steps I took yesterday have probably set me back for several days."
+
+"Oh, it would never do for you to travel," said she, "with such a
+sprained ankle as you have. It would certainly injure you very much to
+be driven all the way to the Green Sulphur Springs. I am told the road
+is very rough, between here and there, but perhaps you didn't notice
+it, having come over on horseback."
+
+"Yes, I did notice it, and I could not stand that drive. And, even if
+I could be got to the train, to go North, I should have to walk a good
+deal at the stations."
+
+"You simply must not think of it," said Miss Annie. "And now let me
+give you a piece of advice. I am a practical person, as you may know,
+and I like to do things in a practical way. The very best thing that
+you can do, is to arrange with Aunt Keswick to stay here as a boarder,
+until your ankle is well. She has taken boarders, and in this case
+I don't think she would refuse. As I told you before, you must not
+expect her to take the same interest in you, that she did when you
+first came, but she is really a kind woman, though she has such
+dreadfully funny ways, and she wouldn't have neglected you to-day, if
+it hadn't been that her mind is entirely wrapped up in other things.
+If you like, I'll propose such an arrangement to her, this afternoon."
+
+"You are very kind, indeed," said Lawrence, "but is there not danger
+of offending her by such a proposition?"
+
+"Yes, I think there is," answered Miss Annie, "and I have no doubt she
+will fly out into a passion when she hears that the gentleman, whom
+she invited here as a guest, proposes to stay as a boarder, but I
+think I can pacify her, and make her look at the matter in the proper
+way." "But why mention it at all, and put yourself to all that trouble
+about it?" said Lawrence.
+
+"Why, of course, because I think you will be so much better satisfied,
+and content to keep quiet and get well, if you feel that you have a
+right to stay here. If Aunt Keswick wasn't so very different from
+other people, I wouldn't have mentioned this matter for, really, there
+is no necessity for it; but I know very well that if you were to drop
+out of her mind for two or three days, and shouldn't see anything of
+her, that you would become dreadfully nervous about staying here."
+
+"You are certainly very practical, Mrs Null, and very sensible,
+and very, very kind; and nothing could suit me better under the
+circumstances than the plan you propose. But I am extremely anxious
+not to give offence to your aunt. She has treated me with the utmost
+kindness and hospitality."
+
+"Oh, don't trouble yourself about that," said Miss Annie, with a
+little laugh. "I am getting to know her so well that I think I can
+manage an affair like this, very easily. And now I must be off, or it
+will be too late for me to go to Howlett's, this afternoon, and I am a
+very slow driver. Are you sure there is nothing you want? I shall go
+directly past the store, and can stop as well as not."
+
+"Thank you very much," said Lawrence, "but I do not believe that
+Howlett's possesses an article that I need. One thing I will ask you
+to do for me before you go. I want to write a letter, and I find that
+I am out of paper; therefore I shall be very much obliged to you, if
+you will let me have some, and some envelopes."
+
+"Why, certainly," said Miss Annie, and she went into the house.
+
+She looked over the stock of paper which her aunt kept in a desk in
+the dining-room, but she did not like it. "I don't believe he will
+want to write on such ordinary paper as this," she said to herself.
+Whereupon she went up-stairs and got some of her own paper and
+envelopes, which were much finer in material and more correct in
+style. "I don't like it a bit," she thought, "to give this to him to
+write that letter on, but I suppose it's bound to be written, anyway,
+so he might as well have the satisfaction of good paper."
+
+"You must excuse these little sheets," she said, when she took it to
+him, "but you couldn't expect anything else, in an Amazonian household
+like ours. Cousin Junius has manly stationery, of course, but I
+suppose it is all locked up in that secretary in your room."
+
+"Oh, this will do very well indeed," said Lawrence; "and I wish I
+could come out and help you into your vehicle," regarding the spring
+wagon which now stood at the door, with Plez at the head of the solemn
+sorrel.
+
+"Thank you," said Miss Annie, "that is not at all necessary." And she
+tripped over to the spring wagon, and mounting into its altitudes
+without the least trouble in the world, she took up the reins. With
+these firmly grasped in her little hands, which were stretched very
+far out, and held very wide apart, she gave the horse a great jerk and
+told him to "Get up!" As she moved off, Lawrence from his open door
+called out: "_Bon voyage_" and in a full, clear voice she thanked
+him, but did not dare to look around, so intent was she upon her
+charioteering.
+
+Slowly turning the horse toward the yard gate, which Plez stood
+holding open, her whole soul was absorbed in the act of guiding the
+equipage through the gateway. Quickly glancing from side to side, and
+then at the horse's back, which ought to occupy a medium position
+between the two gateposts, she safely steered the front wheels through
+the dangerous pass, although a grin of delight covered the face of
+Plez as he noticed that the hub of one of the hind wheels almost
+grazed a post. Then the observant boy ran on to open the other gate,
+and with many jerks and clucks, Miss Annie induced the sorrel to break
+into a gentle trot.
+
+As Lawrence looked after her, a little pang made itself noticeable in
+his conscience. This girl was certainly very kind to him, and most
+remarkably considerate of him in the plan she had proposed. And yet he
+felt that he had prevaricated to her, and, in fact, deceived her, in
+the answer he had made when she asked him if he had sent her cousin
+to speak for him to Miss March. Would she have such friendly feelings
+toward him, and be so willing to oblige him, if she knew that he had
+in effect done the thing which she considered so wrong and so cruel?
+But it could not be helped; the time had passed for confidences. He
+must now work out this affair for himself, without regard to persons
+who really had nothing whatever to do with it.
+
+Closing his door, he hopped back to his table, and, seating himself at
+it, he opened his travelling inkstand and prepared to write to Miss
+March. It was absolutely necessary that he should write this letter,
+immediately, for, after the message he had received from the lady of
+his love, no time should be lost in putting himself in communication
+with her. But, before beginning to write, he must decide upon the
+spirit of his letter.
+
+Under the very peculiar circumstances of his acceptance, he did not
+feel that he ought to indulge in those rapturous expressions of
+ecstacy in which he most certainly would have indulged, if the lady
+had personally delivered her decision to him. He did not doubt her,
+for what woman would play a joke like that on a man--upon two men, in
+fact? Even if there were no other reason she would not dare to do it.
+Nor did he doubt Keswick. It would have been impossible for him to
+come with such a message, if it had not been delivered to him. And
+yet Lawrence could not bring himself to be rapturous. If he had been
+accepted in cold blood, and a hand, and not a heart, had been given to
+him, he would gladly take that hand and trust to himself to so warm
+the heart that it, also, would soon be his. But he did not know what
+Roberta March had given him.
+
+On the other hand, he knew very well if, in his first letter as an
+accepted lover, he should exhibit any of that caution and prudence
+which, in the course of his courtship, had proved to be shoals on
+which he had very nearly run aground, that Roberta's resentment, which
+had shown itself very marked in this regard, would probably be roused
+to such an extent that the affair would be brought to a very speedy
+and abrupt termination. If she had been obliged to forgive him, once,
+for this line of conduct, he could not expect her to do it again. To
+write a letter, which should err in neither of these respects, was a
+very difficult thing to do, and required so much preparatory thought,
+that when, toward the close of the afternoon, Miss Annie drove in at
+the yard gate, with Mrs Keswick on the seat beside her, not a line had
+been written.
+
+Mrs Keswick descended from the spring wagon and went into the house,
+but Miss Annie remained at the bottom of the steps, for the apparent
+purpose of speaking to Plez; perhaps to give him some instructions in
+regard to the leading of a horse to its stable, or to instil into his
+mind some moral principle or other; but the moment the vehicle moved
+away, she ran over to the office and tapped at the window, which was
+quickly opened by Lawrence.
+
+"I have spoken to her about it," she said, "and although she blazed
+up at first, so that I thought I should be burned alive, I made her
+understand just how matters really are, and she has agreed to let you
+stay here as a boarder."
+
+"You are extremely good," said Lawrence, "and must be a most admirable
+manager. This arrangement makes me feel much better satisfied than I
+could have been, otherwise." Then leaning a little further out of the
+window, he asked: "But what am I to do for company, while I am shut up
+here?"
+
+"Oh, you will have Uncle Isham, and Aunt Keswick, and sometimes me.
+But I hope that you will soon be able to come into the house, and take
+your meals, and spend your evenings with us."
+
+"You have nothing but good wishes for me," he said, "and I believe, if
+you could manage it, you would have me cured by magic, and sent off,
+well and whole, to-morrow."
+
+"Of course," said Miss Annie, very promptly. "Good night."
+
+Just before supper, Mrs Keswick came in to see Lawrence. She was very
+grave, almost severe, and her conversation was confined to inquiries
+as to the state of his ankle, and his general comfort. But Lawrence
+took no offence at her manner, and was very gracious, saying some
+exceedingly neat things about the way he had been treated; and, after
+a little, her manner slightly mollified, and she remarked: "And so you
+let Miss March go away, without settling anything."
+
+Now Lawrence considered this a very incorrect statement, but he had no
+wish to set the old lady right. He knew it would joy her heart, and
+make her more his friend than, ever if he should tell her that Miss
+March had accepted him, but this would be a very dangerous piece of
+information to put in her hands. He did not know what use she would
+make of it, or what damage she might unwittingly do to his prospects.
+And so he merely answered: "I had no idea she would leave so soon."
+
+"Well," said the old lady, "I suppose, after all, that you needn't
+give it up yet. I understand that she is not going to New York before
+the end of the month, and you may be well enough before that to ride
+over to Midbranch."
+
+"I hope so, most assuredly," said he.
+
+Lawrence devoted that evening to his letter. It was a long one, and
+was written with a most earnest desire to embrace all the merits of
+each of the two kinds of letters, which have before been alluded to,
+and to avoid all their faults. When it was finished, he read it, tore
+it up, and threw it in the fire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+The next day opened bright and clear, and before ten o'clock, the
+thermometer had risen to seventy degrees. Instead of sitting in front
+of the fireplace, Lawrence had his chair and table brought close to
+his open doorway, where he could look out on the same beautiful scene
+which had greeted his eyes a few days before. "But what is the good,"
+he thought, "of this green grass, this sunny air, that blue sky, those
+white clouds, and the distant tinted foliage, without that figure,
+which a few days ago stood in the foreground of the picture?" But,
+as the woman to whom, in his soul's sight, the whole world was but a
+background, was not there, he turned his eyes from the warm autumnal
+scene, and prepared again to write to her. He had scarcely taken up
+his pen, however, when he was interrupted by the arrival of Miss
+Annie, who came to bring him a book she had just finished reading, a
+late English novel which she thought might be more interesting than
+those she had sent him. The book was one which Lawrence had not seen
+and wanted to see, but in talking about it, to the young lady, he
+discovered that she had not read all of it.
+
+"Don't let me deprive you of the book," said Lawrence. "If you have
+begun it, you ought to go on with it."
+
+"Oh, don't trouble your mind about that," she said, with a laugh. "I
+have finished it, but I have not read a word of the beginning. I only
+looked at the end of it, to see how the story turned out. I always do
+that, before I read a novel."
+
+This remark much amused Lawrence. "Do you know," said he, "that I
+would rather not read novels at all, than to read them in that way. I
+must begin at the beginning, and go regularly through, as the author
+wishes his readers to do."
+
+"And perhaps, when you get to the end," said Miss Annie, "you'll find
+that the wrong man got her, and then you'll wish you had not read the
+story."
+
+"As you appear to be satisfied with this novel," said Lawrence, "I
+wish you would read it to me, and then I would feel that I was not
+taking an uncourteous precedence of you."
+
+"I'll read it to you," said she, "or, at least, as much as you want
+me to, for I feel quite sure that after you get interested in it,
+you will want to take it, yourself, and read straight on till it is
+finished, instead of waiting for some one to come and give you a
+chapter or two at a time. That would be the way with me, I know."
+
+"I shall be delighted to have you read to me," said Lawrence. "When
+can you begin?"
+
+"Now," she said, "if you choose. But perhaps you wish to write."
+
+"Not at this moment," said Lawrence, turning from the table.
+"Unfortunately I have plenty of leisure. Where will you sit?" And he
+reached out his hand for a chair.
+
+"Oh, I don't want a chair," said Annie, taking her seat on the broad
+door-step. "This is exactly what I like. I am devoted to sitting on
+steps. Don't you think there is something dreadfully stiff about
+always being perched up in a chair?"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, "on some occasions."
+
+And, forthwith, she began upon the first chapter; and having read
+five lines of this, she went back and read the title page, suddenly
+remembering that Mr Croft liked to begin a book at the very beginning.
+Miss Annie had been accustomed to read to her father, and she read
+aloud very well, and liked it. As she sat there, shaded by a great
+locust tree, which had dropped so many yellow leaves upon the grass,
+that, now and then, it could not help letting a little fleck of
+sunshine come down upon her, sometimes gilding for a moment her
+light-brown hair, sometimes touching the end of a crimson ribbon she
+wore, and again resting for a brief space on the toe of a very small
+boot just visible at the edge of her dress, Lawrence looked at her,
+and said to himself: "Is it possible that this is the rather pale
+young girl in black, who gave me change from behind the desk of Mr
+Candy's Information Shop? I don't believe it. That young person sprang
+up, temporarily, and is defunct. This is some one else."
+
+She read three chapters before she considered it time to go into the
+house to see if it was necessary for her to do anything about dinner.
+When she left him, Lawrence turned again to his writing.
+
+That afternoon, he sent Mrs Null a little note on the back of a card,
+asking her if she could let him have a few more sheets of paper.
+Lawrence found this request necessary, as he had used up that day
+all the paper she had sent him, and the small torn pieces of it now
+littered the fireplace.
+
+"He must be writing a diary letter," said Miss Annie to herself when,
+she received this message, "such as we girls used to write when we
+were at school." And, bringing down a little the corners of her mouth,
+she took from her stationery box what she thought would be quite paper
+enough to send to a man for such a purpose.
+
+But, although the means were thus made abundant, the letter to Miss
+March was not then written. Lawrence finally determined that it was
+simply impossible for him to write to the lady, until he knew more.
+What Keswick had told him had been absurdly little, and he had hurried
+away before there had been time to ask further questions. Instead of
+sending a letter to Miss March, he would write to Keswick, and would
+put to him a series of interrogations, the answers to which would make
+him understand better the position in which he stood. Then he would
+write to Miss March.
+
+The next day Miss Annie could not read to him in the morning, because,
+as she came and told him, she was going to Howlett's, on an errand for
+her aunt. But there would be time to give him a chapter or two before
+dinner, when she came back.
+
+"Would it be any trouble," said Lawrence, "for you to mail a letter
+for me?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Miss Annie, but not precisely in the same tone in which
+she would have told him that it would be no trouble to read to him two
+or three chapters of a novel. And yet she would pass directly by the
+residence of Miss Harriet Corvey, the post-mistress.
+
+As Miss Annie walked along the narrow path which ran by the roadside
+to Howlett's, with the blue sky above her, and the pleasant October
+sunshine all about her, and followed at a little distance by the boy
+Plez, carrying a basket, she did not seem to be taking that enjoyment
+in her walk which was her wont. Her brows were slightly contracted
+and she looked straight in front of her, without seeing anything in
+particular, after the manner of persons whose attention is entirely
+occupied in looking into their own minds, at something they do not
+like. "It is too much!" she said, almost loud, her brows contracting
+a little more as she spoke. "It was bad enough to have to furnish the
+paper, but for me to have to carry the letter, is entirely too much!"
+And, at this, she involuntarily glanced at the thick and double
+stamped missive, which, having no pocket, she carried in her hand. She
+had not looked at it before, and as her eyes fell upon the address,
+she stopped so suddenly that Plez, who was dozing as he walked, nearly
+ran into her. "What!" she exclaimed, "'Junius Keswick, five Q street,
+Washington, District of Columbia!' Is it possible that Mr Croft has
+been writing to him, all this time?" She now walked on; and although
+she still seemed to notice not the material objects around her, the
+frown disappeared from her brow, and her mental vision seemed to be
+fixed upon something more pleasant than that which had occupied it
+before. As it will be remembered, she had refused positively to have
+anything to do with Lawrence's suit to Miss March, and it was a relief
+to her to know that the letter she was carrying was not for that lady.
+"But why," thought she, "should he be writing, for two whole evenings,
+to Junius. I expected that he would write to her, to find out why she
+went off and left him in that way, but I did not suppose he would want
+to write to Junius. It seems to me they had time enough, that night
+they were together, to talk over everything they had to say."
+
+And then she began to wonder what they had to say, and, gradually, the
+conviction grew upon her that Mr Croft was a very, very honorable man.
+Of course it was wrong that he should have come here to try to win a
+lady who, if one looked at it in the proper light, really belonged to
+another. But it now came into her mind that Mr Croft must, by degrees,
+have seen this, for himself, and that it was the subject of his long
+conference with Junius, and also, most probably, of this letter.
+The conference certainly ended amicably, and, in that case, it was
+scarcely possible that Junius had given up his claim. He was not that
+kind of a man.
+
+If Mr Croft had become convinced that he ought to retire from this
+contest, and had done so, and Roberta had been informed of it, that
+would explain everything that had happened. Roberta's state of mind,
+after she had had the talk in the parlor with Junius, and her hurried
+departure, without taking the slightest notice of either of the
+gentlemen, was quite natural. What woman would like to know that she
+had been bargained about, and that her two lovers had agreed which of
+them should have her? It was quite to be expected that she would be
+very angry, at first, though there was no doubt she would get over it,
+so far as Junius was concerned.
+
+Having thus decided, entirely to her own satisfaction, that this was
+the state of affairs, she thought it was a grand thing that there were
+two such young men in the world, as her cousin and Mr Croft, who could
+arrange such an affair in so kindly and honorable a manner, without
+feeling that they were obliged to fight--that horribly stupid way in
+which such things used to be settled.
+
+This vision of masculine high-mindedness, which Miss Annie had called
+up, seemed very pleasant to her, and her mental satisfaction was
+denoted by a pretty little glow which came into her face, and by a
+certain increase of sprightliness in her walk. "Now then,--" she said
+to herself; and although she did not finish the sentence, even in her
+own mind, the sky increased the intensity of its beautiful blue; the
+sun began to shine with a more golden radiance; the little birds who
+had not yet gone South, chirped to each other as merrily as if it had
+been early summer; the yellow and purple wild flowers of autumn threw
+into their blossoms a richer coloring; and even the blades of grass
+seemed to stretch themselves upward, green, tender, and promising;
+and when the young lady skipped up the step of the post-office, she
+dropped the letter into Miss Harriet Corvey's little box, with the air
+of a mother-bird feeding a young one with the first ripe cherry of the
+year.
+
+A day or two after this, Lawrence found himself able, by the aid of a
+cane and a rude crutch, which Uncle Isham had made for him and the top
+of which Mrs Keswick had carefully padded, to make his way from the
+office to the house; and, after that, he took his meals, and passed
+the greater part of his time in the larger edifice. Sometimes, he
+ransacked the old library; sometimes, Miss Annie read to him; and
+sometimes, he read to her. In the evening, there were games of cards,
+in which the old lady would occasionally take a hand, although more
+frequently Miss Annie and Mr Croft were obliged to content themselves
+with some game at which two could play. But the pleasantest hours,
+perhaps, were those which were spent in talking, for Lawrence had
+travelled a good deal, and had seen so many of the things in foreign
+lands which Miss Annie had always wished, that she could see. Lawrence
+was waiting until he should hear from Mr Keswick; so that, with some
+confidence in his position, he could write to Miss March. His trunk
+had been sent over from the Green Sulphur Springs, and he was much
+better satisfied to wait here than at that deserted watering-place. It
+was, indeed, a very agreeable spot in which to wait, and quite near
+enough to Midbranch for him to carry on his desired operations, when
+the time should arrive. He was a little annoyed that Keswick's answer
+should be so long in coming, but he resolved not to worry himself
+about it. The answer was, probably, a difficult letter to write, and
+one which Keswick would not be likely to dash off in a hurry. He
+remembered, too, that the mail was sent and received only twice a week
+at Howlett's.
+
+Old Mrs Keswick was kind to him, but grave, and rather silent. Once
+she passed the open door of the parlor, by the window of which sat
+Miss Annie and Lawrence, deeply engaged, their heads together, in
+studying out something on a map, and as she went up-stairs she grimly
+grinned, and said to herself: "If that Null could look in and see them
+now, I reckon our young man would wish he had the use of all his arms
+and legs."
+
+But if Mr Null should disapprove of his wife and that gentleman from
+New York spending so much of their time together, old Mrs Keswick had
+not the least objection in the world. She was well satisfied that Mr
+Croft should find it interesting enough to stay here until the time
+came when he should be able to go to Midbranch. When that period
+arrived she would not be slow to urge him to his duty, in spite of any
+obstacles Mr Brandon might put in his way. So, for the present, she
+possessed her soul in as much peace as the soul of a headstrong and
+very wilful old lady is capable of being possessed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+The letter which Lawrence Croft had written to Junius Keswick was not
+answered for more than a week, and when the answer arrived, it did not
+come through the Howlett's post-office, but was brought from a mail
+station on the railway by a special messenger. In this epistle Mr
+Keswick stated that he would have written much sooner but for the fact
+that he had been away from Washington, and having just returned, had
+found Mr Croft's letter waiting for him. The answer was written in a
+tone which Lawrence did not at all expect. It breathed the spirit of a
+man who was determined, and almost defiant. It told Mr Croft that the
+writer did not now believe that Miss March's acceptance of the said Mr
+Croft, should be considered of any value, whatever. It was the result
+of a very peculiar condition of things, in which he regretted having
+taken a part, and it was given in a moment of pique and indignation,
+which gave Miss March a right to reconsider her hasty decision, if she
+chose to do so. It would not be fair for either of them to accept, as
+conclusive, words said under the extraordinary circumstances which
+surrounded Miss March when she said those words. "You asked me to
+do you a favor," wrote Junius Keswick, "and, very much against my
+inclination, and against what is now my judgment, I did it. I now ask
+you to do me a favor, and I do not think you should refuse it. I ask
+you not to communicate with Miss March until I have seen her, and have
+obtained from her an explanation of the acceptance in question. I have
+a right to this explanation, and I feel confident that it will be
+given to me. You ask me what I truly believe Miss March meant by her
+message to you. I answer that I do not know, but I intend to find out
+what she meant, and as soon as I do so, I will write to you. I think,
+therefore, considering what you have asked me to do, and what you
+have written to me, about what I have done, that you cannot refuse to
+abstain from any further action in the matter, until I am enabled to
+answer you. I cannot leave Washington immediately, but I shall go to
+Midbranch in a very few days."
+
+This letter was very far from being a categorical answer to Lawrence's
+questions, and it disappointed and somewhat annoyed that gentleman;
+but after he had read it for the second time, and carefully considered
+it, he put it in his pocket and said to himself, "This ends all
+discussion of this subject. Mr Keswick may be right in the position
+he takes, or he may be wrong. He may go to Midbranch; he may get his
+explanation; and he may send it to me. But, without any regard to what
+he does, or says, or writes, I shall go to Miss March as soon as I am
+able to use my ankle, and, whether she be at her uncle's house, or
+whether she has gone to New York, or to any other place, I shall see
+her, and, myself, obtain from her an explanation of this acceptance.
+This is due to me as well as to Mr Keswick, and if he thinks he ought
+to get it, for himself, I also think I ought to get it, for myself."
+
+The good results of Lawrence's great care in regard to his injured
+ankle soon began to show themselves. The joint had slowly but steadily
+regained its strength and usual healthy condition; and Lawrence now
+found that he could walk about without the assistance of his rude
+crutch. He was still prudent, however, and took but very short walks,
+and in these he leaned upon his trusty cane. The charming autumn days,
+which often come to Virginia in late October and early November, were
+now at their best. Day after day, the sun shone brightly, but there
+was in the air an invigorating coolness, which made its radiance
+something to be sought for and not avoided.
+
+It was just after dinner, and it was Saturday afternoon, when Miss
+Annie announced that she was going to see old Aunt Patsy, whom she had
+somewhat neglected of late.
+
+"May I go with you?" said Lawrence.
+
+Miss Annie shook her head doubtfully. "I should be very glad to have
+your company," she said, "but I am afraid it will be entirely too much
+of a walk for you. The days are so short that the sun will be low
+before we could get back, and if you should be tired, it would not do
+for you to sit down and rest, at that time of day."
+
+"I believe," said Lawrence, "that my ankle is quite strong enough for
+me to walk to Aunt Patsy's and back, without sitting down to rest. I
+would be very glad to go with you, and I would like, too, to see that
+venerable colored woman again."
+
+"Well," said Miss Annie, "if you really think you can walk so far, it
+will be very nice indeed to have you go, but you ought to feel very
+sure that it will not hurt you."
+
+"Come along," said Lawrence, taking up his hat and cane.
+
+After a man has been shut up, as Lawrence had been, a pleasant ramble
+like this is a most delightful change, and he did not hesitate to
+manifest his pleasure. This touched the very sensitive soul of
+his companion, and with such a sparkle of talk did she evince her
+gratification, that almost any one would have been able to see that
+she was a young lady who had an earnest sympathy with those who had
+undergone afflictions, but were now freed from them.
+
+Aunt Patsy was glad to see her visitors, particularly glad, it seemed,
+to see Mr Croft. She was quite loquacious, considering the great
+length of her days, and the proverbial shortness of her tongue.
+
+"Why, Aunt Patsy," said Miss Annie, "you seem to have grown younger
+since I last saw you! I do believe you are getting old backwards! What
+are you going to do with that dress-body?" "I's lookin' at dis h'yar,"
+said Aunt Patsy, turning over the well-worn body of a black woollen
+dress which lay in her lap, instead of the crazy quilt on which she
+was usually occupied, "to see if it's done gib way in any ob de seams,
+or de elbers. 'Twas a right smart good frock once, an' I's gwine to
+wear it ter-morrer."
+
+"To-morrow!" exclaimed Annie. "You don't mean to say you are going to
+church!"
+
+"Dat's jus' wot I's gwine to do, Miss Annie. I's gwine to chu'ch
+ter-morrer mawnin'. Dar's gwine to be a big preachin'. Brudder Enick
+Hines is to be dar, an' dey tell me dey allus has pow'ful wakenin's
+when Brudder Enick preaches. I ain't ever heered Brudder Enick yit,
+coz he was a little boy when I use to go to chu'ch."
+
+"Will it be in the old church, in the woods just beyond Howlett's?"
+asked Annie.
+
+"Right dar," replied Aunt Patsy, with an approving glance towards the
+young lady. "You 'members dem ar places fus' rate, Miss Annie. Why you
+didn't tole me, when you fus' come h'yar, dat you was dat little Miss
+Annie dat I use to tote roun' afore I gin up walkin'?"
+
+"Oh, that's too long a story," said Miss Annie, with a laugh. "You
+know I hadn't seen Aunt Keswick, then. I couldn't go about introducing
+myself to other people before I had seen her."
+
+Aunt Patsy gave a sagacious nod of her head. "I reckon you thought
+she'd be right much disgruntled when she heered you was mar'ed, an'
+you wanted to tell her youse'f. But I's pow'ful glad dat it's all
+right now. You all don' know how pow'ful glad I is." And she looked
+at Mr Croft and Miss Annie with a glance as benignant as her time-set
+countenance was capable of.
+
+"But Aunt Patsy," said Annie, quite willing to change the
+conversation, although she did not know the import of the old woman's
+last remark, "I thought you were not able to go out."
+
+The old woman gave a little chuckle. "Dat's wot eberybody thought, an'
+to tell you de truf, Miss Annie, I thought so too. But ef I was strong
+'nuf to go to de pos' offis,--an' I did dat, Miss Annie, an' not long
+ago nuther,--I reckon I's strong 'nuf to go to chu'ch, an' Uncle Isham
+is a comin' wid de oxcart to take me ter-morrer mawnin'. Dar'll be
+pow'ful wakenin's, an' I ain't seen de Jerus'lum Jump in a mighty long
+time."
+
+"Are they going to have the Jerusalem Jump?" asked Miss Annie.
+
+"Oh, yaas, Miss Annie," said the old woman, "dey's sartin shuh to hab
+dat, when dey gits waken'd."
+
+"I should so like to see the Jerusalem Jump again," said Miss Annie.
+"I saw it once, when I was a little girl. Did you ever see it?" she
+said, turning to Mr Croft.
+
+"I have not," he answered. "I never even heard of it."
+
+"Suppose we go to-morrow, and hear Brother Enoch," she said. "I should
+like it very much," answered Lawrence.
+
+"Aunt Patsy," said Miss Annie, "would there be any objection to our
+going to your church to-morrow?"
+
+The old woman gave her head a little shake. "Dunno," she said. "As a
+gin'ral rule we don't like white folks at our preachin's. Dey's got
+dar chu'ches, an' dar ways, an' we's got our chu'ches, an' our ways.
+But den it's dif'rent wid you all. An' you all's not like white folks
+in gin'ral, an' 'specially strawngers. You all isn't strawngers now. I
+don't reckon dar'll be no 'jections to your comin', ef you set sollum,
+an' I know you'll do dat, Miss Annie, coz you did it when you was a
+little gal. An' I reckon it'll be de same wid him?" looking at Mr
+Croft.
+
+Miss Annie assured her that she and her companion would be certain to
+"sit solemn," and that they would not think of such a thing as going
+to church and behaving indecorously.
+
+"Dar is white folks," said Aunt Patsy, "wot comes to a culled chu'ch
+fur nothin' else but to larf. De debbil gits dem folks, but dat don'
+do us no good, Miss Annie, an' we'd rudder dey stay away. But you
+all's not dat kine. I knows dat, sartin shuh."
+
+When the two had taken leave of the old woman, and Miss Annie had gone
+out of the door, Aunt Patsy leaned very far forward, and stretching
+out her long arm, seized Mr Croft by the skirt of his coat. He stepped
+back, quite surprised, and then she said to him, in a low but very
+earnest voice: "I reckon dat dat ar sprain ankle was nuffin but a
+acciden'; but you look out, sah, you look out! Hab you got dem little
+shoes handy?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Lawrence. "I have them in my trunk."
+
+"Keep 'em whar you kin put your han' on 'em," said Aunt Patsy,
+impressively. "You may want 'em yit. You min' my wuds."
+
+"I shall be sure to remember," said Lawrence, as he hastened out to
+rejoin Annie.
+
+"What in the world had Aunt Patsy to say to you?" asked that somewhat
+surprised young lady.
+
+Then Lawrence told her how some time before Aunt Patsy had given him a
+pair of blue shoes, which she said would act as a preventive charm, in
+case Mrs Keswick should ever wish to do him harm, and that she had now
+called him back to remind him not to neglect this means of personal
+protection. "I can't imagine," said Lawrence, "that your aunt would
+ever think of such a thing as doing me a harm, or how those little
+shoes would prevent her, if she wanted to, but I suppose Aunt Patsy is
+crack-brained on some subjects, and so I thought it best to humor her,
+and took the shoes."
+
+"Do you know," said Miss Annie, after walking a little distance in
+silence, "that I am afraid Aunt Patsy has done a dreadful thing, and
+one I never should have suspected her of. Aunt Keswick had a little
+baby once, and it died very young. She keeps its clothes in a box, and
+I remember when I was a little girl that she once showed them to me,
+and told me I was to take the place of that little girl, and that
+frightened me dreadfully, because I thought that I would have to die,
+and have my clothes put in a box. I recollect perfectly that there was
+a pair of little blue shoes among these clothes, and Aunt Patsy must
+have stolen them."
+
+"That surprises me," said Lawrence. "I supposed, from what I had heard
+of the old woman, that she was perfectly honest."
+
+"So she is," said Annie. "She has been a trusted servant in our family
+nearly all her life. But some negroes have very queer ideas about
+taking certain things, and I suppose Aunt Patsy had some particular
+reason for taking those shoes, for, of course, they could be of no
+value to her."
+
+"I am very sorry," said Lawrence, "that such sacred relics should have
+come into my possession, but I must admit that I would not like to
+give them back to your aunt."
+
+"Oh, no," said Annie, "that would never do; and I wouldn't dare to try
+to find her box, and put them in it. It would seem like a desecration
+for any hand but her own to touch those things."
+
+"That is true," said Lawrence, "and you might get yourself into a lot
+of trouble by endeavoring to repair the mischief. Before I leave here,
+we may think of some plan of disposing of the little trotters. It
+might be well to give them back to Aunt Patsy and tell her to restore
+them."
+
+"I don't know," said Miss Annie, with a slowness of reply, and an
+irrelevance of demeanor, which indicated she was not thinking of the
+words she was speaking.
+
+The sun was now very near the horizon, and that evening coolness
+which, in the autumn, comes on so quickly after the sunshine fades out
+of the air, made Lawrence give a little shrug with his shoulders. He
+proposed that they should quicken their pace, and as his companion
+made no objection, they soon reached the house.
+
+The next day being Sunday, breakfast was rather later than usual, and
+as Lawrence looked out on the bright morning, with the mists just
+disengaging themselves from the many-hued foliage which crowned the
+tops of the surrounding hills; and on the recently risen sun, hanging
+in an atmosphere of grey and lilac, with the smile of Indian summer on
+its face; he thought he would like to take a stroll, before that meal;
+but either the length of his walk on the previous day, or the rapidity
+of the latter portion of it, had been rather too much for the
+newly-recovered strength of his ankle, which now felt somewhat stiff
+and sore. When he mentioned this at the breakfast table, he received a
+good deal of condolence from the two ladies, especially Mrs Keswick.
+And, at first, it was thought that it might be well for him to give
+up his proposed attendance at the negro church. But to this Lawrence
+strongly objected, for he very much desired to see some of the
+peculiar religious services of the negroes. He had been talking on the
+subject the evening before with Mrs Keswick, who had told him that in
+this part of the country, which lay in the "black belt" of Virginia,
+where the negro population had always been thickest, these ceremonies
+were more characteristic of the religious disposition of the African,
+than in those sections of the State where the white race exerted a
+greater influence upon the manners and customs of the colored people.
+
+"But it will not be necessary to walk much," said Miss Annie. "We can
+take the spring-wagon, and you can go with us, aunt."
+
+The old lady permitted herself a little grin. "When I go to church,"
+she said, "I go to a white folks' church, and try to see what I can of
+white folks' Christianity, though I must say that Christianity of
+the other color is often just as good, as far as works go. But it is
+natural that a stranger should want to see what kind of services
+the colored people have, so you two might as well get into the
+spring-wagon and go along."
+
+"But shall we not deprive you of the vehicle?" said Lawrence.
+
+"I never go to church in the spring-wagon," said the old lady, "so
+long as I am able to walk. And, besides, this is not our Sunday for
+preaching."
+
+It seemed to Lawrence that an elderly person who went about in a
+purple calico sun-bonnet, and with an umbrella of the same material,
+might go to church in a wheelbarrow, so far as appearances were
+concerned, but he had long ceased to wonder at Mrs Keswick's
+idiosyncrasies. "I remember very well," said Miss Annie, after the
+old lady had left the table, which she always did as soon as she had
+finished a meal, "when Aunt Keswick used to go to church in a big
+family carriage, which is now sleeping itself to pieces out there in
+the barn. But then she had a pair of big gray horses, one of them
+named Doctor and the other Colonel. But now she has only one horse,
+and I am going to tell Uncle Isham to harness that one up before he
+goes to church himself. You know he is to take Aunt Patsy in the
+ox-cart, so he will have to go early."
+
+They went to the negro church in the spring-wagon, Lawrence driving
+the jogging sorrel, and Miss Annie on the seat beside him. When they
+reached the old frame edifice in the woods beyond Howlett's, they
+found gathered there quite a large assemblage, for this was one of
+those very attractive occasions called a "big preaching." Horses and
+mules, and wagons of various kinds, many of the latter containing
+baskets of refreshments, were standing about under the trees; and Mrs
+Keswick's cart and oxen, tethered to a little pine tree, gave proof
+that Aunt Patsy had arrived. The inside of the church was nearly full,
+and outside, around the door, stood a large number of men and boys.
+The white visitors were looked upon with some surprise, but way was
+made for them to approach the door, and as soon as they entered the
+building two of the officers of the church came forward to show them
+to one of the uppermost seats; but this honor Miss Annie strenuously
+declined. She preferred a seat near the open door, and therefore she
+and Mr Croft were given a bench in that vicinity, of which they had
+sole possession.
+
+To Lawrence, who had never seen anything of the sort, the services
+which now began were exceedingly interesting; and as Annie had not
+been to a negro church since she was a little girl, and very seldom
+then, she gave very earnest and animated attention to what was going
+on. The singing, as it always is among the negroes, was powerful and
+melodious, and the long prayer of Brother Enoch Hines was one of those
+spirited and emotional statements of personal condition, and wild and
+ardent supplication, which generally pave the way for a most powerful
+awakening in an assemblage of this kind. Another hymn, sung in more
+vigorous tones than the first one, warmed up the congregation to
+such a degree that when Brother Hines opened the Bible, and made
+preparations for his discourse, he looked out upon an audience as
+anxious to be moved and stirred as he was to move and stir it. The
+sermon was intended to be a long one, for, had it been otherwise,
+Brother Hines had lost his reputation; and, therefore, the preacher,
+after a few prefatory statements, delivered in a grave and solemn
+manner, plunged boldly into the midst of his exhortations, knowing
+that he could go either backward or forward, presenting, with equal
+acceptance, fresh subject matter, or that already used, so long as his
+strength held out. He had not preached half an hour before his hearers
+were so stirred and moved, that a majority of them found it utterly
+impossible to merely sit still and listen. In different ways their
+awakening was manifested; some began to sing in a low voice; others
+gently rocked their bodies; while fervent ejaculations of various
+kinds were heard from all parts of the church. From this beginning,
+arose gradually a scene of religious activity, such as Lawrence had
+never imagined. Each individual allowed his or her fervor to express
+itself according to the method which best pleased the worshipper.
+Some kept to their seats, and listened to the words of the preacher,
+interrupting him occasionally by fervent ejaculations; others sang
+and shouted, sometimes standing up, clapping their hands and stamping
+their feet; while a large proportion of the able-bodied members left
+their seats, and pushed their way forward to the wide, open space
+which surrounded the preacher's desk, and prepared to engage in the
+exhilarating ceremony of the "Jerusalem Jump."
+
+Two concentric rings were formed around the preacher, the inner one
+composed of women, the outer one of men, the faces of those forming
+the inner ring being turned towards those in the outer. As soon as all
+were in place, each brother reached forth his hand, and took the hand
+of the sister opposite to him, and then each couple began to jump up
+and down violently, shaking hands and singing at the top of their
+voices. After about a minute of this, the two circles moved, one, one
+way and one another, so that each brother found himself opposite
+a different sister. Hands were again immediately seized, and the
+jumping, hand-shaking, and singing went on. Minute by minute the
+excitement increased; faster the worshippers jumped, and louder they
+sang. Through it all Brother Enoch Hines kept on with his sermon.
+It was very difficult now to make himself heard, and the time for
+explanation or elucidation had long since passed; all he could do was
+to shout forth certain important and moving facts, and this he did
+over and over again, holding his hand at the side of his mouth, as if
+he were hailing a vessel in the wind. Much of what he said was lost
+in the din of the jumpers, but ever and anon could be heard ringing
+through the church the announcement: "De wheel ob time is a turnin'
+roun'!"
+
+In a group by themselves, in an upper corner of the congregation, were
+four or five very old women, who were able to manifest their pious
+enthusiasm in no other way than by rocking their bodies backwards
+and forwards, and singing with their cracked voices a gruesome
+and monotonous chant. This rude song had something of a wild and
+uncivilized nature, as if it had come down to these old people from
+the savage rites of their African ancestors. They did not sing in
+unison, but each squeaked or piped out her, "Yi, wiho, yi, hoo!"
+according to the strength of her lungs, and the degree of her
+exaltation. Prominent among these was old Aunt Patsy; her little black
+eyes sparkling through her great iron-bound spectacles; her head and
+body moving in unison with the wild air of the unintelligible chant
+she sang; her long, skinny hands clapping up and down upon her
+knees; while her feet, encased in their great green baize slippers,
+unceasingly beat time upon the floor.
+
+So many persons being absent from their seats, the group of old women
+was clearly visible to Annie and Lawrence, and Aunt Patsy also could
+easily see them. Whenever her head, in its ceaseless moving from side
+to side, allowed her eyes to fall upon the two white visitors, her
+ardor and fervency increased, and she seemed to be expressing a pious
+gratitude that Miss Annie and he, whom she supposed to be her husband,
+were still together in peace and safety.
+
+Annie was much affected by all she saw and heard. Her face was
+slightly pale, and occasionally she was moved by a little nervous
+tremor. Mr Croft, too, was very attentive. His soul was not moved to
+enthusiasm, and he did not feel, as his companion did, now and
+then, that he would like to jump up and join in the dancing and the
+shouting; but the scene made a very strong impression upon him.
+
+Around and around went the two rings of men and women, jumping,
+singing, and hand-shaking. Out from the centre of them came the
+stentorian shout: "De wheel ob time is a turnin' roun'!" From all
+parts of the church rose snatches of hymns, exultant shouts, groans,
+and prayers; and, in the corner, the shrill chants of the old women
+were fitfully heard through the storm of discordant worship.
+
+In the midst of all the wild din and hubbub, the soul of Aunt Patsy
+looked out from the habitation where it had dwelt so long, and,
+without giving the slightest notice to any one, or attracting the
+least attention by its movements, it silently slipped away.
+
+The old habitation of the soul still sat in its chair, but no one
+noticed that it no longer sang, or beat time with its hands and feet.
+
+Not long after this, Lawrence looked round at his companion, and
+noticed that she was slightly trembling. "Don't you think we have had
+enough of this?" he whispered.
+
+"Yes," she answered. And they rose and went out. They thought they
+were the first who had left.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+When Mr Croft and Miss Annie got into the spring-wagon, and the head
+of the sorrel was turned away from the church, Lawrence looked at his
+watch, and remarked that, as it was still quite early, there might be
+time for a little drive before going back to the house for dinner. The
+face of the young lady beside him was still slightly pale, and the
+thought came to him that it would be very well for her if her mind
+could be diverted from the abnormally inspiriting scene she had just
+witnessed.
+
+"Dinner will be late to-day," she said, "for I saw Letty doing her
+best among the Jerusalem Jumpers."
+
+"Very well," said he, "we will drive. And now, where shall we go?"
+
+"If we take the cross-road at the store," said Miss Annie, "and go on
+for about half a mile, we can turn into the woods, and then there is a
+beautiful road through the trees, which will bring us out on the other
+side of Aunt Keswick's house. Junius took me that way not long ago."
+
+So they turned at the store, much to the disgust of the plodding
+sorrel, who thought he was going directly home, and they soon reached
+the road that led through the woods. This was hard and sandy, as are
+many of the roads through the forests in that part of the country, and
+it would have been a very good driving road, had it not been for the
+occasional protrusion of tree roots, which gave the wheels a little
+bump, and for the branches which, now and then, hung down somewhat too
+low for the comfort of a lady and gentleman, riding in a rather high
+spring-wagon without a cover. But Lawrence drove slowly, and so the
+root bumps were not noticed; and when the low-hanging boughs were on
+his side, he lifted them so that his companion's head could pass under
+and, when they happened to be on her side, Annie ducked her head,
+and her hat was never brushed off. But, at times, they drove quite a
+distance without overhanging boughs, and the pine trees, surrounded by
+their smooth carpet of brown spines, gave forth a spicy fragrance in
+the warm, but sparkling air; the oak trees stood up still dark and
+green; while the chestnuts were all dressed in rich yellow, with the
+chinquepin bushes by the roadside imitating them in color, as they
+tried to do in fruit. Sometimes a spray of purple flowers could be
+seen among the trees, and great patches of sunlight which, here
+and there, came through the thinning foliage, fell, now upon the
+brilliantly scarlet leaves of a sweet-gum, and now upon the polished
+and brown-red dress of a neighboring black-gum.
+
+The woods were very quiet. There was no sound of bird or insect, and
+the occasional hare, or "Molly Cotton-tail," as Annie delightedly
+called it, who hopped across the road, made no noise at all. A gentle
+wind among the tops of the taller trees made a sound as of a distant
+sea; but, besides this, little was heard but the low, crunching noise
+of the wheels, and the voices of Lawrence and Miss Annie.
+
+Reaching a place where the road branched, Lawrence stopped the horse,
+and looked up each leafy lane. They were completely deserted. White
+people seldom walked abroad at this hour on Sunday, and the negroes
+of the neighborhood were at church. "Is not this a frightfully lonely
+place?" he said. "One might imagine himself in a desert."
+
+"I like it," replied Annie. "It is so different from the wild,
+exciting tumult of that church. I am glad you took me away. At first I
+would not have missed it for the world, but there seemed to come into
+the stormy scene something oppressive, and almost terrifying."
+
+"I am glad I took you away," said Lawrence, "but it seems to me that
+your impression was not altogether natural. I thought that, amid all
+that mad enthusiasm, you were over-excited, not depressed. A solemn
+solitude like this would, to my thinking, be much more likely to lower
+your spirits. I don't like solitude, myself, and therefore, I suppose
+it is that I thought an impressible nature, like yours, would find
+something sad in the loneliness of these silent woods."
+
+Annie turned, and fixed on him her large blue eyes. "But I am not
+alone," she said.
+
+As Lawrence looked into her eyes he saw that they were as clear as the
+purest crystal, and that he could look through them straight into her
+soul, and there he saw that this woman loved him. The vision was
+as sudden as if it had been a night scene lighted up by a flash of
+lightning, but it was as clear and plain as if it had been that same
+scene under the noonday sun.
+
+There are times in the life of a man, when the goddess of Reasonable
+Impulse raises her arms above her head, and allows herself a little
+yawn. Then she takes off her crown and hangs it on the back of her
+throne; after which she rests her sceptre on the floor, and, rising,
+stretches herself to her full height, and goes forth to take a long,
+refreshing walk by the waters of Unreflection. Then her minister,
+Prudence, stretches himself upon a bench, and, with his handkerchief
+over his eyes, composes himself for a nap. Discretion, Worldly Wisdom,
+and other trusted officers of her court, and even, sometimes, that
+agile page called Memory, no sooner see their royal mistress depart
+than, by various doors, they leave the palace and wander far away.
+Then, silently, with sparkling eyes, and parted lips, comes that fair
+being, Unthinking Love. She puts one foot upon the lower step of
+the throne; she looks about her; and, with a quick bound, she seats
+herself. Upon her tumbled curls she hastily puts the crown; with her
+small white hand she grasps the sceptre; and then, rising, waves it,
+and issues her commands. The crowd of emotions which serve as her
+satellites, seize the great seal from the sleeping Prudence, and the
+new Queen reigns!
+
+All this now happened to Lawrence. Never before had he looked into the
+eyes of a woman who loved him; and, leaning over towards this one, he
+put his arm around her and drew her towards him. "And never shall you
+be alone," he said.
+
+She looked up at him with tears starting to her eyes, and then she put
+her head against his breast. She was too happy to say anything, and
+she did not try.
+
+It was about a minute after this, that the sober sorrel, who took no
+interest in what had occurred behind him, and a great deal of interest
+in his stable at home, started in an uncertain and hesitating way;
+and, finding that he was not checked, began to move onward. Lawrence
+looked up from the little head upon his breast, and called out,
+"Whoa!" To this, however, the sorrel paid no attention. Lawrence
+then put forth his right hand to grasp the reins, but having lately
+forgotten all about them, they had fallen out of the spring-wagon, and
+were now dragging upon the ground. It was impossible for him to reach
+them, and so, seizing the whip, he endeavored with its aid to hook
+them up. Failing in this, he was about to jump out and run to the
+horse's head; but, perceiving his intention, Annie seized his arm.
+"Don't you do it!" she exclaimed. "You'll ruin your ankle!"
+
+Lawrence could not but admit to himself that he was not in condition
+to execute any feats of agility, and he also felt that Annie had a
+very charming way of holding fast to his arm, as if she had a right
+to keep him out of danger. And now the sorrel broke into the jog-trot
+which was his usual pace. "It is very provoking," said Lawrence, "I
+don't think I ever allowed myself to drop the reins before."
+
+"It doesn't make the slightest difference," said Annie, comfortingly.
+"This old horse knows the road perfectly well, and he doesn't need a
+bit of driving. He will take us home just as safely as if you held
+the reins, and now don't you try to get them, for you will only hurt
+yourself."
+
+"Very well," said Lawrence, putting his arm around her again, "I am
+resigned. But I think you are very brave to sit so quiet and composed,
+under the circumstances."
+
+She looked at him with a smile. "Such a little circumstance don't
+count, just now," she said. "You must stop that," she added,
+presently, "when we get to the edge of the woods."
+
+Before long, they came out into the open country and found themselves
+in a lane which led by a wide circuit to the road passing Mrs
+Keswick's house. The old sorrel certainly behaved admirably; he held
+back when he descended a declivity; he walked over the rough places;
+and he trotted steadily where the road was smooth.
+
+"It seems like our Fate," said Annie, who now sat up without an arm
+around her, the protecting woods having been left behind, "he just
+takes us along without our having anything to do with it."
+
+"He is not much of a horse," said Lawrence, clasping, in an
+unobservable way, the little hand which lay by his side, "but the Fate
+is charming."
+
+Fortunately there was no one upon the road to notice the reinless
+plight in which these two young people found themselves, and they were
+quite as well satisfied as if they had been doing their own driving.
+After a little period of thought, Annie turned an earnest face to
+Lawrence, and she said: "Do you know that I never believed that you
+were really in love with Roberta March."
+
+Lawrence squeezed her hand, but did not reply. He knew very well that
+he had loved Roberta March, and he was not going to lie about it.
+
+"I thought so," she continued, "because I did not believe that any
+one, who was truly in love, would want to send other people about, to
+propose for him, as you did."
+
+"That is not exactly the state of the case," he said, "but we must not
+talk of those things now. That is all passed and gone."
+
+"But if there ever was any love," she persisted, "are you sure that it
+is all gone?"
+
+"Gone," he answered, earnestly, "as utterly and completely as the days
+of last summer."
+
+And now the sorrel, of his own accord, stopped at Mrs Keswick's outer
+gate; and Lawrence, getting down, took up the reins, opened the gate,
+and drove to the house in quite a proper way.
+
+When Mr Croft helped Annie to descend from the spring-wagon, he did
+not squeeze her hand, nor exchange with her any tender glances, for
+old Mrs Keswick was standing at the top of the steps. "Have you seen
+Letty?" she asked.
+
+"Letty?" said Miss Annie. "Oh, yes," she added, as if she suddenly
+remembered that such a person existed, "Letty was at church, and she
+was very active."
+
+"Well," said the old lady, "she must have taken more interest in the
+exercises than you did, for it is long past the time when I told her
+she must be home."
+
+"I do not believe, madam," said Lawrence, "that any one could have
+taken more interest in the exercises of this morning, than we have."
+
+At this, Annie could not help giving him a little look which would
+have provoked reflection in the mind of the old lady, had she not been
+very earnestly engaged in gazing out into the road, in the hope of
+seeing Letty.
+
+When Lawrence had gone into the office, and had closed the door behind
+him, he stood in a meditative mood before the empty fireplace. He was
+making inquiries of himself in regard to what he had just done. He
+was not accusing himself, nor indulging in regrets; he was simply
+investigating the matter. Here he stood, a man accepted by two women.
+If he had ever heard of any other man in a like condition, he would
+have called that man a scoundrel, and yet he did not deem himself a
+scoundrel.
+
+The facts in the case were easy enough to understand. For the first
+time in his life he had looked into the eyes of a woman who loved him,
+and he had discovered to his utter surprise that he loved her. There
+had been no plan; no prudent outlook into her nature and feelings;
+no cautious insight into his own. He had taken part in a most
+unpremeditated act of pure and simple love; and that it was real and
+pure love on each side, he no more doubted than he doubted that he
+lived. And yet, had he been an impostor when, on that hill over there,
+he told Roberta March he loved her? No, he had been honest, he had
+loved her; and, since the time that he had been roused to action by
+the discovery of Junius Keswick's intentions to renew his suit, it had
+been a love full of a rare and alluring beauty. But its charm, its
+fascination, its very existence, had disappeared in the first flash of
+his knowledge that Annie Peyton loved him. Had his love for Roberta
+been a perfect one, had he been sure that she returned it, then it
+could not have been overthrown; but it had gone, and a love, complete
+and perfect, stood in its place. He had seen that he was loved, and he
+loved. That was all, but it would stand forever.
+
+This was the state of the case, and now Lawrence set himself to
+discover if, in all ways, he had acted truly and honestly. He had been
+accepted by Miss March, but what sort of acceptance was it? Should he,
+as a man true to himself, accept such an acceptance? What was he to
+think of a woman who, very angry as he had been informed, had sent him
+a message, which meant everything in the world to him, if it meant
+anything, and had then dashed away without allowing him a chance to
+speak to her, or even giving him a nod of farewell. The last thing she
+had really said to him in this connection were those cruel words on
+Pine Top Hill, with which she had asked him to choose a spot in which
+to be rejected. Could he consider himself engaged? Would a woman who
+cared for him act towards him in such a manner? After all, was that
+acceptance anything more than the result of pique? And could he not,
+quite as justly, accept the rejection which she had professed herself
+anxious to give him.
+
+A short time before, Lawrence had done his best to explain to his
+advantage these peculiarities of his status in regard to Miss March.
+He had said to himself that she had threatened to reject him because
+she wished to punish him, and he had intended to implore her pardon,
+and expected to receive it. Over and over again, had he argued with
+himself in this strain, and yet, in spite of it all, he had not been
+able to bring himself into a state of mind in which he could sit down
+and write to her a letter, which, in his estimation, would be certain
+to seal and complete the engagement. "How very glad I am," he now said
+to himself, "that I never wrote that letter!" And this was the only
+decision at which he had arrived, when he heard Mrs Keswick calling to
+him from the yard.
+
+He immediately went to the door, when the old lady informed him, that
+as Letty had not come back, and did not appear to be intending to come
+back, and that as none of the other servants on the place had made
+their appearance, he might as well come into the house, and try to
+satisfy his hunger on what cold food she and Mrs Null had managed to
+collect.
+
+The most biting and spicy condiments of the little meal, to which the
+three sat down, were supplied by Mrs Keswick, who reviled without
+stint those utterly thoughtless and heedless colored people, who, once
+in the midst of their crazy religious exercises, totally forgot that
+they owed any duty whatever to those who employed them. Lawrence and
+Annie did not say much, but there was something peculiarly piquant in
+the way in which Annie brought and poured out the tea she had made,
+and which, with the exception of the old lady's remarks, was the only
+warm part of the repast; and there was an element of buoyancy in the
+manner of Mr Croft, as he took his cup to drink the tea. Although he
+said little at this meal, he thought a great deal, listening not at
+all to Mrs Keswick's tirades. "What a charmingly inconsiderate affair
+this has been!" he said to himself. "Nothing planned, nothing provided
+for, or against; all spontaneous, and from our very hearts. I never
+thought to tell her that she must say nothing to her aunt, until we
+had agreed how everything should, be explained, and I don't believe
+the idea that it is necessary to say anything to anybody, has entered
+her mind. But I must keep my eyes away from her if I don't want to
+bring on a premature explosion."
+
+Whatever might be the result of the reasoning which this young man
+had to do with himself, it was quite plain that he was abundantly
+satisfied with things as they were.
+
+It was beginning to be dark, when Letty and Uncle Isham returned and
+explained why they had been so late in returning.
+
+Old Aunt Patsy had died in church.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+"Lawrence," said Annie, on the forenoon of the next day, as they were
+sitting together in the parlor with the house to themselves, Mrs
+Keswick having gone to Aunt Patsy's cabin to supervise proceedings
+there, "Lawrence, don't you feel glad that we did not have a chance to
+speak to dear old Aunt Patsy about those little shoes? Perhaps she had
+forgotten that she had stolen them, and so went to heaven without that
+sin on her soul."
+
+"That is a very comfortable way of looking at it," said Lawrence, "but
+wouldn't it be better to assume that she did not steal them?"
+
+"I am very sorry," said Annie, "but that is not easy to do. But don't
+let us think anything more about that. And, don't you feel very glad
+that the poor old creature, who looked so happy as she sat singing and
+clapping her hands on her knees, didn't die until after we had left
+the church? If it had happened while we were there, I don't believe--"
+
+"Don't believe what?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Well, that you now would be sitting with your arm on the back of my
+chair."
+
+Lawrence was quite sure, from what had been told him, that Aunt
+Patsy's demise had taken place before they left the church, but he
+did not say so to Annie. He merely took his arm from the back of her
+chair, and placed it around her.
+
+"And do you know," said she, "that Letty told me something, this
+morning, that is so funny and yet in a certain way so pathetic, that
+it made me laugh and cry both. She said that Aunt Patsy always thought
+that you were Mr Null."
+
+At this, Lawrence burst out laughing, but Annie checked him and went
+on; "And she told Letty in church, when she saw us two come in, that
+she believed she could die happy now, since she had seen Miss Annie
+married to such a peart gentleman, and that it looked as if old miss
+had got over her grudge against him."
+
+"And didn't Letty undeceive her?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"No, she said it would be a pity to upset the mind of such an old
+woman, and she didn't do it."
+
+"Then the good Aunt Patsy died," said Lawrence, "thinking I was that
+wretched tramp of a bone-dust pedler, which the fancy of your aunt has
+conjured up. That explains the interest the venerable colored woman
+took in me. It is now quite easy to understand; for, if your aunt
+abused your mythical husband to everybody, as she did to me, I don't
+wonder Aunt Patsy thought I was in danger."
+
+"Poor old woman," said Annie, looking down at the floor, "I am so glad
+that we helped her to die happy."
+
+"As she was obliged to anticipate the truth," said Lawrence, "in order
+to derive any comfort from it, I am glad she did it. But although I am
+delighted, more than my words can tell you, to take the place of your
+Mr Null, you must not expect me to have any of his attributes."
+
+"Now just listen to me, sir," said Annie. "I don't want you to say one
+word against Mr Null. If it had not been for that good Freddy, things
+would have been very different from what they are now. If you care for
+me at all, you owe me entirely to Freddy Null."
+
+"Entirely?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Of course I mean in regard to opportunities of finding out things and
+saying them. If Aunt Keswick had supposed I was only Annie Peyton, she
+would not have allowed Mr Croft to interfere with her plans for Junius
+and me. I expected Mr Null to be of service to me, but no one could
+have imagined that he would have brought about anything like this."
+
+"Blessed be Null!" exclaimed Lawrence.
+
+Annie asked him to please to be more careful, for how did he know that
+one of the servants might not be sweeping the front porch, and of
+course, they would look in at the windows.
+
+"But, my dear child," said Lawrence, pushing back his chair to a
+prudent distance, "we must seriously consider this Null business. We
+shall have to inform your aunt of the present state of affairs, and
+before we do that, we must explain what sort of person Frederick Null,
+Esquire, really was--I am not willing to admit that he exists, even as
+a myth."
+
+"Oh dear! oh dear!" exclaimed Annie. "We shall have a dreadful time!
+When Aunt Keswick knows that there never was any Mr Null, and then
+hears that you and I are engaged, it will throw her into the most
+dreadful state of mind that she has ever been in, in her life; and
+father has told me of some of the awful family earthquakes that Aunt
+Keswick has brought about, when things went wrong with her."
+
+"We must be very cautious," said Lawrence, "and neither of us must say
+a word, or do anything that may arouse her suspicions, until we have
+settled upon the best possible method of making the facts known to
+her. The case is indeed a complicated one."
+
+"And what makes it more so," said Annie, "is Aunt Keswick's belief
+that you are in love with Miss March, and that you want to get a
+chance to propose to her. She does think that, doesn't she?"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, "I must admit that she does."
+
+"And she must be made to understand that that is entirely at an end,"
+continued Annie. "All this will be a very difficult task, Lawrence,
+and I don't see how it is to be done."
+
+"But we shall do it," he answered, "and we must not forget to be very
+prudent, until it is fully settled how we shall do it."
+
+When Lawrence retired to his room, and sat down to hold that peculiar
+court in which he was judge, jury, lawyers, and witnesses, as well as
+the prisoner at the bar, he had to do with a case, a great deal more
+complicated and difficult than that which perplexed the mind of Miss
+Annie Peyton. He began by the very unjudicial act of pledging himself,
+to himself, that nothing should interfere with this new, this true
+love. In spite of all that might be said, done, or thought, Annie
+Peyton should be his wife. There was no indecision, whatever, in
+regard to the new love; the only question was: "What is to be done
+about the old one?"
+
+Lawrence could not admit, for a moment, that he could have spoken to
+Roberta March as he had spoken, if he had not loved her; but he could
+now perceive that that love had been in no small degree impaired and
+weakened by the manner of its acceptance. The action of Miss March on
+her last day here had much more chilled his ardor than her words
+on Pine Top Hill. He had not, before, examined thoroughly into the
+condition of that ardor after the departure of the lady, but it was
+plain enough now.
+
+There was, therefore, no doubt whatever in regard to his love for Miss
+March; he was quite ready and able to lay that aside. But what about
+her acceptance of it? How could he lay that aside?
+
+This was the real case before the court. The witnesses could give no
+available testimony, the lawyers argued feebly, the jury disagreed,
+and Lawrence, in his capacity of judge, dismissed the case. In his
+efforts to conduct his mind through the channels of law and equity,
+Lawrence had not satisfied himself, and his thoughts began to be moved
+by what might be termed his military impulses. "I made a charge into
+the camp," he said with a little downward drawing of the corners of
+his mouth, "and I did not capture the commander-in-chief. And now I
+intend to charge out again."
+
+He sat down to his table, and wrote the following note:
+
+"My Dear Miss March:
+
+"I have been waiting for a good many days, hoping to receive,
+either from you or Mr Keswick, an explanation of the message you
+sent to me by him. I now believe that it will be impossible to give a
+satisfactory explanation of that message. I therefore recur to our last
+private interview, and wish to say to you that I am ready, at any time,
+to meet you under either a sycamore or a cherry tree."
+
+And then he signed it, and addressed it to Miss March at Midbranch.
+This being done, he put on his hat, and stepped out to see if a
+messenger could be found to carry the letter to its destination, for
+he did not wish to wait for the semi-weekly mail. Near the house he
+met Annie.
+
+"What have you been doing all this time?" she asked.
+
+"I have been writing a letter," he said, "and am now looking for some
+colored boy who will carry it for me."
+
+"Who is it to?" she asked.
+
+"Miss March," was his answer.
+
+"Let me see it," said Annie.
+
+At this, Lawrence looked at her with wide-open eyes, and then he
+laughed. Never, since he had been a child, had there been any one who
+would have thought of such a thing as asking to see a private letter
+which he had written to some one else; and that this young girl should
+stand up before him with her straightforward expectant gaze and make
+such a request of him, in the first instance, amused him.
+
+"You don't mean to say," she added, "that you would write anything to
+Miss March which you would not let me see."
+
+"This letter," said Lawrence, "was written for Miss March, and no one
+else. It is simply the winding up of that old affair."
+
+"Give it to me," said Annie, "and let me see how you wound it up."
+
+Lawrence smiled, looked at her in silence for a moment, and then
+handed her the letter.
+
+"I don't want you to think," she said, as she took it, "that I am
+going to ask you to show me all the letters you write. But when you
+write one to a lady like Miss March, I want to know what you say to
+her." And then she read the letter. When she had finished, she turned
+to Lawrence, and with her countenance full of amazement, exclaimed: "I
+haven't the least idea in the world what all this means! What message
+did she send you? And why should you meet her under a tree?"
+
+These questions went so straight to the core of the affair, and were
+so peculiarly difficult to answer, that Lawrence, for the moment,
+found himself in the very unusual position of not knowing what to say,
+but he presently remarked: "Do you think it is of any advantage to
+either of us to talk over this affair, which is now past and gone?"
+
+"I don't want to talk over any of it," said Annie, very promptly,
+"except the part of it which is referred to in this letter; but I want
+to know about that."
+
+"That covers the most important part of it," said Lawrence.
+
+"Very good," she answered, "and so you can tell it to me. And now,
+that I think of it, you can tell me, at the same time, why you wanted
+to find my cousin Junius. You refused once to tell me that, you know."
+
+"I remember," said Lawrence. "And if you have the least feeling about
+it I will relate the whole affair, from beginning to end."
+
+"That, perhaps, will be the best thing to do, after all," said Annie.
+"And suppose we take a walk over the fields, and then you can tell it
+without being interrupted."
+
+But Lawrence did not feel that his ankle would allow him to accept
+this invitation, for it had hurt him a good deal since his walk to
+Aunt Patsy's cabin. He said so to Annie, and excited in her the
+deepest feelings of commiseration.
+
+"You must take no more walks of any length," she exclaimed, "until you
+are quite, quite well! It was my fault that you took that tramp to
+Aunt Patsy's. I ought to have known better. But then," she said,
+looking up at him, "you were not under my charge. I shall take very
+good care of you now."
+
+"For my part," he said, "I am glad I have this little relapse, for now
+I can stay here longer."
+
+"I am very, very sorry for the relapse," said she, "but awfully glad
+for the stay. And you mustn't stand another minute. Let us go and sit
+in the arbor. The sun is shining straight into it, and that will make
+it all the more comfortable, while you are telling me about those
+things."
+
+They sat down in the arbor, and Lawrence told Annie the whole history
+of his affair with Miss March, from the beginning to the end; that is
+if the end had been reached; although he intimated to her no doubt
+upon this point. This avowal he had never expected to make. In fact
+he had never contemplated its possibility. But now he felt a certain
+satisfaction in telling it. Every item, as it was related, seemed
+thrown aside forever. "And now then, my dear Annie," he said, when he
+had finished, "what do you think of all that?"
+
+"Well," she said, "in the first place, I am still more of the opinion
+than I was before, that you never were really in love with her. You
+did entirely too much planning, and investigating, and calculating;
+and when, at last, you did come to the conclusion to propose to her,
+you did not do it so much of your own accord, as because you found
+that another man would be likely to get her, if you did not make a
+pretty quick move yourself. And as to that acceptance, I don't think
+anything of it at all. I believe she was very angry at Junius because
+he consented to bring your messages, when he ought to have been his
+own messenger, and that she gave him that answer just to rack his soul
+with agony. I don't believe she ever dreamed that he would take it to
+you. And, to tell the simple truth, I believe, from what I saw of her
+that morning, that she was thinking very little of you, and a great
+deal of him. To be sure, she was fiery angry with him, but it is
+better to be that way with a lover, than to pay no attention to him at
+all."
+
+This was a view of the case which had never struck Lawrence before,
+and although it was not very flattering to him, it was very
+comforting. He felt that it was extremely likely that this young woman
+had been able to truthfully divine, in a case in which he had failed,
+the motives of another young woman. Here was a further reason for
+congratulating himself that he had not written to Miss March.
+
+"And as to the last part of the letter," said Annie, "you are not
+going under any cherry tree, or sycamore either, to be refused by her.
+What she said to you was quite enough for a final answer, without any
+signing or sealing under trees, or anywhere else. I think the best
+thing that can be done with this precious epistle is to tear it up."
+
+Lawrence was amused by the piquant earnestness of this decision. "But
+what am I to do," he asked, "I can't let the matter rest in this
+unfinished and unsatisfactory condition."
+
+"You might write to her," said Annie, "and tell her that you have
+accepted what she said to you on Pine Top Hill as a conclusive answer,
+and that you now take back everything you ever said on the subject
+you talked of that day. And do you think it would be well to put in
+anything about your being otherwise engaged?"
+
+At this Lawrence laughed. "I think that expression would hardly
+answer," he said, "but I will write another note, and we shall see how
+you like it."
+
+"That will be very well," said the happy Annie, "and if I were you I'd
+make it as gentle as I could. It's of no use to hurt her feelings."
+
+"Oh, I don't want to do that," said Lawrence, "and now that we have
+the opportunity, let us consider the question of informing your aunt
+of our engagement."
+
+"Oh dear, dear, dear!" said Annie, "that is a great deal worse than
+informing Miss March that you don't want to be engaged to her."
+
+"That is true," said Lawrence. "It is not by any means an easy piece
+of business. But we might as well look it square in the face, and
+determine what is to be done about it."
+
+"It is simple enough, just as we look at it," said Annie. "All we have
+to do, is to say that, knowing that Aunt Keswick had written to my
+father that she was determined to make a match between cousin Junius
+and me, I was afraid to come down here without putting up some
+insurmountable obstacle between me and a man that I had not seen since
+I was a little girl. Of course I would say, very decidedly, that I
+wouldn't have married him if I hadn't wanted to; but then, considering
+Aunt Keswick's very open way of carrying out her plans, it would have
+been very unpleasant, and indeed impossible for me to be in the house
+with him unless she saw that there was no hope of a marriage between
+us; and for this reason I took the name of Mrs Null, or Mrs Nothing;
+and came down here, secure under the protection of a husband who
+never existed. And then, we could say that you and I were a good deal
+together, and that, although you had supposed, when you came here,
+that you were in love with Miss March, you had discovered that this
+was a mistake, and that afterwards we fell in love with each other,
+and are now engaged. That would be a straightforward statement of
+everything, just as it happened; but the great trouble is: How are we
+going to tell it to Aunt Keswick?"
+
+"You are right," said Lawrence. "How are we going to tell it?"
+
+"It need not be told!" thundered a strong voice close to their ears.
+And then there was a noise of breaking lattice-work and cracking
+vines, and through the back part of the arbor came an old woman
+wearing a purple sun-bonnet, and beating down all obstacles before
+her with a great purple umbrella. "You needn't tell it!" cried Mrs
+Keswick, standing in the middle of the arbor, her eyes glistening, her
+form trembling, and her umbrella quivering in the air. "You needn't
+tell it! It's told!"
+
+Graphic and vivid descriptions have been written of those furious
+storms of devastating wind and deluging rain, which suddenly sweep
+away the beauty of some fair tropical scene; and we have read, too, of
+dreadful cyclones and tornadoes, which rush, in mad rage, over land
+and sea, burying great ships in a vast tumult of frenzied waves, or
+crushing to the earth forests, buildings, everything that may lie in
+their awful paths; but no description could be written which could
+give an adequate idea of the storm which now burst upon Lawrence and
+Annie. The old lady had seen these two standing together in the yard,
+conversing most earnestly. She had then seen Annie read a letter
+that Lawrence gave her; and then she had perceived the two, in close
+converse, enter the arbor, and sit down together without the slightest
+regard for the rights of Mr Null.
+
+Mrs Keswick looked upon all this as somewhat more out-of-the-way than
+the usual proceedings of these young people, and there came into her
+mind a curiosity to know what they were saying to each other. So she
+immediately repaired to the large garden, and quietly made her way to
+the back of the arbor, in which advantageous position she heard the
+whole of Lawrence's story of his love-affair with Miss March; Annie's
+remarks upon the same, and the facts of this young lady's proposed
+confession in regard to her marriage with Mr Null, and her engagement
+to Mr Croft.
+
+Then she burst in upon them; the tornado and the cyclone raged; the
+thunder rolled and crashed; and the white lightning of her wrath
+flashed upon the two, as if it would scathe and annihilate them, as
+they stood before her. Neither of them had ever known or imagined
+anything like this. It had been long since Mrs Keswick had had an
+opportunity of exercising that power of vituperative torment, which
+had driven a husband to the refuge of a reverted pistol; which had
+banished, for life, relatives and friends; and which, in the shape of
+a promissory curse, had held apart those who would have been husband
+and wife; and now, like the long stored up venom of a serpent, it
+burst out with the direful force given by concentration and retention.
+
+At the first outburst, Annie had turned pale and shrunk back, but now
+she clung to the side of Lawrence, who, although his face was somewhat
+blanched and his form trembled a little with excitement, still stood
+up bravely, and endeavored, but ineffectually, to force upon the old
+lady's attention a denial of her bitter accusations. With face almost
+as purple as the bonnet she wore, or the umbrella she shook in
+the air, the old lady first addressed her niece. With scorn and
+condemnation she spoke of the deceit which the young girl had
+practised upon her. But this part of the exercises was soon over. She
+seemed to think that although nothing could be viler than Annie's
+conduct towards her, still the fact that Mr Null no longer existed,
+put Annie again within her grasp and control, and made it unnecessary
+to say much to her on this occasion. It was upon Lawrence that the
+main cataract of her fury poured. It would be wrong to say that she
+could not find words to express her ire towards him. She found plenty
+of them, and used them all. He had deceived her most abominably; he
+had come there, the expressed and avowed lover of Miss March; he had
+connived with her niece in her deceit; he had taken advantage of all
+the opportunities she gave him to attain the legitimate object of his
+visit, to inveigle into his snares this silly and absurd young woman;
+and he had dared to interfere with the plans, which, by day and by
+night, she had been maturing for years. In vain did Lawrence endeavor
+to answer or explain. She stopped not, nor listened to one word.
+
+"And you need not imagine," she screamed at him, "that you are going
+to turn round, when you like, and marry anybody you please. You are
+engaged, body and soul, to Roberta March, and have no right, by laws
+of man or heaven, to marry anybody else. If you breathe a word of love
+to any other woman it makes you a vile criminal in the eyes of the
+law, and renders you liable to prosecution, sir. Your affianced bride
+knows nothing of what her double-faced snake of a lover is doing here,
+but she shall know speedily. That is a matter which I take into my own
+hands. Out of my way, both of you!"
+
+And with these words she charged by them, and rushed out of the arbor,
+and into the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+They were not a happy pair, Lawrence Croft and Annie Peyton, as they
+stood together in the arbor, after old Mrs Keswick had left them. They
+were both a good deal shaken by the storm they had passed through.
+
+"Lawrence," said Annie, looking up to him with her large eyes full of
+earnestness, "there surely is no truth in what she said about your
+being legally bound to Miss March?"
+
+"None in the least," said Lawrence. "No man, under the circumstances,
+would consider himself engaged to a woman. At any rate, there is
+one thing which I wish you to understand, and that is that I am not
+engaged to Miss March, and that I am engaged to you. No matter what is
+said or done, you and I belong to each other."
+
+Annie made no answer, but she pressed his hand tightly as she looked
+up into his face. He kissed her as she stood, notwithstanding his
+belief that old Mrs Keswick was fully capable of bounding down on him,
+umbrella in hand, from an upper window.
+
+"What do you think she is going to do?" Annie asked presently.
+
+"My dear Annie," said he, "I do not believe that there is a person on
+earth who could divine what your Aunt Keswick is going to do. As to
+that, we must simply wait and see. But, for my part, I know what I
+must do. I must write a letter to Miss March, and inform her, plainly
+and definitely, that I have ceased to be a suitor for her hand. I
+think also that it will be well to let her know that we are engaged?"
+
+"Yes," said Annie, "for she will be sure to hear it now. But she will
+think it is a very prompt proceeding."
+
+"That's exactly what it was," said Lawrence, smiling, "prompt and
+determined. There was no doubt or indecision about any part of our
+affair, was there, little one?"
+
+"Not a bit of it," said Annie, proudly.
+
+At dinner that day Annie took her place at one end of the table,
+and Lawrence his at the other, but the old lady did not make her
+appearance. She was so erratic in her goings and comings, and had so
+often told them they must never wait for her, that Annie cut the ham,
+and Lawrence carved the fowl, and the meal proceeded without her. But
+while they were eating Mrs Keswick was heard coming down stairs from
+her room, the front door was opened and slammed violently, and from
+the dining-room windows they saw her go down the steps, across the
+yard, and out of the gate.
+
+"I do hope," ejaculated Annie, "that she has not gone away to stay!"
+
+If Annie had remembered that the boy Plez, in a clean jacket and long
+white apron, officiated as waiter, she would not have said this, but
+then she would have lost some information. "Ole miss not gone to
+stay," he said, with the license of an untrained retainer. "She gone
+to Howlettses, an' she done tole Aun' Letty she'll be back agin dis
+ebenin'."
+
+"If Aunt Keswick don't come back," said Annie, when the two were in
+the parlor after dinner, "I shall go after her. I don't intend to
+drive her out of the house."
+
+"Don't you trouble yourself about that, my dear," said Lawrence. "She
+is too angry not to come back."
+
+"There is one thing," said Annie, after a while, "that we really ought
+to do. To-morrow Aunt Patsy is to be buried, and before she is put
+into the ground, those little shoes should be returned to Aunt
+Keswick. It seems to me that justice to poor Aunt Patsy requires that
+this should be done. Perhaps now she knows how wicked it was to steal
+them."
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, "I think it would be well to put them back where
+they belong; but how can you manage it?"
+
+"If you will give them to me," said Annie, "I will go up to aunt's
+room, now that she is away, and if she keeps the box in the same place
+where it used to be, I'll slip them into it. I hate dreadfully to do
+it, but I really feel that it is a duty."
+
+When Lawrence, with some little difficulty, walked across the yard to
+get the shoes from his trunk, Annie ran after him, and waited at the
+office door. "You must not take a step more than necessary," she said,
+"and so I won't make you come back to the house."
+
+When Lawrence gave her the shoes, and her hand a little squeeze at the
+same time, he told her that he should sit down immediately and write
+his letter.
+
+"And I," said Annie, "will go, and see what I can do with these."
+
+With the shoes in her pocket, she went up stairs into her aunt's room,
+and, after looking around hastily, as if to see that the old lady had
+not left the ghost of herself in charge, she approached the closet in
+which the sacred pasteboard box had always been kept. But the closet
+was locked. Turning away she looked about the room. There was no other
+place in which there was any probability that the box would be kept.
+Then she became nervous; she fancied she heard the click of the yard
+gate; she would not for anything have her aunt catch her in that room;
+nor would she take the shoes away with her. Hastily placing them upon
+a table she slipped out, and hurried into her own room.
+
+It was about an hour after this, that Mrs Keswick came rapidly up the
+steps of the front porch. She had been to Howlett's to carry a letter
+which she had written to Miss March, and had there made arrangements
+to have that letter taken to Midbranch very early the next morning.
+She had wished to find some one who would start immediately, but as
+there was no moon, and as the messenger would arrive after the family
+were all in bed, she had been obliged to abandon this more energetic
+line of action. But the letter would get there soon enough; and if it
+did not bring down retribution on the head of the man who lodged in
+her office, and who, she said to herself, had worked himself into her
+plans, like the rot in a field of potatoes, she would ever after admit
+that she did not know how to write a letter. All the way home she had
+conned over her method of action until Mr Brandon, or a letter, should
+come from Midbranch.
+
+She had already attacked, together, the unprincipled pair who found
+shelter in her house, and she now determined to come upon them
+separately, and torment each soul by itself. Annie, of course, would
+come in for the lesser share of the punishment, for the fact that
+the wretched and depraved Null was no more, had, in a great measure,
+mitigated her offence. She was safe, and her aunt intended to hold her
+fast, and do with her as she would, when the time and Junius came. But
+upon Lawrence she would have no mercy. When she had delivered him into
+the hands of Mr Brandon, or those of Roberta's father, or the clutches
+of the law, she would have nothing more to do with him, but until that
+time she would make him bewail the day when he deceived and imposed
+upon her by causing her to believe that he was in love with another
+when he was, in reality, trying to get possession of her niece. There
+were a great many things which she had not thought to say to him in
+the arbor, but she would pour the whole hot mass upon his head that
+evening.
+
+Stamping up the stairs, and thumping her umbrella upon every step as
+she went, hot vengeance breathing from between her parted lips, and
+her eyes flashing with the delight of prospective fury, she entered
+her room. The light of the afternoon had but just begun to wane, and
+she had not made three steps into the apartment, before her eyes fell
+upon a pair of faded, light blue shoes, which stood side by side upon
+a table. She stopped suddenly, and stood, pale and rigid. Her grasp
+upon her umbrella loosened, and, unnoticed, it fell upon the floor.
+Then, her eyes still fixed upon the shoes, she moved slowly sidewise
+towards the closet. She tried the door, and found it still locked;
+then she put her hand in her pocket, drew out the key, looked at it,
+and dropped it. With faltering steps she drew near the table, and
+stood supporting herself by the back of a chair. Any one else would
+have seen upon that table merely a pair of baby's shoes; but she saw
+more. She saw the tops of the little socks which she had folded away
+for the last time so many years before; she saw the first short dress
+her child had ever worn; it was tied up with pink ribbons at the
+shoulders, from which hung two white, plump, little arms. There was a
+little neck, around which was a double string of coral fastened by a
+small gold clasp. Above this was a face, a baby face, with soft, pale
+eyes, and its head covered with curls of the lightest yellow, not
+arranged in artistic negligence, but smooth, even, and regular, as she
+so often had turned, twisted, and set them. It was indeed her baby
+girl who had come to her as clear and vivid in every feature, limb,
+and garment, as were the real shoes upon the table. For many minutes
+she stood, her eyes fixed upon the little apparition, then, slowly,
+she sank upon her knees by the chair, her sun-bonnet, which she had
+not removed, was bowed, so the pale eyes of the little one could not
+see her face, and from her own eyes came the first tears that that old
+woman had shed since her baby's clothes had been put away in the box.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lawrence's letter to Miss March was a definitely expressed document,
+intended to cover all the ground necessary, and no more; but it could
+not be said that it was entirely satisfactory to himself. His case, to
+say the least of it, was a difficult one to defend. He was aware that
+his course might be looked upon by others as dishonorable, although he
+assured himself that he had acted justly. It might have been better
+to wait for a positive declaration from Miss March, that she had not
+truly accepted him, before engaging himself to another lady. But then,
+he said to himself, true love never waits for anything. At all events,
+he could write no better letter than the one he had produced, and he
+hoped he should have an opportunity to show it to Annie before he sent
+it.
+
+He need not have troubled himself in this regard, for he and Annie
+were not disturbed during the rest of that day by the appearance
+of Mrs Keswick; but after the letter had been duly considered and
+approved, he found it difficult to obtain a messenger. There was no
+one on the place who would undertake to walk to Midbranch, and he
+could not take the liberty of using Mrs Keswick's horse for the trip,
+so it was found necessary to wait until the morrow, when the letter
+could be taken to Howlett's, where, if no one could be found to carry
+it immediately, it would have to be entrusted to the mail which went
+out the next day. Lawrence, of course, knew nothing of Mrs Keswick's
+message to Midbranch, or he would have been still more desirous that
+his letter should be promptly dispatched.
+
+The evening was not a very pleasant one; the lovers did not know at
+what moment the old lady might descend upon them, and the element of
+unpleasant expectancy which pervaded the atmosphere of the house was
+somewhat depressing. They talked a good deal of the probabilities of
+Mrs Keswick's action. Lawrence expected that she would order him away,
+although Annie had stoutly maintained that her aunt would have no
+right to do this, as he was not in a condition to travel. This
+argument, however, made little impression upon Lawrence, who was not
+the man to stay in any house where he was not wanted; besides, he knew
+very well that for any one to stay in Mrs Keswick's house when she did
+not want him, would be an impossibility. But he did not intend to slip
+away in any cowardly manner, and leave Annie to bear alone the brunt
+of the second storm. He felt sure that such a storm was impending, and
+he was also quite certain that its greatest violence would break upon
+him. He would stay, therefore, and meet the old lady when she next
+descended upon them, and, before he went away, he would endeavor to
+utter some words in defence of himself and Annie.
+
+They separated early, and a good deal of thinking was done by them
+before they went to sleep.
+
+The next morning they had only each other for company at breakfast,
+but they had just risen from that meal when they were startled by the
+entrance of Mrs Keswick. Having expected her appearance during the
+whole of the time they were eating, they had no reason to be startled
+by her coming now, but for their subsequent amazement at her
+appearance and demeanor, they had every reason in the world. Her face
+was pale and grave, with an air of rigidity about it, which was
+not common to her, for, in general, she possessed a very mobile
+countenance. Without speaking a word, she advanced towards Lawrence,
+and extended her hand to him. He was so much surprised that while he
+took her hand in his he could only murmur some unintelligible form of
+morning salutation. Then Mrs Keswick turned to Annie, and shook hands
+with her. The young girl grew pale, but said not a word, but some
+tears came into her eyes, although why this happened she could not
+have explained to herself. Having finished this little performance,
+the old lady walked to the back window, and looked out into the flower
+garden, although there was really nothing there to see. Now Annie
+found voice to ask her aunt if she would not have some breakfast.
+
+"No," said Mrs Keswick, "my breakfast was brought up-stairs to me."
+And with that she turned and went out of the room. She closed the door
+behind her, but scarcely had she done so, when she opened it again
+and looked in. It was quite plain, to the two silent and astonished
+observers of her actions, that she was engaged in the occupation, very
+unusual with her, of controlling an excited condition of mind. She
+looked first at one, and then at the other, and then she said, in a
+voice which seemed to meet with occasional obstructions in its course:
+"I have nothing more to say about anything. Do just what you please,
+only don't talk to me about it." And she closed the door.
+
+"What is the meaning of all this?" said Lawrence, advancing towards
+Annie. "What has come over her?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know," said Annie, and with this she burst into
+tears, and cried as she would have scorned to cry, during the terrible
+storm of the day before.
+
+That morning, Lawrence Croft was a very much puzzled man. What had
+happened to Mrs Keswick he could not divine, and at times he imagined
+that her changed demeanor was perhaps nothing but an artful cover to
+some new and more ruthless attack.
+
+Annie took occasion to be with her aunt a good deal during the
+morning, but she reported to Lawrence that the old lady had said very
+little, and that little related entirely to household affairs.
+
+Mrs Keswick ate dinner with them. Her manner was grave, and even
+stern; but she made a few remarks in regard to the weather and some
+neighborhood matters; and before the end of the meal both Lawrence and
+Annie fancied that they could see some little signs of a return to her
+usual humor, which was pleasant enough when nothing happened to make
+it otherwise. But expectations of an early return to her ordinary
+manner of life were fallacious; she did not appear at supper; and she
+spent the evening in her own room. Lawrence and Annie had thus ample
+opportunity to discuss this novel and most unexpected state of
+affairs. They did not understand it, but it could not fail to cheer
+and encourage them. Only one thing they decided upon, and that was
+that Lawrence could not go away until he had had an opportunity of
+fully comprehending the position, in relation to Mrs Keswick, in which
+he and Annie stood.
+
+About the middle of the evening, as Lawrence was thinking that it was
+time for him to retire to his room in the little house in the yard,
+Letty came in with a letter which she said had been brought from
+Midbranch by a colored man on a horse; the man had said there was no
+answer, and had gone back to Howlett's, where he belonged.
+
+The letter was for Mr Croft and from Miss March. Very much surprised
+at receiving such a missive, Lawrence opened the envelope. His letter
+to Miss March had not yet been sent, for the new state of affairs had
+not only very much occupied his mind, but it also seemed to render
+unnecessary any haste in the matter, and he had concluded to mail the
+letter the next day. This, therefore, was not in answer to anything
+from him; and why should she have written?
+
+It was with a decidedly uneasy sensation that Lawrence began to read
+the letter, Annie watching him anxiously as he did so. The letter was
+a somewhat long one, and the purport of it was as follows: The writer
+stated that, having received a most extraordinary and astounding
+epistle from old Mrs Keswick, which had been sent by a special
+messenger, she had thought it her duty to write immediately on the
+subject to Mr Croft, and had detained the man that she might send this
+letter by him. She did not pretend to understand the full purport of
+what Mrs Keswick had written, but it was evident that the old lady
+believed that an engagement of marriage existed between herself (Miss
+March) and Mr Croft. That that gentleman had given such information
+to Mrs Keswick she could hardly suppose, but, if he had, it must have
+been in consequence of a message which, very much to her surprise and
+grief, had been delivered to Mr Croft by Mr Keswick. In order that
+this message might be understood, Miss March had determined to make a
+full explanation of her line of conduct towards Mr Croft.
+
+During the latter part of their pleasant intercourse at Midbranch
+during the past summer, she had reason to believe that Mr Croft's
+intentions in regard to her were becoming serious, but she had also
+perceived that his impulses, however earnest they might have been,
+were controlled by an extraordinary caution and prudence, which,
+although it sometimes amused her, was not in the least degree
+complimentary to her. She could not prevent herself from resenting
+this somewhat peculiar action of Mr Croft, and this resentment grew
+into a desire, which gradually became a very strong one, that she
+might have an opportunity of declining a proposal from him. That
+opportunity came while they were both at Mrs Keswick's, and she had
+intended that what she said at her last interview with Mr Croft should
+be considered a definite refusal of his suit, but the interview had
+terminated before she had stated her mind quite as plainly as she had
+purposed doing. She had not, however, wished to renew the conversation
+on the subject, and had concluded to content herself with what she had
+already said; feeling quite sure that her words had been sufficient
+to satisfy Mr Croft that it would be useless to make any further
+proposals.
+
+When, on the eve of her departure from the house, Mr Keswick had
+brought her Mr Croft's message, she was not only amazed, but
+indignant; not so much at Mr Croft for sending it, as at Mr Keswick
+for bringing it. Miss March was not ashamed to confess that she was
+irritated and incensed to a high degree that a gentleman who had held
+the position towards her that Mr Keswick had held, should bring her
+such a message from another man. She was, therefore, seized with a
+sudden impulse to punish him, and, without in the least expecting that
+he would carry such an answer, she had given him the one which he had
+taken to Mr Croft. Having, until the day on which she was writing,
+heard nothing further on the subject, she had supposed that her
+expectations had been realized. But on this day the astonishing letter
+from Mrs Keswick had arrived, and it made her understand that not
+only had her impulsive answer been delivered, but that Mr Croft
+had informed other persons that he had been accepted. She wished,
+therefore, to lose no time in stating to Mr Croft that what she had
+said to him, with her own lips, was to be received as her final
+resolve; and that the answer given to Mr Keswick was not intended for
+Mr Croft's ears.
+
+Miss March then went on to say that it might be possible that she owed
+Mr Croft an apology for the somewhat ungracious manner in which she
+had treated him at Mrs Keswick's house; but she assured herself
+that Mr Croft owed her an apology, not only for the manner of his
+attentions, but for the peculiar publicity he had given them. In that
+case the apologies neutralized each other. Miss March had no intention
+of answering Mrs Keswick's letter. Under no circumstances could
+she have considered, for a moment, its absurd suggestions and
+recommendations; and it contained allusions to Mr Croft and another
+person which, if not founded upon the imagination of Mrs Keswick,
+certainly concerned nothing with which Miss March had anything to do.
+
+The proud spirit of Lawrence Croft was a good deal ruffled when he
+read this letter, but he made no remark about it. "Would you like to
+read it?" he said to Annie.
+
+She greatly desired to read it, but there was something in her lover's
+face, and in the tone in which he spoke, which made her suspect that
+the reading of that letter might be, in some degree, humiliating to
+him. She was certain, from the expression of his face as he read it,
+that the letter contained matter very unpleasant to Lawrence, and it
+might be that it would wound him to have another person, especially
+herself, read them; and so she said: "I don't care to read it if you
+will tell me why she wrote to you, and the point of what she says."
+
+"Thank you," said Lawrence. And he crumpled the letter in his hand as
+he spoke. "She wrote," he continued, "in consequence of a letter she
+has had from your aunt."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Annie. "Did Aunt Keswick write to her?"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, "and sent it by a special messenger. She must
+have told her all the heinous crimes with which she charged you and
+me, particularly me; and this must have been the first intimation to
+Miss March that her cousin had given me the answer she made to him;
+therefore Miss March writes in haste to let me know that she did not
+intend that that answer should be given to me, and that she wishes it
+generally understood that I have no more connection with her than I
+have with the Queen of Spain. That is the sum and substance of the
+letter."
+
+"I knew as well as I know anything in the world," said Annie, "that
+that message Junius brought you meant nothing." And, taking the
+crumpled letter from his hand, she threw it on the few embers that
+remained in the fireplace; and, as it blazed and crumbled into black
+ashes, she said: "Now that is the end of Roberta March!"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, emphasizing his remark with an encircling arm,
+"so far as we are concerned, that is the end of her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+On the next day, old Aunt Patsy was buried. Mrs Keswick and Annie
+attended the ceremonies in the cabin, but they did not go to the
+burial. After a time, it might be in a week or two, or it might be in
+a year, the funeral sermon would be preached in the church, and they
+would go to hear that. Aunt Patsy never finished her crazy quilt,
+several pieces being wanted to one corner of it; but in the few days
+preceding her burial two old women of the congregation, with trembling
+hands and uncertain eyes, sewed in these pieces, and finished the
+quilt, in which the body of the venerable sister was wrapped,
+according to her well-known wish and desire. It is customary among the
+negroes to keep the remains of their friends a very short time after
+death, but Aunt Patsy had lived so long upon this earth that it was
+generally conceded that her spirit would not object to her body
+remaining above ground until all necessary arrangements should be
+completed, and until all people who had known or heard of her had had
+an opportunity of taking a last look at her. As she had been so very
+well known to almost everybody's grandparents, a good many people
+availed themselves of this privilege.
+
+After Mrs Keswick's return from Aunt Patsy's cabin, where, according
+to her custom, she made herself very prominent, it was noticeable that
+she had dropped some of the grave reserve in which she had wrapped
+herself during the preceding day. It was impossible for her, at least
+but for a very short time, to act in a manner unsuited to her nature;
+and reserve and constraint had never been suited to her nature. She,
+therefore, began to speak on general subjects in her ordinary free
+manner to the various persons in her house; but it must not be
+supposed that she exhibited any contrition for the outrageous way in
+which she had spoken to Annie and Lawrence, or gave them any reason
+to suppose that the laceration of their souls on that occasion was a
+matter which, at present, needed any consideration whatever from her.
+An angel, born of memory and imagination, might come to her from
+heaven, and so work upon her superstitious feelings as to induce her
+to stop short in her course of reckless vengeance; but she would not,
+on that account, fall upon anybody's neck, or ask forgiveness for
+anything she had done to anybody. She did not accuse herself, nor
+repent; she only stopped. "After this," she said, "you all can do as
+you please. I have no further concern with your affairs. Only don't
+talk to me about them."
+
+She told Lawrence, in a manner that would seem to indicate a moderate,
+but courteous, interest in his welfare, that he must not think of
+leaving her house until his ankle had fully recovered its strength;
+and she even went so far as to suggest the use of a patent lotion
+which she had seen at the store at Howlett's. She resumed her former
+intercourse with Annie, but it seemed impossible for her to entirely
+forget the deception which that young lady had practised upon her. The
+only indication, however, of this resentment was the appellation which
+she now bestowed upon her niece. In speaking of her to Lawrence, or
+any of the household, she invariably called her "the late Mrs Null,"
+and this title so pleased the old lady that she soon began to use it
+in addressing her niece. Annie occasionally remonstrated in a manner
+which seemed half playful, but was in fact quite earnest, but her aunt
+paid no manner of attention to her words, and continued to please
+herself by this half-sarcastic method of alluding to her niece's
+fictitious matrimonial state.
+
+Letty, and the other servants, were at first much astonished by the
+new title given to Miss Annie, and the only way in which they could
+explain it was by supposing that Mr Null had gone off somewhere and
+died; and although they could not understand why Miss Annie should
+show so little grief in the matter, and why she had not put on
+mourning, they imagined that these were customs which she had learned
+in the North.
+
+Lawrence advised Annie to pay no attention to this whim of her aunt.
+"It don't hurt either of us," he said, "and we ought to be very glad
+that she has let us off so easily. But there is one thing I think you
+ought to do; you should write to your cousin Junius, and tell him of
+our engagement; but I would not refer at all to the other matter; you
+are not supposed to have anything to do with it, and Miss March can
+tell him as much about it as she chooses, Mr Keswick wrote me that he
+was going to Midbranch, and that he would communicate with me while
+there, but, as I have not since heard from him, I presume he is still
+in Washington."
+
+A letter was, therefore, written by Annie, and addressed to Junius,
+in Washington, and Lawrence drove her to the railroad station in the
+spring-wagon, where it was posted. The family mail came bi-weekly to
+Howlett's, as the post-office at the railroad station was entirely too
+distant for convenience; and as Saturday approached it was evident,
+from Mrs Keswick's occasional remarks and questions, that she expected
+a letter. It was quite natural for Lawrence and Annie to surmise that
+this letter was expected from Miss March, for Mrs Keswick had not
+heard of any rejoinder having been made to her epistle to that lady.
+When, late on Saturday afternoon, the boy Plez returned from
+Howlett's, Mrs Keswick eagerly took from him the well-worn
+letter-bag, and looked over its contents. There was a letter for her
+and from Midbranch, but the address was written by Junius, not by Miss
+March. There was another in the same hand-writing for Annie. As
+the old lady looked at the address on her letter, and then on its
+post-mark, she was evidently disappointed and displeased, but she said
+nothing, and went away with it to her room. Annie's letter was in
+answer to the one she had sent to Washington, which had been promptly
+forwarded to Midbranch where Junius had been for some days. It began
+by expressing much surprise at the information his cousin had given
+him in regard to her assumption of a married title, and although she
+had assured him she had very good reasons, he could not admit that it
+was right and proper for her to deceive his aunt and himself in this
+way. If it were indeed necessary that other persons should suppose
+that she were a married woman, her nearest relatives, at least, should
+have been told the truth.
+
+At this passage, Annie, who was reading the letter aloud, and Lawrence
+who was listening, both laughed. But they made no remarks, and the
+reading proceeded.
+
+Junius next alluded to the news of his cousin's engagement to Mr
+Croft. His guarded remarks on this subject showed the kindness of his
+heart. He did not allude to the suddenness of the engagement, nor to
+the very peculiar events that had so recently preceded it; but reading
+between the lines, both Annie and Lawrence thought that the writer had
+probably given these points a good deal of consideration. In a general
+way, however, it was impossible for him to see any objection to such
+a match for his cousin, and this was the impression he endeavored to
+give in a very kindly way, in his congratulations. But, even here,
+there seemed to be indications of a hope, on the part of the writer,
+that Mr Croft would not see fit to make another short tack in his
+course of love.
+
+Like the polite gentleman he was, Mr Keswick allowed his own affairs
+to come in at the end of the letter. Here he informed his cousin that
+his engagement with Miss March had been renewed, and that they were to
+be married shortly after Christmas. As it must have been very plain to
+those who were present when Miss March left his aunt's house, that she
+left in anger with him, he felt impelled to say that he had explained
+to her the course of action to which she had taken exception, and
+although she had not admitted that that course had been a justifiable
+one, she had forgiven him. He wished also to say at this point that
+he, himself, was not at all proud of what he had done.
+
+"That was intended for me," interrupted Lawrence.
+
+"Well, if you understand it, it is all right," said Annie.
+
+Junius went on to say that the renewal of his engagement was due, in
+great part, to Miss March's visit to his aunt; and to a letter she had
+received from her. A few days of intercourse with Mrs Keswick, whom
+she had never before seen, and the tenor and purpose of that letter,
+had persuaded Miss March that his aunt was a person whose mind had
+passed into a condition when its opposition or its action ought not to
+be considered by persons who were intent upon their own welfare. His
+own arrival at Midbranch, at this juncture, had resulted in the happy
+renewal of their engagement.
+
+"I don't know Junius half as well as I wish I did," said Annie, as she
+finished the letter, "but I am very sure, indeed, that he will make
+a good husband, and I am glad he has got Roberta March--as he wants
+her."
+
+"Did you emphasize 'he'?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"I will emphasize it, if you would like to hear me do it," said she.
+
+"It's very queer," remarked Annie, after a little pause, "that
+I should have been so anxious to preserve poor Junius from your
+clutches, and that, after all I did to save him, I should fall into
+those clutches myself."
+
+Whereupon Lawrence, much to her delight, told her the story of the
+anti-detective.
+
+Mrs Keswick sat down in her room, and read her letter. She had no
+intention of abandoning her resolution to let things go as they would;
+and, therefore, did not expect to follow up, with further words or
+actions, anything she had written in her letter to Roberta March. But
+she had had a very strong curiosity to know what that lady would say
+in answer to said letter, and she was therefore disappointed and
+displeased that the missive she had received was from her nephew, and
+not from Miss March. She did not wish to have a letter from Junius.
+She knew, or rather very much feared, that it would contain news which
+would be bad news to her, and although she was sure that such news
+would come to her sooner or later, she was very much averse to
+receiving it.
+
+His letter to her merely touched upon the points of Mrs Null, and his
+cousin's engagement to Mr Croft; but it was almost entirely filled
+with the announcement, and most earnest defence, of his own engagement
+to Roberta March. He said a great deal upon this subject, and he said
+it well. But it is doubtful if his fervid, and often affectionate,
+expressions made much impression upon his aunt. Nothing could make the
+old lady like this engagement, but she had made up her mind that he
+might do as he pleased, and it didn't matter what he said about it; he
+had done it, and there was an end of it.
+
+But there was one thing that did matter: That unprincipled and
+iniquitous old man Brandon had had his own way at last; and she and
+her way had been set aside. This was the last of a series of injuries
+to her and her family with which she charged Mr Brandon and his
+family; but it was the crowning wrong. The injury itself she did not
+so much deplore, as that the injurer would profit by it. Arrested
+in her course of raging passion by a sudden flood of warm and
+irresistible emotion, she had resigned, as impetuously as she had
+taken them up, her purposes of vengeance, and consequently, her plans
+for her nephew and niece. But she was a keen-minded, as well as
+passionate old woman, and when she had considered the altered state
+of affairs, she was able to see in it advantages as well as
+disappointment and defeat. From what she had learned of Lawrence
+Croft's circumstances and position, and she had made a good many
+inquiries on this subject of Roberta March, he was certainly a good
+match for Annie; and, although she hated to have anything to do with
+Midbranch, it could not be a bad thing for Junius to be master of that
+large estate, and that Mr Brandon had repeatedly declared he would be,
+if he married Roberta. Thus, in the midst of these reverses, there was
+something to comfort her, and reconcile her to them. But there was no
+balm for the wound caused by Mr Brandon's success and her failure.
+
+With the letter of Junius open in her hand, she sat, for a long time,
+in bitter meditation. At length a light gradually spread itself over
+her gloomy countenance. Her eyes sparkled; she sat up straight in her
+chair, and a broad smile changed the course of the wrinkles on her
+cheeks. She arose to her feet; she gave her head a quick jerk of
+affirmation; she clapped one hand upon the other; and she said aloud:
+"I will bless, not curse!"
+
+And with that she went happy to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+On the following Monday, Lawrence announced that his ankle was now
+quite well enough for him to go to New York, where his affairs
+required his presence. Neither he, nor the late Mrs Null, regarded
+this parting with any satisfaction, but their very natural regrets at
+the necessary termination of these happy autumn days were a good deal
+tempered by the fact that Lawrence intended to return in a few weeks,
+and that then the final arrangements would be made for their marriage.
+It was not easy to decide what these arrangements would be, for in
+spite of the many wrongnesses of the old lady's head and heart, Annie
+had conceived a good deal of affection for her aunt, and felt a strong
+disinclination to abandon her to her lonely life, which would be more
+lonely than before, now that Junius was to be married. On the other
+hand, Lawrence, although he had discovered some estimable points in
+the very peculiar character of Mrs Keswick, had no intention of living
+in the same house with her. This whole matter, therefore, was left in
+abeyance until the lovers should meet again, some time in December.
+
+Lawrence and Annie had desired very much that Junius should visit them
+before Mr Croft's departure for the North, for they both had a high
+esteem for him, and both felt a desire that he should be as well
+satisfied with their matrimonial project as they were with his. But
+they need not have expected him. Junius had conceived a dislike for Mr
+Croft, which was based in great part upon disapprobation of what he
+himself had done in connection with that gentleman; and this manner
+of dislike is not easily set aside. The time would come when he would
+take Lawrence Croft and Annie by the hand, and honestly congratulate
+them, but for that time they must wait.
+
+Lawrence departed in the afternoon; and the next day Mrs Keswick set
+about that general renovation and rearrangement of her establishment
+which many good housewives consider necessary at certain epochs, such
+as the departure of guests, the coming in of spring, or the advent of
+winter. These arrangements occupied two days, and on the evening that
+they were finished to her satisfaction, the old lady informed her
+niece, that early the next morning, she was going to start for
+Midbranch, and that it was possible, nay, quite probable, that she
+would stay there over a night. "I might go and come back the same
+day," she said, "but thirty miles a day is too much for Billy, and
+besides, I am not sure I could get through what I have to do, if I do
+not stay over. I would take you with me but this is not to be a mere
+visit; I have important things to attend to, and you would be in the
+way. You got along so well without me when you first came here that
+I have no doubt you will do very well for one night. I shall drive
+myself, and take Plez along with me, and leave Uncle Isham and Letty
+to take care of you."
+
+Under ordinary circumstances Annie would have been delighted to go to
+Midbranch, a place she had never seen, and of which she had heard so
+much, but she had no present desire to see Roberta March, and said so;
+further remarking that she was very willing to stay by herself for
+a night. She hoped much that her aunt would proceed with the
+conversation, and tell her why she had determined upon such an
+extraordinary thing as a visit to Midbranch; where she knew the old
+lady had not been for many, many years. But Mrs Keswick had nothing
+further to say upon this subject, and began to talk of other matters.
+
+After a very early breakfast next morning, Mrs Keswick set out
+upon her journey, driving the sorrel horse with much steadiness,
+intermingled with severity whenever he allowed himself to drop out of
+his usual jogging pace. Plez sat in the back part of the spring-wagon,
+and whenever the old lady saw an unusually large stone lying in the
+track of the road, she would stop, and make him get out and throw it
+to one side.
+
+"I believe," she said, on one of these occasions, "that a thousand men
+in buggies might pass along this road thrice a day for a year, and
+never think of stopping to throw that rock out of the way of people's
+wheels. They would steer around it every time, or bump over it, but
+such a thing as moving it would never enter their heads."
+
+The morning was somewhat cool, but fine, and the smile which
+occasionally flitted over the corrugated countenance of Mrs Keswick
+seemed to indicate that she was in a pleasant state of mind, which
+might have been occasioned by the fine weather and the good condition
+of the roads, or by cheerful anticipations connected with her visit.
+
+It was not very long after noonday that, with a stifled remark of
+disapprobation upon her lips, she drew up at the foot of the broad
+flight of steps by which one crossed the fence into the Midbranch
+yard. Giving Billy into the charge of Plez, with directions to take
+him round to the stables and tell somebody to put him up and feed him,
+she mounted the steps, and stopped for a minute or so on the broad
+platform at the top; looking about her as she stood. Everything, the
+house, the yard, the row of elms along the fence, the wide-spreading
+fields, and the farm buildings and cabins, some of which she could see
+around the end of the house, were all on a scale so much larger and
+more imposing than those of her own little estate that, although
+nothing had changed for the better since the days when she was
+familiar with Midbranch, she was struck with the general superiority
+of the Brandon possessions to her own. Her eyes twinkled, and she
+smiled; but there did not appear to be anything envious about her.
+
+She presented a rather remarkable figure as she stood in this
+conspicuous position. Annie had insisted, when she was helping her
+aunt to array herself for the journey, that she should wear a bonnet
+which for many years had been her head-gear on Sundays and important
+occasions, but to this the old lady positively objected. She was not
+going on a mere visit of state or ceremony; her visit at Midbranch
+would require her whole attention, and she did not wish to distract
+her mind by wondering whether her bonnet was straight on her head or
+not, and she was so unaccustomed to the feel of it that she would
+never know if it got turned hind part foremost. She could never be at
+her ease, nor say freely what she wished to say, if she were dressed
+in clothes to which she was not accustomed. She was perfectly
+accustomed to her sun-bonnet, and she intended to wear that. Of course
+she carried her purple umbrella, and she wore a plain calico dress,
+blue spotted with white, which was very narrow and short in the
+skirt, barely touching the tops of her shoes, the stoutest and most
+serviceable that could be procured in the store at Howlett's. She
+covered her shoulders with a small red shawl which, much to Annie's
+surprise, she fastened with a large and somewhat tarnished silver
+brooch, an ornament her niece had never before seen. Attired thus, she
+certainly would have attracted attention, had there been any one
+there to see, but the yard was empty, and the house door closed. She
+descended the steps, crossed the yard with what might be termed a
+buoyant gait, and, mounting the porch, knocked on the door with the
+handle of her umbrella. After some delay a colored woman appeared, and
+as soon as the door was opened, Mrs Keswick walked in.
+
+"Where is your master?" said she, forgetting all about the
+Emancipation Act.
+
+"Mahs' Robert is in the libery," said the woman.
+
+"And where are Miss Roberta March and Master Junius Keswick?"
+
+"Miss Rob went Norf day 'fore yestiddy," was the answer, "an' Mahs'
+Junius done gone 'long to 'scort her. Who shall I tell Mahs' Robert is
+come?"
+
+"There is no need to tell him who I am," said Mrs Keswick. "Just take
+me in to him. That's all you have to do."
+
+A good deal doubtful of the propriety of this proceeding, but
+more doubtful of the propriety of opposing the wishes of such a
+determined-looking visitor, the woman stepped to the back part of the
+hall, and opened the door. The moment she did so, Mrs Keswick entered,
+and closed the door behind her.
+
+Mr Brandon was seated in an arm chair by a table, and not very far
+from a wood fire of a size suited to the season. His slippered feet
+were on a cushioned stool; his eye-glasses were carefully adjusted on
+the capacious bridge of his nose; and, intent upon a newspaper which
+had arrived by that morning's mail, he presented the appearance of a
+very well satisfied old gentleman, in very comfortable circumstances.
+But when he turned his head and saw the Widow Keswick close the door
+behind her, every idea of satisfaction or comfort seemed to vanish
+from his mind. He dropped the paper; he rose to his feet; he took
+off his eye-glasses; he turned somewhat red in the face; and he
+ejaculated: "What! madam! So it is you, Mrs Keswick?"
+
+The old lady did not immediately answer. Her head dropped a little on
+one side, a broad smile bewrinkled the lower part of her well-worn
+visage, and with her eyes half-closed, behind her heavy spectacles,
+she held out both her hands, the purple umbrella in one of them, and
+exclaimed in a voice of happy fervor: "Robert! I am yours!"
+
+Mr Brandon, recovered from his first surprise, had made a step forward
+to go round the table and greet his visitor; but at these words he
+stopped as if he had been shot. Perception, understanding, and even
+animation, seemed to have left him as he vacantly stared at the
+elderly female with purple sun-bonnet and umbrella, blue calico gown,
+red shawl and coarse boots, who held out her arms towards him, and who
+gazed upon him with an air of tender, though decrepit, fondness.
+
+"Don't you understand me, Robert?" she continued. "Don't you remember
+the day, many a good long year ago, it is true, when we walked
+together down there by the branch, and you asked me to be yours? I
+refused you, Robert, and, although you went down on your knees in the
+damp grass and besought me to give you my heart, I would not do it.
+But I did not know you then as I know you now, Robert, and the words
+of true love which you spoke to me that morning come to me now with
+a sweetness which I was too young and trifling to notice then. That
+heart is yours now, Robert. I am yours." And, with these words, she
+made a step forward.
+
+At this demonstration Mr Brandon appeared suddenly to recover his
+consciousness and he precipitately made two steps backwards, just
+missing tumbling over his footstool into the fireplace.
+
+"Madam!" he exclaimed, "what are you talking about?"
+
+"Of the days of our courtship, and your love, Robert," she said. "My
+love did not come then, but it is here now. Here now," she repeated,
+putting the hand with the umbrella in it on her breast.
+
+"Madam," exclaimed the old gentleman, "you must be raving crazy! Those
+things to which you allude, happened nearly half a century ago; and
+since that you have been married and settled, and----"
+
+"Robert," interrupted the Widow Keswick, "you are mistaken. It is not
+quite forty-five years since that morning, and why should hearts like
+ours allow the passage of time or the mere circumstance of what might
+be called an outside marriage, but now extinct, to come between them?
+There is many a spring, Robert, which does not show when a man first
+begins to dig, but it will bubble up in time. And, Robert, it bubbles
+now." And with her head bent a little downwards, although her eyes
+were still fixed upon him, she made another step in his direction.
+
+Mr Brandon now backed himself flat against some book-shelves in his
+rear. The perspiration began to roll from his face, and his whole form
+trembled. "Mrs Keswick! Madam!" he exclaimed, "You will drive me mad!"
+
+The old lady dropped the end of her umbrella on the floor, rested her
+two hands on the head of it, settled herself into an easy position to
+speak, and, with her head thrown back, fixed a steady gaze upon the
+trembling old gentleman. "Robert," she said, "do not try to crush
+emotions which always were a credit to you, although in those days
+gone by I didn't tell you so. Your hair was black then, Robert, and
+you looked taller, for you hadn't a stoop, and your face was very
+smooth, and so was mine, and I remember I had on a white dress with a
+broad ribbon around the waist, and neither of us wore specs. What you
+said to me was very fresh and sweet, Robert, and it all comes to me
+now as it never came before. You have never loved another, Robert, and
+you don't know how happy it makes me to think that, and to know that I
+can come to you and find you the same true and constant lover that you
+were when, forty-five years ago, you went down on your knees to me by
+the branch. We can't stifle those feelings of by-gone days which well
+up in our bosoms, Robert. After all these years I have learned what a
+prize your true love is, and I return it. I am yours."
+
+At this Mr Brandon opened his mouth with a spasmodic gasp, but no word
+came from him. He looked to the right and left, and then made a lunge
+to one side, as if he would run around the old lady and gain the door.
+But Mrs Keswick was too quick for him. With two sudden springs she
+reached the door and put her back against it.
+
+"Don't leave me, Robert," she said, "I have not told you all. Don't
+you remember this breastpin?" unfastening the large silver brooch from
+her shawl and holding it out to him. "You gave it to me, Robert; there
+were almost tears of joy in your eyes on the first day I wore it,
+although I was careful to let you know it meant nothing. Where are
+those tears to-day, Robert? It means something now. I have kept it
+all these years, although in the lifetime of Mr Keswick it was never
+cleaned, and I wore it to-day, Robert, that your eyes might rest upon
+it once again, and that you might speak to me the words you spoke to
+me the day after I let you pin it on my white neckerchief. You waited
+then, Robert, a whole day before you spoke, but you needn't wait now.
+Let your heart speak out, dear Robert."
+
+But dear Robert appeared to have no power to speak, on this or any
+other subject. He was half sitting, half leaning on the corner of a
+table which stood by a window, out of which he gave sudden agonized
+and longing glances, as if, had he strength enough, he would raise the
+sash and leap out.
+
+The old lady, however, had speech enough for two. "Robert," she
+exclaimed, "how happy may we be, yet! If you wish to give up, to a
+younger couple, this spacious mansion, these fine grounds and noble
+elms, and come to my humble home, I shall only say to you, 'Robert,
+come!' I shall be alone there, Robert, and shall welcome you with joy.
+I have nobody now to give anything to. The late Mrs Null, by which I
+mean my niece, will marry a man who, if reports don't lie, is rich
+enough to make her want nothing that I have; and as for Junius, he is
+to have your property, as we all know. So all I have is yours, if you
+choose to come to me, Robert. But, if you would rather live here, I
+will come to you, and the young people can board with us until your
+decease; after that, I'll board with them. And I'm not sure,
+Robert, but I like the plan of coming here best. There are lots of
+improvements we could make on this place, with you to furnish the
+money, and me to advise and direct. The first thing I'd do would be
+to have down those abominable steps over the front fence, and put a
+decent gate in its place; and then we would have a gravelled walk
+across the yard to the porch, wide enough for you and me, Robert,
+to walk together arm-in-arm when we would go out to look over the
+plantation, or stroll down to that spot on the branch, Robert, where
+the first plightings of our troth began."
+
+The words of tender reminiscence, and of fond though rather late
+devotion, with which Mrs Keswick had stabbed and gashed the soul of
+the poor old gentleman, had at first deranged his senses, and then
+driven him into a state of abject despair, but the practical remarks
+which succeeded seemed to have a more direful effect upon him. The
+idea of the being with the sun-bonnet and the umbrella entering into
+his life at Midbranch, tearing down the broad steps which his honored
+father had built, cutting a gravelled path across the green turf which
+had been the pride of generations, and doing, no man could say what
+else, of advice and direction, seemed to strike a chill of terror into
+his very bones.
+
+The quick perception of Mrs Keswick told her that it was time to
+terminate the interview. "I will not say anything more to you now,
+Robert," she said. "Of course you have been surprised at my coming to
+you to-day, and accepting your offer of marriage, and you must have
+time to quiet your mind, and think it over. I don't doubt your
+affection, Robert, and I don't want to hurry you. I am going to stay
+here to-night, so that we can have plenty of time to settle everything
+comfortably. I'll go now and get one of the servants to show me to a
+room where I can take off my things. I'll see you again at dinner."
+
+And, with a smile of antiquated coyness, she left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+Mr Brandon was not a weak man, nor one very susceptible to outside
+influences, but, in the whole course of his life, nothing so
+extraordinarily nerve-stirring had occurred to him as this visit of
+old Mrs Keswick, endeavoring to appear in the character of the young
+creature he had wooed some forty-five years before. For a long time,
+Mrs Keswick had been the enemy of himself and his family; and many a
+bitter onslaught she had made upon him, both by letter, and by word of
+mouth. These he had borne with the utmost bravery and coolness, and
+there were times when they even afforded him entertainment. But this
+most astounding attack was something against which no man could have
+been prepared; and Mr Brandon, suddenly pounced upon in the midst of
+his comfortable bachelordom by a malevolent sorceress and hurled back
+to the days of his youth, was shown himself kneeling, not at the feet
+of a fair young girl, but before a horrible old woman.
+
+This amazing and startling state of affairs was too much for him
+immediately to comprehend. It stunned and bewildered him. Such,
+indeed, was the effect upon him that the first act of his mind, when
+he was left alone, and it began to act, was to ask of itself if there
+were really any grounds upon which Mrs Keswick could, with any reason,
+take up her position? The absolute absurdity of her position, however,
+became more and more evident, as Mr Brandon's mind began to straighten
+itself and stand up. And now he grew angry. Anger was a passion with
+which he was not at all unfamiliar, and the exercise of it seemed to
+do him good. When he had walked up and down his library for a quarter
+of an hour, he felt almost like his natural self; and with many nods
+of his head and shakes of his fist, he declared that the old woman was
+crazy, and that he would bundle her home just as soon as he could.
+
+By dinner-time he had cooled down a good deal, and he resolved to
+treat her with the respect due to her age and former condition of
+sanity; but to take care that she should not again be alone with him,
+and to arrange that she should return to her home that day.
+
+Mrs Keswick came to the table with a smiling face, and wearing a
+close-fitting white cap, which looked like a portion of her night
+gear, tied under her chin with broad, stiff strings. In this she
+appeared to her host as far more hideous than when wearing her
+sun-bonnet. Mr Brandon had arranged that two servants should wait upon
+the table, so that one of them should always be in the room, but in
+his supposition that the presence of a third person would have any
+effect upon the expression of Mrs Keswick's fond regard, he was
+mistaken. The meal had scarcely begun, when she looked around the room
+with wide-open eyes, and exclaimed: "Robert, if we should conclude
+to remain here, I think we will have this room re-papered with some
+light-colored paper. I like a light dining-room. This is entirely too
+dark."
+
+The two servants, one of whom was our old friend, Peggy, actually
+stopped short in their duties at this remark; and as for Mr Brandon,
+his appetite immediately left him, to return no more during that meal.
+
+He was obliged to make some answer to this speech, and so he briefly
+remarked that he had no desire to alter the appearance of his
+dining-room, and then hastened to change the conversation by making
+some inquiries about that interesting young woman, her niece, who, he
+had been informed, was not a married lady, as he had supposed her to
+be.
+
+At this intelligence, Peggy dropped two spoons and a fork; she had
+never heard it before.
+
+"The late Mrs Null," said Mrs Keswick, "is a young woman who likes to
+cut her clothes after her own patterns. They may be becoming to her
+when they are made up, or they may not be. But I am inclined to think
+she has got a pretty good head on her shoulders, and perhaps she
+knows what suits her as well as any of us. I can't say it was easy to
+forgive the trick she played on me, her own aunt, and just the same,
+in fact, as her mother. But Robert," and as she said this the old lady
+laid down her knife and fork, and looked tenderly at Mr Brandon, "I
+have determined to forgive everybody, and to overlook everything,
+and I do this as much for your sake, dear Robert, as for my own. It
+wouldn't do for a couple of our age to be keeping up grudges against
+the young people for their ways of getting out of marriages or getting
+into them. We will have my niece and her husband here sometimes, won't
+we, Robert?"
+
+Mr Brandon straightened himself and remarked: "Mr Croft, whom I have
+heard your niece is to marry, will be quite welcome here, with his
+wife." Then, putting his napkin on the table, and pushing back his
+chair, he said: "Now, madam, you must excuse me, for I have orders to
+give to some of my people which I had forgotten until this moment. But
+do not let me interfere with your dinner. Pray continue your meal."
+
+Never before had Mr Brandon been known to leave his dinner until he
+had finished it, and he was not at all accustomed to give such a poor
+reason for his actions as the one he gave now, but it was simply
+impossible for him to sit any longer at table, and have that old woman
+talk in that shocking manner before the servants.
+
+"Robert," cried Mrs Keswick, as he left the room, "I'll save some
+dessert for you, and we'll eat it together."
+
+Mr Brandon's first impulse, when he found himself out of the
+dining-room, was to mount his horse and ride away; but there was no
+place to which he wished to ride; and he was a man who was very loath
+to leave the comforts of his home. "No," he said. "She must go, and
+not I." And then he went into his parlor, and strode up and down. As
+soon as Mrs Keswick had finished her dinner, he would see her there,
+and speak his mind to her. He had determined that he would not again
+be alone with her, but, since the presence of others was no restraint
+whatever upon her, it had become absolutely necessary that he should
+speak with her alone.
+
+It was not long before the Widow Keswick, with a brisk, blithe step,
+entered the parlor. "I couldn't eat without you, Robert," she cried,
+"and so I really haven't half finished my dinner. Did you have to come
+in here to speak to your people?"
+
+Mr Brandon stepped to the door, and closed it. "Madam," he said, "it
+will be impossible for me, in the absence of my niece, to entertain
+you here to-night, and so it would be prudent for you to start for
+home as soon as possible, as the days are short. It would be too much
+of a journey for your horse to go back again to-day, and your vehicle
+is an open one; therefore I have ordered my carriage to be prepared,
+and you may trust my driver to take you safely home, even if it should
+be dark before you get there. If you desire it, there is a young
+maid-servant here who will go with you."
+
+"Robert," said Mrs Keswick, approaching the old gentleman and gazing
+fondly upward at him, "you are so good, and thoughtful, and sweet. But
+you need not put yourself to all that trouble for me. I shall stay
+here to-night, and in your house, dear Robert, I can take care of
+myself a great deal better than any lady could take care of me."
+
+"Madam," exclaimed Mr Brandon, "I want you to stop calling me by my
+first name. You have no right to do so, and I won't stand it."
+
+"Robert," said the old lady, looking at him with an air of tender
+upbraiding, "you forget that I am yours, now, and forever."
+
+Never, since he had arrived at man's estate, and probably not before,
+had Mr Brandon spoken in improper language to a lady, but now it was
+all he could do to restrain himself from the ejaculation of an oath,
+but he did restrain himself, and only exclaimed: "Confound it, madam,
+I cannot stand this! Why do you come here, to drive me crazy with your
+senseless ravings?"
+
+"Robert," said Mrs Keswick, very composedly "I do not wonder that my
+coming to you and accepting the proposals which you once so heartily
+made to me, and from which you have never gone back, should work a
+good deal upon your feelings. It is quite natural, and I expected it.
+Therefore don't hesitate about speaking out your mind; I shall not be
+offended. So that we belong to each other for the rest of our days, I
+don't mind what you say now, when it is all new and unexpected to you.
+You and I have had many a difference of opinion, Robert, and your
+plans were not my plans. But things have turned out as you wished, and
+you have what you have always wanted; and with the other good things,
+Robert, you can take me." And, as she finished speaking, she held out
+both hands to her companion.
+
+With a stamp of his foot, and a kick at a chair which stood in his
+way, Mr Brandon precipitately left the room, and slammed the door
+after him; and if Peggy had not nimbly sprung to one side, he would
+have stumbled over her, and have had a very bad fall for a man of his
+age.
+
+It was not ten minutes after this, that, looking out of a window, Mrs
+Keswick saw a saddled horse brought into the back yard. She hastened
+into the hall, and found Peggy. "Run to Mr Brandon," she said, "and
+bid him good-bye for me. I am going up stairs to get ready to go home,
+and haven't, time to speak to him, myself, before he starts on his
+ride."
+
+At the receipt of this message the heart of Mr Brandon gave a bound
+which actually helped him to get into the saddle, but he did not
+hesitate in his purpose of instant departure. If he staid, but for
+a moment, she might come out to him, and change her mind, so he put
+spurs to his horse and galloped away, merely stopping long enough, as
+he passed the stables, to give orders that the carriage be prepared
+for Mrs Keswick, and taken round to the front.
+
+As he rode through the cool air of that fine November afternoon, the
+spirits of Mr Brandon rose. He felt a serene satisfaction in assuring
+himself that, although he had been very angry, indeed, with Mrs
+Keswick, on account of her most unheard of and outrageous conduct, yet
+he had not allowed his indignation to burst out against her in any way
+of which he would afterward be ashamed. Some hasty words had escaped
+him, but they were of no importance, and, under the circumstances, no
+one could have avoided speaking them. But, when he had addressed her
+at any length, he had spoken dispassionately and practically, and she,
+being at bottom a practical woman, had seen the sense of his advice,
+and had gone home comfortably in his carriage. Whether she took her
+insane fancies home with her, or dropped them on the road, it mattered
+very little to him, so that he never saw her again; and he did not
+intend to see her again. If she came again to his house, he would
+leave it and not return until she had gone; but he had no reason to
+suppose that he would be forced into any such exceedingly disagreeable
+action as this. He did not believe she would ever come back. For,
+unless she were really crazy--crazy--and in that case she ought to be
+put in the lunatic asylum--she could not keep up, for any length of
+time, the extraordinary and outrageous delusion that he would be
+willing to renew the feelings that he had entertained for her in her
+youth.
+
+Mr Brandon rode until nearly dark, for it took a good while to free
+his mind from the effects of the excitements and torments of that day.
+But, when he entered the house and took his seat in his library chair
+by the fire, he had almost regained his usual composed and well
+satisfied frame of mind.
+
+Then, through the quietly opened door, came Mrs Keswick, and
+stealthily stepping towards him in the fitful light of the blazing
+logs, she put her hand on his arm and said: "Dear Robert, how glad I
+am to see you back!"
+
+The next morning, about ten o'clock, Mrs Keswick sent her eighteenth
+or twentieth message to Mr Brandon, who had shut himself up in his
+room since a little before supper-time on the previous evening. The
+message was sent by Peggy, and she was instructed to shout it outside
+of her master's door until he took notice of it. Its purport was that
+it was necessary that Mrs Keswick should go home to-day, and that her
+horse was harnessed and she was now ready to go, but that she could
+not think of leaving until she had seen Mr Brandon again. She would
+therefore wait until he was ready to come down.
+
+Mr Brandon looked out of the window and saw the spring-wagon at the
+outside of the broad stile, with Plez standing at the sorrel's head.
+He remembered that the venerable demon had said, at the first, that
+she intended to stay but one night, and he could but believe that she
+was now really going. Knowing her as he did, however, he was very well
+aware that if she had said she would not leave until she had seen him,
+she would stay in his house for a year, unless he sooner went down to
+her; therefore he opened his door, and slowly and feebly descended the
+stairs.
+
+"My dear, dear Robert!" exclaimed Mrs Keswick, totally regardless of
+the fact that Peggy was standing at the front door with her valise in
+her hand, and that there was another servant in the hall, "how pale,
+and haggard, and worn you look! You must be quite unwell, and I don't
+know but that I ought to stay here and take care of you."
+
+At these words a look of agony passed over the old man's face, but he
+said nothing.
+
+"But I am afraid I cannot stay any longer this time," continued the
+Widow Keswick, "for my niece would not know what had become of me, and
+there are things at home that I must attend to; but I will come again.
+Don't think I intend to desert you, dear Robert. You shall see me soon
+again. But while I am gone," she said, turning to the two servants, "I
+want you maids to take good care of your master. You must do it for
+his sake, for he has always been kind to you, but I also want you
+to do it for my sake. Don't you forget that. And now, dear Robert,
+good-bye." As she spoke, she extended her hand towards the old
+gentleman.
+
+Without a word, but with a good deal of apparent reluctance, he took
+the long, bony hand in his, and probably, would have instantly dropped
+it again, had not Mrs Keswick given him a most hearty clutch, and a
+vigorous and long-continued shake.
+
+"It is hard, dear Robert," she said, "for us to part, with nothing but
+a hand-shake, but there are people about, and this will have to
+do." And then, after urging him to take good care of his health, so
+valuable to them both, and assuring him that he would soon see her
+again, she gave his hand a final shake, and left him. Accompanied by
+Peggy, she went out to the spring-wagon and clambered into it. It
+almost surpasses belief that Mr Brandon, a Virginia gentleman of the
+old school, should have stood in his hall, and have seen an old lady
+leave his house and get into a vehicle, without accompanying and
+assisting her; but such was the case on this occasion. He seemed to
+have forgotten his traditions, and to have lost his impulses. He
+simply stood where the Widow Keswick had left him, and gazed at her.
+
+When she was seated, and ready to start, the old lady turned towards
+him, called out to him in a cheery voice: "Good-bye, Robert!" and
+kissed her hand to him.
+
+Mrs Keswick slowly drove away, and Mr Brandon stood at his hall
+door, gazing after her until she was entirely out of sight. Then he
+ejaculated: "The Devil's daughter!" and went into his library.
+
+"I wonders," said Peggy when she returned to the kitchen, "how you
+all's gwine to like habin dat ole Miss Keswick libin h'yar as you
+all's mistiss."
+
+"Who's gwine to hab her?" growled Aunt Judy.
+
+"You all is," sturdily retorted Peggy. "Dar ain't no use tryin' to git
+out ob dat. Dat old Miss Keswick done gone an' kunjered Mahs' Robert,
+an' dey's boun' to git mar'ed. I done heered all 'bout it, an' she's
+comin' h'yar to lib wid Mahs' Robert. But dat don' make no dif'rence
+to me. I's gwine to lib wid Mahs' Junius an' Miss Rob in New York, I
+is. But I's mighty sorry for you all."
+
+"You Peggy," shouted the irate Aunt Judy, "shut up wid your fool talk!
+When Mahs' Robert marry dat ole jimpsun weed, de angel Gabr'el blow
+his hohn, shuh."
+
+Slowly driving along the road to her home, the Widow Keswick gazed
+cheerfully at the blue sky above her, and the pleasant autumn scenery
+around her; sniffed the fine fresh air, delicately scented with the
+odor of falling leaves; and settling herself into a more comfortable
+position on her seat, she complacently said to herself: "Well, I
+reckon the old scapegrace has got his money's worth this time!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+There were two reasons why Peggy could not go to live with "Mahs'
+Junius and Miss Rob" in New York. In the first place, this couple
+had no intention of setting up an establishment in that city; and
+secondly, Peggy, as Roberta well knew, was not adapted by nature to be
+her maid, or the maid of any one else. Peggy's true vocation in life
+was to throw her far-away gaze into futurity, and, as far as in her
+lay, to adapt present circumstances to what she supposed was going to
+happen. It would have delighted her soul if she could have been the
+adept in conjuring, which she firmly believed the Widow Keswick to be;
+but, as she possessed no such gift, she made up the deficiency, as
+well as she could, by mixing up her mind, her soul, and her desires,
+into a sort of witch's hodge-podge, which she thrust as a spell
+into the affairs of other people. Twice had the devices of this
+stupid-looking wooden peg of a negro girl stopped Lawrence Croft in
+the path he was following in his pursuit of Roberta March. If Lawrence
+had known, at the time, what Peggy was doing, he would have considered
+her an unmitigated little demon; but afterward, if he could have
+known of it, he would have thought her a very unprepossessing and
+conscienceless guardian angel.
+
+As it was, he knew not what she had done, and never considered her at
+all.
+
+Junius Keswick took much more delight in farming than he did in the
+practice of the law, and it was only because he had felt himself
+obliged to do so, that he had adopted the legal profession. To be
+a farmer, one must have a farm; but a lawyer can frequently make a
+living from the lands of other men. He was very willing, therefore,
+to agree to the plan which, for years, had been Mr Brandon's most
+cherished scheme; that he and Roberta should make their home at
+Midbranch, and that he should take charge of the estate, which would
+be his wife's property after the old gentleman's decease. Roberta was
+as fond of the country as was Junius, but she was also a city woman;
+and it was arranged that the couple should spend a portion of each
+winter in New York, at the house of Mr March.
+
+Junius, and Roberta, as well as her father, hoped very much that they
+might be able to induce Mr Brandon to come to New York to attend the
+wedding, which was to take place the middle of January; but they were
+not confident of success, for they knew the old gentleman disliked
+very much to travel, especially in winter. Three very pressing letters
+were therefore written to Mr Brandon; and the writers were much
+surprised to receive, in a short time, a collective answer, in which
+he stated that he would not only be present at the wedding, but that
+he thought of spending several months in New York. It would be very
+lonely at Midbranch, he wrote, without Roberta--though why it should
+be more so this year, than during preceding winters, he did not
+explain--and he felt a desire to see the changes that had taken place
+in the metropolis since he had visited it, years ago.
+
+They would not have been so much surprised had they known that Mr
+Brandon did not feel himself safe in his own home, by night or by day.
+Frequently had he gazed out of a window at the point in the road on
+which the first sight of an approaching spring-wagon could have been
+caught; and had said to himself: "If only Roberta were here, that old
+hag would not dare to speak a word to me! I don't want to go away,
+but, by George! I don't see how I can stay here without Rob."
+
+There was a short, very black, and somewhat bowlegged negro man on the
+place, named Israel Bonaparte, who lived in a little cabin by himself,
+and was noted for his unsocial disposition, and his taciturnity. To
+him Mr Brandon went one day, and said: "Israel, I want you to go to
+work on the fence rows on my side of the road to Howlett's. Grub up
+the bushes, clear out the vines and weeds, and see that the rails and
+posts are all in order. That will be a job that I expect will last you
+until the roads begin to get heavy. And, by the way, Israel, while you
+are at work, I want you to keep a lookout for any visitors that may
+turn into our road, especially if they happen to be ladies. Now that
+Miss Rob is away, I am very particular about knowing, beforehand, when
+ladies are coming to visit me; and when you see any wagon or carriage
+turn in, I want you to make a short cut across the fields, and let me
+know it, and I will give you a quarter of a dollar every time you do
+so." This was a very pleasant job of work for the meditative Israel.
+He was not very fond of grubbing, but he earned the greater part of
+his ten dollars a month and rations, by sitting on the fence, smoking
+a corn-cob pipe, and attending to the second division of the work
+which his employer had set him to do.
+
+Lawrence Croft was in New York at this time, a very busy man,
+arranging his affairs in that city, so that they would not need
+his personal attention for some time to come; he sub-let, for the
+remainder of his lease, the suite of bachelor apartments he had
+occupied, and he stored his furniture and books. One might have
+imagined that he was taking in all possible sails; close reefing the
+others; battening down the hatches; and preparing to run before a
+storm; and yet his demeanor did not indicate that he expected any
+violent commotion of the elements. On the contrary, his friends and
+acquaintances thought him particularly blithe and gay. He told them he
+was going to be married.
+
+"To that Virginia lady, I suppose," said one. "I remember her very
+well; and consider you fortunate."
+
+"I don't think you ever met her," said Mr Croft. "She is a Miss
+Peyton, from King Thomas County."
+
+"Ah!" remarked his interlocutor. Lawrence walked to the window of the
+club-room, and stood there, slowly puffing his cigar. Had anybody met
+this one? he thought. He knew she had seen but little company during
+her father's life, but was it likely that any of his acquaintances had
+had business at Candy's Information Shop? As this idea came into his
+mind, there seemed to be something unpleasant in the taste of his
+cigar, and he threw it into the fire. A few turns, however, up and
+down the now almost deserted rooms, restored his tone; he lighted
+another cigar, and now there came up before him a vision of the girl
+who, from loyalty to her dead father, preferred to sit all day behind
+Candy's money desk rather than go to a relative who had not been his
+friend. And then he saw the young girl who took up so courageously the
+cause of one of her own blood--the boy cousin of her childhood; and
+with a lover's pride, Lawrence thought of the dash, the spirit, and
+the bravery with which she had done it.
+
+"By George!" he said to himself, his eyes sparkling, and his step
+quickening, "she has more in her than all the rest of them put
+together!"
+
+Who were included in "the rest of them," Lawrence was not prepared
+just then to say, but the expression was intended to have a very wide
+range.
+
+It was about the middle of December, when Lawrence paid another visit
+to Mrs Keswick's house. The day was cold, but clear, and as he drove
+up to the outer gate, he saw the old lady returning from a walk to
+Howlett's. She stepped along briskly, and was in a very good humor,
+for she had just posted a carefully concocted letter to Mr Brandon, in
+which she had expatiated, in her peculiar style, on the pleasure
+which she expected from an early visit to Midbranch. She had not the
+slightest idea of going there, at present, but she thought it quite
+time to freshen up the old gentleman's anticipations.
+
+Descending from his carriage to meet her, Lawrence was very warmly
+greeted, and the two went up to the house together.
+
+"I expect the late Mrs Null will be very glad to see you," said Mrs
+Keswick. "I think she has burned up all her widow's weeds."
+
+"You should be very much obliged to your niece," said Mr Croft, "for
+so delicately ridding you of that dreadful fertilizer man."
+
+"Humph!" said the old lady. "She cheated me out of the pleasure of
+telling him what I thought of him, and I shall never forgive her for
+that."
+
+As Lawrence and Annie sat together in the parlor that evening, he told
+her what he had been doing in New York, and this brought to her lips a
+question, which she was very anxious to have answered. She knew that
+Lawrence was rich; that his methods of life and thought made him a man
+of the cities; and she felt quite certain that the position to
+which he would conduct her was that of the mistress of a handsome
+town-house, and the wife of a man of society. She liked handsome
+town-houses, and she was sure she would like society; but it would all
+be very new and strange to her, and, although she was a brave girl at
+heart, she shrank from making such a plunge as this.
+
+"How are we going to live?" repeated Lawrence. "That, of course, is
+to be as you shall choose, but I have a plan to propose to you, and I
+want very much to hear what you think about it. And the plan is, that
+we shall not live anywhere for a year or two, but wander, fancy free,
+over as much of the world as pleases us; and then decide where we
+shall settle down, and how we shall like to do it."
+
+If Annie's answer had been expressed in words, it might have been
+given here. It may be said, however, that it was very quick, very
+affirmative, and, in more ways than one, highly satisfactory to
+Lawrence.
+
+"Is it London, and a landlady, and tea?" she presently asked.
+
+"Yes, it is that," he said.
+
+"Is it the shops on the Boulevards?"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence.
+
+"And the Appian Way? And the Island of Capri? And snow mountains in
+the distance?" she asked.
+
+"In their turn, most certainly," said her lover, "and it shall be the
+midnight sun, and the Nile, if you like."
+
+"Freddy," exclaimed the late Mrs Null, "I thank thee for what thou
+hast given me!" And she clasped the hand of Lawrence in both her own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+The marriage of Junius Keswick and Roberta March was appointed for the
+fifteenth of January, and Mr Brandon had arranged to be in New York a
+few days before the event. He intended, however, to leave Midbranch
+soon after the first of the year, and to spend a week with some of his
+friends in Richmond.
+
+It was on the afternoon of New Year's Day, and Mr Brandon was sitting
+in his library with Colonel Pinckney Macon, an elderly gentleman
+of social habits and genial temper, whom Mr Brandon had invited to
+Midbranch to spend the holidays, and who was afterwards to be his
+travelling companion as far as Richmond. The two had had a very good
+dinner, and were now sitting before the fire smoking their pipes, and
+paying occasional attention to two tumblers of egg-nogg, which stood
+on a small table between them. They were telling anecdotes of olden
+times, and were in very good humor indeed, when a servant came in with
+a note, which had just been brought for Mr Brandon. The old gentleman
+took the missive, and put on his eye-glasses, but the moment he read
+the address, he let his hand fall on his knee, and gave vent to an
+angry ejaculation.
+
+"It's from that rabid old witch, the Widow Keswick!" he exclaimed,"
+I've a great mind to throw it into the fire without reading it."
+
+"Don't do that," cried Colonel Macon. "It is a New Year present she is
+sending you. Read it, sir, read it by all means."
+
+Mr Brandon had given his friend an account of his unexampled and
+astounding persecutions by the Widow Keswick, and the old colonel had
+been much interested thereby; and it would have greatly grieved his
+soul not to become acquainted with this new feature of the affair.
+"Read it, sir," he cried; "I would like to know what sort of New Year
+congratulations she offers you."
+
+"Congratulations indeed!" said Mr Brandon; "you needn't expect
+anything of that kind." But he opened the note; and, turning, so that
+he could get a good light upon it, began to read aloud, as follows:
+
+"MY DEAREST ROBERT."
+
+"Confound it, sir," exclaimed the reader, "did you ever hear of such a
+piece of impertinence as that?"
+
+Colonel Pinckney Macon leaned back in his chair, and laughed aloud.
+"It is impertinent," he cried, "but it's confoundedly jolly! Go on,
+sir. Go on, I beg of you."
+
+Mr Brandon continued:
+
+"It is not for me to suggest anything of the kind, but I write this
+note simply to ask you what you would think of a triple wedding? There
+would certainly be something very touching about it, and it would be
+very satisfactory and comforting, I am sure, to our nieces and their
+husbands to know that they were not leaving either of us to a lonely
+life. Would we not make three happy pairs, dear Robert? Remember, I do
+not propose this, I only lay it before your kindly and affectionate
+heart.
+
+"Your own
+
+"Martha Ann Keswick."
+
+
+Colonel Macon, who, with much difficulty and redness of face, had
+restrained himself during the reading of this note, now burst into a
+shout of laughter, while Mr Brandon sprang to his feet, and crumpling
+the note in his hand, threw it into the fire; and then, turning
+around, he exclaimed: "Did the world ever hear anything like that!
+Triple wedding, indeed! Does the pestiferous old shrew imagine that
+anything in this world would induce me to marry her?"
+
+"Why, my dear sir," cried Colonel Macon, "of course she don't. I know
+the Widow Keswick as well as you do. She wouldn't marry you to save
+your soul, sir. All she wants to do is to worry and persecute you, and
+to torment your senses out of you, in revenge for your having got the
+better of her. Now, take my advice, sir, and don't let her do it.
+
+"I'd like to know how I am going to hinder her," said Mr Brandon.
+
+"Hinder her!" exclaimed Colonel Macon. "Nothing easier in this world,
+sir! Just you turn right square round, and face her, sir; and you'll
+see that she'll stop short, sir; and, what's more, she'll run, sir!"
+
+"How am I to face her?" asked Mr Brandon. "I have faced her, and I
+assure you, sir, she didn't run."
+
+"That was because you did not go to work in the right way," said the
+colonel. "Now, if I were in your place, sir, this is what I would do.
+I'd turn on her and I'd scare her out of all the wits she has left.
+I'd say to her: 'Madam, I think your proposition is an excellent one.
+I am ready to marry you to-day, or, at the very latest, to-morrow
+morning. I'll come to your house, and bring a clergyman, and some of
+my friends. Don't let there be the least delay, for I desire to start
+immediately for New York, and to take you with me.' Now, sir, a note
+like that would frighten that old woman so that she would leave her
+house, and wouldn't come back for six weeks; and the letter you have
+just burned would be the last attack she would make on you. Now, sir,
+that is what I would do if I were in your place."
+
+Mr Brandon sat down, drained his tumbler of egg-nogg, and began to
+think of what his friend had said. And, as he thought of it, the
+conviction forced itself upon him that this idea of Colonel Macon's
+was a good one; in fact, a splendid one. Now that he came to look upon
+the matter more clearly than he had done before, he saw that this
+persecution on the part of the Widow Keswick was not only base, but
+cowardly. He had been entirely too yielding, had given way too much.
+Yes, he would face her! By George! that was a royal idea! He would
+turn round, and make a dash at her, and scare her out of her five
+senses.
+
+Pens, ink, and paper were brought out; more egg-nogg was ordered; and
+Mr Brandon, aided and abetted by Colonel Macon, wrote a letter to Mrs
+Keswick.
+
+This letter took a long time to write, and was very carefully
+constructed. With outstretched hands, Mr Brandon met the old lady on
+the very threshold of her proposition. He stated that nothing would
+please him better than an immediate wedding, and that he would have
+proposed it himself had he not feared that the lady would consider him
+too importunate. (This expression was suggested by Colonel Macon.)
+In order that they might lose no time in making themselves happy, Mr
+Brandon proposed that the marriage should take place in a week, and
+that the ceremony should be performed in Richmond. (The colonel wished
+him to say that he would immediately go to her house for the purpose,
+but Mr Brandon would not consent to write this. He was afraid that the
+widow would sit at her front door with a shot-gun and wait for him,
+and that some damage might thereby come to an unwary neighbor.)
+Each of them had many old friends in Richmond, and it would be very
+pleasant to be married there. He intended to start for that city in a
+day or two, and he would be rejoiced to meet her at eleven o'clock on
+the morning of the fifth instant, in the corridor, or covered bridge,
+connecting the Exchange and Ballard hotels, and there arrange all the
+details for an immediate marriage. The letter closed with an earnest
+hope that she would accede to this proposed plan, which would so soon
+make them the happiest couple upon earth; and was signed "Your devoted
+Robert."
+
+"By which I mean," said Mr Brandon, "that I am devoted to her
+destruction."
+
+The letter was read over by Colonel Macon, and highly approved by him.
+"If you had met that woman, sir, when she first came to you," he said
+to Mr Brandon, "with the spirit that is shown in this letter, you
+would have put a shiver through her, sir, that would have shaken the
+bones out of her umbrella, and she would have cut and run, sir, before
+you knew it."
+
+The messenger from Howlett's was kept at Midbranch all night, and
+the next morning he was sent back with Mr Brandon's note. Two days
+afterward Colonel Macon and Mr Brandon started for Richmond, and in
+the course of a few hours, they were comfortably sipping their "peach
+and honey" at the Exchange and Ballard's.
+
+The next day was most enjoyably spent with a number of old friends;
+and in reminiscences of the past war, and in discussions of the coming
+political campaign, Mr Brandon had thrown off every sign of the
+annoyance and persecution to which he had lately been subjected.
+
+"By George, sir!" said Colonel Macon to him the next morning, "do you
+know that you are a most untrustworthy and perfidious man?"
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed Mr Brandon, "what do you mean?"
+
+"I mean," replied Colonel Pinckney Macon, with much dignity, "that
+you promised at eleven o'clock to-day to meet a lady in the corridor
+connecting these two hotels. It wants three minutes of that time now,
+sir, and here you are reading the 'Dispatch' as if you never made a
+promise in your life."
+
+"I declare," said Mr Brandon, rising, "my conduct is indefensible,
+but I am going to my room, and, on my way, will keep my part of the
+contract."
+
+"I will go with you," said the colonel.
+
+Together they mounted the stairs, and approached the corridor; and, as
+they opened its glass doors, they saw, sitting in a chair on one side
+of the passage, the Widow Keswick.
+
+If Mr Brandon had not been caught by his friend he would have fallen
+over backwards. Regaining an upright position, he made a frantic turn,
+as if he would fly, but he was not quick enough; Mrs Keswick had him
+by the arm.
+
+"Robert!" she exclaimed. "I knew how true and faithful you would be.
+It has just struck eleven. How do you do, Colonel Macon?" And she
+extended her hand.
+
+There was no one in the corridor at the time but these three, but the
+place was much used as a passageway, and Colonel Macon, who was very
+pale, but still retained his presence of mind, knew well, that if
+any one were to come along at this moment, it would be decidedly
+unpleasant, not only for his friend, but himself. "I am glad to meet
+you again, Mrs Keswick," he said. "Let us go into one of the parlors.
+It will be more comfortable."
+
+"How kind," murmured Mrs Keswick, as she clung to the arm of Mr
+Brandon, "for you to bring our good friend, Colonel Macon."
+
+They went into a parlor, which was empty, and where they were not
+likely to be disturbed. Mr Brandon walked there without saying a word.
+His face was as pallid as its well-seasoned color would allow, and he
+looked straight before him with an air which seemed to indicate that
+he was trying to remember something terrible, or else trying to forget
+it, and that he himself did not know which it was.
+
+Colonel Macon did not stay long in the parlor. There was that in the
+air of Mrs Keswick which made him understand that there were other
+places in Richmond where he would be much more welcome than in that
+room. He went down into the large hall where the gentlemen generally
+congregate; and there, in great distress of mind, he paced up and down
+the marble floor, exchanging nothing but the briefest salutations and
+answers with the acquaintances he occasionally encountered. The clerk,
+behind his desk at one side of the hall, had seen men walking up and
+down in that way, and he thought that the colonel had probably been
+speculating in tobacco or wheat; but he knew he was good for the
+amount of his bill, and he retained his placidity.
+
+In about half an hour, there came down the stairs, at one end of
+the hall, an elderly person who somewhat resembled Mr Brandon of
+Midbranch. The clothes and the hat were the same that that gentleman
+wore, and the same heavy gold chain with dangling seal-rings hung
+across his ample waistcoat; but there was a general air of haggardness
+and stoop about him which did not in the least suggest the upright and
+portly gentleman who had written his name in the hotel register the
+day before yesterday.
+
+Colonel Macon made five strides towards him, and seized his hand.
+"What," said he, "how----?"
+
+Mr Brandon did not look at him; he let his eyes fall where they chose;
+it mattered not to him what they gazed upon; and, in a low voice, he
+said: "It is all over."
+
+"Over!" repeated the colonel.
+
+Mr Brandon put a feeble hand on his friend's arm, and together they
+walked into the reading room, where they sat down in a corner.
+
+"Have you settled it then?" asked Colonel Macon with great anxiety.
+"Is she gone?"
+
+"It is settled," said Mr Brandon. "We are to be married."
+
+"Married!" cried Colonel Macon, springing to his feet. "Great Heavens,
+man! What do you mean?"
+
+Not very fluently, and in sentences with a very few words in each of
+them, but words that sank like hot coals into the soul of his hearer,
+Mr Brandon explained what he meant. It had been of no use, he said, to
+try to get out of it; the old woman had him with the grip of a vise.
+That letter had done it all. He ought to have known that she was not
+to be frightened, but it was needless to talk about that. It was all
+over now, and he was as much bound to her as if he had promised before
+a magistrate.
+
+"But you don't mean to say," exclaimed the colonel in a voice of
+anguish, "that you are really going to marry her?"
+
+"Sir," said Mr Brandon, solemnly, "there is no way to get out of it.
+If you think there is, you don't know the woman."
+
+"I would have died first!" said the colonel. "I never would have
+submitted to her!"
+
+"I did not submit," replied Mr Brandon. "That was done when the
+letter was written. I roused myself, and I said everything I could
+say, but it was all useless, she held me to my promise. I told her I
+would fly to the ends of the earth rather than marry her, and then,
+sir, she threatened me with a prosecution for breach of promise; and
+think of the disgrace that that would bring upon me; upon my family
+name; and on my niece and her young husband. It was a mistake, sir, to
+suppose that she merely wished to persecute me. She wished to marry
+me, and she is going to do it."
+
+The colonel bowed his face upon his hands, and groaned. Mr Brandon
+looked at him with a dim compassion in his eyes. "Do not reproach
+yourself, sir," he said. "We thought we were acting for the best."
+
+But little more was said, and two crushed old gentlemen retired to
+their rooms.
+
+In the days of her youth, Mrs Keswick had been very well known in
+Richmond; and there were a good many elderly ladies and gentlemen, now
+living in that city, who remembered her as a handsome, sparkling, and
+somewhat eccentric young woman, and who had since heard of her as a
+decidedly eccentric old one. Mr Brandon, also, had a large circle of
+friends and acquaintances in the city; and when it became known that
+these two elderly persons were to be married--and the news began to
+spread shortly after Mrs Keswick reached the house of the friend with
+whom she was staying--it excited a great deal of excusable interest.
+
+Mrs Keswick, according to her ordinary methods of action, took all the
+arrangements into her own hands. She appointed the wedding for the
+eighth of January, in order that the happy pair might go to New York,
+and be present at the nuptials of Junius and Roberta. Mr Brandon had
+thought of writing to Junius, in the hope that the young man might do
+something to avert his fate, but remembering how utterly unable Junius
+had always been to move his aunt one inch, this way or that, he did
+not believe that he could be of any service in this case, in which
+all the energies of her mind were evidently engaged, and he readily
+consented that she should attend to all the correspondence. It would,
+indeed, have been too hard for him to break the direful truth to his
+niece and Junius. He ventured to suggest that Miss Peyton be sent for,
+having a faint hope that he might in some manner lean upon her; but
+Mrs Keswick informed him that her niece must stay at home to take
+charge of the place. There were two women in the house, who were
+busy sewing for her, and it would be impossible for her to come to
+Richmond.
+
+Her correspondence kept the Widow Keswick very busy. She decided that
+she would be married in a church which she used to attend in her
+youth; and to all of her old friends, and to all those of Mr Brandon
+whose names she could learn by diligent inquiry, invitations were sent
+to attend the ceremony; but no one outside of Richmond was invited.
+
+The old lady did not come to the city with a purple sun-bonnet and
+a big umbrella. She wore her best bonnet, which had been used for
+church-going purposes for many years, and arrayed herself in a
+travelling suit which was of excellent material, although of most
+antiquated fashion. She discussed very freely, with her friends, the
+arrangements she had made, and protuberant candor being at times
+one of her most noticeable characteristics, she did not leave it
+altogether to others to say that the match she was about to make was
+a most remarkably good one. For years it had been a hard struggle for
+her to keep up the Keswick farm, but now she had fought a battle, and
+won a victory, which ought to make her comfortable and satisfied for
+the rest of her life. If Mr Brandon's family had taken a great deal
+from her, she would more than repay herself by appropriating the old
+gentleman, together with his possessions.
+
+After the depression following the first shock, Mr Brandon endeavored
+to stiffen himself. There was a great deal of pride in him, and if he
+was obliged to go to the altar, he did not wish his old friends to
+suppose that he was going there to be sacrificed. He had brought this
+dreadful thing upon himself, but he would try to stand up like a man,
+and bear it; and, after all, it might not be for long; the Widow
+Keswick was a good deal older than he was. Other thoughts occasionally
+came to comfort him; she could not make him continually live with her,
+and he had plans for visits to Richmond, and even to New York; and,
+better than that, she might want to spend a good deal of time at her
+own farm.
+
+"For the sake of my name, and my niece," he said to himself, "I must
+bear it like a man."
+
+And, in answer to an earnest adjuration, Colonel Pinckney Macon
+solemnly promised that he would never reveal, to man or woman, that
+his friend did not marry the Widow Keswick entirely of his own wish
+and accord.
+
+It was the desire of Mrs Keswick that the marriage, although conducted
+in church, should be very simple in its arrangements. There would be
+no bridesmaids or groomsmen; no flowers; no breakfast; and the couple
+would be dressed in travelling costume. The friends of the old lady
+persuaded her to make considerable changes in her attire, and a
+costume was speedily prepared, which, while it suggested the fashions
+of the present day, was also calculated to recall reminiscences of
+those of a quarter of a century ago. This simplicity was the only
+thing connected with the affair which satisfied Mr Brandon, and he
+would have been glad to have the marriage entirely private, with no
+more witnesses than the law demanded. But to this Mrs Keswick would
+not consent. She wanted to have her former friends about her.
+Accordingly, the church was pretty well filled with old colonels,
+old majors, old generals, and old judges, with their wives and their
+sisters, and, in a few cases, their daughters. All the elderly people
+in Richmond, who, in the days of their youth, had known the gay
+Miss Matty Pettigrew, and the handsome Bob Brandon, felt a certain
+rejuvenation of spirit as they went to the wedding of the couple, who
+had once been these two.
+
+The old lady looked full of life and vigor, and, despite the
+circumstances, Mr Brandon preserved a good deal of his usual manly
+deportment. But, when in the course of the marriage service, the
+clergyman came to the question in which the bride-groom was asked if
+he would have this woman to be his wedded wife, to love and keep her
+for the rest of their lives, the answer, "I will," came forth in a
+feeble tone, which was not wholly divested of a tinge of despondency.
+
+With the lady it was quite otherwise. When the like question was put
+to her, she stepped back, and in a loud, clear voice, exclaimed:
+"Not I! Marry that man, there?" she continued in a higher tone, and
+pointing her finger at the astounded Mr Brandon. "Not for the world,
+sir! Before he was born, his family defrauded and despoiled my people,
+and as soon as he took affairs into his own hands, he continued the
+villainous law robberies until we are poor, and he is rich; and, not
+content with that, he basely wrecks and destroys the plans I had made
+for the comfort of my old age, in order that his paltry purposes may
+be carried out. After all that, does anybody here suppose that I would
+take him for a husband? Marry him! Not I!" And, with these words, the
+old lady turned her back on the clergyman, and walked rapidly down the
+centre aisle, until she reached the church door. There she stopped,
+and turning towards the stupefied assemblage, she snapped her bony
+fingers in the air, and exclaimed: "Now, Mr Robert Brandon of
+Midbranch, our account is balanced."
+
+She then went out of the door, and took a street car for the train
+that would carry her to her home.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Late Mrs. Null, by Frank Richard Stockton
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Late Mrs. Null, by Frank Richard Stockton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Late Mrs. Null
+
+Author: Frank Richard Stockton
+
+Release Date: February 7, 2004 [EBook #10973]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LATE MRS. NULL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, William Bumgarner and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LATE MRS NULL
+
+BY
+
+FRANK R. STOCKTON
+
+1886
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+There was a wide entrance gate to the old family mansion of Midbranch,
+but it was never opened to admit the family or visitors; although
+occasionally a load of wood, drawn by two horses and two mules, came
+between its tall chestnut posts, and was taken by a roundabout way among
+the trees to a spot at the back of the house, where the chips of several
+generations of sturdy wood-choppers had formed a ligneous soil deeper
+than the arable surface of any portion of the nine hundred and fifty
+acres which formed the farm of Midbranch. This seldom opened gate was in
+a corner of the lawn, and the driving of carriages, or the riding of
+horses through it to the porch at the front of the house would have been
+the ruin of the short, thick grass which had covered that lawn, it was
+generally believed, ever since Virginia became a State.
+
+But there had to be some way for people who came in carriages or on
+horseback to get into the house, and therefore the fence at the bottom
+of the lawn, at a point directly in front of the porch, was crossed by a
+set of broad wooden steps, five outside and five inside, with a platform
+at the top. These stairs were wide enough to accommodate eight people
+abreast; so that if a large carriage load of visitors arrived, none of
+them need delay in crossing the fence. At the outside of the steps ran
+the narrow road which entered the plantation a quarter of a mile away,
+and passed around the lawn and the garden to the barns and stables at
+the back.
+
+On the other side of the road, undivided from it by hedge or fence,
+stretched, like a sea gently moved by a groundswell, a vast field,
+sometimes planted in tobacco, and sometimes in wheat. In the midst of
+this field stood a tall persimmon tree which yearly dropped its
+half-candied fruit upon the first light snow of the winter. It is true
+that persimmons, quite fit to eat, were to be found on this tree at an
+earlier period than this, but such fruit was never noticed by the people
+in those parts, who would not rudely wrench from Jack Frost his one
+little claim to rivalry with the sun as a fruit-ripener. To the right of
+the field was a wide extent of pasture land, running down to a small
+stream, or "branch," which, flowing between two other streams of the
+same kind a mile or two on either side of it, had given its name to the
+place. In front, to the left, lay a great forest of chestnut, oak,
+sassafras, and sweet gum, with here and there a clump of tall pines,
+standing up straight and stiff with an air of Puritanic condemnation of
+the changing fashions of the foliage about them.
+
+On one side of the platform of the broad stile, which has been
+mentioned, sat one summer afternoon, the lady of the house. She was a
+young woman, and although her face was a good deal shadowed by her
+far-spreading hat, it was easy to perceive that she was a handsome one.
+She was the niece of Mr Robert Brandon, the elderly bachelor who owned
+Midbranch; and her mother, long since dead, had called her Roberta,
+which was as near as she could come to the name of her only brother.
+
+Miss Roberta's father was a man whose mind and time were entirely given
+up to railroads; and although he nominally lived in New York, he was,
+for the greater part of the year, engaged in endeavors to forward his
+interests somewhere west of the Mississippi. Two or three months of the
+winter were generally spent in his city home. At these times he had his
+daughter with him, but the rest of the year she lived with her uncle,
+whose household she directed with much good will and judgment. The old
+gentleman did not keep her all the summer at Midbranch. He knew what was
+necessary for a young lady who had been educated in Germany and
+Switzerland, and who had afterwards made a very favorable impression in
+Paris and London; and so, during the hot weather, he took her with him
+to one of the fashionable Southern resorts, where they always stayed
+exactly six weeks.
+
+The gentleman who was sitting on the other side of the platform, with
+his face turned towards her, had known Miss Roberta for a year or more,
+having met her at the North, and also in the Virginia mountains; and
+being now on a visit to the Green Sulphur Springs, about four miles from
+Midbranch, he rode over to see her nearly every day. There was nothing
+surprising in this, because the Green Sulphur, once a much frequented
+resort, had seen great changes, and now, although the end of the regular
+season had not arrived, it had Mr Lawrence Croft for its only guest.
+There was a spacious hotel there; there was a village of cottages of
+varying sizes; there were buildings for servants and managers; there was
+a ten-pin alley and a quiet ground; there were arbors and swings; and a
+square hole in a stone slab, through which a little pool of greenish
+water could be seen, with a tin cup, somewhat rusty, lying by it. But
+all was quiet and deserted, except one cottage, in which the man lived
+who had charge of the place, and where Mr Croft boarded. It was very
+pleasant for him to ride over to Midbranch and take a walk with Miss
+Roberta; and this was what they had been doing to-day.
+
+Horseback rides had been suggested, but Mr Brandon objected to these. He
+knew Mr Croft to be a young man of good family and very comfortable
+fortune, and he liked him very much when he had him there to dinner, but
+he did not wish his niece to go galloping around the country with him.
+To quiet walks in the woods, and through the meadows, he could, of
+course, have no objection. A good many of Mr Brandon's principles, like
+certain of his books, were kept upon a top shelf, but Miss Roberta
+always liked to humor the few which the old gentleman was wont to
+have within easy reach.
+
+This afternoon they had rambled through the woods, where the hard,
+smooth road wound picturesquely through the places in which it had been
+easiest to make a road, and where the great trunks of the trees were
+partly covered by clinging vines, which Miss Roberta knew to be either
+Virginia creeper or poison oak, although she did not remember which of
+these had clusters of five leaves, and which of three.
+
+The horse on which Mr Croft had ridden over from the Springs was tied to
+a fence near by, and he now seemed to indicate by his restless movements
+that it was quite time for the gentleman to go home; but with this
+opinion Mr Croft decidedly differed. He had had a long walk with the
+lady and plenty of opportunities to say anything that he might choose,
+but still there was something very important which had not been said,
+and which Mr Croft very much wished to say before he left Miss Roberta
+that afternoon. His only reason for hesitation was the fact that he did
+not know what he wished to say.
+
+He was a man who always kept a lookout on the bows of his daily action;
+in storm or in calm, in fog or in bright sunshine that lookout must be
+at his post; and upon his reports it depended whether Mr Croft set more
+sail, put on more steam, reversed his engine, or anchored his vessel. A
+report from this lookout was what he hoped to elicit by the remark
+which he wished to make. He desired greatly to know whether Miss Roberta
+March looked upon him in the light of a lover, or in that of an intimate
+acquaintance, whose present intimacy depended a good deal upon the
+propinquity of Midbranch and the Green Sulphur Springs. He had
+endeavored to produce upon her mind the latter impression. If he ever
+wished her to regard him as a lover he could do this in the easiest and
+most straightforward way, but the other procedure was much more
+difficult, and he was not certain that he had succeeded in it. How to
+find out in what light she viewed him without allowing the lady to
+perceive his purpose was a very delicate operation.
+
+"I wish," said Miss Roberta, poking with the end of her parasol at some
+half-withered wild flowers which lay on the steps beneath her, "that you
+would change your mind, and take supper with us."
+
+Mr Croft's mind was very busy in endeavoring to think of some casual
+remark, some observation regarding man, nature, or society, or even an
+anecdote or historical incident, which, if brought into the
+conversation, might produce upon the lady's countenance some shade of
+expression, or some variation in her tone or words which would give him
+the information he sought for. But what he said was: "Are they really
+suppers that you have, or are they only teas?"
+
+"Now I know," said the lady, "why you have sometimes taken dinner with
+us, but never supper. You were afraid that it would be a tea."
+
+Lawrence Croft was thinking that if this girl believed that he was in
+love with her, it would make a great deal of difference in his present
+course of action. If such were the case, he ought not to come here so
+often, or, in fact, he ought not to come at all, until he had decided
+for himself what he was going to do. But what could he say that would
+cause her, for the briefest moment, to unveil her idea of himself. "I
+never could endure," he said, "those meals which consist of thin
+shavings of bread with thick plasters of butter, aided and abetted by
+sweet cakes, preserves, and tea."
+
+"You should have reserved those remarks," she said, "until you had found
+out what sort of evening meal we have."
+
+He could certainly say something, he thought. Perhaps it might be some
+little fanciful story which would call up in her mind, without his
+appearing to intend it, some thought of his relationship to her as a
+lover--that is, if she had ever had such a notion. If this could be
+done, her face would betray the fact. But, not being ready to make such
+a remark, he said: "I beg your pardon, but do you really have suppers in
+the English fashion?"
+
+"Oh, no," answered Miss Roberta, "we don't have a great cold joint, with
+old cheese, and pitchers of brown stout and ale, but neither do we
+content ourselves with thin bread and butter, and preserves. We have
+coffee as well as tea, hot rolls, fleecy and light, hot batter bread
+made of our finest corn meal, hot biscuits and stewed fruit, with plenty
+of sweet milk and buttermilk; and, if anybody wants it, he can always have
+a slice of cold ham."
+
+"If I could only feel sure," thought Mr Croft, "that she looked upon me
+merely as an acquaintance, I would cease to trouble my mind on this
+subject, and let everything go on as before. But I am not sure, and I
+would rather not come here again until I am." "And at what hour," he
+asked, "do you partake of a meal like that?"
+
+"In summer time," said Miss Roberta, "we have supper when it is dark
+enough to light the lamps. My uncle dislikes very much to be deprived,
+by the advent of a meal, of the out-door enjoyment of a late afternoon,
+or, as we call it down here, the evening."
+
+"It would be easy enough," thought Mr Croft, "for me to say something
+about my being suddenly obliged to go away, and then notice its effect
+upon her. But, apart from the fact that I would not do anything so
+vulgar and commonplace, it would not advantage me in the slightest
+degree. She would see through the flimsiness of my purpose, and, no
+matter how she looked upon me, would show nothing but a well-bred regret
+that I should be obliged to go away at such a pleasant season." "I think
+the hour for your supper," said he, "is a very suitable one, but I am
+not sure that such a variety of hot bread would agree with me."
+
+"Did you ever see more healthy-looking ladies and gentlemen than you
+find in Virginia?" asked Miss March.
+
+"It is not that I want to know if she looks favorably upon me," said
+Lawrence Croft to himself, "for when I wish to discover that, I shall
+simply ask her. What I wish now to know is whether, or not, she
+considers me at all as a lover. There surely must be something I can say
+which will give me a clew." "The Virginians, as a rule," he replied,
+"are certainly a very well-grown and vigorous race."
+
+"In spite of the hot bread," she said with a smile.
+
+Just then Mr Croft believed himself struck by a happy thought. "You are
+not prepared, I suppose, to say, in consequence of it; and that recalls
+the fact that so much in this world happens in spite of things, instead
+of in consequence of them."
+
+"I don't know that I exactly understand," said Miss Roberta.
+
+"Well, for instance," said Mr Croft, "take the case of marriage. Don't
+you think that a man is more apt to marry in spite of his belief that he
+would be much better off as a bachelor, than in consequence of a
+conviction that a Benedict's life would suit him better?"
+
+"That," said she, "depends a good deal on the woman."
+
+As she said this Lawrence glanced quickly at her to observe the
+expression of her countenance. The countenance plainly indicated that
+its owner had suddenly been made aware that the afternoon was slipping
+away, and that she had forgotten certain household duties that devolved
+upon her.
+
+"Here comes Peggy," she said, "and I must go into the house and give out
+supper. Don't you now think it would be well for you to follow our
+discussion of a Virginia supper by eating one?"
+
+At this moment, there arrived at the bottom of the inside steps, a small
+girl, very black, very solemn, and very erect, with her hands folded in
+front of her very straight up-and-down calico frock, her features
+expressive of a wooden stolidity which nothing but a hammer or chisel
+could alter, and with large eyes fixed upon a far-away, which,
+apparently, had disappeared, leaving the eyes in a condition of idle
+out-go.
+
+"Miss Rob," said this wooden Peggy, "Aun' Judy says it's more'n time to
+come housekeep."
+
+"Which means," said Miss Roberta, rising, "that I must go and get my key
+basket, and descend into the store-room. Won't you come in? We shall
+find uncle on the back porch."
+
+Mr Croft declined with thanks, and took his leave, and the lady walked
+across the smooth grass to the house, followed by the rigid Peggy.
+
+The young man approached his impatient horse, and, not without some
+difficulty, got himself mounted. He had not that facility of
+sympathetically combining his own will and that of his horse which comes
+to men who from their early boyhood are wont to consider horses as
+objects quite as necessary to locomotion as shoes and stockings. But
+Lawrence Croft was a fair graduate of a riding school, and he went away
+in very good style to his cottage at the Green Sulphur Springs. "I
+believe," he said to himself, as he rode through the woods, "that Miss
+March expects no more of me than she would expect of any very intimate
+friend. I shall feel perfectly free, therefore, to continue my
+investigations regarding two points: First, is she worth having? and:
+Second, will she have me? And I must be very careful not to get the
+position of these points reversed."
+
+When Miss Roberta went into the store-room, it was Peggy, who, under the
+supervision of her mistress, measured out the fine white flour for the
+biscuits for supper. Peggy was being educated to do these things
+properly, and she knew exactly how many times the tin scoop must fill
+itself in the barrel for the ordinary needs of the family. Miss Roberta
+stood, her eyes contemplatively raised to the narrow window, through
+which she could see a flush of sunset mingling itself with the outer
+air; and Peggy scooped once, twice, thrice, four times; then she
+stopped, and, raising her head, there came into the far-away gloom of
+her eyes a quick sparkle like a flash of black lightning. She made
+another and entirely supplementary scoop, and then she stopped, and let
+the tin utensil fall into the barrel with a gentle thud.
+
+"That will do," said Miss Roberta.
+
+That night, when she should have been in her bed, Peggy sat alone by the
+hearth in Aunt Judy's cabin, baking a cake. It was a peculiar cake, for
+she could get no sugar for it, but she had supplied this deficiency with
+molasses. It was made of Miss Roberta's finest white flour, and eggs there
+were in it and butter, and it contained, besides, three raisins, an olive,
+and a prune. When the outside of the cake had been sufficiently baked, and
+every portion of it had been scrupulously eaten, the good little Peggy
+murmured to herself: "It's pow'ful comfortin' for Miss Rob to have sumfin'
+on her min'."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+About a week after Mr Lawrence Croft had had his conversation with Miss
+March on the stile steps at Midbranch, he was obliged to return to his
+home in New York. He was not a man of business, but he had business;
+and, besides this, he considered if he continued much longer to reside
+in the utterly attractionless cottage at the Green Sulphur Springs, and
+rode over every day to the very attractive house at Midbranch, that the
+points mentioned in the previous chapter might get themselves reversed.
+He was a man who was proud of being, under all circumstances, frank and
+honest with himself. He did not wish, if it could be avoided, to deceive
+other people, but he was prudent and careful about exhibiting his
+motives and intended course of action to his associates. Himself,
+however, he took into his strictest confidence. He was fond of the idea
+that he went into the battle of life covered and protected by a great
+shield, but that the inside of the shield was a mirror in which he could
+always see himself. Looking into this mirror, he now saw that, if he did
+not soon get away from Miss Roberta, he would lay down his shield and
+surrender, and it was his intent that this should not happen until he
+wished it to happen.
+
+It was very natural when Lawrence reached New York, that he should take
+pleasure in talking about Miss Roberta March and her family with any one
+who knew them. He was particularly anxious, if he could do so delicately
+and without exciting any suspicion of his object, to know as much as
+possible about Sylvester March, the lady's father. In doing this, he did
+not feel that he was prying into the affairs of others, but he could not
+be true to himself unless he looked well in advance before he made the
+step on which his mind was set. It was in this way that he happened to
+learn that about two years before, Miss March had been engaged to be
+married, but that the engagement had been broken off for reasons not
+known to his informants, and he could find out nothing about the
+gentleman, except that his name was Junius Keswick.
+
+The fact that the lady had had a lover, put her in a new light before
+Lawrence Croft. He had had an idea, suggested by the very friendly
+nature of their intercourse, that she was a woman whose mind did not run
+out to love or marriage, but now that he knew that she was susceptible
+of being wooed and won, because these things had actually happened to
+her, he was very glad that he had come away from Midbranch.
+
+The impression soon became very strong upon the mind of Lawrence that he
+would like to know what kind of man was this former lover. He had known
+Miss March about a year, and at the time of his first acquaintaince with
+her, she must have come very fresh from this engagement. To study the
+man to whom Roberta March had been willing to engage herself, was, to
+Lawrence's mode of thinking, if not a prerequisite procedure in his
+contemplated course of action, at least a very desirable one.
+
+But he was rather surprised to find that no one knew much about Mr
+Junius Keswick, or could give him any account of his present
+whereabouts, although he had been, at the time when his engagement was
+in force, a resident of New York. To consult a directory was, therefore,
+an obvious first step in the affair; and, with this intent, Mr Croft
+entered, one morning, an apothecary's shop in a street which, though a
+busy one, was in a rather out-of-the-way part of the city.
+
+"We haven't any directory, sir," said the clerk, "but if you will step
+across the street you can find one at that little shop with the green
+door. Everybody goes there to look at the directory."
+
+The green door on the opposite side of the street, approached by a
+single flat step of stone, had a tin sign upon it, on which was painted:
+
+"INFORMATION
+OF EVERY VARIETY
+FURNISHED WITHIN."
+
+Pushing open the door, Lawrence entered a long, narrow room, not very
+well lighted, with a short counter on one side, and some desks,
+partially screened by a curtain, at the farther end. A boy was behind
+the counter, and to him Lawrence addressed himself, asking permission to
+look at a city directory.
+
+"One cent, if you look yourself; three cents, if we look," said the boy,
+producing a thick volume from beneath the counter.
+
+"One cent?" said Lawrence, smiling at the oddity of this charge, as he
+opened the book and turned to the letter K.
+
+"Yes," said the boy, "and if the fine print hurts your eyes, we'll look
+for three cents."
+
+At this moment a man came from one of the desks at the other end of the
+room, and handed the boy a letter with which that young person
+immediately departed. The new-comer, a smooth-shaven man of about
+thirty, with the air of the proprietor or head manager very strong upon
+him, took the boy's position behind the counter, and remarked to
+Lawrence: "Most people, when they first come here, think it rather queer
+to pay for looking at the directory, but you see we don't keep a
+directory to coax people to come in to buy medicines or anything else.
+We sell nothing but information, and part of our stock is what you get
+out of a directory. But it's the best plan all round, for we can afford
+to give you a clean, good book instead of one all jagged and worn; and
+as you pay your money, you feel you can look as long as you like, and
+come when you please."
+
+"It is a very good plan," said Lawrence, closing the book, "but the name
+I want is not here."
+
+"Perhaps it is in last year's directory," said the man, producing
+another volume from under the counter.
+
+"That wouldn't do me much good," said Lawrence. "I want to know where
+some one resides this year."
+
+"It will do a great deal of good," said the other, "for if we know where
+a person has lived, inquiries can be made there as to where he has gone.
+Sometimes we go back three or four years, and when we have once found a
+man's name, we follow him up from place to place until we can give the
+inquirer his present address. What is the name you wanted, sir? You were
+looking in the K's."
+
+"Keswick," said Lawrence, "Junius Keswick."
+
+The man ran his finger and his eyes down a column, and remarked: "There
+is Keswick, but it is Peter, laborer; I suppose that isn't the party."
+
+Lawrence smiled, and shook his head.
+
+"We will take the year before that," said the man with cheerful
+alacrity, heaving up another volume. "Here's two Keswicks," he said in a
+moment, "one John, and the other Stephen W. Neither of them right?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "my man is Junius, and we need not go any farther
+back. I am afraid the person I am looking for was only a sojourner in
+the city, and that his name did not get into the directory. I know that
+he was here year before last."
+
+"All right, sir," said the other, pushing aside the volume he had
+been consulting. "We'll find the man for you from the hotel books, and
+what is more, we can see those two Keswicks that I found last. Perhaps
+they were relations of his, and he was staying with them. If you put the
+matter in our hands, we'll give you the address to-morrow night,
+provided it's an ordinary case. But if he has gone to Australia or
+Japan, of course, it'll take longer. Is it crime or relationship?"
+
+"Neither," replied Lawrence.
+
+"It is generally one of them," said the man, "and if it's crime we carry
+it on to a certain point, and then put it into the hands of the
+detectives, for we've nothing to do with police business, private or
+otherwise. But if it's relationship, we'll go right through with it to
+the end. Any kind of information you may want we'll give you here;
+scientific, biographical, business, healthfulness of localities,
+genuineness of antiquities, age and standing of individuals, purity of
+liquors or teas from sample, Bible items localized, china verified; in
+fact, anything you want to know we can tell you. Of course we don't
+pretend that we know all these things, but we know the people who do
+know, or who can find them out. By coming to us, and paying a small sum,
+the most valuable information, which it would take you years to find
+out, can be secured with certainty, and generally in a few days. We know
+what to do, and where to go, and that's the point. If it's a new bug, or
+a microscope insect we put it into the hands of a man who knows just
+what high scientific authority to apply to; if it's the middle name of
+your next door neighbor we'll give it to you from his baptismal record.
+I'm getting up a pamphlet-circular which will be ready in about a week,
+and which will fully explain our methods of business, with the charges
+for the different items, etc."
+
+"Well," said Lawrence, taking out his pocket-book, "I want the address
+of Junius Keswick, and I think I will let you look it up for me. What is
+your charge?"
+
+"It will be two dollars," said the man, "ordinary; and if we find
+inquiries run into other countries we will make special terms. And then
+there's seven cents, one for your look, and two threes for ours. You
+shall hear from us to-morrow night at your hotel or residence, unless
+you prefer to call here."
+
+"I will call the day after to-morrow," said Lawrence, producing a
+five-dollar note.
+
+"Very good," replied the proprietor. "Will you please pay the cashier?"
+pointing at the same time to a desk behind Lawrence which the latter had
+not noticed.
+
+Approaching this desk, the top of which, except for a small space in
+front, was surrounded by short curtains, he saw a young girl busily
+engaged in reading a book. He proffered her the note, the proprietor at
+the same time calling out: "Two, seven."
+
+The girl turned the book down to keep the place; then she took the note,
+and opened a small drawer, in which she fumbled for some moments.
+Closing the drawer, she rose to her feet and waved the note over the
+curtain to her right. "Haven't any change, eh?" said the man, coming
+from behind the counter, and putting on his hat. "As the boy's not here,
+I'll step out and get it."
+
+The girl turned up her book, and began to read again, and Lawrence stood
+and looked at her, wondering what need there was of a cashier in a place
+like this. She appeared to be under twenty, rather thin-faced, and was
+plainly dressed. In a few moments she raised her eyes from her book, and
+said: "Won't you sit down, sir? I am sorry you have to wait, but we are
+short of change to-day, and sometimes it is hard to get it in this
+neighborhood."
+
+Lawrence declined to be seated, but was very willing to talk. "Was it
+the proprietor of this establishment," he asked, "who went out to get
+the money changed??"
+
+"Yes, sir," she answered. "That is Mr Candy."
+
+"A queer name," said Lawrence, smiling.
+
+The girl looked up at him, and smiled in return. There was a very
+perceptible twinkle in her eyes, which seemed to be eyes that would like
+to be merry ones, and a slight movement of the corners of her mouth
+which indicated a desire to say something in reply, but, restrained
+probably by loyalty to her employer, or by prudent discretion regarding
+conversation with strangers, she was silent.
+
+Lawrence, however, continued his remarks. "The whole business seems to
+me very odd. Suppose I were to come here and ask for information as to
+where I could get a five-dollar note changed; would Mr Candy be able to
+tell me?"
+
+"He would do in that case just as he does in all others," she said;
+"first, he would go and find out, and then he would let you know. Giving
+information is only half the business; finding things out is the other
+half. That's what he's doing now."
+
+"So, when he comes back," said Lawrence, "he'll have a new bit of
+information to add to his stock on hand, which must be a very peculiar
+one, I fancy."
+
+The cashier smiled. "Yes," she said, "and a very useful one, too, if
+people only knew it."
+
+"Don't they know it?" asked Lawrence. "Don't you have plenty of custom?"
+
+At this moment the door opened, Mr Candy entered, and the conversation
+stopped.
+
+"Sorry to keep you waiting, sir," said the proprietor, passing some
+money to the cashier over the curtain, who, thereupon, handed two
+dollars and ninety-three cents to Lawrence through the little opening in
+front.
+
+"If you call the day after to-morrow, the information will be ready for
+you," said Mr Candy, as the gentleman departed.
+
+On the appointed day, Lawrence came again, and found nobody in the place
+but the cashier, who handed him a note.
+
+"Mr Candy left this for you, in case he should not be in when you
+called," she said.
+
+The note stated that the search for the address of Junius Keswick had
+opened very encouragingly, but as it was quite evident that said person
+was not now in the city, the investigations would have to be carried on
+on a more extended scale, and a deposit of three dollars would be
+necessary to meet expenses.
+
+Lawrence looked from the note to the cashier, who had been watching him
+as he read. "Does Mr Candy want me to leave three dollars with you?" he
+asked.
+
+"That's what he said, sir."
+
+"Well," said Lawrence, "I don't care about paying for unlimited
+investigation in this way. If the gentleman I am in search of has left
+the city, and Mr Candy has been able to find out to what place he went,
+he should have told me that, and I would have decided whether or not I
+wanted him to do anything more."
+
+The face of the cashier appeared troubled. "I think, sir," she said,
+"that if you leave the money, Mr Candy will do all he can to discover
+what you wish to know, and that it will not be very long before you have
+the address of the person you are seeking."
+
+"Do you really think he has any clew?" asked Lawrence.
+
+This question did not seem to please the cashier, and she answered
+gravely, though without any show of resentment: "That is a strange
+question after I advised you to leave the money."
+
+Lawrence had a kind heart, and it reproached him. "I beg your pardon,"
+said he. "I will leave the money with you, but I desire that Mr Candy
+will, in his next communication, give me all the information he has
+acquired up to the moment of writing, and then I will decide whether it
+is worth while to go on with the matter, or not."
+
+He, thereupon, took out his pocket-book and handed three dollars to the
+cashier, who, with an air of deliberate thoughtfulness, smoothed out the
+two notes, and placed them in her drawer. Then she said: "If you will
+leave your address, sir, I will see that you receive your information as
+soon as possible. That will be better than for you to call, because I
+can't tell you when to come."
+
+"Very well," said Lawrence, "and I will be obliged to you if you will
+hurry up Mr Candy as much as you can." And, handing her his card, he
+went his way.
+
+The way of Lawrence Croft was generally a very pleasant one, for the
+fortunate conditions of his life made it possible for him to go around
+most of the rough places which might lie in it. His family was an old
+one, and a good one, but there was very little of it left, and of its
+scattered remnants he was the most important member. But although
+circumstances did not force him to do anything in particular, he liked
+to believe that he was a rigid master to himself, and whatever he did
+was always done with a purpose. When he travelled he had an object in
+view; when he stayed at home the case was the same.
+
+His present purpose was the most serious one of his life: he wished to
+marry; and, if she should prove to be the proper person, he wished to
+marry Roberta March; and as a preliminary step in the carrying out of
+his purpose, he wanted very much to know what sort of man Miss March had
+once been willing to marry.
+
+When five days had elapsed without his hearing from Mr Candy, he became
+impatient and betook himself to the green door with the tin sign.
+Entering, he found only the boy and the cashier. Addressing himself to
+the latter, he asked if anything had been done in his business.
+
+"Yes, sir," she said, "and I hoped Mr Candy would write you a letter
+this morning before he went out, but he didn't. He traced the gentleman
+to Niagara Falls, and I think you'll hear something very soon."
+
+"If inquiries have to be carried on outside of the city," said Lawrence,
+"they will probably cost a good deal, and come to nothing. I think I
+will drop the matter as far as Mr Candy is concerned."
+
+"I wish you would give us a little more time," said the girl. "I am sure
+you will hear something in a few days, and you need not be afraid there
+will be anything more to pay unless you are satisfied that you have
+received the full worth of the money."
+
+Lawrence reflected for a few moments, and then concluded to let the
+matter go on. "Tell Mr Candy to keep me frequently informed of the
+progress of the affair," said he, "and if he is really of any service to
+me I am willing to pay him, but not otherwise."
+
+"That will be all right," said the cashier, "and if Mr Candy is--is
+prevented from doing it, I'll write to you myself, and keep you
+posted."
+
+As soon as the customer had gone, the boy, who had been sitting on the
+counter, thus spoke to the cashier: "You know very well that old
+Mintstick has given that thing up!"
+
+"I know he has," said the girl, "but I have not."
+
+"You haven't anything to do with it," said the boy.
+
+"Yes, I have," she answered. "I advised that gentleman to pay his money,
+and I'm not going to see him cheated out of it. Of course, Mr Candy
+doesn't mean to cheat him, but he has gone into that business about the
+origin of the tame blackberry, and there's no knowing when he'll get
+back to this thing, which is not in his line, anyway."
+
+"I should say it wasn't!" exclaimed the boy with a loud laugh. "Sendin'
+me to look up them two Keswicks, who was both put down as cordwainers in
+year before last's directory, and askin' 'em if there was any Juniuses
+in their families."
+
+"Junius Keswick, did you say? Is that the name of the gentleman Mr Candy
+was looking for?"
+
+"Yes," said the boy.
+
+Presently the cashier remarked: "I am going to look at the books." And
+she betook herself to the desk at the back part of the shop.
+
+In about half an hour she returned and handed to the boy a memorandum
+upon a scrap of paper. "You go out now to your lunch," she said, "and
+while you are out, stop at the St. Winifred Hotel, where Mr Candy found
+the name of Junius Keswick, and see if it is not down again not long
+after the date which I have put on this slip of paper. I think if a
+person went to Niagara Falls he'd be just as likely to make a little
+trip of it and come back again as to keep travelling on, which Mr Candy
+supposes he did. If you find the name again, put down the date of arrival
+on this, and see if there was any memorandum about forwarding letters."
+
+"All right," said the boy. "But I'll be gone an hour and a half. Can't
+cut into my lunch time."
+
+In the course of a few days Lawrence Croft received a note signed Candy
+& Co. "per" some illegible initials, which stated that Mr Junius Keswick
+had been traced to a boarding-house in the city, but as the
+establishment had been broken up for some time, endeavors were now being
+made to find the lady who had kept the house, and when this was done it
+would most likely be possible to discover from her where Mr Keswick had
+gone.
+
+Lawrence waited a few days and then called at the Information Shop.
+Again was Mr Candy absent; and so was the boy. The cashier informed him
+that she had found--that is, that the lady who kept the boarding-house
+had been found--and she thought she remembered the gentlemen in
+question, and promised, as soon as she could, to look through a book, in
+which she used to keep directions for the forwarding of letters, and in
+this way another clew might soon be expected.
+
+"This seems to be going on better," said Lawrence, "but Mr Candy doesn't
+show much in the affair. Who is managing it? You?"
+
+The girl blushed and then laughed, a little confusedly. "I am only the
+cashier," she said.
+
+"And the laborious duties of your position would, of course, give you no
+time for anything else," remarked Lawrence.
+
+"Oh, well," said the girl, "of course it is easy enough for any one to
+see that I haven't much to do as cashier, but the boy and Mr Candy are
+nearly always out, looking up things, and I have to do other business
+besides attending to cash."
+
+"If you are attending to my business," said Lawrence, "I am very glad,
+especially now that it has reached the boarding-house stage, where I
+think a woman will be better able to work than a man. Are you doing this
+entirely independent of Mr Candy?"
+
+"Well, sir," said the cashier, with an honest, straightforward look
+from her gray eyes that pleased Lawrence, "I may as well confess that I
+am. But there's nothing mean about it. He has all the same as given it
+up, for he's waiting to hear from a man at Niagara, who will never write
+to him, and probably hasn't any thing to write, and as I advised you to
+pay the money I feel bound in honor to see that the business is done, if
+it can be done."
+
+"Have you a brother or a husband to help you in these investigations and
+searches?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"No," said the cashier with a smile. "Sometimes I send our boy, and as
+to boarding houses, I can go to them myself after we shut up here."
+
+"I wish," said Lawrence, "that you were married, and that you had a
+husband who would not interfere in this matter at all, but who would go
+about with you, and so enable you to follow up your clew thoroughly. You
+take up the business in the right spirit, and I believe you would
+succeed in finding Mr Keswick, but I don't like the idea of sending you
+about by yourself."
+
+"I won't deny," said the cashier, "that since I have begun this affair I
+would like very much to carry it out; so, if you don't object, I won't
+give it up just yet, and as soon as anything happens I'll let you know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Autumn in Virginia, especially if one is not too near the mountains, is
+a season in which greenness sails very close to Christmas, although
+generally veering away in time to prevent its verdant hues from tingeing
+that happy day with the gloomy influence of the prophetic proverb about
+churchyards. Long after the time when the people of the regions watered
+by the Hudson and the Merrimac are beginning to button up their
+overcoats, and to think of weather strips for their window-sashes, the
+dwellers in the land through which flow the Appomattox and the James may
+sit upon their broad piazzas, and watch the growing glories of the
+forests, where the crimson stars of the sweet gum blaze among the rich
+yellows of the chestnuts, the lingering green of the oaks, and the
+enduring verdure of the pines. The insects still hum in the sunny air,
+and the sun is now a genial orb whose warm rays cheer but not excoriate.
+
+The orb just mentioned was approaching the horizon, when, in an
+adjoining county to that in which was situated the hospitable mansion of
+Midbranch, a little negro boy about ten years old was driving some cows
+through a gateway that opened on a public road. The cows, as they were
+going homeward, filed willingly through the gateway, which led into a
+field, at the far end of which might be dimly discerned a house behind a
+mass of foliage; but the boy, whose head and voice were entirely too big
+for the rest of him, assailed them with all manner of reproaches and
+impellent adjectives, addressing each cow in turn as: "You, sah!" When
+the compliant beasts had hustled through, the youngster got upon the
+gate, and giving it a push with one bare foot, he swung upon it as far
+as it would go; then lifting the end from the surface of the ground he
+shut it with a bang, fastened it with a hook, and ran after the cows,
+his wild provocatives to bovine haste ringing high into the evening air.
+
+This youth was known as Plez, his whole name being Pleasant Valley, an
+inspiration to his mother from the label on a grape box, which had
+drifted into that region from the North. He had just stooped to pick up
+a clod of earth with which to accentuate his vociferations, when, on
+rising, he was astounded by the apparition of an elderly woman wearing a
+purple sun-bonnet, and carrying a furled umbrella of the same color.
+Behind the spectacles, which were fixed upon him, blazed a pair of fiery
+eyes, and the soul of Plez shrivelled and curled up within him. His
+downcast eyes were bent upon his upturned toes, the clod dropped from
+his limp fingers, and his mouth which had been opened for a yell,
+remained open, but the yell had apparently swooned.
+
+The words of the old lady were brief, but her umbrella was full of jerky
+menace, and when she left him, and passed on toward the outer gate,
+Plez followed the cows to the house with the meekness of a suspected
+sheep dog.
+
+The cows had been milked, some by a rotund black woman named Letty, and
+some, much to their discomfort, by Plez himself, and it was beginning to
+grow dark, when an open spring wagon driven by a colored man, and with a
+white man on the back seat came along the road, and stopped at the gate.
+The driver having passed the reins to the occupant on the back seat, got
+down, opened the gate, and stood holding it while the other drove the
+horse into the road which ran by the side of the field to the house
+behind the trees. At this time a passer-by, if there had been one, might
+have observed, partly protruding from behind some bushes on the other
+side of the public road, and at a little distance from the gate, the
+lower portion of a purple umbrella. As the spring wagon approached, and
+during the time that it was turning into the gate, and while it was
+waiting for the driver to resume his seat, this umbrella was
+considerably agitated, so much so indeed as to cause a little rustling
+among the leaves. When the gate had been shut, and the wagon had passed
+on toward the house, the end of the umbrella disappeared, and then, on
+the other side of the bush, there came into view a sun-bonnet of the
+same color as the umbrella. This surmounted the form of an old lady, who
+stepped into the pathway by the side of the road, and walked away with a
+quick, active step which betokened both energy and purpose.
+
+The house, before which, not many minutes later, this spring wagon
+stopped, was not a fine old family mansion like that of Midbranch, but
+it was a comfortable dwelling, though an unpretending one. The gentleman
+on the back seat, and the driver, who was an elderly negro, both turned
+toward the hall door, which was open and lighted by a lamp within, as if
+they expected some one to come out on the porch. But nobody came, and,
+after a moment's hesitation, the gentleman got down, and taking a valise
+from the back of the wagon, mounted the steps of the porch. While he was
+doing this the face of the negro man, which could be plainly seen in the
+light from the hall door, grew anxious and troubled. When the gentleman
+set his valise on the porch, and stood by it without making any attempt
+to enter, the old man put down the reins and quickly descending from his
+seat, hurried up the steps.
+
+"Dunno whar ole miss is, but I reckon she done gone to look after de
+tukkies. She dreffle keerful dat dey all go to roos' ebery night. Walk
+right in, Mahs' Junius." And, taking up the valise, he followed the
+gentleman into the hall.
+
+There, near the back door, stood the rotund black woman, and, behind
+her, Plez. "Look h'yar Letty," said the negro man, "whar ole miss?"
+
+"Dunno," said the woman. "She done gib out supper, an' I ain't seed her
+sence. Is dis Mahs' Junius? Reckon' you don' 'member Letty?"
+
+"Yes I do," said the gentleman, shaking hands with her; "but the Letty
+I remember was a rather slim young woman."
+
+"Dat's so," said Letty, with a respectful laugh, 'but, shuh 'nuf, my
+food's been blessed to me, Mahs' Junius."
+
+"But whar's ole miss?" persisted the old man. "You, Letty, can't you go
+look her up?"
+
+Now was heard the voice of Plez, who meekly emerged from the shade of
+Letty. "Ole miss done gone out to de road gate," said he. "I seen her
+when I brung de cows."
+
+"Bress my soul!" ejaculated Letty. "Out to de road gate! An' 'spectin'
+you too, Mahs' Junius!"
+
+"Didn't she say nuffin to you?" said the old man, addressing Plez.
+
+"She didn't say nuffin to me, Uncle Isham," answered the boy, "'cept if
+I didn't quit skeerin' dem cows, an' makin' 'em run wid froin' rocks
+till dey ain't got a drip drap o' milk lef' in 'em, she'd whang me ober
+de head wid her umbril."
+
+"'Tain't easy to tell whar she done gone from dat," said Letty.
+
+The face of Uncle Isham grew more troubled. "Walk in de parlor, Mahs'
+Junius," he said, "an' make yourse'f comf'ble. Ole miss boun' to be back
+d'reckly. I'll go put up de hoss."
+
+As the old man went heavily down the porch steps he muttered to himself:
+"I was feared o' sumfin like dis; I done feel it in my bones."
+
+The gentleman took a seat in the parlor where Letty had preceded him
+with a lamp. "Reckon ole miss didn't spec' you quite so soon, Mahs'
+Junius, cos de sorrel hoss is pow'ful slow, and Uncle Isham is mighty
+keerful ob rocks in de road. Reckon she's done gone ober to see ole Aun'
+Patsy, who's gwine to die in two or free days, to take her some red an'
+yaller pieces for a crazy quilt. I know she's got some pieces fur her."
+
+"Aunt Patsy alive yet?" exclaimed Master Junius. "But if she's about to
+die, what does she want with a crazy quilt?"
+
+"Dat's fur she shroud," said Letty. "She 'tends to go to glory all wrap
+up in a crazy quilt, jus chockfull ob all de colors of the rainbow. Aun'
+Patsy neber did 'tend to have a shroud o' bleached domestic like common
+folks. She wants to cut a shine 'mong de angels, an' her quilt's most
+done, jus' one corner ob it lef'. Reckon ole miss done gone to carry her
+de pieces fur dat corner. Dere ain't much time lef', fur Aun' Patsy is
+pretty nigh dead now. She's ober two hunnerd years ole."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Master Junius, "two hundred?"
+
+"Yes, sah," answered Letty. "Doctor Peter's old Jim was more'n a hunnerd
+when he died, an' we all knows Aun' Patsy is twice as ole as ole Jim."
+
+"I'll wait here," said Master Junius, taking up a book. "I suppose she
+will be back before long."
+
+In about half an hour Uncle Isham came into the kitchen, his appearance
+indicating that he had had a hurried walk, and told Letty that she had
+better give Master Junius his supper without waiting any longer for her
+mistress. "She ain't at Aun' Patsy's," said the old man, "and she's jus'
+done gone somewhar else, and she'll come back when she's a mind to, an'
+dar ain't nuffin else to say 'bout it."
+
+Supper was eaten; a pipe was smoked on the porch; and Master Junius went
+to bed in a room which had been carefully prepared for him under the
+supervision of the mistress; but the purple sun-bonnet, and the umbrella
+of the same color did not return to the house that night.
+
+Master Junius was a quiet man, and fond of walking; and the next day he
+devoted to long rambles, sometimes on the roads, sometimes over the
+fields, and sometimes through the woods; but in none of his walks, nor
+when he came back to dinner and supper, did he meet the elderly mistress
+of the house to which he had come. That evening, as he sat on the top
+step of the porch with his pipe, he summoned to him Uncle Isham, and
+thus addressed the old man:
+
+"I think it is impossible, Isham, that your mistress started out to meet
+me, and that an accident happened to her. I have walked all over this
+neighborhood, and I know that no accident could have occurred without my
+seeing or hearing something of it."
+
+Uncle Isham stood on the ground, his feet close to the bottom step; his
+hat was in his hand, and his upturned face wore an expression of
+earnestness which seemed to set uncomfortably upon it. "Mahs' Junius,"
+said he, "dar ain't no acciden' come to ole miss; she's done gone cos she
+wanted to, an' she ain't come back cos she didn't want to. Dat's ole
+miss, right fru."
+
+"I suppose," said the young man, "that as she went away on foot she must
+be staying with some of the neighbors. If we were to make inquiries, it
+certainly would not be difficult to find out where she is."
+
+"Mahs' Junius," said Uncle Isham, his black eyes shining brighter and
+brighter as he spoke, "dar's culled people, an' white folks too in dis
+yer county who'd put on dere bes' clothes an' black dere shoes, an' skip
+off wid alacrousness, to do de wus kin' o sin, dat dey knowed for sartin
+would send 'em down to de deepes' and hottes' gullies ob de lower
+regions, but nuffin in dis worl' could make one o' dem people go
+'quirin' 'bout ole miss when she didn't want to be 'quired about."
+
+The smoker put down his pipe on the top step beside him, and sat for a
+few moments in thought. Then he spoke. "Isham," he began, "I want you to
+tell me if you have any notion or idea----"
+
+"Mahs' Junius," exclaimed the old negro, "scuse me fur int'ruptin', but
+I can't help it. Don' you go, an ax an ole man like me if I tinks dat
+ole miss went away cos you was comin' an' if it's my true b'lief dat
+she'll neber come back while you is h'yar. Don' ask me nuffin like dat,
+Mahs' Junius. Ise libed in dis place all my bawn days, an' I ain't neber
+done nuffin to you, Mahs' Junius, 'cept keepin' you from breakin' you
+neck when you was too little to know better. I neber 'jected to you
+marryin' any lady you like bes', an' 'tain't f'ar Mahs' Junius, now Ise
+ole an' gittin' on de careen, fur you to ax me wot I tinks about ole
+miss gwine away an' comin' back. I begs you, Mahs' Junius, don' ax me
+dat."
+
+Master Junius rose to his feet. "All right, Isham," he said; "I shall
+not worry your good old heart with questions." And he went into the
+house.
+
+The next day this quiet gentleman and good walker went to see old Aunt
+Patsy, who had apparently consented to live a day or two longer; gave
+her a little money in lieu of pieces for her crazy bed-quilt; and told
+her he was going away to stay. He told Uncle Isham he was going away to
+stay away; and he said the same thing to Letty, and to Plez, and to two
+colored women of the neighborhood whom he happened to see. Then he took
+his valise, which was not a very large one, and departed. He refused to
+be conveyed to the distant station in the spring wagon, saying that he
+much preferred to walk. Uncle Isham took leave of him with much sadness,
+but did not ask him to stay; and Letty and Plez looked after him
+wistfully, still holding in their hands the coins he had placed there.
+With the exception of these coins, the only thing he left behind him was
+a sealed letter on the parlor table, directed to the mistress of the
+house.
+
+Toward the end of that afternoon, two women came along the public road
+which passed the outer gate. One came from the south, and rode in an
+open carriage, evidently hired at the railroad station; the other was
+on foot, and came from the north; she wore a purple sun-bonnet, and
+carried an umbrella of the same color. When this latter individual
+caught sight of the approaching carriage, then at some distance, she
+stopped short and gazed at it. She did not retire behind a bush, as she
+had done on a former occasion, but she stood in the shade of a tree on
+the side of the road, and waited. As the carriage came nearer to the
+gate the surprise upon her face became rapidly mingled with indignation.
+The driver had checked the speed of his horses, and, without doubt,
+intended to stop at the gate. This might not have been sufficient to
+excite her emotions, but she now saw clearly, having not been quite
+certain of it before, that the occupant of the carriage was a lady, and,
+apparently, a young one, for she wore in her hat some bright-colored
+flowers. The driver stopped, got down, opened the gate, and then,
+mounting to his seat, drove through, leaving the gate standing wide
+open.
+
+This contempt of ordinary proprietary requirements made the old lady
+spring out from the shelter of the shade. Brandishing her umbrella, she
+was about to cry out to the man to stop and shut the gate, but she
+restrained herself. The distance was too great, and, besides, she
+thought better of it. She went again into the shade, and waited. In
+about ten minutes the carriage came back, but without the lady. This
+time the driver got down, shut the gate after him, and drove rapidly
+away.
+
+If blazing eyes could crack glass, the spectacles of the old lady would
+have been splintered into many pieces as she stood by the roadside, the
+end of her umbrella jabbed an inch or two into the ground. After
+standing thus for some five minutes, she suddenly turned and walked
+vigorously away in the direction from which she had come.
+
+Uncle Isham, Letty, and the boy Plez, were very much surprised at the
+arrival of the lady in the carriage. She had asked for the mistress of
+the house, and on being assured that she was expected to return very
+soon, had alighted, paid and dismissed her driver, and had taken a seat
+in the parlor. Her valise, rather larger than that of the previous
+visitor, was brought in and put in the hall. She waited for an hour or
+two, during which time Letty made several attempts to account for the
+non-appearance of her mistress, who, she said, was away on a visit, but
+was expected back every minute; and when supper was ready she partook of
+that meal alone, and after a short evening spent in reading she went to
+bed in the chamber which Letty prepared for her.
+
+Before she retired, Letty, who had shown herself a very capable
+attendant, said to her: "Wot's your name, miss? I allus likes to know
+the names o' ladies I waits on.''
+
+"My name," said the lady, "is Mrs Null."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The Autumn sun was shining very pleasantly when, about nine o'clock in
+the morning, Mrs Null came out on the porch, and, standing at the top of
+the steps, looked about her. She had on her hat with the red flowers,
+and she wore a short jacket, into the pockets of which her hands were
+thrust with an air which indicated satisfaction with the circumstances
+surrounding her. The old dog, lying on the grass at the bottom of the
+steps, looked up at her and flopped his tail upon the ground. Mrs Null
+called to him in a cheerful tone and the dog arose, and, hesitatingly,
+put his forefeet on the bottom step; then, when she held out her hand
+and spoke to him again, he determined that, come what might, he would go
+up those forbidden steps, and let her pat his head. This he did, and
+after looking about him to assure himself that this was reality and not
+a dog dream, he lay down upon the door-mat, and, with a sigh of relief,
+composed himself to sleep. A black turkey gobbler, who looked as if he
+had been charred in a fire, followed by five turkey hens, also
+suggesting the idea that water had been thrown over them before anything
+but their surfaces had been burned, came timidly around the house and
+stopped before venturing upon the greensward in front of the porch;
+then, seeing nobody but Mrs Null, they advanced with bobbing heads and
+swaying bodies to look into the resources of this seldom explored
+region. Plez, who was coming from the spring with a pail of water on his
+head, saw the dog on the porch and the turkeys on the grass, and stopped
+to regard the spectacle. He looked at them, and he looked at Mrs Null,
+and a grin of amused interest spread itself over his face.
+
+Mrs Null went down the steps and approached the boy. "Plez," said she,
+"if your mistress, or anybody, should come here this morning, you must
+run over to Pine Top Hill and call me. I'm going there to read."
+
+"Don' you want me to go wid yer, and show you de way, Miss Null?" asked
+Plez, preparing to set down his pail.
+
+"Oh, no," said she, "I know the way." And with her hands still in her
+pockets, from one of which protruded a rolled-up novel, she walked down
+to the little stream which ran from the spring, crossed the plank and
+took the path which led by the side of the vineyard to Pine Top Hill.
+
+This lady visitor had now been here two days waiting for the return of
+the mistress of the little estate; and the sojourn had evidently been of
+benefit to her. Good air, the good meals with which Letty had provided
+her, and a sort of sympathy which had sprung up in a very sudden way
+between her and everything on the place, had given brightness to her
+eyes. She even looked a little plumper than when she came, and
+certainly very pretty. She climbed Pine Top Hill without making any
+mistake as to the best path, and went directly to a low piece of
+sun-warmed rock which cropped out from the ground not far from the bases
+of the cluster of pines which gave the name to the hill. An extended and
+very pretty view could be had from this spot, and Mrs Null seemed to
+enjoy it, looking about her with quick turns of the head as if she
+wanted to satisfy herself that all of the scenery was there. Apparently
+satisfied that it was, she stretched out her feet, withdrew her gaze
+from the surrounding country, and regarded the toes of her boots. Now
+she smiled a little and began to speak.
+
+"Freddy," said she, "I must think over matters, and have a talk with you
+about them. Nothing could be more proper than this, since we are on our
+wedding tour. You keep beautifully in the background, which is very nice
+of you, for that's what I married you for. But we must have a talk now,
+for we haven't said a word to each other, nor, perhaps, thought of each
+other during the whole three nights and two days that we have been here.
+I expect these people think it very queer that I should keep on waiting
+for their mistress to come back, but I can't help it; I must stay till
+she comes, or he comes, and they must continue to think it funny. And as
+for Mr Croft, I suppose I should get a letter from him if he knew where
+to write, but you know, Freddy, we are travelling about on this wedding
+tour without letting anybody, especially Mr Croft, know exactly where
+we are. He must think it an awfully wonderful piece of good luck that a
+young married couple should happen to be journeying in the very
+direction taken by a gentleman whom he wants to find, and that they are
+willing to look for the gentleman without charging anything but the
+extra expenses to which they may be put. We wouldn't charge him a cent,
+you know, Freddy Null, but for the fear that he would think we would not
+truly act as his agents if we were not paid, and so would employ
+somebody else. We don't want him to employ anybody else. We want to find
+Junius Keswick before he does, and then, maybe, we won't want Mr Croft
+to find him at all. But I hope it will not turn out that way. He said,
+it was neither crime nor relationship and, of course, it couldn't be.
+What I hope is, that it is good fortune; but that's doubtful. At any
+rate, I must see Junius first, if I can possibly manage it. If she would
+only come back and open her letter, there might be no more trouble about
+it, for I don't believe he would go away without leaving her his
+address. Isn't all this charming, Freddy? And don't you feel glad that
+we came here for our wedding tour? Of course you don't enjoy it as much
+as I do, for it can't seem so natural to you; but you are bound to like
+it. The very fact of my being here should make the place delightful in
+your eyes, Mr Null, even if I have forgotten all about you ever since I
+came."
+
+That afternoon, as Mrs Null was occupying some of her continuous leisure
+in feeding the turkeys at the back of the house, she noticed two
+colored men in earnest conversation with Isham. When they had gone she
+called to the old man. "Uncle Isham," she said, "what did those men
+want?"
+
+"Tell you what 'tis, Miss Null," said Isham, removing his shapeless felt
+hat, "dis yere place is gittin' wus an' wus on de careen, an' wat's
+gwine to happen if ole miss don' come back is more'n I kin tell. Dar's
+no groun' ploughed yit for wheat, an' dem two han's been 'gaged to come
+do it, an' dey put it off, an' put it off till ole miss got as mad as
+hot coals, an' now at las' dey've come, an' she's not h'yar, an' nuffin'
+can be done. De wheat'll be free inches high on ebery oder farm 'fore
+ole miss git dem plough han's agin."
+
+"That is too bad, Uncle Isham," said Mrs Null. "When land that ought to
+be ploughed isn't ploughed, it all grows up in old field pines, don't
+it?"
+
+"It don' do dat straight off, Miss Null," said the old negro, his gray
+face relaxing into a smile.
+
+"No, I suppose not," said she. "I have heard that it takes thirty years
+for a whole forest of old field pines to grow up. But they will do it if
+the land isn't ploughed. Now, Uncle Isham, I don't intend to let
+everything be at a standstill here just because your mistress is away.
+That is one reason why I feed the turkeys. If they died, or the farm all
+went wrong, I should feel that it was partly my fault."
+
+"Yaas'm," said Uncle Isham, passing his hat from one hand to the other,
+as he delivered himself a little hesitatingly--"yaas'm, if you wasn't
+h'yar p'raps ole miss mought come back."
+
+"Now, Uncle Isham," said Mrs Null, "you mustn't think your mistress is
+staying away on account of me. She left home, as Letty has told me over
+and over, because your Master Junius came. Of course she thinks he's
+here yet, and she don't know anything about me. But if her affairs
+should go to rack and ruin while I am here and able to prevent it, I
+should think it was my fault. That's what I mean, Uncle Isham. And now
+this is what I want you to do. I want you to go right after those men,
+and tell them to come here as soon as they can, and begin to plough. Do
+you know where the ploughing is to be done?"
+
+"Oh, yaas'm," said Uncle Isham, "dar ain't on'y one place fur dat. It's
+de clober fiel', ober dar, on de udder side ob de gyarden."
+
+"And what is to be planted in it?" asked Mrs Null.
+
+"Ob course dey's gwine to plough for wheat," answered Uncle Isham, a
+little surprised at the question.
+
+"I don't altogether like that," said Mrs Null, her brows slightly
+contracting. "I've read a great deal about the foolishness of Southern
+people planting wheat. They can't compete with the great wheat farms of
+the West, which sometimes cover a whole county, and, of course, having
+so much, they can afford to sell it a great deal cheaper than you can
+here. And yet you go on, year after year, paying every cent you can
+rake and scrape for fertilizing drugs, and getting about a teacupful of
+wheat,--that is, proportionately speaking. I don't think this sort of
+thing should continue, Uncle Isham. It would be a great deal better to
+plough that field for pickles. Now there is a steady market for pickles,
+and, so far as I know, there are no pickle farms in the West."
+
+"Pickles!" ejaculated the astonished Isham. "Do you mean, Miss Null, to
+put dat fiel' down in kukumbers at dis time o' yeah?"
+
+"Well," said Mrs Null, thoughtfully, "I don't know that I feel
+authorized to make the change at present, but I do know that the things
+that pay most are small fruits, and if you people down here would pay
+more attention to them you would make more money. But the land must be
+ploughed, and then we'll see about planting it afterward; your mistress
+will, probably, be home in time for that. You go after the men, and tell
+them I shall expect them to begin the first thing in the morning. And if
+there is anything else to be done on the farm, you come and tell me
+about it to-morrow. I'm going to take the responsibility on myself to
+see that matters go on properly until your mistress returns."
+
+Letty and her son, Plez, occupied a cabin not far from the house, while
+Uncle Isham lived alone in a much smaller tenement, near the barn and
+chicken house. That evening he went over to Letty's, taking with him, as
+a burnt offering, a partially consumed and still glowing log of hickory
+wood from his own hearth-stone. "Jes' lemme tell you dis h'yar, Letty,"
+said he, after making up the fire and seating himself on a stool near
+by, "ef you want to see ole miss come back rarin' an' chargin', jes' you
+let her know dat Miss Null is gwine ter plough de clober fiel' for
+pickles."
+
+"Wot's dat fool talk?" asked Letty.
+
+"Miss Null's gwine to boss dis farm, dat's all," said Isham. "She tole
+me so herse'f, an' ef she's lef' alone she's gwine ter do it city
+fashion. But one thing's sartin shuh, Letty, if ole miss do fin' out
+wot's gwine on, she'll be back h'yar in no time! She know well 'nuf dat
+dat Miss Null ain't got no right to come an' boss dis h'yar farm. Who's
+she, anyway?"
+
+"Dunno," answered Letty. "I done ax her six or seben time, but 'pears
+like I dunno wot she mean when she tell me. P'raps she's one o' ole
+miss' little gal babies growed up. I tell you, Uncle Isham, she know dis
+place jes as ef she bawn h'yar."
+
+Uncle Isham looked steadily into the fire and rubbed the sides of his
+head with his big black fingers. "Ole miss nebber had no gal baby 'cept
+one, an' dat died when 'twas mighty little."
+
+"Does you reckon she kill her ef she come back an' fin' her no kin?"
+asked Letty.
+
+Uncle Isham pushed his stool back and started to his feet with a noise
+which woke Plez, who had been soundly sleeping on the other side of the
+fireplace; and striding to the door, the old man went out into the open
+air. Returning in less than a minute, he put his head into the doorway
+and addressed the astonished woman who had turned around to look after
+him. "Look h'yar, you Letty, I don' want to hear no sech fool talk 'bout
+ole miss. You dunno ole miss, nohow. You only come h'yar seben year ago
+when dat Plez was trottin' roun' wid nuffin but a little meal bag for
+clothes. Mahs' John had been dead a long time den; you nebber knowed
+Mahs' John. You nebber was woke up at two o'clock in the mawnin wid de
+crack ob a pistol, an' run out 'spectin' 'twas somebody stealin' chickens
+an' Mahs' John firin' at 'em, an' see ole miss a cuttin' for de road
+gate wid her white night-gown a floppin' in de win' behind her, an' when
+we got out to de gate dar we see Mahs' John a stannin' up agin de pos',
+not de pos' wid de hinges on, but de pos' wid de hook on, an' a hole in
+de top ob de head which he made hese'f wid de pistol. One-eyed Jim see
+de whole thing. He war stealin' cohn in de fiel' on de udder side de
+road. He see Mahs' John come out wid de pistol, an' he lay low. Not dat
+it war Mahs' John's cohn dat he was stealin', but he knowed well 'nuf
+dat Mahs' John take jes' as much car' o' he neighbus cohn as he own. An'
+den he see Mahs' John stan' up agin de pos' an' shoot de pistol, an' he
+see Mahs' John's soul come right out de hole in de top ob his head an'
+go straight up to heben like a sky-racket."
+
+"Wid a whizz?" asked the open-eyed Letty."
+
+"Like a sky-racket, I tell you," continued the old man, "an' den me an'
+ole miss come up. She jes' tuk one look at him and then she said in a
+wice, not like she own wice, but like Mahs' John's wice, wot had done
+gone forebber: 'You Jim, come out o' dat cohn and help carry him in!'
+And we free carried him in. An' you dunno ole miss, nohow, an' I don'
+want to hear no fool talk from you, Letty, 'bout her. Jes' you 'member
+dat!"
+
+And with this Uncle Isham betook himself to the solitude of his own
+cabin.
+
+"Well," said Letty to herself, as she rose and approached the bed in the
+corner of the room, "Ise pow'ful glad dat somebody's gwine to take de
+key bahsket, for I nebber goes inter dat sto'-room by myse'f widout
+tremblin' all froo my back bone fear ole miss come back, an' fin' me dar
+'lone."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+When Lawrence Croft now took his afternoon walks in the city, he was
+very glad to wear a light overcoat, and to button it, too. But, although
+the air was getting a little nipping in New York, he knew that it must
+still be balmy and enjoyable in Virginia. He had never been down there
+at this season, but he had heard about the Virginia autumns, and,
+besides he had seen a lady who had had a letter from Roberta March. In
+this letter Miss March had written that as her father intended making a
+trip to Texas, and, therefore, would not come to New York as early as
+usual, she would stay at least a month longer with her Uncle Brandon;
+and she was glad to do it, for the weather was perfectly lovely, and she
+could stay out-of-doors all day if she wanted to.
+
+Lawrence's walks, although very invigorating on account of the fine,
+sharp air, were not entirely cheering, for they gave him an opportunity
+to think that he was making no progress whatever in his attempt to study
+the character of Junius Keswick. He had entrusted the search for that
+gentleman's address to Mr Candy's cashier, who had informed him, most
+opportunely, that she was about to set out on a wedding tour, and that
+she had possessed herself of clues of much value which could be readily
+followed up in connection with the projected journey. But a fortnight or
+more had elapsed without his hearing anything from her, and he had come
+to the conclusion that hymeneal joys must have driven all thoughts of
+business out of her little head.
+
+After hearing that Roberta March intended protracting her stay in the
+country the desire came to him to go down there himself. He would like
+to have the novel experience of that region in autumn, and he would like
+to see Roberta, but he could not help acknowledging to himself that the
+proceeding would scarcely be a wise one, especially as he must go
+without the desired safeguard of knowing what kind of man Miss March had
+once been willing to accept. He felt that if he went down to the
+neighborhood of Midbranch one of the battles of his life would begin,
+and that when he held up before him his figurative shield, he would see
+in its inner mirror that, on account of his own disposition toward the
+lady, he was in a condition of great peril. But, for all that, he wanted
+very much to go, and no one will be surprised to learn that he did go.
+
+He was a little embarrassed at first in regard to the pretext which he
+should make to himself for such a journey. Whatever satisfactory excuse
+he could make to himself in this case would, of course, do for other
+people. Although he was not prone to make excuses for his conduct to
+other people in general, he knew he would have to give some reason to Mr
+Brandon and Miss Roberta for his return to Virginia so soon after having
+left it. He determined to make a visit to the mountains of North
+Carolina, and as Midbranch would lie in his way, of course he
+would stop there. This he assured himself was not a subterfuge.
+It was a very sensible thing to do. He had a good deal of time
+on his hands before the city season, at least for him, would begin,
+and he had read that the autumn was an admirable time to visit the
+country of the French Broad. How long a stop he would make at Midbranch
+would be determined by circumstances. He was sorry that he would not be
+able to look upon Miss Roberta with the advantage of knowing her former
+lover, but it was something to know that she had had a lover. With this
+fact in his mind he would be able to form a better estimate of her than
+he had formed before.
+
+The man who lived in the cottage at the Green Sulphur Springs was
+somewhat surprised when Mr Croft arrived there, and desired to make
+arrangements, as before, for board, and the use of a saddle horse. But,
+although it was not generally conceded, this man knew very well that
+there was no water in the world so suitable to remedy the wear and tear
+of a city life as that of the Green Sulphur Springs, and therefore
+nobody could consider the young gentleman foolish for coming back again
+while the season permitted.
+
+Lawrence arrived at his cottage in the morning; and early in the
+afternoon of the same day he rode over to Midbranch. He found the
+country a good deal changed, and he did not like the changes. His road,
+which ran for much of its distance through the woods, was covered with
+leaves, some green, and some red and yellow, and he did not fancy the
+peculiar smell of these leaves, which reminded him, in some way, of that
+gathering together of the characters in old-fashioned comedies shortly
+before the fall of the curtain. In many places where there used to be a
+thick shade, the foliage was now quite thin, and through it he could see
+a good deal of the sky. The Virginia creepers, or "poison oaks,"
+whichever they were, were growing red upon the trunks of the trees as if
+they had been at table too long and showed it, and when he rode out of
+the woods he saw that the fields, which he remembered as wide, swelling
+slopes of green, with cattle and colts feeding here and there, were now
+being ploughed into corrugated stretches of monotonous drab and brown.
+If he had been there through all the gradual changes of the season, he,
+probably, would have enjoyed them as much as people ordinarily do; but
+coming back in this way, the altered landscape slightly shocked him.
+
+When he had turned into the Midbranch gate, but was still a considerable
+distance from the house, he involuntarily stopped his horse. He could
+see the broad steps which crossed the fence of the lawn, and on one side
+of the platform on the top sat a lady whom he instantly recognized as
+Miss Roberta; and on the other side of the platform sat a gentleman.
+These two occupied very much the same positions as Lawrence, himself,
+and Miss March had occupied when we first became acquainted with them.
+Lawrence looked very sharply and earnestly at the gentleman. Could it be
+Mr Brandon? No, it was a much younger person.
+
+His first impulse was to turn and ride away, but this would be silly and
+unmanly, and he continued his way to the stile. His disposition to treat
+the matter with contempt made him feel how important the matter was to
+him. The gentleman on the platform first saw Lawrence, and announced to
+the lady that some one was coming. Miss March turned around, and then
+rose to her feet.
+
+"Upon my word!" she exclaimed, elevating her eyebrows a good deal more
+than was usual with her, "if that isn't Mr Croft!"
+
+"Who is he?" asked the other, also rising.
+
+"He is a New York gentleman whom I know very well. He was down here last
+summer, but I can't imagine what brings him here again."
+
+Lawrence dismounted, tied his horse, and approached the steps. Miss
+Roberta welcomed him cordially, coming down a little way to shake hands
+with him. Then she introduced the two gentlemen.
+
+"Mr Croft," she said, "let me make you acquainted with Mr Keswick."
+
+The afternoon, or the portion of it that was left, was spent on the
+porch, Mr Brandon joining the party. It was to him that Lawrence chiefly
+talked, for the most part about the game and scenery of North Carolina,
+with which the old gentleman was quite familiar. But Lawrence had
+sufficient regard for himself and his position in the eyes of this
+family, to help make a good deal of general conversation. What he said
+or heard, however, occupied only the extreme corners of his mind, the
+main portion of which was entirely filled with the chilling fear that
+that man might be the Keswick he was looking for. Of course, there was a
+bare chance that it was not, for there might be a numerous family, but
+even this little stupid glimmer of comfort was extinguished when Mr
+Brandon familiarly addressed the gentleman as "Junius."
+
+Lawrence took a good look at the man he was anxious to study, and as far
+as outward appearances were concerned he could find no fault with
+Roberta for having accepted him. He was taller than Croft, and not so
+correctly dressed. He seemed to be a person whom one would select as a
+companion for a hunt, a sail, or a talk upon Political Economy. There
+was about him an air of present laziness, but it was also evident that
+this was a disposition that could easily be thrown off.
+
+Lawrence's mind was not only very much occupied, but very much
+perturbed. It must have been all a mistake about the engagement having
+been broken off. If this had been the case, the easy friendliness of the
+relations between Keswick and the old gentleman and his niece would have
+been impossible. Once or twice the thought came to Lawrence that he
+should congratulate himself for not having avowed his feelings toward
+Miss Roberta when he had an opportunity of doing so; but his
+predominant emotion was one of disgust with his previous mode of action.
+If he had not weighed and considered the matter so carefully, and had
+been willing to take his chances as other men take them, he would, at
+least, have known in what relation he stood to Roberta, and would not
+have occupied the ridiculous position in which he now felt himself to
+be.
+
+When he took his leave, Roberta went with him to the stile. As they
+walked together across the smooth, short grass, a new set of emotions
+arose in Lawrence's mind which drove out every other. They were grief,
+chagrin, and even rage, at not having won this woman. As to actual
+speech, there was nothing he could say, although his soul boiled and
+bubbled within him in his desire to speak. But if he had anything to
+say, now was his chance, for he had told them that he would proceed with
+his journey the next day.
+
+Miss Roberta had a way of looking up, and looking down at the same time,
+particularly when she had asked a question and was waiting for the
+answer. Her face would be turned a little down, but her eyes would look
+up and give a very charming expression to those upturned eyes; and if
+she happened to allow the smile, with which she ceased speaking, to
+remain upon her pretty lips, she generally had an answer of some sort
+very soon. If for no other reason, it would be given that she might ask
+another question. It was in this manner she said to Lawrence: "Do you
+really go away from us to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes," said he, "I shall push on."
+
+"Do you not find the country very beautiful at this season?" asked Miss
+Roberta, after a few steps in silence.
+
+"I don't like autumn," answered Lawrence. "Everything is drying up and
+dying. I would rather see things dead."
+
+Roberta looked at him without turning her head. "But it will be just as
+bad in North Carolina," she said.
+
+"There is an autumn in ourselves," he answered, "just as much as there
+is in Nature. I won't see so much of that down there."
+
+"In some cases," said Roberta, slowly, "autumn is impossible."
+
+They had reached the bottom of the steps, and Lawrence turned and looked
+toward her. "Do you mean," he asked, "when there has been no real
+summer?"
+
+Roberta laughed. "Of course," said she, "if there has been no summer
+there can be no autumn. But you know there are places where it is summer
+all the time. Would you like to live in such a clime?"
+
+Lawrence Croft put one foot on the step, and then he drew it back. "Miss
+March," said he, "my train does not leave until the afternoon, and I am
+coming over here in the morning to have one more walk in the woods with
+you. May I?"
+
+"Certainly," she said, "I shall be delighted; that is, if you can
+overlook the fact that it is autumn."
+
+When Miss Roberta returned to the house she found Junius Keswick
+sitting on a bench on the porch. She went over to him, and took a seat
+at the other end of the bench.
+
+"So your gentleman is gone," he said.
+
+"Yes," she answered, "but only for the present. He is coming back in the
+morning."
+
+"What for?" asked Keswick, a little abruptly.
+
+Miss Roberta took off her hat, for there was no need of a hat on a
+shaded porch, and holding it by the ribbons, she let it gently slide
+down toward her feet. "He is coming," she said, speaking rather slowly,
+"to take a walk with me, and I know very well that when we have reached
+some place where he is sure there is no one to hear him, he is going to
+tell me that he loves me; that he did not intend to speak quite so soon,
+but that circumstances have made it impossible for him to restrain
+himself any longer, and he will ask me to be his wife."
+
+"And what are you going to say to him?" asked Keswick.
+
+"I don't know," replied Roberta, her eyes fixed upon the hat which she
+still held by its long ribbons.
+
+The next morning Junius Keswick, who had been up a long, long time
+before breakfast, sat, after that meal, looking at Roberta who was
+reading a book in the parlor. "She is a strange girl," thought he. "I
+cannot understand her. How is it possible that she can sit there so
+placidly reading that volume of Huxley, which I know she never saw
+before and which she has opened just about the middle, on a morning
+when she is expecting a man who will say things to her which may change
+her whole life. I could almost imagine that she has forgotten all about
+it."
+
+Peggy, who had just entered the room to inform her mistress that Aunt
+Judy was ready for her, stood in rigid uprightness, her torpid eyes
+settled upon the lady. "I reckon," so ran the thought within the mazes
+of her dark little interior, "dat Miss Rob's wuss disgruntled dan she
+was dat ebenin' when I make my cake, fur she got two dif'ent kinds o'
+shoes on."
+
+The morning went on, and Keswick found that he must go out again for a
+walk, although he had rambled several miles before breakfast. After her
+household duties had been completed, Miss Roberta took her book out to
+the porch; and about noon when her uncle came out and made some remarks
+upon the beauty of the day, she turned over the page at which she had
+opened the volume just after breakfast. An hour later Peggy brought her
+some luncheon, and felt it to be her duty to inform Miss Rob that she
+still wore one old boot and a new one. When Roberta returned to the
+porch after making a suitable change, she found Keswick there looking a
+little tired.
+
+"Has your friend gone?" he asked, in a very quiet tone.
+
+"He has not come yet," she answered.
+
+"Not come!" exclaimed Keswick. "That's odd! However, there are two hours
+yet before dinner."
+
+The two hours passed and no Lawrence Croft appeared; nor came he at all
+that day. About dusk the man at the Green Sulphur Springs rode over with
+a note from Mr Croft. The note was to Miss March, of course, and it
+simply stated that the writer was very sorry he could not keep the
+appointment he had made with her, but that it had suddenly become
+necessary for him to return to the North without continuing the journey
+he had planned; that he was much grieved to be deprived of the
+opportunity of seeing her again; but that he would give himself the
+pleasure, at the earliest possible moment, of calling on Miss March when
+she arrived in New York.
+
+When Miss Roberta had read this note she handed it to Keswick, who, when
+he returned it, asked: "Does that suit you?"
+
+"No," said she, "it does not suit me at all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+It was mail day at the very small village known as Howlett's, and to the
+fence in front of the post-office were attached three mules and a horse.
+Inside the yard, tied to the low bough of a tree, was a very lean and
+melancholy horse, on which had lately arrived Wesley Green, the negro
+man who, twice a week, brought the mail from Pocohontas, a railway
+station, twenty miles away. There was a station not six miles from
+Howlett's, but, for some reason, the mail bag was always brought from
+and carried to Pocohontas; Wesley Green requiring a whole day for a
+deliberate transit between the two points.
+
+In the post-office, which was the front room of a small wooden house
+approached by a high flight of steps, was the postmistress, Miss Harriet
+Corvey, who sat on the floor in one corner, while before her extended a
+semicircle of men and boys. In this little assemblage certain elderly
+men occupied seats which were considered to belong to them quite as much
+as if they had been hired pews in a church, and behind them stood up a
+row of tall young men and barefooted boys of the neighborhood, while,
+farthest in the rear, were some quiet little darkies with mail bags
+slung across their shoulders.
+
+On a chair to the right, and most convenient to
+
+Miss Harriet, sat old Madison Chalkley, the biggest and most venerable
+citizen of the neighborhood. Mr Chalkley never, by any chance, got a
+letter, the only mail matter he received being, "The Southern Baptist
+Recorder," which came on Saturdays, but, like most of the people
+present, he was at the post-office every mail day to see who got
+anything. Next to him sat Colonel Iston, a tall, lean, quiet old
+gentleman, who had, for a long series of years, occupied the position of
+a last apple on a tree. He had no relatives, no friends with whom he
+corresponded, no business that was not conducted by word of mouth. In
+the last fifteen years he had received but one letter, and that had so
+surprised him that he carried it about with him three days before he
+opened it, and then he found that it was really intended for a gentleman
+of the same name in another county. And yet everybody knew that if
+Colonel Iston failed to appear in his place on mail day, it would be
+because he was dead or prostrated by sickness.
+
+With the mail bag on the floor at her left, Miss Harriet, totally
+oblivious of any law forbidding the opening of the mails in public,
+would put her hand into its open mouth, draw forth a letter or a paper,
+hold it up in front of her spectacles, and call out the name of its
+owner. Most of the letters went to the black boys with the mail bags who
+came from country houses in the neighborhood, but whoever received
+letter, journal, or agricultural circular, received also at the same
+time the earnest gaze of everybody else in the room. Sometimes there
+was a letter for which there was no applicant present and then Miss
+Harriet would say: "Is anybody going past Mrs Willis Summerses?" And
+if anybody was, he would take the letter, and it is to be hoped he
+remembered to deliver it in the course of a week.
+
+In spite of the precautions of the postmistress uncalled for letters
+would gradually accumulate, and there was a little bundle of these in
+one of the few pigeon holes in a small desk in the corner of the room,
+in the drawer of which the postage stamps were kept. Now and then a
+registered letter would arrive, and this always created considerable
+sensation in the room, and if the legal recipient did not happen to be
+present, Miss Harriet never breathed a quiet breath until he or she had
+been sent for, had taken the letter, and given her a receipt. Sometimes
+she sat up as late as eleven o'clock at night on mail days, hoping that
+some one who had been sent for would arrive to relieve her of a
+registered letter.
+
+All the mail matter had been distributed, everybody but Mr Madison
+Chalkley had left the room; and when the old gentleman, as was his wont
+on the first day of the month, had gone up to the desk, untied the
+bundle of uncalled-for letters, the outer ones permanently rounded by
+the tightness of the cord, and after carefully looking over them, one by
+one, had made his usual remark about the folly of people who wouldn't
+stay in a place until their letters could get to them, had tied up the
+bundle and taken his departure; then Miss Harriet put the empty mail
+bag under the desk, and went up-stairs where an old lady sat by the
+window, sewing in the fading light.
+
+"No letters for you to-day, Mrs Keswick," said she.
+
+"Of course not," was the answer, "I didn't expect any."
+
+"Don't you think," said Miss Harriet, taking a seat opposite the old
+lady, "that it is about time for you to go home and attend to your
+affairs?"
+
+"Well, upon my word!" said Mrs Keswick, letting her hands and her work
+fall in her lap, "that's truly hospitable. I didn't expect it of you,
+Harriet Corvey."
+
+"I wouldn't have said it," returned the postmistress, "if I hadn't felt
+dead certain that you knew you were always welcome here. But Tony Miles
+told me, just before the mail came in, that the lady who's at your place
+is running it herself, and that she's going to use pickle brine for a
+fertilizer."
+
+"Very likely," said Mrs Keswick, her face totally unmoved by this
+intelligence--"very likely. That's the way they used to do in ancient
+times, or something of the same kind. They used to sow salt over their
+enemy's land so that nothing would ever grow there. That woman's family
+has sowed salt over the lands of me and mine for three generations, and
+it's quite natural she should come here to finish up."
+
+There was a little silence after this, and then Miss
+
+Harriet remarked: "Your people must know where you are. Why don't they
+come and tell you about these things?"
+
+"They know better," answered Mrs Keswick, with a grim smile. "I went
+away once before, and Uncle Isham hunted me up, and he got a lesson that
+he'll never forget. When I want them to know where I am, I'll tell
+them."
+
+"But really and truly"--said Miss Harriet "and you know I only speak to
+you for your own good, for you pay your board here, and if you didn't
+you'd be just as welcome--do you intend to keep away from your own house
+as long as that lady chooses to stay there?"
+
+"Exactly so long," answered the old lady. "I shall not keep them out of
+my house if they choose to come to it. No member of my family ever did
+that. There is the house, and they are free to enter it, but they shall
+not find me there. If there was any reason to believe that everything
+was dropped and done with, I would be as glad to see him as anybody
+could be, but I knew from his letter just what he was going to say when
+he came, and as things have turned out, I see that it was all worse than
+I expected. He and Roberta March were both coming, and they thought that
+together they could talk me down, and make me forgive and be happy, and
+all that stuff. But as I wasn't there, of course he wouldn't stay, and
+so there she is now by herself. She thinks I must come home after a
+while, and the minute I do that, back he'll come, and then they'll have
+just what they wanted. But I reckon she'll find that I can stick it out
+just as long as she can. If Roberta March turns things upside down
+there, it'll be because she can't keep her hands out of mischief, and
+that proves that she belongs to her own family. If there's any harm
+done, it don't matter so much to me, and it will be worse for him in the
+end. And now, Harriet Corvey, if you've got to make up the mail to go
+away early in the morning, you'd better have supper over and get about
+it."
+
+Meanwhile, at Mrs Keswick's house Mrs Null was acting just as
+conscientiously as she knew how. She had had some conversations with
+Freddy on the subject, and she had assured him, and at the same time
+herself, that what she was doing was the only thing that could be done.
+"It was dreadfully hard for me to get the money to come down here," she
+said to him,--"you not helping me a bit, as ordinary husbands do--and I
+can't afford to go back until I have accomplished something. It's very
+strange that she stays away so long, without telling anybody where she
+has gone to, but I know she is queer, and I suppose she has her own
+reasons for what she does. She can't be staying away on my account, for
+she doesn't know who I am, and wouldn't have any objections to me if she
+did know. I suspect it is something about Junius which keeps her away,
+and I suppose she thinks he is still here. But one of them must soon
+come back, and if I can see him, or find out from her where he is, it
+will be all right. It seems to me, Freddy, that if I could have a good
+talk with Junius things would begin to look better for you and me. And
+then I want to put him on his guard about this gentleman who is looking
+for him. By the way, I suppose I ought to write a letter to Mr Croft, or
+he'll think I have given up the job, and will set somebody else on the
+track, and that is what I don't want him to do. I can't say that I have
+positively anything to report, but I can say that I have strong hopes of
+success, considering where I am. As soon as I found that Junius had
+really left the North, I concluded that this would be the best place to
+come to for him. And now, Freddy, there's nothing for us to do but to
+wait, and if we can make ourselves useful here I'm sure we will be glad
+to do it. We both hate being lazy, and a little housekeeping and farm
+managing will be good practice for us during our honeymoon."
+
+Putting on her hat, she went down into the garden where uncle Isham was
+at work. She could find little to do there, for he was merely pulling
+turnips, and she could see nothing to suggest in regard to his method of
+work. She had found, too, that the old negro had not much respect for
+her agricultural opinions. He attended to his work as if his mistress
+had been at home, and although, in regard to the ploughing, he had
+carried out the orders of Mrs Null, he had done it because it ought to
+be done, and because he was very glad for some one else to take the
+responsibility.
+
+"Uncle Isham," said she, after she had watched the process of turnip
+pulling for a few minutes, "if you haven't anything else to do when you
+get through with this, you might come up to the house, and I will talk
+to you about the flower beds, I suppose they ought to be made ready for
+the winter."
+
+"Miss Null," said the old man, slowly unbending his back, and getting
+himself upright, "dar's allus sumfin' else to do. Eber sence I was fus'
+bawn dar was sumfin else to do, an' I spec's it'll keep on dat ar way
+till de day I dies."
+
+"Of course there will be nothing else to do then but to die," observed
+Mrs Null; "but I hope that day is far off, Uncle Isham."
+
+"Dunno 'bout dat, Miss Null," said he. "But den some people do lib
+dreffle long. Look at ole Aun' Patsy. Ise got to live a long time afore
+I's as ole as Aun' Patsy is now."
+
+"You don't mean to say," exclaimed Mrs Null, "that Aunt Patsy is alive
+yet!"
+
+"Ob course she is. Miss Null," said Uncle Isham. "If she'd died sence
+you've been here we'd a tole you, sartin. She was gwine to die las'
+week, but two or free days don' make much dif'rence to Aun' Patsy, she
+done lib so long anyhow."
+
+"Aunt Patsy alive!" exclaimed Mrs Null again. "I'm going straight off to
+see her."
+
+When she had reached the house, and had informed Letty where she was
+going, the rotund maid expressed high approbation of the visit, and
+offered to send Plez to show Miss Null the way.
+
+"I don't need any one to go with me," said that lady, and away she
+started.
+
+"She don' neber want nobody to show her nowhar," said Plez, returning
+with looks of much disapprobation to his business of peeling potatoes
+for dinner.
+
+When Mrs Null reached the cabin of Aunt Patsy, after about fifteen
+minutes' walk, she entered without ceremony, and found the old woman
+sitting on a very low chair by the window, with the much-talked-of,
+many-colored quilt in her lap. Her white woolly head was partially
+covered with a red and yellow handkerchief, and an immense pair of
+iron-bound spectacles obstructed the view of her small black face, lined
+and seamed in such a way that it appeared to have shrunk to half its
+former size. In her long, bony fingers, rusty black on the outside, and
+a very pale tan on the inside, she held a coarse needle and thread and a
+corner of the quilt. Near by, in front of a brick-paved fireplace, was
+one of her great-granddaughters, a girl about eighteen years old, who
+was down upon her hands and knees, engaged with lungs, more powerful
+than ordinary bellows, in blowing into flame a coal upon the hearth.
+
+"How d'ye Aunt Patsy?" said Mrs Null. "I didn't expect to see you
+looking so well."
+
+"Dat's Miss Null," said the girl, raising her eyes from the fire, and
+addressing her ancestor.
+
+The old woman stuck her needle into the quilt, and reached out her hand
+to her visitor, who took it cordially.
+
+"How d'ye, miss?" said Aunt Patsy, in a thin but quite firm voice,
+while the young woman got up and brought Mrs Null a chair, very short in
+the legs, very high in the back, and with its split-oak bottom very much
+sunken.
+
+"How are you feeling to-day, Aunt Patsy?" asked Mrs Null, gazing with
+much interest on the aged face.
+
+"'Bout as common," replied the old woman. "I didn't spec' to be libin'
+dis week, but I ain't got my quilt done yit, an' I can't go 'mong de
+angels wrop in a shroud wid one corner off."
+
+"Certainly not," answered Mrs Null. "Haven't you pieces enough to finish
+it?"
+
+"Oh, yaas, I got bits enough, but de trouble is to sew 'em up. I can't
+sew very fas' nowadays."
+
+"It's a pity for you to have to do it yourself," said Mrs Null. "Can't
+this young person, your daughter, do it for you?"
+
+"Dat's not my darter," said the old woman. "Dat's my son Tom's yaller
+boy Bob's chile. Bob's dead. She can't do no sewin' for me. I'm 'not
+gwine ter hab folks sayin', Aun' Patsy done got so ole she can't do her
+own sewin'."
+
+"If you are not going to die till you get your quilt finished, Aunt
+Patsy," said Mrs Null, "I hope it won't be done for a long time."
+
+"Don' do to be waitin' too long, Miss. De fus' thing you know some udder
+culled pusson'll be dyin' wrop up in a quilt like dis, and git dar fus'."
+
+Mrs Null now looked about her with much interest, and asked many
+questions in regard to the old woman's comfort and ailments. To these
+the answers, though on the whole satisfactory, were quite short, Aunt
+Patsy, apparently, much preferring to look at her visitor than to talk
+to her. And a very pretty young woman she was to look at, with a face
+which had grown brighter and plumper during every day of her country
+sojourn.
+
+When Mrs Null had gone, promising to send Aunt Patsy something nice to
+eat, the old woman turned to her great-grand-daughter, and said, "Did
+anybody come wid her?"
+
+"Nobody comed," said the girl. "Reckon' she done git herse'f los' some
+o' dese days."
+
+The old woman made no answer, but folding up the maniac coverlid, she
+handed it to the girl, and told her to put it away.
+
+That night Uncle Isham, by Mrs Null's orders, carried to Aunt Patsy a
+basket, containing various good things considered suitable for an aged
+colored woman without teeth.
+
+"Miss Annie sen' dese h'yar?" asked the old woman, taking the basket and
+lifting the lid.
+
+"Miss Annie!" exclaimed Uncle Isham. "Who she?"
+
+"Git out, Uncle Isham!" said Aunt Patsy, somewhat impatiently. "She was
+h'yar dis mawnin'."
+
+"Dat was Miss Null," said Isham.
+
+"Miss Annie all de same," said Aunt Patsy, "on'y growed up an' married.
+D'ye mean to stan' dar, Uncle Isham, an' tell me you don' know de little
+gal wot Mahs' John use ter carry in he arms ter feed de tukkies?"
+
+"She and she mudder dead long ago," said Isham. "You is pow'ful ole,
+Aun' Patsy, an' you done forgit dese things."
+
+"Done forgit nuffin," curtly replied the old woman. "Don' tell me no
+moh' fool stuff. Dat Miss Annie, growed up an' married."
+
+"Did she tell you dat?" asked Isham.
+
+"She didn't tell me nuffin'. She kep' her mouf shet 'bout dat, an' I
+kep' my mouf shet. Don' talk to me! Dat's Miss Annie, shuh as shootin'.
+Ef she hadn't fotch nuffin' 'long wid her but her eyes I'd a knowed dem;
+same ole eyes dey all had. An' 'sides dat, you fool Isham, ef she not
+Miss Annie, wot she come down h'yar fur?"
+
+"Neber thinked o' dat!" said Uncle Isham, reflectively. "Ef you's so
+pow'ful shuh, Aun' Patsy, I reckon dat _is_ Miss Annie. Couldn't 'spec
+me to 'member her. I wasn't much up at de house in dem times, an' she
+was took away 'fore I give much 'tention ter her."
+
+"Don' ole miss know she dar?" asked Aunt Patsy.
+
+'"She dunno nuffin' 'bout it," answered Isham. "She's stayin' away cos
+she think Mahs' Junius dar yit."
+
+"Why don' you tell her, now you knows it's Miss Annie wot's dar?"
+
+"You don' ketch me tellin her nuffin'," replied the old man shaking his
+head. "Wish you was spry 'nuf ter go, Aun' Patsy. She'd b'lieve you; an'
+she couldn't rar an' charge inter a ole pusson like you, nohow."
+
+"Ain't dar nobody else in dis h'yar place to go tell her?" asked Aunt
+Patsy.
+
+"Not a pusson," was Isham's decided answer.
+
+"Well den I _is_ spry 'nuf!" exclaimed Aunt Patsy, with a vigorous nod
+of her head which sent her spectacles down to her mouth, displaying a
+pair of little eyes sparkling with a fire, long thought to be extinct.
+"Ef you'll carry me dar, to Miss Harriet Corvey's, I'll tell ole miss
+myse'f. I didn't 'spec to go out dat dohr till de fun'ral, but I'll go
+dis time. I spected dar was sumfin' crooked when Miss Annie didn't tole
+me who she was. Ise not 'feared to tell ole miss, an' you jes' carry me
+up dar, Uncle Isham."
+
+"I'll do dat," said the old man, much delighted with the idea of doing
+something which he supposed would remove the clouds which overhung the
+household of his mistress. "I'll fotch de hoss an' de spring waggin an'
+dribe you ober dar."
+
+"No, you don' do no sech thing!" exclaimed Aunt Patsy, angrily. "I ain't
+gwine to hab no hosses to run away, an' chuck me out on de road. Ef you
+kin fotch de oxen an' de cart, I go 'long wid you, but I don' want no
+hosses."
+
+"Dat's fus' rate," said Isham. "I'll fotch de ox cart, an' carry you
+ober. When you want ter go?"
+
+"Dunno jes' now," said Aunt Patsy, pushing away a block of wood which
+served for a footstool, and making elaborate preparations to rise from
+her chair. "I'll sen' fur you when I's ready."
+
+The next morning was a very busy one for Aunt Patsy's son Tom's yellow
+boy Bob's child; and by afternoon it was necessary to send for two
+colored women from a neighboring cabin to assist in the preparations
+which Aunt Patsy was making for her projected visit. An old hair covered
+trunk, which had not been opened for many years, was brought out, and
+the contents exposed to the unaccustomed light of day; two coarse cotton
+petticoats were exhumed and ordered to be bleached and ironed; a yellow
+flannel garment of the same nature was put aside to be mended with some
+red pieces which were rolled up in it; out of several yarn stockings of
+various ages and lengths two were selected as being pretty much alike,
+and laid by to be darned; an old black frock with full "bishop sleeves,"
+a good deal mended and dreadfully wrinkled, was given to one of the
+neighbors, expert in such matters, to be ironed; and the propriety of
+making use of various other ancient duds was eagerly and earnestly
+discussed. Aunt Patsy, whose vitality had been wonderfully aroused, now
+that there was some opportunity for making use of it, spent nearly two
+hours turning over, examining, and reflecting upon a pair of
+old-fashioned corsets, which, although they had been long cherished, she
+had never worn. She now hoped that the occasion for their use had at
+last arrived but the utter impossibility of getting herself into them
+was finally made apparent to her, and she mournfully returned them to
+the trunk.
+
+Washing, starching, ironing, darning, patching, and an immense deal of
+talk and consultation, occupied that and a good deal of the following
+day, the rest of which was given up to the repairing of an immense pair
+of green baize shoes, without which Aunt Patsy could not be persuaded to
+go into the outer air. It was Saturday morning when she began to dress
+for the trip, and although Isham, wearing a high silk hat, and a long
+black coat which had once belonged to a clergyman, arrived with the ox
+cart about noon, the old woman was not ready to start till two or three
+hours afterward. Her assistants, who had increased in number, were
+active and assiduous. Aunt Patsy was very particular as to the manner of
+her garbing, and gave them a great deal of trouble. It had been fifteen
+years since she had set foot outside of her house, and ten more since
+she had ridden in any kind of vehicle. This was a great occasion, and
+nothing concerning it was to be considered lightly.
+
+"'Tain't right," she said to Uncle Isham when he arrived, "fur a pow'ful
+ole pusson like me to set out on a jarney ob dis kin' 'thout 'ligious
+sarvices. 'Tain't 'spectable."
+
+Uncle Isham rubbed his head a good deal at this remark. "Dunno wot we
+gwine to do 'bout dat," he said. "Brudder Jeemes lib free miles off, an'
+mos' like he's out ditchin'. Couldn't git him h'yar dis ebenin', nohow."
+
+"Well den," said Aunt Patsy, "you conduc' sarvices yourse'f, Uncle
+Isham, an' we kin have prar meetin', anyhow."
+
+Uncle Isham having consented to this, he put his oxen under the care of
+a small boy, and collecting in Aunt Patsy's room the five colored women
+and girls who were in attendance upon her, he conducted "prars," making
+an extemporaneous petition which comprehended all the probable
+contingencies of the journey, even to the accident of the right wheel of
+the cart coming off, which the old man very reverently asserted that he
+would have lynched with a regular pin instead of a broken poker handle,
+if he could have found one. After the prayer, with which Aunt Patsy
+signified her entire satisfaction by frequent Amens, the company joined
+in the vigorous singing of a hymn, in which they stated that they were
+"gwine down to Jurdun, an' tho' the road is rough, when once we shuh we
+git dar, we all be glad enough; de rocks an' de stones, an' de jolts to
+de bones will be nuffin' to de glory an' de jiy."
+
+The hymn over, Uncle Isham clapped on his hat, and hurried menacingly
+after the small boy, who had let the oxen wander along the roadside
+until one wheel of the cart was nearly in the ditch. Aunt Patsy now
+partook of a collation, consisting of a piece of hoe-cake dipped in pork
+fat, and a cup of coffee, which having finished, she declared herself
+ready to start. A chair was put into the cart, and secured by ropes to
+keep it from slipping; and then, with two women on one side and Uncle
+Isham on the other, while another woman stood in the cart to receive and
+adjust her, she was placed in position.
+
+Once properly disposed she presented a figure which elicited the lively
+admiration of her friends, whose number was now increased by the arrival
+of a couple of negro boys on mules, who were going to the post-office,
+it being Saturday, and mail day. Around Aunt Patsy's shoulders was a
+bright blue worsted shawl, and upon her head a voluminous turban of
+vivid red and yellow. Since their emancipation, the negroes in that part
+of the country had discarded the positive and gaudy colors that were
+their delight when they were slaves, and had transferred their fancy to
+delicate pinks, pale blues, and similar shades. But Aunt Patsy's ideas
+about dress were those of by-gone days, and she was too old now to
+change them, and her brightest handkerchief had been selected for her
+head on this important day. Above her she held a parasol, which had been
+graciously loaned by her descendant of the fourth generation. It was
+white, and lined with pink, and on the edges still lingered some
+fragments of cotton lace.
+
+Uncle Isham now took his position by the side of his oxen, and started
+them; and slowly creaking, Aunt Patsy's vehicle moved off, followed by
+the two boys on mules, three colored women and two girls on foot, and by
+two little black urchins who were sometimes on foot, but invariably on
+the tail of the cart when they could manage to evade the backward turn
+of Uncle Isham's eye.
+
+"Ef I should go to glory on de road, Uncle Isham," said Aunt Patsy, as
+the right wheel of the cart emerged from a rather awkward rut, "I don'
+want no fuss made 'bout me. You kin jes' bury me in de clothes I got
+on, 'cep'n de pararsol, ob course, which is Liza's. Jes' wrop de quilt
+all roun' me, an' hab a extry size coffin. You needn't do nuffin' more'n
+dat."
+
+"Oh, you's not gwine to glory dis time, Aun' Patsy," replied Uncle
+Isham, who did not want to encourage the idea of the old woman's
+departure from life while in his ox cart. But after this remark of the
+old woman he was extraordinarily careful in regard to jolts and bumps.
+
+When the procession reached the domain of Miss Harriet Corvey, there was
+gathered inside the yard quite a number of the usual attendants on mail
+days, awaiting the arrival of Wesley Green with his waddling horse and
+leather bag. But all interest in the coming of the mail was lost in the
+surprise and admiration excited by the astounding apparition of old Aunt
+Patsy in the ox cart, attended by her retinue. As the oxen, skilfully
+guided by Uncle Isham's long prod, turned into the yard, everybody came
+forward to find out the reason of this unlooked-for occurrence. Even old
+Madison Chalkley, his stout legs swaddled in home-made overalls,
+dismounted from his horse, and Colonel Iston raised his tall form from
+the porch step where he had been sitting, and approached the cart.
+
+"Upon my word," said a young fellow, with high boots, slouched hat, and
+a riding whip, "if here ain't old Aunt Patsy come after a letter! Where
+do you expect a letter from, Aunt Patsy?"
+
+The old woman fixed her spectacles on him for an instant, and then said
+in a clear voice which could be heard by all the little crowd: "'Tain't
+from nobody dat I owes any money to, nohow, Mahs' Bill Trimble."
+
+A general laugh followed this rejoinder, and Uncle Isham grinned with
+gratified pride in the enduring powers of his charge. The old woman now
+put down her parasol, and made as if she would descend from the cart.
+
+"You needn't git out, Aun' Patsy," said several negro boys at once.
+"We'll fotch your letters to you."
+
+"Git 'long wid you!" said the old woman angrily. "I didn't come here fur
+no letters. Ef I wanted letters I'd sen' 'Liza fur 'em. Git out de way."
+
+A chair was now brought, and placed near the cart; a woman mounted into
+the vehicle to assist her; Uncle Isham and another colored man stood
+ready to receive her, and Aunt Patsy began her descent. This, to her
+mind, was a much more difficult and dangerous proceeding than getting
+into the cart, and she was very slow and cautious about it. First, one
+of her great green baize feet was put over the tail of the cart, and
+resting her weight upon the two men, Aunt Patsy allowed it to descend to
+the chair, where it was gradually followed by the other foot. Having
+safely accomplished this much, the old woman ejaculated: "Bress de
+Lor'!" When, in the same prudent manner, she had reached the ground,
+she heaved a sigh of relief, and fervently exclaimed: "De Lor' be
+bressed!"
+
+Supported by Uncle Isham, and the other man, Aunt Patsy now approached
+the steps. She was so old, so little, so bowed, and so apparently
+feeble, that several persons remonstrated with her for attempting to go
+into the house when anything she wanted would be gladly done for her.
+"Much 'bliged," said the old woman, "but I don' want no letters nor
+nuffin'. I's come to make a call on de white folks, an' I's gwine in."
+
+This announcement was received with a laugh, and she was allowed to
+proceed without further hindrance. She got up the porch steps without
+much difficulty, her supporters taking upon themselves most of the
+necessary exertion; but when she reached the top, she dispensed with
+their assistance. Shuffling to the front door, she there met Miss
+Harriet Corvey, who greeted the old woman with much surprise, but shook
+hands with her very cordially.
+
+"Ebenin', Miss Har'et," said Aunt Patsy. And then, lowering her voice
+she asked: "Is ole miss h'yar?"
+
+Miss Harriet hesitated a moment, and then she answered: "Yes, she is,
+but I don't believe she'll come down to see you."
+
+"Oh, I'll go up-stars," said Aunt Patsy. "Whar she?"
+
+"She's in the spare chamber," said Miss Harriet; and Aunt Patsy, with a
+nod of the head signifying that she knew all about that room, crossed
+the hall, and began, slowly but steadily, to ascend the stairs. Miss
+Harriet gazed upon her with amazement, for Aunt Patsy had been considered
+chair-ridden when the postmistress was a young woman. Arrived at the end
+of her toilsome ascent, Aunt Patsy knocked at the door of the spare
+chamber, and as the voice of her old mistress said, "Come in!" she went
+in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+When Lawrence Croft reached the Green Sulphur Springs, after his
+interview with Miss March, his soul was still bubbling and boiling with
+emotion, and it continued in that condition all night, at least during
+that great part of the night of which he was conscious. The sight of the
+lady he loved, under the new circumstances in which he found her, had
+determined him to throw prudence and precaution to the winds, and to ask
+her at once to be his wife.
+
+But the next morning Lawrence arose very late. His coffee had evidently
+been warmed over, and his bacon had been cooked for a long, long time.
+The world did not appear to him in a favorable light, and he was obliged
+to smoke two cigars before he was at all satisfied with it. While he was
+smoking he did a good deal of thinking, and it was then that he came to
+the conclusion that he would not go over to Midbranch and propose to
+Roberta March. Such precipitate action would be unjust to himself and
+unjust to her. In her eyes it would probably appear to be the act of a
+man who had been suddenly spurred to action by the sight of a rival, and
+this, if Roberta was the woman he believed her to be, would prejudice
+her against him. And yet he knew very well that these reasons would
+avail nothing if he should see her as he intended. He had found that he
+was much more in love with her than he had supposed, and he felt
+positively certain that the next time he was alone with her he would
+declare his passion.
+
+Another thing that he felt he should consider was that the presence of
+Keswick, if looked upon with a philosophic eye, was not a reason for
+immediate action. If the old engagement had positively been broken off,
+he was at the house merely as a family friend; while, on the other hand,
+if the rupture had not been absolute, and if Roberta really loved this
+tall Southerner and wished to marry him, there was a feeling of honor
+about Lawrence which forbade him to interfere at this moment. When she
+came to New York he would find out how matters really stood, and then he
+would determine on his own action.
+
+And yet he would have proposed to Roberta that moment if he had had the
+opportunity. Her personal presence would have banished philosophy, and
+even honor.
+
+Lawrence was a long time in coming to these conclusions, and it was late
+in the afternoon when he despatched his note. Having now given up his
+North Carolina trip--one object of which had been still another visit to
+Midbranch on his return--he was obliged to wait until the next day for a
+train to the North; and, consequently, he had another evening to devote
+to reflections. These, after a time, became unsatisfactory. He had told
+the exact truth in his note to Roberta, for he felt that it was
+necessary for him to leave that part of the country in order to make
+impossible an interview for which he believed the proper time had not
+arrived. He was consulting his best interests, and also, no doubt, those
+of the lady. And yet, in spite of this reasoning, he was not satisfied
+with himself. He felt that his note was not entirely honest and true.
+There was subterfuge about it, and something of duplicity. This he
+believed was foreign to his nature, and he did not like it.
+
+Lawrence had scarcely finished his breakfast the next morning when Mr
+Junius Keswick arrived at the door of his cottage. This gentleman had
+walked over from Midbranch and was a little dusty about his boots and
+the lower part of his trousers. Lawrence greeted him politely, but was
+unable to restrain a slight indication of surprise. It being more
+pleasant on the porch than in the house, Mr Croft invited his visitor to
+take a seat there, and the latter very kindly accepted the cigar which
+was offered him, although he would have preferred the pipe he had in his
+pocket.
+
+"I thought it possible," said Keswick, as soon as the two had fairly
+begun to smoke, "that you might not yet have left here, and so came over
+in the hope of seeing you."
+
+"Very kind," said Lawrence.
+
+Keswick smiled. "I must admit," said he, "that it was not solely for the
+pleasure of meeting you again that I came, although I am very glad to
+have an opportunity for renewing our acquaintance. I came because I am
+quite convinced that Miss March wished very much to see you at the time
+arranged between you, and that she was annoyed and discomposed by your
+failure to keep your engagement. Considering that you did not, and
+probably could not, know this, I deemed I would do you a service by
+informing you of the fact."
+
+"Did Miss March send you to tell me this?" exclaimed Lawrence.
+
+"Miss March knows nothing whatever of my coming," was the answer.
+
+"Then I must say, sir," exclaimed Lawrence, "that you have taken a great
+deal upon yourself."
+
+Keswick leaned forward, and after knocking off the ashes of his cigar on
+the outside of the railing, he replied in a tone quite unmoved by the
+reproach of his companion: "It may appear so on the face of it, but, in
+fact I am actuated only by a desire to serve Miss March, for whom I
+would do any service that I thought she desired. And, looking at it from
+your side, I am sure that I would be very much obliged to any one who
+would inform me, if I did not know it, that a lady greatly wished to see
+me."
+
+"Why does she want to see me?" asked Croft. "What has she to say to me?"
+
+"I do not know," said Keswick. "I only know that she was very much
+disappointed in not seeing you yesterday."
+
+"If that is the case, she might have written to me," said Lawrence.
+
+"I do not think you quite understand the situation," observed his
+companion. "Miss March is not a lady who would even intimate to a
+gentleman that she wished him to come to her when it was obvious that
+such was not his desire. But it seemed to me that if the gentleman
+should become aware of the lady's wishes through the medium of a third
+party, the matter would arrange itself without difficulty."
+
+"By the gentleman going to her, I suppose," remarked Croft.
+
+"Of course," said Keswick.
+
+"There is no 'of course' about it," was Lawrence's rather quick reply.
+
+At that moment some letters were brought to him from a little
+post-office near by, to which he had ordered his mail to be forwarded.
+As the address on one of these letters caught his eye, the somewhat
+stern expression on his face gave place to a smile, and begging his
+visitor to excuse him, he put his other letters into his pocket, and
+opened this one. It was very short, and was from Mr Candy's cashier. It
+was written from Howlett's, Virginia, a place unknown to him, and stated
+that the writer expected in a very short time to give him some accurate
+information in regard to Mr Keswick, and expressed the hope that he
+would allow the affair to remain entirely in her hands until she should
+write again. It was quite natural that, under the circumstances,
+Lawrence should smile broadly as he folded up this note. The man in
+question was sitting beside him, and, in a measure, was turning the
+tables upon him. Lawrence had been very anxious to find out what sort
+of a man was Keswick, and the latter now seemed in the way of making
+some discoveries in the same line in regard to Lawrence. One thing he
+must certainly do; he must write as soon as possible to his enterprising
+agent, and tell her that her services were no longer needed. She must
+have pushed the matter with a great deal of energy to have brought her
+down to Virginia, and he could not help hoping that her discretion was
+equal to her investigative capacity.
+
+When, after this little interruption, Lawrence again addressed Junius
+Keswick his manner was so much more affable that the other could not
+fail but notice it.
+
+"Mr Keswick," he said, "as our conversation seems to be based upon
+personalities, perhaps you will excuse me if I ask you if I am mistaken
+in believing that you were once engaged to be married to Miss March?"
+
+"You are entirely correct," said Junius. "I was engaged to her, and I
+hope to be engaged to her again."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Croft, turning in his chair with a start.
+
+"Yes," continued Keswick, "our engagement was dissolved in consequence
+of a certain family complication, and as I said before, I hope in time
+to be able to renew it."
+
+Lawrence threw away his cigar, and sat for a few moments in thought. The
+engagement, then, did not exist. Roberta was free. Recollections came
+to him of his own intercourse with her during the past summer, and his
+heart gave a bound. "Mr Keswick," said he, "upon consideration of the
+matter I think I will call upon Miss March this morning."
+
+If Keswick had expressed himself entirely satisfied with this decision
+he would have done injustice to his feelings. The service he had taken
+upon himself to perform for Miss March he had considered a duty, but if
+his mission had failed he would have been better pleased than with its
+success. He made, however, a courteous reply to Croft's remark, and rose
+to depart. But this the other would not allow.
+
+"You told me," said Croft, "that you walked over here; but it is much
+warmer now, and you must not think of such a thing as walking back. The
+man here has a horse and buggy. I will get him to harness up, and I will
+drive you over to Midbranch."
+
+As there was no good reason why he should decline this offer, Junius
+accepted it, and in half an hour the two were on their way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+Old Mr Brandon of Midbranch was not in a very happy frame of mind, and
+he had good reasons for dissatisfaction. He was an ardent supporter of a
+marriage between his niece and Junius Keswick; and when the engagement
+had been broken off he had considered that both these young people had
+acted in a manner very foolish and contrary to their best interests.
+There was no opposition to the match except from old Mrs Keswick, who
+was the aunt of Junius, but who considered herself as occupying the
+position of a mother. Junius was the son of a sister who had also
+married into the Keswick family, and his parents having died while he
+was a boy, his aunt had taken him under her charge, and her house had
+then became his home; although of late years some of his absences had
+been long ones. Mrs Keswick had no personal objections to Roberta, never
+having seen that lady, and knowing little of her; but an alliance
+between her Junius and any member of that branch of the Brandons,
+"which," to use the old lady's own words, "had for four generations
+cheated, stripped, and scornfully used my people, scattering their atoms
+over the face of three counties," was monstrous. Nothing could make her
+consent to such an enormity, and she had informed Junius that if he
+married that March girl three of them should live together--himself, his
+wife, and her undying curse. In order that Miss March might not fail to
+hear of this post-connubial arrangement, she had been informed of it by
+letter. Of course this had broken off the engagement, for Roberta would
+not live under a curse, nor would she tear a man from the only near
+relative he had in the world. Keswick himself, like most men, would have
+been willing to have this tearing take place for the sake of uniting
+himself to such a charming creature as Roberta March. But the lady on
+one side was as inflexible as the lady on the other, and the engagement
+was definitely and absolutely ended.
+
+Mr Brandon considered all this as stuff and nonsense. He could not deny
+that his branch of the Brandons had certainly got a good deal out of Mrs
+Keswick's family. But here was a chance to make everything all right
+again, and he would be delighted to see Junius, a relative, although a
+distant one, come into possession of Midbranch. As for the old lady's
+opposition, that should not be considered at all, he thought. It was his
+opinion that her mind had been twisted by her bad temper, and nothing
+she could say could hurt anybody.
+
+Of late Mr Brandon had been much encouraged by the fact that Junius had
+begun to resume his position as a friend of the family. This was all
+very well. If the young people, by occasional meetings, could keep alive
+their sentiments toward each other, the time would come when all
+opposition would cease, and the marriage would become an assured fact.
+He did not believe either of the young people would care enough for a
+post-mortem curse, if there should be one, to keep themselves separated
+from each other on its account for the rest of their lives.
+
+But the recent quite unexpected return of Lawrence Croft to Midbranch,
+combined with the evident discomposure into which Roberta had been
+thrown by his failure to come the next day, had given the old gentleman
+some unpleasant ideas. His niece had mentioned that she expected Mr
+Croft that day, and although she said nothing in regard to her
+subsequent disappointment and vexation, his mind was quite acute enough
+to perceive it. Exactly what it all meant he knew not, but it augured
+danger. For the first time he began to look upon Mr Croft in the light
+of a suitor for Roberta. If a jealous feeling at finding another person
+on the ground was the cause of his not coming again, it showed that he
+was in earnest, and this, added to the evident disturbance of mind of
+both Roberta and Junius, was enough to give Mr Brandon most serious
+fears that an obstacle to his cherished plan was arising. Roberta was
+fond of city life, of society, of travel, and if she had really made up
+her mind that her union with Junius was no longer to be thought of, the
+advent of a man like Croft, who had been making her acquaintance all
+summer, and who had now returned to Virginia, no doubt for the sole
+purpose of seeing her again was, to say the least, exceedingly ominous.
+One thing only could correct this deplorable state of affairs. The
+absurd bar to the union of Junius and Roberta should be removed, and
+they should be allowed to enter upon the happiness that was their right.
+
+Above all, the estate of Midbranch should not be suffered to go into the
+possession of an outsider, who might be good enough, but who was of no
+earthly moment or interest to the Brandons. He would go himself, and see
+the widow Keswick, and talk her out of her nonsense. It was a long time
+since he had met the old wild cat, as he termed her, and his
+recollection of the last interview was not pleasant, but he was not
+afraid of her, and he hoped that the common sense of what he would say
+would bring her to reason.
+
+Mr Brandon made up his mind during the night; and when he came down to
+breakfast he was very glad to find that Junius had already gone out for
+a walk. The distance to the widow Keswick's house was about fifteen
+miles, a pleasant day's ride for the old gentleman, and as he did not
+expect to return until the next day, he felt obliged to inform Roberta
+of his destination, although, of course, he said nothing about the
+object of his visit. He told his niece that he was obliged to see the
+widow Keswick on business, to which remark she listened without reply.
+
+Soon after breakfast he mounted his good horse, Albemarle, and early in
+the afternoon he arrived at the widow Keswick's gate. He had looked for
+a stormy reception, in which the thunder-bolts of rage should burst
+around him, and he was surprised, therefore, to be received with the
+frigidity of the North Pole.
+
+"I never expected," she said, without any previous courtesy, "to see one
+of your people under my roof, and it is not very long ago since I would
+have gone away from it the moment any one of you came near it."
+
+"I am happy, madam," said Mr Brandon, in his most courteous manner,
+"that that day is past."
+
+"My staying won't do you any good," said the old lady, whose purple
+sun-bonnet seemed to heave with the uprisal of her hair, "except,
+perhaps, to get you a better meal than the servants would have given
+you. But I want a lawyer, and I can't afford to pay for one either, and
+when I saw you coming I just made up my mind to get something out of
+you, and if I do it, it'll be the first red mark for my side of the
+family."
+
+Mr Brandon assured her that nothing would give him more pleasure than to
+assist her in any way in his power.
+
+"Very well, then," said Mrs Keswick, "just sit down on that bench, and,
+when we have got through, your horse can be taken, and you can rest a
+while, though it seems a very curious thing that you should want to stop
+here to rest."
+
+"Well, madam," said Mr Brandon, seating himself as comfortably as
+possible on a wooden bench, "I shall be happy to hear anything you have
+to say."
+
+The old lady did not sit down, but stood up in front of him, leaning on
+her umbrella, with which faithful companion she had been about to set
+out on her walk. "When my son Junius came home a while ago--" she began.
+
+"Do you still call him your son?" interrupted Mr Brandon.
+
+"Indeed I do!" was the very prompt answer. "That's just what he is. And,
+as I was going to say, when he wrote me a short time ago that he was
+coming here, I believed, from his letter, that he had some scheme on
+hand in regard to your niece, and I made up my mind I wouldn't stay in
+the house to hear anything more said on that subject. I had told him
+that I never wanted him to say another word about it; and it made my
+blood boil, sir, to think that he had come again to try to cozen me into
+the vile compact."
+
+"Madam!" exclaimed Mr Brandon.
+
+"The next day," continued Mrs Keswick, "a lady arrived; and as soon as I
+saw her drive into the gate I felt sure it was Roberta March, and that
+the two had hatched up a plot to come and work on my feelings, and so I
+wouldn't come near the house."
+
+"Madam!" exclaimed Mr Brandon, "how could you dream such a thing of my
+niece? You don't know her, madam."
+
+"No," said the old lady, "I don't know her, but I knew she belonged to
+your family, and so I was not to be surprised at anything she did. But I
+found out I was mistaken. An old negro woman recognized this young
+person as the daughter of my younger sister you know there were three of
+us. The child was born and raised here, but I have not seen and have
+scarcely heard of her since she was eight years old."
+
+"That's very extraordinary, madam," said Mr Brandon.
+
+"No, it isn't, when you consider the stubbornness, the obstinacy, and
+the wickedness of some people. My sister sickened when the child was
+about six years old, and her husband, Harvey Peyton--"
+
+"I have frequently heard of him, madam," said Mr Brandon.
+
+"And I wish I never had," said she. "Well, he was travelling most of the
+time, a thing my sister couldn't do; but he came here then and stayed,
+off and on, till she died. And not long afterward, just because I told
+him that I intended to consider the child as my child, and that she
+should have the name of Keswick instead of his name, and should know me
+as her mother, and live with me always, he got angry and flared up, and
+actually took the child away. I gave it to him hot, I can tell you,
+before he left, and I never saw him again. He was so eaten up with rage
+because I wanted to take the little Annie for my own, that he filled her
+mind with such prejudices against me that when he died a year or two
+ago, she actually went to work to get her own living instead of applying
+to me for help. But now she has come down here, and I was really filled
+with joy to have her again and carry out the plan on which my heart had
+long been set--that is to marry her to her cousin Junius, and let them
+have this farm when I am gone,----?"
+
+At this Mr Brandon raised his eyebrows, and lowered the corners of his
+mouth.
+
+"But I suddenly discover," continued the old, lady, "that the little
+wretch is married--actually married."
+
+At this Mr Brandon lowered his eyebrows and raised the corners of his
+mouth. "Did her husband come with her?" he asked, pleasantly. And he
+gave a few long, free breaths as if he had just passed in safety a very
+dangerous and unsuspected rock.
+
+"No, he didn't," replied the old lady. "I don't know where he is, and,
+from what I can make out, he is an utterly good-for-nothing fellow,
+allowing his wife to go where she pleases, and take care of herself. Now
+this abominable marriage stands square in the way of the plan which
+again rose up in my mind the moment I heard that the girl was in my
+house. If Junius and she should marry, there would be no more dangers
+for me to look out for."
+
+"But the existence of a husband," said Mr Brandon blandly, "puts an end
+to all thoughts of such an alliance."
+
+"No it don't," said the old lady, bringing her umbrella down with force
+on the porch. "Not a bit of it. Such an outrageous marriage should not
+be suffered to exist. They should be divorced. He does nothing for her,
+and neglects and deserts her absolutely. There's every ground for a
+divorce, or enough grounds, at any rate. All that's necessary is for a
+lawyer to take it up. I don't know any lawyers, and when I saw you
+riding up from the road gate I said to myself: 'Here's the very man I
+want,--and it's full time I should get something from people who have
+taken nearly everything from me.'"
+
+Mr Brandon bowed.
+
+"And now," continued the old lady, "I am going to put the case into your
+hands. The man is, evidently, a good-for-nothing scoundrel, and has
+probably spent the little money that her miserable father left her. It's
+a clear case of desertion, and there should be no trouble at all in
+getting the divorce."
+
+Mr Brandon looked down upon the floor of the porch, and smiled. This was
+a pretty case, he thought, to put into his hands. Here was a marriage
+which was the strongest protection in the promotion of his own plan, and
+he was asked to annul it. "Very good," thought Mr Brandon, "very good."
+And he smiled again. But he was an old-fashioned gentleman, and not used
+to refuse requests made to him by ladies. "I will look into it, madam,"
+said he. "I will look into it, and see what can be done."
+
+"Something must be done," said the old lady; "and the right thing too.
+How long do you intend to stay here?"
+
+"I thought of spending the night, madam, as my horse and myself are
+scarcely in condition to continue our journey to-day."
+
+"Stay as long as you like," said Mrs Keswick. "I turn nobody from my
+doors, even if they belong to the Brandon family. I want you to talk to
+my niece, and get all you can out of her about this thing, and then you
+can go to work and blot out this contemptible marriage as soon as
+possible."
+
+"The first thing," said Mr Brandon, "will be to talk to the lady."
+
+This reply being satisfactory to Mrs Keswick, Uncle Isham was called to
+take the horse and attend to him, while the master was invited into the
+house.
+
+Mr Brandon first met Mrs Null at supper time, and her appearance very
+much pleased him. "It is not likely," he said to himself, "that the man
+lives who would willingly give up such a charming young creature as
+this." They were obliged to introduce themselves to each other, as the
+lady of the house had not yet appeared. After a while Letty, who was in
+attendance, advised them to sit down as "de light bread an' de
+batter-bread was gittin' cole."
+
+"We could not think of such a thing as sitting at table before Mrs
+Keswick arrives," said Mr Brandon.
+
+"Oh, dar's no knowin' when she'll come," said the blooming Letty. "She
+may be h'yar by breakfus time, but dar ain't nobuddy in dis yere worl'
+kin tell. She's down at de bahn now, blowin' up Plez fur gwine to sleep
+when he was a shellin' de cohnfiel' peas. An' when she's got froo wid
+him she's got a bone to pick wid Uncle Isham 'bout de gyardin'. 'Tain't
+no use waitin' fur ole miss. She nebber do come when de bell rings. She
+come when she git ready, an' not afore."
+
+Mr Brandon now felt quite sure that it was the intention of his hostess
+not to break bread with one of his family, and so he seated himself, Mrs
+Null taking the head of the table and pouring out the tea and coffee.
+
+"It has been a long time, madam, since you were in this part of the
+country," said the old gentleman, as he drew the smoking batter-bread
+toward him and began to cut it.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs Null, "not since I was a little girl. I suppose you have
+heard, sir, that Aunt Keswick and my father were on very bad terms, and
+would not have anything to do with each other?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Mr Brandon, "I have heard that."
+
+"But my father is not living now, and I am down here again."
+
+"And your husband? He did not accompany you?" said Mr Brandon.
+
+"No," replied Mrs Null, very quickly. "We were both very sorry that it
+was not possible for him to come with me."
+
+Mr Brandon's spirits began to rise. This did not look quite like
+desertion. "I have no doubt you have a very good husband. I am sure you
+deserve such a one," he said with the air of a father, and the purpose
+of a lawyer.
+
+"Good!" exclaimed Mrs Null, her eyes sparkling.
+
+"He couldn't be better if he tried! Will you have sweet milk, or
+buttermilk?"
+
+"Buttermilk, if you please," said Mr Brandon. "Of course your aunt was
+delighted to have you with her again."
+
+"Oh," said Mrs Null, with a laugh, "she was not at home when I arrived,
+but when she returned nothing could be too good for me. Why, she had
+been here scarcely half an hour, and hadn't taken off her sun-bonnet,
+before she told me I was to marry Junius and we two were to have this
+farm."
+
+"A very pleasant plan, truly," said Mr Brandon.
+
+"But then, you see," continued the young girl, "Mr Null stood dreadfully
+in the way of such an arrangement; and when Aunt Keswick heard about him
+you can't imagine what a change came over her."
+
+"Oh, yes I can; yes I can," exclaimed Mr Brandon--"I can imagine it
+very well."
+
+"But she didn't give up a bit," said Mrs Null. "I don't think she ever
+does give up."
+
+"You are right, there," said Mr Brandon, "quite right. But what does she
+propose to do?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure; but she said I had no right to marry without
+the consent of my surviving relatives, and that she was going to look
+into it. I can't think what she means by that."
+
+Mr Brandon made no immediate answer. He gave Mrs Null some damson
+preserves, and he took some himself, and then he helped himself to a
+great hot roll, from a plate that Letty had just brought in, and
+carefully opening it he buttered it on the inside, and covered one-half
+of it with the damson preserves. This he began slowly to eat, drinking
+at times from the foaming glass of buttermilk at the side of his plate,
+from which the coffee-cup had been removed. When he had finished the
+half roll he again spoke. "I think, my dear young lady, that your aunt
+is desirous of having your marriage set aside."
+
+"How can she do that?" exclaimed the girl, her face flushing. "Has she
+been talking to you about it?"
+
+"I cannot deny that she has spoken to me on the subject," he answered,
+"I being a lawyer. But I will say to you, in strict confidence, please,
+that if you and your husband are sincerely attached to each other there
+is nothing on earth she can do to separate you."
+
+"Attached!" exclaimed Mrs Null. "It would be impossible for us to be
+more attached than we are. We never have had the slightest difference,
+even of opinion, since our wedding day. Why, I believe that we are more
+like one person than any married couple in the world."
+
+"I am very glad to hear it," said Mr Brandon, finishing his
+buttermilk--"very glad indeed. And, feeling as you do, I am certain
+that nothing your aunt can say will make any impression on you in regard
+to seeking a divorce."
+
+"I should think not!" said Mrs Null, sitting up very straight. "Divorce
+indeed!"
+
+"I fully uphold you in the stand you have taken," said Mr Brandon. "But
+I beg you will not mention this conversation to your aunt. It would only
+annoy her. Is your cousin expected here shortly?"
+
+"I believe so," she said. "To be sure, my aunt left the house the last
+time he came, but she has his address, and has written for him. I think
+she wants us to get acquainted as soon as possible, so that no time will
+be lost in marrying us after poor Mr Null is disposed of."
+
+"Very good, very good," said Mr Brandon with a laugh. "And now, my dear
+young friend, I want to give you a piece of advice. Stay here as long as
+you can. Your aunt will soon perceive the absurdity of her ideas in
+regard to your husband, and will cease to annoy you. Make a friend of
+your cousin Junius, whom I know and respect highly; and he certainly
+will be of advantage to you. Above all things, endeavor to thoroughly
+reconcile him and Mrs Keswick, so that she will cease to oppose his
+wishes, and to interfere with his future fortune. If you can bring back
+good feeling between these two, you will be the angel of the family."
+
+"Thank you," said Mrs Null, as they rose from the table.
+
+The next morning, after Mr Brandon and Mrs Null had breakfasted
+together, the mistress of the house, having apparently finished the
+performance of the duties which had kept her from the breakfast-table,
+had some conversation with her visitor. In this he repeated very little
+of what he had said to the younger lady the night before, but he
+assured Mrs Keswick that he had discovered that it would be a very
+delicate thing to propose to her niece a divorce from her husband, a
+thing to which she was not at all inclined, as he had found.
+
+"Of course not! of course not!" exclaimed Mrs Keswick. "She can't be
+expected to see what a wretched plight she has got herself into by
+marrying this straggler from nobody knows where."
+
+"But, madam," said Mr Brandon, "if you worry her about it, she will
+leave you, and then all will be at an end. Now, let me advise you as
+your lawyer. Keep her here as long as you can. Do everything possible to
+foster friendship and good feeling between her and Junius; and to do
+this you must forget as far as possible all that has gone by, and be
+friendly with both of them yourself."
+
+"Humph!" said the widow Keswick. "I didn't ask you for advice of that
+sort."
+
+"It is all a part of the successful working of the case, madam," said Mr
+Brandon. "A thorough good feeling must be established before anything
+else can be done."
+
+"I suppose so," said the old lady. "She must learn to like us before she
+begins to hate him. And how about your niece? Are you going to send her
+down here to help on in the good feeling?"
+
+"I have not brought my niece into this affair," replied Mr Brandon, with
+dignity.
+
+"Well, then, see that you don't," was the widow Keswick's reply. And the
+interview terminated.
+
+When Mr Brandon rode away on his good horse Albemarle, he looked at the
+post of the road gate from which he was lifting the latch by means of
+the long wooden handle arranged for the convenience of riders, and said
+to himself: "John Keswick was a good man, but I don't wonder he came out
+here and shot himself. It is a great pity though that it wasn't his wife
+who did it, instead of him. That would have been a blessing to all of
+us. But," he added, contemplatively, as he closed the gate, "the people
+in this world who ought to blow out their brains, never do."
+
+Soon after he had gone, Mrs Null went up Pine Top Hill, and sat down on
+the rock to have a "think." "Now, then, Freddy," she said, "everything
+depends on you. If you don't stand by me I am lost--that is to say, I
+must go away from here before Junius comes; and you know I don't want to
+do that. I want to see him on my account, and on his account too; but I
+don't want him crammed down my throat for a husband the moment he
+arrives, and that is just what will happen if you don't do your duty, Mr
+Null. Even if it wasn't for you, I don't want to look at him from the
+husband point of view, because, of course, he is a very different person
+from what he used to be, and is a total stranger to me.
+
+"It is actually more than twelve years since I have seen him, and
+besides that, he is just as good as engaged to that niece of Mr
+Brandon's, who is a horrible mixture of a she-wolf and a female mule, if
+I am to believe Aunt Keswick, but I expect she is, truly, a very nice
+girl. Though, to be sure, she can't have much spirit if she consented to
+break off her marriage just on account of the back-handed benediction
+which Aunt Keswick told me she offered her as a wedding gift. If I had
+wanted to marry a man I would have let the old lady curse the heels off
+her boots before I would have paid any attention to her. Cursing don't
+hurt anybody but the curser.
+
+"What I want of Junius is to make a friend of him, if he turns out to be
+the right kind of a person, and to tell him about this Mr Croft who is
+so anxious to find him. The only person I have met yet who seems like an
+ordinary Christian is old Mr Brandon, and he's a sly one, I'm afraid.
+Aunt Keswick thinks he stopped here on his way somewhere, but I don't
+believe a word of it. I believe he came for reasons of his own, and went
+right straight back again. You are almost as much to him, Freddy, as you
+are to me. It would have made you laugh if you could have seen how his
+face lighted up when he heard we were happy together, and that I would
+not listen to a divorce. And yet I am sure he has promised Aunt Keswick
+to see what he can do about getting one. He wants me to stay here and
+make friends of Aunt Keswick and Junius, but he wouldn't like that if it
+were not for you, Mr Null. You make everything safe for him.
+
+"And now, Freddy, I tell you again, that all depends upon you. If I'm to
+stay here--and I want to do that, for a time any way, for although Aunt
+Keswick is so awfully queer, she's my own aunt, and that's more than I
+can say for anybody else in the world--you must stiffen up, and stand by
+me. It won't do to give way for a minute. If necessary you must take
+tonics, and have a steel rod down your back, if you can't keep yourself
+erect without it. You must have your legs padded, and your chest thrown
+out; and you must stand up very strong and sturdy, Freddy, and not let
+them push you an inch this way or that. And now that we have made up our
+minds on this subject, we'll go down, for it's getting a little cool on
+the top of this hill."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+On the morning of her uncle's departure from Midbranch, Roberta came out
+on the porch, and took her seat in a large wooden arm-chair, putting
+down her key basket on the floor beside her. The day was bright and
+sunny, and the shadows of two or three turkey buzzards, who were
+circling in the air, moved over the field in front of the house. In this
+field also moved, not so fast, nor so gracefully as the shadows, two
+ploughs, one near by, and the other at quite a distance. The woods which
+shut out a great part of the horizon showed many a bit of color, but the
+scene, although bright enough in some of its tones, was not a cheering
+one to Roberta; and she needed cheering.
+
+Had it not been for the delay of her father in making his winter visit
+to New York, she would now be in that city, but if things had gone on as
+she expected they would, she would have been perfectly satisfied to
+remain several weeks longer at Midbranch. Junius Keswick, who had not
+visited the house for a long time, had come to them again; and, now that
+the subject of love and marriage had been set aside, it was charming to
+have him there as a friend. They not only walked in the woods, but they
+took long rides over the country, Mr Brandon having waived his
+objections in regard to his niece riding about with gentlemen. She had
+even been pleased with the unexpected return of Lawrence Croft, for, for
+reasons of her own, she wished very much to have a talk with him. But he
+had not fulfilled his promise to her, and had gone away in a very
+unsatisfactory manner.
+
+This morning she felt a little lonely, too, for Junius had left the
+place before breakfast, and she did not know where he had gone; and her
+uncle had actually ridden away to see that horrible widow Keswick,
+merely stating that his errand was a business one, and that he would be
+back the next day. Roberta knew that there had been a great deal of
+business, particularly that of an unpleasant kind, between the two
+families, but she did not believe that there was any ordinary affair
+concerning dollars and cents which would require the presence of her
+uncle at the house of his old enemy. She was very much afraid that he
+had gone there to try to smooth up matters in regard to Junius and
+herself. The thought of this made her indignant. She did not know what
+her uncle would say, and she did not want him to say anything. He could
+not make the horrible old creature change her mind in regard to the
+marriage, and if this was not done, there was no use discussing the
+matter at all, and she did not wish people to think she was anxious for
+the match.
+
+It was plain, however, that her uncle's desire for it had experienced a
+strong revival; and the unexpected return of Lawrence Croft had probably
+had a great effect on him. He had not objected to the visits of that
+gentleman during the summer, but he had never shown any strong liking
+for him, and Roberta said to herself that she could not see, for her
+part, why this should be; Mr Croft was a thorough gentleman, an
+exceedingly well educated and agreeable man.
+
+As to Junius, she was afraid that he had not the spirit which she used
+to think he possessed. There was something about him she could not
+understand. In former days, when Junius was in New York, she compared
+him with the young men there, very much to his advantage, but now Mr
+Croft seemed to throw him somewhat in the background. When Croft wanted
+to do anything he did it; even his failure to come to her when he said
+he would do so showed strength of will. If Junius had promised to come
+he would have come, even if he had not wanted to do so, and there would
+have been something weak about that.
+
+While she thus sat thinking, and gazing over the landscape, she saw afar
+off, on a portion of the road which ran along-side the woods, a vehicle
+slowly making its way to the house. Roberta had large and beautiful
+eyes, but they were not of the kind which would enable her to discover
+at so great a distance what sort of vehicle this was, and who was in it.
+As the road led nowhere but to Midbranch she was naturally desirous to
+know who was coming. She stepped into the hall, and, taking a small
+bell, rang it vigorously, and in a moment her youthful handmaiden,
+Peggy, appeared upon the scene. Peggy's habit of projecting her eyes
+into the far away could often be turned to practical account for her
+vision was, in a measure, telescopic.
+
+"What is that coming here along the road?" asked Miss Roberta, stepping
+upon the porch, and pointing out the distant vehicle.
+
+Peggy stood up straight, let her arms hang close to her sides, and
+looked steadfastly forth. "Wot's comin', Miss Rob," said she, "is the
+buggy 'longin' to Mister Michaels, at de Springs, an' his ole
+mud-colored hoss is haulin' it. Dem dat's in it is Mahs' Junius an'
+Mister Crof'."
+
+"Are you sure of that?" exclaimed Miss Roberta in astonishment. "Look
+again."
+
+"Yaas'm," replied Peggy. "I's sartin shuh. But dey jes gwine behin' de
+trees now."
+
+The road was not again visible for some distance, but when the buggy
+reappeared Peggy gave a start, and exclaimed: "Dar's on'y one pusson in
+it now, Miss Rob."
+
+"Which is it?" exclaimed her mistress quickly, shading her eyes, and
+endeavoring to see for herself.
+
+"It's Mister Crof'," said Peggy. "Mahs' Junius mus' done gone back."
+
+"It is too bad!" exclaimed Miss Roberta. "I will not see him. Peggy,"
+she said, snatching up the key basket, and stepping toward the hall
+door, "when that gentleman, Mr Croft, comes, you must tell him that I am
+up-stairs lying down, that I am not well, and cannot see him, and that
+your Master Robert is not at home."
+
+"Ef Mahs' Junius come, does you want me to tell him de same thing?"
+
+"But you said he was not in the buggy," said her mistress.
+
+"No'm," answered Peggy, "but p'raps he done cut acrost de plough fiel',
+an' git h'yar fus'."
+
+"If he comes first," said Miss Roberta, a shade of severity pervading
+her handsome features, "I want to see him." And with this, she went
+up-stairs.
+
+Peggy, with her shoes on, possessed the stolid steadiness of a wooden
+grenadier, for the heaviness of the massive boots seemed to permeate her
+whole being, and communicated what might be considered a slow and heavy
+footfall to her intellect. Peggy, without shoes, was a panther on two
+legs, and her mind, like her body, was capable of enormous leaps.
+Slipping off her heavy brogans, she made a single bound, and stood upon
+the railing of the porch, and, throwing her arm around a post, gazed
+forth from this point of vantage.
+
+"Bress my eberlastin' soul!" she exclaimed, "if Mister Crof ain't got
+ter de road gate, and is a waitin' dar fur somebody to come open it!
+Does he think anybody gwine to see him all de way from de house, and
+come open de gate? Reckin' he don' know dat ole mud-color hoss. He
+mought git out and let down de whole fence, an' dat ole hoss ud nebber
+move. Bress my soul moh' p'intedly! ef Mahs' Junius ain't comin' 'long
+ter open de gate!"
+
+For a few moments Peggy stood and stared, her mind not capable of
+grasping this astounding situation. "No, he ain't nudder!" she presently
+exclaimed with an air of relief. "Mahs' Junius done tole him dat ef he
+want dat gate open he better git down and open it hese'f. Dat's right
+Mahs' Junius! Stick up to dat! Dar go Mahs' Junius into de woods an'
+Mister Crof' he git out, an' go after him. Dey's gwine to fight, sartin,
+shuh! Lordee! wot fur dey 'low dem bushes ter grow 'long de fence to
+keep folks from seein' wot's gwine on!"
+
+There was nothing now to be seen from the railing, and Peggy jumped down
+on the porch. Her activity seemed to pervade her being. She ran down the
+front steps, crossed the lawn, and mounted the stile. Here she could
+catch sight of the two men who seemed to be disputing. This was too much
+for Peggy. If there was to be a fight she wanted to see it; and, apart
+from her curiosity, she had a loyal interest in the event. Down the
+steps, and along the road she went at the top of her speed, and soon
+reached the gate. Her arrival was not noticed by any one except the
+mud-colored horse, who gazed at her inquiringly; and looking through the
+bars, without opening the gate, Peggy had a good view of the gentlemen.
+
+The situation was a more simple one than Peggy had imagined. The road,
+for the last half mile, had been an up-hill one, and Keswick, as much to
+stretch his own legs as to save those of the horse, had alighted to
+walk, while Lawrence, as in duty bound, had waited for him at the gate.
+Here a little argument had arisen. Keswick, who did not wish to be at the
+house, or indeed about the place while Roberta was having her conference
+with Mr Croft, had said that he had concluded not to go up to the house at
+present, but would take a walk through the woods instead. Lawrence, who
+thought he divined his reason, felt an honorable indisposition to accept
+this advantage at the hands of a man who was, most indisputably, his
+rival. If they went together it would not appear as if he had waited for
+Keswick's absence to return; and there would still be no reason why he
+should not have his private walk and talk with Miss March.
+
+At all events, it seemed to him unfair to leave Keswick at the gate
+while he went up to the house by himself, and the notion of it did not
+please him at all. Keswick, however, was very resolute in his
+opposition. He objected even to seeing Roberta and Croft together. He
+thought, besides, if he and Croft came to the house at the same time it
+would appear very much as if he, Junius, had brought the other, and this
+was an appearance he wished very much to avoid. He had walked away, and
+Lawrence had jumped from the buggy to continue the friendly argument
+which was not finished when Peggy arrived. Almost immediately after this
+event Keswick positively insisted that he would go for a walk, and
+Lawrence reluctantly turned toward the vehicle.
+
+Peggy's mind was filled with horror. Master Junius had been frightened
+away, and the other man was coming up to the house! She could not stand
+there and allow such a catastrophe. Jerking open the gate, she rushed
+into the road and confronted Keswick.
+
+"Mahs' Junius," she exclaimed, "Miss Rob's orful sick wid her back an'
+her j'ints, an' she say she can't see no kump'ny folks, an' Mahs' Robert
+he done gone away to see ole Miss Keswick. I jes run down h'yar to tell
+you to hurry up."
+
+Keswick started. "Where did you say your Master Robert had gone?"
+
+"To ole Miss Keswick's. He went dis mawnin'."
+
+Junius turned slightly pale, and addressing Mr Croft, said: "Something
+very strange must have happened here! Miss March is ill, and Mr Brandon
+has gone to a place to which I think nothing but a matter of the utmost
+importance could take him."
+
+"In that case," said Mr Croft, "it will be highly improper for me to go
+to the house just now. I am very glad that I heard the news before I got
+there. I will return to the Springs, and will call to-morrow and inquire
+after Miss March's health. Do not let me detain you as your presence is
+evidently much needed at the house."
+
+"Thank you," said Keswick, hurriedly shaking hands with him. "I am
+afraid something very unexpected has happened, and so beg you will
+excuse me. Good-morning." And passing through the gateway, he rapidly
+strode toward the house, while Lawrence prepared to turn his horse's
+head toward the Springs.
+
+But, although Junius Keswick walked rapidly, Peggy, who had started
+first for the house, kept well in advance of him. Away she went,
+skipping, running, dancing. Once she stopped and turned, and saw that
+the buggy, with the mud-colored horse, was being driven away, and that
+Master Junius was coming along the road to the house. Then she started
+off, and ran steadily, the rapid show of the light-colored soles of her
+feet behind her suggestive of a steamer's wake. Up the broad stile she
+went, two steps at a time, and down the other side in a couple of jumps;
+a dozen skips took her across the lawn; and she bounded up to the porch
+as if each wooden step had been a springing board. She rushed up-stairs,
+and stood at the open door of Miss Roberta's room where that lady
+reclined upon a lounge.
+
+"Hi', Miss Rob!" she exclaimed, involuntarily snapping her fingers as
+she spoke. "Mahs' Junius comin', all by hese'f, an' I done sent de udder
+gemman clean off, kitin'!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Junius Keswick was received by Miss Roberta in the parlor. Her face was
+colder and sterner than he had ever seen it before, and his countenance
+was very much troubled. Each wished to speak first, and ask questions,
+but the lady went immediately to the front.
+
+"How did it happen that you and Mr Croft were coming here together?
+Where had you been?"
+
+"We came from the Green Sulphur Springs, where I called on him this
+morning."
+
+"I thought he was obliged to return immediately to the North. What made
+him change his mind?"
+
+"Perhaps it will be better not to discuss that now," said Junius.
+
+"I wish to discuss it," was the reply. "What induced him not to go?"
+
+"I did," answered Junius, looking steadfastly at her. "Did you not wish
+to see him?"
+
+For a moment Miss Roberta did not answer, but her face grew pale, and
+she threw herself back in the chair in which she was sitting. "Never in
+my life," she said, "have I been subjected to such mortification! Of
+course I wished him to come, but to come of his own accord, and not at
+my bidding. How do you suppose I would have felt if he had presented
+himself, and asked me what I wished to say to him? It is an insult you
+have offered me."
+
+"It is not an insult," said Keswick quietly. "It was a service of--of
+affection. I saw that you were annoyed and troubled by Mr Croft's
+failure to keep his engagement, and what I did was simply--"
+
+"Stop!" said Roberta peremptorily. "I do not wish to talk of it any
+more."
+
+Junius stood before her a moment in silence, and then he said: "Will you
+tell me if my Aunt Keswick is ill or dead, and why did Mr Brandon go
+there?"
+
+"She is neither;" answered Roberta, "and he went there on business." And
+with this she arose and left the room.
+
+Peggy, who had been in the hall, now made a bolt down the back stairs
+into the basement regions, where was situated the kitchen. In this
+spacious apartment she found Aunt Judy, the cook, sitting before a large
+wood fire, and holding in her hand a long iron ladle. There was nothing
+near her which she could dip or stir with a ladle, and it was probably
+retained during her period of leisure as a symbol of her position and
+authority.
+
+Peggy squatted on her heels, close to Aunt Judy's side, and thus
+addressed her: "Aun' Judy, ef I tell you sumfin', soul an' honor, hope
+o' glory, you'll neber tell?"
+
+"Hope o' glory, neber!" said Aunt Judy, turning a look of interest on
+the girl.
+
+"Well, den, look h'yar. You know Miss Rob she got two beaux; one is
+Mahs' Junius, an' de udder is de gemman wid de speckle trousers from de
+Norf."
+
+"Yes, I know dat," said Aunt Judy. "Has dey fit?"
+
+"Not yit, but dey wos gwine to," said Peggy, "but I seed 'em, an' I tore
+down de road to de gate whar dey wos gittin ready to fight, an' I jes'
+let dat dar Mister Crof' know wot low-down white trash Miss Rob think he
+wos, an' den he said ef dat war so 'twant no use fur to come in, an' he
+turn' roun' de buggy, an' cl'ar'd out. Den Mahs' Junius he come to de
+house, an' dar Miss Rob in de parlor waitin' fur him. I stood jes'
+outside de doh', so's to be out de way, but Mahs' Junius he kinder back
+agin de doh', an' shet it. But I clap'd my year ter de crack, an' I hear
+eberything dey said."
+
+"Wot dey say?" asked Aunt Judy, her mouth open, her eyes dilated, and
+the long ladle trembling in her hand.
+
+"Mahs' Junius he say to Miss Rob that he lub her better'n his own skin,
+or de clouds in de sky, or de flowers in de fiel' wot perish, an' dat de
+udder man he done cut an' run, an' would she be Miss Junius all de res'
+ob der libes foreber an' eber, amen?"
+
+"Dat wos pow'ful movin'!" ejaculated Aunt Judy. "An' wot did Miss Rob
+say?"
+
+"Miss Rob she say, 'I 'cept your kind offer, sah, wid pleasure.' An' den
+I hearn 'em comin', an' I cut down h'yar."
+
+"Glory! Hallelujah!" exclaimed Aunt Judy, bringing her ladle down upon
+the brick hearth. "Now is I ready to die when my time comes, fur Mahs'
+Junius 'll have dis farm, an' de house, an' de cabins, an' dey won't
+go to no strahnger from de Norf."
+
+"Amen," said Peggy. "An' Aun' Judy, dat ar piece ob pie ain't no 'count
+to nobuddy."
+
+"You kin hab it, chile," said Aunt Judy, rising, and taking from a shelf
+a large piece of cold apple pie, "an' bressed be de foots ob dem wot
+fotch good tidin's."
+
+Junius Keswick did not see Miss Roberta again that day, and early in the
+morning he borrowed one of the Midbranch horses, and rode away. He did
+not wish to be at the house when Mr Croft should come; and, besides, he
+was very anxious and disturbed in regard to matters at the Keswick farm.
+Of all places in the world why should Mr Brandon go there?
+
+It was not a very pleasant ride that Junius Keswick took that morning.
+He had anxieties in regard to what he would meet with at his aunt's
+house, and he had even greater anxieties as to what he was leaving
+behind him at Midbranch. It was quite evident that Roberta was angry
+with him, and this was enough to sadden the soul of a man who loved her
+as he loved her, who would have married her at any moment, in spite of
+all opposition, all threats, all curses. He was not in the habit of
+looking at himself after the manner of Lawrence Croft, but on this
+occasion he could not help a little self-survey.
+
+Was it a purely disinterested motive he asked himself, that took him
+over to the Springs to bring back Lawrence Croft? Did he not believe in
+his soul that Roberta would never have spoken so freely to him in regard
+to what the gentleman from the North would probably say to her if she
+had not intended to decline that gentleman's offer? And was there not a
+wish in his heart that this matter might be definitely and
+satisfactorily settled before Roberta and Mr Croft went to New York for
+the winter? He could not deny that this issue to the affair had been in
+his mind; and yet he felt that he could conscientiously assure himself
+that if he had thought things would turn out otherwise, he still would
+have endeavored to make the man perform the duty expected of him by
+Roberta, in whose service Junius always felt himself to be. But,
+apparently, he had not benefited himself or anybody else, except,
+perhaps, Croft, by this service which he had performed.
+
+It was late in the forenoon when Junius met Mr Brandon returning to
+Midbranch. In answer to his expressions of surprise, Mr Brandon, who
+appeared in an exceptionally good humor, informed Junius of his reasons
+for the visit to the widow Keswick, and what he had found when he
+arrived there.
+
+"Your little cousin," said he, "is a most charming young creature, and
+on interested motives I should oppose your going to your aunt's house,
+were it not for the fact that she is married, and, therefore, of no
+danger to you. I was very glad to find her there. Her influence over
+your aunt will, I think, be highly advantageous, and the first fruit of
+it is that the old lady will now welcome you with open arms. Would you
+believe it! she has already announced that she wishes to make a match
+between you and this little cousin; and in order to do so, has actually
+engaged me to endeavor to bring about a divorce between the young lady
+and her absent husband. The widow Keswick has as many cranks and
+crotchets in her head as there are seeds in a tobacco pod; but this is
+the queerest and the wildest of them all. The couple seem very much
+attached to each other, and nothing can be said against the husband
+except that he did not accompany his wife on her visit to her relatives;
+and if he knew anything about the old lady I don't blame him a bit. Now
+your course, my dear boy, is perfectly plain. Let your aunt talk as much
+as she pleases about this divorce, and your union with the little Annie.
+It won't hurt anybody, and she must talk herself out in time. In the
+mean time take advantage of the present circumstances to mollify and
+tone down, so to speak, the good old lady. Make her understand that we
+are all her friends, and that there is no one in the connection who
+would wish to do her the slightest harm. This would be our Christian
+duty at any time, but it is more particularly our duty now. I would like
+you to bring your cousin over to see us before Roberta goes away. I
+invited her to come, and told her that my niece would first call upon
+her were it not for the peculiar circumstances. But if the families can
+be in a measure brought together--and I shall make it a point to ride
+over there occasionally--if your aunt can be made to understand the
+kindly feelings we really have toward her, and can be induced to set
+aside, even in a slight degree, the violent prejudice she now holds
+against us, all may yet turn out well. Now go, my boy, and may the best
+of success go with you. Don't trouble yourself about sending back the
+horse. Keep him as long as you want him."
+
+Mr Brandon rode on, leaving Junius to pursue his way. "It is very
+pleasant," thought the young man, who had said scarcely a word during
+the interview, "to hear Mr Brandon talk about all turning out well, but
+when he gets home he may discover that there is something to be done at
+Midbranch as well as on the Keswick place."
+
+Mr Brandon's reflections were very different from those of Junius. It
+appeared to him that a reconciliation between the two families, even
+though it should be a partial one, was reasonably to be expected. That
+newly arrived cousin was an angel. She was bound to do good. A marriage
+between his niece and Junius Keswick was the great object of the old
+gentleman's heart, and he longed to see the former engagement between
+them re-established before Roberta went to New York, where her beauty
+and attractiveness would expose his cherished plan to many dangers.
+
+The road he was on led directly north, and it was joined about a
+quarter of a mile above by the road which ran through the woods to the
+Green Sulphur Springs. On this road, at a point nearly opposite to him,
+he could see, through the foliage, a horseman riding toward the point of
+junction. Something about this person attracted his attention, and Mr
+Brandon took out a pair of eye-glasses and put them on. As soon as he
+had obtained another good view of the horseman he recognized him as Mr
+Croft. The old gentleman took off his glasses and returned them to his
+vest pocket, and his face began to flush. In his early acquaintance with
+Mr Croft he had not objected to him, because he wished his niece to have
+company, and he had a firm belief in the enduring quality of her
+affection for Junius. But, latterly, his ideas in regard to the New York
+gentleman had changed. He had thought him somewhat too assiduous, and
+when he had unexpectedly returned from the North, Mr Brandon had not
+been at all pleased, although he had been careful not to show his
+displeasure. This condition of things made him feel uneasy, and had
+prompted his visit to the widow Keswick. And now that everything looked
+so fair and promising, here was that man, whom he had supposed to have
+left this part of the country, riding toward his house.
+
+Mr Brandon was an easy-going man, but he had a backbone which could be
+greatly stiffened on occasion. He sat up very straight on his horse, and
+urged the animal to a better pace, so that he arrived first at the point
+where the roads met. Here he awaited Mr Croft, who soon rode up. The
+old gentleman's greeting was very courteous.
+
+"You are on the way to my house, I presume," he said.
+
+Mr Croft assured him that he was, and hoped that Miss March was quite
+well.
+
+"I have been from home for a little while," said Mr Brandon, "but I
+believe my niece enjoys her usual health. I have had a long ride this
+morning," he continued, "and feel a little tired. Would it inconvenience
+you, sir, if we should dismount and sit for a time on yonder log by the
+roadside? It would rest me, and I would like to have a little talk with
+you."
+
+Lawrence wondered very much that the old gentleman should want to rest
+when he was not a mile from his own house, but of course he consented to
+the proposed plan, and imitated Mr Brandon by riding under a large tree,
+and fastening his bridle to a low-hanging bough. The two gentlemen
+seated themselves on the log, and Mr Brandon, without preface, began his
+remarks.
+
+"May I be pardoned for supposing, sir," he said, "that your present
+visit to my house is intended for my niece?"
+
+Lawrence looked at him a little earnestly, and replied that it was so
+intended.
+
+"Then, sir, I think I have the right to ask, as my niece's present
+guardian, and almost indeed as her father, whether or not your visit is
+connected in any way with matrimonial overtures toward that lady?"
+
+Not wishing to foolishly and dishonorably deny that such was his purpose
+in going to Midbranch; and feeling that it would be as unwise to decline
+answering the question as it would be unmanly to resort to subterfuge
+about it, Lawrence replied, that his object in visiting Miss March that
+day was to make matrimonial overtures to her.
+
+"I think," said Mr Brandon, "that you will be obliged to me if I make
+you acquainted with the present condition of affairs between Miss March
+and Mr Junius Keswick."
+
+"Has not their engagement been broken off?" interrupted Lawrence.
+
+"Only conditionally," answered the old gentleman. "They love each other.
+They wish to be married. With one exception, all their relatives desire
+that they should marry. It would be a union, not only congenial in the
+highest degree to the parties concerned, but of the greatest advantage
+to our family and our family fortunes. There is but a single obstacle to
+this most desirable union, and that is the unwarrantable opposition of
+one person. But, I am happy to say that this opposition is on the point
+of being removed. I consider it to be but a matter of days when my niece
+and Mr Keswick, with the full approbation of the relatives on either
+side, will renew in the eyes of the world that engagement which I
+consider still exists in fact."
+
+"If this is so," said Lawrence, grinding his heel very deeply into the
+ground, "why was I not told of it?"
+
+"My dear sir!" exclaimed Mr Brandon, "have you ever intimated to me or
+to any of my family, that your intentions in visiting Midbranch were
+other than those of an ordinary friend or acquaintance?"
+
+Lawrence admitted that he had never made any such intimation.
+
+"Then, sir," said Mr Brandon, "what reason could we have for mentioning
+this subject to you--a subject that would not have been referred to now,
+had it not been for your admission of your intended object in visiting
+my house?"
+
+Lawrence had no answer to make to this, but it was not easy to turn him
+from his purpose. "Excuse me, sir," he said, "but I think a matter of
+this sort should be left to the lady. If she is not inclined to receive
+my addresses she will say so, and there is an end of it."
+
+The face of Mr Brandon slightly reddened, but his voice remained as
+quiet and courteous as before. "You do not comprehend, sir, the state of
+affairs, or you would see that a procedure of that kind would be
+extremely ill-judged at this time. Were it known that at this critical
+moment Miss March was addressed by another suitor, it would seriously
+jeopardize the success of plans which we all have very much at heart."
+
+Lawrence did not immediately reply to this crafty speech. His teeth were
+very firmly set, and he looked steadfastly before him. "I do not
+understand all this," he said, presently, "nor do I see that there is
+any need for my understanding it. In fact I have nothing to do with it.
+I wish to propose marriage to Miss March. If she declines my offer there
+is an end of the matter. If she accepts me, then it is quite proper that
+all your plans should fall to the ground. She is the principal in the
+affair, and it is due to her and due to me that she should make the
+decision in this case."
+
+Mr Brandon had not quite so many teeth as his younger companion, but the
+very fair number which remained with him were set together quite as
+firmly as those of Lawrence had been. He remarked, speaking very
+distinctly but without any show of emotion: "I see, sir, that it is
+quite impossible for us to think alike on this subject, and there is,
+therefore, nothing left for me to do but to ask you--and I assure you,
+sir, that the request is as destitute of any intention of discourtesy as
+if it were based upon the presence of sickness or family
+affliction--that you will not visit my house at present."
+
+Lawrence rose to his feet with a good deal of color in his face. "That
+settles the matter for the present," he said. "Of course I shall not go
+to a house which is forbidden to me. I wish you good-morning, sir." And
+he stalked to his horse, and endeavored to pull down the limb to which
+its bridle was attached.
+
+Mr Brandon followed him. "You must mount before you can unfasten your
+bridle," he said. "And allow me to assure you, sir, that as soon as this
+little affair is settled I shall be very happy indeed to see you again
+at my house."
+
+
+Lawrence having succeeded in loosening his bridle from the tree, made
+answer with a bow, and galloped away to the Green Sulphur Springs.
+
+Mr Brandon now mounted and rode home. This was the first time in his
+life that he had ever forbidden any one to visit Midbranch, and yet he
+did not feel that he had been either discourteous or inhospitable.
+"There are times," he said to himself, "when a man must stand up for his
+own interest; and this is one of the times."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+In the little dining-room of the cottage at the Green Sulphur Springs
+sat that evening Lawrence Croft, a perturbed and angry, but a resolute
+man. He had been quite a long time coming to the conclusion to propose
+to Roberta March, and now that he had made up his mind to do so, even in
+spite of certain convictions, it naturally aroused his indignation to
+find himself suddenly stopped short by such an insignificant person as
+Mr Brandon, a gentleman to whom, in this affair, he had given no
+consideration whatever. The fact that the lady wished to see him added
+much to his annoyance and discomfiture. He had no idea what reason she
+had for desiring an interview with him, but, whatever she should say to
+him, he intended to follow by a declaration of his sentiments. He had
+not the slightest notion in the world of giving up the prosecution of
+his suit; but, having been requested not to come to Midbranch, what was
+he to do? He might write to Miss March, but that would not suit him. In
+a matter like this he would wish to adapt his words and his manner to
+the moods and disposition of the lady, and he could not do this in a
+letter. When he wooed a woman, he must see her and speak to her. To any
+clandestine approach, any whispered conversation beneath her window, he
+would give no thought. Having been asked by the master of the house not
+to go there, he would not go; but he would see her, and tell his love.
+And, more than that, he would win her.
+
+That morning, while waiting for the time to approach when it would be
+proper for him to go to Midbranch, he had been reading in a bound volume
+of an old English magazine, which was one of the five books the cottage
+possessed, an account of a battle which had interested him very much.
+The commander of one army had massed his forces along and below the
+crest of a line of low hills, the extreme right of his line being
+occupied by a strong force of cavalry. The army opposed to him was much
+stronger than his own, and it was not long before the battle began to go
+very much against him. His positions on the left were carried by the
+combined charge of the larger portion of the enemy's forces, and, in
+spite of a vigorous resistance, his lines were forced back, down the
+hill, and into the valley. It was quite evident he could make no stand,
+and was badly beaten. Thereupon, he sent orders to his generals on the
+left to retreat, in as good order as possible, across a small river in
+their rear. While this movement was in progress, and the enemy was
+making the greatest efforts to prevent it, the commander put himself at
+the head of his cavalry and led them swiftly from the scene of battle.
+He took them diagonally over the crest of the hill, down the other side,
+and then charging with this fresh body of horse upon the rear and camp
+of the enemy, he swiftly captured the general-in-chief, his staff, and
+the Minister of War, who had come down to see how things were going on.
+With these important prisoners he dashed away, leaving the acephalous
+enemy to capture his broken columns if he could.
+
+This was the kind of thing Lawrence Croft would like to do. For an hour
+or more he puzzled his brains as to how he should make such a cavalry
+charge, and at last he came to a determination; he would ask Junius
+Keswick to assist him. There was something odd about this plan which
+pleased Croft. Keswick was his rival, with the powerful backing of Mr
+Brandon and a whole tribe of relatives, and it might naturally be
+supposed that he was the last man in the world of whom he would ask
+assistance. But, looking at it from his point of view, Lawrence thought
+that not only would he be taking no undue advantage of the other in
+asking him to help him in this matter, but that Keswick ought not and
+would not object to it. If Miss March really preferred Croft, Keswick
+should feel himself bound in honor to do everything he could to let the
+two settle the affair between themselves. This was drawing the point
+very fine, but Lawrence persuaded himself that if the case were reversed
+he would not marry a girl who had not chosen another man, simply because
+she had had no opportunity of doing so. He had a strong belief that
+Keswick was of his way of thinking, and before he went to bed he wrote
+his rival a note, asking him to call upon him the following day.
+
+Early the next morning the note was carried over to Midbranch by a
+messenger, who returned, saying that Mr Keswick had gone away, and that
+his present address was Howlett's in the same county. This piece of
+information caused Lawrence Croft to open his eyes very wide. A few days
+before he had received a letter from Mrs Null, written at Howlett's, and
+now Keswick had gone there. He had been very much surprised when he
+found that the cashier had so successfully carried on the search for
+Keswick as to come into the very county in Virginia where he was; and he
+intended to write to her that he had no further occasion for her
+services; but he had not done so, and here were the pursuer and the
+pursued in the same town, or village, or whatever Howlett's was. He gave
+Mrs Null credit for being one of the best detectives he had ever heard
+of; for, apparently, she had not only been able to successfully track
+the man she was in search of, but to find out where he was going, and
+had reached the place in question before he did. But he also berated her
+soundly in his mind for her over-officiousness. He had not wished her to
+swoop down upon the man, but only to inform him of his whereabouts. The
+next thing that would probably happen would be the appearance of Mrs
+Null at the Green Sulphur Springs, holding Keswick by the collar. He
+deeply regretted that he had ever intrusted this young woman with the
+investigation, not because he had since met Keswick himself, but for
+the reason that she was entirely too energetic and imprudent. If Keswick
+should find out from her that she had been in search of him, and why, it
+might bring about a very unpleasant state of affairs.
+
+Croft saw now, quite plainly, what he must do. He must go to Howlett's
+as quickly as possible. Perhaps Keswick and the cashier had not yet met,
+and, in that case, all he would have to do would be to remunerate the
+young woman and her husband--for she had informed him that she intended
+to combine this business with a wedding tour--and send them off
+immediately. He could then have his conference with Keswick there as
+well as at the Springs. If any mischief had already been done, he did
+not know what course he might have to pursue, but it was highly
+necessary for him to be on the spot as soon as possible. He greatly
+disliked to leave the neighborhood of Roberta March, but his absence
+would only be temporary.
+
+After an early dinner, he mounted the horse which he had hired from his
+host of the Springs, and, with a valise strapped behind him, set out for
+Howlett's. He had made careful inquiries in regard to the road, and
+after a ride somewhat tiresome to a man not used to such protracted
+horseback exercise, arrived at his destination about sundown. When he
+reached the scattered houses which formed, as he supposed, the outskirts
+of the village, for such he had been told it was, he rode on, but soon
+found that he had left Howlett's behind him, and that those supposed
+outskirts were the place itself. Hewlett's was nothing, in fact, but a
+collection of eight or ten houses quite widely separated from each
+other, and the only one of them which exhibited any public character
+whatever, was the store, a large frame building standing a little back
+from the road. Turning his horse, Lawrence rode up to the store and
+inquired if there was any house in the neighborhood where he could get
+lodging for the night.
+
+The storekeeper, who came out to him, was a very little man whose
+appearance recalled to Croft the fact that he had noticed, in this part
+of the State, a great many men who were extremely tall, and a great many
+who were extremely small, which peculiarity, he thought, might assist a
+physiologist in discovering the different effects of hot bread upon
+different organizations. He was quite as cordial, however, as the
+biggest, burliest, and jolliest host who ever welcomed a guest to his
+inn, as he informed Mr Croft that there was no house in the village
+which made a business of entertaining strangers, but if he chose to stop
+with him he would keep him and his horse for the night, and do what he
+could to make him comfortable.
+
+Lawrence ate supper that night with the storekeeper, his wife, and five
+of his children; but as he was very hungry, and the meal was a plentiful
+one, he enjoyed the experience.
+
+"I suppose you're goin' on to Westerville in the mornin'?" said the
+little host.
+
+"No," replied Croft, "I am not going any farther than this place. Do you
+know if a gentleman named Keswick arrived here recently?"
+
+"Why, yaas," said the man, "if you mean Junius Keswick."
+
+"Certainly he did," said Mrs Storekeeper. "He rode through here
+yesterday, and he stopped at the store to see if we had any of that
+Lynchburg tobacco he used to smoke when he lived here. He's gone on to
+his aunt's."
+
+"Where is that?" asked Croft.
+
+"It's about two miles out on the Westerville road," said the little man.
+"If I'd knowed you wanted to see him, I'd 'a told you to keep right on,
+and you could 'a stopped with Mrs Keswick over night."
+
+Lawrence wished to ask some questions about Mrs Null, but he was afraid
+to do so lest he might excite suspicions by connecting her with Keswick.
+If the latter had gone two miles out of town, perhaps she had not yet
+seen him.
+
+The room in which Lawrence slept that night was to him a very odd one.
+It was a long apartment, at one end of which was a clean, comfortable
+bed, a couple of chairs, and a table on which was a basin and pitcher.
+At the other end were piles of new-looking boxes, containing groceries
+of various kinds, rolls of cotton cloth and other dry goods, and, what
+attracted his attention more than anything else, a vast number of bright
+tin cans, bearing on their sides brilliant pictures of tomatoes,
+peaches, green corn, and other preservable eatables. These were
+evidently the reserved stores of the establishment, and they were so
+different from the bedroom decorations to which he was accustomed, that
+it quite pleased Lawrence to think that with all his experience in life
+he was now lodged in a manner entirely novel to him. As he lay awake
+looking at the moonlight glittering on the sides of the multitude of
+cans, the thought came into his mind that this had probably been the
+room of the Nulls when they were here.
+
+"As this is the only house in the place where travellers are
+entertained," he said to himself, "of course they must have come to it.
+And as they are not here now, it is quite plain that they must have gone
+away. I am very glad of it, especially if they left before Keswick
+arrived, for their departure probably prevented an awkward situation.
+But I shall ask the storekeeper no questions about these people. There
+is no better way of giving inquisitive folk the _entree_ to your affairs
+than by asking questions. Of course there was no reason why they should
+stay here after they had successfully traced Keswick to this part of the
+country; and every reason, if they wanted to enjoy themselves, why they
+should go away. But I can't help being sorry that I did not meet the
+young woman, and have an opportunity of paying her for her trouble, and
+giving her a few words of advice in regard to her action, or, rather,
+non-action in this matter. She has a fine head for business, but I
+should like to feel certain that she understands that her business with
+me is over."
+
+And he turned his eyes from the glittering cans, and slept.
+
+The next morning, Lawrence Croft rode on to Mrs Keswick's house, and
+when he reached the second, or inner gate, he saw, on the other side of
+it, an elderly female, wearing a purple sun-bonnet and carrying a purple
+umbrella. There was something very eccentric about the garb of this
+elderly personage, and many an inexperienced city man would have taken
+her for a retired nurse, or some other domestic retainer of the family,
+but there was a steadfastness in her gaze, and a fire in her eye, which
+indicated to Lawrence that she was one much more accustomed to give
+orders than to take them. He raised his hat very politely, and asked if
+Mr Keswick was to be found there.
+
+If the commander of the army, about whom Mr Croft had recently been
+reading, had beheld in the earlier stages of the battle a strong,
+friendly force advancing to his aid, he would not have been more
+delighted than Lawrence would have been had he known what a powerful
+ally to his cause stood beneath that purple sun-bonnet.
+
+"Do you mean Junius Keswick?" said the old lady.
+
+"Yes, madam," answered Croft.
+
+"He is here, and you will find him at the house."
+
+The gate was partly open, and Lawrence rode in. The old lady stepped
+aside to let him pass.
+
+"Do you want to see him on business?" she said. "How did you know he was
+here?"
+
+
+"I inquired at Howlett's, madam."
+
+Mrs Keswick would have liked to ask some further questions, but there
+was something about Lawrence's appearance that deterred her.
+
+"You can tie your horse under that tree over there," she said, pointing
+to a spot more trampled by hoofs than the old lady wished any other
+portion of her house-yard to be.
+
+When Lawrence had tied his bridle to a hook suspended by a strap from
+one of the lower branches of the indicated tree, he advanced to the
+house; and a very much astonished man was he to see, sitting side by
+side on the porch, Junius Keswick and Mr Candy's cashier. They were
+seated in the shade of a mass of honeysuckle vines, and were so busily
+engaged in conversation that they had not perceived his approach. Even
+now Lawrence had time to look at them for a few moments before they
+turned their eyes upon him.
+
+Equally astonished were the two people on the porch, who now arose to
+their feet. Junius Keswick naturally wondered very much why Mr Croft
+should come to see him here; and as for the young lady, she was almost
+as much terrified as surprised. Had this man come down from New York to
+swoop upon her cousin? Had it been possible that she could have given
+him any idea of the whereabouts of Junius? In her last note to him she
+had been very careful to promise information, but not to give any,
+hoping thus to gain time to get an insight into the matter, and to keep
+her cousin out of danger, if, indeed, any danger threatened. But here
+the pursuer had found Junius in less than a day after she had first met
+him herself. But when she saw Junius advance and shake hands in a very
+friendly way with Mr Croft, her terror began to decrease, although her
+surprise continued at the same high-water mark, and Keswick found
+himself in a flood of the same emotion when Croft very politely saluted
+his cousin by name, which salutation was returned in a manner which
+indicated that the parties were acquainted.
+
+At first Croft had been prompted to ignore all knowledge of the cashier,
+and meet her as a stranger, but his better sense prevented this, for how
+could he know what she had been saying about him.
+
+"I was about to introduce you to my cousin," said Keswick, "but I see
+that you already know each other."
+
+"I have had the pleasure of meeting Mrs Null in New York," said
+Lawrence, to whom the word cousin gave what might be called a more
+important surprise than anything with which this three-sided interview
+had yet furnished its participants. He gave a quick glance at the lady,
+and discovered her very steadfastly gazing at him. "I hope," he said,
+"that you and your husband have had a very pleasant trip."
+
+"Mr Null did not come with me," she quietly replied.
+
+Lawrence Croft was a man to whom it gave pleasure to deal with
+problematic situations, unexpected developments, and the like; but this
+was too much of a conundrum for him. That the man, whose address he had
+employed this girl to find out, should prove to be her cousin, and that
+she should start on her bridal trip without her husband, were points on
+which his reason had no power to work. One thing, however, he quickly
+determined upon. He would have an interview with Madam Cashier, and have
+her explain these mysteries. She was, virtually, his agent, and had no
+right to conceal from him what she had been doing, and why she had done
+it.
+
+It was necessary, however, that he should waste no time in thoughts of
+this kind, but should immediately state to Mr Keswick the reason of his
+visit; for it could not be supposed he had called in a merely social
+way. "I wish to speak to you," he said, "on a little matter of
+business."
+
+At these words Mrs Null excused herself, and went into the house. Her
+mind was troubled as she wondered what the business was which had made
+this New York gentleman so extraordinarily desirous to find her cousin.
+Was it anything that would injure Junius? She looked back as she entered
+the door, but the object of her solicitude was sitting with a face so
+calm and composed that it showed very plainly he did not expect any
+communication which would be harmful to him.
+
+"It is a satisfaction," thought Mr Croft, "a very great satisfaction
+that I can enter upon the object of my visit knowing that my affairs and
+my actions have not been discussed by this gentleman and Mrs Null."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+Old Mrs Keswick would willingly have followed the strange gentleman to
+the house in order to know the object of his visit, but as he had come
+to see Junius she refrained, for she knew her nephew would not like any
+appearance of curiosity on her part. Her reception of Junius had been
+very different indeed from that she had previously accorded him when she
+declined to be found under the same roof with him. Now he was here under
+very different auspices, and for him the very plumpest poultry was
+slain, and everything was done to make him comfortable and willing to
+stay and become acquainted with his cousin, Mrs Null. A match between
+these two young people was the present object of the old lady's
+existence, and she set about making it with as much determination and
+confidence as if there had been no such person as Mr Null. Of this
+individual she had the most contemptible opinion. She had never asked
+many questions about him, because, in her intercourse with her niece,
+she wished, as far as possible, to ignore him. Having mentally pictured
+him in various mean conditions of life, she had finally settled it in
+her mind that he was an agent for some patent fertilizer; a man of this
+kind being a very obnoxious person to her. This avocation, however,
+constituted in the old lady's mind no excusable reason for his
+protracted absence; and if ever a wife was deserted, she believed that
+her niece Annie was such a wife.
+
+"If he should stay away much longer," she said to herself, "we shall
+have no more trouble in getting a divorce than to have his funeral
+sermon preached. And if there is any talk of his coming here, or of her
+going to him, I'll put my foot down on that sort of thing, if I've a
+foot left to do it with."
+
+When she had first perceived the approach of Mr Croft, a fear had seized
+her that this might be the recreant husband, but the gentlemanly
+appearance of the stranger soon dispelled this idea from her prejudiced
+mind. Apart from the fact that she had no business at the house with her
+nephew's visitor, she had positive business in the garden with old Uncle
+Isham, and there she repaired. There was some work to be done in regard
+to a flower pit, in which some of her choicest plants were to be
+domiciled during the winter, and this she wished personally to oversee.
+Although the autumn was well advanced, the day was somewhat warm; and as
+the pair, whom Mr Croft had seen on the porch, had been glad to shelter
+themselves in the shade of the honeysuckle vines, so Mrs Keswick seated
+herself on a little bench behind a large arbor, still covered by heavy
+vines, which stood on the boundary line between the garden and the front
+yard, and opened on the latter. This bench, which was always shady in
+the morning, she had had placed there that she might comfortably direct
+the labors of old Isham, the boy Plez, or whoever, for the time being,
+happened to be her gardener.
+
+Mr Croft did not immediately begin the statement of the business which
+had brought him to see Junius Keswick. Several windows of the house
+opened on the porch, and he did not wish what he had to say to be heard
+by any one except the person he was addressing. "I desire to talk to you
+on some private matters," he said. "Could we not walk a little away from
+the house?"
+
+"Certainly," said Junius, rising. "We will step over to that arbor by
+the garden. We shall be quite comfortable and secluded there. This is
+the place," said Junius, as they seated themselves in the arbor, "where,
+when a boy, I used to come to smoke. My aunt did not allow this
+diversion, but I managed to do a good deal of puffing before I was found
+out."
+
+"Then you used to live here?" asked Croft.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Keswick, "my parents died when I was quite a little
+fellow, and my aunt had charge of me until I had grown up."
+
+"Was that your aunt whom I met at the gate? There was something about
+her bearing and general appearance which greatly interested me."
+
+"She is a most estimable lady," returned Junius. And not wishing further
+to discuss his relative, he added: "And now, what is it, sir, that I
+can have the pleasure of doing for you?"
+
+"The matter regards Miss March," said Croft.
+
+"I presumed so," remarked the other. "I will state it as briefly as
+possible," continued Croft. "In consequence of your visit to me at the
+the Springs, I set out, the day before yesterday, to make another
+attempt to call on Miss March, the first one having been frustrated, as
+you may remember, by the information we received at the gate in regard
+to Miss March's indisposition, which, as I have heard nothing more of
+it, I hope was of no importance."
+
+"Of none whatever," said Junius.
+
+"When I was within a mile or so of Midbranch," continued Croft, "I met
+Mr Brandon, who requested me not to come to his house, and, in fact, to
+cease my visits altogether."
+
+"What!" cried Keswick, very much surprised. "That is not at all like Mr
+Brandon. What reason could he have for treating you in such a manner?"
+
+"The very best in the world," said Croft. "Having, as the guardian of
+his niece, asked me the object of my visit to Miss March, and, having
+been informed by me that it was my intention to propose matrimony to the
+lady, he requested that I would not visit at his house." "On what
+ground did he base his objection to your visit?" asked Keswick.
+
+"He made no objection to me; he simply stated that he did not desire me
+to come, because he wished his niece to marry you."
+
+"Quite plainly spoken," remarked Keswick.
+
+"Nothing could be more so," replied Croft. "I could not expect any one
+to be franker with me than he was. He went on to inform me that a match
+between the lady and yourself was greatly desired by the whole family
+connection, with a single exception, which, however, he did not name,
+and, while he gave me to understand that he had no reason to fear that,
+so far as the lady was concerned, my proposal would interfere with your
+prospects, still, were it known that there was another aspirant in the
+field, a very undesirable state of things might ensue. What this state
+of affairs was he did not state, but I presume it had something to do
+with the exceptional opposition to which he referred."
+
+"And what did you say to all that?" asked Junius.
+
+"I said very little. When a man asks me not to come to his house, I
+don't go. But, nevertheless, I have fully made up my mind to propose to
+Miss March as soon as I can get an opportunity. I have nothing to do
+with family arrangements or family opposition. You have told me that
+you are not engaged to her, and I am going to try to be engaged to her.
+She is the one to decide this matter. And now I have called upon you, Mr
+Keswick, to see if there is any way in which you can assist me in
+obtaining an interview with Miss March."
+
+"Don't you think," said Junius, "that it is rather cool in you to ask me
+to assist you in this matter?"
+
+"Not at all," replied the other. "If it had not been for you I should
+now be in New York, with no thought of present proposals of marriage.
+But you came to me, and insisted that I should see the lady." "That was
+simply because she had expressed a strong desire to see you."
+
+"Very good," said Lawrence. "I tried to go to her, as you know, and was
+prevented. Now all I ask of you is to help me to do what you so strongly
+urged me to do. There is nothing particularly cool in that, I think."
+
+Keswick did not immediately reply. "I am not sure," he said, "that Miss
+March still wishes to see you."
+
+"That may be," replied Croft, speaking a little warmly. "None of us
+exactly know what she thinks or wishes. But I want to find out what she
+thinks about me by distinctly asking her. And I should suppose you would
+consider it to your advantage, as well as mine, that I should do so."
+"I have my own opinion on that point," said Keswick, "which it is not
+necessary to discuss at present. If I were to assist you to an interview
+with Miss March it would be on the lady's account, not on yours or mine.
+But apart from the fact that I do not know if she now desires an
+interview, I would not do anything that would offend or annoy Mr
+Brandon."
+
+"I don't ask that of you," said Croft, "but couldn't you use your
+influence with him to give me a fair chance with the lady? That is all I
+ask, and, whether she accepts me or rejects me, I am sure everybody
+ought to be satisfied."
+
+Keswick smiled. "You don't leave any margin for sentiment," he said,
+"but I suppose it is just as well to deal with this matter in a
+practical way. I do not think, however, that any influence I can exert
+on Mr Brandon would induce him to allow you to address his niece if he
+is opposed to it, and I am sure he would have a very strange opinion of
+me if I attempted such a thing. At present I do not see that I can help
+you at all, but I will think over the matter, and we will talk of it
+again."
+
+"Thank you," said Croft, rising. "And when shall I call upon you to hear
+your decision?"
+
+It was rather difficult for Junius Keswick to answer a question like
+this on the spur of the moment. He arose and walked with Croft out of
+the arbor. His first impulse, as a Virginia gentleman, was to invite
+his visitor to stay at the house until the matter should be settled, but
+he did not know what extraordinary freak on the part of his aunt might
+be caused by such an invitation. But before he had decided what to say,
+they were met by Mrs Keswick coming from the garden. Junius thereupon
+presented Mr Croft, who was welcomed by the old lady with extended hand
+and exceeding cordiality.
+
+"I am very glad," she said, "to meet a friend of my nephew. But where
+are you going, Sir? Certainly not toward your horse. You must stay and
+dine with us."
+
+Lawrence hesitated. He had no claims on the hospitality of these people,
+but he wished very much to have an opportunity to speak to Mrs Null.
+"Thank you," he said, "but I am staying down here at the village, and it
+is but a short ride." "Staying at Hewlett's?" exclaimed Mrs Keswick. "At
+which hotel, may I ask?"
+
+Lawrence laughed. "I am stopping with the storekeeper," he said.
+
+"That settles it!" said the old lady, giving her umbrella a jab into the
+ground. "Tom Peckett's accommodations may be good enough for pedlers and
+travelling agents, but they are not fit for gentlemen, especially one of
+my nephew's friends. You must stay with us, sir, as long as you are in
+this neighborhood. I insist upon it." Junius was very much astonished
+at his aunt's speech and manner. The old lady was not at all
+inhospitable; so far was it otherwise the case, that, rather than
+deprive an objectionable visitor of the shelter of her roof, she would
+go from under it herself; but he had never known her to "gush" in this
+manner upon a stranger. He now felt at liberty, however, to obey his own
+impulses, and urged Mr Croft to stay with them.
+
+"You are very kind, indeed," said Lawrence, "and I shall be glad to
+defer for the present my return to my 'hotel.' This will give me the
+additional pleasure of renewing my acquaintance with Mrs Null."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Mrs Keswick, "do you know her, too? And to think of
+you stopping at Peckett's! Your home, sir, while you stay in these
+parts, is here."
+
+Before the three reached the house, Mrs Keswick had inquired how long Mr
+Croft had known her niece; and had discovered, much to her
+disappointment, that he had never met Mr Null. Shortly after the arrival
+at the house of the gentleman on horseback little Plez ran into the
+kitchen, where Letty was engaged in preparing vegetables for dinner.
+
+"Who d'ye think is done come?" he exclaimed. "Miss Annie's husband! Jes'
+rid up to de house."
+
+"Dat so?" cried Letty, dropping into her lap the knife and the potato
+she was peeling. "Well, truly, when things does happen in dis worl' dey
+comes all in a lump. None ob de fam'ly been nigh de house for ebber so
+long; an' den, 'long comes Mahs' Junius hisse'f, an' Miss Annie dat's
+been away sence she was a chile, an' ole Mr Brandon, wot Uncle Isham say
+ain't been h'yar fur years and years, an' now Miss Annie's husband comes
+kitin' up! An' dar's ole Aun' Patsy wot says dat if dat gemman ebber
+come h'yar she want to know it fus' thing. She was dreffle p'inted about
+dat. An' now, look h'yar, you Plez, jus' you cut round to your Aun'
+Patsy's, an' tell her Miss Annie's husband's done come."
+
+"Whar ole Miss?" inquired Plez. "She 'sleep?"
+
+"No, she mighty wide awake," said Letty. "But you take dem knives an'
+dat board an' brick, an' run down to de branch to clean 'em. An', when
+you gits dar, you jus' slip along, 'hind de bushes, till you's got ter
+de cohn fiel', an' den you cut 'cross dar to Aun' Patsy's. An' don' you
+stop no time dar, fur if ole Miss finds you's done gone, she'll chop you
+up wid dem knives."
+
+Plez was quite ready for a reckless dash of this kind, and in less than
+twenty minutes old Patsy was informed that Mr Null had arrived. The old
+woman was much affected by the information. She was uneasy and restless,
+and talked a good deal to herself, occasionally throwing out a moan or a
+lament in the direction of her "son Tom's yaller boy Bob's chile." The
+crazy quilt, which was not yet finished, though several pieces had been
+added since we last saw it, was laid aside; and by the help of the above
+mentioned great granddaughter the old hair trunk was hauled out and
+opened. Over this hoard of treasures, Aunt Patsy spent nearly two hours,
+slowly taking up the various articles it contained, turning them over,
+mumbling over them, and mentally referring many of them to periods which
+had become historic. At length she pulled out from one of the corners of
+the trunk a pair of very little blue morocco shoes tied together by
+their strings. These she took into her lap, and, shortly afterward, had
+the trunk locked, and pushed back into its place. The shoes, having been
+thoroughly examined through her great iron-bound spectacles, were thrust
+under the mattress of her bed.
+
+That evening, Uncle Isham stepped in to see the old woman, who was
+counteracting the effects of the cool evening air by sitting as close as
+possible to the remains of the fire which had cooked the supper. She was
+very glad to see him. She wanted somebody to whom she could unburden her
+mind. "Wot you got to say 'bout Miss Annie's husband," she asked, "wot
+done come to-day?"
+
+"Was dat him?" exclaimed the old man. "Nobody tole me dat."
+
+This was true, for the good-natured Letty, having discovered the
+mistake that had been made, had concluded to say nothing about it and to
+keep away from Aunt Patsy's for a few days, until the matter should be
+forgotten.
+
+"Well, I spec Miss Annie's mighty glad to git him back agin," continued
+the old man, after a moment's reflection. "He's right much of a nice
+lookin' gemman. I seed him this ebenin' a ridin' wid Mahs' Junius."
+
+"P'raps Miss Annie is glad," said the ole woman, "coz she don' know. But
+I ain't."
+
+"Wot's de reason fur dat?" inquired Isham.
+
+"It's a pow'ful dreffle thing dat Miss Annie's husband's done come down
+h'yar. He don' know ole miss."
+
+"Wot's de matter wid ole miss?" asked Isham, in a quick tone.
+
+"She done talk to me 'bout him," said the old woman. "She done tole me
+jus' wot she think of him. She hate him from he heel up. I dunno wot
+she'll do to him now she got him. Mighty great pity fur pore Miss Annie
+dat he ever come h'yar."
+
+"Ole miss ain't gwine ter do nuffin' to him," said Isham, in a gruff and
+troubled tone.
+
+"Don' you b'lieve dat," said Aunt Patsy. "When ole miss don' like a
+pusson, dat pusson had better look out. But I ain't gwine to be sottin'
+h'yar an' see mis'ry comin' to Miss Annie."
+
+"Wot you gwine to do?" asked Isham.
+
+"I's gwine ter speak my min' to ole miss. I's gwine to tell her not to
+do no kunjerin' to Miss Annie's husban'. She gwine to hurt dat little
+gal more'n she hurt anybody else."
+
+Old Isham sat looking into the fire with a very worried and anxious
+expression on his face. He was intensely loyal to his mistress, aware as
+he was of her short-comings, or rather her long-goings. Although he felt
+a good deal of fear that there might be some truth in Aunt Patsy's
+words, he was very sure that if she took it upon herself to give warning
+or reproof to old Mrs Keswick, a storm would ensue; and where the
+lightning would strike he did not know. "You better look out, Aun'
+Patsy," he said. "You an' ole miss been mighty good fren's fur a pow'ful
+long time, an' now don' you go gittin' yourse'f in no fraction wid her,
+jus' as you' bout to die."
+
+"Ain't gwine to die," said the old woman, "till I done tole her wot's on
+my min'."
+
+"Aun' Patsy," said Uncle Isham, after gazing silently in the fire for a
+minute or two, "dar was a brudder wot come up from 'Melia County to de
+las' big preachin', an' he tole in his sarment a par'ble wot I b'lieve
+will 'ply fus rate to dis 'casion. I's gwine to tell you dat."
+
+"Go 'long wid it," said Aunt Patsy.
+
+"Well, den," said Isham, "dar was once a cullud angel wot went up to de
+gate ob heaben to git in. He didn't know nuffin' 'bout de ways ob de
+place, bein' a strahnger, an' when he see all de white angels a crowdin'
+in at de gate where Sent Peter was a settin', he sorter looked round to
+see if dar warn't no gate wot he might go in at. Den ole Sent Peter he
+sings out: 'Look h'yar, uncle, whar you gwine? Dar ain't no cullud
+gal'ry in dis 'stablishment. You's got to come in dis same gate wid de
+udder folks.' So de cullud angel he come up to de gate, but he kin' a
+hung back till de udders had got in. Jus' den 'long comes a white angel
+on hossback, wot was in a dreffle hurry to git in to de gate. De cullud
+angel, he mighty p'lite, an' he went up an' tuk de hoss, an' when de
+white angel had got down an' gone in, he went roun' lookin' fur a tree
+to hitch him to. But when he went back agin to de gate, Sent Peter had
+jus' shet it, and was lockin' it up wid a big padlock. He jus' looks
+ober de gate at de cullud angel an' he says: 'No 'mittance ahfter six
+o'clock.' An' den he go in to his supper."
+
+"An' wot dat cullud angel do den?" asked Eliza, who had been listening
+breathlessly to this narrative.
+
+"Dunno," said Isham, "but I reckin de debbil come 'long in de night an'
+tuk him off. Dar's a lesson in dis h'yar par'ble wot 'ud do you good to
+clap to your heart, Aun' Patsy. Don' you be gwine roun' tryin' to help
+udder people jus' as you is all ready to go inter de gate ob heaben. Ef
+you try any ob dat dar foolishness, de fus' thing you know you'll find
+dat gate shet."
+
+"Is dat your 'Melia County par'ble?" asked the old woman.
+
+"Dat's it," answered Isham.
+
+"Reckon dat country's better fur 'bacca dan fur par'bles," grunted Aunt
+Patsy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+Lawrence Croft had no idea of leaving the neighborhood of Howlett's
+until Keswick had made up his mind what he was going to do, and until he
+had had a private talk with Mrs Null; and, as it was quite evident that
+the family would be offended if a visitor to them should lodge at
+Peckett's store, he accepted the invitation to spend the night at the
+Keswick house; and in the afternoon Junius rode with him to Howlett's,
+where he got his valise, and paid his account.
+
+But no opportunity occurred that day for a _tete-a-tete_ with Mrs Null.
+Keswick was with him nearly all the afternoon; and in the evening the
+family sat together in the parlor, where the conversation was a general
+one, occasionally very much brightened by some of the caustic remarks of
+the old lady in regard to particular men and women, as well as society
+at large. Of course he had many opportunities of judging, to the best of
+his capacity, of certain phases of character appertaining to Mr Candy's
+cashier; and, among other things, he came to the conclusion that
+probably she was a young woman who would get up early in the morning,
+and he, therefore, determined to do that thing himself, and see if he
+could not have a talk with her before the rest of the family were astir.
+
+Early rising was not one of Croft's accustomed habits, but the next
+morning he arose a good hour before breakfast time. He found the lower
+part of the house quite deserted, and when he went out on the porch he
+was glad to button up his coat, for the morning air was very cool. While
+walking up and down with his hands in his pockets, and looking in at the
+front door every time he passed it, in hopes that he might see Mrs Null
+coming down the stairs, he was greeted with a cheery "good morning," by
+a voice in the front yard. Turning hastily, he beheld Mrs Keswick,
+wearing her purple sun-bonnet, but without her umbrella.
+
+"Glad you like to be up betimes, sir," said she. "That's my way, and I
+find it pays. Nobody works as well, and I don't believe the plants and
+stock grow as well, while we are asleep."
+
+Lawrence replied that in the city he did not get up so early, but that
+the morning air in the country was very fine.
+
+"And pretty sharp, too," said Mrs Keswick. "Come down here in the
+sunshine, and you will find it pleasanter. Step back a little this way,
+sir," she said, when Lawrence had joined her, "and give me your opinion
+of that locust tree by the corner of the porch. I am thinking of having
+it cut down. Locusts are very apt to get diseased inside, and break off,
+and I am afraid that one will blow over some day and fall on the house."
+Lawrence said he thought it looked like a very good tree, and it would
+be a pity to lose the shade it made.
+
+"I might plant one of another sort," said the old lady, "but trees grow
+too slow for old people, though plenty fast enough for young ones. I
+reckon I'll let it stand awhile yet. You were talking last night of
+Midbranch, sir. There used to be fine trees there, though it's many
+years since I've seen them. Have you been long acquainted with the
+family there?"
+
+Lawrence replied that he had known Miss March a good while, having met
+her in New York.
+
+"She is said to be a right smart young lady," said Mrs Keswick, "well
+educated, and has travelled in Europe. I am told that she is not only a
+regular town lady, but that she makes a first-rate house-keeper when she
+is down here in the country."
+
+Lawrence replied that he had no doubt that all this was very true.
+
+"I have never seen her," continued the old lady, "for there has not been
+much communication between the two families of late years, although they
+used to be intimate enough. But my nephew and niece have been away a
+great deal, and old people can't be expected to do much in the way of
+visiting. But I have a notion," she said, after gazing a few moments in
+a reflective way at the corner of the house, "that it would be well now
+to be a little more sociable again. My niece has no company here of her
+own sex, except me, and I think it would do her good to know a young
+lady like Miss March. Mr Brandon has asked me to let Annie come there,
+but I think it would be a great deal better for his niece to visit us.
+Mrs Null is the latest comer."
+
+Lawrence, speaking much more earnestly than when discussing the locust
+tree, replied that he thought this would be quite proper.
+
+"I think I may invite her to come here next week," said Mrs Keswick,
+still meditatively and without apparent regard to the presence of Croft,
+"probably on Friday, and ask her to spend a week. And, by the way,
+sir," she said, turning to her companion, "if you are still in this part
+of the country I would be glad to have you ride over and stay a day or
+two while Miss March is here. I will have a little party of young folks
+in honor of Mrs Null. I have done nothing of the kind for her, so far."
+
+Lawrence said he had no doubt that he would stay at the Green Sulphur a
+week or two longer, and that he would be most happy to accept Mrs
+Keswick's kind invitation.
+
+They then moved toward the house, but, suddenly stopping, as if she had
+just thought of something, Mrs Keswick remarked: "I shall be obliged to
+you, sir, if you will not say anything about this little plan of mine,
+just now. I have not spoken of it to any one, having scarcely made up my
+mind to it, and I suppose I should not have mentioned it to you if we
+had not been talking about Midbranch. There is nothing I hate so much as
+to have people hear I am going to give them an invitation, or that I am
+going to do anything, in fact, before I have fully made up my mind about
+it."
+
+Lawrence assured her that he would say nothing on the subject, and she
+promised to send him a note to the Green Sulphur, in case she finally
+determined on having the little company at her house.
+
+"Now," triumphantly thought Croft, "it matters not what Keswick decides
+to do, for I don't need his assistance. An elderly angel in a purple
+sun-bonnet has come to my aid. She is about to do ever so much more for
+me than I could expect of him, and I prefer her assistance to that of my
+rival. Altogether it is the most unexpected piece of good luck."
+
+After breakfast there came to Lawrence the opportunity of a private
+conference with Mrs Null. He was standing alone on the porch when she
+came out of the door with her hat on and a basket in her hand, and said
+she was going to see a very old colored woman who lived in the
+neighborhood, who was considered a very interesting personage; and
+perhaps he would like to go there with her. Nothing could suit Croft
+better than this, and off they started.
+
+As soon as they were outside the yard gate the lady remarked: "I have
+been trying hard to give you a chance to talk to me when the others were
+not by. I knew you must be perfectly wild to ask me what this all meant;
+why I never told you that Mr Keswick was my cousin, and the rest of it."
+"I can't say," said Lawrence, "that I am absolutely untamed and
+ferocious in regard to the matter, but I do really wish very much that
+you would give me some explanation of your very odd doings. In fact,
+that is the only thing that now keeps me here."
+
+"I thought so," said Mrs Null. "As I supposed you had got through with
+your business with Junius, I did not wish to detain you here any longer
+than was necessary."
+
+"Thank you," said Lawrence.
+
+"You are welcome," she said. "And when I saw you standing on the porch
+by yourself, the idea of being generous to old Aunt Patsy came into my
+mind. And here we are. Now, what do you want to know first?"
+
+"Well," said Mr Croft, "I would like very much to know how a young lady
+like you came to be Mr Candy's cashier."
+
+"I supposed you would want to know that," she said. "It's a dreadfully
+long story, and as it is a strictly family matter I had almost made up
+my mind last night that I ought not to tell it to you at all, but as I
+don't know how much you are mixed up with the family, I afterward
+thought it best, for my own sake, to explain the matter to you. So I
+will give you the principal points. My mother was a sister of Mrs
+Keswick, and Junius' mother was another sister. Both his parents died
+when he was a boy, and Aunt Keswick brought him up. My mother died here
+when I was quite small, and I stayed until I was eight years old. Aunt
+Keswick and my father were not very good friends, and when she came to
+look upon me as entirely her own child, and wished to deprive him of all
+rights and privileges as a parent, he resented it very much, and, at
+last, took me away. I don't remember exactly how this was done, but I
+know there was a tremendous quarrel, and my father and aunt never met
+again.
+
+"He took me to New York; and there we lived very happily until about two
+years ago, when my father died. He was a lawyer by profession, but at
+that time held a salaried position in a railroad company, and when he
+died, of course our income ceased. The money that was left did not last
+very long, and then I had to decide what I was to do. It would have been
+natural for me to go to my only relatives, Aunt Keswick and Junius. But
+my father had been so opposed to my aunt having anything to do with me
+that I could not bear to go to her. He had really been so much afraid
+that she would try to win me away from him, or in some way gain
+possession of me, that he would not even let her know our address, and
+never answered the few letters from her which reached him, and which he
+told me were nothing but demands that her sister's child should be given
+back to her. Junius had written to me, how many times I do not know, but
+two letters had come to me that were very good and affectionate, quite
+different from my aunt's, but even these my father would not let me
+answer; it would be all the same thing, he said, as if I opened
+communication with my Aunt Keswick. Therefore, out of respect to my
+father, and also in accordance with my own wishes, I gave up all idea of
+coming down here, and went to work to support myself. I tried several
+things, and, at last, through a friend of my father, who was a regular
+customer of Mr Candy, I got the position of cashier in the Information
+Shop. It was an awfully queer place, but the work was very easy, and I
+soon got used to it. Then you came making inquiries for an address. At
+first I did not know that the person you wanted was Junius Keswick and
+my cousin, but after I began to look into the matter I found that it
+must be he who you were after. Then I became very much troubled, for I
+liked Junius, who was the only one of my blood whom I had any reason to
+care for; and when one sees a person setting a detective--for it is all
+the same thing--upon the track of another person, one is very apt to
+think that some harm is intended to the person that is being looked up.
+I did not know what business Junius was in, nor what his condition was,
+but even if he had been doing wrong, I did not wish you to find him
+until I had first seen him, and then, if I found you could do him any
+harm, I would warn him to keep out of your way."
+
+"Do you think that was fair treatment of me?" asked Croft.
+
+"You were nothing to me, and Junius was a great deal," she answered.
+"And yet I think I was fair enough. The only money you paid was what Mr
+Candy charged; and when I spoke of receiving money for my services when
+the affair was finished I only did it that it might all be more business
+like, and that you should not drop me and set somebody else looking
+after Junius. That was the great thing I was afraid of, so I did all I
+could to make you satisfied with me."
+
+"I don't see how your conscience could allow you to do all this," said
+Croft.
+
+"My conscience was very much pleased with me," was the answer. "What I
+did was a stratagem, and perfectly fair too. If I had found that it was
+right for you to see Junius, I would have done everything I could to
+help you communicate with him. But when I did at last see him, down you
+swooped upon us before I had an opportunity of saying a word about you."
+
+"Your marriage was a very fortunate thing for you," said Mr Croft, "for
+if it had not been for that I should never have allowed you to go about
+the country looking up a gentleman in my behalf. But how did you get
+over your repugnance to your aunt?"
+
+"I didn't get over it," she said, "I conquered it, for I found that this
+was the most likely place to meet Junius. And Aunt Keswick has certainly
+treated me in the kindest manner, although she is very angry about Mr
+Null. But when I first came and she did not know who I was, she behaved
+in the most extraordinary manner."
+
+"What did she do?" asked Croft.
+
+"Never you mind," she answered, with a little laugh. "You can't expect
+to know all the family affairs."
+
+They had now arrived at Aunt Patsy's cabin, and Mrs Null entered,
+followed at a little distance by Croft. The old woman had seen them as
+they were walking along the road, and her little black eyes sparkled
+with peculiar animation behind her great spectacles. Her granddaughter
+happened not to be at home, but Aunt Patsy got up, and with her apron
+rubbed off the bottoms of two chairs, which she placed in convenient
+positions for her expected visitors. When they came in they found her in
+a very perturbed condition. She answered Mrs Null's questions with a
+very few words and a great many grunts, and kept her eyes fixed nearly
+all the time upon Mr Croft, endeavoring to find out, perhaps, if he had
+yet been subjected to any kind of conjuring.
+
+When all the questions which young people generally put to old servants
+had been asked by Mrs Null, and Croft had made as many remarks as might
+have been expected of him in regard to the age and recollections of this
+interesting old negress, Aunt Patsy began to be much more disturbed,
+fearing that the interview was about to come to an end. She actually got
+up and went to the back door to look for Eliza.
+
+"Do you want her?" anxiously inquired Mrs Null, going to the old woman's
+side.
+
+"Yaas, I wants her," said Aunt Patsy. "I 'spec' she at Aggy's house--dat
+cabin ober dar--but I can't holler loud 'nuf to make her h'yere me."
+"I'll run over there and tell her you want her," said Mrs Null,
+stepping out of the door.
+
+"Dat's a good chile," said Aunt Patsy, with more warmth than she had yet
+exhibited. "Dat's your own mudder's good chile!" And then she turned
+quickly into the room.
+
+Croft had risen as if he were about to follow Mrs Null, or, at least, to
+see where she had gone. But Aunt Patsy stopped him. "Jus' you stay h'yar
+one little minute," she said, hurriedly. "I got one word to say to you,
+sah." And she stood up before him as erect as she could, fixing her
+great spectacles directly upon him. "You look out, sah, fur ole miss,"
+she said, in a voice, naturally shrill, but now heavily handicapped by
+age and emotion, "ole Miss Keswick, I means. She boun' to do you harm,
+sah. She tole me so wid her own mouf."
+
+"Mrs Keswick!" exclaimed Croft. "Why, you must be mistaken, good aunty.
+She can have no ill feelings towards me."
+
+"Don' you b'lieve dat!" said the old woman. "Don' you b'lieve one word
+ob dat! She hate you, sah, she hate you! She not gwine to tell you dat.
+She make you think she like you fus' rate, an' den de nex' thing you
+knows, she kunjer you, an' shribble up de siners ob your legs, an' gib
+you mis'ry in your back, wot you neber git rid of no moh'. Can't tell
+you nuffin' else now, for h'yar comes Miss Annie," she added hurriedly,
+and, stepping to the bedside, she drew from under the mattrass a pair of
+little blue shoes, tied together by their strings. "Jes' you take dese
+h'yar shoes," she said, "an' ef eber you think ole miss gwine ter kunjer
+you, jes' you hol' up dem shoes right afore her face. Dar now, stuff 'em
+in your pocket. Don' you tell Miss Annie wot I done say to you. 'Member
+dat, sah. It ud kill her, shuh."
+
+At this moment Mrs Null entered, just as the shoes had been slipped into
+the side-pocket of Mr Croft's coat by the old woman. And as she did so,
+she whispered, in a tone that could not but have its effect upon him,
+"Now, nebber tell her, honey."
+
+"Here is Eliza," said Mrs Null, as she came in, followed by the great
+granddaughter. "And I think," she said to Mr Croft, "it is time for us
+to go. Good-bye, Aunt Patsy. You can send back the basket by Eliza."
+
+When the two left the cabin, Croft walked thoughtfully for a few
+moments, wondering what in the world the old woman could have meant by
+her strange words and gift to him. Concluding, however, that they could
+have been nothing but the drivelings of weak-minded old age, he
+dismissed them from his mind and turned his attention to his companion.
+"We were speaking," he said, "of Mr Null. Do you expect him shortly?"
+
+"Well, no," said the lady. "I can't say that I do."
+
+"That is odd," said Lawrence. "I thought this was your wedding journey."
+
+"So it is, in a measure," said she, "but there is no necessity of his
+coming here. Didn't I tell you that my aunt was opposed to the
+marriage?" "But she might as well make up her mind to it now," he said.
+
+"She is not in the habit of making up her mind to things she don't like.
+Do you know," she added, looking around with a half smile, as if she
+took pleasure in astonishing him, "that Aunt Keswick is going to try to
+have us divorced?"
+
+"What!" exclaimed Croft. "Divorced! Is there any ground for it?"
+
+"She has other matrimonial plans for me, that's all."
+
+"What an extraordinary individual she must be!" he exclaimed. "But she
+can never carry out such a ridiculous scheme as that."
+
+"I don't know," she said. "She has already consulted Mr Brandon on the
+subject."
+
+"What nonsense!" cried Croft. "If you and Mr Null are satisfied, nobody
+else has anything to do with it."
+
+"Mr Null and I are of one mind," said she, "and agree perfectly. But
+don't you think it is a terrible thing to know you must always face an
+irritated aunt?"
+
+"Oh," said Croft, looking around at her very coldly and sternly, "I
+begin to see. I suppose a separation would improve your prospects in
+life. But it can't be done if your husband is opposed to it."
+
+"Mr Croft," said the lady, her face flushing a good deal, "you have no
+right to speak to me in that way, and attribute such motives to me. No
+matter whom I had married, I would never give him up for the sake of
+money, or a farm, or anything you think my aunt could give me."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said Croft, "if I made a mistake, but I don't see
+what else I could infer from your remarks."
+
+"My remarks," said she, "were,--well, they have a different meaning from
+what you supposed." She walked on in silence for a few moments, and
+then, looking up to her companion, she said: "I have a great mind to
+tell you something, if you will promise, at least for the present, not
+to breathe it to a living soul."
+
+Instantly the lookout on the bow of Lawrence Croft's life action called
+out: "Breakers ahead!" and almost instantly its engine was stopped, and
+every faculty of its commander was on the alert. "I do not know," he
+said, "that I am entitled to your confidence. Would it be of any
+advantage to you to tell me what you propose?"
+
+"It would be of advantage, and you are entitled," she added quickly. "It
+is about Mr Null, and you ought to know it, for you instigated my
+wedded life."
+
+"I instigated!"--exclaimed Mr Croft. And then he stopped short, both in
+his speech and walk.
+
+"Yes," said the lady, stopping also, and turning to face him, "you did,
+and you ought to remember it. You said if I had a husband to travel
+about with me you would like very much to employ me in the search for Mr
+Keswick, and it was solely on that account that I went and got married."
+Observing the look of blank and utter amazement on his face, she smiled,
+and said: "Please don't look so horribly astonished. Mr Null is void."
+
+As she made this remark the lady looked up at her companion with a smile
+and an expression of curiosity as to how he would take the announcement.
+Lawrence gazed blankly at her for a moment, and then he broke into a
+laugh. "You don't mean to say," he exclaimed, "that Mr Null is an
+imaginary being?"
+
+"Entirely so," she replied. "My dear Freddy is nothing but a fanciful
+idea, with no attribute whatever except the name."
+
+"You are a most extraordinary young person," said Lawrence; "almost as
+extraordinary as your aunt. What in the world made you think of doing
+such a thing? and why do you wish to keep up the delusion among your
+relatives, even so far as to drive your aunt to the point of getting you
+divorced from your airy husband?" And he laughed again. "I told you
+how I came to think of it," she said, as they walked on again. "It was
+very plain that if I wanted to travel about as your agent I must be
+married, and I have found a husband quite a protection and an advantage,
+even when he doesn't go about with me; and as to keeping up the
+delusion, as you call it, in my own family, I have found that to be
+absolutely necessary, at least for the present. My aunt, even when I was
+a little girl, determined to take my marriage into her own hands; and
+since I have returned to her, this desire has come up again in the most
+astonishing way. It is her principal subject of conversation with me.
+Were it not for the protection which my dear Freddy Null gives me I
+should be thrown bodily into the arms of the person whom my aunt has
+selected, and he would be obliged to take me, whether he wanted to or
+not, or be cast forth forever. So you see how important it is that my
+aunt should think I am married; and I do hope you will not tell anybody
+about Mr Null."
+
+"Of course I will keep your secret," said Croft. "You may rely upon
+that; but don't you think--do you believe that this sort of thing is
+altogether right?"
+
+She did not answer for a few moments, and then she said: "I suppose you
+must consider me a very deceptive sort of person, but you should
+remember that these things were not done for my own good, and, as far as
+I can see, they were the only things that could be done. Do you suppose
+I was going to let you pounce down on my cousin and do him some injury,
+for, as you kept your object such a secret, I did not suppose it could
+be anything but an injury you intended him."
+
+"A fine opinion of me!" said Croft.
+
+"And then, do you suppose," she continued, "that I would allow my aunt
+to quarrel with Junius and disinherit him, as she says she will, should
+he decline to marry me. I expected to drop my married name when I came
+here, but I had not been with my aunt fifteen minutes before I saw that
+it would never do for me to be a single woman while I stayed with her;
+and so I kept my Freddy by me. I did not intend, at all, to tell you all
+these things about my cousin, and I only did it because I did not wish
+you to think that I was a sly, mean creature, deceiving others for my
+own good."
+
+"Well," said Croft, "although I can't say you are right in making your
+relatives believe you are married when you are not, still I see you had
+very fair reasons for what you did, and you certainly showed a great
+deal of ingenuity and pluck in carrying out your remarkable schemes.
+By-the-way," he continued, somewhat hesitatingly, "I am in your debt for
+your services to me."
+
+"Not a bit of it!" she exclaimed quickly. "I never did a thing for you.
+It was all for myself, or, rather, for my cousin. The only money due was
+that which you paid to Mr Candy before I took charge of the matter."
+Lawrence felt that this was rather a sore subject with his companion,
+and he dropped it. "Do you still hold the position of cashier in the
+Information Shop?"
+
+"No," she said. "When I started out on my lonely wedding tour I gave up
+that, and if I should go back to New York, I do not think I should want
+to take it again.".
+
+"Do you propose soon to return to New York?" he asked.
+
+"No; at least I have made no plans in regard to it. I think it would
+grieve my aunt very much if I were to go away from her now, and as long
+as I have Mr Null to protect me from her matrimonial schemes, I am glad
+to stay with her. She is very kind to me."
+
+"I think you are entirely right in deciding to stay here," he said,
+looking around at her, and contrasting in his mind the bright-faced, and
+somewhat plump young person walking beside him with the thin-faced girl
+in black whom he had seen behind the cashier's desk.
+
+"Now," said she, with a vivacious little laugh, "I have poured out my
+whole soul before you, and, in return, I want you to gratify a curiosity
+which is fairly eating me up. Why were you so anxious to find my Cousin
+Junius? And how did you happen to come here the very day after he
+arrived? And, more than that, how was it that you had seen him at
+Midbranch so recently? You were talking about it last night. It couldn't
+have been my letter from Howlett's that brought you down here?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "my meeting with Mr Keswick at Midbranch was
+entirely accidental. When I arrived there, a few days ago, I had no
+reason to suppose that I should meet him. But I must ask you to excuse
+me from giving my reasons for wishing to find your cousin, and for
+coming to see him here. The matter between us has now become one of no
+importance, and will be dropped."
+
+The lady's face flushed. "Oh, indeed!" she said. And during the short
+remainder of their walk to the house she made no further remark.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+When Lawrence and his companion reached the house, they found on the
+porch Mrs Keswick and her nephew; and, after a little general
+conversation, the latter remarked to Mr Croft that he had found it would
+not be in his power to attend to that matter he had spoken of; to which
+Croft replied that he was very much obliged to him for thinking of it,
+and that it was of no consequence at all, as he would probably make
+other arrangements. He then stated that he would be obliged to return to
+the Green Sulphur Springs that day, and that, as it was a long ride, he
+would like to start as soon as his horse could be brought to him. But
+this procedure was condemned utterly by the old lady, who insisted that
+Mr Croft should not leave until after dinner, which meal should be
+served earlier than usual in order to give him plenty of time to get to
+the Springs before dark, and as Lawrence had nothing to oppose to her
+very urgent protest, he consented to stay. Before dinner was ready he
+found out why the protest was made. The old lady took him aside and made
+inquiries of him in regard to Mr Null. He had already informed her that
+he was not acquainted with that gentleman, but she thought, as Mr Croft
+seemed to be going about the country a good deal, he might possibly meet
+with her niece's husband; and, if he should do so, she would be very
+glad to have him become acquainted with him.
+
+To this Lawrence replied with much gravity that he would be happy to do
+so.
+
+"Mr Null has not yet come to my house," said Mrs Keswick, "and it is
+very natural that one should desire to know the husband of her only
+niece who is, or should be, the same as a daughter to her."
+
+"A very natural wish indeed," said Lawrence.
+
+"I am not quite sure in what business Mr Null is engaged," she
+continued, "and, although I asked my niece about it, she answered in a
+very evasive way, which makes me think his occupation is one she is not
+proud of. I have reason to suppose, however, that he is an agent for
+the sale of some fertilizing compound."
+
+At this Lawrence could not help smiling very broadly.
+
+"It may appear very odd and ridiculous to you," she said, "that a person
+connected with my family should be engaged in a business like that, for
+those fertilizers, as you ought to know, are all humbugs of the vilest
+kind. The only time I bought any it took my whole wheat crop to pay for
+it, and as for the clover I got afterward, a grasshopper could have
+eaten the whole of it. I am afraid he didn't tell her his business
+before he married her, and I'm glad she's ashamed of it. As far as I can
+find out, it does not seem as if Mr Null has any intention of coming
+here for some time; and, as I said before, I do very much want to know
+something about him--that is from a disinterested outsider. One cannot
+expect a recently married young woman to give a correct account of her
+husband."
+
+"I do not believe," said Mr Croft, "that there is any probability that I
+shall ever meet the gentleman--our walks in life being so different."
+
+"I should hope so, indeed!" interrupted Mrs Keswick. "But people of all
+sorts do run across each other."
+
+"But if I do meet with him," he continued, "I shall take great pleasure
+in giving you my impressions by letter, or in person, of your
+nephew-in-law." "Don't call him that!" exclaimed the old lady with
+much asperity. "I don't acknowledge the title. But I won't say any more
+about him," with a grim smile, "or you may think I don't like him."
+
+"Some of these days," he said, "you may come to be of the opinion that
+he is exactly the husband you would wish your niece to have."
+
+"Never!" she cried. "If he were an angel in broadcloth. But I mustn't
+talk about these things. I mentioned Mr Null to you because you are the
+only person of my acquaintance who, I suppose, is likely to meet with
+him. In regard to that little company I spoke of to you, I have not
+quite made up my mind about it, and, therefore, haven't mentioned it;
+but if I carry out the plan I will write to you at the Springs, and
+shall certainly expect you to be one of us." "That would give me great
+pleasure," said Lawrence, in a tone which indicated to the quick brain
+of the old lady that he would like to make a condition, but was too
+polite to do so.
+
+"If Miss March should agree to come," she said, "it might be pleasant
+for you to make one of her party and ride over at the same time.
+However, I'll let you know if she is coming, and then you can join her
+or not, as suits your convenience."
+
+"Thank you very much," said Lawrence, in a tone which betrayed no
+reserves.
+
+As he rode away that afternoon, Lawrence Croft, as his habit was on
+such occasions, revolved in his mind what he had heard and said and done
+during this little visit to the Keswick family. "Nothing could have
+turned out better," he thought. "To be sure the young man could not or
+would not be of any assistance to me, which is probably what I ought to
+have expected, but the strong-tempered old lady, his aunt, promises to
+be of tenfold more service than he could possibly be. As to that very
+odd young lady, Mrs Keswick's niece, I imagine that she does not regard
+me very favorably, for she was quite cool after I refused to let her
+into the secret of my desire to find her cousin, but as I did not ask
+for her confidences, she had no right to expect a return for them. And,
+by-the-way, it's odd how many confidences have been reposed in me since
+I've been down here. Keswick begins it; then old Brandon takes up the
+strain; after that Mr Candy's ex-cashier tells me the story of her life,
+and entrusts me with the secret of her marriage with a man of wind--that
+most useful Mr Null; after that, her aunt makes me understand how much
+she hates Mr Null, and how she would like me to find out something
+disreputable about him; and then--, by George! I forgot the old negro
+woman in the cabin!" At this he put his hand in the side-pocket of his
+coat, and drew out the pair of little blue shoes. "Why in the name of
+common sense did the old hag give me these? And why should she suppose
+that Mrs Keswick intended me a harm? The old lady never saw or heard of
+me until yesterday, and her manner certainly indicated no dislike of me.
+But, of course, Aunt Patsy's brain is cracked, and she didn't know what
+she was talking about. I shall keep the shoes, however, and if ever the
+venerable purple sun-bonnet runs afoul of me, I shall hold them up before
+it and see what happens."
+
+And so, very well satisfied with the result of his visit to Hewlett's,
+he rode on to the Green Sulphur Springs.
+
+On the afternoon of the next day Miss March received an invitation from
+Mrs Keswick to spend a few days with her, and make the acquaintance of
+her niece who had recently returned to the home of her childhood. The
+letter, for it was much more than a note of invitation, was cordial, and
+in parts pathetic. It dwelt upon the sundered pleasant relations of the
+two families, and expressed the hope that Mr Brandon's visit to her
+might be the beginning of a renewal of the old intimacy. Mrs Keswick
+took occasion to incidentally mention that the house would be
+particularly dull for her niece just now, as Junius was on the point of
+starting for Washington, where he would be detained some weeks on
+business; and she hoped, most earnestly, that Miss Roberta would accept
+this invitation to make her acquaintance and that of her niece; and she
+designated Thursday of the following week as the day on which she would
+like her to come.
+
+As may reasonably be supposed, this letter greatly astonished Miss
+March, who carried it to her uncle, and asked him to explain, if he
+could, what it meant. The old gentleman was a good deal surprised when
+he read it; but it delighted him in a far greater degree. He perceived
+in it the first fruits of his diplomacy. Mrs Keswick saw that it would
+be to her interest, for a time at least, to make friends with him; and
+this was the way she took to do it. She would not come to Midbranch
+herself, and bring the niece, but she would have Roberta come to her. In
+the pathos and cordiality Mr Brandon believed not at all. What the old
+hypocrite probably wanted was to enlist his grateful sympathy in that
+ridiculous divorce case. But, whatever her motives might be, he would be
+very glad to have his niece go to her; for if anything could make an
+impression upon that time-hardened and seasoned old chopping-block of a
+woman, it was Roberta's personal influence. If Mrs Keswick should come
+to know Roberta, that knowledge would do more than anything else in the
+world to remove her objections to the marriage he so greatly desired.
+
+He said nothing of all this to his niece; but he most earnestly
+counselled her to accept the invitation and make a visit to the two
+ladies. Of course Roberta did not care to go, but as her uncle appeared
+to take the matter so much to heart, she consented to gratify him, and
+wrote an acceptance. She found, also, when she had thought more on the
+matter, that she had a good deal of curiosity to see this Mrs Keswick,
+of whom she had heard so much, and who had had such an important
+influence on her life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+On the afternoon of the day on which Mrs Keswick's letter arrived at
+Midbranch, Peggy had great news to communicate to Aunt Judy, the cook:
+"Miss Rob's gwine to Mahs' Junius' house in de kerridge, an' I's gwine
+'long wid her to set in front wid Sam."
+
+"Mahs' Junius aint got no house," said Aunt Judy, turning around very
+suddenly. "Does you mean she gwine ter old Miss Keswick's?"
+
+"Yaas," answered Peggy.
+
+"Well, den, why don' you say so? Dat aint Mahs' Junius' house nohow,
+though he lib dar as much as he lib anywhar. Wot she gwine dar fur?"
+
+"Gwine to git married, I reckon," said Peggy.
+
+"Git out!" ejaculated Aunt Judy. "Wid you fur bride'maid?"
+
+"Dunno," answered Peggy. "She done tole me she didn't think she'd have
+much use fur me, but Mahs' Robert, he said it were too far fur her to go
+widout a maid; but ef she want me fur bride'maid I'll do dat too."
+
+"You bawn fool!" shouted Aunt Judy. "You ain't got sense 'nuf to hock
+the frocks ob de bridesmaids. An dat's all fool talk about Miss Rob
+gwine dar to be married. When she an' Mahs' Junius hab de weddin',
+dey'll hab it h'yar, ob course. She gwine to see ole Miss Keswick, coz
+dat's de way de fus' fam'lies allus does afore dey hab dere weddin'. I's
+pow'ful glad she's gwine dar, instid ob ole Miss Keswick comin' h'yar. I
+don' wan' her kunjerin' me, an' she'd do dat as quick as winkin' ef de
+batter bread's a leetle burned, or dar's too much salt in de soup. You's
+got to keep youse'f mighty straight, you Peggy, when you gits whar ole
+Miss Keswick is. Don' you come none ob your fool tricks, or she kunjer
+you, an' one ob your legs curl up like a pig's tail, an' neber uncurl no
+moh'. How you like dat?"
+
+To this Peggy made no reply, but with her eyes steadfastly fixed on Aunt
+Judy, and her lower jaw very much dropped, she mentally resolved to keep
+herself as straight as possible during her stay at the Keswick's.
+
+"Dar's ole Aun' Patsy," continued the speaker. "It's a mighty long time
+sence I've seen Aun' Patsy. Dat was when I went ober dar wid Miss Rob's
+mudder when de two fam'lys was fren's. I was her maid, an' went wid her
+jes as Mahs' Robert wants you ter go 'long wid Miss Rob. He ain't gwine
+to furgit how they did in de ole times when de ladies went visitin' in
+dere kerridges fur to stay free, four days. Aun' Patsy were pow'ful ole
+den, but she didn't die soon 'nuf, an' ole Miss Keswick she kunjer her,
+an' now she can't die at all."
+
+"Neber die!" ejaculated Peggy.
+
+"Neber die, nohow!" answered Aunt Judy. "Mighty offen she thought she
+gwine to die but 'twarnt no use. She can't do it. An' de las' time I
+hear ob her, she alibe yit, jes' de same as eber. An' dar was Mahs' John
+Keswick. She cunjer him coz he rode de gray colt to de Coht House when
+she done tole him to let dat gray colt alone, coz 'twarnt hisen but
+hern, an' he go shoot hese'f dead by de gate pos'. You's got to go fru
+by dat pos' when you go inter de gate."
+
+"Dat same pos'!" cried Peggy.
+
+"Yaas," said Aunt Judy, "dat same one. An' dey tells me dat on third
+Chewsdays, which is Coht day, de same as when he took de gray colt, as
+soon as it git dark he ghos' climb up to de top ob dat pos', an' set dar
+all night."
+
+With a conjuring old woman in the house, and a monthly ghost on the
+gate-post outside, the Keswick residence did not appear as attractive to
+Peggy as it had done before, but she mentally determined that while she
+was there she would be very careful to look out sharp for herself, a
+performance for which she was very well adapted.
+
+It was on a pleasant autumn morning that Mr Brandon very carefully
+ensconced his niece in the family carriage, with Peggy and a trusty
+negro man, Sam, on the outside front seat. "I would gladly go with you,
+my dear," he said, "even without the formality of an invitation, but it
+is far better for you to go by yourself. My very presence would provoke
+an antagonism in the old lady, while with you, personally, it is
+impossible that any such feeling should exist. I hope your visit may do
+away with all ill feeling between our families."
+
+"I want you to understand, uncle," said Miss Roberta, "that I am making
+this visit almost entirely to please you, and I shall do everything in
+my power to make Mrs Keswick feel that you and I are perfectly well
+disposed toward her; but you can't expect me to exhibit any great warmth
+of friendship toward a person who once used such remarkable and violent
+expressions in regard to me."
+
+"But those feelings, my dear," said Mr Brandon, "if we are to believe
+Mrs Keswick's letter, have entirely disappeared."
+
+"It is quite natural that they should do so," said Roberta, "as there is
+no longer any reason for them. And there is another thing I want to
+impress on your mind, Uncle Robert, you must expect no result from this
+visit except a renewal of amity between yourself and Mrs Keswick."
+
+"I understand it perfectly," said the old gentleman, feeling quite
+confident that if his family and Mrs Keswick should once again become
+friendly, the main object of his desires would not be difficult of
+accomplishment. "And now, my dear, I will not detain you any longer. I
+hope you may have a very pleasant visit, and I advise you to cultivate
+that young Mrs Null, whom I take to be a very sensible and charming
+person." And then he kissed her good-bye and shut the carriage door.
+
+It was about the middle of the afternoon when Sam drove through the
+outer Keswick gate, and Peggy, who had jumped down to open said gate,
+had made herself positively sure that, at present, there was no ghost
+sitting upon the post. Before she reached the house, Roberta began to
+wonder a good deal if she should find Mrs Keswick the woman she had
+pictured in her mind. But when the carriage drew up in front of the
+porch there came out to meet her, not the mistress of the estate, but a
+much younger lady, who tripped down the steps and reached Roberta as she
+descended from the carriage.
+
+"We are very glad to see you, Miss March," she said. "My aunt is not
+here just now, but will be back directly."
+
+"This is Mrs Null, isn't it?" said Roberta, and as the other smiled and
+answered with a slight flush that it was, Roberta stooped just the
+little that was necessary, and kissed her. Mrs Keswick's niece had not
+expected so warm a greeting from this lady, to whom she was almost a
+stranger, and instantly she said to herself: "In that kiss Freddy dies
+to you." For some days she had been turning over and over in her mind
+the question whether or not she should tell Roberta March that she was
+not Mrs Null. She greatly disliked keeping up the deception where it was
+not necessary, and with Roberta, if she would keep the secret, there was
+no need of this aerial matrimony. Besides her natural desire to confide
+in a person of her own sex and age, she did not wish Mr Croft to be the
+only one who shared her secret; and so she had determined that her
+decision would depend on what sort of girl Roberta proved to be. "If I
+like her I'll tell her; if I don't, I won't," was the final decision.
+And when Roberta March looked down upon her with her beautiful eyes and
+kissed her, Freddy Null departed this life so far as those two were
+concerned.
+
+Mrs Keswick had, apparently, made a very great miscalculation in regard
+to the probable time of arrival of her guest, for Miss March and Peggy,
+and even Sam and the horses, had been properly received and cared for,
+and Miss March had been sitting in the parlor for some time, and still
+the old lady did not come into the house. Her niece had grown very
+anxious about this absence, and had begun to fear that her aunt had
+treated Miss March as she had treated her on her arrival, and had gone
+away to stay. But Plez, whom she had sent to tell his mistress that her
+visitor was in the house, returned with the information that "ole miss"
+was in one of the lower fields directing some men who were digging a
+ditch, and that she would return to the house in a very short time. Thus
+assured that no permanent absence was intended, she went into the parlor
+to entertain Miss March, and to explain, as well as she could, the state
+of affairs; when, as she entered the door, she saw that lady suddenly
+arise and look steadfastly out of the window.
+
+"Can that be Mr Croft?" Miss March exclaimed.
+
+The younger girl made a dash forward and also looked out of the window.
+Yes, there was Mr Croft, riding across the yard toward the tree where
+horses were commonly tied.
+
+"Did you expect him?" asked Roberta, quickly.
+
+"No more than I expected the man in the moon," was the impulsive and
+honest answer of her companion.
+
+"I am very glad to see you, Mrs Null," said Lawrence, when that lady met
+him on the porch. And when he was shown into the parlor, he greeted Miss
+March with much cordiality, but no surprise. But when he inquired after
+other members of the family, he was much surprised to find that Mr
+Keswick had gone to Washington. "Was not this very unexpected, Mrs
+Null?" he asked.
+
+"Why, no," she answered. "Junius told us, almost as soon as he came
+here, that he would have to be in Washington by the first of this week."
+
+Mr Croft did not pursue this subject further, but presently remarked:
+"Are you and I the first comers, Miss March?"
+
+Roberta looked from one of her companions to the other, and remarked: "I
+do not understand you."
+
+Lawrence now perceived that he was treading a very uncertain and,
+perhaps, dangerous path of conversation, and the sooner he got out of it
+the better; but, before he could decide what answer to make, a silent
+and stealthy figure appeared at the door, beckoning and nodding in a
+very mysterious way. This proved to be the plump black maid, Letty, who,
+having attracted the attention of the company, whispered loudly, "Miss
+Annie!" whereupon that young lady immediately left the room.
+
+"What other comers did you expect?" then asked Roberta of Mr Croft.
+
+"I certainly supposed there would be a small company here," he said,
+"probably neighborhood people, but if I was mistaken, of course I don't
+wish to say anything more about it to the family."
+
+"Were you invited yourself?" asked Roberta.
+
+Croft wished very much that he could say that he had accidentally
+dropped in. But this he could not do, and he answered that Mrs Keswick
+asked him to come about this time. He did not consider it necessary to
+add that she had written to him at the Springs, renewing her invitation
+very earnestly, and mentioning that Miss March had consented to make one
+of the party.
+
+This was as far as Roberta saw fit to continue the subject, on the
+present occasion; and she began to talk about the charming weather, and
+the pretty way in which the foliage was reddening on the side of a hill
+opposite the window. Mr Croft was delighted to enter into this new
+channel of speech, and discussed with considerable fervor the
+attractiveness of autumn in Virginia. Miss Annie found Letty in a very
+disturbed state of mind. The dinner had been postponed until the arrival
+of Miss March, and now it had been still further delayed by the
+non-arrival of the mistress of the house, and everything was becoming
+dried up, and unfit to eat. "This will never do!" exclaimed Miss Annie.
+"I will go myself and look for aunt. She must have forgotten the time of
+day, and everything else."
+
+Putting on her hat she ran out of the back door, but she did not have to
+go very far, for she found the old lady in the garden, earnestly
+regarding a bed of turnips. "Where have you been, my dear aunt?" cried
+the girl. "Miss March has been here ever so long, and Mr Croft has come,
+and dinner has been waiting until it has all dried up. I was afraid that
+you had forgotten that company was coming to-day."
+
+"Forgotten!" said the old lady, glaring at the turnips. "It isn't an
+easy thing to forget. I invited the girl, and I expected her to come,
+but I tell you, Annie, when I saw that carriage coming along the road,
+all the old feeling came back to me. I remembered what its owners had
+done to me and mine, and what they are still trying to do, and I felt I
+could not go into the house, and give her my hand. It would be like
+taking hold of a snake."
+
+"A snake!" cried her niece, with much warmth. "She is a lovely woman!
+And her coming shows what kindly feelings she has for you. But, no
+matter what you think about it, aunt, you have asked her here, and you
+must come in and see her. Dinner is waiting, and I don't know what more
+to say about your absence."
+
+"Go in and have dinner," said Mrs Keswick. "Don't wait for me. I'll come
+in and see her after a while; but I haven't yet got to the point of
+sitting down to the table and eating with her."
+
+"Oh, aunt!" exclaimed Annie, "you ought never to have asked her if you
+are going to treat her in this way! And what am I to say to her? What
+excuse am I to make? Are you not sick? Isn't something the matter with
+you?"
+
+"You can tell them I'm flustrated," said the old lady, "and that is all
+that's the matter with me. But I'm not coming in to dinner, and there is
+no use of saying anything more about it."
+
+Annie looked at her, the tears of mortification still standing in her
+eyes. "I suppose I must go and do the best I can," she said, "but, aunt,
+please tell me one thing. Did you invite any other people here? Mr Croft
+spoke as if he expected to see other visitors, and if they ask anything
+more about it, I don't know what to say."
+
+"The only other people I invited," said the old lady with a grim grin,
+"were the King of Norway, and the Prime Minister of Spain, and neither
+of them could come." Annie said no more, but hurrying back to the
+house, she ordered dinner to be served immediately. At first the meal
+was not a very lively one. The young hostess _pro tempore_ explained the
+absence of the mistress of the house by stating that she had had a
+nervous attack--which was quite true--and that she begged them to excuse
+her until after dinner. The two guests expressed their regret at this
+unfortunate indisposition, but each felt a degree of embarrassment at
+the absence of Mrs Keswick. Roberta, who had heard many stories of the
+old woman, guessed at the true reason, and if the distance had not been
+so great, she would have gone home that afternoon. Lawrence Croft, of
+course, could imagine no reason for the old lady's absence, except the
+one that had been given them, but he suspected that there must be some
+other. He did his best, however, to make pleasant conversation; and
+Roberta, who began to have a tender feeling for the little lady at the
+head of the table, who, she could easily see, had been placed in an
+unpleasant position, seconded his efforts with such effect that, when
+the little party had concluded their dinner with a course of hot pound
+cake and cream sauce, they were chatting together quite sociably.
+
+In about ten minutes after they had all gone into the parlor, Miss Annie
+excused herself, and presently returned with a message to Miss March
+that Mrs Keswick would be very glad to see her in another room. This was
+a very natural message from an elderly lady, who was not well, but
+Roberta arose and walked out of the parlor with a feeling as if she
+were about to enter the cage of an erratic tigress. But she met with no
+such creature. She saw in the back room, into which she was ushered, a
+small old woman, dressed very plainly, who came forward to meet her,
+extending both hands, into one of which Roberta placed one of her own.
+
+"I may as well say at once, Roberta March," said Mrs Keswick, "that the
+reason I didn't come to meet you when you first arrived was, that I
+couldn't get over, all of a sudden, the feelings I have had against your
+family for so many years."
+
+"Why then, Mrs Keswick," said Roberta, very coldly, "did you ask me to
+come?"
+
+"Because I wanted you to come," said Mrs Keswick, "and because I thought
+I was stronger than I turned out to be; but you must make allowances for
+the stiffness which gets into old people's dispositions as well as their
+backs. I want you to understand, however, that I meant all I said in
+that letter, and I am very glad to see you. If anything in my conduct
+has seemed to you out of the way, you must set it down to the fact that
+I was making a very sudden turn, and starting out on a new track in
+which I hope we shall all keep for the rest of our lives."
+
+Roberta could not help thinking that the sudden turn in the new track
+began with the visit of her uncle to this house, and that the old lady
+need not have inflicted upon her the disagreeable necessity of
+witnessing a hostess taking a very repulsive cold plunge; but all she
+said was that she hoped the families would now live together in friendly
+relations; and that she was sure that, if this were to be, it would give
+her uncle a great deal of pleasure. She very much wanted to ask Mrs
+Keswick how Mr Croft happened to be here at this time, but she felt that
+her very brief acquaintance with the lady would not warrant the
+discussion of a subject like that.
+
+"She is very much the kind of woman I thought she was," said Roberta to
+herself, when, after some further hospitable remarks from Mrs Keswick,
+the two went to the parlor together to find Mr Croft. But that
+gentleman, having been deserted by all the ladies, was walking up and
+down the greensward in front of the house, smoking a cigar. Mrs Keswick
+went out to him, and greeted him very cordially, begging him to excuse
+her for not being able to see him as soon as he came.
+
+Lawrence set all this aside in his politest manner, but declared himself
+very much disappointed in not seeing Mr Keswick, and also remarked that
+from what she had said to him on his last visit he had expected to find
+quite a little party here.
+
+"I am sorry," said the old lady, "that Junius is away, for he would be
+very glad to see you, and it never came into my mind to mention to you
+that he was obliged to be in Washington at this time. And, as for the
+party, I thought afterwards that it would be a great deal cosier just to
+have a few persons here."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Lawrence, "most certainly, a great deal cosier."
+
+Mrs Keswick ate supper with her guests, and behaved very well. During
+the evening she sustained the main part of the conversation, giving the
+company a great many anecdotes and reminiscences of old times and old
+families, relating them in an odd and peculiar way that was very
+interesting, especially to Croft, to whom the subject matter was quite
+new. But, although her three companions listened to the old lady with
+deferential attention, interspersed with appropriate observations, each
+one made her the object of severe mental scrutiny, and endeavored to
+discover the present object of her scheming old mind. Roberta was quite
+sure that her invitation and that of Mr Croft was a piece of artful
+management on the part of the old lady, and imagined, though she was not
+quite sure about it, that it was intended as a bit of match-making. To
+get her married to somebody else, would be, of course, the best possible
+method of preventing her marrying Junius; and this, she had reason to
+believe, was the prime object of old Mrs Keswick's existence. But why
+should Mr Croft be chosen as the man with whom she was to be thrown. She
+had learned that the old lady had seen him before, but was quite certain
+that her acquaintance with him was slight. Could Junius have told his
+aunt about the friendship between herself and Mr Croft? It was not like
+him, but a great many unlikely things take place.
+
+As for Lawrence, he knew very well there was a trick beneath his
+invitation, but he could not at all make out why it had been played. He
+had been given an admirable opportunity of offering himself to Miss
+March, but there was no reason, apparent to him, why this should have
+been done.
+
+Miss Annie, watching her aunt very carefully, and speaking but seldom,
+quite promptly made up her mind in regard to the matter. She knew very
+well the bitter opposition of the old woman to a marriage between Junius
+and Miss March; and saw, as plainly as she saw the lamp on the table,
+that Roberta had been brought here on purpose to be sacrificed to Mr
+Croft. Everything had been made ready, the altar cleared, and, as well
+as the old lady's grindstone would act, the knife sharpened. "But," said
+Miss Annie to herself, "she needn't suppose that I am going to sit quiet
+and see all this going on, with Junius away off there in Washington,
+knowing nothing about any of it."
+
+Miss Roberta retired quite early to her room, having been fatigued by
+her long drive, and she was just about to put out her light when she
+heard a little knock at the door. Opening it slightly, she saw there
+Junius Keswick's cousin, who also appeared quite ready for bed.
+
+"May I come in for a minute?" said Annie.
+
+"Certainly," replied Miss March, admitting her, and closing the door
+after her.
+
+"I have something to tell you," said the younger lady, admiring as she
+spoke, the length of her companion's braided hair. "I intended to keep
+it until to-morrow, but since I came up stairs I felt I could not let
+you sleep a night under the same roof with me without knowing it. I am
+not Mrs Null."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Roberta, in a tone which made Annie lift up her hands
+and implore her not to speak so loud, for fear that her aunt should hear
+her. "I know she hasn't come up stairs yet, for she sits up dreadfully
+late, but she can hear things, almost anywhere. No, I am not Mrs Null.
+There is no such person as Mr Null, or, at least, he is a mere gaseous
+myth, whom I married for the sake of the protection his name gave me."
+
+"This is the most extraordinary thing I ever heard," said Roberta. "You
+must tell me all about it."
+
+"I don't want to keep you up," said Annie, "you must be tired."
+
+"I am not tired," said Roberta, "for every particle of fatigue has flown
+away." And with this she made Annie sit down beside her on the lounge.
+"Now you must tell me what this means," she said. "Can it be that your
+aunt does not know about it?"
+
+"Indeed, she does not," said Annie. "I married Freddy Null in New York,
+for reasons which we need not talk of now, for that matter is all past
+and gone; but when I came here, I found almost immediately, that he
+would be more necessary to me in this house than anywhere else."
+
+"I cannot imagine," said Roberta, "why a gaseous husband should be
+necessary to you here."
+
+"It is not a very easy thing to explain," said the other, "that is, it
+is easy enough, but--"
+
+"Oh," said Roberta, catching the reason of her companion's hesitation,
+"I don't think you ought to object to tell me your reason. Does it
+relate to your cousin Junius?"
+
+"Well," said Annie, "not altogether, and not so much to him as to my
+aunt." "I think I see," said Roberta. "A marriage between you two would
+suit her very well. Are you afraid that she would try to force him on
+you?"
+
+"Oh, no;" said Annie, "that would be bad enough, but it would not be so
+embarrassing, and so dreadfully unpleasant, as forcing me on him, and
+that is what aunt wants to do. And you can easily see that, in that
+case, I could not stay in this house at all. I scarcely know my cousin
+as a man, my strongest recollection of him being that of a big and very
+nice boy, who used to climb up in the apple-trees to get me apples, and
+then come down to the very lowest branch where he could drop the ripest
+ones right into my apron, and not bruise them. But, even if I had been
+acquainted with him all these years, and liked him ever so much, I
+couldn't stay here and have aunt make him take me, whether he wanted
+to, or not. And, unless you knew my aunt very well, you could not
+conceive how unscrupulously straightforward she is in carrying out her
+plans."
+
+"And so," said Roberta, "you have quite baffled her by this little ruse
+of a marriage."
+
+"Not altogether," said Annie with a smile, "for she vows she is going to
+get me divorced from Mr Null."
+
+"That is funnier than the rest of it," said Roberta, laughing. And they
+both laughed together, but in a subdued way, so as not to attract the
+attention of the old lady below stairs. "And now, you see," said Annie,
+"why I must be Mrs Null while I stay here. And you will promise me that
+you will never tell any one?"
+
+"You may be sure I shall keep your queer secret. But have you not told
+it to any one but me?"
+
+"Yes," said Annie, "but I have only told it to one other, Mr Croft. But
+please don't speak of it to him."
+
+"Mr Croft!" exclaimed Roberta. "How in the world did you come to tell
+him? Do you know him so well as that?"
+
+"Well," said Annie, "it does seem out of the way, I admit, that I should
+tell him, but I can't give you the whole story of how I came to do it.
+It wouldn't interest you--at least, it would, but I oughtn't to tell it.
+It is a twisty sort of thing."
+
+"Twisty?" said Roberta, drawing herself up, and a little away from her
+companion.
+
+Annie looked up, and caught the glance by which this word was
+accompanied, and the tone in which it was spoken went straight to her
+soul. "Now," said she, "if you are going to look at me, and speak in
+that way, I'll tell you every bit of it." And she did tell the whole
+story, from her first meeting with Mr Croft in the Information Shop,
+down to the present moment.
+
+"What is your name, anyway?" said Roberta, when the story had been told.
+
+"My name," said the other, "is Annie Peyton."
+
+"And now, do you know, Annie Peyton," said Roberta, passing her fingers
+gently among the short, light-brown curls on her companion's forehead,
+"that I think you must have a very, very kindly recollection of the boy
+who used to come down to the lowest branches of the tree to drop apples
+into your apron."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+Shortly after Peggy arrived with her mistress at the Keswick
+residence, her mind began to be a good deal disturbed. She had been
+surprised, when the carriage drew up to the door, that "Mahs' Junius"
+had not rushed down to meet his intended bride, and when she found he
+was not in the house, and had, indeed, gone away from home, she did not
+at all know what to make of it. If Miss Rob took the trouble to travel
+all the way to the home of the man that the Midbranch people had decided
+she should marry, it was a very wonderful thing, indeed, that he should
+not be there to meet her. And while these thoughts were turning
+themselves over in the mind of this meditative girl of color, and the
+outgoing look in her eyes was extending itself farther and farther, as
+if in search of some solution of the mystery, up rode Mr Croft.
+
+"Dar _he!_" exclaimed Peggy, as she stood at the corner of the house
+where she had been pursuing her meditations. "He!" she continued in a
+voice that would have been quite audible to any one standing near. "Upon
+my libin' soul, wot brung him h'yar? Miss Rob don' wan' him round,
+nohow. I done druv him off wunst. Upon my libin' soul, he's done brung
+his bag behin' him on de saddle, an' I reckon he's gwine to stay."
+
+As Mr Croft dismounted and went into the house, Peggy glowered at him;
+sundry expressions, sounding very much like odds and ends of
+imprecations which she had picked up in the course of a short but
+investigative existence, gurgling from her lips. "I wish dat ole Miss
+Keswick kunjer him. Ef she knew how Miss Rob hate him, she curl he legs
+up, an' gib him mis'ry spranglin' down he back."
+
+The hope of seeing this intruder well "kunjered" by the old lady was the
+only thing that gave a promise of peace to the mind of Peggy; and though
+her nature was by no means a social one, she determined to make the
+acquaintance of some one or other in the house; hoping to find out how
+Mrs Keswick conducted her conjurations; at what time of day or night
+they were generally put into operation; and how persons could be brought
+under their influence.
+
+The breakfast hour in the Keswick house was a variable one. Sometimes
+the mistress of the establishment rose early and wanted her morning meal
+before she went out of doors; at other times she would go off to some
+distant point on the farm to see about something that was doing or ought
+to be done, and breakfast would be kept waiting for her. The delays,
+however, were not all due to the old lady's irregular habits. Very often
+Letty would come up stairs with the information that the "bread ain't
+riz;" and as a Virginia breakfast without hot bread would be an
+impossibility, the meal would be postponed until the bread did conclude
+to rise, or until some substitute, such as "beaten biscuit" had been
+provided.
+
+On the morning after his arrival, Lawrence Croft came down stairs about
+eight o'clock, and found the lower part of the house deserted; and
+glancing into the dining-room as he passed its open door, he saw no
+signs of breakfast. The house was cool, but the sun appeared to be
+shining warmly outside, and he stepped out of the open back door into a
+small flower garden, with a series of broad boards down the walk which
+lay along the middle of it. Up and down this board walk Lawrence strode,
+breathing the fresh air, and thinking over matters. He was not at all
+satisfied at being here during Keswick's absence, feeling that he was
+enjoying an advantage which, although it was quite honorable, did not
+appear so. What he had to do was to get an interview with Miss March as
+soon as possible, and have that matter over. When he had been definitely
+accepted or rejected, he would go away. And, whatever the result might
+be, he would write to his rival as soon as he returned to the Springs,
+and inform him of it, and would also explain how he had happened to be
+here with Miss March. While he was engaged in planning these honorable
+intentions, there came from the house Mrs Keswick's niece, with a basket
+in one hand, and a pair of scissors in the other, and she immediately
+applied herself to cutting some geraniums and chrysanthemums, which were
+about the last flowers left blooming at that season in the garden. "Good
+morning," said Croft, from the other end of the walk. "I am glad to see
+you out so early."
+
+"Good morning," she replied, with a look which indicated that she was
+not at all glad to see him, "but I don't think it is early."
+
+Croft had noticed on the preceding day that her coolness towards him
+still continued, but it did not suit him to let her know that he
+perceived it. He went up to her, and in a very friendly way remarked:
+"There is something I wish very much you would tell me. What is your
+name? It is very odd that during all the time I have been acquainted
+with you I have never known your name."
+
+"You must have taken an immense interest in it," she said, as she
+snipped some dried leaves off a twig of geranium she had cut.
+
+"It was not that I did not take any interest," said Croft, "but at first
+your name never came forward, and I soon began to know you by the title
+which your remarkable condition of wedlock gave you."
+
+"And that is the name," said the lady, very decidedly, "by which I am to
+be known in this house. I am very proud of my maiden name, but I am not
+going to tell it to you for fear that some time you will use it."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Mr Croft. "Then I suppose I am to continue even to
+think of you as Mrs Null."
+
+"You needn't think of me at all," said she, "but when you speak to me I
+most certainly expect you to use that name. It was only by a sort of
+accident that you came to know it was not my name." "I don't consider it
+an accident at all," said Croft. "I look upon it as a piece of very
+kindly confidence."
+
+Miss Annie gave a little twist to her mouth, which seemed to indicate
+that if she spoke she should express her contempt of such an opinion,
+and Croft continued:
+
+"I am very sorry that upon that occasion I should have felt myself
+obliged to refuse your request that I should make you acquainted with my
+reasons for desiring to know Mr Keswick's whereabouts. But I am sure, if
+you understood the matter, you would not be in the least degree--"
+
+"Oh, you need not trouble yourself about that," she interrupted. "I
+don't want you to tell me anything at all. It is quite easy, now, to see
+why you wished to know where my cousin was."
+
+"It is impossible that you should know!" exclaimed Croft.
+
+"We will say no more about it," replied Annie. "I am quite satisfied."
+
+"I would give a good deal," said Lawrence, after looking steadily at her
+for a few moments, "to know what you really do think."
+
+Annie had cut all the flowers she wanted, or, rather, all she could get;
+and she now stood up and looked her companion full in the face. "Mr
+Croft," she said, "it has been necessary, and it is necessary now for me
+to have some concealments, and I am sorry for it; but it isn't at all
+necessary for me to conceal my opinion of your reasons for wanting to
+know about Junius. You were really in pursuit of Miss March, and knowing
+that he was in love with her, you wanted to make sure that when you
+went to her, he wouldn't be there. It is my firm opinion that is all
+there is about it; and the fact of your turning up here just after my
+cousin left, proves it."
+
+"Miss Annie," exclaimed Croft--"I have heard you called by that name,
+and I vow I won't call you Mrs Null, when there is no need for it--you
+were never more mistaken in your life, and I am very sorry that you
+should have such a low opinion of me as to think I would wish to take
+advantage of your cousin during his absence."
+
+"Then why do you do it?" asked Miss Annie, with a little upward pitch of
+her chin.
+
+At this moment the breakfast-bell rang, and Mrs Keswick appeared in the
+back door, evidently somewhat surprised to see these two conversing in
+the garden.
+
+"I am very much vexed," said Lawrence, as he followed his companion, who
+had suddenly turned towards the house, "that you should think of me in
+this way."
+
+But to this remark Miss Annie had no opportunity to reply.
+
+After breakfast, Mrs Keswick proved the truth of what her niece had said
+about her unscrupulous straightforwardness when carrying out her
+projects. She had invited Mr Croft and Miss March to her house in order
+that the former might have the opportunity which she had discovered he
+wanted and could not get, of offering himself in marriage to the lady;
+and she now made it her business to see that Mr Croft's opportunity
+should stand up very clear and definite before him; and that all
+interfering circumstances should be carefully removed. She informed her
+niece that she wished her to go with her to a thicket on the other side
+of the wheat field which that young lady had advised should be ploughed
+for pickles, to look for a turkey-hen which she had reason to believe
+had been ridiculous enough to hatch out a brood of young at this
+improper season. Annie demurred, for she did not want to go to look for
+turkeys, nor did she want to give Mr Croft any opportunities; but the
+old lady insisted, and carried her off. Croft felt that there was
+something very bare and raw-boned about the position in which he was
+left with Miss March; and he thought that lady might readily suppose
+that Mrs Keswick's object was to leave them together. He imagined that,
+himself, though why she should be so kind to him he could not feel quite
+certain. However, his path lay straight before him, and if the old lady
+had whitewashed it to make it more distinct, he did not intend to refuse
+to walk in it.
+
+"I have been looking at that hill over yonder," said he, "with a cluster
+of pine trees on the brow of it. I should think there would be a fine
+view from that hill. Would you not like to walk up there?"
+
+Lawrence felt that this proposition was quite in keeping with the
+bareness of the previous proceedings, but he did not wish to stay in the
+house and be subject to the unexpected return of the old lady and her
+niece.
+
+"Certainly," said Miss March; "nothing would please me better." And so
+they walked up Pine Top Hill.
+
+When they reached this elevated position, they sat down on the rock on
+which Mrs Null had once conversed with Freddy, and admired the view,
+which was, indeed, a very fine one. After about five minutes of this,
+which Lawrence thought was quite enough, he turned to his companion and
+said:
+
+"Miss March, I do not wish you to suppose that I brought you up here for
+the purpose of viewing those rolling hills and distant forests."
+
+"You didn't?" exclaimed Roberta, in a tone of surprise.
+
+"No," said he; "I brought you here because it is a place where I could
+speak freely to you, and tell you I love you."
+
+"That was not at all necessary," said Miss March. "We had the lower
+floor of the house entirely to ourselves, and I am sure that Mrs
+Keswick would not have returned until you had waved a handkerchief, or
+given some signal from the back of the house that it was all over."
+
+Croft looked at her with a troubled expression. "Miss March," said he,
+"do you not think I am in earnest? Do you not believe what I have said?"
+"I have not the slightest doubt you are in earnest," she answered.
+"The magnitude of the preparation proves it." "I am glad you said that,
+for it gives me the opportunity for making an explanation," said
+Lawrence. "Our meeting at this place may be a carefully contrived
+stratagem, but it was not contrived by me. I am very well aware that Mr
+Keswick also wishes to marry you--"
+
+"Did you see that in the Richmond _Dispatch_ or in one of the New York
+papers?" interrupted Miss March.
+
+"That is a point," said Lawrence, overlooking the ridicule, "which we
+need not discuss. I am perfectly aware that Mr Keswick is my rival, but
+I wish you to understand that I am not voluntarily taking any undue
+advantage of his absence. I believe him to be a very fair and generous
+man, and I would wish to be as open and generous as he is. When I came,
+I expected to find him here, and, standing on equal ground with him, I
+intended to ask you to accept my love."
+
+"Well, then," said Roberta, "would it not be more fair and generous for
+you to go away now, and postpone this proposal until some time when you
+would each have an equal chance?"
+
+"No, it would not," said Lawrence, vehemently. "I have now an
+opportunity of telling you that I love you ardently, passionately; and
+nothing shall cause me to postpone it. Will you not consider what I
+say? Will you make no answer to this declaration of most true and honest
+love?"
+
+"I am considering what you have said," she answered; "and I am very glad
+to hear that you did not know of this cunning little trap that Mrs
+Keswick has laid for me. It is all very plain to me, but I do not know
+why she should have selected you as one of the actors in the plot. Have
+you ever told her that you are a suitor for my hand?"
+
+"Never!" exclaimed Lawrence. "She may have imagined it, for she heard I
+was a frequent visitor to Midbranch. But let us set all that aside. I am
+on fire with love for you. Will you tell me that you can return that
+love, or that I must give up all hope? This is the most important
+question of my whole life. I beg you, from the bottom of my heart, to
+decide it."
+
+"Mr Croft," said she, "when you used to come, nearly every day, to see
+me at Midbranch, and we took those long walks in the woods, you never
+talked in this way. I considered you as a gentleman whose prudence and
+good sense would not allow him to step outside of the path of perfectly
+conventional social intercourse. This is not conventional and not
+prudent."
+
+"I loved you then, and I love you now;" exclaimed Lawrence. "You must
+have known that I loved you, for my declaration does not in the least
+surprise you."
+
+"Once--it was the last time you visited Midbranch--I suspected, just a
+little, that your mind might be affected somewhat in the way you speak
+of, but I supposed that attack of weakness had passed away."
+
+"I know what you mean," said Lawrence, "but I can't endure to talk of
+such trifles. I love you, Roberta--"
+
+"Miss March," she interrupted.
+
+"And I want you to tell me if you love me in return."
+
+Miss March rose from the rock where she had been sitting, and her
+companion rose with her. After a moment's silence, during which he
+watched her with intense eagerness, she said: "Mr Croft, I am going to
+give you your choice. Would you prefer being refused under a cherry
+tree, or under a sycamore?"
+
+There was a little smile on her lips as she said this, which Lawrence
+could not interpret.
+
+"I decline being refused under any tree," he said with vehemence.
+
+"I prefer the cherry tree," said she, "there is a very pretty one over
+there on the ridge of this hill, and its leaves are nearly all gone,
+which would make it quite appropriate--but what is the meaning of this?
+There comes Peggy. It isn't possible that she thinks it's time for me to
+give out something to Aunt Judy."
+
+Croft turned, and there was the wooden Peggy, marching steadily up the
+hill, and almost upon them.
+
+"What do you want, Peggy?" asked Miss Roberta.
+
+"Dar's a man down to de house dat wants him," pointing to Mr Croft.
+
+Lawrence was very much surprised. "A man who wants me!" he exclaimed.
+"You must be mistaken."
+
+"No sah," replied Peggy, "you's de one."
+
+For a moment Lawrence hesitated. His disposition was to let any man in
+the world, be he president or king, wait until he had settled this
+matter with Miss March. But with Peggy present it was impossible to go
+on with the love-making. He might, indeed, send her back with a message,
+but the thought came to him that it would be well to postpone for a
+little the pressing of his suit, for the lady was certainly in a very
+untoward humor, and he was not altogether sorry to have an excuse for
+breaking off the interview at this point. He had not yet been discarded,
+and he would like to think over the matter, and see if he could discover
+any reason for the very disrespectful manner, to say the least of it,
+with which Miss March had received his amatory advances. "I suppose I
+must go and see the man," he said, "though I can't imagine who it can
+possibly be. Will you return to the house?"
+
+"No," said Miss Roberta, "I will stay here a little longer, and enjoy
+the view."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+As Lawrence Croft walked down Pine Top Hill his mind was in a good deal
+of a hubbub. The mind of almost any lover would be stirred up if he came
+fresh from an interview, in which his lady had pinned him, to use a
+cruel figure, in various places on the wall to see how he would spin and
+buzz in different lights. But the disdainful pin had not yet gone
+through a vital part of Lawrence's hopes, and they had strength to spin
+and buzz a good deal yet. As soon as he should have an opportunity he
+would rack his brains to find out what it was that had put Roberta March
+into such a strange humor. No one who simply desired to decline the
+addresses of a gentleman would treat her lover as Miss March had treated
+him. It was quite evident that she wished to punish him. But what had
+been his crime?
+
+But the immediate business on his hands was to go and see what man it
+was who wished to see him. Ordinarily the fact that a man had called
+upon him would not be considered by Lawrence a matter for cogitation,
+but as he walked toward the house it seemed to him very odd that any one
+should call upon him in such an out-of-the-way place as this, where so
+few people knew him to be. He was not a business man, but a large
+portion of his funds were invested in a business concern, and it might
+be that something had gone wrong, and that a message had been sent him.
+His address at the Green Sulphur Springs was known, and the man in
+charge there knew that he was visiting Mrs Keswick.
+
+These considerations made him a little anxious, and helped to keep his
+mind in the hubbub which has been mentioned.
+
+When he reached the front of the house, Lawrence saw a lean, gray horse
+tied to a tree, and a man sitting upon the porch; and as soon as he made
+his appearance the latter came down the steps to meet him.
+
+"I didn't go into the house, sir," he said, "because I thought you'd
+just as lief have a talk outside."
+
+"What is your business?" asked Croft.
+
+The man moved a few steps farther from the house, and Lawrence followed
+him.
+
+"Is it anything secret you have to tell me?" he asked.
+
+"Well, yes, sir, I should think it was," replied the other, a tall man,
+with sandy hair and beard, and dressed in a checkered business suit,
+which had lost a good deal of the freshness of its early youth. "I may
+as well tell you at once who I am. I am an anti-detective. Never heard
+of that sort of person, I suppose?"
+
+"Never," said Lawrence, curtly.
+
+"Well, sir, the organization which I belong to is one which is filling a
+long felt want. You know very well, sir, that this country is full of
+detective officers, not only those who belong to a regular police force,
+but lots of private ones, who, if anybody will pay them for it, will go
+to Jericho to hunt a man up. Now, sir, our object is to protect society
+against these people. When we get information that a man is going to be
+hounded down by any of these detectives--and we have private ways of
+knowing these things--we just go to that man, and if he is willing to
+become one of our clients, we take him into our charge; and our
+business, after that, is to keep him informed of just what is being done
+against him. He can stay at home in comfort with his wife, settle up his
+accounts, and do what he likes, and the day before he is to be swooped
+down on, he gets notice from us, and comfortably goes to Chicago, or
+Jacksonville, where he can take his ease until we post him of the next
+move of the enemy. If he wants to take extra precautions, and writes a
+letter to anybody in the place where he lives, dated from London or Hong
+Kong, and sends that letter under cover to us, we'll see that it is
+mailed from the place it is dated from, and that it gets into the hands
+of the detectives. There have been cases where a gentleman has had six
+months or a year of perfect comfort, by the detectives being thrown off
+by a letter like this. That is only one of the ways in which we help
+and protect persons in difficulties who, if it wasn't for us, would be
+dragged off, hand-cuffed, from the bosom of their families; and who,
+even if they never got convicted, would have to pay a lot of money to
+get out of the scrape. Now, I have put myself a good deal out of the
+way, sir, to come to you, and offer you our assistance."
+
+"Me!" exclaimed Croft. "What are you talking about?"
+
+The man smiled. "Of course, it's all right to know nothing about it, and
+it's just what we would advise; but I assure you we are thoroughly
+posted in your affair, and to let you know that we are, I'll just
+mention that the case is that of Croft after Keswick, through Candy."
+
+"Stuff and nonsense!" exclaimed Lawrence, getting red in the face.
+"There is no such case!"
+
+He was about to say more, when a few words from the anti-detective
+stopped him suddenly.
+
+"Look here, Mr Keswick," said the man, leveling a long fore-finger at
+him, and speaking very earnestly, "don't you go and flatter yourself
+that this thing has been dropped, because you haven't heard of it for a
+month or two; and if you'll take my advice, you'll make up your mind on
+the spot, either to let things go on and be nabbed, or to put yourself
+under our protection, and live in entire safety until this thing has
+blown over, without any trouble, except a little travelling." At the
+mention of Keswick's name, Lawrence had seen through the whole affair at
+a single mental glance. The man was after Junius Keswick, and his
+business was to Lawrence more startling and repugnant than it could
+possibly be to any one else. It was necessary to be very careful. If he
+immediately avowed who he was, the man might yet find Keswick, before
+warning and explanation could be got to him, and not only put that
+gentleman in a very unpleasant state of mind, but do a lot of mischief
+besides. He did not believe that Mr Candy had recommenced his
+investigations without consultation with him, but this person evidently
+knew that such an investigation had been set on foot, and that would be
+sufficient for his purposes. Lawrence decided to be very wary, and he
+said to the man, "Did you ask for me here by name?"
+
+"No, _sir_," said the other, "I had information that you were here, and
+that you were the only gentleman who lived here and although you are in
+your own home, I did not know but this was one of those cases in which
+names were dropped and servants changed, to suit an emergency. I asked
+the little darkey I saw at the front of the house if she lived here, and
+she told me she had only just come. That put me on my guard, and so I
+merely asked if the gentleman was in, and she went and got you. We're
+very careful about calling names, and you needn't be afraid that any of
+our people will ever give you away on that line."
+
+Lawrence reflected for a moment, and then he said: "What are your terms
+and arrangements for carrying on an affair of this kind?"
+
+"They are very simple and moderate," said the man, taking a wallet from
+his pocket. "There is one of our printed slips, which we show but don't
+give away. To become a client all you have to do is to send fifteen
+dollars to the office, or to pay it to me, if you think no time should
+be lost. That will entitle you to protection for a year. After that we
+make the nominal charge of five dollars for each letter sent you, giving
+you information of what is going on against you. For extra services,
+such as mailing letters from distant points, of course there will be
+extra charges."
+
+Lawrence glanced over the printed slip, which contained information very
+similar to that the man had given him, and as he did so, he came to the
+conclusion that there would be nothing dishonest in allowing the fellow
+to continue in his mistake, and to endeavor to find out what mischief
+was about to be done in his, Lawrence's, name, and under his apparent
+authority. "I will become a subscriber," said he, taking out his
+pocket-book, "and request that you give me all the information you
+possess, here and immediately."
+
+"That is the best thing to do," said the man, taking the money, "for, in
+my opinion, no time is to be lost. I'll give you a receipt for this."
+
+"Don't trouble yourself about that," said Lawrence; "let me have your
+information."
+
+"You're very right," said the man. "It's a great deal better not to
+have your name on anything. And now for the points. Candy, who has
+charge of Croft's job, is going more into the detective business than he
+used to be, and we have information that he has lately taken up your
+affair in good, solid earnest. He found out that Croft had put somebody
+else on your track, without regularly taking the business out of his
+hands, and this made him mad; and I don't wonder at it, for Croft, as I
+understand, has plenty of money, and if he concluded to throw Candy
+over, he ought to have done it fair and square, and paid him something
+handsome in consideration for having taken the job away. But he didn't
+do anything of the kind, and Candy considers himself still in his
+employment, and vows he's going to get hold of you before the other
+party does; so, you see, you have got two sets of detectives after you,
+and they'll be mighty sharp, for the first one that gets you will make
+the money."
+
+"Where are Candy's detectives now?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"That I can't tell you positively, as I am so far from our New York
+office, to which all information comes. But now that you are a
+subscriber, I'll communicate with head-quarters and the necessary points
+will be immediately sent to you by telegraph, if necessary. All that you
+have to do is to stay here until you hear from us."
+
+"From the way you spoke just now," said Lawrence, "I supposed the
+detective would be here to-day or to-morrow."
+
+"Oh no," said the other, "Candy has not the facilities for finding
+people that we have. But it takes some time for me to communicate with
+head-quarters and for you to hear from there; and so, as I said before,
+there isn't an hour to be lost. But you're all right now."
+
+"I expected you to give me more definite information than this," said
+Lawrence, "but now, I suppose, I must wait until I hear from New York,
+at five dollars a message."
+
+"My business is to enlist subscribers," said the other. "You couldn't
+expect me to tell you anything definite when I am in an out-of-the-way
+place like this."
+
+"Did you come down to Virginia on purpose to find me?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"No," said the man, "I am on my way to Mobile, and I only lose one train
+by stopping here to attend to your business."
+
+"How did you know I was here?"
+
+"Ah," said the anti-detective, with a smile, "as I told you, we have
+facilities. I knew you were at this house, and I came here, straight as
+a die."
+
+"It is truly wonderful," said Lawrence, "how accurate your information
+is. And now I will tell you something you can have, gratis. You have
+made one of the most stupid blunders that I ever heard of. Mr Keswick
+went away from here, nearly a week ago, and I am the Mr Croft whom you
+supposed to be in pursuit of him."
+
+The man started, and gave vent to an unpleasant ejaculation.
+
+"To prove it," said Lawrence, "there is my card, and," putting his hand
+into his pocket, "here are several letters addressed to me. And I want
+to let you know that I am not in pursuit of Mr Keswick; that he and I
+are very good friends; and that I have frequently seen him of late; and
+so you can just drop this business at once. And as for Candy, he has no
+right to take a single step for which I have not authorized him. I
+merely employed him to get Mr Keswick's address, which I wished for a
+very friendly motive. I shall write to Candy at once."
+
+The man's face was not an agreeable study. He looked angry; he looked
+baffled; and yet he looked incredulous. "Now, come," said he, "if you
+are not Keswick, what did you pay me that money for?"
+
+"I paid it to you," said Lawrence, "because I wanted to find out what
+dirty business you were doing in my name. I have had the worth of my
+money, and you can now go."
+
+The man did not go, but stood gazing at Lawrence in a very peculiar way.
+"If Mr Keswick isn't here," he said, "I believe you are here waiting
+for him, and I am going to stay and warn him. People don't set private
+detectives on other men's tracks just for friendly motives."
+
+Lawrence's face flushed and he made a step forward, but suddenly
+checking himself, he looked at the man for a moment and then said: "I
+suppose you want me to understand that if I become one of your
+subscribers in my own name, you will be willing to withhold the
+information you intended to give Mr Keswick."
+
+"Well," said the man, relapsing into his former confidential tones,
+"business is business. If I could see Mr Keswick, I don't know whether
+he would employ me or not. I have no reason to work for one person more
+than another, and, of course, if one man comes to me and another
+doesn't, I'm bound to work for the man who comes. That's business!"
+
+"You have said quite enough," said Lawrence. "Now leave this place
+instantly!"
+
+"No, I won't!" said the man, shutting his mouth very tightly, as he drew
+himself up and folded his arms on his chest.
+
+Lawrence was young, well-made, and strong, but the other man was taller,
+heavier, and perhaps stronger. To engage in a personal contest to compel
+a fellow like this to depart, would be a very unpleasant thing for
+Lawrence to do, even if he succeeded. He was a visitor here, the ladies
+would probably be witnesses of the conflict, and although the natural
+impulse of his heart, predominant over everything else at that moment,
+prompted him to spring upon the impudent fellow and endeavor to thrash
+him, still his instincts as a gentleman forbade him to enter into such a
+contest, which would probably have no good effect, no matter how it
+resulted. Never before did he feel the weakness of the moral power of a
+just cause when opposed to brutal obstinacy. Still he did not retreat
+from his position. "Did you hear what I said?" he cried. "Leave this
+place!"
+
+"You are not master here," said the other, still preserving his defiant
+attitude, "and you have no right to order me away. I am not going."
+
+Despite his inferiority in size, despite his gentlemanly instincts, and
+despite his prudent desire not to make an exhibition of himself before
+Miss March and the household, it is probable that Lawrence's anger would
+have assumed some form of physical manifestation, had not Mrs Keswick
+appeared suddenly on the porch. It was quite evident to her, from the
+aspect of the two men, that something was wrong, and she called out:
+"Who's that?"
+
+"That, madam," said Lawrence, stepping a little back, "is a very
+impertinent man who has no business here, and whom I've ordered off the
+place, and, as he has refused to go, I propose--"
+
+"Stop!" cried the old lady. And turning, she rushed into the house.
+Before either of the men could recover from their surprise at her sudden
+action, she reappeared upon the porch, carrying a double-barreled gun.
+Taking her position on the top of the flight of steps, with a quick
+movement of her thumb she cocked both barrels. Then, drawing herself up
+and resting firmly on her right leg, with the left advanced, she raised
+the gun; her right elbow well against her side, and with her extended
+left arm as steady as one of the beams of the roof above her. She hooked
+her forefinger around one of the triggers, her eagle eye glanced along
+the barrels straight at the head of the anti-detective, and, in a
+clarion voice she sang out "Go!"
+
+The man stared at her. He saw the open muzzles of the gun barrels;
+beyond them, he saw the bright tops of the two percussion caps; and
+still beyond them, he saw the bright and determined eye that was taking
+sight along the barrels. All this he took in at a glance, and, without
+word or comment, he made a quick dodge of his head, jumped to one side,
+made a dash for his horse, and, untying the bridle with a jerk, he
+mounted and galloped out of the open gate, turning as he did so to find
+himself still covered by the muzzles of that gun. When he had nearly
+reached the outer gate and felt himself out of range, he turned in his
+saddle, and looking back at Lawrence, who was still standing where he
+had left him, he violently shook his fist in the air.
+
+"Which means," said Lawrence to himself, "that he intends to make
+trouble with Keswick."
+
+"That settled him," said the old lady, with a grim smile, as she lowered
+the muzzle of the gun, and gently let down the hammers. "Madam," said
+Lawrence, advancing toward her, "may I ask if that gun is loaded?"
+
+"I should say so," replied the old lady. "In each barrel are two
+thimblefuls of powder, and half-a-box of Windfall's Teaberry Tonic
+Pills, each one of them as big and as hard as a buckshot. They were
+brought here by a travelling agent, who sold some of them to my people;
+and I tell you, sir, that those pills made them so sick that one man
+wasn't able to work for two days, and another for three. I vowed if that
+agent ever came back, I'd shoot his abominable pills into him, and I've
+kept the gun loaded for the purpose. Was this a pill man? I scarcely
+think he was a fertilizer, because it is rather late in the season for
+those bandits."
+
+"He is a man," said Lawrence, coming up the steps, "who belongs to a
+class much worse than those you have mentioned. He is what is called a
+blackmailer."
+
+"Is that so?" cried the old lady, her eyes flashing as she brought the
+butt of the gun heavily upon the porch floor. "I'm very glad I did not
+know it; very glad, indeed; for I might have been tempted to give him
+what belonged to another, without waiting for him to disobey my order to
+go. I am very much troubled, sir, that this annoyance should have
+happened to you in my house. Pray do not allow it to interfere with the
+enjoyment of your visit here, which I hope may continue as long as you
+can make it convenient." The words and manner convinced Lawrence that
+that they did not merely indicate a conventional hospitality. The old
+lady meant what she said. She wanted him to stay.
+
+That morning he had become convinced that he had been invited there
+because Mrs Keswick wished him to marry Miss March; and she had done
+this, not out of any kind feeling toward him, because that would be
+impossible, considering the shortness of their acquaintance, but because
+she was opposed to her nephew's marriage with Miss March, and because
+he, Lawrence, was the only available person who could be brought forward
+to supplant him. "But whatever her motive is," thought Lawrence, "her
+invitation comes in admirably for me, and I hope I shall get the proper
+advantage from it."
+
+Shortly after this, Lawrence sat in the parlor, by himself, writing a
+letter. It was to Junius Keswick; and in it he related the facts of his
+search for him in New York, and the reason why he desired to make his
+acquaintance. He concealed nothing but the fact that Keswick's cousin
+had had anything to do with the affair. "If she wants him to know that,"
+he thought, "she can tell him herself. It is not my business to make any
+revelations in that quarter." He concluded the letter by informing Mr
+Keswick of the visit of the anti-detective, and warning him against any
+attempts which that individual might make upon his pocket, assuring him
+that the man could tell him nothing in regard to the affair that he now
+did not know.
+
+After dinner, during which meal Miss March appeared in a very good
+humor, and talked rather more than she had yet done in the bosom of that
+family, Lawrence had his horse saddled, and rode to the railroad
+station, about six miles distant, where he posted his letter; and also
+sent a telegram to Mr Junius Keswick, warning him to pay no attention to
+any man who might call upon him on business connected with Croft and
+Keswick, and stating that an explanatory letter had been sent.
+
+The anti-detective had left on a train an hour before, but Lawrence felt
+certain that the telegram would reach Keswick before the man could
+possibly get to him, especially as the latter had probably not yet found
+out his intended victim's address.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+As Lawrence Croft rode back to Mrs Keswick's house, after having posted
+to his rival the facts in the case of Croft after Keswick, he did not
+feel in a very happy or triumphant mood. The visit of the anti-detective
+had compelled him to write to Keswick at a time when it was not at all
+desirable that he should make any disclosures whatever in regard to his
+love affair with Miss March, except that very important disclosure which
+he had made to the lady herself that morning. Of course there was no
+great danger that any intimation would reach Miss March of Mr Croft's
+rather eccentric search for his predecessor in the position which he
+wished to occupy in her affections. But the matter was particularly
+unpleasant just now, and Lawrence wished to occupy his time here in
+business very different from that of sending explanations to rivals and
+warding off unfriendly entanglements threatened by a blackmailer.
+
+It was absolutely necessary for him to find out what he had done to
+offend Miss March. Offended that lady certainly was, and he even felt
+that she was glad of the opportunity his declaration gave her to inflict
+punishment upon him. But still he did not despair. When she had made him
+pay the penalty she thought proper for whatever error he had committed,
+she might be willing to listen to him. He had not said anything to her
+in regard to his failure to make her the promised visit at Midbranch,
+for, during the only time he had been alone with her here, the subject
+of an immediate statement of his feelings toward her had wholly occupied
+his mind. But it now occurred to him that she had reason to feel
+aggrieved at his failure to keep his promise to her, and she must have
+shown that feeling, for, otherwise, her most devoted friend, Mr Junius
+Keswick, would never have made that rather remarkable visit to him at
+the Green Sulphur Springs. Of course he would not allude to that visit,
+nor to her wish to see him, for she had sent him no message, nor did he
+know what object she had in desiring an interview. But it was quite
+possible that she might have taken umbrage at his failure to come to her
+when expected, and that this was the reason for her present treatment of
+him. To this treatment Lawrence might have taken exception, but now he
+did not wish to judge her in any way. His only desire in regard to her
+was to possess her, and therefore, instead of condemning her for her
+unjust method of showing her resentment, he merely considered how he
+should set himself right with her. Cruel or kind, just or unjust, he
+wanted her.
+
+And then, as he slowly trotted along the lonely and uneven road, it
+suddenly flashed upon him, as if in mounting a hill, a far-reaching
+landscape, hitherto unseen, had in a moment, spread itself out before
+him, that, perhaps, Miss March had divined the reason of his extremely
+discreet behavior toward her. Was it possible that she had seen his
+motives, and knew the truth, and that she resented the prudence and
+caution he had shown in his intercourse with her?
+
+If she had read the truth, he felt that she had good reason for her
+resentment, and Lawrence did not trouble himself to consider if she had
+shown too much of it or not. He remembered the story of the defeated
+general, and, feeling that so far he had been thoroughly defeated, he
+determined to admit the fact, and to sound a retreat from all the
+positions he had held; but, at the same time, to make a bold dash into
+the enemy's camp, and, if possible, capture the commander-in-chief and
+the Minister of War.
+
+He would go to Roberta, tell her all that he had thought, and explain
+all that he had done. There should be no bit of truth which she could
+have reasoned out, which he would not plainly avow and set before her.
+Then he would declare to her that his love for her had become so great,
+that, rushing over every barrier, whether of prudence, doubt, or
+indecision, it had carried him with it and laid him at her feet. When he
+had come to this bold conclusion, he cheered up his horse with a thump
+of his heel and cantered rapidly over the rest of the road.
+
+Peggy, having nothing else to do, was standing by the yard gate when he
+came in sight, and she watched his approach with feelings of surprise
+and disgust. She had seen him ride away, and not considering the fact
+that he did not carry his valise with him, she supposed he had taken his
+final departure. She had conceived a violent dislike to Mr Croft,
+looking upon him in the light of an interloper and a robber, who had
+come to break up that expected marriage between Master Junius and Miss
+Rob, which the servants at Midbranch looked forward to as necessary for
+the prosperity of the family; and the preliminary stages of which she
+had taken upon herself the responsibility of describing with so much
+minuteness of detail. With the politeness natural to the Southern negro,
+she opened the gate for the gentleman, but as she closed it behind him,
+she cast after him a look of earnest malevolence. "Ef dot ole Miss
+Keswick don' kunjer you, sah," she said in an undertone, "I's gwine to
+do it myse'f. So, dar!" And she gave her foot a stamp on the ground.
+
+Lawrence, all ignorant of the malignant feeling he had excited in this,
+to him, very unimportant and uninteresting black girl, tied his horse
+and went into the house. As he passed the open door of the parlor he
+saw a lady reading by a window in the farthest corner. Hanging up his
+hat, he entered, hoping that the reader, whose form was partially
+concealed by the back of the large rocking chair in which she was
+sitting, was Miss March. But it was not; it was Mrs Keswick's niece,
+deeply engrossed by a large-paged novel. She turned her head as he
+entered, and said: "Good evening."
+
+"Good evening, Miss Annie," said Lawrence, seating himself in a chair
+opposite her on the other side of the window.
+
+"Mr Croft," said she, laying her book on her lap, and inclining herself
+slightly toward him, "you have no right to call me Miss Annie, and I
+wish you would not do it. The servants in the South call ladies by their
+first names, whether they are married or not, but people would think it
+very strange if you should imitate them. My name in this house is Mrs
+Null, and I wish you would not forget it."
+
+"The trouble with me is," said Lawrence, with a smile, "that I cannot
+forget it is not Mrs Null, but, of course, if you desire it, I will give
+you that name."
+
+"I told you before how much I desired it," said she, "and why. When my
+aunt finds out the exact state of this affair, I shall wish to stay no
+longer in this house; and I don't want my stay to come to an end at
+present. I am very happy here with the only relatives I have in the
+world, who are ever so much nicer people than I supposed they were, and
+you have no right to come here and drive me away."
+
+"My dear young lady," said Croft, "I wouldn't do such a thing for the
+world. I admit that I am very sorry that it is necessary, or appears to
+you to be so, that you should be here under false colors, but--"
+
+"_Appears_ to be," said she, with much emphasis on the first word. "Why,
+can't you see that it would be impossible for me, as a young unmarried
+woman, to come to the house of a man, whose proprietor, as Aunt Keswick
+considers herself to be, has been trying to marry to me, even before I
+was grown up; for the letters that used to make my father most angry
+were about this. I hate to talk of these family affairs, and I only do
+it so that you can be made understand things."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "do not think I wish to blame you. You have
+had a hard time of it, and I can see the peculiarities of your residence
+here. Don't be afraid of me; I will not betray your secret. While I am
+here, I will address you, and will try to think of you as a very grave
+young matron. But I wish very much that you were not quite so grave and
+severe when you address me. When I was here last week your manner was
+very different. We were quite friendly then."
+
+"I see no particular reason," said Annie, "why we should be friendly."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, after a little pause, during which he
+looked at her attentively, "I don't believe you approve of me."
+
+"No," said she, "I don't."
+
+He could not help smiling at the earnest directness of her answer,
+though he did not like it. "I am sorry," he said, "that you should have
+so poor an opinion of me. And, now, let me tell you what I was going to
+say this morning, that my only object in finding your cousin was to know
+the man who had been engaged to Miss March."
+
+"So that you could find out what she probably objected to in him, and
+could then try and not let her see anything of that sort in you."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "you are unjust. There is no reason why you
+should speak to me in this way."
+
+"I would like to know," she said, "what cause there could possibly be
+for your wanting to become acquainted with a man who had been engaged to
+the lady you wished to marry, if you didn't intend to study him up, and
+try to do better yourself."
+
+"My motive in desiring to become acquainted with Mr Keswick," said
+Lawrence, "is one you could scarcely understand, and all I can say about
+it is, that I believed that if I knew the gentleman who had formerly
+been the accepted lover of a lady, I should better know the lady."
+
+"You must be awfully suspicious," said she.
+
+"No, I am not," he answered, "and I knew you would not understand me. My
+only desire in speaking to you upon this subject is that you may not
+unreasonably judge me."
+
+"But I am not unreasonable," said Annie. "You are trying to get Miss
+March away from my cousin; and I don't think it is fair, and I don't
+want you to do it. When you were here before, I thought you two were
+good friends, but now I don't believe it."
+
+How friendly might be the relations between himself and Keswick, when
+the latter should read his letter about the Candy affair, and should
+know that he was in this house with Miss March, Lawrence could not say;
+but he did not allude to this point in his companion's remarks. "I do
+not think," he said, "that you have any reason to object to my
+endeavoring to win Miss March. Even if she accepts me, it will be to the
+advantage of your cousin, because if he still hopes to obtain her, the
+sooner he knows he cannot do so, the better it will be for him. My
+course is perfectly fair. I am aware that the lady is not at present
+engaged to any one, and I am endeavoring to induce her to engage herself
+to me. If I fail, then I step aside."
+
+"Entirely aside, and out of the way?" asked Mrs Null.
+
+"Entirely," answered Lawrence.
+
+"Well," said Annie, leaning back in her chair, in which before she had
+been sitting very upright, "you have, at last, given me a good deal of
+your confidence; almost as much as I gave you. Some of the things you
+say I believe, others I don't."
+
+Lawrence was annoyed, but he would not allow himself to get angry. "I am
+not accustomed to being disbelieved," he said, gravely. "It is a very
+unusual experience, I assure you. Which of my statements do you doubt?"
+
+"I don't believe," said Annie, "that you will give her up if she rejects
+you while you are here. You are too wilful. You will follow her, and try
+again."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "I do not feel justified in speaking to a
+third person of these things, but this is a peculiar case, and,
+therefore, I assure you, and request you to believe me, that if Miss
+March shall now positively refuse me, I shall feel convinced that her
+affections are already occupied, and that I have no right to press my
+suit any longer."
+
+"Would you like to begin now?" said Annie. "She is coming down stairs."
+
+"You are entirely too matter-of-fact," said Lawrence, smiling in spite
+of himself, and, in a moment, Roberta entered the room.
+
+If the young lady in the high-backed rocking-chair had any idea of
+giving Mr Croft and Miss March an opportunity of expressing their
+sentiments toward each other, she took no immediate steps to do so; for
+she gently rocked herself; she talked about the novel she had been
+reading; she blamed Miss March for staying so long in her room on such a
+beautiful afternoon; and she was the primary cause of a conversation
+among the three upon the differences between New York weather and that
+of Virginia; and this continued until old Mrs Keswick joined the party,
+and changed the conversation to the consideration of the fact that a
+fertilizer agent, a pill man, or a blackmailer would find out a person's
+whereabouts, even if he were attending the funeral of his grandmother on
+a desert island.
+
+The next morning, about an hour after breakfast, Lawrence was walking up
+and down on the grass in front of the house, smoking a cigar, and
+troubling his mind. He had had no opportunity on the previous evening to
+be alone with Miss March, for the little party sat together in the
+parlor until they separated for bed; and so, of course, nothing was yet
+settled. He was overstaying the time he had expected to spend here, and
+he felt nervous about it. He had hoped to see Miss March after
+breakfast, but she seemed to have withdrawn herself entirely from
+observation. Perhaps she considered that she had sufficiently rejected
+him on the previous morning, and that she now intended, except when she
+was sure of the company of the others, to remain in her room until he
+should go away. But he had no such opinion in regard to their interview
+on Pine Top Hill. He believed that he had been punished, not rejected,
+and that when he should be able to explain everything to her, he would
+be forgiven. That, at least, was his earnest hope, and hope makes us
+believe almost anything.
+
+But, although there were so many difficulties in his way, Lawrence had a
+friend in that household who still remained true to him. Mrs Keswick,
+with sun-bonnet and umbrella, came out upon the porch, and said
+cheerily: "I should think a gentleman like you would prefer to be with
+the ladies than to be walking about here by yourself. They have gone to
+take a walk in the woods. I should have said that Miss March has gone on
+ahead, with her little maid Peggy. My niece was going with her, but I
+called her back to attend to some housekeeping matters for me, and I
+think she will be kept longer than she expected, for I have just sent
+Letty to her to be shown how to cut out a frock. But you needn't wait;
+you can go right through the flower-garden, and take the path over the
+fields into the woods." And, having concluded this bit of conscienceless
+and transparent management, the old lady remarked that she, herself, was
+going for a walk, and left him.
+
+Lawrence lost no time in following her suggestions. Throwing away his
+cigar, he hurried through the house and the little flower-garden, a gate
+at the back of which opened into a wide pasture-field. This field sloped
+down gently to a branch, or little stream, which ran through the middle
+of it, and then the ground ascended until it reached the edge of the
+woods. Following the well-defined path, he looked across the little
+valley before him, and could see, just inside the edge of the woods--the
+trees and bushes being much more thinly attired than in the summer
+time--the form of a lady in a light-colored dress with a red scarf upon
+her shoulders, sometimes moving slowly, sometimes stopping. This was
+Roberta, and those woods were a far better place than the exposed summit
+of Pine Top Hill, in which to plight his troth, if it should be so that
+he should be able to do it, and there were doubtless paths in those
+woods through which they might afterwards wander, if things should turn
+out propitiously. At all events, in those woods would he settle this
+affair.
+
+His intention was still strong to make a very clean breast of it to
+Roberta. If she had blamed him for his prudent reserve, she should have
+full opportunity to forgive him. All that he had been she should know,
+but far more important than that, he would try to make her know, better
+than he had done before, what he was now. Abandoning all his previous
+positions, and mounted on these strong resolutions, thus would he dash
+into her camp, and hope to capture her.
+
+Reaching the little ravine, at the bottom of which flowed the branch,
+now but two or three feet wide, he ran down the rather steep slope and
+stepped upon the stout plank which bridged the stream. The instant he
+did so, the plank turned beneath him as if it had been hung on pivots,
+and he fell into the stony bed of the branch. It was an awkward fall,
+for the leg which was undermost came down at an angle, and his foot,
+striking a slippery stone, turned under him. In a moment he was on his
+feet, and scrambled up the side of the ravine, down which he had just
+come. When he reached the top he sat down and put both his hands on his
+right ankle, in which he felt considerable pain. In a few minutes he
+arose, and began to walk toward the house, but he had not taken a dozen
+steps before he sat down again. The pain in his ankle was very severe,
+and he felt quite sure that he had sprained it. He knew enough about
+such things to understand that if he walked upon this injured joint, he
+would not only make the pain worse, but the consequences might be
+serious. He was very much annoyed, not only that this thing had happened
+to him, but that it had happened at such an inauspicious moment. Of
+course, he could not now go on to the woods, and he must get somebody to
+help him to the house. Looking about, he saw, at a distance, Uncle
+Isham, and he called loudly to him. As soon as Lawrence was well away
+from the edge of the ravine, there emerged from some thick bushes on the
+other side of it, and at a short distance from the crossing-place, a
+negro girl, who slipped noiselessly down to the branch; moved with quick
+steps and crouching body to the plank; removed the two round stones on
+which it had been skilfully poised, and replaced it in its usual firm
+position. This done, she slipped back into the bushes, and by the time
+Isham had heard the call of Mr Croft, she was slowly walking down the
+opposite hill, as if she were coming from the woods to see why the
+gentleman was shouting.
+
+Miss March also heard the call, and came out of the woods, and when she
+saw Lawrence sitting on the grass on the other side of the branch, with
+one hand upon his ankle, she knew that something had happened, and came
+down toward him. Lawrence saw her approaching, and before she was even
+near enough to hear him, he began to shout to her to be careful about
+crossing the branch, as the board was unsafe. Peggy joined her, and
+walked on in front of her; and when Miss March understood what Lawrence
+was saying, she called back that she would be careful. When they reached
+the ravine, Peggy ran down, stepped upon the plank, jumped on the middle
+of it, walked over it, and then back again, and assured her mistress
+that it was just as good as ever it was, and that she reckoned the city
+gentleman didn't know how to walk on planks, and that "he jes' done fall
+off."
+
+Miss March crossed, stepping a little cautiously, and reached Lawrence
+just as Uncle Isham, with strong arms and many words of sympathy, had
+assisted him to his feet. "What has happened to you, Mr Croft?" she
+exclaimed.
+
+"I was coming to you," he said; "and in crossing the stream the plank
+turned under me, and I am afraid I have sprained my ankle. I can't walk
+on it."
+
+"I am very sorry," she said.
+
+"Because I was coming to you," he said, grimly, "or because I hurt
+myself?"
+
+"You ought to be ashamed to speak in that way," she answered, "but I
+won't find fault with you, now that you are in such pain. Is there
+anything I can do for you?"
+
+"No, thank you," said Lawrence. "I will lean on this good man, and I
+think I can hop to the house."
+
+"Peggy," said Miss Roberta, "walk on the other side of the gentleman,
+and let him lean upon your shoulder. I will go on and have something
+prepared to put on his ankle."
+
+With one side supported by the stout Isham, and his other hand resting
+on the shoulder of the good little Peggy, who bore up as strongly under
+it as if she had been a big walking-stick, Lawrence slowly made his way
+to the house. Miss March got there sometime before he did, and was very
+glad to find that Mrs Keswick had not yet gone out on the walk for which
+she was prepared. That circumspect old lady had found this and that to
+occupy her, while she so managed her household matters, that one thing
+should follow another, to detain her niece. But when she heard what had
+happened, all other impulses gave way to those which belonged to a head
+nurse and a mistress of emergencies. She set down her umbrella; shouted
+an order to Letty to put a kettle of water on the fire; brought from her
+own room some flannel and two bottles of embrocation; and then stopping
+a moment to reflect, ordered that the office should be prepared for Mr
+Croft, for it would be a shame to make a gentleman, with a sprained
+ankle, clamber up stairs.
+
+The office was a small building in the wide front yard, not very far
+from the house, and opposite to the arbor, which has been before
+mentioned. It was one story high, and contained one large and
+comfortable room. Such buildings are quite common on Virginian farms,
+and although called offices are seldom used in an official way, being
+generally appropriated to the bachelors of the family or their gentleman
+visitors. This one was occupied by Junius Keswick, when he was at home,
+and a good many of his belongings were now in it; but as it was at
+present unoccupied, nothing could be more proper than that Mr Croft
+should have it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+About noon of the day of Mr Croft's accident, Uncle Isham had occasion
+to go to the cabin of the venerable Aunt Patsy, and, of course he told
+her what had happened to the gentleman whom he and Aunt Patsy still
+supposed to be Miss Annie's husband. The news produced a very marked
+effect upon the old woman. She put down the crazy quilt, upon the
+unfinished corner of which she was making a few feeble stitches, and
+looked at Uncle Isham with a troubled frown. She was certain that this
+was the work of old Mrs Keswick, who had succeeded, at last, in
+conjuring the young husband; and the charm she had given him, and upon
+which she had relied to avert the ill will of "ole miss," had proved
+unavailing. The conjuring had been accomplished so craftily and slyly,
+the bewitched plank in one place, and Mrs Keswick far off in another,
+that there had been no chance to use the counteracting charm. And yet
+Aunt Patsy had thought it a good charm, a very good one indeed.
+
+Early in her married life Mrs Keswick had been the mother of a little
+girl. It had died when it was very small, and it was the only child she
+ever had. Of this infant she preserved, as a memento, a complete suit of
+its clothes, which she regarded with a feeling almost religious. Years
+ago, however, Aunt Patsy, in order to protect herself against the
+conjuring powers of the mistress of the house, in which she then served
+as a sort of supervising cook, had possessed herself of the shoes
+belonging to the cherished suit of clothes. She knew the sacred light in
+which they were regarded by their owner, and she felt quite sure that if
+"ole miss" ever attempted, in one of her fits of anger, to exercise her
+power of limb twisting or back contortion upon her, that the sight of
+those little blue shoes would create a revulsion of feeling, and, as she
+put it to herself, "stop her mighty short." The shoes had never been
+missed, for the box containing the suit was only opened on one day of
+the year, and then all the old lady could endure was a peep at the
+little white frock which covered the rest of the contents; and Aunt
+Patsy well knew that the sight of those little blue shoes would be to
+her mistress like two little feet coming back from the grave.
+
+Patsy had been much too old to act as nurse to the infant, Annie Peyton,
+then regarded as the daughter of the house, but she had always felt for
+the child the deepest affection; and now that she herself was so near
+the end of her career that she had little fear of being bewitched, she
+was willing to give up the safeguards she had so long possessed, in
+order that they might protect the man whom Miss Annie had loved and
+married. But they had failed, or rather it had been impossible to use
+them, and Miss Annie's husband had been stricken down. "It's pow'ful
+hard to git roun' ole miss," she groaned. "She too much fur ole folks
+like I is."
+
+At this remark Uncle Isham fired up. Although the conduct of his
+mistress troubled him at times very much he was intensely loyal to her,
+and he instantly caught the meaning of this aspersion against her. "Now,
+look h'yar, Aun' Patsy," he exclaimed, "wot you talkin' 'bout? Wot ole
+miss got to do wid Mister Crof' sprainin' he ankle? Ole miss warn't dar;
+an' when I done fotch him up to de house, she cut roun' an' do more fur
+him dan anybody else. She got de hot water, an' she dipped de flannels
+in it, an' she wrop up de ankle all herse'f, an' when she got him all
+fixed comfable in de offis, she says to me, says she, 'Now, Isham, you
+wait on Mister Crof', an' you gib him eberything he want, an' when de
+cool ob de ebenin' comes on you make a fire in dat fireplace, an' stay
+whar he kin call you wheneber he wants you to wait on him.' I didn't
+eben come down h'yar till I axed him would he want me fur half an hour."
+
+"Well," said Aunt Patsy, her eyes softening a little, "p'raps she didn't
+do it dis time. It mout a been his own orkardness. I hopes to mussiful
+goodness dat dat was so. But wot fur you call him Mister Crof'? Is dat
+he fus' name?"
+
+"I reckon so," said Isham. "He one ob de fam'ly now, an' I reckon dey
+calls him by he fus' name. An' now, look h'yar, Aun' Patsy, I wants you
+not to disremember dis h'yar. Don' you go imaginin' ebery time anything
+happens to folks, that ole miss done been kunjerin' 'em. Dat ain't
+pious, an' 'taint suitable fur a ole pusson like you, Aun' Patsy, wot's
+jus' settin' on de poach steps ob heaben, a waitin' till somebody finds
+out you's dar, an' let's you in."
+
+Aunt Patsy turned her great spectacles full upon him, and then she said:
+"You, Isham, ef eber you gits a call to preach to folks, you jus' sing
+out: 'Oh, Lor', I aint fit!' And den you go crack your head wid a
+mill-stone, fur fear you git called agin, fru mistake."
+
+Uncle Isham made no answer to this piece of advice, but taking up some
+clothes which Aunt Patsy's great granddaughter had washed and ironed for
+him, he left the cabin. He was a man much given to attending to his own
+business, and paying very little attention to those affairs of his
+mistress's household, with which he had no personal concern. When Mr
+Croft first came to the house he, as well as Aunt Patsy, had been told
+that it was Mr Null, the husband of Miss Annie; and although not
+thinking much about it, he had always supposed this to be the case. But
+now it struck him as a very strange thing that Miss Annie did not attend
+to her husband, but allowed his mistress and himself to do everything
+that was done for him. It was a question which his mind was totally
+incapable of solving, but when he reached the house, he spoke to Letty
+on the subject. "Bress your soul!" exclaimed that well-nourished
+person, "dat's not Mister Null, wot married Miss Annie. Dat's Mister
+Crof', an' he aint married to nobody. Mister Null he aint come yet, but
+I reckon he'll be along soon."
+
+"Well den," exclaimed Isham, much surprised, "how come Aun' Patsy to
+take he for Miss Annie's husband?"
+
+"Oh, git out!" contemptuously exclaimed Letty, "don' you go put no
+'count on dem fool notions wot Aun' Patsy got in she old head. Nobody
+knows how dey come dar, no more'n how dey eber manage to git out. 'Taint
+no use splainin nothin' to Aun' Patsy, an' if she b'lieves dat's Miss
+Annie's husband, you can't make her b'lieve it's anybody else. Jes' you
+lef her alone. Nuffin she b'lieves aint gwine to hurt her."
+
+And Isham, remembering his frequent ill success in endeavoring to make
+Aunt Patsy think as she ought to think, concluded that this was good
+advice.
+
+At the time of the conversation just mentioned, Lawrence was sitting in
+a large easy chair in front of the open door of the room of which he had
+been put in possession. His injured foot was resting upon a cushioned
+stool, a small table stood by him, on which were his cigar and match
+cases; a pitcher of iced water and a glass, and a late copy of a
+semi-weekly paper. Through the doorway, which was but two steps higher
+than the grass sward before it, his eyes fell upon a very pleasing
+scene. To the right was the house, with its vine-covered porch and
+several great oak trees overhanging it, which still retained their heavy
+foliage, although it was beginning to lose something of its summer
+green. In front of him, at the opposite end of the grassy yard, was the
+pretty little arbor in which he had told Mr Junius Keswick of the
+difficulties in the way of his speaking his mind to Miss March. Beyond
+the large garden, at the back of this arbor, stretched a wide field with
+a fringe of woods at its distant edge, gay with the colors of autumn.
+The sky was bright and blue, and fair white clouds moved slowly over its
+surface; the air was sunny and warm, with bumble-bees humming about some
+late-flowering shrubs; and, high in the air, floated two great
+turkey-buzzards, with a beauty of motion surpassed by no other flying
+thing, with never a movement of their wide-spread wings, except to give
+them the necessary inclination as they rose with the wind, and then
+turned and descended in a long sweep, only to rise again and complete
+the circle; sailing thus for hours, around and around, their shadows
+moving over the fields below them.
+
+Fearing that he had sustained some injury more than a mere sprain,
+Lawrence had had the Howlett's doctor summoned, and that general
+practitioner had come and gone, after having assured Mr Croft that no
+bones had been broken; that Mrs Keswick's treatment was exactly what it
+should be, and that all that was necessary for him was to remain quiet
+for a few days, and be very careful not to use the injured ankle. Thus
+he had the prospect of but a short confinement; he felt no present pain;
+and there was nothing of the sick-room atmosphere in his surroundings,
+for his position close to the door almost gave him the advantage of
+sitting in the open air of this bright autumnal day.
+
+But Lawrence's mind dwelt not at all on these ameliorating
+circumstances; it dwelt only upon the fact that he was in one house and
+Miss March was in another. It was impossible for him to go to her, and
+he had no reason to believe that she would come to him. Under ordinary
+circumstances it would be natural enough for her to look in upon him and
+inquire into his condition, but now the case was very different. She
+knew that he desired to see her, that he had been coming to her when he
+met with his accident, and she knew, too, exactly what he wanted to say;
+and it was not to be supposed that a lady would come to a man to be
+wooed, especially this lady, who had been in such an unfavorable humor
+when he had wooed her the day before.
+
+But it was quite impossible for Lawrence, at this most important crisis
+of his life, to sit without action for three or four days, during which
+time it was not unlikely that Miss March might go home. But what was he
+to do? It would be rediculous to think of sending for her, she knowing
+for what purpose she was wanted; and as for writing a letter, that did
+not suit him at all. There was too much to be explained, too much to be
+urged, too much to be avowed, and, probably, too many contingencies to
+be met, for him to even consider the subject of writing a letter. A
+proposal on paper would most certainly bring a rejection on paper. He
+could think of no plan; he must trust to chance. If his lucky star, and
+it had shone a good deal in his life, should give him an opportunity of
+speaking to her, he would lose not an instant in broaching the important
+subject. He was happy to think he had a friend in the old lady. Perhaps
+she might bring about the desired interview. But although this thought
+was encouraging, he could not but tremble when he remembered the very
+plain and unvarnished way she had of doing such things.
+
+While these thoughts were passing through his mind, a lady came out upon
+the porch, and descended the steps. At the first sight of her through
+the vines, Lawrence had thought it might be Miss March, and his heart
+had given a jump. But it was not; it was Mrs Null, and she came over the
+grass toward him, and stopped in front of his door. "How are you feeling
+now?" she asked. "Does your foot still hurt you?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Lawrence, "I am in no pain. The only thing that troubles
+me is that I have to stay just here."
+
+"It might have been better on some accounts," said she, "if you had been
+taken into the house; but it would have hurt you dreadfully to go up
+stairs, unless Uncle Isham carried you on his back, which I don't
+believe he could do."
+
+"Of course it's a great deal better out here," said Lawrence. "In fact
+this is a perfectly charming place to be laid up in, but I want to get
+about. I want to see people." "Many people?" asked she, with a
+significant little smile.
+
+Lawrence smiled in return. "You must know, Mrs Null, from what I have
+told you," he said, "that there is one person I want to see very much,
+and that is why I am so annoyed at being kept here in this chair."
+
+"You must be of an uncommonly impatient turn of mind," she said, "for
+you haven't been here three hours, altogether, and hundreds of persons
+sit still that long, just because they want to."
+
+"I don't want to sit still a minute," said Lawrence. "I very much wish
+to speak to Miss March. Couldn't you contrive an opportunity for me to
+do so?"
+
+"It is possible that I might," she said, "but I won't. Haven't I told
+you that I don't approve of this affair of yours? My cousin is in love
+with Miss March, and all I should do for you would be directly against
+him. Aunt so managed things this morning that I was actually obliged to
+give you an opportunity to be with her, but I had intended going with
+Roberta to the woods, as she had asked me to do."
+
+"You are very cruel," said Lawrence.
+
+"No, I am not," said she, "I am only just." "I explained to you
+yesterday," said he, "that your course of thinking and acting is not
+just, and is of no possible advantage to anybody. How can it injure your
+cousin if Miss March refuses me and I go away and never see her again?
+And, if she accepts me, then you should be glad that I had put an end to
+your cousin's pursuit of a woman who does not love him."
+
+"That is nonsense," said she. "I shouldn't be glad at all to see him
+disappointed. I should feel like a traitor if I helped you. But I did
+not come to talk about these things. I came to ask you what you would
+have for dinner."
+
+"I had an idea," said Lawrence, not regarding this remark, "that you
+were a young lady of a kindly disposition."
+
+"And you don't think so, now?" she said.
+
+"No," answered Lawrence, "I cannot. I cannot think a woman kind who will
+refuse to assist a man, situated as I am, to settle the most important
+question of his life, especially as I have told you, before, that it is
+really to the interest of the one you are acting for, that it should be
+settled."
+
+Miss Annie, still standing in front of the door, now regarded Lawrence
+with a certain degree of thoughtfullness on her countenance, which
+presently changed to a half smile. "If I were perfectly sure," she said,
+"that she would reject you, I would try to get her here, and have the
+matter settled, but I don't know her very well yet, and can't feel at
+all certain as to what she might do."
+
+"I like your frankness," said Lawrence, "but, as I said before, you are
+very cruel."
+
+"Not at all," said she, "I am very kind, only--"
+
+"You don't show it," interrupted Lawrence.
+
+At this Miss Annie laughed. "Kindness isn't of much use, if it is shut
+up, is it?" she said. "I suppose you think it is one of those virtues
+that we ought to act out, as well as feel, if we want any credit. And
+now, isn't there something I can do for you besides bringing another
+man's sweetheart to you?"
+
+Lawrence smiled. "I don't believe she is his sweetheart," he said, "and
+I want to find out if I am right."
+
+"It is my opinion," said Miss Annie, "that you ought to think more about
+your sprained ankle and your general health, than about having your mind
+settled by Miss March. I should think that keeping your blood boiling,
+in this way, would inflame your joints."
+
+"The doctor didn't tell me what to think about," said Lawrence. "He only
+said I must not walk."
+
+"I haven't heard yet," said Miss Annie, "what you would like to have to
+eat." "I don't wish to give the slightest trouble," answered Lawrence.
+"What do you generally give people in such scrapes as this? Tea and
+toast?"
+
+Annie laughed. "Nonsense," said she. "What you want is the best meal you
+can get. Aunt said if there was anything you particularly liked she
+would have it made for you."
+
+"Do not think of such a thing," said Lawrence. "Give me just what the
+family has."
+
+"Would you like Miss March to bring it out to you?" she asked.
+
+"The word cruel cannot express your disposition," said Lawrence. "I pity
+Mr Null." "Poor man," said she; "but it would be a good thing for you if
+you could keep your mind as quiet as his is." And with that she went
+into the house.
+
+After dinner, Miss March did come out to inquire into Mr Croft's
+condition, but she was accompanied by Mrs Keswick. Lawrence invited the
+ladies to come in and be seated, but Roberta stood on the grass in front
+of the door, as Miss Annie had done, while Mrs Keswick entered the room,
+looked into the ice-water pitcher, and examined things generally, to see
+if Uncle Isham had been guilty of any sins of omission.
+
+"Do you feel quite at ease now?" said Miss March.
+
+"My ankle don't trouble me," said Lawrence, "but I never felt so
+uncomfortable and dissatisfied in my life." And with these latter words
+he gave the lady a look which was intended to be, and which probably
+was, full of meaning to her.
+
+"Wouldn't you like some books?" said Mrs Keswick, now appearing from the
+back of the room. "You haven't anything to read. There are plenty of
+books in the house, but they are all old."
+
+"I think those are the most delightful of books," said Miss March. "I
+have been looking over the volumes on your shelves, Mrs Keswick. I am
+sure there are a good many of them Mr Croft would like to read, even if
+he has read them before. There are lots of queer old-time histories and
+biographies, and sets of bound magazines, some of them over a hundred
+years old. Would you like me to select some for you, Mr Croft? Or shall
+I write some of the titles on a slip of paper, and let you select for
+yourself?"
+
+"I shall be delighted," said Lawrence, "to have you make a choice for
+me; and I think the list would be the better plan, because books would
+be so heavy to carry about."
+
+"I will do it immediately," said Miss March, and she walked rapidly to
+the house.
+
+"Now then," said Mrs Keswick, "I'll put a chair out here on the grass,
+close to the door. It's shady there, and I should think it would be
+pleasant for both of you, if she would sit there and read to you out of
+those books. She is a fine woman, that Miss March--a much finer woman
+than I thought she could be, before I knew her."
+
+"She is, indeed," said Lawrence.
+
+"I suppose you think she is the finest woman in the world?" said the old
+lady, with a genial grin.
+
+"What makes you suppose so?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Haven't I eyes?" said Mrs Keswick. "But you needn't make any excuses.
+You have made an excellent choice, and I hope you may succeed in getting
+her. Perhaps you have succeeded?" she added, giving Lawrence an earnest
+look, with a question in it.
+
+Lawrence did not immediately reply. It was not in his nature to confide
+his affairs to other people, and yet he had done so much of it, of late,
+that he did not see why he should make an exception against Mrs Keswick,
+who was, indeed, the only person who seemed inclined to be friendly to
+his suit. He might as well let her know how matters stood. "No," he
+said, "I have not yet succeeded, and I am very sorry that this accident
+has interfered with my efforts to do so."
+
+"Don't let it interfere," said the old lady, her eyes sparkling, while
+her purple sun-bonnet was suddenly and severely bobbed. "You have just
+as good a chance now as you ever had, and all you have to do is to make
+the most of it. When she comes out here to read to you, you can talk to
+her just as well as if you were in the woods, or on top of a hill.
+Nobody'll come here to disturb you; I'll take care of that."
+
+"You are very kind," said Lawrence, somewhat wondering at her
+enthusiasm.
+
+"I intended to go away and leave her here with you," continued Mrs
+Keswick, "if I could find a good opportunity to do so, but she hit on
+the best plan herself. And now I'll be off and leave the coast clear. I
+will come again before dark and put some more of that stuff on your
+ankle. If you want anything, ring this bell, and if Isham doesn't hear
+you, somebody will call him. He has orders to keep about the house."
+
+"You are putting me under very great obligations to you, madam," said
+Lawrence.
+
+But the old lady did not stop to hear any thanks, and hastened to clear
+the coast.
+
+Lawrence had to wait a long time for his list of books, but at last it
+came; and, much to his surprise and chagrin, Mrs Null brought it. "Miss
+March asked me to give you this," she said, "so that you can pick out
+just what books you want."
+
+Lawrence took the paper, but did not look at it. He was deeply
+disappointed and hurt. His whole appearance showed it.
+
+"You don't seem glad to get it," said Miss Annie. Lawrence looked at
+her, his face darkening. "Did you persuade Miss March," he said, "to
+stay in the house and let you bring this?"
+
+"Now, Mr Croft," said the young lady, a very decided flush coming into
+her face, "that is going too far. You have no right to accuse me of such
+a thing. I am not going to help in your love affairs, but I don't intend
+to be mean about it, either. Miss March asked me to bring that list, and
+at first I wouldn't do it, for I knew, just as well as I know anything,
+that you expected her to come to you with it, and I was very sure you
+wanted to see her more than the paper. I refused two or three times, but
+she said, at last, that if I didn't take it, she'd send it by some one
+in the house; so I just picked it up and brought it right along. I don't
+like her as much as I did."
+
+"Why not?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"You needn't accept a man if you don't want him," said Miss Annie, "but
+there is no need of being cruel to him, especially when he is laid up.
+If she didn't intend to come out to you again, she ought not to have
+made you believe so. You did expect her to come, didn't you?"
+
+"Most certainly," said Lawrence, in rather a doleful tone. "Yes, and
+there is the chair she was to sit in," said Miss Annie, "while you said
+seven words about the books and ten thousand about the way your heart
+was throbbing. I see Aunt Keswick's hand in that, as plain as can be. I
+don't say I'd put her in that chair if I could do it, but I certainly
+am sorry she disappointed you so. Would you like to have any of those
+books? If you would, I'll get them for you."
+
+"I am much obliged, Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "but I don't think I care
+for any books. And let me say that I am very sorry for the way I spoke
+to you, just now."
+
+"Oh, don't mention that," said she. "If I'd been in your place, I should
+have been mad enough to say anything. But it's no use to sit here and be
+grumpy. You'd better let me go and get you a book. The "Critical
+Magazine" for 1767 and 1768, is on that list, and I know there are lots
+of queer, interesting things in it, but it takes a good while to hunt
+them out from the other things for which you would not care at all. And
+then there are all the "Spectators," and "Ramblers," and "The World
+Displayed" in eight volumes, which, from what I saw when I looked
+through it, seems to be a different kind of world from the one I live
+in; and there are others that you will see on your list. But there is
+one book which I have been reading lately which I think you will find
+odder and funnier than any of the rest. It is the "Geographical Grammar"
+by Mr Salmon. Suppose I bring you that. It is a description of the whole
+world, written more than a hundred years ago, by an Irish gentleman who,
+I think, never went anywhere."
+
+"Thank you," said Lawrence, "I shall be obliged to you if you will be
+kind enough to bring me that one." He was glad for her to go away, even
+for a little time, that he might think. The smart of the disappointment
+caused by the non-appearance of Miss March was beginning to subside a
+little. Looking at it more quietly and reasonably, he could see that, in
+her position, it would be actually unmaidenly for her to come to him by
+herself. It was altogether another thing for this other girl, and,
+therefore, perhaps it was quite proper to send her. But, in spite of
+whatever reasonableness there might have been in it, he chafed under
+this propriety. It would have been far better, he thought, if she had
+come and told him that she could not possibly accept him, and that
+nothing more must be said about it. But then he did not believe, if she
+had given him time to say the words he wished to say, that she would
+have come to such a decision; and as he called up her lovely face and
+figure, as it stood framed in the open doorway, with a background of the
+sunlit arbor and fields, the gorgeous distant foliage, with the blue sky
+and its white clouds and circling birds, he thought of the rapture and
+ecstasy which would have come to him, if she had listened to his words,
+and had given him but a smile of encouragement.
+
+But here came Mrs Null, with a fat brown book in her hand. "One of the
+funniest things," she said, as she came to the door, "is Mr Salmon's
+chapter on paradoxes. He thinks it would be quite improper to issue a
+book of this kind without alluding to geographical paradoxes. Listen to
+this one." And then she read to him the elucidation of the apparent
+paradox that there is a certain place in this world where the wind
+always blows from the south; and another explaining the statement that
+in certain cannibal islands the people eat themselves. "There is
+something he says about Virginia," said she, turning over the pages,
+"which I want you to be sure to read."
+
+"Won't you sit down," said Lawrence, "and read to me some of those
+extracts? You know just where to find them."
+
+"That chair wasn't put there for me," said Miss Annie, with a smile.
+
+"Nonsense," said Lawrence. "Won't you please sit down? I ought to have
+asked you before. Perhaps it is too cool for you, out there."
+
+"Oh, not at all," said she. "The air is still quite warm." And she took
+her seat on the chair which was placed close to the door-step, and she
+read to him some of the surprising and interesting facts which Mr Salmon
+had heard, in a Dublin coffee-house, about Virginia and the other
+colonies, and also some of those relating to the kindly way in which
+slave-holders in South America, when they killed a slave to feed their
+hounds, would send a quarter to a neighbor, expecting some day to
+receive a similar favor in return. When they had laughed over these, she
+read some very odd and surprising statements about Southern Europe, and
+the people of far-away lands; and so she went on, from one thing to
+another, talking a good deal about what she had read, and always on the
+point of stopping and giving the book to Lawrence, until the short
+autumnal afternoon began to draw to its close, and he told her that it
+was growing too chilly for her to sit out on the grass any longer.
+
+"Very well," said she, closing the book, and handing it to him, "you can
+read the rest of it yourself, and if you want any other books on the
+list, just let me know by Uncle Isham, and I will send them to you. He
+is coming now to see after you. I wonder," she said, stopping for a
+moment as she turned to leave, "if Miss March had been sitting in that
+chair, if you would have had the heart to tell her to go away; or if you
+would have let her sit still, and take cold."
+
+Lawrence smiled, but very slightly. "That subject," said he, "is one on
+which I don't joke."
+
+"Goodness!" exclaimed Miss Annie, clasping her hands and gazing with an
+air of comical commiseration at Mr Croft's serious face. "I should think
+not!" and away she went.
+
+Just before supper time, when Lawrence's door had been closed, and his
+lamp lighted, there came a knock, and Mrs Keswick appeared. "That plan
+of mine didn't work," she said, "but I will bring Miss March out here,
+and manage it so that she'll have to stay till I come back. I have an
+idea about that. All that you have to do is to be ready when you get
+your chance."
+
+Lawrence thanked her, and assured her he would be very glad to have a
+chance, although he hoped, without much ground for it, that Roberta
+would not see through the old lady's schemes.
+
+Mrs Keswick lotioned and rebandaged the sprained ankle, and then she
+said. "I think it would be pleasant if we were all to come out here
+after supper, and have a game of whist. I used to play whist, and
+shouldn't mind taking a hand. You could have the table drawn up to your
+chair, and,--let me see--yes, there are three more chairs. It won't be
+like having her alone with you," she said, with the cordial grin in
+which she sometimes indulged, "but you will have her opposite to you for
+an hour, and that will be something."
+
+Lawrence approved heartily of the whist party, and assured Mrs Keswick
+that she was his guardian angel.
+
+"Not much of that," she said, "but I have been told often enough that
+I'm a regular old matchmaker, and I expect I am."
+
+"If you make this match," said Lawrence, "you will have my eternal
+gratitude."
+
+The supper sent out to Lawrence was a very good one, and the
+anticipation of what was to follow made him enjoy it still more, for his
+passion had now reached such a point that even to look at his love,
+although he could only speak to her of trumps and of tricks, would be a
+refreshing solace which would go down deep into his thirsty soul.
+
+But bedtime and old Isham came, and the whist players came not. It
+needed no one to tell Lawrence whose disinclination it was that had
+prevented their coming.
+
+"I reckon," said Uncle Isham, as he looked in at Letty's cabin on his
+way to his own, "dat dat ar Mister Crof' aint much use to gittin'
+hisse'f hurt. All de time I was helpin' him to go to bed he was a
+growlin' like de bery debbil."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+Although October in Southern Virginia can generally be counted upon as a
+very charming month, it must not be expected that her face will wear one
+continuous smile. On the day after Lawrence Croft's misadventure the sky
+was gray with low-hanging clouds, there was a disagreeable wind from the
+north-east, and the air was filled with the slight drizzle of rain. The
+morning was so cool that Lawrence was obliged to keep his door shut, and
+Uncle Isham had made him a small wood fire on the hearth. As he sat
+before this fire, after breakfast, his foot still upon a stool, and
+vigorously puffed at a cigar, he said to himself that it mattered very
+little to him whether the sun shone, or all the rains of heaven
+descended, so long as Roberta March would not come out to him; and that
+she did not intend to come, rain or shine, was just as plain as the
+marks on the sides of the fireplace, probably made by the heels of Mr
+Junius Keswick during many a long, reflective smoke.
+
+On second thoughts, however, Lawrence concluded that a rainy day was
+worse for his prospects than a bright one. If the sun shone, and
+everything was fair, Miss March might come across the grassy yard and
+might possibly stop before his open door to bid him good morning, and to
+tell him that she was sorry that a headache had prevented her from
+coming to play whist the evening before. But this last, he presently
+admitted, was rather too much to expect, for he did not think she was
+subject to headaches, or to making excuses. At any rate he might have
+caught sight of her, and if he had, he certainly would have called to
+her, and would have had his say with her, even had she persisted in
+standing six feet from the door-step. But now this dreary day had shut
+his door and put an interdict upon strolls across the grass. Therefore
+it was that he must resign any opportunity, for that day, at least, of
+soothing the harrowing perturbations of his passion by either the
+comforting warmth of hope, or by the deadening frigidity of a
+consummated despair. This last, in truth, he did not expect, but still,
+if it came, it would be better than perturbations; they must be soothed
+at any cost. But how to incur this cost was a difficult question
+altogether. So, puffing, gazing into the fire, and knitting his brows,
+he sat and thought.
+
+As a good-looking young man, as a well-dressed young man, as an educated
+and cultured man, as a man of the clubs, and of society, and, when
+occasion required, as a very sensible man of business, Mr Croft might
+be looked upon as essentially a commonplace personage, and in our walks
+abroad we meet a great many like him. But there dwelt within him a
+certain disposition, which, at times, removed him to quite a distance
+from the arena in which commonplace people go through their prescribed
+performances. He would come to a determination, generally quite
+suddenly, to attain a desired end in his own way, without any reference
+to traditionary or conventional methods; and the more original and
+startling these plans the better he liked it.
+
+This disposition it was which made Lawrence read with so much interest
+the account of the defeated general who made the cavalry charge into the
+camp of his victorious enemy. Defeat had been his, all through his short
+campaign, and it now seemed that the time had come to make another bold
+effort to get the better of his bad luck. As he could not woo Miss March
+himself, he must get some one else to do it for him, or, if not actually
+to woo the lady, to get her at least into such a frame of mind that she
+would allow him to woo her, even in spite of his present disadvantages.
+This would be a very bold stroke, but Lawrence put a good deal of faith
+in it.
+
+If Miss March were properly talked to by one of her own sex, she might
+see, as perhaps she did not now see, how cruel was her line of conduct
+toward him, and might be persuaded to relent, at least enough to allow
+his voice to reach her; and that was all he asked for. He had not the
+slightest doubt that the widow Keswick would gladly consent to carry any
+message he chose to send to Miss March, and, more than that, to throw
+all the force of her peculiar style of persuasion into the support of
+his cause. But this, he knew very well, would finish the affair, and not
+at all in the way he desired. The person he wanted to act as his envoy
+was Mrs Null. To be sure, she had refused to act for him, but he thought
+he could persuade her. She was quiet, she was sensible, and could talk
+very gently and confidingly when she chose; she would say just what he
+told her to say, and if a contingency demanded that she should add
+anything, she would probably do it very prudently. But then it would be
+almost as difficult to communicate with her as with Miss March.
+
+While he was thus thinking, in came the old lady, very cross. "You
+didn't get any rubber of whist last night, did you?" said she, without
+salutatory preface. "But I can tell you it wasn't my fault. I did all
+that I could, and more than I ought, to make her come, but she just put
+her foot down and wouldn't stir an inch, and at last I got mad and went
+to bed. I don't know whether she saw it or not, but I was as mad as
+hops; and I am that way yet. I had a plan that would have given you a
+chance to talk to her, but that ain't any good, now that it is raining.
+Let me look at your ankle; I hope that is getting along all right, any
+way."
+
+While the old lady was engaged in ministering to his needs, he told her
+of his plan. He said he wished to send a message to Miss March by some
+one, and if he could get the message properly delivered, it would help
+him very much.
+
+"I'll take it," said she, looking up suddenly from the piece of soft,
+old linen she was folding; "I'll go to her this very minute, and tell
+her just what you want me to."
+
+"Mrs Keswick," said Lawrence, "you are as kind as you can possibly be,
+but I do not think it would be right for you to go on an errand like
+this. Miss March might not receive you well, and that would annoy me
+very much. And, besides, to speak frankly, you have taken up my cause so
+warmly, and have been such a good friend to me, that I am afraid your
+earnest desire to assist me might perhaps carry you a little too far.
+Please do not misunderstand me. I don't mean that you would say anything
+imprudent, but as you are kind enough to say that you really desire this
+match, it will be very natural for you to show your interest in it to a
+degree that would arouse Miss March's opposition."
+
+"Yes, I see," said the old lady, reflectively, "she'd suspect what was
+at the bottom of my interest. She's a sharp one. I've found that out. I
+reckon it will be better for me not to meddle with her. I came very near
+quarreling with her last night, and that wouldn't do at all."
+
+"You see, madam," said Lawrence, well satisfied that he had succeeded in
+warding off the old lady's offer without offending her, "that I do not
+want any one to go to Miss March and make a proposal for me. I could do
+that in a letter. But I very much object to a letter. In fact it
+wouldn't do at all. All I wish is, that some one, by the exercise of a
+little female diplomacy, should induce her to let me speak to her. Now,
+I think that Mrs Null might do this, very well."
+
+"That is so," said the old lady, who, having now finished her bandaging,
+was seated on a chair by the fireplace. "My niece is smart and quick,
+and could do this thing for you just as well as not. But she has her
+quips and her cranks, like the rest of us. I called her out of the room
+last night to know why she didn't back me up better about the whist
+party, and she said she couldn't see why a gentleman, who hadn't been
+confined to the house for quite a whole day, should be so desperately
+lonely that people must go to his room to play whist with him. It seemed
+to me exactly as if she thought that Mr Null wouldn't like it. Mr Null
+indeed! As if his wishes and desires were to be considered in my house!
+I never mention that man now, and Annie does not speak of him either.
+What I want is that he shall stay away just as long as he will; and if
+he will only stay away long enough to make his absence what the law
+calls desertion, I'll have those two divorced before they know it. Can
+you tell me, sir, how long a man must stay away from his wife before he
+can be legally charged with desertion?"
+
+"No, madam, I can not," said Lawrence. "The laws, I believe, differ in
+the various States."
+
+"Well, I'm going to make it my business to find out all about it," said
+Mrs Keswick. "Mr Brandon has promised to attend to this matter for me,
+and I must write to him, to know what he has been doing. Well, Mrs Null
+and Miss March seem to be very good friends, and I dare say my niece
+could manage things so as to give you the chance you want. I'll go to
+the house now, and send her over to you, so that you can tell her what
+you want her to say or do."
+
+"Do you think she will come, madam?" asked Lawrence.
+
+The old lady rose to her feet, and knitted her brows until something
+like a perpendicular mouth appeared on her forehead. "No," said she,
+"now I come to think of it I don't believe she will. In fact I know she
+won't. Bother take it all, sir! What these young women want is a good
+whipping. Nothing else will ever bring them to their senses. What
+possible difference could it make to Mr Null whether she came to you and
+took a message for you, or whether she didn't come; especially in a case
+like this, when you can't walk, or go to anybody?"
+
+"I don't think it ought to make any difference whatever," said Lawrence.
+"In fact I don't believe it would."
+
+"It's no use talking about it, Mr Croft," said the old lady, moving
+toward the door. "I can go to my niece and talk to her, but the first
+thing I'd know I'd blaze out at her, and then, as like as not, she'd
+blaze back again, and then the next thing would be that she'd pack up
+her things and go off to hunt up her fertilizer agent. And that mustn't
+be. I don't want to get myself in any snarls, just now. There is nothing
+for you to do, Mr Croft, but to wait till it clears off, so that dainty
+young woman can come out of doors, and then I think I can manage it so
+that you can get a chance to speak to her."
+
+"I am very much obliged to you," said Lawrence. "I suppose I must wait."
+
+"I'll see that Isham brings you a lot of dry hickory, so that you can
+have a cheerful fire, even if you can't have cheerful company," said Mrs
+Keswick, as she closed the door after her.
+
+Lawrence looked through the window at the sky, which gave no promise of
+clearing. And then he gazed into the fire, and considered his case. He
+had spent a large portion of his life in considering his case, and,
+therefore, the operation was a familiar one to him. This time the case
+was not a satisfactory one. Everything in this love affair with Miss
+March had gone on in a manner in which he had not intended, and of which
+he greatly disapproved. No one in the world could have planned the
+affair more prudently than he had planned it. He had been so careful not
+to do anything rash, that he had, at first, concealed, even from the
+lady herself, the fact that he was in love with her, and nothing could
+be farther from his thoughts and desires than that any one else should
+know of it. And yet, how had it all turned out? He had taken into his
+confidence Mr Junius Keswick, Mr Brandon, old Mrs Keswick, Mrs Null, as
+she wished to be called, and almost lastly, the lady herself. "If I
+should lay bare my heart to the colored man, Isham," he said to himself,
+"and the old centenarian in the cabin down there, I believe there would
+be no one else to tell. Oh, yes, there is Candy, and the anti-detective.
+By rights, they ought to know." He did not include the good little Peggy
+in this category, because he was not aware that there was such a person.
+
+After about an hour of these doleful cogitations, he again turned to
+look out of his front window, which commanded a view of the larger
+house, when he saw, coming down the steps of the porch, a not very tall
+figure, wrapped in a waterproof cloak, with the hood drawn over its
+head. He did not see the face of the figure, but he thought from the
+light way in which it moved that it was Mrs Null; and when it stepped
+upon the grass and turned its head, he saw that he was right.
+
+"Can her aunt have induced her to come to me?" was Lawrence's first
+thought. But his second was very different, for she began to walk toward
+the large gate which led out of the yard. Instantly Lawrence rose, and
+hopped on one foot to the window, where he tapped loudly on the glass.
+The lady turned, and then he threw up the sash.
+
+"Won't you step here, please?" he called out.
+
+Without answering, she immediately came over the wet grass to the
+window.
+
+"I have something to say to you," he said, "and I don't want to keep you
+standing in the rain. Won't you come inside for a few minutes?"
+
+"No, thank you," said she. "I don't mind a slight rain like this. I
+have lived so long in the city that I can't imagine how country people
+can bear to shut themselves in, when it happens to be a little wet. I
+can't stand it, and I am going out for a walk." "It is a very sensible
+thing to do," said Lawrence, "and I wish I could go with you and have a
+good long talk."
+
+"What about?" said she.
+
+"About Miss March."
+
+"Well, I am rather tired of that subject," she said, "and so I reckon it
+is just as well that you should stay here by your fire--I see you have
+one there--and that I should take my walk by myself."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "I want to implore you to do a favor for me.
+I don't see how it can be disagreeable to you, and I am sure it will
+confer the greatest possible obligation upon me."
+
+"What is it?" she asked.
+
+"I want you to go to Miss March, and endeavor, in some way--you will
+know how, better than I can tell you--to induce her to let me have a few
+words with her. If it is only here at this open window it will do."
+
+Mrs Null laughed. "Imagine," she said, "a woman putting on a waterproof
+and overshoes, and coming out in the rain, to stand with an umbrella
+over her head, to be proposed to! That would be the funniest proceeding
+I ever heard of!"
+
+Lawrence could not help smiling, though he was not in the mood for it.
+"It may seem amusing to you," he said, "but I am very much in earnest. I
+am in constant fear that she will go away while I am confined to this
+house. Do you know how long she intends to stay?"
+
+"She has not told me," was the answer.
+
+"If you will carry it," he said, "I will give you a message for her."
+
+"Why don't you write it?" said Miss Annie.
+
+"I don't want to write anything," he said. "I should not know how it had
+been received, nor would it be likely to get me any satisfaction. I want
+a live, sympathetic medium, such as you are. Won't you do this favor for
+me?"
+
+"No, I won't," said Miss Annie, her very decided tone appearing to give
+a shade of paleness to her features. "How often must I tell you that I
+will not help you in this thing?"
+
+"I would not ask you," said Lawrence, "if I could help myself."
+
+"It is not right that you should ask me any more," she said. "I am not
+in favor of your coming here to court Miss March, while my cousin is
+away, and I should feel like a traitor if I helped you at all,
+especially if I were to carry messages to her. Of course, I am very
+sorry for you, shut up here, and I will do anything I can to make you
+more comfortable and contented; but what you ask is too hard for me."
+And, as she said this, a little air of trouble came into the large eyes
+with which she was steadfastly regarding him. "I don't want to seem
+unkind to you, and I wish you would ask me something that I can do for
+you. I'll walk down to Howlett's and get you anything you may like to
+have. I'll bring you a lot of novels which I found in the house, and
+which I expect, anyway, you will like better than those old-time books.
+And I'll cook you anything that is in the cook-book. But I really cannot
+go wooing for you, and if you ask me to do that, every time I come near
+you, I really must--"
+
+"My dear Mrs Null," interrupted Lawrence, "I promise not to say any more
+to you on this subject. I see it is distasteful to you, and I beg your
+pardon for having mentioned it so often. You have been very kind to me,
+indeed, and I should be exceedingly sorry to do anything to offend you.
+It would be very bad for me to lose one of my friends, now that I am
+shut up in this box, and feel so very dependent."
+
+"Oh, indeed," said Miss Annie. "But I suppose if you were able to step
+around, as you used to do, it wouldn't matter whether you offended me or
+not."
+
+"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "you know I did not mean anything like that.
+Do you intend to be angry with me, no matter what I say?"
+
+"Not a bit of it," she answered, with a little smile that brought back
+to her face that warm brightness which had grown upon it since she had
+come down here. "I haven't the least wish in the world to be angry with
+you, and I promise you I won't be, provided you'll stop everlastingly
+asking me to go about helping you to make love to people."
+
+Lawrence laughed. "Very good," said he. "I have promised to ask nothing
+more of that sort. Let us shake hands on it."
+
+He stretched his hand from the window, and Miss Annie withdrew from the
+folds of her waterproof a very soft and white little hand, and put it
+into his. "And now I must be off," she said. "Are you certain you don't
+want anything from the store at Howlett's?"
+
+"Surely, you are not going as far as that," he said.
+
+"Not if you don't want anything," she answered. "Have you tobacco enough
+to last through your imprisonment? They keep it."
+
+"Now, miss," said Lawrence; "do you want to make me angry by supposing I
+would smoke any tobacco that they sell in that country store?"
+
+"It ought to be better than any other," said Miss Annie. "They grow it
+in the fields all about here, and the storekeepers can get it perfectly
+fresh and pure, and a great deal better for you, no doubt, than the
+stuff they manufacture in the cities."
+
+"When you learn to smoke," said Lawrence, "your opinion concerning
+tobacco will be more valuable."
+
+"Thank you," she said, "and I will wait till then before I give you any
+more of it. Good morning." And away she went.
+
+Lawrence shut down the window, and hopped back to the fire. "There is my
+last chance gone," said he to himself. "I suppose I may as well take old
+Mrs Keswick's advice, and wait for fair weather. But, even then, who can
+say what sort of sky Roberta March will show?" And, not being able to
+answer this question, he put two fresh sticks on the fire, and then
+sedately sat and watched their gradual annihilation. As for Miss Annie,
+she took her walk, and stepped along the road as lightly and blithely as
+if the skies had been blue, and the sun shining; and almost before she
+knew it, she had reached the store at Howlett's. Ascending the high
+steps to the porch, quite deserted on this damp, unpleasant morning, she
+entered the store, the proprietor of which immediately jumped up from
+the mackerel kit at the extreme end of the room, where he had been
+sitting in converse with some of his neighbors, and hurried behind the
+counter.
+
+"Have you any tea," said Miss Annie, "better than the kind which you
+usually sell to Mrs Keswick?"
+
+"No, ma'am," said he. "We send her the very best tea we have."
+
+"I am not finding fault with it," she said, "but I thought you might
+have some extra kind, more expensive than people usually buy for common
+use."
+
+"No, ma'am," said he, "there is fancy teas of that kind, but you'd have
+to send to Philadelphia or New York for them."
+
+"How long would that take?" she asked.
+
+"I reckon it would be four or five days before you'd get it, ma'am,"
+said the storekeeper.
+
+"I am afraid," said Miss Annie, looking reflectively along the counter,
+"that that would be too long." And then she turned to go, but suddenly
+stopped. "Have you any guava jelly?" she asked.
+
+The man smiled. "We don't have no call for anything as fancy as that,
+ma'am," he said. "Is there anything else?"
+
+"Not to-day," answered Miss Annie, after throwing a despairing glance
+upon the rolls of calicoes, the coils of clothes-lines, the battered tin
+boxes of tea and sugar, the dusty and chimneyless kerosene lamps, and
+the long rows of canned goods with their gaudy labels; and then she
+departed.
+
+When she had gone, the storekeeper returned to his seat on the mackerel
+kit, and was accosted by a pensive neighbor in high boots who sat upon
+the upturned end of a case of brogans. "You didn't make no sale that
+time, Peckett," said he.
+
+"No," said the storekeeper, "her idees is a little too fancy for our
+stock of goods."
+
+"Whar's her husband, anyway?" asked a stout, elderly man in linen
+trousers and faded alpaca coat, who was seated on two boxes of pearl
+starch, one on top of the other. "I've heard that he was a member of the
+legislatur'. Is that so?"
+
+"He's not that, you can take my word for it," said Tom Peckett. "Old
+Miss Keswick give me to understand that he was in the fertilizing
+business."
+
+"That ought to be a good thing for the old lady," said the man on the
+starch boxes. "She'll git a discount off her gwarner."
+
+"I never did see," said the pensive neighbor on the brogan case, "how
+such things do git twisted. It was only yesterday that I met a man at
+Tyson's Mill, who'd just come over from the Valley, and he said he'd
+seen this Mr Noles over thar. He's a hoss doctor, and he's going up
+through all the farms along thar."
+
+"I reckon when he gits up as fur as he wants to go," said the man on the
+starch boxes, "he'll come here and settle fur awhile."
+
+"That won't be so much help to the old lady," said the storekeeper,
+"for it wouldn't pay to keep a neffy-in-law just to doctor one sorrel
+horse and a pa'r o' oxen."
+
+"I reckon his wife must be 'spectin' him," said the man on the brogan
+case, "from her comin' after fancy vittles."
+
+"If he do come," said the stout, elderly neighbor, "I wish you'd let me
+know, Tom Peckett, fur my black mar has got a hitch in her shoulder I
+can't understand, and I'd like him to look at her."
+
+The storekeeper smiled at the pensive man, and the pensive man smiled
+back at the storekeeper. "You needn't trouble yourself about that young
+woman's husband," said Mr Peckett. "There'll be a horse doctor coming
+along afore you know it, and he'll attend to that old mar of yourn
+without chargin' you a cent."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+The second afternoon of Lawrence Croft's confinement in the little
+building in Mrs Keswick's yard, passed drearily enough. The sky retained
+its sombre covering of clouds, and the rain came down in a melancholy,
+capricious way, as if it were tears shed by a child who was crying
+because it was bad. The monotony of the slowly moving hours was broken
+only by a very brief visit from the old lady, who was going somewhere in
+the covered spring wagon, and who looked in, before she started, to see
+if her patient wanted anything; and by the arrival of a bundle of old
+novels sent by Mrs Null. These books Lawrence looked over with
+indifferent interest, hoping to find one among them that was not a love
+story, but he was disappointed. They were all based upon, and most of
+them permeated with, the tender passion, and Lawrence was not in the
+mood for reading about that sort of thing. A person afflicted with a
+disease is not apt to find agreeable occupation in reading hospital
+reports upon his particular ailment.
+
+The novels were put aside, and although Lawrence felt that he had smoked
+almost too much during that day, he was about to light another cigar,
+when he heard a carriage drive into the yard. Turning to the window he
+saw a barouche, evidently a hired one, drawn by a pair of horses, very
+lean and bony, but with their heads reined up so high that they had an
+appearance of considerable spirit, and driven by a colored man, sitting
+upon a very elevated seat, with a jaunty air and a well-worn whip. The
+carriage drove over the grass to the front of the house--there was no
+roadway in the yard, the short, crisp, tough grass having long resisted
+the occasional action of wheels and hoofs--and there stopping, a
+gentleman, with a valise, got out. He paid the driver, who immediately
+turned the vehicle about, and drove away. The gentleman put his foot
+upon the bottom step as if he were about to ascend, and then, apparently
+changing his mind, he picked up his valise, and came directly toward the
+office, drawing a key from his pocket as he walked. It was Junius
+Keswick, and in a few minutes his key was heard in the lock. As it was
+not locked the key merely rattled, and Lawrence called out: "Come in."
+The door opened, and Junius looked in, evidently surprised. "I beg your
+pardon," said he, "I didn't know you were in here."
+
+"Please walk in," said Lawrence. "I know I am occupying your room, and
+it is I who should ask your pardon. But you see the reason why it was
+thought well that I should not have stairs to ascend." And he pointed to
+his bandaged foot.
+
+"Have you hurt yourself?" asked Junius, with an air of concern.
+
+And then Lawrence gave an account of his accident, expressing at the
+same time his regret that he found himself occupying the room which
+belonged to the other.
+
+"Oh, don't mention that," said Junius, who had taken a seat near the
+window. "There are rooms enough in the house, and I shall be perfectly
+comfortable. It was quite right in my aunt to have you brought in here,
+and I should have insisted upon it, myself, if I had been at home. I
+expected to be away for a week or more, but I have now come back on
+account of your letter."
+
+"Does that need explanation?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Not at all," said Junius. "I had no difficulty in understanding it,
+although I must say that it surprised me. But I came because I am not
+satisfied with the condition of things here, and I wish to be on the
+spot. I do not understand why you and Miss March should be invited here
+during my absence."
+
+"That I do not understand either," said Lawrence, quickly, "and I wish
+to impress it on your mind, Mr Keswick, that when I came here, I not
+only expected to find you, but a party of invited guests. I will say,
+however, that I came with the express intention of meeting Miss March,
+and having that interview with her which I could not have in her uncle's
+house."
+
+"I was not entirely correct," said Junius, "when I said that I did not
+know why these rather peculiar arrangements had been made. My aunt is a
+very managing person, and I think I perceive her purpose in this piece
+of management." "She is opposed to a marriage between you and Miss
+March?"
+
+"Most decidedly," said Junius. "Has she told you so?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "but it has gradually dawned upon me that such is
+the case. I believe she would be glad to have Miss March married, and
+out of your way."
+
+Junius made no answer to this remark, but sat silent for a few moments.
+Then he said: "Well, have you settled it with Miss March?"
+
+"No, I have not," said Lawrence. "If the matter had been decided, one
+way or the other, I should not be here. I have no right to trespass on
+your aunt's hospitality, and I should have departed as soon as I had
+discovered Miss March's sentiments in regard to me. But I have not been
+able to settle the matter, at all. I had one opportunity of seeing the
+lady, and that was not a satisfactory interview. Yesterday morning, I
+made another attempt, but before I could get to her I sprained my ankle.
+And here I am; I can not go to her, and, of course, she will not come to
+me. You cannot imagine how I chafe under this harassing restraint."
+
+"I can imagine it very easily," said Junius.
+
+"The only thing I have to hope for," said Lawrence, "is that to-morrow
+may be a fine day, and that the lady may come outside and give me the
+chance of speaking to her at this open door."
+
+Junius smiled grimly. "It appears to me," he said, "as if it were likely
+to rain for several days. But now I must go into the house and see the
+family. I hope you believe me, sir, when I say I am sorry to find you in
+your present predicament."
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, smiling, although he did not feel at all gay,
+"for, otherwise, I might have been finally rejected and far away."
+
+"If you had been rejected," said Junius, "I should have been very glad,
+indeed, to have you stay with us."
+
+"Thank you," said Lawrence.
+
+"I will look in upon you again," said Junius, as he left the room.
+
+Lawrence's mind, which had been in a very unpleasant state of troubled
+restiveness for some days, was now thrown into a sad turmoil by this
+arrival of Junius Keswick. As he saw that tall and good-looking young
+man going up the steps of the house porch, with his valise in his hand,
+he clinched both his fists as they rested on the arm of his chair, and
+objurgated the anti-detective.
+
+"If it had not been for that rascal," he said to himself, "I should not
+have written to Keswick, and he would not have thought of coming back at
+this untimely moment. The only advantage I had was a clear coast, and
+now that is gone. Of course Keswick was frightened when he found I was
+staying in the same house with Roberta March, and hurried back to attend
+to his own interests. The first thing he will do now will be to propose
+to her himself; and, as they have been engaged once, it is as like as
+not she will take him again. If I could use this foot, I would go into
+the house, this minute, and have the first word with her." At this he
+rose to his feet and made a step with his sprained ankle, but the sudden
+pain occasioned by this action caused him to sit down again with a
+groan. Lawrence Croft was not a man to do himself a physical injury
+which might be permanent, if such doing could possibly be avoided, and
+he gave up the idea of trying to go into the house.
+
+"I tell you what it is, Letty," said Uncle Isham, when he returned to
+the kitchen after having carried Lawrence's supper to him, "dat ar
+Mister Croft in de offis is a gittin wuss an' wuss in he min', ebery
+day. I neber seed a man more pow'ful glowerin' dan he is dis ebenin."
+
+"I reckin' he j'ints is healin' up," said Letty. "Dey tells me dat de
+healin' pains mos' gen'rally runs into de min'."
+
+About nine o'clock in the evening Junius Keswick paid Lawrence a visit;
+and, taking a seat by one side of the fireplace, accepted the offer of a
+cigar.
+
+"How are things going on in the house?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Well," said Keswick, speaking slowly, "as you know so much of our
+family affairs, I might as well tell you that they are in a somewhat
+upset condition. When I went in, I saw, at first, no one but my cousin,
+and she seemed so extraordinarily glad to see me that I thought
+something must be wrong, somewhere; and when my aunt returned--she was
+not at home when I arrived--she was thrown into such a state of mind on
+seeing me, that I didn't know whether she was going to order me out of
+the house or go herself. But she restrained herself, wonderfully,
+considering her provocation, for, of course, I have entirely disordered
+her plans by appearing here, when she had arranged everything for you to
+have Miss March to yourself. But, so far, the peace has been kept
+between us, although she scarcely speaks to me."
+
+"And Miss March?" said Lawrence. "You have seen her?"
+
+"Yes," said Junius, "I saw her at supper, and for a short time
+afterwards, but she soon retired to her room."
+
+"Do you think she was disturbed by your return?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"I won't say that," said Junius, "but she was certainly not herself. Mrs
+Null tells me that she expects to go home to-morrow morning, having
+written to her uncle to send for her."
+
+"That is bad, bad, very bad," said Lawrence.
+
+After that there was a pause in the conversation, during which Mr Croft,
+with brows very much knit, gazed steadfastly into the fire. "Mr
+Keswick," he said presently, "what you tell me fills me with
+consternation. It is quite plain that I shall have no chance to see Miss
+March, and, as there is no one else in the world who will do it for me,
+I am going to ask you to go to her, to-morrow morning, and speak to her
+in my behalf."
+
+When this had been said, Junius Keswick dropped his cigar upon the
+floor, and sat up very straight in his chair, gazing fixedly at
+Lawrence. "Upon my word!" he said, "I knew you were a cool man, but that
+request freezes my imagination. I cannot conceive how any man can ask
+another to try to win for him a lady whom he knows the other man
+desires to win for himself. You have made some requests before that
+were rather astounding, but this one overshadows them all."
+
+"I admit," said Lawrence, "that what I ask is somewhat out of the way,
+but you must consider the circumstances. Suppose I had met you in mortal
+combat, and I had dropped my sword where you could reach it and I could
+not; would you pick it up and give it to me? or would you run me
+through?"
+
+"I don't think that comparison is altogether a good one," said Junius.
+
+"Yes, it is," said Lawrence, "and covers the case entirely. I am here,
+disabled, and if you pick up my sword, as I have just asked you to do,
+it is not to be assumed that your action gives me the victory. It merely
+gives me an equal chance with yourself."
+
+"Do you mean," said Junius, "that you want me to go to Miss March, and
+deliberately ask her if she will marry you?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "I have done that myself. But there are certain
+points in regard to which I want to be set right with Miss March. And
+now I wish you to understand me, Mr Keswick. I speak to you, not only as
+a generous and honorable man, which I have found you to be, but as a
+rival. I cannot believe that you would be willing to profit by my
+present disadvantages, and, as I have said two or three times before, it
+would certainly be for your interest, as a suitor for the lady, to have
+this matter settled."
+
+"Wouldn't it be better, then," said Junius, "if I were to go
+immediately, and speak to her for myself?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "I don't think that would settle the affair at all.
+From what I understand of your relations with Miss March, she knows you
+are her lover, and yet she neither accepts nor declines you. If you were
+to go to her now, it is not likely she would give you any definite
+answer. But in regard to me, it would be different. She would say yes or
+no. And if she made the latter answer I think you could walk over the
+course. I am not vain enough to say that I have been an obstacle to your
+success, but I assure you that I have tried very hard to make myself
+such an obstacle."
+
+"It seems to me," said Junius, imitating his companion in the matter of
+knitting his brows and gazing into the fire, "that this affair could be
+managed very simply. Miss March is not going at the break of day. Why
+don't you contrive to see her before she starts, and say for yourself
+what you have to say?"
+
+"Nothing would please me better than that," said Croft, "but I don't
+believe she would give me any chance to speak with her. Since my
+accident, she has persistently and pointedly refused to grant me even
+the shortest interview."
+
+"That ought to prove to you," said Keswick, "that she does not desire
+your attentions. You should consider it as a positive answer."
+
+"Not at all," said Lawrence, "not at all. And I don't think you would
+consider it a positive answer if you were in my place. I think she has
+taken some offence which is entirely groundless, and if you will consent
+to act for me it will enable me to set straight this misunderstanding."
+
+"Confound it!" exclaimed Keswick. "Can't you write to her? or get some
+one else to take your love messages?"
+
+"No," said Lawrence, "I cannot write to her, for I am not sure that
+under the circumstances she would answer my letter. And I have already
+asked Mrs Null, the only other person I could ask, to speak for me, but
+she has declined."
+
+"By the Lord Harry!" exclaimed Junius, "you are the rarest wooer I ever
+heard of."
+
+"I assure you," said Lawrence, his face flushing somewhat, "that it is
+not my desire to carry on my wooing in this fashion. My whole soul is
+opposed to it, but circumstances will have it so. And as I don't intend,
+if I can help it, to have my life determined by circumstances, I must go
+ahead in despite of them, although I admit that it makes the road very
+rough."
+
+"I should think it would," said Junius. And then there was a pause in
+the conversation.
+
+"Well, Mr Keswick," said Lawrence, presently, "Will you do this thing
+for me?"
+
+"Am I to understand," said Junius, "that if I don't do it, it won't be
+done?"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, "you are positively my last chance. I have racked
+my brains to think of some other way of presenting my case to Miss
+March, but there is no other way. I might stand at my door, and call to
+her as she entered the carriage, but that would be the height of
+absurdity. I might hop on one foot into the house, but, even if I wished
+to present myself in that way, I don't believe I could get up that long
+flight of steps. It would be worse than useless to write, for I should
+not know what was thought of my letter, or even if it had been read. Mrs
+Keswick cannot carry my message; Mrs Null will not; and I have only you
+to call upon. I know it is a great deal to ask, but it means so much to
+me--to both of us, in fact--that I ask it."
+
+"You were kind enough to say a little while ago," said Junius, "that you
+considered me an honorable man. I try to be such, and, therefore, will
+frankly state to you that I can think of but three motives, satisfactory
+to myself, for undertaking this business for you, and not one of them is
+a generous one. In the first place, I might care to do it in order to
+have this matter settled, for you are such an extraordinary suitor, that
+I don't know in what form you may turn up, the next time. Secondly, from
+what you tell me of Miss March's repugnance to meet you, I don't believe
+my mission will have an issue favorable to you, and the more
+unfavorable it is, the better I shall like it. My third reason for
+acting for you is, that the whole affair is such an original one that it
+will rather interest me to be engaged in it. This last reason would not
+hold, however, if I had the least expectation of being successful."
+
+"You consent then?" said Lawrence, quickly, turning towards the other.
+"You'll go to Miss March for me?"
+
+"Yes, I think I will," said Junius, "if you will accept the services of
+a man who is decidedly opposed to your interests."
+
+"Of course I never expected you to favor them," said Lawrence, "nor is
+it necessary that you should. All I ask is, that you carry a message to
+Miss March, and if she needs any explanation of it, that you will
+explain in the way that I shall indicate; that you shall tell me how she
+received my message; and that you shall bring me back her answer. There
+is no need of your making any proposition to her; that has already been
+done; what I want is, that she should not go away from here with a
+misunderstanding between us, and that she shall give me at least the
+promise of a hearing."
+
+"Very good," said Junius, "now, what is it that you want me to say?"
+
+This was not an easy question for Lawrence to answer. He knew very well
+what he wanted to say, if he had a chance of saying it himself. He
+wanted to pour his whole heart out to Roberta March, and, showing her
+its present passion, to ask her to forgive those days in which his mind
+only had appeared to be engaged. He believed he could say things that
+would force from her the pardon of his previous short-comings, if she
+considered them as such. She had been very gracious to him in time past,
+and he did not see why she should not be still more gracious now, if he
+could remove the feelings of resentment, which he believed were
+occasioned by her womanly insight into the motives of his conduct toward
+her, during those delightful summer days at Midbranch.
+
+But to get another person to say all this was a very different thing. He
+was sure, however, that if it were not said now, it would never be said.
+It would be death to all his hopes if Miss March went away, feeling
+towards him as she now felt; therefore he stiffened his purpose which
+was quite used to being stiffened; hardened his sensibilities; and took
+his plunge. Gazing steadfastly at the back of the fireplace while he
+spoke, he endeavored to make Junius Keswick understand the nature, and
+the probable force of the objections to his line of action as a suitor,
+which had grown up in the mind of Miss March; and he also endeavored to
+show how completely and absolutely he had been changed by the vigor and
+ardor of his present affection; and how he was entitled to be considered
+by Miss March as a lover who had but one thought and purpose, and that
+was to win her; and, as such, he asked her to give him an opportunity to
+renew his proposal to her. "Now, then," said Lawrence, "I have placed
+the case before you, and I beg you will present it, as nearly as
+possible, in the form in which I have given it to you."
+
+"Mr Croft," said Junius, "this case of yours is worse than I thought it
+was. What woman of spirit would accept a man who admitted, that during
+the whole of his acquaintance with her he had had his doubts in regard
+to suitability, etc., but who, when a crisis arrived, and another man
+turned up, had determined to overlook all his objections and take her,
+anyway."
+
+"That is a very cold-blooded way of putting it," said Lawrence, "and I
+don't believe at all that she will look upon it in that light. If you
+will set the matter before her as I have put it to you, I believe she
+will see it as I wish her to see it."
+
+"Very well," said Junius, rising, and taking out his watch, "I will make
+your statement as accurately as I can, and without any interpretations
+of my own. And now I must bid you good-night. I had no idea it was after
+twelve o'clock."
+
+"And you will observe her moods?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Yes," said Junius as he opened the door, "I will carefully observe her
+moods."
+
+When Junius had gone, Lawrence turned his face again toward the
+fireplace, where the last smouldering stick had just broken apart in the
+middle, and the two ends had wearily fallen over the andirons as if they
+wished it understood that they could do no more burning that night.
+Taking this as a hint, Lawrence prepared to retire. "Old Isham must have
+gone to bed long ago," he said, "but as I have asked for so much
+assistance to-day, I think it is well that I should try to do some
+things for myself."
+
+It was, indeed, very late, but behind the partially closed shutters of a
+lower room of the house sat old Mrs Keswick, gazing at the light that
+was streaming from the window of the office, and wondering what those
+two men were saying to each other that was keeping them sitting up
+together until after midnight.
+
+Annie Peyton, too, had not gone to bed, and looking through her chamber
+window at the office, she hoped that cousin Junius would come away
+before he lost his temper. Of course she thought he must have been very
+angry when he came home and found Mr Croft here at the only time that
+Roberta March had ever visited the house, and it was quite natural that
+he should go to his rival, and tell him what he thought about it. But he
+had been there a long, long time, and she did hope they would not get
+very angry with each other, and that nothing would happen. One thought
+comforted her very much. Mr Croft was disabled, and Junius would scorn
+to take advantage of a man in that condition.
+
+At an upper window, at the other end of the house, sat Roberta March,
+ready for bed, but with no intention of going there until Junius Keswick
+had come out of the office. Knowing the two men as she did, she had no
+fear that any harm would come to either of them during this long
+conference, whatever its subject might be. That she, herself, was that
+subject she had not the slightest doubt, and although it was of no
+earthly use for her to sit there and gaze upon that light streaming into
+the darkness of the yard, but revealing to her no more of what was going
+on inside the room than if it had been the light of a distant star,
+still she sat and speculated. At last the office door opened, and Junius
+came out, turning to speak to the occupant of the room as he did so. The
+brief vision of him which the watchers caught, as he stood for a moment
+in the lighted doorway before stepping out into the darkness, showed
+that his demeanor was as quiet and composed as usual; and one of the
+three women went to bed very much relieved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+From breakfast time the next morning until ten o'clock in the
+forenoon, at which hour the Midbranch carriage arrived, Junius Keswick
+had been vainly endeavoring to get an opportunity to speak with Miss
+March. That lady had remained in her own room nearly all the morning,
+where his cousin had been with her; and his aunt, who had her own
+peculiar ways of speeding the parting guest, had retired to some
+distant spot on the estate, either to plan out some farming operation
+for the ensuing season, or to prevent her pent-up passion from boiling
+over in her own house.
+
+Thus Junius had the lower floor to himself, and he strode about in
+much disquietude, debating whether he ought to send a message to
+Roberta, or whether he should wait till she had finished her packing,
+or whatever it was, that was keeping her up-stairs. His last private
+interview with her had not been a pleasant one, and if he had intended
+to speak to her for himself, he would not have felt much encouraged
+by her manner of the preceding evening; but he was now engaged on the
+affairs of another, and he believed that a failure to attend to them
+would be regarded as a breach of faith.
+
+When Mr Brandon's carriage drove into the yard he began to despair,
+but now Roberta came running down stairs to speak to Sam, the driver,
+and ask him how long it would be necessary to rest his horses. Sam
+thought an hour would be long enough, as they would have a good rest
+when they got home; and this matter having been settled, Junius came
+forward, and requested Roberta to step in the parlor, as he had
+something to say to her. Without reply, she followed him into the
+room, and he closed the door. They sat down, one on one side of
+the round centre table, and one on the other, and Junius began his
+statement.
+
+He was by profession a lawyer, and he had given a great deal of
+attention to the art of putting things plainly, and with a view to a
+just effect. He had carefully prepared in his mind what he should
+say to Roberta. He wished to present this man's message without the
+slightest exhibition of desire for its success, and yet without any
+tendency to that cold-blooded way of stating it, to which Croft had
+objected. He had, indeed, picked up his adversary's sword, and while
+he did not wish, in handing it to him, to prick him with it, or do him
+some such underhand injury, he did not think it at all necessary to
+sharpen the weapon before giving it back.
+
+What Junius had to say occupied a good deal of time. He expressed
+himself carefully and deliberately; and as nearly as a skilfully
+stuffed and prepared animal in a museum resembles its wild original of
+the forest, so did his remarks resemble those that Lawrence would have
+made had he been there. Roberta listened to him in silence until he
+had finished, and then she rose to her feet, and her manner was
+such that Junius rose also. "Junius Keswick," she said, "you have
+deliberately come to me, and offered me the hand of another man in
+marriage."
+
+"Not that," said Junius, "I merely came to explain----."
+
+"Do not split hairs," she interrupted, "you did exactly that. You came
+to me because he could not come himself, and offered him to me. Now go
+to him from me, and tell him that I accept him." And, with that, she
+swept out of the room, and came down stairs no more until bonneted,
+and accompanied by Miss Annie, she hurried to the front door, and
+entered the carriage which was there waiting for her, with Peggy by
+the driver. With some quick good-byes and kisses to Annie, but never a
+word to Junius, or anybody else, she drove away.
+
+If Junius Keswick had been nervous and anxious that morning, as he
+strode about the house, waiting for an opportunity to speak to Miss
+March, it may well be supposed that Lawrence Croft, shut up in his
+little room at the end of the yard, would be more so. He had sat at
+his window, waiting, and waiting. He had occasionally seen Mr Keswick
+come out on the porch, and with long strides pace backward and
+forward, and he knew by that sign that he had yet no message to bring
+him. He had seen the Midbranch carriage drive into the yard; he had
+seen Miss March come out on the porch, and speak to the driver, and
+then go in again; he had seen the carriage driven under a large tree,
+where the horses were taken out and led away to be refreshed; in an
+hour or more, he saw them brought back and harnessed to the vehicle,
+which was turned and driven up again to the door, when some baggage
+was brought down and strapped on a little platform behind. Shortly
+afterwards Peggy came round the end of the house, with a hat on, and
+a little bundle under her arm, and approached the carriage, making,
+however, a wide turn toward the office, at which, and a mile or two
+beyond, her far-off gaze was steadily directed.
+
+Lawrence threw up the sash and called to her, and his guardian imp
+approached the window. "Are you Miss March's maid? I think I have seen
+you at Midbranch."
+
+"Yaas, sah, you's done seen me, offen," said Peggy.
+
+"Does Miss March intend to start immediately?" he asked.
+
+"Yaas, sah," said the good Peggy, "she'll be out in a minute, soon
+as she done kissin' Mah's Junius good-bye in de parlor." And then,
+noticing a look of astonishment on the gentleman's face, she added:
+"Dey's gwine to be mar'ed, Chris'mus."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Lawrence.
+
+"Good-bye, Mister Crof,'" said Peggy, "I's got to hurry up."
+
+Lawrence made no answer, but mechanically tossed her a coin, which,
+picking up, she gave him a farewell grin, and hastened to take her
+seat by the driver.
+
+Very soon afterward Lawrence saw Roberta come out, accompanied only by
+Mrs Null, and hurry down the steps. Forgetting his injured ankle, he
+sprang to his feet, and stepping quickly to the door, opened it, and
+stood on the threshold. But Miss March did not even look his way. He
+gazed at her with wide-open eyes as she hastily kissed Mrs Null, and
+sprang into the carriage, which was immediately driven off. As Mrs
+Null turned to go into the house, she looked toward the office and
+nodded to him. He believed that she would have come to him if he had
+called her, but he did not call. His mind was in such a condition that
+he would not have been capable of framing a question, had she come. He
+felt that he could speak to no one until he had seen Keswick. Closing
+the door he went back to his chair; and as he did so, his ankle pained
+him sadly, but of this he scarcely thought.
+
+He did not have to wait long for Junius Keswick, for in about ten
+minutes that individual entered. Lawrence turned, as his visitor
+opened the door; and he saw a countenance which had undergone a very
+noticeable change. It was not dark or lowering; it was not pale; but
+it was gray and hard; and the eyes looked larger than Lawrence had
+remembered them.
+
+Without preface or greeting Junius approached him, and said: "I have
+taken your message to Miss March, and have brought you one in return.
+You are accepted."
+
+Lawrence pushed back his chair, and stared blankly at the other. "What
+do you mean?" he presently asked.
+
+"I mean what I say," said Keswick. "Miss March has accepted you."
+
+A crowd of emotions rushed through the brain of Lawrence Croft; joy
+was among them, but it was a joy that was jostled and shaken and
+pushed, this way and that. "I do not understand," he said. "I did not
+expect such a decisive message. I supposed she might send me some
+encouragement, some--. Why didn't she see me before she left?"
+
+"I am not here to explain her actions if I could," said Junius, who
+had not sat down. "She said: 'Tell him I accept him.' That is all.
+Good morning."
+
+"But, stop!" cried Lawrence, on his feet again. "You must tell me more
+than that. Did you say to her only what I said to you? How did it
+affect her?"
+
+"Oh," said Junius, turning suddenly at the door, "I forgot that you
+asked me to observe her mood. Well, she was very angry."
+
+"With me?" cried Lawrence.
+
+"With me," said Junius. And closing the door behind him, he strode
+away.
+
+The accepted lover sat down. He had never spoken more truly than when
+he said he did not understand it. "Is she really mine?" he exclaimed.
+And with his eyes fixed on the blank wall over the mantel-piece, he
+repeated over and over again: "Is she mine? Is she really mine?" He
+had well developed mental powers, but the work of setting this matter
+straight and plain was too difficult for him.
+
+If she had sent him some such message as this: "I am very angry with
+you, but some day you can come and explain yourself to me;" his heart
+would have leaped for joy. He would have believed that his peace had
+been made, and that he had only to go to her to call her his own. Now
+his heart desired to leap with joy, but it did not seem to know how to
+do it. The situation was such an anomalous one. After such a message
+as this, why had she not let him see her? Why had she been angry with
+Keswick? Was that pique? And then a dark thought crossed his mind. Had
+he been accepted to punish the other? No, he could not believe that;
+no woman such as Roberta March would give herself away from such a
+motive. Had Keswick been joking with him? No, he could not believe
+that; no man could joke with such a face.
+
+Even the fact that Mrs Keswick had not bid Miss March farewell,
+troubled the mind of Lawrence. It was true that she might not yet know
+that the match, which she had so much encouraged, had been finally
+made, but something must be very wrong, or she would not have been
+absent at the moment of her guest's departure. And what did that
+beastly little negro mean by telling him that Keswick and Miss March
+were to be married at Christmas, and that the two were kissing each
+other good-bye in the parlor? Why, the man had not even come out to
+put her in the carriage, and the omission of this courtesy was very
+remarkable. These questions were entirely too difficult for him to
+resolve by himself. It was absolutely necessary that more should be
+told to him, and explained to him. Seeing the negro boy Plez crossing
+the yard, he called him and asked him to tell Mr Keswick that Mr Croft
+wished to see him immediately.
+
+"Mahs' Junius," said the boy, "he done gone to de railroad to take
+de kyars. He done took he knapsack on he back, an' walk 'cross de
+fiel's."
+
+When, about an hour or two afterwards, Uncle Isham brought Mr Croft
+his dinner, the old negro appeared to have lost that air of attentive
+geniality which he usually put on while waiting on the gentleman.
+Lawrence, however, took no notice of this, but before the man reached
+the table, on which he was to place the tray he carried, he asked: "Is
+it true that Mr Keswick has gone away by train?"
+
+"Yaas, sah," answered Isham.
+
+"And where is Mrs Keswick?" asked Lawrence. "Isn't she in the house?"
+
+"No, sah, done gwine vis'tin, I 'spec."
+
+"When will she return?"
+
+"Dunno," said Isham. "She nebber comes to me an' tells me whar she
+gwine, an' when she comin' back."
+
+And then, after satisfying himself that nothing more was needed of him
+for the present, Isham left the room; and when he reached the kitchen,
+he addressed himself to its plump mistress: "Letty," said he, "when
+dat ar Mister Crof has got froo wid his dinner, you go an' fotch back
+de plates an' dishes. He axes too many questions to suit me, dis day."
+
+"You is poh'ly to-day, Uncle Isham," said Letty.
+
+"Yaas," said the old man, "I's right much on the careen."
+
+Uncle Isham, perhaps, was not more loyal to the widow Keswick than
+many old servants were and are to their former mistresses, but his
+loyalty was peculiar in that it related principally to his regard for
+her character. This regard he wished to be very high, and it always
+troubled and unsettled his mind, when the old lady herself or anybody
+else interfered with his efforts to keep it high. For years he had
+been hoping that the time would come when she would cease to "rar and
+chawge," but she had continued, at intervals, to indulge in that most
+unsuitable exercise; and now that it appeared that she had reared and
+charged again, her old servant was much depressed. She had gone away
+from the house, and, for all he knew, she might stay away for days or
+weeks, as she had done before, and Uncle Isham was never so much "on
+the careen" as when he found himself forced to believe that his old
+mistress was still a woman who could do a thing like that.
+
+Letty had no objections to answering questions, but much to her
+disappointment, Lawrence asked her none. He had had enough of
+catechising negroes. But he requested her to ask Mrs Null if she would
+be kind enough to step out, for a few minutes, and speak to him. When,
+very shortly thereafter, that lady appeared, Lawrence was seated at
+his open door ready to receive her.
+
+"How are you?" she said. "And how is your ankle to-day? You have had
+nobody to attend to it."
+
+"It has hurt me a good deal," he answered. "I think I must have given
+it a wrench this morning, but I put on it some of the lotion Mrs
+Keswick left with me, and it feels better."
+
+"It is too bad," said Mrs Null, "that you have to attend to it
+yourself."
+
+"Not at all," said Lawrence. "Now that I know how, I can do it,
+perfectly well, and I don't care a snap about my ankle, except that it
+interferes with more important affairs. Why do you suppose Miss March
+went away without speaking to me, or taking leave of me in any way?"
+
+"I thought that would trouble you," said she, "and, to speak honestly,
+I don't think it was right. But Roberta was in a very agitated
+condition, when she left here, and I don't believe she ever thought of
+taking leave of you, or any one, except me. She and I are very good
+friends, but she don't confide much in me. But one thing I am pretty
+sure of, and that is that she is dreadfully angry with my cousin
+Junius, and I am very sorry for that."
+
+"How did he anger her?" asked Lawrence, wishing to find out how much
+this young woman knew. "I haven't the least idea," said Miss Annie.
+"All I know is, she had quite a long talk with him, in the parlor, and
+after that she came flying up-stairs, just as indignant as she could
+be. She didn't say much, but I could see how her soul raged within
+her." And now the young lady stopped speaking, and looked straight
+into Lawrence's face. "It isn't possible," she said, "that you have
+been sending my cousin to propose to her for you?"
+
+This was not a pleasant question to answer, and, besides, Lawrence had
+made up his mind that the period had passed for making confidants of
+other persons, in regard to his love affairs. "Do you suppose I would
+do that?" he said.
+
+"No, I don't," Miss Annie answered. "Cousin Junius would never have
+undertaken such a thing, and I don't believe you would be cruel enough
+to ask him."
+
+"Thank you for your good opinion," said Lawrence. "And now can you
+tell me when Mr Keswick is expected to return?"
+
+"He has gone back to Washington, and he told me he should stay there
+some time."
+
+"And why has not Mrs Keswick been out to see me?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"You are dreadfully inquisitive," said Miss Annie, "but to tell you
+the simple truth, Mr Croft, I don't believe Aunt Keswick takes any
+further interest in you, now that Roberta has gone. She had set her
+heart on making a match between you two, and doing it here without
+delay; and I think that everything going wrong about this has put her
+into the state of mind she is in now."
+
+"Has she really gone away?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Oh, that don't amount to anything," said Miss Annie. "She went over
+the fields to Howlett's, to see the postmistress, who is an old
+friend, to whom she often goes for comfort, when things are not right
+at home. But I am going after her this afternoon in the spring wagon.
+I'll take Plez along with me to open the gates. I am sure I shall
+bring her back."
+
+"I must admit, Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "that I am very inquisitive,
+but you can easily understand how much I am troubled and perplexed."
+
+"I expect Miss March's going away troubled you more than anything
+else," said she.
+
+"That is true," he answered, "but then there are other things which
+give me a great deal of anxiety. I came here to be, for a day or two,
+the guest of a lady on whom I have no manner of claim for prolonged
+hospitality. And now here I am, compelled to stay in this room and
+depend on her kindness or forbearance for everything I have. I would
+go away, immediately, but I know it would injure me to travel. The few
+steps I took yesterday have probably set me back for several days."
+
+"Oh, it would never do for you to travel," said she, "with such a
+sprained ankle as you have. It would certainly injure you very much to
+be driven all the way to the Green Sulphur Springs. I am told the road
+is very rough, between here and there, but perhaps you didn't notice
+it, having come over on horseback."
+
+"Yes, I did notice it, and I could not stand that drive. And, even if
+I could be got to the train, to go North, I should have to walk a good
+deal at the stations."
+
+"You simply must not think of it," said Miss Annie. "And now let me
+give you a piece of advice. I am a practical person, as you may know,
+and I like to do things in a practical way. The very best thing that
+you can do, is to arrange with Aunt Keswick to stay here as a boarder,
+until your ankle is well. She has taken boarders, and in this case
+I don't think she would refuse. As I told you before, you must not
+expect her to take the same interest in you, that she did when you
+first came, but she is really a kind woman, though she has such
+dreadfully funny ways, and she wouldn't have neglected you to-day, if
+it hadn't been that her mind is entirely wrapped up in other things.
+If you like, I'll propose such an arrangement to her, this afternoon."
+
+"You are very kind, indeed," said Lawrence, "but is there not danger
+of offending her by such a proposition?"
+
+"Yes, I think there is," answered Miss Annie, "and I have no doubt she
+will fly out into a passion when she hears that the gentleman, whom
+she invited here as a guest, proposes to stay as a boarder, but I
+think I can pacify her, and make her look at the matter in the proper
+way." "But why mention it at all, and put yourself to all that trouble
+about it?" said Lawrence.
+
+"Why, of course, because I think you will be so much better satisfied,
+and content to keep quiet and get well, if you feel that you have a
+right to stay here. If Aunt Keswick wasn't so very different from
+other people, I wouldn't have mentioned this matter for, really, there
+is no necessity for it; but I know very well that if you were to drop
+out of her mind for two or three days, and shouldn't see anything of
+her, that you would become dreadfully nervous about staying here."
+
+"You are certainly very practical, Mrs Null, and very sensible,
+and very, very kind; and nothing could suit me better under the
+circumstances than the plan you propose. But I am extremely anxious
+not to give offence to your aunt. She has treated me with the utmost
+kindness and hospitality."
+
+"Oh, don't trouble yourself about that," said Miss Annie, with a
+little laugh. "I am getting to know her so well that I think I can
+manage an affair like this, very easily. And now I must be off, or it
+will be too late for me to go to Howlett's, this afternoon, and I am a
+very slow driver. Are you sure there is nothing you want? I shall go
+directly past the store, and can stop as well as not."
+
+"Thank you very much," said Lawrence, "but I do not believe that
+Howlett's possesses an article that I need. One thing I will ask you
+to do for me before you go. I want to write a letter, and I find that
+I am out of paper; therefore I shall be very much obliged to you, if
+you will let me have some, and some envelopes."
+
+"Why, certainly," said Miss Annie, and she went into the house.
+
+She looked over the stock of paper which her aunt kept in a desk in
+the dining-room, but she did not like it. "I don't believe he will
+want to write on such ordinary paper as this," she said to herself.
+Whereupon she went up-stairs and got some of her own paper and
+envelopes, which were much finer in material and more correct in
+style. "I don't like it a bit," she thought, "to give this to him to
+write that letter on, but I suppose it's bound to be written, anyway,
+so he might as well have the satisfaction of good paper."
+
+"You must excuse these little sheets," she said, when she took it to
+him, "but you couldn't expect anything else, in an Amazonian household
+like ours. Cousin Junius has manly stationery, of course, but I
+suppose it is all locked up in that secretary in your room."
+
+"Oh, this will do very well indeed," said Lawrence; "and I wish I
+could come out and help you into your vehicle," regarding the spring
+wagon which now stood at the door, with Plez at the head of the solemn
+sorrel.
+
+"Thank you," said Miss Annie, "that is not at all necessary." And she
+tripped over to the spring wagon, and mounting into its altitudes
+without the least trouble in the world, she took up the reins. With
+these firmly grasped in her little hands, which were stretched very
+far out, and held very wide apart, she gave the horse a great jerk and
+told him to "Get up!" As she moved off, Lawrence from his open door
+called out: "_Bon voyage_" and in a full, clear voice she thanked
+him, but did not dare to look around, so intent was she upon her
+charioteering.
+
+Slowly turning the horse toward the yard gate, which Plez stood
+holding open, her whole soul was absorbed in the act of guiding the
+equipage through the gateway. Quickly glancing from side to side, and
+then at the horse's back, which ought to occupy a medium position
+between the two gateposts, she safely steered the front wheels through
+the dangerous pass, although a grin of delight covered the face of
+Plez as he noticed that the hub of one of the hind wheels almost
+grazed a post. Then the observant boy ran on to open the other gate,
+and with many jerks and clucks, Miss Annie induced the sorrel to break
+into a gentle trot.
+
+As Lawrence looked after her, a little pang made itself noticeable in
+his conscience. This girl was certainly very kind to him, and most
+remarkably considerate of him in the plan she had proposed. And yet he
+felt that he had prevaricated to her, and, in fact, deceived her, in
+the answer he had made when she asked him if he had sent her cousin
+to speak for him to Miss March. Would she have such friendly feelings
+toward him, and be so willing to oblige him, if she knew that he had
+in effect done the thing which she considered so wrong and so cruel?
+But it could not be helped; the time had passed for confidences. He
+must now work out this affair for himself, without regard to persons
+who really had nothing whatever to do with it.
+
+Closing his door, he hopped back to his table, and, seating himself at
+it, he opened his travelling inkstand and prepared to write to Miss
+March. It was absolutely necessary that he should write this letter,
+immediately, for, after the message he had received from the lady of
+his love, no time should be lost in putting himself in communication
+with her. But, before beginning to write, he must decide upon the
+spirit of his letter.
+
+Under the very peculiar circumstances of his acceptance, he did not
+feel that he ought to indulge in those rapturous expressions of
+ecstacy in which he most certainly would have indulged, if the lady
+had personally delivered her decision to him. He did not doubt her,
+for what woman would play a joke like that on a man--upon two men, in
+fact? Even if there were no other reason she would not dare to do it.
+Nor did he doubt Keswick. It would have been impossible for him to
+come with such a message, if it had not been delivered to him. And
+yet Lawrence could not bring himself to be rapturous. If he had been
+accepted in cold blood, and a hand, and not a heart, had been given to
+him, he would gladly take that hand and trust to himself to so warm
+the heart that it, also, would soon be his. But he did not know what
+Roberta March had given him.
+
+On the other hand, he knew very well if, in his first letter as an
+accepted lover, he should exhibit any of that caution and prudence
+which, in the course of his courtship, had proved to be shoals on
+which he had very nearly run aground, that Roberta's resentment, which
+had shown itself very marked in this regard, would probably be roused
+to such an extent that the affair would be brought to a very speedy
+and abrupt termination. If she had been obliged to forgive him, once,
+for this line of conduct, he could not expect her to do it again. To
+write a letter, which should err in neither of these respects, was a
+very difficult thing to do, and required so much preparatory thought,
+that when, toward the close of the afternoon, Miss Annie drove in at
+the yard gate, with Mrs Keswick on the seat beside her, not a line had
+been written.
+
+Mrs Keswick descended from the spring wagon and went into the house,
+but Miss Annie remained at the bottom of the steps, for the apparent
+purpose of speaking to Plez; perhaps to give him some instructions in
+regard to the leading of a horse to its stable, or to instil into his
+mind some moral principle or other; but the moment the vehicle moved
+away, she ran over to the office and tapped at the window, which was
+quickly opened by Lawrence.
+
+"I have spoken to her about it," she said, "and although she blazed
+up at first, so that I thought I should be burned alive, I made her
+understand just how matters really are, and she has agreed to let you
+stay here as a boarder."
+
+"You are extremely good," said Lawrence, "and must be a most admirable
+manager. This arrangement makes me feel much better satisfied than I
+could have been, otherwise." Then leaning a little further out of the
+window, he asked: "But what am I to do for company, while I am shut up
+here?"
+
+"Oh, you will have Uncle Isham, and Aunt Keswick, and sometimes me.
+But I hope that you will soon be able to come into the house, and take
+your meals, and spend your evenings with us."
+
+"You have nothing but good wishes for me," he said, "and I believe, if
+you could manage it, you would have me cured by magic, and sent off,
+well and whole, to-morrow."
+
+"Of course," said Miss Annie, very promptly. "Good night."
+
+Just before supper, Mrs Keswick came in to see Lawrence. She was very
+grave, almost severe, and her conversation was confined to inquiries
+as to the state of his ankle, and his general comfort. But Lawrence
+took no offence at her manner, and was very gracious, saying some
+exceedingly neat things about the way he had been treated; and, after
+a little, her manner slightly mollified, and she remarked: "And so you
+let Miss March go away, without settling anything."
+
+Now Lawrence considered this a very incorrect statement, but he had no
+wish to set the old lady right. He knew it would joy her heart, and
+make her more his friend than, ever if he should tell her that Miss
+March had accepted him, but this would be a very dangerous piece of
+information to put in her hands. He did not know what use she would
+make of it, or what damage she might unwittingly do to his prospects.
+And so he merely answered: "I had no idea she would leave so soon."
+
+"Well," said the old lady, "I suppose, after all, that you needn't
+give it up yet. I understand that she is not going to New York before
+the end of the month, and you may be well enough before that to ride
+over to Midbranch."
+
+"I hope so, most assuredly," said he.
+
+Lawrence devoted that evening to his letter. It was a long one, and
+was written with a most earnest desire to embrace all the merits of
+each of the two kinds of letters, which have before been alluded to,
+and to avoid all their faults. When it was finished, he read it, tore
+it up, and threw it in the fire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+The next day opened bright and clear, and before ten o'clock, the
+thermometer had risen to seventy degrees. Instead of sitting in front
+of the fireplace, Lawrence had his chair and table brought close to
+his open doorway, where he could look out on the same beautiful scene
+which had greeted his eyes a few days before. "But what is the good,"
+he thought, "of this green grass, this sunny air, that blue sky, those
+white clouds, and the distant tinted foliage, without that figure,
+which a few days ago stood in the foreground of the picture?" But,
+as the woman to whom, in his soul's sight, the whole world was but a
+background, was not there, he turned his eyes from the warm autumnal
+scene, and prepared again to write to her. He had scarcely taken up
+his pen, however, when he was interrupted by the arrival of Miss
+Annie, who came to bring him a book she had just finished reading, a
+late English novel which she thought might be more interesting than
+those she had sent him. The book was one which Lawrence had not seen
+and wanted to see, but in talking about it, to the young lady, he
+discovered that she had not read all of it.
+
+"Don't let me deprive you of the book," said Lawrence. "If you have
+begun it, you ought to go on with it."
+
+"Oh, don't trouble your mind about that," she said, with a laugh. "I
+have finished it, but I have not read a word of the beginning. I only
+looked at the end of it, to see how the story turned out. I always do
+that, before I read a novel."
+
+This remark much amused Lawrence. "Do you know," said he, "that I
+would rather not read novels at all, than to read them in that way. I
+must begin at the beginning, and go regularly through, as the author
+wishes his readers to do."
+
+"And perhaps, when you get to the end," said Miss Annie, "you'll find
+that the wrong man got her, and then you'll wish you had not read the
+story."
+
+"As you appear to be satisfied with this novel," said Lawrence, "I
+wish you would read it to me, and then I would feel that I was not
+taking an uncourteous precedence of you."
+
+"I'll read it to you," said she, "or, at least, as much as you want
+me to, for I feel quite sure that after you get interested in it,
+you will want to take it, yourself, and read straight on till it is
+finished, instead of waiting for some one to come and give you a
+chapter or two at a time. That would be the way with me, I know."
+
+"I shall be delighted to have you read to me," said Lawrence. "When
+can you begin?"
+
+"Now," she said, "if you choose. But perhaps you wish to write."
+
+"Not at this moment," said Lawrence, turning from the table.
+"Unfortunately I have plenty of leisure. Where will you sit?" And he
+reached out his hand for a chair.
+
+"Oh, I don't want a chair," said Annie, taking her seat on the broad
+door-step. "This is exactly what I like. I am devoted to sitting on
+steps. Don't you think there is something dreadfully stiff about
+always being perched up in a chair?"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, "on some occasions."
+
+And, forthwith, she began upon the first chapter; and having read
+five lines of this, she went back and read the title page, suddenly
+remembering that Mr Croft liked to begin a book at the very beginning.
+Miss Annie had been accustomed to read to her father, and she read
+aloud very well, and liked it. As she sat there, shaded by a great
+locust tree, which had dropped so many yellow leaves upon the grass,
+that, now and then, it could not help letting a little fleck of
+sunshine come down upon her, sometimes gilding for a moment her
+light-brown hair, sometimes touching the end of a crimson ribbon she
+wore, and again resting for a brief space on the toe of a very small
+boot just visible at the edge of her dress, Lawrence looked at her,
+and said to himself: "Is it possible that this is the rather pale
+young girl in black, who gave me change from behind the desk of Mr
+Candy's Information Shop? I don't believe it. That young person sprang
+up, temporarily, and is defunct. This is some one else."
+
+She read three chapters before she considered it time to go into the
+house to see if it was necessary for her to do anything about dinner.
+When she left him, Lawrence turned again to his writing.
+
+That afternoon, he sent Mrs Null a little note on the back of a card,
+asking her if she could let him have a few more sheets of paper.
+Lawrence found this request necessary, as he had used up that day
+all the paper she had sent him, and the small torn pieces of it now
+littered the fireplace.
+
+"He must be writing a diary letter," said Miss Annie to herself when,
+she received this message, "such as we girls used to write when we
+were at school." And, bringing down a little the corners of her mouth,
+she took from her stationery box what she thought would be quite paper
+enough to send to a man for such a purpose.
+
+But, although the means were thus made abundant, the letter to Miss
+March was not then written. Lawrence finally determined that it was
+simply impossible for him to write to the lady, until he knew more.
+What Keswick had told him had been absurdly little, and he had hurried
+away before there had been time to ask further questions. Instead of
+sending a letter to Miss March, he would write to Keswick, and would
+put to him a series of interrogations, the answers to which would make
+him understand better the position in which he stood. Then he would
+write to Miss March.
+
+The next day Miss Annie could not read to him in the morning, because,
+as she came and told him, she was going to Howlett's, on an errand for
+her aunt. But there would be time to give him a chapter or two before
+dinner, when she came back.
+
+"Would it be any trouble," said Lawrence, "for you to mail a letter
+for me?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Miss Annie, but not precisely in the same tone in which
+she would have told him that it would be no trouble to read to him two
+or three chapters of a novel. And yet she would pass directly by the
+residence of Miss Harriet Corvey, the post-mistress.
+
+As Miss Annie walked along the narrow path which ran by the roadside
+to Howlett's, with the blue sky above her, and the pleasant October
+sunshine all about her, and followed at a little distance by the boy
+Plez, carrying a basket, she did not seem to be taking that enjoyment
+in her walk which was her wont. Her brows were slightly contracted
+and she looked straight in front of her, without seeing anything in
+particular, after the manner of persons whose attention is entirely
+occupied in looking into their own minds, at something they do not
+like. "It is too much!" she said, almost loud, her brows contracting
+a little more as she spoke. "It was bad enough to have to furnish the
+paper, but for me to have to carry the letter, is entirely too much!"
+And, at this, she involuntarily glanced at the thick and double
+stamped missive, which, having no pocket, she carried in her hand. She
+had not looked at it before, and as her eyes fell upon the address,
+she stopped so suddenly that Plez, who was dozing as he walked, nearly
+ran into her. "What!" she exclaimed, "'Junius Keswick, five Q street,
+Washington, District of Columbia!' Is it possible that Mr Croft has
+been writing to him, all this time?" She now walked on; and although
+she still seemed to notice not the material objects around her, the
+frown disappeared from her brow, and her mental vision seemed to be
+fixed upon something more pleasant than that which had occupied it
+before. As it will be remembered, she had refused positively to have
+anything to do with Lawrence's suit to Miss March, and it was a relief
+to her to know that the letter she was carrying was not for that lady.
+"But why," thought she, "should he be writing, for two whole evenings,
+to Junius. I expected that he would write to her, to find out why she
+went off and left him in that way, but I did not suppose he would want
+to write to Junius. It seems to me they had time enough, that night
+they were together, to talk over everything they had to say."
+
+And then she began to wonder what they had to say, and, gradually, the
+conviction grew upon her that Mr Croft was a very, very honorable man.
+Of course it was wrong that he should have come here to try to win a
+lady who, if one looked at it in the proper light, really belonged to
+another. But it now came into her mind that Mr Croft must, by degrees,
+have seen this, for himself, and that it was the subject of his long
+conference with Junius, and also, most probably, of this letter.
+The conference certainly ended amicably, and, in that case, it was
+scarcely possible that Junius had given up his claim. He was not that
+kind of a man.
+
+If Mr Croft had become convinced that he ought to retire from this
+contest, and had done so, and Roberta had been informed of it, that
+would explain everything that had happened. Roberta's state of mind,
+after she had had the talk in the parlor with Junius, and her hurried
+departure, without taking the slightest notice of either of the
+gentlemen, was quite natural. What woman would like to know that she
+had been bargained about, and that her two lovers had agreed which of
+them should have her? It was quite to be expected that she would be
+very angry, at first, though there was no doubt she would get over it,
+so far as Junius was concerned.
+
+Having thus decided, entirely to her own satisfaction, that this was
+the state of affairs, she thought it was a grand thing that there were
+two such young men in the world, as her cousin and Mr Croft, who could
+arrange such an affair in so kindly and honorable a manner, without
+feeling that they were obliged to fight--that horribly stupid way in
+which such things used to be settled.
+
+This vision of masculine high-mindedness, which Miss Annie had called
+up, seemed very pleasant to her, and her mental satisfaction was
+denoted by a pretty little glow which came into her face, and by a
+certain increase of sprightliness in her walk. "Now then,--" she said
+to herself; and although she did not finish the sentence, even in her
+own mind, the sky increased the intensity of its beautiful blue; the
+sun began to shine with a more golden radiance; the little birds who
+had not yet gone South, chirped to each other as merrily as if it had
+been early summer; the yellow and purple wild flowers of autumn threw
+into their blossoms a richer coloring; and even the blades of grass
+seemed to stretch themselves upward, green, tender, and promising;
+and when the young lady skipped up the step of the post-office, she
+dropped the letter into Miss Harriet Corvey's little box, with the air
+of a mother-bird feeding a young one with the first ripe cherry of the
+year.
+
+A day or two after this, Lawrence found himself able, by the aid of a
+cane and a rude crutch, which Uncle Isham had made for him and the top
+of which Mrs Keswick had carefully padded, to make his way from the
+office to the house; and, after that, he took his meals, and passed
+the greater part of his time in the larger edifice. Sometimes, he
+ransacked the old library; sometimes, Miss Annie read to him; and
+sometimes, he read to her. In the evening, there were games of cards,
+in which the old lady would occasionally take a hand, although more
+frequently Miss Annie and Mr Croft were obliged to content themselves
+with some game at which two could play. But the pleasantest hours,
+perhaps, were those which were spent in talking, for Lawrence had
+travelled a good deal, and had seen so many of the things in foreign
+lands which Miss Annie had always wished, that she could see. Lawrence
+was waiting until he should hear from Mr Keswick; so that, with some
+confidence in his position, he could write to Miss March. His trunk
+had been sent over from the Green Sulphur Springs, and he was much
+better satisfied to wait here than at that deserted watering-place. It
+was, indeed, a very agreeable spot in which to wait, and quite near
+enough to Midbranch for him to carry on his desired operations, when
+the time should arrive. He was a little annoyed that Keswick's answer
+should be so long in coming, but he resolved not to worry himself
+about it. The answer was, probably, a difficult letter to write, and
+one which Keswick would not be likely to dash off in a hurry. He
+remembered, too, that the mail was sent and received only twice a week
+at Howlett's.
+
+Old Mrs Keswick was kind to him, but grave, and rather silent. Once
+she passed the open door of the parlor, by the window of which sat
+Miss Annie and Lawrence, deeply engaged, their heads together, in
+studying out something on a map, and as she went up-stairs she grimly
+grinned, and said to herself: "If that Null could look in and see them
+now, I reckon our young man would wish he had the use of all his arms
+and legs."
+
+But if Mr Null should disapprove of his wife and that gentleman from
+New York spending so much of their time together, old Mrs Keswick had
+not the least objection in the world. She was well satisfied that Mr
+Croft should find it interesting enough to stay here until the time
+came when he should be able to go to Midbranch. When that period
+arrived she would not be slow to urge him to his duty, in spite of any
+obstacles Mr Brandon might put in his way. So, for the present, she
+possessed her soul in as much peace as the soul of a headstrong and
+very wilful old lady is capable of being possessed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+The letter which Lawrence Croft had written to Junius Keswick was not
+answered for more than a week, and when the answer arrived, it did not
+come through the Howlett's post-office, but was brought from a mail
+station on the railway by a special messenger. In this epistle Mr
+Keswick stated that he would have written much sooner but for the fact
+that he had been away from Washington, and having just returned, had
+found Mr Croft's letter waiting for him. The answer was written in a
+tone which Lawrence did not at all expect. It breathed the spirit of a
+man who was determined, and almost defiant. It told Mr Croft that the
+writer did not now believe that Miss March's acceptance of the said Mr
+Croft, should be considered of any value, whatever. It was the result
+of a very peculiar condition of things, in which he regretted having
+taken a part, and it was given in a moment of pique and indignation,
+which gave Miss March a right to reconsider her hasty decision, if she
+chose to do so. It would not be fair for either of them to accept, as
+conclusive, words said under the extraordinary circumstances which
+surrounded Miss March when she said those words. "You asked me to
+do you a favor," wrote Junius Keswick, "and, very much against my
+inclination, and against what is now my judgment, I did it. I now ask
+you to do me a favor, and I do not think you should refuse it. I ask
+you not to communicate with Miss March until I have seen her, and have
+obtained from her an explanation of the acceptance in question. I have
+a right to this explanation, and I feel confident that it will be
+given to me. You ask me what I truly believe Miss March meant by her
+message to you. I answer that I do not know, but I intend to find out
+what she meant, and as soon as I do so, I will write to you. I think,
+therefore, considering what you have asked me to do, and what you
+have written to me, about what I have done, that you cannot refuse to
+abstain from any further action in the matter, until I am enabled to
+answer you. I cannot leave Washington immediately, but I shall go to
+Midbranch in a very few days."
+
+This letter was very far from being a categorical answer to Lawrence's
+questions, and it disappointed and somewhat annoyed that gentleman;
+but after he had read it for the second time, and carefully considered
+it, he put it in his pocket and said to himself, "This ends all
+discussion of this subject. Mr Keswick may be right in the position
+he takes, or he may be wrong. He may go to Midbranch; he may get his
+explanation; and he may send it to me. But, without any regard to what
+he does, or says, or writes, I shall go to Miss March as soon as I am
+able to use my ankle, and, whether she be at her uncle's house, or
+whether she has gone to New York, or to any other place, I shall see
+her, and, myself, obtain from her an explanation of this acceptance.
+This is due to me as well as to Mr Keswick, and if he thinks he ought
+to get it, for himself, I also think I ought to get it, for myself."
+
+The good results of Lawrence's great care in regard to his injured
+ankle soon began to show themselves. The joint had slowly but steadily
+regained its strength and usual healthy condition; and Lawrence now
+found that he could walk about without the assistance of his rude
+crutch. He was still prudent, however, and took but very short walks,
+and in these he leaned upon his trusty cane. The charming autumn days,
+which often come to Virginia in late October and early November, were
+now at their best. Day after day, the sun shone brightly, but there
+was in the air an invigorating coolness, which made its radiance
+something to be sought for and not avoided.
+
+It was just after dinner, and it was Saturday afternoon, when Miss
+Annie announced that she was going to see old Aunt Patsy, whom she had
+somewhat neglected of late.
+
+"May I go with you?" said Lawrence.
+
+Miss Annie shook her head doubtfully. "I should be very glad to have
+your company," she said, "but I am afraid it will be entirely too much
+of a walk for you. The days are so short that the sun will be low
+before we could get back, and if you should be tired, it would not do
+for you to sit down and rest, at that time of day."
+
+"I believe," said Lawrence, "that my ankle is quite strong enough for
+me to walk to Aunt Patsy's and back, without sitting down to rest. I
+would be very glad to go with you, and I would like, too, to see that
+venerable colored woman again."
+
+"Well," said Miss Annie, "if you really think you can walk so far, it
+will be very nice indeed to have you go, but you ought to feel very
+sure that it will not hurt you."
+
+"Come along," said Lawrence, taking up his hat and cane.
+
+After a man has been shut up, as Lawrence had been, a pleasant ramble
+like this is a most delightful change, and he did not hesitate to
+manifest his pleasure. This touched the very sensitive soul of
+his companion, and with such a sparkle of talk did she evince her
+gratification, that almost any one would have been able to see that
+she was a young lady who had an earnest sympathy with those who had
+undergone afflictions, but were now freed from them.
+
+Aunt Patsy was glad to see her visitors, particularly glad, it seemed,
+to see Mr Croft. She was quite loquacious, considering the great
+length of her days, and the proverbial shortness of her tongue.
+
+"Why, Aunt Patsy," said Miss Annie, "you seem to have grown younger
+since I last saw you! I do believe you are getting old backwards! What
+are you going to do with that dress-body?" "I's lookin' at dis h'yar,"
+said Aunt Patsy, turning over the well-worn body of a black woollen
+dress which lay in her lap, instead of the crazy quilt on which she
+was usually occupied, "to see if it's done gib way in any ob de seams,
+or de elbers. 'Twas a right smart good frock once, an' I's gwine to
+wear it ter-morrer."
+
+"To-morrow!" exclaimed Annie. "You don't mean to say you are going to
+church!"
+
+"Dat's jus' wot I's gwine to do, Miss Annie. I's gwine to chu'ch
+ter-morrer mawnin'. Dar's gwine to be a big preachin'. Brudder Enick
+Hines is to be dar, an' dey tell me dey allus has pow'ful wakenin's
+when Brudder Enick preaches. I ain't ever heered Brudder Enick yit,
+coz he was a little boy when I use to go to chu'ch."
+
+"Will it be in the old church, in the woods just beyond Howlett's?"
+asked Annie.
+
+"Right dar," replied Aunt Patsy, with an approving glance towards the
+young lady. "You 'members dem ar places fus' rate, Miss Annie. Why you
+didn't tole me, when you fus' come h'yar, dat you was dat little Miss
+Annie dat I use to tote roun' afore I gin up walkin'?"
+
+"Oh, that's too long a story," said Miss Annie, with a laugh. "You
+know I hadn't seen Aunt Keswick, then. I couldn't go about introducing
+myself to other people before I had seen her."
+
+Aunt Patsy gave a sagacious nod of her head. "I reckon you thought
+she'd be right much disgruntled when she heered you was mar'ed, an'
+you wanted to tell her youse'f. But I's pow'ful glad dat it's all
+right now. You all don' know how pow'ful glad I is." And she looked
+at Mr Croft and Miss Annie with a glance as benignant as her time-set
+countenance was capable of.
+
+"But Aunt Patsy," said Annie, quite willing to change the
+conversation, although she did not know the import of the old woman's
+last remark, "I thought you were not able to go out."
+
+The old woman gave a little chuckle. "Dat's wot eberybody thought, an'
+to tell you de truf, Miss Annie, I thought so too. But ef I was strong
+'nuf to go to de pos' offis,--an' I did dat, Miss Annie, an' not long
+ago nuther,--I reckon I's strong 'nuf to go to chu'ch, an' Uncle Isham
+is a comin' wid de oxcart to take me ter-morrer mawnin'. Dar'll be
+pow'ful wakenin's, an' I ain't seen de Jerus'lum Jump in a mighty long
+time."
+
+"Are they going to have the Jerusalem Jump?" asked Miss Annie.
+
+"Oh, yaas, Miss Annie," said the old woman, "dey's sartin shuh to hab
+dat, when dey gits waken'd."
+
+"I should so like to see the Jerusalem Jump again," said Miss Annie.
+"I saw it once, when I was a little girl. Did you ever see it?" she
+said, turning to Mr Croft.
+
+"I have not," he answered. "I never even heard of it."
+
+"Suppose we go to-morrow, and hear Brother Enoch," she said. "I should
+like it very much," answered Lawrence.
+
+"Aunt Patsy," said Miss Annie, "would there be any objection to our
+going to your church to-morrow?"
+
+The old woman gave her head a little shake. "Dunno," she said. "As a
+gin'ral rule we don't like white folks at our preachin's. Dey's got
+dar chu'ches, an' dar ways, an' we's got our chu'ches, an' our ways.
+But den it's dif'rent wid you all. An' you all's not like white folks
+in gin'ral, an' 'specially strawngers. You all isn't strawngers now. I
+don't reckon dar'll be no 'jections to your comin', ef you set sollum,
+an' I know you'll do dat, Miss Annie, coz you did it when you was a
+little gal. An' I reckon it'll be de same wid him?" looking at Mr
+Croft.
+
+Miss Annie assured her that she and her companion would be certain to
+"sit solemn," and that they would not think of such a thing as going
+to church and behaving indecorously.
+
+"Dar is white folks," said Aunt Patsy, "wot comes to a culled chu'ch
+fur nothin' else but to larf. De debbil gits dem folks, but dat don'
+do us no good, Miss Annie, an' we'd rudder dey stay away. But you
+all's not dat kine. I knows dat, sartin shuh."
+
+When the two had taken leave of the old woman, and Miss Annie had gone
+out of the door, Aunt Patsy leaned very far forward, and stretching
+out her long arm, seized Mr Croft by the skirt of his coat. He stepped
+back, quite surprised, and then she said to him, in a low but very
+earnest voice: "I reckon dat dat ar sprain ankle was nuffin but a
+acciden'; but you look out, sah, you look out! Hab you got dem little
+shoes handy?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Lawrence. "I have them in my trunk."
+
+"Keep 'em whar you kin put your han' on 'em," said Aunt Patsy,
+impressively. "You may want 'em yit. You min' my wuds."
+
+"I shall be sure to remember," said Lawrence, as he hastened out to
+rejoin Annie.
+
+"What in the world had Aunt Patsy to say to you?" asked that somewhat
+surprised young lady.
+
+Then Lawrence told her how some time before Aunt Patsy had given him a
+pair of blue shoes, which she said would act as a preventive charm, in
+case Mrs Keswick should ever wish to do him harm, and that she had now
+called him back to remind him not to neglect this means of personal
+protection. "I can't imagine," said Lawrence, "that your aunt would
+ever think of such a thing as doing me a harm, or how those little
+shoes would prevent her, if she wanted to, but I suppose Aunt Patsy is
+crack-brained on some subjects, and so I thought it best to humor her,
+and took the shoes."
+
+"Do you know," said Miss Annie, after walking a little distance in
+silence, "that I am afraid Aunt Patsy has done a dreadful thing, and
+one I never should have suspected her of. Aunt Keswick had a little
+baby once, and it died very young. She keeps its clothes in a box, and
+I remember when I was a little girl that she once showed them to me,
+and told me I was to take the place of that little girl, and that
+frightened me dreadfully, because I thought that I would have to die,
+and have my clothes put in a box. I recollect perfectly that there was
+a pair of little blue shoes among these clothes, and Aunt Patsy must
+have stolen them."
+
+"That surprises me," said Lawrence. "I supposed, from what I had heard
+of the old woman, that she was perfectly honest."
+
+"So she is," said Annie. "She has been a trusted servant in our family
+nearly all her life. But some negroes have very queer ideas about
+taking certain things, and I suppose Aunt Patsy had some particular
+reason for taking those shoes, for, of course, they could be of no
+value to her."
+
+"I am very sorry," said Lawrence, "that such sacred relics should have
+come into my possession, but I must admit that I would not like to
+give them back to your aunt."
+
+"Oh, no," said Annie, "that would never do; and I wouldn't dare to try
+to find her box, and put them in it. It would seem like a desecration
+for any hand but her own to touch those things."
+
+"That is true," said Lawrence, "and you might get yourself into a lot
+of trouble by endeavoring to repair the mischief. Before I leave here,
+we may think of some plan of disposing of the little trotters. It
+might be well to give them back to Aunt Patsy and tell her to restore
+them."
+
+"I don't know," said Miss Annie, with a slowness of reply, and an
+irrelevance of demeanor, which indicated she was not thinking of the
+words she was speaking.
+
+The sun was now very near the horizon, and that evening coolness
+which, in the autumn, comes on so quickly after the sunshine fades out
+of the air, made Lawrence give a little shrug with his shoulders. He
+proposed that they should quicken their pace, and as his companion
+made no objection, they soon reached the house.
+
+The next day being Sunday, breakfast was rather later than usual, and
+as Lawrence looked out on the bright morning, with the mists just
+disengaging themselves from the many-hued foliage which crowned the
+tops of the surrounding hills; and on the recently risen sun, hanging
+in an atmosphere of grey and lilac, with the smile of Indian summer on
+its face; he thought he would like to take a stroll, before that meal;
+but either the length of his walk on the previous day, or the rapidity
+of the latter portion of it, had been rather too much for the
+newly-recovered strength of his ankle, which now felt somewhat stiff
+and sore. When he mentioned this at the breakfast table, he received a
+good deal of condolence from the two ladies, especially Mrs Keswick.
+And, at first, it was thought that it might be well for him to give
+up his proposed attendance at the negro church. But to this Lawrence
+strongly objected, for he very much desired to see some of the
+peculiar religious services of the negroes. He had been talking on the
+subject the evening before with Mrs Keswick, who had told him that in
+this part of the country, which lay in the "black belt" of Virginia,
+where the negro population had always been thickest, these ceremonies
+were more characteristic of the religious disposition of the African,
+than in those sections of the State where the white race exerted a
+greater influence upon the manners and customs of the colored people.
+
+"But it will not be necessary to walk much," said Miss Annie. "We can
+take the spring-wagon, and you can go with us, aunt."
+
+The old lady permitted herself a little grin. "When I go to church,"
+she said, "I go to a white folks' church, and try to see what I can of
+white folks' Christianity, though I must say that Christianity of
+the other color is often just as good, as far as works go. But it is
+natural that a stranger should want to see what kind of services
+the colored people have, so you two might as well get into the
+spring-wagon and go along."
+
+"But shall we not deprive you of the vehicle?" said Lawrence.
+
+"I never go to church in the spring-wagon," said the old lady, "so
+long as I am able to walk. And, besides, this is not our Sunday for
+preaching."
+
+It seemed to Lawrence that an elderly person who went about in a
+purple calico sun-bonnet, and with an umbrella of the same material,
+might go to church in a wheelbarrow, so far as appearances were
+concerned, but he had long ceased to wonder at Mrs Keswick's
+idiosyncrasies. "I remember very well," said Miss Annie, after the
+old lady had left the table, which she always did as soon as she had
+finished a meal, "when Aunt Keswick used to go to church in a big
+family carriage, which is now sleeping itself to pieces out there in
+the barn. But then she had a pair of big gray horses, one of them
+named Doctor and the other Colonel. But now she has only one horse,
+and I am going to tell Uncle Isham to harness that one up before he
+goes to church himself. You know he is to take Aunt Patsy in the
+ox-cart, so he will have to go early."
+
+They went to the negro church in the spring-wagon, Lawrence driving
+the jogging sorrel, and Miss Annie on the seat beside him. When they
+reached the old frame edifice in the woods beyond Howlett's, they
+found gathered there quite a large assemblage, for this was one of
+those very attractive occasions called a "big preaching." Horses and
+mules, and wagons of various kinds, many of the latter containing
+baskets of refreshments, were standing about under the trees; and Mrs
+Keswick's cart and oxen, tethered to a little pine tree, gave proof
+that Aunt Patsy had arrived. The inside of the church was nearly full,
+and outside, around the door, stood a large number of men and boys.
+The white visitors were looked upon with some surprise, but way was
+made for them to approach the door, and as soon as they entered the
+building two of the officers of the church came forward to show them
+to one of the uppermost seats; but this honor Miss Annie strenuously
+declined. She preferred a seat near the open door, and therefore she
+and Mr Croft were given a bench in that vicinity, of which they had
+sole possession.
+
+To Lawrence, who had never seen anything of the sort, the services
+which now began were exceedingly interesting; and as Annie had not
+been to a negro church since she was a little girl, and very seldom
+then, she gave very earnest and animated attention to what was going
+on. The singing, as it always is among the negroes, was powerful and
+melodious, and the long prayer of Brother Enoch Hines was one of those
+spirited and emotional statements of personal condition, and wild and
+ardent supplication, which generally pave the way for a most powerful
+awakening in an assemblage of this kind. Another hymn, sung in more
+vigorous tones than the first one, warmed up the congregation to
+such a degree that when Brother Hines opened the Bible, and made
+preparations for his discourse, he looked out upon an audience as
+anxious to be moved and stirred as he was to move and stir it. The
+sermon was intended to be a long one, for, had it been otherwise,
+Brother Hines had lost his reputation; and, therefore, the preacher,
+after a few prefatory statements, delivered in a grave and solemn
+manner, plunged boldly into the midst of his exhortations, knowing
+that he could go either backward or forward, presenting, with equal
+acceptance, fresh subject matter, or that already used, so long as his
+strength held out. He had not preached half an hour before his hearers
+were so stirred and moved, that a majority of them found it utterly
+impossible to merely sit still and listen. In different ways their
+awakening was manifested; some began to sing in a low voice; others
+gently rocked their bodies; while fervent ejaculations of various
+kinds were heard from all parts of the church. From this beginning,
+arose gradually a scene of religious activity, such as Lawrence had
+never imagined. Each individual allowed his or her fervor to express
+itself according to the method which best pleased the worshipper.
+Some kept to their seats, and listened to the words of the preacher,
+interrupting him occasionally by fervent ejaculations; others sang
+and shouted, sometimes standing up, clapping their hands and stamping
+their feet; while a large proportion of the able-bodied members left
+their seats, and pushed their way forward to the wide, open space
+which surrounded the preacher's desk, and prepared to engage in the
+exhilarating ceremony of the "Jerusalem Jump."
+
+Two concentric rings were formed around the preacher, the inner one
+composed of women, the outer one of men, the faces of those forming
+the inner ring being turned towards those in the outer. As soon as all
+were in place, each brother reached forth his hand, and took the hand
+of the sister opposite to him, and then each couple began to jump up
+and down violently, shaking hands and singing at the top of their
+voices. After about a minute of this, the two circles moved, one, one
+way and one another, so that each brother found himself opposite
+a different sister. Hands were again immediately seized, and the
+jumping, hand-shaking, and singing went on. Minute by minute the
+excitement increased; faster the worshippers jumped, and louder they
+sang. Through it all Brother Enoch Hines kept on with his sermon.
+It was very difficult now to make himself heard, and the time for
+explanation or elucidation had long since passed; all he could do was
+to shout forth certain important and moving facts, and this he did
+over and over again, holding his hand at the side of his mouth, as if
+he were hailing a vessel in the wind. Much of what he said was lost
+in the din of the jumpers, but ever and anon could be heard ringing
+through the church the announcement: "De wheel ob time is a turnin'
+roun'!"
+
+In a group by themselves, in an upper corner of the congregation, were
+four or five very old women, who were able to manifest their pious
+enthusiasm in no other way than by rocking their bodies backwards
+and forwards, and singing with their cracked voices a gruesome
+and monotonous chant. This rude song had something of a wild and
+uncivilized nature, as if it had come down to these old people from
+the savage rites of their African ancestors. They did not sing in
+unison, but each squeaked or piped out her, "Yi, wiho, yi, hoo!"
+according to the strength of her lungs, and the degree of her
+exaltation. Prominent among these was old Aunt Patsy; her little black
+eyes sparkling through her great iron-bound spectacles; her head and
+body moving in unison with the wild air of the unintelligible chant
+she sang; her long, skinny hands clapping up and down upon her
+knees; while her feet, encased in their great green baize slippers,
+unceasingly beat time upon the floor.
+
+So many persons being absent from their seats, the group of old women
+was clearly visible to Annie and Lawrence, and Aunt Patsy also could
+easily see them. Whenever her head, in its ceaseless moving from side
+to side, allowed her eyes to fall upon the two white visitors, her
+ardor and fervency increased, and she seemed to be expressing a pious
+gratitude that Miss Annie and he, whom she supposed to be her husband,
+were still together in peace and safety.
+
+Annie was much affected by all she saw and heard. Her face was
+slightly pale, and occasionally she was moved by a little nervous
+tremor. Mr Croft, too, was very attentive. His soul was not moved to
+enthusiasm, and he did not feel, as his companion did, now and
+then, that he would like to jump up and join in the dancing and the
+shouting; but the scene made a very strong impression upon him.
+
+Around and around went the two rings of men and women, jumping,
+singing, and hand-shaking. Out from the centre of them came the
+stentorian shout: "De wheel ob time is a turnin' roun'!" From all
+parts of the church rose snatches of hymns, exultant shouts, groans,
+and prayers; and, in the corner, the shrill chants of the old women
+were fitfully heard through the storm of discordant worship.
+
+In the midst of all the wild din and hubbub, the soul of Aunt Patsy
+looked out from the habitation where it had dwelt so long, and,
+without giving the slightest notice to any one, or attracting the
+least attention by its movements, it silently slipped away.
+
+The old habitation of the soul still sat in its chair, but no one
+noticed that it no longer sang, or beat time with its hands and feet.
+
+Not long after this, Lawrence looked round at his companion, and
+noticed that she was slightly trembling. "Don't you think we have had
+enough of this?" he whispered.
+
+"Yes," she answered. And they rose and went out. They thought they
+were the first who had left.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+When Mr Croft and Miss Annie got into the spring-wagon, and the head
+of the sorrel was turned away from the church, Lawrence looked at his
+watch, and remarked that, as it was still quite early, there might be
+time for a little drive before going back to the house for dinner. The
+face of the young lady beside him was still slightly pale, and the
+thought came to him that it would be very well for her if her mind
+could be diverted from the abnormally inspiriting scene she had just
+witnessed.
+
+"Dinner will be late to-day," she said, "for I saw Letty doing her
+best among the Jerusalem Jumpers."
+
+"Very well," said he, "we will drive. And now, where shall we go?"
+
+"If we take the cross-road at the store," said Miss Annie, "and go on
+for about half a mile, we can turn into the woods, and then there is a
+beautiful road through the trees, which will bring us out on the other
+side of Aunt Keswick's house. Junius took me that way not long ago."
+
+So they turned at the store, much to the disgust of the plodding
+sorrel, who thought he was going directly home, and they soon reached
+the road that led through the woods. This was hard and sandy, as are
+many of the roads through the forests in that part of the country, and
+it would have been a very good driving road, had it not been for the
+occasional protrusion of tree roots, which gave the wheels a little
+bump, and for the branches which, now and then, hung down somewhat too
+low for the comfort of a lady and gentleman, riding in a rather high
+spring-wagon without a cover. But Lawrence drove slowly, and so the
+root bumps were not noticed; and when the low-hanging boughs were on
+his side, he lifted them so that his companion's head could pass under
+and, when they happened to be on her side, Annie ducked her head,
+and her hat was never brushed off. But, at times, they drove quite a
+distance without overhanging boughs, and the pine trees, surrounded by
+their smooth carpet of brown spines, gave forth a spicy fragrance in
+the warm, but sparkling air; the oak trees stood up still dark and
+green; while the chestnuts were all dressed in rich yellow, with the
+chinquepin bushes by the roadside imitating them in color, as they
+tried to do in fruit. Sometimes a spray of purple flowers could be
+seen among the trees, and great patches of sunlight which, here
+and there, came through the thinning foliage, fell, now upon the
+brilliantly scarlet leaves of a sweet-gum, and now upon the polished
+and brown-red dress of a neighboring black-gum.
+
+The woods were very quiet. There was no sound of bird or insect, and
+the occasional hare, or "Molly Cotton-tail," as Annie delightedly
+called it, who hopped across the road, made no noise at all. A gentle
+wind among the tops of the taller trees made a sound as of a distant
+sea; but, besides this, little was heard but the low, crunching noise
+of the wheels, and the voices of Lawrence and Miss Annie.
+
+Reaching a place where the road branched, Lawrence stopped the horse,
+and looked up each leafy lane. They were completely deserted. White
+people seldom walked abroad at this hour on Sunday, and the negroes
+of the neighborhood were at church. "Is not this a frightfully lonely
+place?" he said. "One might imagine himself in a desert."
+
+"I like it," replied Annie. "It is so different from the wild,
+exciting tumult of that church. I am glad you took me away. At first I
+would not have missed it for the world, but there seemed to come into
+the stormy scene something oppressive, and almost terrifying."
+
+"I am glad I took you away," said Lawrence, "but it seems to me that
+your impression was not altogether natural. I thought that, amid all
+that mad enthusiasm, you were over-excited, not depressed. A solemn
+solitude like this would, to my thinking, be much more likely to lower
+your spirits. I don't like solitude, myself, and therefore, I suppose
+it is that I thought an impressible nature, like yours, would find
+something sad in the loneliness of these silent woods."
+
+Annie turned, and fixed on him her large blue eyes. "But I am not
+alone," she said.
+
+As Lawrence looked into her eyes he saw that they were as clear as the
+purest crystal, and that he could look through them straight into her
+soul, and there he saw that this woman loved him. The vision was
+as sudden as if it had been a night scene lighted up by a flash of
+lightning, but it was as clear and plain as if it had been that same
+scene under the noonday sun.
+
+There are times in the life of a man, when the goddess of Reasonable
+Impulse raises her arms above her head, and allows herself a little
+yawn. Then she takes off her crown and hangs it on the back of her
+throne; after which she rests her sceptre on the floor, and, rising,
+stretches herself to her full height, and goes forth to take a long,
+refreshing walk by the waters of Unreflection. Then her minister,
+Prudence, stretches himself upon a bench, and, with his handkerchief
+over his eyes, composes himself for a nap. Discretion, Worldly Wisdom,
+and other trusted officers of her court, and even, sometimes, that
+agile page called Memory, no sooner see their royal mistress depart
+than, by various doors, they leave the palace and wander far away.
+Then, silently, with sparkling eyes, and parted lips, comes that fair
+being, Unthinking Love. She puts one foot upon the lower step of
+the throne; she looks about her; and, with a quick bound, she seats
+herself. Upon her tumbled curls she hastily puts the crown; with her
+small white hand she grasps the sceptre; and then, rising, waves it,
+and issues her commands. The crowd of emotions which serve as her
+satellites, seize the great seal from the sleeping Prudence, and the
+new Queen reigns!
+
+All this now happened to Lawrence. Never before had he looked into the
+eyes of a woman who loved him; and, leaning over towards this one, he
+put his arm around her and drew her towards him. "And never shall you
+be alone," he said.
+
+She looked up at him with tears starting to her eyes, and then she put
+her head against his breast. She was too happy to say anything, and
+she did not try.
+
+It was about a minute after this, that the sober sorrel, who took no
+interest in what had occurred behind him, and a great deal of interest
+in his stable at home, started in an uncertain and hesitating way;
+and, finding that he was not checked, began to move onward. Lawrence
+looked up from the little head upon his breast, and called out,
+"Whoa!" To this, however, the sorrel paid no attention. Lawrence
+then put forth his right hand to grasp the reins, but having lately
+forgotten all about them, they had fallen out of the spring-wagon, and
+were now dragging upon the ground. It was impossible for him to reach
+them, and so, seizing the whip, he endeavored with its aid to hook
+them up. Failing in this, he was about to jump out and run to the
+horse's head; but, perceiving his intention, Annie seized his arm.
+"Don't you do it!" she exclaimed. "You'll ruin your ankle!"
+
+Lawrence could not but admit to himself that he was not in condition
+to execute any feats of agility, and he also felt that Annie had a
+very charming way of holding fast to his arm, as if she had a right
+to keep him out of danger. And now the sorrel broke into the jog-trot
+which was his usual pace. "It is very provoking," said Lawrence, "I
+don't think I ever allowed myself to drop the reins before."
+
+"It doesn't make the slightest difference," said Annie, comfortingly.
+"This old horse knows the road perfectly well, and he doesn't need a
+bit of driving. He will take us home just as safely as if you held
+the reins, and now don't you try to get them, for you will only hurt
+yourself."
+
+"Very well," said Lawrence, putting his arm around her again, "I am
+resigned. But I think you are very brave to sit so quiet and composed,
+under the circumstances."
+
+She looked at him with a smile. "Such a little circumstance don't
+count, just now," she said. "You must stop that," she added,
+presently, "when we get to the edge of the woods."
+
+Before long, they came out into the open country and found themselves
+in a lane which led by a wide circuit to the road passing Mrs
+Keswick's house. The old sorrel certainly behaved admirably; he held
+back when he descended a declivity; he walked over the rough places;
+and he trotted steadily where the road was smooth.
+
+"It seems like our Fate," said Annie, who now sat up without an arm
+around her, the protecting woods having been left behind, "he just
+takes us along without our having anything to do with it."
+
+"He is not much of a horse," said Lawrence, clasping, in an
+unobservable way, the little hand which lay by his side, "but the Fate
+is charming."
+
+Fortunately there was no one upon the road to notice the reinless
+plight in which these two young people found themselves, and they were
+quite as well satisfied as if they had been doing their own driving.
+After a little period of thought, Annie turned an earnest face to
+Lawrence, and she said: "Do you know that I never believed that you
+were really in love with Roberta March."
+
+Lawrence squeezed her hand, but did not reply. He knew very well that
+he had loved Roberta March, and he was not going to lie about it.
+
+"I thought so," she continued, "because I did not believe that any
+one, who was truly in love, would want to send other people about, to
+propose for him, as you did."
+
+"That is not exactly the state of the case," he said, "but we must not
+talk of those things now. That is all passed and gone."
+
+"But if there ever was any love," she persisted, "are you sure that it
+is all gone?"
+
+"Gone," he answered, earnestly, "as utterly and completely as the days
+of last summer."
+
+And now the sorrel, of his own accord, stopped at Mrs Keswick's outer
+gate; and Lawrence, getting down, took up the reins, opened the gate,
+and drove to the house in quite a proper way.
+
+When Mr Croft helped Annie to descend from the spring-wagon, he did
+not squeeze her hand, nor exchange with her any tender glances, for
+old Mrs Keswick was standing at the top of the steps. "Have you seen
+Letty?" she asked.
+
+"Letty?" said Miss Annie. "Oh, yes," she added, as if she suddenly
+remembered that such a person existed, "Letty was at church, and she
+was very active."
+
+"Well," said the old lady, "she must have taken more interest in the
+exercises than you did, for it is long past the time when I told her
+she must be home."
+
+"I do not believe, madam," said Lawrence, "that any one could have
+taken more interest in the exercises of this morning, than we have."
+
+At this, Annie could not help giving him a little look which would
+have provoked reflection in the mind of the old lady, had she not been
+very earnestly engaged in gazing out into the road, in the hope of
+seeing Letty.
+
+When Lawrence had gone into the office, and had closed the door behind
+him, he stood in a meditative mood before the empty fireplace. He was
+making inquiries of himself in regard to what he had just done. He
+was not accusing himself, nor indulging in regrets; he was simply
+investigating the matter. Here he stood, a man accepted by two women.
+If he had ever heard of any other man in a like condition, he would
+have called that man a scoundrel, and yet he did not deem himself a
+scoundrel.
+
+The facts in the case were easy enough to understand. For the first
+time in his life he had looked into the eyes of a woman who loved him,
+and he had discovered to his utter surprise that he loved her. There
+had been no plan; no prudent outlook into her nature and feelings;
+no cautious insight into his own. He had taken part in a most
+unpremeditated act of pure and simple love; and that it was real and
+pure love on each side, he no more doubted than he doubted that he
+lived. And yet, had he been an impostor when, on that hill over there,
+he told Roberta March he loved her? No, he had been honest, he had
+loved her; and, since the time that he had been roused to action by
+the discovery of Junius Keswick's intentions to renew his suit, it had
+been a love full of a rare and alluring beauty. But its charm, its
+fascination, its very existence, had disappeared in the first flash of
+his knowledge that Annie Peyton loved him. Had his love for Roberta
+been a perfect one, had he been sure that she returned it, then it
+could not have been overthrown; but it had gone, and a love, complete
+and perfect, stood in its place. He had seen that he was loved, and he
+loved. That was all, but it would stand forever.
+
+This was the state of the case, and now Lawrence set himself to
+discover if, in all ways, he had acted truly and honestly. He had been
+accepted by Miss March, but what sort of acceptance was it? Should he,
+as a man true to himself, accept such an acceptance? What was he to
+think of a woman who, very angry as he had been informed, had sent him
+a message, which meant everything in the world to him, if it meant
+anything, and had then dashed away without allowing him a chance to
+speak to her, or even giving him a nod of farewell. The last thing she
+had really said to him in this connection were those cruel words on
+Pine Top Hill, with which she had asked him to choose a spot in which
+to be rejected. Could he consider himself engaged? Would a woman who
+cared for him act towards him in such a manner? After all, was that
+acceptance anything more than the result of pique? And could he not,
+quite as justly, accept the rejection which she had professed herself
+anxious to give him.
+
+A short time before, Lawrence had done his best to explain to his
+advantage these peculiarities of his status in regard to Miss March.
+He had said to himself that she had threatened to reject him because
+she wished to punish him, and he had intended to implore her pardon,
+and expected to receive it. Over and over again, had he argued with
+himself in this strain, and yet, in spite of it all, he had not been
+able to bring himself into a state of mind in which he could sit down
+and write to her a letter, which, in his estimation, would be certain
+to seal and complete the engagement. "How very glad I am," he now said
+to himself, "that I never wrote that letter!" And this was the only
+decision at which he had arrived, when he heard Mrs Keswick calling to
+him from the yard.
+
+He immediately went to the door, when the old lady informed him, that
+as Letty had not come back, and did not appear to be intending to come
+back, and that as none of the other servants on the place had made
+their appearance, he might as well come into the house, and try to
+satisfy his hunger on what cold food she and Mrs Null had managed to
+collect.
+
+The most biting and spicy condiments of the little meal, to which the
+three sat down, were supplied by Mrs Keswick, who reviled without
+stint those utterly thoughtless and heedless colored people, who, once
+in the midst of their crazy religious exercises, totally forgot that
+they owed any duty whatever to those who employed them. Lawrence and
+Annie did not say much, but there was something peculiarly piquant in
+the way in which Annie brought and poured out the tea she had made,
+and which, with the exception of the old lady's remarks, was the only
+warm part of the repast; and there was an element of buoyancy in the
+manner of Mr Croft, as he took his cup to drink the tea. Although he
+said little at this meal, he thought a great deal, listening not at
+all to Mrs Keswick's tirades. "What a charmingly inconsiderate affair
+this has been!" he said to himself. "Nothing planned, nothing provided
+for, or against; all spontaneous, and from our very hearts. I never
+thought to tell her that she must say nothing to her aunt, until we
+had agreed how everything should, be explained, and I don't believe
+the idea that it is necessary to say anything to anybody, has entered
+her mind. But I must keep my eyes away from her if I don't want to
+bring on a premature explosion."
+
+Whatever might be the result of the reasoning which this young man
+had to do with himself, it was quite plain that he was abundantly
+satisfied with things as they were.
+
+It was beginning to be dark, when Letty and Uncle Isham returned and
+explained why they had been so late in returning.
+
+Old Aunt Patsy had died in church.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+"Lawrence," said Annie, on the forenoon of the next day, as they were
+sitting together in the parlor with the house to themselves, Mrs
+Keswick having gone to Aunt Patsy's cabin to supervise proceedings
+there, "Lawrence, don't you feel glad that we did not have a chance to
+speak to dear old Aunt Patsy about those little shoes? Perhaps she had
+forgotten that she had stolen them, and so went to heaven without that
+sin on her soul."
+
+"That is a very comfortable way of looking at it," said Lawrence, "but
+wouldn't it be better to assume that she did not steal them?"
+
+"I am very sorry," said Annie, "but that is not easy to do. But don't
+let us think anything more about that. And, don't you feel very glad
+that the poor old creature, who looked so happy as she sat singing and
+clapping her hands on her knees, didn't die until after we had left
+the church? If it had happened while we were there, I don't believe--"
+
+"Don't believe what?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Well, that you now would be sitting with your arm on the back of my
+chair."
+
+Lawrence was quite sure, from what had been told him, that Aunt
+Patsy's demise had taken place before they left the church, but he
+did not say so to Annie. He merely took his arm from the back of her
+chair, and placed it around her.
+
+"And do you know," said she, "that Letty told me something, this
+morning, that is so funny and yet in a certain way so pathetic, that
+it made me laugh and cry both. She said that Aunt Patsy always thought
+that you were Mr Null."
+
+At this, Lawrence burst out laughing, but Annie checked him and went
+on; "And she told Letty in church, when she saw us two come in, that
+she believed she could die happy now, since she had seen Miss Annie
+married to such a peart gentleman, and that it looked as if old miss
+had got over her grudge against him."
+
+"And didn't Letty undeceive her?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"No, she said it would be a pity to upset the mind of such an old
+woman, and she didn't do it."
+
+"Then the good Aunt Patsy died," said Lawrence, "thinking I was that
+wretched tramp of a bone-dust pedler, which the fancy of your aunt has
+conjured up. That explains the interest the venerable colored woman
+took in me. It is now quite easy to understand; for, if your aunt
+abused your mythical husband to everybody, as she did to me, I don't
+wonder Aunt Patsy thought I was in danger."
+
+"Poor old woman," said Annie, looking down at the floor, "I am so glad
+that we helped her to die happy."
+
+"As she was obliged to anticipate the truth," said Lawrence, "in order
+to derive any comfort from it, I am glad she did it. But although I am
+delighted, more than my words can tell you, to take the place of your
+Mr Null, you must not expect me to have any of his attributes."
+
+"Now just listen to me, sir," said Annie. "I don't want you to say one
+word against Mr Null. If it had not been for that good Freddy, things
+would have been very different from what they are now. If you care for
+me at all, you owe me entirely to Freddy Null."
+
+"Entirely?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"Of course I mean in regard to opportunities of finding out things and
+saying them. If Aunt Keswick had supposed I was only Annie Peyton, she
+would not have allowed Mr Croft to interfere with her plans for Junius
+and me. I expected Mr Null to be of service to me, but no one could
+have imagined that he would have brought about anything like this."
+
+"Blessed be Null!" exclaimed Lawrence.
+
+Annie asked him to please to be more careful, for how did he know that
+one of the servants might not be sweeping the front porch, and of
+course, they would look in at the windows.
+
+"But, my dear child," said Lawrence, pushing back his chair to a
+prudent distance, "we must seriously consider this Null business. We
+shall have to inform your aunt of the present state of affairs, and
+before we do that, we must explain what sort of person Frederick Null,
+Esquire, really was--I am not willing to admit that he exists, even as
+a myth."
+
+"Oh dear! oh dear!" exclaimed Annie. "We shall have a dreadful time!
+When Aunt Keswick knows that there never was any Mr Null, and then
+hears that you and I are engaged, it will throw her into the most
+dreadful state of mind that she has ever been in, in her life; and
+father has told me of some of the awful family earthquakes that Aunt
+Keswick has brought about, when things went wrong with her."
+
+"We must be very cautious," said Lawrence, "and neither of us must say
+a word, or do anything that may arouse her suspicions, until we have
+settled upon the best possible method of making the facts known to
+her. The case is indeed a complicated one."
+
+"And what makes it more so," said Annie, "is Aunt Keswick's belief
+that you are in love with Miss March, and that you want to get a
+chance to propose to her. She does think that, doesn't she?"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, "I must admit that she does."
+
+"And she must be made to understand that that is entirely at an end,"
+continued Annie. "All this will be a very difficult task, Lawrence,
+and I don't see how it is to be done."
+
+"But we shall do it," he answered, "and we must not forget to be very
+prudent, until it is fully settled how we shall do it."
+
+When Lawrence retired to his room, and sat down to hold that peculiar
+court in which he was judge, jury, lawyers, and witnesses, as well as
+the prisoner at the bar, he had to do with a case, a great deal more
+complicated and difficult than that which perplexed the mind of Miss
+Annie Peyton. He began by the very unjudicial act of pledging himself,
+to himself, that nothing should interfere with this new, this true
+love. In spite of all that might be said, done, or thought, Annie
+Peyton should be his wife. There was no indecision, whatever, in
+regard to the new love; the only question was: "What is to be done
+about the old one?"
+
+Lawrence could not admit, for a moment, that he could have spoken to
+Roberta March as he had spoken, if he had not loved her; but he could
+now perceive that that love had been in no small degree impaired and
+weakened by the manner of its acceptance. The action of Miss March on
+her last day here had much more chilled his ardor than her words
+on Pine Top Hill. He had not, before, examined thoroughly into the
+condition of that ardor after the departure of the lady, but it was
+plain enough now.
+
+There was, therefore, no doubt whatever in regard to his love for Miss
+March; he was quite ready and able to lay that aside. But what about
+her acceptance of it? How could he lay that aside?
+
+This was the real case before the court. The witnesses could give no
+available testimony, the lawyers argued feebly, the jury disagreed,
+and Lawrence, in his capacity of judge, dismissed the case. In his
+efforts to conduct his mind through the channels of law and equity,
+Lawrence had not satisfied himself, and his thoughts began to be moved
+by what might be termed his military impulses. "I made a charge into
+the camp," he said with a little downward drawing of the corners of
+his mouth, "and I did not capture the commander-in-chief. And now I
+intend to charge out again."
+
+He sat down to his table, and wrote the following note:
+
+"My Dear Miss March:
+
+"I have been waiting for a good many days, hoping to receive,
+either from you or Mr Keswick, an explanation of the message you
+sent to me by him. I now believe that it will be impossible to give a
+satisfactory explanation of that message. I therefore recur to our last
+private interview, and wish to say to you that I am ready, at any time,
+to meet you under either a sycamore or a cherry tree."
+
+And then he signed it, and addressed it to Miss March at Midbranch.
+This being done, he put on his hat, and stepped out to see if a
+messenger could be found to carry the letter to its destination, for
+he did not wish to wait for the semi-weekly mail. Near the house he
+met Annie.
+
+"What have you been doing all this time?" she asked.
+
+"I have been writing a letter," he said, "and am now looking for some
+colored boy who will carry it for me."
+
+"Who is it to?" she asked.
+
+"Miss March," was his answer.
+
+"Let me see it," said Annie.
+
+At this, Lawrence looked at her with wide-open eyes, and then he
+laughed. Never, since he had been a child, had there been any one who
+would have thought of such a thing as asking to see a private letter
+which he had written to some one else; and that this young girl should
+stand up before him with her straightforward expectant gaze and make
+such a request of him, in the first instance, amused him.
+
+"You don't mean to say," she added, "that you would write anything to
+Miss March which you would not let me see."
+
+"This letter," said Lawrence, "was written for Miss March, and no one
+else. It is simply the winding up of that old affair."
+
+"Give it to me," said Annie, "and let me see how you wound it up."
+
+Lawrence smiled, looked at her in silence for a moment, and then
+handed her the letter.
+
+"I don't want you to think," she said, as she took it, "that I am
+going to ask you to show me all the letters you write. But when you
+write one to a lady like Miss March, I want to know what you say to
+her." And then she read the letter. When she had finished, she turned
+to Lawrence, and with her countenance full of amazement, exclaimed: "I
+haven't the least idea in the world what all this means! What message
+did she send you? And why should you meet her under a tree?"
+
+These questions went so straight to the core of the affair, and were
+so peculiarly difficult to answer, that Lawrence, for the moment,
+found himself in the very unusual position of not knowing what to say,
+but he presently remarked: "Do you think it is of any advantage to
+either of us to talk over this affair, which is now past and gone?"
+
+"I don't want to talk over any of it," said Annie, very promptly,
+"except the part of it which is referred to in this letter; but I want
+to know about that."
+
+"That covers the most important part of it," said Lawrence.
+
+"Very good," she answered, "and so you can tell it to me. And now,
+that I think of it, you can tell me, at the same time, why you wanted
+to find my cousin Junius. You refused once to tell me that, you know."
+
+"I remember," said Lawrence. "And if you have the least feeling about
+it I will relate the whole affair, from beginning to end."
+
+"That, perhaps, will be the best thing to do, after all," said Annie.
+"And suppose we take a walk over the fields, and then you can tell it
+without being interrupted."
+
+But Lawrence did not feel that his ankle would allow him to accept
+this invitation, for it had hurt him a good deal since his walk to
+Aunt Patsy's cabin. He said so to Annie, and excited in her the
+deepest feelings of commiseration.
+
+"You must take no more walks of any length," she exclaimed, "until you
+are quite, quite well! It was my fault that you took that tramp to
+Aunt Patsy's. I ought to have known better. But then," she said,
+looking up at him, "you were not under my charge. I shall take very
+good care of you now."
+
+"For my part," he said, "I am glad I have this little relapse, for now
+I can stay here longer."
+
+"I am very, very sorry for the relapse," said she, "but awfully glad
+for the stay. And you mustn't stand another minute. Let us go and sit
+in the arbor. The sun is shining straight into it, and that will make
+it all the more comfortable, while you are telling me about those
+things."
+
+They sat down in the arbor, and Lawrence told Annie the whole history
+of his affair with Miss March, from the beginning to the end; that is
+if the end had been reached; although he intimated to her no doubt
+upon this point. This avowal he had never expected to make. In fact
+he had never contemplated its possibility. But now he felt a certain
+satisfaction in telling it. Every item, as it was related, seemed
+thrown aside forever. "And now then, my dear Annie," he said, when he
+had finished, "what do you think of all that?"
+
+"Well," she said, "in the first place, I am still more of the opinion
+than I was before, that you never were really in love with her. You
+did entirely too much planning, and investigating, and calculating;
+and when, at last, you did come to the conclusion to propose to her,
+you did not do it so much of your own accord, as because you found
+that another man would be likely to get her, if you did not make a
+pretty quick move yourself. And as to that acceptance, I don't think
+anything of it at all. I believe she was very angry at Junius because
+he consented to bring your messages, when he ought to have been his
+own messenger, and that she gave him that answer just to rack his soul
+with agony. I don't believe she ever dreamed that he would take it to
+you. And, to tell the simple truth, I believe, from what I saw of her
+that morning, that she was thinking very little of you, and a great
+deal of him. To be sure, she was fiery angry with him, but it is
+better to be that way with a lover, than to pay no attention to him at
+all."
+
+This was a view of the case which had never struck Lawrence before,
+and although it was not very flattering to him, it was very
+comforting. He felt that it was extremely likely that this young woman
+had been able to truthfully divine, in a case in which he had failed,
+the motives of another young woman. Here was a further reason for
+congratulating himself that he had not written to Miss March.
+
+"And as to the last part of the letter," said Annie, "you are not
+going under any cherry tree, or sycamore either, to be refused by her.
+What she said to you was quite enough for a final answer, without any
+signing or sealing under trees, or anywhere else. I think the best
+thing that can be done with this precious epistle is to tear it up."
+
+Lawrence was amused by the piquant earnestness of this decision. "But
+what am I to do," he asked, "I can't let the matter rest in this
+unfinished and unsatisfactory condition."
+
+"You might write to her," said Annie, "and tell her that you have
+accepted what she said to you on Pine Top Hill as a conclusive answer,
+and that you now take back everything you ever said on the subject
+you talked of that day. And do you think it would be well to put in
+anything about your being otherwise engaged?"
+
+At this Lawrence laughed. "I think that expression would hardly
+answer," he said, "but I will write another note, and we shall see how
+you like it."
+
+"That will be very well," said the happy Annie, "and if I were you I'd
+make it as gentle as I could. It's of no use to hurt her feelings."
+
+"Oh, I don't want to do that," said Lawrence, "and now that we have
+the opportunity, let us consider the question of informing your aunt
+of our engagement."
+
+"Oh dear, dear, dear!" said Annie, "that is a great deal worse than
+informing Miss March that you don't want to be engaged to her."
+
+"That is true," said Lawrence. "It is not by any means an easy piece
+of business. But we might as well look it square in the face, and
+determine what is to be done about it."
+
+"It is simple enough, just as we look at it," said Annie. "All we have
+to do, is to say that, knowing that Aunt Keswick had written to my
+father that she was determined to make a match between cousin Junius
+and me, I was afraid to come down here without putting up some
+insurmountable obstacle between me and a man that I had not seen since
+I was a little girl. Of course I would say, very decidedly, that I
+wouldn't have married him if I hadn't wanted to; but then, considering
+Aunt Keswick's very open way of carrying out her plans, it would have
+been very unpleasant, and indeed impossible for me to be in the house
+with him unless she saw that there was no hope of a marriage between
+us; and for this reason I took the name of Mrs Null, or Mrs Nothing;
+and came down here, secure under the protection of a husband who
+never existed. And then, we could say that you and I were a good deal
+together, and that, although you had supposed, when you came here,
+that you were in love with Miss March, you had discovered that this
+was a mistake, and that afterwards we fell in love with each other,
+and are now engaged. That would be a straightforward statement of
+everything, just as it happened; but the great trouble is: How are we
+going to tell it to Aunt Keswick?"
+
+"You are right," said Lawrence. "How are we going to tell it?"
+
+"It need not be told!" thundered a strong voice close to their ears.
+And then there was a noise of breaking lattice-work and cracking
+vines, and through the back part of the arbor came an old woman
+wearing a purple sun-bonnet, and beating down all obstacles before
+her with a great purple umbrella. "You needn't tell it!" cried Mrs
+Keswick, standing in the middle of the arbor, her eyes glistening, her
+form trembling, and her umbrella quivering in the air. "You needn't
+tell it! It's told!"
+
+Graphic and vivid descriptions have been written of those furious
+storms of devastating wind and deluging rain, which suddenly sweep
+away the beauty of some fair tropical scene; and we have read, too, of
+dreadful cyclones and tornadoes, which rush, in mad rage, over land
+and sea, burying great ships in a vast tumult of frenzied waves, or
+crushing to the earth forests, buildings, everything that may lie in
+their awful paths; but no description could be written which could
+give an adequate idea of the storm which now burst upon Lawrence and
+Annie. The old lady had seen these two standing together in the yard,
+conversing most earnestly. She had then seen Annie read a letter
+that Lawrence gave her; and then she had perceived the two, in close
+converse, enter the arbor, and sit down together without the slightest
+regard for the rights of Mr Null.
+
+Mrs Keswick looked upon all this as somewhat more out-of-the-way than
+the usual proceedings of these young people, and there came into her
+mind a curiosity to know what they were saying to each other. So she
+immediately repaired to the large garden, and quietly made her way to
+the back of the arbor, in which advantageous position she heard the
+whole of Lawrence's story of his love-affair with Miss March; Annie's
+remarks upon the same, and the facts of this young lady's proposed
+confession in regard to her marriage with Mr Null, and her engagement
+to Mr Croft.
+
+Then she burst in upon them; the tornado and the cyclone raged; the
+thunder rolled and crashed; and the white lightning of her wrath
+flashed upon the two, as if it would scathe and annihilate them, as
+they stood before her. Neither of them had ever known or imagined
+anything like this. It had been long since Mrs Keswick had had an
+opportunity of exercising that power of vituperative torment, which
+had driven a husband to the refuge of a reverted pistol; which had
+banished, for life, relatives and friends; and which, in the shape of
+a promissory curse, had held apart those who would have been husband
+and wife; and now, like the long stored up venom of a serpent, it
+burst out with the direful force given by concentration and retention.
+
+At the first outburst, Annie had turned pale and shrunk back, but now
+she clung to the side of Lawrence, who, although his face was somewhat
+blanched and his form trembled a little with excitement, still stood
+up bravely, and endeavored, but ineffectually, to force upon the old
+lady's attention a denial of her bitter accusations. With face almost
+as purple as the bonnet she wore, or the umbrella she shook in
+the air, the old lady first addressed her niece. With scorn and
+condemnation she spoke of the deceit which the young girl had
+practised upon her. But this part of the exercises was soon over. She
+seemed to think that although nothing could be viler than Annie's
+conduct towards her, still the fact that Mr Null no longer existed,
+put Annie again within her grasp and control, and made it unnecessary
+to say much to her on this occasion. It was upon Lawrence that the
+main cataract of her fury poured. It would be wrong to say that she
+could not find words to express her ire towards him. She found plenty
+of them, and used them all. He had deceived her most abominably; he
+had come there, the expressed and avowed lover of Miss March; he had
+connived with her niece in her deceit; he had taken advantage of all
+the opportunities she gave him to attain the legitimate object of his
+visit, to inveigle into his snares this silly and absurd young woman;
+and he had dared to interfere with the plans, which, by day and by
+night, she had been maturing for years. In vain did Lawrence endeavor
+to answer or explain. She stopped not, nor listened to one word.
+
+"And you need not imagine," she screamed at him, "that you are going
+to turn round, when you like, and marry anybody you please. You are
+engaged, body and soul, to Roberta March, and have no right, by laws
+of man or heaven, to marry anybody else. If you breathe a word of love
+to any other woman it makes you a vile criminal in the eyes of the
+law, and renders you liable to prosecution, sir. Your affianced bride
+knows nothing of what her double-faced snake of a lover is doing here,
+but she shall know speedily. That is a matter which I take into my own
+hands. Out of my way, both of you!"
+
+And with these words she charged by them, and rushed out of the arbor,
+and into the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+They were not a happy pair, Lawrence Croft and Annie Peyton, as they
+stood together in the arbor, after old Mrs Keswick had left them. They
+were both a good deal shaken by the storm they had passed through.
+
+"Lawrence," said Annie, looking up to him with her large eyes full of
+earnestness, "there surely is no truth in what she said about your
+being legally bound to Miss March?"
+
+"None in the least," said Lawrence. "No man, under the circumstances,
+would consider himself engaged to a woman. At any rate, there is
+one thing which I wish you to understand, and that is that I am not
+engaged to Miss March, and that I am engaged to you. No matter what is
+said or done, you and I belong to each other."
+
+Annie made no answer, but she pressed his hand tightly as she looked
+up into his face. He kissed her as she stood, notwithstanding his
+belief that old Mrs Keswick was fully capable of bounding down on him,
+umbrella in hand, from an upper window.
+
+"What do you think she is going to do?" Annie asked presently.
+
+"My dear Annie," said he, "I do not believe that there is a person on
+earth who could divine what your Aunt Keswick is going to do. As to
+that, we must simply wait and see. But, for my part, I know what I
+must do. I must write a letter to Miss March, and inform her, plainly
+and definitely, that I have ceased to be a suitor for her hand. I
+think also that it will be well to let her know that we are engaged?"
+
+"Yes," said Annie, "for she will be sure to hear it now. But she will
+think it is a very prompt proceeding."
+
+"That's exactly what it was," said Lawrence, smiling, "prompt and
+determined. There was no doubt or indecision about any part of our
+affair, was there, little one?"
+
+"Not a bit of it," said Annie, proudly.
+
+At dinner that day Annie took her place at one end of the table,
+and Lawrence his at the other, but the old lady did not make her
+appearance. She was so erratic in her goings and comings, and had so
+often told them they must never wait for her, that Annie cut the ham,
+and Lawrence carved the fowl, and the meal proceeded without her. But
+while they were eating Mrs Keswick was heard coming down stairs from
+her room, the front door was opened and slammed violently, and from
+the dining-room windows they saw her go down the steps, across the
+yard, and out of the gate.
+
+"I do hope," ejaculated Annie, "that she has not gone away to stay!"
+
+If Annie had remembered that the boy Plez, in a clean jacket and long
+white apron, officiated as waiter, she would not have said this, but
+then she would have lost some information. "Ole miss not gone to
+stay," he said, with the license of an untrained retainer. "She gone
+to Howlettses, an' she done tole Aun' Letty she'll be back agin dis
+ebenin'."
+
+"If Aunt Keswick don't come back," said Annie, when the two were in
+the parlor after dinner, "I shall go after her. I don't intend to
+drive her out of the house."
+
+"Don't you trouble yourself about that, my dear," said Lawrence. "She
+is too angry not to come back."
+
+"There is one thing," said Annie, after a while, "that we really ought
+to do. To-morrow Aunt Patsy is to be buried, and before she is put
+into the ground, those little shoes should be returned to Aunt
+Keswick. It seems to me that justice to poor Aunt Patsy requires that
+this should be done. Perhaps now she knows how wicked it was to steal
+them."
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, "I think it would be well to put them back where
+they belong; but how can you manage it?"
+
+"If you will give them to me," said Annie, "I will go up to aunt's
+room, now that she is away, and if she keeps the box in the same place
+where it used to be, I'll slip them into it. I hate dreadfully to do
+it, but I really feel that it is a duty."
+
+When Lawrence, with some little difficulty, walked across the yard to
+get the shoes from his trunk, Annie ran after him, and waited at the
+office door. "You must not take a step more than necessary," she said,
+"and so I won't make you come back to the house."
+
+When Lawrence gave her the shoes, and her hand a little squeeze at the
+same time, he told her that he should sit down immediately and write
+his letter.
+
+"And I," said Annie, "will go, and see what I can do with these."
+
+With the shoes in her pocket, she went up stairs into her aunt's room,
+and, after looking around hastily, as if to see that the old lady had
+not left the ghost of herself in charge, she approached the closet in
+which the sacred pasteboard box had always been kept. But the closet
+was locked. Turning away she looked about the room. There was no other
+place in which there was any probability that the box would be kept.
+Then she became nervous; she fancied she heard the click of the yard
+gate; she would not for anything have her aunt catch her in that room;
+nor would she take the shoes away with her. Hastily placing them upon
+a table she slipped out, and hurried into her own room.
+
+It was about an hour after this, that Mrs Keswick came rapidly up the
+steps of the front porch. She had been to Howlett's to carry a letter
+which she had written to Miss March, and had there made arrangements
+to have that letter taken to Midbranch very early the next morning.
+She had wished to find some one who would start immediately, but as
+there was no moon, and as the messenger would arrive after the family
+were all in bed, she had been obliged to abandon this more energetic
+line of action. But the letter would get there soon enough; and if it
+did not bring down retribution on the head of the man who lodged in
+her office, and who, she said to herself, had worked himself into her
+plans, like the rot in a field of potatoes, she would ever after admit
+that she did not know how to write a letter. All the way home she had
+conned over her method of action until Mr Brandon, or a letter, should
+come from Midbranch.
+
+She had already attacked, together, the unprincipled pair who found
+shelter in her house, and she now determined to come upon them
+separately, and torment each soul by itself. Annie, of course, would
+come in for the lesser share of the punishment, for the fact that
+the wretched and depraved Null was no more, had, in a great measure,
+mitigated her offence. She was safe, and her aunt intended to hold her
+fast, and do with her as she would, when the time and Junius came. But
+upon Lawrence she would have no mercy. When she had delivered him into
+the hands of Mr Brandon, or those of Roberta's father, or the clutches
+of the law, she would have nothing more to do with him, but until that
+time she would make him bewail the day when he deceived and imposed
+upon her by causing her to believe that he was in love with another
+when he was, in reality, trying to get possession of her niece. There
+were a great many things which she had not thought to say to him in
+the arbor, but she would pour the whole hot mass upon his head that
+evening.
+
+Stamping up the stairs, and thumping her umbrella upon every step as
+she went, hot vengeance breathing from between her parted lips, and
+her eyes flashing with the delight of prospective fury, she entered
+her room. The light of the afternoon had but just begun to wane, and
+she had not made three steps into the apartment, before her eyes fell
+upon a pair of faded, light blue shoes, which stood side by side upon
+a table. She stopped suddenly, and stood, pale and rigid. Her grasp
+upon her umbrella loosened, and, unnoticed, it fell upon the floor.
+Then, her eyes still fixed upon the shoes, she moved slowly sidewise
+towards the closet. She tried the door, and found it still locked;
+then she put her hand in her pocket, drew out the key, looked at it,
+and dropped it. With faltering steps she drew near the table, and
+stood supporting herself by the back of a chair. Any one else would
+have seen upon that table merely a pair of baby's shoes; but she saw
+more. She saw the tops of the little socks which she had folded away
+for the last time so many years before; she saw the first short dress
+her child had ever worn; it was tied up with pink ribbons at the
+shoulders, from which hung two white, plump, little arms. There was a
+little neck, around which was a double string of coral fastened by a
+small gold clasp. Above this was a face, a baby face, with soft, pale
+eyes, and its head covered with curls of the lightest yellow, not
+arranged in artistic negligence, but smooth, even, and regular, as she
+so often had turned, twisted, and set them. It was indeed her baby
+girl who had come to her as clear and vivid in every feature, limb,
+and garment, as were the real shoes upon the table. For many minutes
+she stood, her eyes fixed upon the little apparition, then, slowly,
+she sank upon her knees by the chair, her sun-bonnet, which she had
+not removed, was bowed, so the pale eyes of the little one could not
+see her face, and from her own eyes came the first tears that that old
+woman had shed since her baby's clothes had been put away in the box.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lawrence's letter to Miss March was a definitely expressed document,
+intended to cover all the ground necessary, and no more; but it could
+not be said that it was entirely satisfactory to himself. His case, to
+say the least of it, was a difficult one to defend. He was aware that
+his course might be looked upon by others as dishonorable, although he
+assured himself that he had acted justly. It might have been better
+to wait for a positive declaration from Miss March, that she had not
+truly accepted him, before engaging himself to another lady. But then,
+he said to himself, true love never waits for anything. At all events,
+he could write no better letter than the one he had produced, and he
+hoped he should have an opportunity to show it to Annie before he sent
+it.
+
+He need not have troubled himself in this regard, for he and Annie
+were not disturbed during the rest of that day by the appearance
+of Mrs Keswick; but after the letter had been duly considered and
+approved, he found it difficult to obtain a messenger. There was no
+one on the place who would undertake to walk to Midbranch, and he
+could not take the liberty of using Mrs Keswick's horse for the trip,
+so it was found necessary to wait until the morrow, when the letter
+could be taken to Howlett's, where, if no one could be found to carry
+it immediately, it would have to be entrusted to the mail which went
+out the next day. Lawrence, of course, knew nothing of Mrs Keswick's
+message to Midbranch, or he would have been still more desirous that
+his letter should be promptly dispatched.
+
+The evening was not a very pleasant one; the lovers did not know at
+what moment the old lady might descend upon them, and the element of
+unpleasant expectancy which pervaded the atmosphere of the house was
+somewhat depressing. They talked a good deal of the probabilities of
+Mrs Keswick's action. Lawrence expected that she would order him away,
+although Annie had stoutly maintained that her aunt would have no
+right to do this, as he was not in a condition to travel. This
+argument, however, made little impression upon Lawrence, who was not
+the man to stay in any house where he was not wanted; besides, he knew
+very well that for any one to stay in Mrs Keswick's house when she did
+not want him, would be an impossibility. But he did not intend to slip
+away in any cowardly manner, and leave Annie to bear alone the brunt
+of the second storm. He felt sure that such a storm was impending, and
+he was also quite certain that its greatest violence would break upon
+him. He would stay, therefore, and meet the old lady when she next
+descended upon them, and, before he went away, he would endeavor to
+utter some words in defence of himself and Annie.
+
+They separated early, and a good deal of thinking was done by them
+before they went to sleep.
+
+The next morning they had only each other for company at breakfast,
+but they had just risen from that meal when they were startled by the
+entrance of Mrs Keswick. Having expected her appearance during the
+whole of the time they were eating, they had no reason to be startled
+by her coming now, but for their subsequent amazement at her
+appearance and demeanor, they had every reason in the world. Her face
+was pale and grave, with an air of rigidity about it, which was
+not common to her, for, in general, she possessed a very mobile
+countenance. Without speaking a word, she advanced towards Lawrence,
+and extended her hand to him. He was so much surprised that while he
+took her hand in his he could only murmur some unintelligible form of
+morning salutation. Then Mrs Keswick turned to Annie, and shook hands
+with her. The young girl grew pale, but said not a word, but some
+tears came into her eyes, although why this happened she could not
+have explained to herself. Having finished this little performance,
+the old lady walked to the back window, and looked out into the flower
+garden, although there was really nothing there to see. Now Annie
+found voice to ask her aunt if she would not have some breakfast.
+
+"No," said Mrs Keswick, "my breakfast was brought up-stairs to me."
+And with that she turned and went out of the room. She closed the door
+behind her, but scarcely had she done so, when she opened it again
+and looked in. It was quite plain, to the two silent and astonished
+observers of her actions, that she was engaged in the occupation, very
+unusual with her, of controlling an excited condition of mind. She
+looked first at one, and then at the other, and then she said, in a
+voice which seemed to meet with occasional obstructions in its course:
+"I have nothing more to say about anything. Do just what you please,
+only don't talk to me about it." And she closed the door.
+
+"What is the meaning of all this?" said Lawrence, advancing towards
+Annie. "What has come over her?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know," said Annie, and with this she burst into
+tears, and cried as she would have scorned to cry, during the terrible
+storm of the day before.
+
+That morning, Lawrence Croft was a very much puzzled man. What had
+happened to Mrs Keswick he could not divine, and at times he imagined
+that her changed demeanor was perhaps nothing but an artful cover to
+some new and more ruthless attack.
+
+Annie took occasion to be with her aunt a good deal during the
+morning, but she reported to Lawrence that the old lady had said very
+little, and that little related entirely to household affairs.
+
+Mrs Keswick ate dinner with them. Her manner was grave, and even
+stern; but she made a few remarks in regard to the weather and some
+neighborhood matters; and before the end of the meal both Lawrence and
+Annie fancied that they could see some little signs of a return to her
+usual humor, which was pleasant enough when nothing happened to make
+it otherwise. But expectations of an early return to her ordinary
+manner of life were fallacious; she did not appear at supper; and she
+spent the evening in her own room. Lawrence and Annie had thus ample
+opportunity to discuss this novel and most unexpected state of
+affairs. They did not understand it, but it could not fail to cheer
+and encourage them. Only one thing they decided upon, and that was
+that Lawrence could not go away until he had had an opportunity of
+fully comprehending the position, in relation to Mrs Keswick, in which
+he and Annie stood.
+
+About the middle of the evening, as Lawrence was thinking that it was
+time for him to retire to his room in the little house in the yard,
+Letty came in with a letter which she said had been brought from
+Midbranch by a colored man on a horse; the man had said there was no
+answer, and had gone back to Howlett's, where he belonged.
+
+The letter was for Mr Croft and from Miss March. Very much surprised
+at receiving such a missive, Lawrence opened the envelope. His letter
+to Miss March had not yet been sent, for the new state of affairs had
+not only very much occupied his mind, but it also seemed to render
+unnecessary any haste in the matter, and he had concluded to mail the
+letter the next day. This, therefore, was not in answer to anything
+from him; and why should she have written?
+
+It was with a decidedly uneasy sensation that Lawrence began to read
+the letter, Annie watching him anxiously as he did so. The letter was
+a somewhat long one, and the purport of it was as follows: The writer
+stated that, having received a most extraordinary and astounding
+epistle from old Mrs Keswick, which had been sent by a special
+messenger, she had thought it her duty to write immediately on the
+subject to Mr Croft, and had detained the man that she might send this
+letter by him. She did not pretend to understand the full purport of
+what Mrs Keswick had written, but it was evident that the old lady
+believed that an engagement of marriage existed between herself (Miss
+March) and Mr Croft. That that gentleman had given such information
+to Mrs Keswick she could hardly suppose, but, if he had, it must have
+been in consequence of a message which, very much to her surprise and
+grief, had been delivered to Mr Croft by Mr Keswick. In order that
+this message might be understood, Miss March had determined to make a
+full explanation of her line of conduct towards Mr Croft.
+
+During the latter part of their pleasant intercourse at Midbranch
+during the past summer, she had reason to believe that Mr Croft's
+intentions in regard to her were becoming serious, but she had also
+perceived that his impulses, however earnest they might have been,
+were controlled by an extraordinary caution and prudence, which,
+although it sometimes amused her, was not in the least degree
+complimentary to her. She could not prevent herself from resenting
+this somewhat peculiar action of Mr Croft, and this resentment grew
+into a desire, which gradually became a very strong one, that she
+might have an opportunity of declining a proposal from him. That
+opportunity came while they were both at Mrs Keswick's, and she had
+intended that what she said at her last interview with Mr Croft should
+be considered a definite refusal of his suit, but the interview had
+terminated before she had stated her mind quite as plainly as she had
+purposed doing. She had not, however, wished to renew the conversation
+on the subject, and had concluded to content herself with what she had
+already said; feeling quite sure that her words had been sufficient
+to satisfy Mr Croft that it would be useless to make any further
+proposals.
+
+When, on the eve of her departure from the house, Mr Keswick had
+brought her Mr Croft's message, she was not only amazed, but
+indignant; not so much at Mr Croft for sending it, as at Mr Keswick
+for bringing it. Miss March was not ashamed to confess that she was
+irritated and incensed to a high degree that a gentleman who had held
+the position towards her that Mr Keswick had held, should bring her
+such a message from another man. She was, therefore, seized with a
+sudden impulse to punish him, and, without in the least expecting that
+he would carry such an answer, she had given him the one which he had
+taken to Mr Croft. Having, until the day on which she was writing,
+heard nothing further on the subject, she had supposed that her
+expectations had been realized. But on this day the astonishing letter
+from Mrs Keswick had arrived, and it made her understand that not
+only had her impulsive answer been delivered, but that Mr Croft
+had informed other persons that he had been accepted. She wished,
+therefore, to lose no time in stating to Mr Croft that what she had
+said to him, with her own lips, was to be received as her final
+resolve; and that the answer given to Mr Keswick was not intended for
+Mr Croft's ears.
+
+Miss March then went on to say that it might be possible that she owed
+Mr Croft an apology for the somewhat ungracious manner in which she
+had treated him at Mrs Keswick's house; but she assured herself
+that Mr Croft owed her an apology, not only for the manner of his
+attentions, but for the peculiar publicity he had given them. In that
+case the apologies neutralized each other. Miss March had no intention
+of answering Mrs Keswick's letter. Under no circumstances could
+she have considered, for a moment, its absurd suggestions and
+recommendations; and it contained allusions to Mr Croft and another
+person which, if not founded upon the imagination of Mrs Keswick,
+certainly concerned nothing with which Miss March had anything to do.
+
+The proud spirit of Lawrence Croft was a good deal ruffled when he
+read this letter, but he made no remark about it. "Would you like to
+read it?" he said to Annie.
+
+She greatly desired to read it, but there was something in her lover's
+face, and in the tone in which he spoke, which made her suspect that
+the reading of that letter might be, in some degree, humiliating to
+him. She was certain, from the expression of his face as he read it,
+that the letter contained matter very unpleasant to Lawrence, and it
+might be that it would wound him to have another person, especially
+herself, read them; and so she said: "I don't care to read it if you
+will tell me why she wrote to you, and the point of what she says."
+
+"Thank you," said Lawrence. And he crumpled the letter in his hand as
+he spoke. "She wrote," he continued, "in consequence of a letter she
+has had from your aunt."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Annie. "Did Aunt Keswick write to her?"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, "and sent it by a special messenger. She must
+have told her all the heinous crimes with which she charged you and
+me, particularly me; and this must have been the first intimation to
+Miss March that her cousin had given me the answer she made to him;
+therefore Miss March writes in haste to let me know that she did not
+intend that that answer should be given to me, and that she wishes it
+generally understood that I have no more connection with her than I
+have with the Queen of Spain. That is the sum and substance of the
+letter."
+
+"I knew as well as I know anything in the world," said Annie, "that
+that message Junius brought you meant nothing." And, taking the
+crumpled letter from his hand, she threw it on the few embers that
+remained in the fireplace; and, as it blazed and crumbled into black
+ashes, she said: "Now that is the end of Roberta March!"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence, emphasizing his remark with an encircling arm,
+"so far as we are concerned, that is the end of her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+On the next day, old Aunt Patsy was buried. Mrs Keswick and Annie
+attended the ceremonies in the cabin, but they did not go to the
+burial. After a time, it might be in a week or two, or it might be in
+a year, the funeral sermon would be preached in the church, and they
+would go to hear that. Aunt Patsy never finished her crazy quilt,
+several pieces being wanted to one corner of it; but in the few days
+preceding her burial two old women of the congregation, with trembling
+hands and uncertain eyes, sewed in these pieces, and finished the
+quilt, in which the body of the venerable sister was wrapped,
+according to her well-known wish and desire. It is customary among the
+negroes to keep the remains of their friends a very short time after
+death, but Aunt Patsy had lived so long upon this earth that it was
+generally conceded that her spirit would not object to her body
+remaining above ground until all necessary arrangements should be
+completed, and until all people who had known or heard of her had had
+an opportunity of taking a last look at her. As she had been so very
+well known to almost everybody's grandparents, a good many people
+availed themselves of this privilege.
+
+After Mrs Keswick's return from Aunt Patsy's cabin, where, according
+to her custom, she made herself very prominent, it was noticeable that
+she had dropped some of the grave reserve in which she had wrapped
+herself during the preceding day. It was impossible for her, at least
+but for a very short time, to act in a manner unsuited to her nature;
+and reserve and constraint had never been suited to her nature. She,
+therefore, began to speak on general subjects in her ordinary free
+manner to the various persons in her house; but it must not be
+supposed that she exhibited any contrition for the outrageous way in
+which she had spoken to Annie and Lawrence, or gave them any reason
+to suppose that the laceration of their souls on that occasion was a
+matter which, at present, needed any consideration whatever from her.
+An angel, born of memory and imagination, might come to her from
+heaven, and so work upon her superstitious feelings as to induce her
+to stop short in her course of reckless vengeance; but she would not,
+on that account, fall upon anybody's neck, or ask forgiveness for
+anything she had done to anybody. She did not accuse herself, nor
+repent; she only stopped. "After this," she said, "you all can do as
+you please. I have no further concern with your affairs. Only don't
+talk to me about them."
+
+She told Lawrence, in a manner that would seem to indicate a moderate,
+but courteous, interest in his welfare, that he must not think of
+leaving her house until his ankle had fully recovered its strength;
+and she even went so far as to suggest the use of a patent lotion
+which she had seen at the store at Howlett's. She resumed her former
+intercourse with Annie, but it seemed impossible for her to entirely
+forget the deception which that young lady had practised upon her. The
+only indication, however, of this resentment was the appellation which
+she now bestowed upon her niece. In speaking of her to Lawrence, or
+any of the household, she invariably called her "the late Mrs Null,"
+and this title so pleased the old lady that she soon began to use it
+in addressing her niece. Annie occasionally remonstrated in a manner
+which seemed half playful, but was in fact quite earnest, but her aunt
+paid no manner of attention to her words, and continued to please
+herself by this half-sarcastic method of alluding to her niece's
+fictitious matrimonial state.
+
+Letty, and the other servants, were at first much astonished by the
+new title given to Miss Annie, and the only way in which they could
+explain it was by supposing that Mr Null had gone off somewhere and
+died; and although they could not understand why Miss Annie should
+show so little grief in the matter, and why she had not put on
+mourning, they imagined that these were customs which she had learned
+in the North.
+
+Lawrence advised Annie to pay no attention to this whim of her aunt.
+"It don't hurt either of us," he said, "and we ought to be very glad
+that she has let us off so easily. But there is one thing I think you
+ought to do; you should write to your cousin Junius, and tell him of
+our engagement; but I would not refer at all to the other matter; you
+are not supposed to have anything to do with it, and Miss March can
+tell him as much about it as she chooses, Mr Keswick wrote me that he
+was going to Midbranch, and that he would communicate with me while
+there, but, as I have not since heard from him, I presume he is still
+in Washington."
+
+A letter was, therefore, written by Annie, and addressed to Junius,
+in Washington, and Lawrence drove her to the railroad station in the
+spring-wagon, where it was posted. The family mail came bi-weekly to
+Howlett's, as the post-office at the railroad station was entirely too
+distant for convenience; and as Saturday approached it was evident,
+from Mrs Keswick's occasional remarks and questions, that she expected
+a letter. It was quite natural for Lawrence and Annie to surmise that
+this letter was expected from Miss March, for Mrs Keswick had not
+heard of any rejoinder having been made to her epistle to that lady.
+When, late on Saturday afternoon, the boy Plez returned from
+Howlett's, Mrs Keswick eagerly took from him the well-worn
+letter-bag, and looked over its contents. There was a letter for her
+and from Midbranch, but the address was written by Junius, not by Miss
+March. There was another in the same hand-writing for Annie. As
+the old lady looked at the address on her letter, and then on its
+post-mark, she was evidently disappointed and displeased, but she said
+nothing, and went away with it to her room. Annie's letter was in
+answer to the one she had sent to Washington, which had been promptly
+forwarded to Midbranch where Junius had been for some days. It began
+by expressing much surprise at the information his cousin had given
+him in regard to her assumption of a married title, and although she
+had assured him she had very good reasons, he could not admit that it
+was right and proper for her to deceive his aunt and himself in this
+way. If it were indeed necessary that other persons should suppose
+that she were a married woman, her nearest relatives, at least, should
+have been told the truth.
+
+At this passage, Annie, who was reading the letter aloud, and Lawrence
+who was listening, both laughed. But they made no remarks, and the
+reading proceeded.
+
+Junius next alluded to the news of his cousin's engagement to Mr
+Croft. His guarded remarks on this subject showed the kindness of his
+heart. He did not allude to the suddenness of the engagement, nor to
+the very peculiar events that had so recently preceded it; but reading
+between the lines, both Annie and Lawrence thought that the writer had
+probably given these points a good deal of consideration. In a general
+way, however, it was impossible for him to see any objection to such
+a match for his cousin, and this was the impression he endeavored to
+give in a very kindly way, in his congratulations. But, even here,
+there seemed to be indications of a hope, on the part of the writer,
+that Mr Croft would not see fit to make another short tack in his
+course of love.
+
+Like the polite gentleman he was, Mr Keswick allowed his own affairs
+to come in at the end of the letter. Here he informed his cousin that
+his engagement with Miss March had been renewed, and that they were to
+be married shortly after Christmas. As it must have been very plain to
+those who were present when Miss March left his aunt's house, that she
+left in anger with him, he felt impelled to say that he had explained
+to her the course of action to which she had taken exception, and
+although she had not admitted that that course had been a justifiable
+one, she had forgiven him. He wished also to say at this point that
+he, himself, was not at all proud of what he had done.
+
+"That was intended for me," interrupted Lawrence.
+
+"Well, if you understand it, it is all right," said Annie.
+
+Junius went on to say that the renewal of his engagement was due, in
+great part, to Miss March's visit to his aunt; and to a letter she had
+received from her. A few days of intercourse with Mrs Keswick, whom
+she had never before seen, and the tenor and purpose of that letter,
+had persuaded Miss March that his aunt was a person whose mind had
+passed into a condition when its opposition or its action ought not to
+be considered by persons who were intent upon their own welfare. His
+own arrival at Midbranch, at this juncture, had resulted in the happy
+renewal of their engagement.
+
+"I don't know Junius half as well as I wish I did," said Annie, as she
+finished the letter, "but I am very sure, indeed, that he will make
+a good husband, and I am glad he has got Roberta March--as he wants
+her."
+
+"Did you emphasize 'he'?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"I will emphasize it, if you would like to hear me do it," said she.
+
+"It's very queer," remarked Annie, after a little pause, "that
+I should have been so anxious to preserve poor Junius from your
+clutches, and that, after all I did to save him, I should fall into
+those clutches myself."
+
+Whereupon Lawrence, much to her delight, told her the story of the
+anti-detective.
+
+Mrs Keswick sat down in her room, and read her letter. She had no
+intention of abandoning her resolution to let things go as they would;
+and, therefore, did not expect to follow up, with further words or
+actions, anything she had written in her letter to Roberta March. But
+she had had a very strong curiosity to know what that lady would say
+in answer to said letter, and she was therefore disappointed and
+displeased that the missive she had received was from her nephew, and
+not from Miss March. She did not wish to have a letter from Junius.
+She knew, or rather very much feared, that it would contain news which
+would be bad news to her, and although she was sure that such news
+would come to her sooner or later, she was very much averse to
+receiving it.
+
+His letter to her merely touched upon the points of Mrs Null, and his
+cousin's engagement to Mr Croft; but it was almost entirely filled
+with the announcement, and most earnest defence, of his own engagement
+to Roberta March. He said a great deal upon this subject, and he said
+it well. But it is doubtful if his fervid, and often affectionate,
+expressions made much impression upon his aunt. Nothing could make the
+old lady like this engagement, but she had made up her mind that he
+might do as he pleased, and it didn't matter what he said about it; he
+had done it, and there was an end of it.
+
+But there was one thing that did matter: That unprincipled and
+iniquitous old man Brandon had had his own way at last; and she and
+her way had been set aside. This was the last of a series of injuries
+to her and her family with which she charged Mr Brandon and his
+family; but it was the crowning wrong. The injury itself she did not
+so much deplore, as that the injurer would profit by it. Arrested
+in her course of raging passion by a sudden flood of warm and
+irresistible emotion, she had resigned, as impetuously as she had
+taken them up, her purposes of vengeance, and consequently, her plans
+for her nephew and niece. But she was a keen-minded, as well as
+passionate old woman, and when she had considered the altered state
+of affairs, she was able to see in it advantages as well as
+disappointment and defeat. From what she had learned of Lawrence
+Croft's circumstances and position, and she had made a good many
+inquiries on this subject of Roberta March, he was certainly a good
+match for Annie; and, although she hated to have anything to do with
+Midbranch, it could not be a bad thing for Junius to be master of that
+large estate, and that Mr Brandon had repeatedly declared he would be,
+if he married Roberta. Thus, in the midst of these reverses, there was
+something to comfort her, and reconcile her to them. But there was no
+balm for the wound caused by Mr Brandon's success and her failure.
+
+With the letter of Junius open in her hand, she sat, for a long time,
+in bitter meditation. At length a light gradually spread itself over
+her gloomy countenance. Her eyes sparkled; she sat up straight in her
+chair, and a broad smile changed the course of the wrinkles on her
+cheeks. She arose to her feet; she gave her head a quick jerk of
+affirmation; she clapped one hand upon the other; and she said aloud:
+"I will bless, not curse!"
+
+And with that she went happy to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+On the following Monday, Lawrence announced that his ankle was now
+quite well enough for him to go to New York, where his affairs
+required his presence. Neither he, nor the late Mrs Null, regarded
+this parting with any satisfaction, but their very natural regrets at
+the necessary termination of these happy autumn days were a good deal
+tempered by the fact that Lawrence intended to return in a few weeks,
+and that then the final arrangements would be made for their marriage.
+It was not easy to decide what these arrangements would be, for in
+spite of the many wrongnesses of the old lady's head and heart, Annie
+had conceived a good deal of affection for her aunt, and felt a strong
+disinclination to abandon her to her lonely life, which would be more
+lonely than before, now that Junius was to be married. On the other
+hand, Lawrence, although he had discovered some estimable points in
+the very peculiar character of Mrs Keswick, had no intention of living
+in the same house with her. This whole matter, therefore, was left in
+abeyance until the lovers should meet again, some time in December.
+
+Lawrence and Annie had desired very much that Junius should visit them
+before Mr Croft's departure for the North, for they both had a high
+esteem for him, and both felt a desire that he should be as well
+satisfied with their matrimonial project as they were with his. But
+they need not have expected him. Junius had conceived a dislike for Mr
+Croft, which was based in great part upon disapprobation of what he
+himself had done in connection with that gentleman; and this manner
+of dislike is not easily set aside. The time would come when he would
+take Lawrence Croft and Annie by the hand, and honestly congratulate
+them, but for that time they must wait.
+
+Lawrence departed in the afternoon; and the next day Mrs Keswick set
+about that general renovation and rearrangement of her establishment
+which many good housewives consider necessary at certain epochs, such
+as the departure of guests, the coming in of spring, or the advent of
+winter. These arrangements occupied two days, and on the evening that
+they were finished to her satisfaction, the old lady informed her
+niece, that early the next morning, she was going to start for
+Midbranch, and that it was possible, nay, quite probable, that she
+would stay there over a night. "I might go and come back the same
+day," she said, "but thirty miles a day is too much for Billy, and
+besides, I am not sure I could get through what I have to do, if I do
+not stay over. I would take you with me but this is not to be a mere
+visit; I have important things to attend to, and you would be in the
+way. You got along so well without me when you first came here that
+I have no doubt you will do very well for one night. I shall drive
+myself, and take Plez along with me, and leave Uncle Isham and Letty
+to take care of you."
+
+Under ordinary circumstances Annie would have been delighted to go to
+Midbranch, a place she had never seen, and of which she had heard so
+much, but she had no present desire to see Roberta March, and said so;
+further remarking that she was very willing to stay by herself for
+a night. She hoped much that her aunt would proceed with the
+conversation, and tell her why she had determined upon such an
+extraordinary thing as a visit to Midbranch; where she knew the old
+lady had not been for many, many years. But Mrs Keswick had nothing
+further to say upon this subject, and began to talk of other matters.
+
+After a very early breakfast next morning, Mrs Keswick set out
+upon her journey, driving the sorrel horse with much steadiness,
+intermingled with severity whenever he allowed himself to drop out of
+his usual jogging pace. Plez sat in the back part of the spring-wagon,
+and whenever the old lady saw an unusually large stone lying in the
+track of the road, she would stop, and make him get out and throw it
+to one side.
+
+"I believe," she said, on one of these occasions, "that a thousand men
+in buggies might pass along this road thrice a day for a year, and
+never think of stopping to throw that rock out of the way of people's
+wheels. They would steer around it every time, or bump over it, but
+such a thing as moving it would never enter their heads."
+
+The morning was somewhat cool, but fine, and the smile which
+occasionally flitted over the corrugated countenance of Mrs Keswick
+seemed to indicate that she was in a pleasant state of mind, which
+might have been occasioned by the fine weather and the good condition
+of the roads, or by cheerful anticipations connected with her visit.
+
+It was not very long after noonday that, with a stifled remark of
+disapprobation upon her lips, she drew up at the foot of the broad
+flight of steps by which one crossed the fence into the Midbranch
+yard. Giving Billy into the charge of Plez, with directions to take
+him round to the stables and tell somebody to put him up and feed him,
+she mounted the steps, and stopped for a minute or so on the broad
+platform at the top; looking about her as she stood. Everything, the
+house, the yard, the row of elms along the fence, the wide-spreading
+fields, and the farm buildings and cabins, some of which she could see
+around the end of the house, were all on a scale so much larger and
+more imposing than those of her own little estate that, although
+nothing had changed for the better since the days when she was
+familiar with Midbranch, she was struck with the general superiority
+of the Brandon possessions to her own. Her eyes twinkled, and she
+smiled; but there did not appear to be anything envious about her.
+
+She presented a rather remarkable figure as she stood in this
+conspicuous position. Annie had insisted, when she was helping her
+aunt to array herself for the journey, that she should wear a bonnet
+which for many years had been her head-gear on Sundays and important
+occasions, but to this the old lady positively objected. She was not
+going on a mere visit of state or ceremony; her visit at Midbranch
+would require her whole attention, and she did not wish to distract
+her mind by wondering whether her bonnet was straight on her head or
+not, and she was so unaccustomed to the feel of it that she would
+never know if it got turned hind part foremost. She could never be at
+her ease, nor say freely what she wished to say, if she were dressed
+in clothes to which she was not accustomed. She was perfectly
+accustomed to her sun-bonnet, and she intended to wear that. Of course
+she carried her purple umbrella, and she wore a plain calico dress,
+blue spotted with white, which was very narrow and short in the
+skirt, barely touching the tops of her shoes, the stoutest and most
+serviceable that could be procured in the store at Howlett's. She
+covered her shoulders with a small red shawl which, much to Annie's
+surprise, she fastened with a large and somewhat tarnished silver
+brooch, an ornament her niece had never before seen. Attired thus, she
+certainly would have attracted attention, had there been any one
+there to see, but the yard was empty, and the house door closed. She
+descended the steps, crossed the yard with what might be termed a
+buoyant gait, and, mounting the porch, knocked on the door with the
+handle of her umbrella. After some delay a colored woman appeared, and
+as soon as the door was opened, Mrs Keswick walked in.
+
+"Where is your master?" said she, forgetting all about the
+Emancipation Act.
+
+"Mahs' Robert is in the libery," said the woman.
+
+"And where are Miss Roberta March and Master Junius Keswick?"
+
+"Miss Rob went Norf day 'fore yestiddy," was the answer, "an' Mahs'
+Junius done gone 'long to 'scort her. Who shall I tell Mahs' Robert is
+come?"
+
+"There is no need to tell him who I am," said Mrs Keswick. "Just take
+me in to him. That's all you have to do."
+
+A good deal doubtful of the propriety of this proceeding, but
+more doubtful of the propriety of opposing the wishes of such a
+determined-looking visitor, the woman stepped to the back part of the
+hall, and opened the door. The moment she did so, Mrs Keswick entered,
+and closed the door behind her.
+
+Mr Brandon was seated in an arm chair by a table, and not very far
+from a wood fire of a size suited to the season. His slippered feet
+were on a cushioned stool; his eye-glasses were carefully adjusted on
+the capacious bridge of his nose; and, intent upon a newspaper which
+had arrived by that morning's mail, he presented the appearance of a
+very well satisfied old gentleman, in very comfortable circumstances.
+But when he turned his head and saw the Widow Keswick close the door
+behind her, every idea of satisfaction or comfort seemed to vanish
+from his mind. He dropped the paper; he rose to his feet; he took
+off his eye-glasses; he turned somewhat red in the face; and he
+ejaculated: "What! madam! So it is you, Mrs Keswick?"
+
+The old lady did not immediately answer. Her head dropped a little on
+one side, a broad smile bewrinkled the lower part of her well-worn
+visage, and with her eyes half-closed, behind her heavy spectacles,
+she held out both her hands, the purple umbrella in one of them, and
+exclaimed in a voice of happy fervor: "Robert! I am yours!"
+
+Mr Brandon, recovered from his first surprise, had made a step forward
+to go round the table and greet his visitor; but at these words he
+stopped as if he had been shot. Perception, understanding, and even
+animation, seemed to have left him as he vacantly stared at the
+elderly female with purple sun-bonnet and umbrella, blue calico gown,
+red shawl and coarse boots, who held out her arms towards him, and who
+gazed upon him with an air of tender, though decrepit, fondness.
+
+"Don't you understand me, Robert?" she continued. "Don't you remember
+the day, many a good long year ago, it is true, when we walked
+together down there by the branch, and you asked me to be yours? I
+refused you, Robert, and, although you went down on your knees in the
+damp grass and besought me to give you my heart, I would not do it.
+But I did not know you then as I know you now, Robert, and the words
+of true love which you spoke to me that morning come to me now with
+a sweetness which I was too young and trifling to notice then. That
+heart is yours now, Robert. I am yours." And, with these words, she
+made a step forward.
+
+At this demonstration Mr Brandon appeared suddenly to recover his
+consciousness and he precipitately made two steps backwards, just
+missing tumbling over his footstool into the fireplace.
+
+"Madam!" he exclaimed, "what are you talking about?"
+
+"Of the days of our courtship, and your love, Robert," she said. "My
+love did not come then, but it is here now. Here now," she repeated,
+putting the hand with the umbrella in it on her breast.
+
+"Madam," exclaimed the old gentleman, "you must be raving crazy! Those
+things to which you allude, happened nearly half a century ago; and
+since that you have been married and settled, and----"
+
+"Robert," interrupted the Widow Keswick, "you are mistaken. It is not
+quite forty-five years since that morning, and why should hearts like
+ours allow the passage of time or the mere circumstance of what might
+be called an outside marriage, but now extinct, to come between them?
+There is many a spring, Robert, which does not show when a man first
+begins to dig, but it will bubble up in time. And, Robert, it bubbles
+now." And with her head bent a little downwards, although her eyes
+were still fixed upon him, she made another step in his direction.
+
+Mr Brandon now backed himself flat against some book-shelves in his
+rear. The perspiration began to roll from his face, and his whole form
+trembled. "Mrs Keswick! Madam!" he exclaimed, "You will drive me mad!"
+
+The old lady dropped the end of her umbrella on the floor, rested her
+two hands on the head of it, settled herself into an easy position to
+speak, and, with her head thrown back, fixed a steady gaze upon the
+trembling old gentleman. "Robert," she said, "do not try to crush
+emotions which always were a credit to you, although in those days
+gone by I didn't tell you so. Your hair was black then, Robert, and
+you looked taller, for you hadn't a stoop, and your face was very
+smooth, and so was mine, and I remember I had on a white dress with a
+broad ribbon around the waist, and neither of us wore specs. What you
+said to me was very fresh and sweet, Robert, and it all comes to me
+now as it never came before. You have never loved another, Robert, and
+you don't know how happy it makes me to think that, and to know that I
+can come to you and find you the same true and constant lover that you
+were when, forty-five years ago, you went down on your knees to me by
+the branch. We can't stifle those feelings of by-gone days which well
+up in our bosoms, Robert. After all these years I have learned what a
+prize your true love is, and I return it. I am yours."
+
+At this Mr Brandon opened his mouth with a spasmodic gasp, but no word
+came from him. He looked to the right and left, and then made a lunge
+to one side, as if he would run around the old lady and gain the door.
+But Mrs Keswick was too quick for him. With two sudden springs she
+reached the door and put her back against it.
+
+"Don't leave me, Robert," she said, "I have not told you all. Don't
+you remember this breastpin?" unfastening the large silver brooch from
+her shawl and holding it out to him. "You gave it to me, Robert; there
+were almost tears of joy in your eyes on the first day I wore it,
+although I was careful to let you know it meant nothing. Where are
+those tears to-day, Robert? It means something now. I have kept it
+all these years, although in the lifetime of Mr Keswick it was never
+cleaned, and I wore it to-day, Robert, that your eyes might rest upon
+it once again, and that you might speak to me the words you spoke to
+me the day after I let you pin it on my white neckerchief. You waited
+then, Robert, a whole day before you spoke, but you needn't wait now.
+Let your heart speak out, dear Robert."
+
+But dear Robert appeared to have no power to speak, on this or any
+other subject. He was half sitting, half leaning on the corner of a
+table which stood by a window, out of which he gave sudden agonized
+and longing glances, as if, had he strength enough, he would raise the
+sash and leap out.
+
+The old lady, however, had speech enough for two. "Robert," she
+exclaimed, "how happy may we be, yet! If you wish to give up, to a
+younger couple, this spacious mansion, these fine grounds and noble
+elms, and come to my humble home, I shall only say to you, 'Robert,
+come!' I shall be alone there, Robert, and shall welcome you with joy.
+I have nobody now to give anything to. The late Mrs Null, by which I
+mean my niece, will marry a man who, if reports don't lie, is rich
+enough to make her want nothing that I have; and as for Junius, he is
+to have your property, as we all know. So all I have is yours, if you
+choose to come to me, Robert. But, if you would rather live here, I
+will come to you, and the young people can board with us until your
+decease; after that, I'll board with them. And I'm not sure,
+Robert, but I like the plan of coming here best. There are lots of
+improvements we could make on this place, with you to furnish the
+money, and me to advise and direct. The first thing I'd do would be
+to have down those abominable steps over the front fence, and put a
+decent gate in its place; and then we would have a gravelled walk
+across the yard to the porch, wide enough for you and me, Robert,
+to walk together arm-in-arm when we would go out to look over the
+plantation, or stroll down to that spot on the branch, Robert, where
+the first plightings of our troth began."
+
+The words of tender reminiscence, and of fond though rather late
+devotion, with which Mrs Keswick had stabbed and gashed the soul of
+the poor old gentleman, had at first deranged his senses, and then
+driven him into a state of abject despair, but the practical remarks
+which succeeded seemed to have a more direful effect upon him. The
+idea of the being with the sun-bonnet and the umbrella entering into
+his life at Midbranch, tearing down the broad steps which his honored
+father had built, cutting a gravelled path across the green turf which
+had been the pride of generations, and doing, no man could say what
+else, of advice and direction, seemed to strike a chill of terror into
+his very bones.
+
+The quick perception of Mrs Keswick told her that it was time to
+terminate the interview. "I will not say anything more to you now,
+Robert," she said. "Of course you have been surprised at my coming to
+you to-day, and accepting your offer of marriage, and you must have
+time to quiet your mind, and think it over. I don't doubt your
+affection, Robert, and I don't want to hurry you. I am going to stay
+here to-night, so that we can have plenty of time to settle everything
+comfortably. I'll go now and get one of the servants to show me to a
+room where I can take off my things. I'll see you again at dinner."
+
+And, with a smile of antiquated coyness, she left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+Mr Brandon was not a weak man, nor one very susceptible to outside
+influences, but, in the whole course of his life, nothing so
+extraordinarily nerve-stirring had occurred to him as this visit of
+old Mrs Keswick, endeavoring to appear in the character of the young
+creature he had wooed some forty-five years before. For a long time,
+Mrs Keswick had been the enemy of himself and his family; and many a
+bitter onslaught she had made upon him, both by letter, and by word of
+mouth. These he had borne with the utmost bravery and coolness, and
+there were times when they even afforded him entertainment. But this
+most astounding attack was something against which no man could have
+been prepared; and Mr Brandon, suddenly pounced upon in the midst of
+his comfortable bachelordom by a malevolent sorceress and hurled back
+to the days of his youth, was shown himself kneeling, not at the feet
+of a fair young girl, but before a horrible old woman.
+
+This amazing and startling state of affairs was too much for him
+immediately to comprehend. It stunned and bewildered him. Such,
+indeed, was the effect upon him that the first act of his mind, when
+he was left alone, and it began to act, was to ask of itself if there
+were really any grounds upon which Mrs Keswick could, with any reason,
+take up her position? The absolute absurdity of her position, however,
+became more and more evident, as Mr Brandon's mind began to straighten
+itself and stand up. And now he grew angry. Anger was a passion with
+which he was not at all unfamiliar, and the exercise of it seemed to
+do him good. When he had walked up and down his library for a quarter
+of an hour, he felt almost like his natural self; and with many nods
+of his head and shakes of his fist, he declared that the old woman was
+crazy, and that he would bundle her home just as soon as he could.
+
+By dinner-time he had cooled down a good deal, and he resolved to
+treat her with the respect due to her age and former condition of
+sanity; but to take care that she should not again be alone with him,
+and to arrange that she should return to her home that day.
+
+Mrs Keswick came to the table with a smiling face, and wearing a
+close-fitting white cap, which looked like a portion of her night
+gear, tied under her chin with broad, stiff strings. In this she
+appeared to her host as far more hideous than when wearing her
+sun-bonnet. Mr Brandon had arranged that two servants should wait upon
+the table, so that one of them should always be in the room, but in
+his supposition that the presence of a third person would have any
+effect upon the expression of Mrs Keswick's fond regard, he was
+mistaken. The meal had scarcely begun, when she looked around the room
+with wide-open eyes, and exclaimed: "Robert, if we should conclude
+to remain here, I think we will have this room re-papered with some
+light-colored paper. I like a light dining-room. This is entirely too
+dark."
+
+The two servants, one of whom was our old friend, Peggy, actually
+stopped short in their duties at this remark; and as for Mr Brandon,
+his appetite immediately left him, to return no more during that meal.
+
+He was obliged to make some answer to this speech, and so he briefly
+remarked that he had no desire to alter the appearance of his
+dining-room, and then hastened to change the conversation by making
+some inquiries about that interesting young woman, her niece, who, he
+had been informed, was not a married lady, as he had supposed her to
+be.
+
+At this intelligence, Peggy dropped two spoons and a fork; she had
+never heard it before.
+
+"The late Mrs Null," said Mrs Keswick, "is a young woman who likes to
+cut her clothes after her own patterns. They may be becoming to her
+when they are made up, or they may not be. But I am inclined to think
+she has got a pretty good head on her shoulders, and perhaps she
+knows what suits her as well as any of us. I can't say it was easy to
+forgive the trick she played on me, her own aunt, and just the same,
+in fact, as her mother. But Robert," and as she said this the old lady
+laid down her knife and fork, and looked tenderly at Mr Brandon, "I
+have determined to forgive everybody, and to overlook everything,
+and I do this as much for your sake, dear Robert, as for my own. It
+wouldn't do for a couple of our age to be keeping up grudges against
+the young people for their ways of getting out of marriages or getting
+into them. We will have my niece and her husband here sometimes, won't
+we, Robert?"
+
+Mr Brandon straightened himself and remarked: "Mr Croft, whom I have
+heard your niece is to marry, will be quite welcome here, with his
+wife." Then, putting his napkin on the table, and pushing back his
+chair, he said: "Now, madam, you must excuse me, for I have orders to
+give to some of my people which I had forgotten until this moment. But
+do not let me interfere with your dinner. Pray continue your meal."
+
+Never before had Mr Brandon been known to leave his dinner until he
+had finished it, and he was not at all accustomed to give such a poor
+reason for his actions as the one he gave now, but it was simply
+impossible for him to sit any longer at table, and have that old woman
+talk in that shocking manner before the servants.
+
+"Robert," cried Mrs Keswick, as he left the room, "I'll save some
+dessert for you, and we'll eat it together."
+
+Mr Brandon's first impulse, when he found himself out of the
+dining-room, was to mount his horse and ride away; but there was no
+place to which he wished to ride; and he was a man who was very loath
+to leave the comforts of his home. "No," he said. "She must go, and
+not I." And then he went into his parlor, and strode up and down. As
+soon as Mrs Keswick had finished her dinner, he would see her there,
+and speak his mind to her. He had determined that he would not again
+be alone with her, but, since the presence of others was no restraint
+whatever upon her, it had become absolutely necessary that he should
+speak with her alone.
+
+It was not long before the Widow Keswick, with a brisk, blithe step,
+entered the parlor. "I couldn't eat without you, Robert," she cried,
+"and so I really haven't half finished my dinner. Did you have to come
+in here to speak to your people?"
+
+Mr Brandon stepped to the door, and closed it. "Madam," he said, "it
+will be impossible for me, in the absence of my niece, to entertain
+you here to-night, and so it would be prudent for you to start for
+home as soon as possible, as the days are short. It would be too much
+of a journey for your horse to go back again to-day, and your vehicle
+is an open one; therefore I have ordered my carriage to be prepared,
+and you may trust my driver to take you safely home, even if it should
+be dark before you get there. If you desire it, there is a young
+maid-servant here who will go with you."
+
+"Robert," said Mrs Keswick, approaching the old gentleman and gazing
+fondly upward at him, "you are so good, and thoughtful, and sweet. But
+you need not put yourself to all that trouble for me. I shall stay
+here to-night, and in your house, dear Robert, I can take care of
+myself a great deal better than any lady could take care of me."
+
+"Madam," exclaimed Mr Brandon, "I want you to stop calling me by my
+first name. You have no right to do so, and I won't stand it."
+
+"Robert," said the old lady, looking at him with an air of tender
+upbraiding, "you forget that I am yours, now, and forever."
+
+Never, since he had arrived at man's estate, and probably not before,
+had Mr Brandon spoken in improper language to a lady, but now it was
+all he could do to restrain himself from the ejaculation of an oath,
+but he did restrain himself, and only exclaimed: "Confound it, madam,
+I cannot stand this! Why do you come here, to drive me crazy with your
+senseless ravings?"
+
+"Robert," said Mrs Keswick, very composedly "I do not wonder that my
+coming to you and accepting the proposals which you once so heartily
+made to me, and from which you have never gone back, should work a
+good deal upon your feelings. It is quite natural, and I expected it.
+Therefore don't hesitate about speaking out your mind; I shall not be
+offended. So that we belong to each other for the rest of our days, I
+don't mind what you say now, when it is all new and unexpected to you.
+You and I have had many a difference of opinion, Robert, and your
+plans were not my plans. But things have turned out as you wished, and
+you have what you have always wanted; and with the other good things,
+Robert, you can take me." And, as she finished speaking, she held out
+both hands to her companion.
+
+With a stamp of his foot, and a kick at a chair which stood in his
+way, Mr Brandon precipitately left the room, and slammed the door
+after him; and if Peggy had not nimbly sprung to one side, he would
+have stumbled over her, and have had a very bad fall for a man of his
+age.
+
+It was not ten minutes after this, that, looking out of a window, Mrs
+Keswick saw a saddled horse brought into the back yard. She hastened
+into the hall, and found Peggy. "Run to Mr Brandon," she said, "and
+bid him good-bye for me. I am going up stairs to get ready to go home,
+and haven't, time to speak to him, myself, before he starts on his
+ride."
+
+At the receipt of this message the heart of Mr Brandon gave a bound
+which actually helped him to get into the saddle, but he did not
+hesitate in his purpose of instant departure. If he staid, but for
+a moment, she might come out to him, and change her mind, so he put
+spurs to his horse and galloped away, merely stopping long enough, as
+he passed the stables, to give orders that the carriage be prepared
+for Mrs Keswick, and taken round to the front.
+
+As he rode through the cool air of that fine November afternoon, the
+spirits of Mr Brandon rose. He felt a serene satisfaction in assuring
+himself that, although he had been very angry, indeed, with Mrs
+Keswick, on account of her most unheard of and outrageous conduct, yet
+he had not allowed his indignation to burst out against her in any way
+of which he would afterward be ashamed. Some hasty words had escaped
+him, but they were of no importance, and, under the circumstances, no
+one could have avoided speaking them. But, when he had addressed her
+at any length, he had spoken dispassionately and practically, and she,
+being at bottom a practical woman, had seen the sense of his advice,
+and had gone home comfortably in his carriage. Whether she took her
+insane fancies home with her, or dropped them on the road, it mattered
+very little to him, so that he never saw her again; and he did not
+intend to see her again. If she came again to his house, he would
+leave it and not return until she had gone; but he had no reason to
+suppose that he would be forced into any such exceedingly disagreeable
+action as this. He did not believe she would ever come back. For,
+unless she were really crazy--crazy--and in that case she ought to be
+put in the lunatic asylum--she could not keep up, for any length of
+time, the extraordinary and outrageous delusion that he would be
+willing to renew the feelings that he had entertained for her in her
+youth.
+
+Mr Brandon rode until nearly dark, for it took a good while to free
+his mind from the effects of the excitements and torments of that day.
+But, when he entered the house and took his seat in his library chair
+by the fire, he had almost regained his usual composed and well
+satisfied frame of mind.
+
+Then, through the quietly opened door, came Mrs Keswick, and
+stealthily stepping towards him in the fitful light of the blazing
+logs, she put her hand on his arm and said: "Dear Robert, how glad I
+am to see you back!"
+
+The next morning, about ten o'clock, Mrs Keswick sent her eighteenth
+or twentieth message to Mr Brandon, who had shut himself up in his
+room since a little before supper-time on the previous evening. The
+message was sent by Peggy, and she was instructed to shout it outside
+of her master's door until he took notice of it. Its purport was that
+it was necessary that Mrs Keswick should go home to-day, and that her
+horse was harnessed and she was now ready to go, but that she could
+not think of leaving until she had seen Mr Brandon again. She would
+therefore wait until he was ready to come down.
+
+Mr Brandon looked out of the window and saw the spring-wagon at the
+outside of the broad stile, with Plez standing at the sorrel's head.
+He remembered that the venerable demon had said, at the first, that
+she intended to stay but one night, and he could but believe that she
+was now really going. Knowing her as he did, however, he was very well
+aware that if she had said she would not leave until she had seen him,
+she would stay in his house for a year, unless he sooner went down to
+her; therefore he opened his door, and slowly and feebly descended the
+stairs.
+
+"My dear, dear Robert!" exclaimed Mrs Keswick, totally regardless of
+the fact that Peggy was standing at the front door with her valise in
+her hand, and that there was another servant in the hall, "how pale,
+and haggard, and worn you look! You must be quite unwell, and I don't
+know but that I ought to stay here and take care of you."
+
+At these words a look of agony passed over the old man's face, but he
+said nothing.
+
+"But I am afraid I cannot stay any longer this time," continued the
+Widow Keswick, "for my niece would not know what had become of me, and
+there are things at home that I must attend to; but I will come again.
+Don't think I intend to desert you, dear Robert. You shall see me soon
+again. But while I am gone," she said, turning to the two servants, "I
+want you maids to take good care of your master. You must do it for
+his sake, for he has always been kind to you, but I also want you
+to do it for my sake. Don't you forget that. And now, dear Robert,
+good-bye." As she spoke, she extended her hand towards the old
+gentleman.
+
+Without a word, but with a good deal of apparent reluctance, he took
+the long, bony hand in his, and probably, would have instantly dropped
+it again, had not Mrs Keswick given him a most hearty clutch, and a
+vigorous and long-continued shake.
+
+"It is hard, dear Robert," she said, "for us to part, with nothing but
+a hand-shake, but there are people about, and this will have to
+do." And then, after urging him to take good care of his health, so
+valuable to them both, and assuring him that he would soon see her
+again, she gave his hand a final shake, and left him. Accompanied by
+Peggy, she went out to the spring-wagon and clambered into it. It
+almost surpasses belief that Mr Brandon, a Virginia gentleman of the
+old school, should have stood in his hall, and have seen an old lady
+leave his house and get into a vehicle, without accompanying and
+assisting her; but such was the case on this occasion. He seemed to
+have forgotten his traditions, and to have lost his impulses. He
+simply stood where the Widow Keswick had left him, and gazed at her.
+
+When she was seated, and ready to start, the old lady turned towards
+him, called out to him in a cheery voice: "Good-bye, Robert!" and
+kissed her hand to him.
+
+Mrs Keswick slowly drove away, and Mr Brandon stood at his hall
+door, gazing after her until she was entirely out of sight. Then he
+ejaculated: "The Devil's daughter!" and went into his library.
+
+"I wonders," said Peggy when she returned to the kitchen, "how you
+all's gwine to like habin dat ole Miss Keswick libin h'yar as you
+all's mistiss."
+
+"Who's gwine to hab her?" growled Aunt Judy.
+
+"You all is," sturdily retorted Peggy. "Dar ain't no use tryin' to git
+out ob dat. Dat old Miss Keswick done gone an' kunjered Mahs' Robert,
+an' dey's boun' to git mar'ed. I done heered all 'bout it, an' she's
+comin' h'yar to lib wid Mahs' Robert. But dat don' make no dif'rence
+to me. I's gwine to lib wid Mahs' Junius an' Miss Rob in New York, I
+is. But I's mighty sorry for you all."
+
+"You Peggy," shouted the irate Aunt Judy, "shut up wid your fool talk!
+When Mahs' Robert marry dat ole jimpsun weed, de angel Gabr'el blow
+his hohn, shuh."
+
+Slowly driving along the road to her home, the Widow Keswick gazed
+cheerfully at the blue sky above her, and the pleasant autumn scenery
+around her; sniffed the fine fresh air, delicately scented with the
+odor of falling leaves; and settling herself into a more comfortable
+position on her seat, she complacently said to herself: "Well, I
+reckon the old scapegrace has got his money's worth this time!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+There were two reasons why Peggy could not go to live with "Mahs'
+Junius and Miss Rob" in New York. In the first place, this couple
+had no intention of setting up an establishment in that city; and
+secondly, Peggy, as Roberta well knew, was not adapted by nature to be
+her maid, or the maid of any one else. Peggy's true vocation in life
+was to throw her far-away gaze into futurity, and, as far as in her
+lay, to adapt present circumstances to what she supposed was going to
+happen. It would have delighted her soul if she could have been the
+adept in conjuring, which she firmly believed the Widow Keswick to be;
+but, as she possessed no such gift, she made up the deficiency, as
+well as she could, by mixing up her mind, her soul, and her desires,
+into a sort of witch's hodge-podge, which she thrust as a spell
+into the affairs of other people. Twice had the devices of this
+stupid-looking wooden peg of a negro girl stopped Lawrence Croft in
+the path he was following in his pursuit of Roberta March. If Lawrence
+had known, at the time, what Peggy was doing, he would have considered
+her an unmitigated little demon; but afterward, if he could have
+known of it, he would have thought her a very unprepossessing and
+conscienceless guardian angel.
+
+As it was, he knew not what she had done, and never considered her at
+all.
+
+Junius Keswick took much more delight in farming than he did in the
+practice of the law, and it was only because he had felt himself
+obliged to do so, that he had adopted the legal profession. To be
+a farmer, one must have a farm; but a lawyer can frequently make a
+living from the lands of other men. He was very willing, therefore,
+to agree to the plan which, for years, had been Mr Brandon's most
+cherished scheme; that he and Roberta should make their home at
+Midbranch, and that he should take charge of the estate, which would
+be his wife's property after the old gentleman's decease. Roberta was
+as fond of the country as was Junius, but she was also a city woman;
+and it was arranged that the couple should spend a portion of each
+winter in New York, at the house of Mr March.
+
+Junius, and Roberta, as well as her father, hoped very much that they
+might be able to induce Mr Brandon to come to New York to attend the
+wedding, which was to take place the middle of January; but they were
+not confident of success, for they knew the old gentleman disliked
+very much to travel, especially in winter. Three very pressing letters
+were therefore written to Mr Brandon; and the writers were much
+surprised to receive, in a short time, a collective answer, in which
+he stated that he would not only be present at the wedding, but that
+he thought of spending several months in New York. It would be very
+lonely at Midbranch, he wrote, without Roberta--though why it should
+be more so this year, than during preceding winters, he did not
+explain--and he felt a desire to see the changes that had taken place
+in the metropolis since he had visited it, years ago.
+
+They would not have been so much surprised had they known that Mr
+Brandon did not feel himself safe in his own home, by night or by day.
+Frequently had he gazed out of a window at the point in the road on
+which the first sight of an approaching spring-wagon could have been
+caught; and had said to himself: "If only Roberta were here, that old
+hag would not dare to speak a word to me! I don't want to go away,
+but, by George! I don't see how I can stay here without Rob."
+
+There was a short, very black, and somewhat bowlegged negro man on the
+place, named Israel Bonaparte, who lived in a little cabin by himself,
+and was noted for his unsocial disposition, and his taciturnity. To
+him Mr Brandon went one day, and said: "Israel, I want you to go to
+work on the fence rows on my side of the road to Howlett's. Grub up
+the bushes, clear out the vines and weeds, and see that the rails and
+posts are all in order. That will be a job that I expect will last you
+until the roads begin to get heavy. And, by the way, Israel, while you
+are at work, I want you to keep a lookout for any visitors that may
+turn into our road, especially if they happen to be ladies. Now that
+Miss Rob is away, I am very particular about knowing, beforehand, when
+ladies are coming to visit me; and when you see any wagon or carriage
+turn in, I want you to make a short cut across the fields, and let me
+know it, and I will give you a quarter of a dollar every time you do
+so." This was a very pleasant job of work for the meditative Israel.
+He was not very fond of grubbing, but he earned the greater part of
+his ten dollars a month and rations, by sitting on the fence, smoking
+a corn-cob pipe, and attending to the second division of the work
+which his employer had set him to do.
+
+Lawrence Croft was in New York at this time, a very busy man,
+arranging his affairs in that city, so that they would not need
+his personal attention for some time to come; he sub-let, for the
+remainder of his lease, the suite of bachelor apartments he had
+occupied, and he stored his furniture and books. One might have
+imagined that he was taking in all possible sails; close reefing the
+others; battening down the hatches; and preparing to run before a
+storm; and yet his demeanor did not indicate that he expected any
+violent commotion of the elements. On the contrary, his friends and
+acquaintances thought him particularly blithe and gay. He told them he
+was going to be married.
+
+"To that Virginia lady, I suppose," said one. "I remember her very
+well; and consider you fortunate."
+
+"I don't think you ever met her," said Mr Croft. "She is a Miss
+Peyton, from King Thomas County."
+
+"Ah!" remarked his interlocutor. Lawrence walked to the window of the
+club-room, and stood there, slowly puffing his cigar. Had anybody met
+this one? he thought. He knew she had seen but little company during
+her father's life, but was it likely that any of his acquaintances had
+had business at Candy's Information Shop? As this idea came into his
+mind, there seemed to be something unpleasant in the taste of his
+cigar, and he threw it into the fire. A few turns, however, up and
+down the now almost deserted rooms, restored his tone; he lighted
+another cigar, and now there came up before him a vision of the girl
+who, from loyalty to her dead father, preferred to sit all day behind
+Candy's money desk rather than go to a relative who had not been his
+friend. And then he saw the young girl who took up so courageously the
+cause of one of her own blood--the boy cousin of her childhood; and
+with a lover's pride, Lawrence thought of the dash, the spirit, and
+the bravery with which she had done it.
+
+"By George!" he said to himself, his eyes sparkling, and his step
+quickening, "she has more in her than all the rest of them put
+together!"
+
+Who were included in "the rest of them," Lawrence was not prepared
+just then to say, but the expression was intended to have a very wide
+range.
+
+It was about the middle of December, when Lawrence paid another visit
+to Mrs Keswick's house. The day was cold, but clear, and as he drove
+up to the outer gate, he saw the old lady returning from a walk to
+Howlett's. She stepped along briskly, and was in a very good humor,
+for she had just posted a carefully concocted letter to Mr Brandon, in
+which she had expatiated, in her peculiar style, on the pleasure
+which she expected from an early visit to Midbranch. She had not the
+slightest idea of going there, at present, but she thought it quite
+time to freshen up the old gentleman's anticipations.
+
+Descending from his carriage to meet her, Lawrence was very warmly
+greeted, and the two went up to the house together.
+
+"I expect the late Mrs Null will be very glad to see you," said Mrs
+Keswick. "I think she has burned up all her widow's weeds."
+
+"You should be very much obliged to your niece," said Mr Croft, "for
+so delicately ridding you of that dreadful fertilizer man."
+
+"Humph!" said the old lady. "She cheated me out of the pleasure of
+telling him what I thought of him, and I shall never forgive her for
+that."
+
+As Lawrence and Annie sat together in the parlor that evening, he told
+her what he had been doing in New York, and this brought to her lips a
+question, which she was very anxious to have answered. She knew that
+Lawrence was rich; that his methods of life and thought made him a man
+of the cities; and she felt quite certain that the position to
+which he would conduct her was that of the mistress of a handsome
+town-house, and the wife of a man of society. She liked handsome
+town-houses, and she was sure she would like society; but it would all
+be very new and strange to her, and, although she was a brave girl at
+heart, she shrank from making such a plunge as this.
+
+"How are we going to live?" repeated Lawrence. "That, of course, is
+to be as you shall choose, but I have a plan to propose to you, and I
+want very much to hear what you think about it. And the plan is, that
+we shall not live anywhere for a year or two, but wander, fancy free,
+over as much of the world as pleases us; and then decide where we
+shall settle down, and how we shall like to do it."
+
+If Annie's answer had been expressed in words, it might have been
+given here. It may be said, however, that it was very quick, very
+affirmative, and, in more ways than one, highly satisfactory to
+Lawrence.
+
+"Is it London, and a landlady, and tea?" she presently asked.
+
+"Yes, it is that," he said.
+
+"Is it the shops on the Boulevards?"
+
+"Yes," said Lawrence.
+
+"And the Appian Way? And the Island of Capri? And snow mountains in
+the distance?" she asked.
+
+"In their turn, most certainly," said her lover, "and it shall be the
+midnight sun, and the Nile, if you like."
+
+"Freddy," exclaimed the late Mrs Null, "I thank thee for what thou
+hast given me!" And she clasped the hand of Lawrence in both her own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+The marriage of Junius Keswick and Roberta March was appointed for the
+fifteenth of January, and Mr Brandon had arranged to be in New York a
+few days before the event. He intended, however, to leave Midbranch
+soon after the first of the year, and to spend a week with some of his
+friends in Richmond.
+
+It was on the afternoon of New Year's Day, and Mr Brandon was sitting
+in his library with Colonel Pinckney Macon, an elderly gentleman
+of social habits and genial temper, whom Mr Brandon had invited to
+Midbranch to spend the holidays, and who was afterwards to be his
+travelling companion as far as Richmond. The two had had a very good
+dinner, and were now sitting before the fire smoking their pipes, and
+paying occasional attention to two tumblers of egg-nogg, which stood
+on a small table between them. They were telling anecdotes of olden
+times, and were in very good humor indeed, when a servant came in with
+a note, which had just been brought for Mr Brandon. The old gentleman
+took the missive, and put on his eye-glasses, but the moment he read
+the address, he let his hand fall on his knee, and gave vent to an
+angry ejaculation.
+
+"It's from that rabid old witch, the Widow Keswick!" he exclaimed,"
+I've a great mind to throw it into the fire without reading it."
+
+"Don't do that," cried Colonel Macon. "It is a New Year present she is
+sending you. Read it, sir, read it by all means."
+
+Mr Brandon had given his friend an account of his unexampled and
+astounding persecutions by the Widow Keswick, and the old colonel had
+been much interested thereby; and it would have greatly grieved his
+soul not to become acquainted with this new feature of the affair.
+"Read it, sir," he cried; "I would like to know what sort of New Year
+congratulations she offers you."
+
+"Congratulations indeed!" said Mr Brandon; "you needn't expect
+anything of that kind." But he opened the note; and, turning, so that
+he could get a good light upon it, began to read aloud, as follows:
+
+"MY DEAREST ROBERT."
+
+"Confound it, sir," exclaimed the reader, "did you ever hear of such a
+piece of impertinence as that?"
+
+Colonel Pinckney Macon leaned back in his chair, and laughed aloud.
+"It is impertinent," he cried, "but it's confoundedly jolly! Go on,
+sir. Go on, I beg of you."
+
+Mr Brandon continued:
+
+"It is not for me to suggest anything of the kind, but I write this
+note simply to ask you what you would think of a triple wedding? There
+would certainly be something very touching about it, and it would be
+very satisfactory and comforting, I am sure, to our nieces and their
+husbands to know that they were not leaving either of us to a lonely
+life. Would we not make three happy pairs, dear Robert? Remember, I do
+not propose this, I only lay it before your kindly and affectionate
+heart.
+
+"Your own
+
+"Martha Ann Keswick."
+
+
+Colonel Macon, who, with much difficulty and redness of face, had
+restrained himself during the reading of this note, now burst into a
+shout of laughter, while Mr Brandon sprang to his feet, and crumpling
+the note in his hand, threw it into the fire; and then, turning
+around, he exclaimed: "Did the world ever hear anything like that!
+Triple wedding, indeed! Does the pestiferous old shrew imagine that
+anything in this world would induce me to marry her?"
+
+"Why, my dear sir," cried Colonel Macon, "of course she don't. I know
+the Widow Keswick as well as you do. She wouldn't marry you to save
+your soul, sir. All she wants to do is to worry and persecute you, and
+to torment your senses out of you, in revenge for your having got the
+better of her. Now, take my advice, sir, and don't let her do it.
+
+"I'd like to know how I am going to hinder her," said Mr Brandon.
+
+"Hinder her!" exclaimed Colonel Macon. "Nothing easier in this world,
+sir! Just you turn right square round, and face her, sir; and you'll
+see that she'll stop short, sir; and, what's more, she'll run, sir!"
+
+"How am I to face her?" asked Mr Brandon. "I have faced her, and I
+assure you, sir, she didn't run."
+
+"That was because you did not go to work in the right way," said the
+colonel. "Now, if I were in your place, sir, this is what I would do.
+I'd turn on her and I'd scare her out of all the wits she has left.
+I'd say to her: 'Madam, I think your proposition is an excellent one.
+I am ready to marry you to-day, or, at the very latest, to-morrow
+morning. I'll come to your house, and bring a clergyman, and some of
+my friends. Don't let there be the least delay, for I desire to start
+immediately for New York, and to take you with me.' Now, sir, a note
+like that would frighten that old woman so that she would leave her
+house, and wouldn't come back for six weeks; and the letter you have
+just burned would be the last attack she would make on you. Now, sir,
+that is what I would do if I were in your place."
+
+Mr Brandon sat down, drained his tumbler of egg-nogg, and began to
+think of what his friend had said. And, as he thought of it, the
+conviction forced itself upon him that this idea of Colonel Macon's
+was a good one; in fact, a splendid one. Now that he came to look upon
+the matter more clearly than he had done before, he saw that this
+persecution on the part of the Widow Keswick was not only base, but
+cowardly. He had been entirely too yielding, had given way too much.
+Yes, he would face her! By George! that was a royal idea! He would
+turn round, and make a dash at her, and scare her out of her five
+senses.
+
+Pens, ink, and paper were brought out; more egg-nogg was ordered; and
+Mr Brandon, aided and abetted by Colonel Macon, wrote a letter to Mrs
+Keswick.
+
+This letter took a long time to write, and was very carefully
+constructed. With outstretched hands, Mr Brandon met the old lady on
+the very threshold of her proposition. He stated that nothing would
+please him better than an immediate wedding, and that he would have
+proposed it himself had he not feared that the lady would consider him
+too importunate. (This expression was suggested by Colonel Macon.)
+In order that they might lose no time in making themselves happy, Mr
+Brandon proposed that the marriage should take place in a week, and
+that the ceremony should be performed in Richmond. (The colonel wished
+him to say that he would immediately go to her house for the purpose,
+but Mr Brandon would not consent to write this. He was afraid that the
+widow would sit at her front door with a shot-gun and wait for him,
+and that some damage might thereby come to an unwary neighbor.)
+Each of them had many old friends in Richmond, and it would be very
+pleasant to be married there. He intended to start for that city in a
+day or two, and he would be rejoiced to meet her at eleven o'clock on
+the morning of the fifth instant, in the corridor, or covered bridge,
+connecting the Exchange and Ballard hotels, and there arrange all the
+details for an immediate marriage. The letter closed with an earnest
+hope that she would accede to this proposed plan, which would so soon
+make them the happiest couple upon earth; and was signed "Your devoted
+Robert."
+
+"By which I mean," said Mr Brandon, "that I am devoted to her
+destruction."
+
+The letter was read over by Colonel Macon, and highly approved by him.
+"If you had met that woman, sir, when she first came to you," he said
+to Mr Brandon, "with the spirit that is shown in this letter, you
+would have put a shiver through her, sir, that would have shaken the
+bones out of her umbrella, and she would have cut and run, sir, before
+you knew it."
+
+The messenger from Howlett's was kept at Midbranch all night, and
+the next morning he was sent back with Mr Brandon's note. Two days
+afterward Colonel Macon and Mr Brandon started for Richmond, and in
+the course of a few hours, they were comfortably sipping their "peach
+and honey" at the Exchange and Ballard's.
+
+The next day was most enjoyably spent with a number of old friends;
+and in reminiscences of the past war, and in discussions of the coming
+political campaign, Mr Brandon had thrown off every sign of the
+annoyance and persecution to which he had lately been subjected.
+
+"By George, sir!" said Colonel Macon to him the next morning, "do you
+know that you are a most untrustworthy and perfidious man?"
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed Mr Brandon, "what do you mean?"
+
+"I mean," replied Colonel Pinckney Macon, with much dignity, "that
+you promised at eleven o'clock to-day to meet a lady in the corridor
+connecting these two hotels. It wants three minutes of that time now,
+sir, and here you are reading the 'Dispatch' as if you never made a
+promise in your life."
+
+"I declare," said Mr Brandon, rising, "my conduct is indefensible,
+but I am going to my room, and, on my way, will keep my part of the
+contract."
+
+"I will go with you," said the colonel.
+
+Together they mounted the stairs, and approached the corridor; and, as
+they opened its glass doors, they saw, sitting in a chair on one side
+of the passage, the Widow Keswick.
+
+If Mr Brandon had not been caught by his friend he would have fallen
+over backwards. Regaining an upright position, he made a frantic turn,
+as if he would fly, but he was not quick enough; Mrs Keswick had him
+by the arm.
+
+"Robert!" she exclaimed. "I knew how true and faithful you would be.
+It has just struck eleven. How do you do, Colonel Macon?" And she
+extended her hand.
+
+There was no one in the corridor at the time but these three, but the
+place was much used as a passageway, and Colonel Macon, who was very
+pale, but still retained his presence of mind, knew well, that if
+any one were to come along at this moment, it would be decidedly
+unpleasant, not only for his friend, but himself. "I am glad to meet
+you again, Mrs Keswick," he said. "Let us go into one of the parlors.
+It will be more comfortable."
+
+"How kind," murmured Mrs Keswick, as she clung to the arm of Mr
+Brandon, "for you to bring our good friend, Colonel Macon."
+
+They went into a parlor, which was empty, and where they were not
+likely to be disturbed. Mr Brandon walked there without saying a word.
+His face was as pallid as its well-seasoned color would allow, and he
+looked straight before him with an air which seemed to indicate that
+he was trying to remember something terrible, or else trying to forget
+it, and that he himself did not know which it was.
+
+Colonel Macon did not stay long in the parlor. There was that in the
+air of Mrs Keswick which made him understand that there were other
+places in Richmond where he would be much more welcome than in that
+room. He went down into the large hall where the gentlemen generally
+congregate; and there, in great distress of mind, he paced up and down
+the marble floor, exchanging nothing but the briefest salutations and
+answers with the acquaintances he occasionally encountered. The clerk,
+behind his desk at one side of the hall, had seen men walking up and
+down in that way, and he thought that the colonel had probably been
+speculating in tobacco or wheat; but he knew he was good for the
+amount of his bill, and he retained his placidity.
+
+In about half an hour, there came down the stairs, at one end of
+the hall, an elderly person who somewhat resembled Mr Brandon of
+Midbranch. The clothes and the hat were the same that that gentleman
+wore, and the same heavy gold chain with dangling seal-rings hung
+across his ample waistcoat; but there was a general air of haggardness
+and stoop about him which did not in the least suggest the upright and
+portly gentleman who had written his name in the hotel register the
+day before yesterday.
+
+Colonel Macon made five strides towards him, and seized his hand.
+"What," said he, "how----?"
+
+Mr Brandon did not look at him; he let his eyes fall where they chose;
+it mattered not to him what they gazed upon; and, in a low voice, he
+said: "It is all over."
+
+"Over!" repeated the colonel.
+
+Mr Brandon put a feeble hand on his friend's arm, and together they
+walked into the reading room, where they sat down in a corner.
+
+"Have you settled it then?" asked Colonel Macon with great anxiety.
+"Is she gone?"
+
+"It is settled," said Mr Brandon. "We are to be married."
+
+"Married!" cried Colonel Macon, springing to his feet. "Great Heavens,
+man! What do you mean?"
+
+Not very fluently, and in sentences with a very few words in each of
+them, but words that sank like hot coals into the soul of his hearer,
+Mr Brandon explained what he meant. It had been of no use, he said, to
+try to get out of it; the old woman had him with the grip of a vise.
+That letter had done it all. He ought to have known that she was not
+to be frightened, but it was needless to talk about that. It was all
+over now, and he was as much bound to her as if he had promised before
+a magistrate.
+
+"But you don't mean to say," exclaimed the colonel in a voice of
+anguish, "that you are really going to marry her?"
+
+"Sir," said Mr Brandon, solemnly, "there is no way to get out of it.
+If you think there is, you don't know the woman."
+
+"I would have died first!" said the colonel. "I never would have
+submitted to her!"
+
+"I did not submit," replied Mr Brandon. "That was done when the
+letter was written. I roused myself, and I said everything I could
+say, but it was all useless, she held me to my promise. I told her I
+would fly to the ends of the earth rather than marry her, and then,
+sir, she threatened me with a prosecution for breach of promise; and
+think of the disgrace that that would bring upon me; upon my family
+name; and on my niece and her young husband. It was a mistake, sir, to
+suppose that she merely wished to persecute me. She wished to marry
+me, and she is going to do it."
+
+The colonel bowed his face upon his hands, and groaned. Mr Brandon
+looked at him with a dim compassion in his eyes. "Do not reproach
+yourself, sir," he said. "We thought we were acting for the best."
+
+But little more was said, and two crushed old gentlemen retired to
+their rooms.
+
+In the days of her youth, Mrs Keswick had been very well known in
+Richmond; and there were a good many elderly ladies and gentlemen, now
+living in that city, who remembered her as a handsome, sparkling, and
+somewhat eccentric young woman, and who had since heard of her as a
+decidedly eccentric old one. Mr Brandon, also, had a large circle of
+friends and acquaintances in the city; and when it became known that
+these two elderly persons were to be married--and the news began to
+spread shortly after Mrs Keswick reached the house of the friend with
+whom she was staying--it excited a great deal of excusable interest.
+
+Mrs Keswick, according to her ordinary methods of action, took all the
+arrangements into her own hands. She appointed the wedding for the
+eighth of January, in order that the happy pair might go to New York,
+and be present at the nuptials of Junius and Roberta. Mr Brandon had
+thought of writing to Junius, in the hope that the young man might do
+something to avert his fate, but remembering how utterly unable Junius
+had always been to move his aunt one inch, this way or that, he did
+not believe that he could be of any service in this case, in which
+all the energies of her mind were evidently engaged, and he readily
+consented that she should attend to all the correspondence. It would,
+indeed, have been too hard for him to break the direful truth to his
+niece and Junius. He ventured to suggest that Miss Peyton be sent for,
+having a faint hope that he might in some manner lean upon her; but
+Mrs Keswick informed him that her niece must stay at home to take
+charge of the place. There were two women in the house, who were
+busy sewing for her, and it would be impossible for her to come to
+Richmond.
+
+Her correspondence kept the Widow Keswick very busy. She decided that
+she would be married in a church which she used to attend in her
+youth; and to all of her old friends, and to all those of Mr Brandon
+whose names she could learn by diligent inquiry, invitations were sent
+to attend the ceremony; but no one outside of Richmond was invited.
+
+The old lady did not come to the city with a purple sun-bonnet and
+a big umbrella. She wore her best bonnet, which had been used for
+church-going purposes for many years, and arrayed herself in a
+travelling suit which was of excellent material, although of most
+antiquated fashion. She discussed very freely, with her friends, the
+arrangements she had made, and protuberant candor being at times
+one of her most noticeable characteristics, she did not leave it
+altogether to others to say that the match she was about to make was
+a most remarkably good one. For years it had been a hard struggle for
+her to keep up the Keswick farm, but now she had fought a battle, and
+won a victory, which ought to make her comfortable and satisfied for
+the rest of her life. If Mr Brandon's family had taken a great deal
+from her, she would more than repay herself by appropriating the old
+gentleman, together with his possessions.
+
+After the depression following the first shock, Mr Brandon endeavored
+to stiffen himself. There was a great deal of pride in him, and if he
+was obliged to go to the altar, he did not wish his old friends to
+suppose that he was going there to be sacrificed. He had brought this
+dreadful thing upon himself, but he would try to stand up like a man,
+and bear it; and, after all, it might not be for long; the Widow
+Keswick was a good deal older than he was. Other thoughts occasionally
+came to comfort him; she could not make him continually live with her,
+and he had plans for visits to Richmond, and even to New York; and,
+better than that, she might want to spend a good deal of time at her
+own farm.
+
+"For the sake of my name, and my niece," he said to himself, "I must
+bear it like a man."
+
+And, in answer to an earnest adjuration, Colonel Pinckney Macon
+solemnly promised that he would never reveal, to man or woman, that
+his friend did not marry the Widow Keswick entirely of his own wish
+and accord.
+
+It was the desire of Mrs Keswick that the marriage, although conducted
+in church, should be very simple in its arrangements. There would be
+no bridesmaids or groomsmen; no flowers; no breakfast; and the couple
+would be dressed in travelling costume. The friends of the old lady
+persuaded her to make considerable changes in her attire, and a
+costume was speedily prepared, which, while it suggested the fashions
+of the present day, was also calculated to recall reminiscences of
+those of a quarter of a century ago. This simplicity was the only
+thing connected with the affair which satisfied Mr Brandon, and he
+would have been glad to have the marriage entirely private, with no
+more witnesses than the law demanded. But to this Mrs Keswick would
+not consent. She wanted to have her former friends about her.
+Accordingly, the church was pretty well filled with old colonels,
+old majors, old generals, and old judges, with their wives and their
+sisters, and, in a few cases, their daughters. All the elderly people
+in Richmond, who, in the days of their youth, had known the gay
+Miss Matty Pettigrew, and the handsome Bob Brandon, felt a certain
+rejuvenation of spirit as they went to the wedding of the couple, who
+had once been these two.
+
+The old lady looked full of life and vigor, and, despite the
+circumstances, Mr Brandon preserved a good deal of his usual manly
+deportment. But, when in the course of the marriage service, the
+clergyman came to the question in which the bride-groom was asked if
+he would have this woman to be his wedded wife, to love and keep her
+for the rest of their lives, the answer, "I will," came forth in a
+feeble tone, which was not wholly divested of a tinge of despondency.
+
+With the lady it was quite otherwise. When the like question was put
+to her, she stepped back, and in a loud, clear voice, exclaimed:
+"Not I! Marry that man, there?" she continued in a higher tone, and
+pointing her finger at the astounded Mr Brandon. "Not for the world,
+sir! Before he was born, his family defrauded and despoiled my people,
+and as soon as he took affairs into his own hands, he continued the
+villainous law robberies until we are poor, and he is rich; and, not
+content with that, he basely wrecks and destroys the plans I had made
+for the comfort of my old age, in order that his paltry purposes may
+be carried out. After all that, does anybody here suppose that I would
+take him for a husband? Marry him! Not I!" And, with these words, the
+old lady turned her back on the clergyman, and walked rapidly down the
+centre aisle, until she reached the church door. There she stopped,
+and turning towards the stupefied assemblage, she snapped her bony
+fingers in the air, and exclaimed: "Now, Mr Robert Brandon of
+Midbranch, our account is balanced."
+
+She then went out of the door, and took a street car for the train
+that would carry her to her home.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Late Mrs. Null, by Frank Richard Stockton
+
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