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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Princess, by Mary Greenway McClelland
+
+
+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: Princess
+
+
+Author: Mary Greenway McClelland
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 18, 2006  [eBook #17545]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCESS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Al Haines
+
+
+
+American Authors' Series, No. 17.
+
+PRINCESS
+
+by
+
+M. G. McCLELLAND
+
+Author of "Oblivion," "Jean Monteith," "Eleanor Gwynn," Etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York:
+United States Book Company
+Successors to
+John W. Lovell Company
+150 Worth St., Cor Mission Place
+Copyright, 1886,
+by
+Henry Holt & Co.
+
+
+
+
+
+With love and admiration,
+
+I dedicate this book to the memory of my friend,
+
+
+THOMAS ALEXANDER SEDDON.
+
+
+
+
+PRINCESS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+When the idea of a removal to Virginia was first mooted in the family
+of General Percival Smith, ex-Brigadier in the United States service,
+it was received with consternation and a perfect storm of disapproval.
+The young ladies, Norma and Blanche, rose as one woman--loud in
+denunciation, vehement in protest--fell upon the scheme, and verbally
+sought to annihilate it.  The country!  A farm!!  The South!!!  The
+idea was untenable, monstrous.  Before their outraged vision floated
+pictures whereof the foreground was hideous with cows, and snakes, and
+beetles; the middle distance lurid with discomfort, corn-bread, and
+tri-weekly mails; the background lowering with solitude, ennui, and
+colored servants.
+
+Rusticity, nature, sylvan solitudes, and all that, were exquisite bound
+in Russia, with gold lettering and tinted leaves; wonderfully alluring
+viewed at leisure with the gallery to one's self, and the light at the
+proper angle, charmingly attractive behind the footlights, but in
+reality!--to the feeling of these young ladies it could be best
+appreciated by those who had been born to it.  In their opinion, they,
+themselves, had been born to something vastly superior, so they
+rebelled and made themselves disagreeable; hoping to mitigate the gloom
+of the future by intensifying that of the present.
+
+Their mother, whose heart yearned over her offspring, essayed to
+comfort them, casting daily and hourly the bread of suggestion and
+anticipation on the unthankful waters, whence it invariably returned to
+her sodden with repinings.  The young ladies set their grievances up on
+high and bowed the knee; they were not going to be comforted, nor
+pleased, nor hopeful, not they.  The scheme was abominable, and no
+aspect in which it could be presented rendered its abomination less;
+they were hopeless, and helpless, and oppressed, and there was the end
+of it.
+
+Poor Mrs. Smith wished it might be the end, or anywhere near the end;
+for the soul within her was "vexed with strife and broken in pieces
+with words."  The general could--and did--escape the rhetorical
+consequences of his unpopular measure, but his wife could not: no club
+afforded her its welcome refuge, no "down town" offered her sanctuary.
+She was obliged to stay at home and endure it all.  Norma's sulks,
+Blanche's tears, the rapture of the boys--hungering for novelty as boys
+only can hunger--the useless and trivial suggestions of friends, the
+minor arrangements for the move, the decision on domestic questions
+present and to come, the questions, answers, futile conjectures, all
+formed a murk through which she labored, striving to please her husband
+and her children, to uphold authority, quell mutiny, soothe murmurs,
+and sympathize with enthusiasm; with a tact which shamed diplomacy, and
+a patience worthy of an evangelist.
+
+After the indulgent American custom, she earnestly desired to please
+_all_ of her children.  In her own thoughts she existed only for them,
+to minister to their happiness; even her husband was, unconsciously to
+her, quite of secondary importance, his strongest present claim to
+consideration lying in his paternity.  Had it been possible, she would
+have raised her tent, and planted her fig tree in the spot preferred by
+each one of her children, but as that was out of the question, in the
+mother's mind of course her sons came first.  And this preference must
+be indulged the more particularly that Warner--the elder of her two
+boys, her idol and her grief--was slowly, well-nigh imperceptibly, but
+none the less surely, drifting away from her.  A boyish imprudence, a
+cold, over-exertion, the old story which is so familiar, so hopeless,
+so endless in its repetition and its pathos.  When interests were
+diverse, the healthy, blooming daughters could hope to make little
+headway against the invalid son.  _They_ had all the sunny hours of
+many long years before them; he perhaps only the hurrying moments of
+one.
+
+For Warner a change was imperative--so imperative that even the
+rebellious girls were fain to admit its necessity.  His condition
+required a gentler, kindlier atmosphere than that of New York.  The
+poor diseased lungs craved the elixir of pure air; panted for the
+invigoration of breezes freshly oxygenized by field and forest, and
+labored exhaustedly in the languid devitalized breath of a city.  The
+medical fraternity copiously consulted, recognized their impotence, but
+refrained from stating it; and availed themselves of their power of
+reference to the loftier physician--the boy must be healed, if he was
+to be healed, by nature.  The country, pure air, pure milk, tender
+care; these were his only hope.
+
+General Smith was a man trained by military discipline to be instant in
+decision and prompt in action.  As soon as the doctors informed him
+that his son's case required--not wanderings--but a steady residence in
+a climate bracing, as well as mild, where the comforts of home could
+supplement the healing of nature, he set himself at once to discover a
+place which would fill all the requirements.  To the old soldier, New
+England born and Michigan bred, Virginia appeared a land of sun and
+flowers, a country well-nigh tropical in the softness of its climate,
+and the fervor of its heat.  The doctors recommended Florida, or South
+Carolina, as in duty bound, and to the suggestion of Virginia yielded
+only a dubious consent; it was very far _north_, they said, but still
+it might do.  To the general, it seemed very far _south_, and he was
+certain it would do.
+
+In the old time, he remembered, when he was in lower Virginia with
+McClellan, he had reveled in the softness, the delight of that, to him,
+marvelous climate.  He had found the nights so sweet; the air,
+vitalized with the breath of old ocean, so invigorating, the heat at
+noonday so dry, and the coolness at evening so refreshing.  There were
+pines, too; old fields of low scrub, and some forests of the nobler
+sort; that would be the thing for Warner.  He remembered how, as he sat
+in the tent door, the breeze scented with resinous odors used to come
+to him, and how, strong man though he was, he had felt as he drew it
+into his lungs that it did him good.
+
+In those old campaigning days, the fancy had been born in him that some
+time in the future he would like to return and make his home here,
+where "amorous ocean wooed a gracious land"--that when his fighting
+days were over, and the retired list lengthened by his name, it would
+be a pleasant thing to have his final bivouac among the gallant foes
+who had won his admiration by their dauntless manner of giving and
+taking blows.
+
+The exigencies and absorptions of military life, in time, dimmed the
+fancy, but it never altogether vanished.  Out on the plains with
+Custer, away in the mountains and the Indian country, vegetating in the
+dullness of frontier posts, amid the bustle, the luxury and excitement
+of city life, the fancy would return; the memory of those soft starlit
+Virginia evenings would infold him with a subtle spell.  In thought he
+would again sit smoking in the tent door, the gray shadows stealing out
+from their covert in the woods, reconnoitering all the country ere they
+swept down and took possession, in the name of their queen--the night.
+The air would grow cool with the fragrant breath of the ocean and the
+pines; whip-poor-wills would chant in the tree tops, and partridges
+sound their blithe note away in the fields.  It was not wonderful that
+when the necessity of securing a country home arose, the fancy should
+resume its sway, and that a meditated flitting southward should suggest
+Virginia as its goal.
+
+The idea that any portion of his family would be displeased by the
+realization of his fancy, or feel themselves aggrieved by his
+arrangements, never entered into the veteran's calculations; he
+returned from the South with his purchase made, and his mind filled
+with anticipations of the joy the unlading of this precious honey would
+occasion in the domestic hive, and when he was met by the angry buzz of
+discontent instead of the gentle hum of applause, his surprise was
+great, and his indignation unbounded.
+
+"What the devil are they grumbling about?" he demanded of his wife.
+"Shirley's a fine plantation.  The water is good, the air superb; there
+are excellent gardens and first-rate oyster beds.  The house is
+old-fashioned, but it's comfortable, and a little money will make it
+more so.  What's the matter with them?"
+
+"The girls are young, Percival," explained the mother, putting in a
+plea for her rebels.  "They are used to society and admiration.  They
+don't take interest in gardens and oyster beds yet; they like variety
+and excitement.  The country is very dull."
+
+"Not at all dull," contradicted the general.  "You talk as if I were
+requiring you all to Selkirk on a ten acre island, instead of going to
+one of the pleasantest and most populous counties in the oldest state
+in the Union.  Mr. Byrd, the former owner of Shirley, told me that the
+neighborhood was very thickly settled and sociable.  I counted five
+gentlemen's houses in sight myself.  Southerners, as a rule, are great
+visitors, and if the girls are lonely it will be their own fault.
+They'll have as much boating and dancing and tom-foolery as is good for
+them."
+
+"Are there any young men?" demanded Mrs. Smith, who recognized the
+necessity of an infusion of the stronger element to impart to social
+joys body and flavor.
+
+"Yes, I guess so," replied her husband indifferently, masculinity from
+over-association having palled on him; "there's always men about
+everywhere, except back in the home villages in Maine--they're scarce
+enough _there_, the Lord knows!  I saw a good many about in the little
+village near Shirley--Wintergreen, they call it.  One young fellow
+attracted my attention particularly; he was sitting on a tobacco
+hogshead, down on the wharf, superintending some negroes load a wagon,
+and I couldn't get it out of my head that I'd seen his face before.  He
+was tall, and fair, and had lost an arm.  I must have met him during
+the war, I think, although I'll be hanged if I can place him."
+
+Mrs. Smith looked interested.  "Perhaps you formerly knew him," she
+remarked, cheerfully; "it's a pity your memory is so bad.  Why didn't
+you inquire his name of some one, that might have helped you to place
+him?"
+
+"My memory is excellent," retorted the general, shortly; for a man must
+resent such an insinuation even from the wife of his bosom.  "I've
+always been remarkable for an unusually strong and retentive memory, as
+you know very well--but it isn't superhuman.  At the lowest
+computation, I guess I've seen about a million men's faces in the
+course of my life, and it's ridiculous to expect me to have 'em all
+sorted out, and ticketed in my mind like a picture catalogue.  My
+memory is very fine."
+
+Mrs. Smith recanted pleasantly.  Her husband's memory _was_ good, for
+his age, she was willing to admit, but it was not flawless.  About this
+young man, now, it seemed to her that if she could remember him at all,
+she could remember all about him.  These hitches in recollection were
+provoking.  It would have been nice for the girls to find a young man
+ready to their hands, bound to courtesy by previous acquaintance with
+their father.
+
+She regretted that her husband should fail to recall, and had neglected
+to inquire, the name of this interesting person; but the knowledge that
+he was _there_, and others besides him, ameliorated the rigor of the
+situation.
+
+Mrs. Smith did not care for the south or southern people; their
+thoughts were not her thoughts, nor their ways, her ways.  In her
+ignorance, she classed them low in the scale of civilization, deeming
+them an unprofitable race, whose days were given over to sloth, and
+their nights to armed and malignant prowling.  For the colored people
+of the censured states, she had a profound and far-off sympathy,
+viewing them from an unreal and romantic standpoint.  This tender
+attitude was mental; physically she shrank from them with disgust, and
+it was not the least of the crosses entailed by a residence in the
+south that she would be obliged to endure colored servants.
+
+But all this was trifling and unimportant in comparison with the main
+issue, Warner's health.  To secure the shadow of hope for her boy, Mrs.
+Smith decided that any thing short of cannibalism in her future
+surroundings would be endurable.
+
+The information gleaned from her husband was faithfully repeated by
+Mrs. Smith to her daughters, with some innocent exaggeration and
+unconscious embellishment.  She always wanted to make things pleasant
+for the children.
+
+Blanche looked up from her crewel sun-flowers with reviving interest,
+but Norma walked over to the window, and stood drumming on the panes,
+and regarding the passers with a lowering brow.
+
+"I wonder what Nesbit Thorne will think of it all?" she remarked, after
+an interval of silence, giving voice to the inwardness of her
+discontent.
+
+"He'll _hate_ it!" spoke Blanche, with conviction; "he'll abhor it,
+just as we do.  I know he will."  Blanche always followed her sister's
+lead, and when Norma was cross considered it her duty to be tearful.
+She was only disagreeable now because Norma was.
+
+Percival, the youngest of the family, a spoiled and lively lad of
+twelve, to whom the prospect of change was rapture, took up the last
+remark indignantly.
+
+"Nesbit won't do anything of the kind," quoth he.  "Nesbit isn't a
+spoiled, airified idiot of a girl.  He's got sense enough to appreciate
+hunting and fishing and the things that are of importance to _men_.  I
+guess he'll want to come to Shirley this autumn for his shooting,
+instead of going down to North Carolina."  Norma stopped her tattoo and
+turned her head slightly; the boy, observing that he had scored a
+point, proceeded: "Just the minute he gets back from Montana, I'm going
+to tell him all about Shirley and beg him to come.  And if he does, I'm
+going gunning with him every day, and make him teach me how to
+shoot--see if I don't," regarding his mother from under his tawny brows
+threateningly.  Percival's nature was adventurous and unruly: he had
+red hair.
+
+"Nesbit got back last night," announced Warner from his sofa beside the
+other window.  "I saw him pass the house this morning.  There he is
+now, coming up the street.  If his opinion is a matter of such
+importance, you can call him over and get it.  I don't see that it
+makes any difference what he thinks, myself."  The latter part of the
+sentence was muttered in an unheeded undertone.
+
+Norma tapped sharply on the glass, and beckoned to a gentleman on the
+opposite pavement, her brow clearing.  He nodded gayly in response, and
+crossing, in obedience to her summons, entered the house familiarly
+without ringing the bell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+All turned expectantly toward the door, pausing in their several
+occupations; even Warner's eyes were raised from his book, although his
+attention was involuntary and grudging.  The attitude of the little
+circle attested the influence which the coming man wielded over every
+member of it; an influence which extended insensibly to every one with
+whom Nesbit Thorne's association was intimate.  He was Mrs. Smith's
+nephew, and much in the habit, whenever he was in New York, of making
+her house his home--having none now of his own.
+
+He was a slender, dark man, with magnificent dark eyes, which had a
+power of expression so enthralling as to disarm, or defy, criticism of
+the rest of his face.  Not one man in fifty could tell whether Nesbit
+Thorne was handsome, or the reverse--and for women--ah, well! they knew
+best what they thought.
+
+In his air, his carriage, his expression, was that which never fails to
+attract and hold attention--force, vitality, individuality.  He was
+small, but tall men never dwarfed him; plain, but the world--his
+world--turned from handsomer men with indifference, to heap
+consideration upon him.  To borrow the forceful vernacular of the
+street, there was "something in him."  There was no possibility of
+viewing either him or his actions with indifference; of merging him in,
+and numbering him with, the crowd.
+
+There are men whose lives are intaglios, cut by the chisel of destiny
+deep into the sard of their generations; every line and curve and
+faintest tracing pregnant with interest, suggestion, and emotion.  Men
+who are loved and hated, feared, adored and loathed with an intensity
+that their commonplace fellows are incapable of evoking.  They are
+loadstones which attract events; whirlpools which draw to themselves
+excitement, emotion, and vast store of sympathy.
+
+Some years previous to the opening of this story, Nesbit Thorne, then a
+brilliant recent graduate of Harvard, a leader in society, and a man of
+whom great things were predicted, whose name was in many mouths as that
+of a man likely to achieve distinction in any path of life he should
+select, made a hasty, ill-advised marriage with a Miss Ethel Ross, a
+New York belle of surpassing beauty and acumen.  A woman whose sole
+thought was pleasure, whose highest conception of the good of life was
+a constantly varied menu of social excitement, and whose noblest
+reading of the word duty was compassed in having a well ordered house,
+sumptuous entertainments, and irreproachable toilets.  A wife to
+satisfy any man who was unemotional, unexacting, and prepared to give
+way to her in all things.
+
+Nesbit Thorne, unfortunately, was none of these things, and so his
+married life had come to grief.  The first few months were smoothed and
+gilded by his passionate enjoyment of her mere physical perfection, his
+pleasure in the admiration she excited, and in the envy of other men.
+Life's river glided smoothly, gayly in the sunshine; then ugly snags
+began to appear, and reefs, fretting the surface of the water, and
+hinting of sterner difficulties below; then a long stretch of tossing,
+troubled water, growing more and more turbulent as it proceeded,
+boiling and bubbling into angry whirlpools and sullen eddies.  The boat
+of married happiness was hard among the breakers, tossed from side to
+side, the sport of every wind of passion; contesting hands were on the
+tiller ropes.  The craft yawed and jerked in its course, a spectacle
+for men to weep over, and devils to rejoice in; ran aground on
+quicksands, tore and tangled its cordage, rent the planking, and at the
+end of a cruise of as many months as it should have lasted years, it
+lay a hopeless wreck on the grim bar of separation.
+
+The affair was managed gracefully, and with due deference to the
+amenities.  There was gossip, of course--there always is gossip--and
+public opinion was many sided.  Rumors circled around which played the
+whole gamut from infidelity to bankruptcy; these lived their brief
+span, and then gave place to other rumors, equally unfounded, and
+therefore equally enjoyable.  The only fact authenticated, was the fact
+of separation, and the most lasting conclusion arrived at in regard to
+the matter was that it had been managed very gracefully.
+
+The divorce which seemed the natural outcome of this state of affairs,
+and to which every one looked, as a matter of course, was delayed in
+this instance.  People wondered a little, and then remembered that the
+Thornes were a Roman Catholic family, and concluded that the young man
+had religious scruples.  With Mrs. Thorne the matter was plain enough;
+she had no reason, as yet, sufficiently strong to make her desire
+absolute release, and far greater command over Thorne's income by
+retaining her position as his wife.
+
+When his domestic affairs had reached a crisis, Thorne had quietly
+disappeared for a year, during which time people only knew that he was
+enjoying his recovered freedom in distant and little frequented places.
+There were rumors of him in Tartary, on the Niger, in Siberia.  At the
+expiration of the year he returned to New York, and resumed his old
+place in society as though nothing untoward had occurred.  He lived at
+his club, and no man or woman ever saw him set foot within the
+precincts of his own house.  Occasionally he was seen to stop the nurse
+in the park, and caress and speak to his little son.  His life was that
+of a single man.  In the society they both frequented, he often
+encountered his wife, and always behaved to her with scrupulous
+politeness, even with marked courtesy.  If he ever missed his home, or
+experienced regret for his matrimonial failure, he kept the feeling
+hidden, and presented to the world an unmoved front.
+
+In default of nearer ties, he made himself at home in his aunt's house,
+frequenting it as familiarly as he had done in the days before his
+marriage.  In his strong, almost passionate nature, there was one great
+weakness; the love and admiration of women was a necessity to him.  He
+could no more help trying to make women love him, than the kingfisher
+can help thrusting down his beak when the bright speckled sides of his
+prey flash through the water.  It was from neither cruelty nor vanity,
+for Thorne had less of both traits than usually falls to the lot of
+men; it was rather from the restlessness, the yearning of a strong
+nature for that which it needed, but had not yet attained; the
+experimental searching of a soul for its mate.  That sorrow might come
+to others in the search he scarcely heeded; was he to blame that fair
+promises would bud and lead him on, and fail of fruition?  To himself
+he seemed rather to be pitied; their loss was balanced by his own.
+Thorne had never loved as he was capable of loving; as yet the _ego_
+was predominant.
+
+As he entered the room, after an absence of weeks, with a smile and a
+pleasant word of greeting, the younger members of the circle fell upon
+him clamorously; full of themselves and their individual concerns.
+Even Warner, in whose mind lurked a jealousy of his cousin's influence,
+forgot it for the nonce, and was as eager to talk as the rest.  Nesbit
+found himself listening to a demand for advice, an appeal for sympathy,
+and a paean of gratulation, before he had made his salutations, or
+gotten himself into a chair.
+
+"Hold on!" he cried, putting up his hand in protest.  "Don't all talk
+at once.  I can't follow.  What's the matter, Norma?"
+
+His eye turned to his favorite involuntarily, and an almost
+imperceptible brightening, a lifting of the clouds on that young lady's
+horizon, began to take place.  She answered his look, and (assisted by
+the irrepressible Percival) unfolded to him the family plans.  Thorne,
+with good-humored enthusiasm, threw himself into the scheme, pronounced
+it delightful, and proceeded to indulge in all manner of cheerful
+prognostications.  Percival was enchanted, and, establishing himself
+close beside the arm of his cousin's chair, commenced a series of
+vehement whispers, which lasted as long as the visit.  Norma's brow
+cleared more and more, and when Thorne declared his intention of paying
+them a long visit during the hunting season, she allowed a smile to
+wreathe her full crimson lips, and snubbed poor little Blanche
+unmercifully for still daring to be lachrymose.
+
+The talk grew momentarily merrier, and the mother listened, smiling;
+her eyes, with a tender glow in them, fixed on Warner's face.  The sick
+boy was in raptures over the old house mossed over with history and
+tradition, which would be his future home.  Noting the eagerness of his
+interest, her heart gave a sudden bound, hope took her by the hand, and
+she dreamed dreams.  There might come a reaction and improvement.  At
+times the intuition of an invalid was the voice of nature, crying out
+for that which she needed.  Warner's longing for this change might be
+the precursor of his cure.  Who could read the future?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Backward and forward, from pantry to sideboard, from sideboard to china
+closet, flitted Pocahontas Mason setting the table for breakfast.
+Deftly she laid out the pretty mats on the shining mahogany, arranged
+the old-fashioned blue cups and saucers, and placed the plates and
+napkins.  She sang at her work in a low, clear voice, more sweet than
+powerful, and all that her hands found to do was done rapidly and
+skillfully, with firm, accustomed touches, and an absence of jar and
+clatter.  In the center of the table stood a corpulent Wedgwood
+pitcher, filled with geraniums and roses, to which the girl's fingers
+wandered lovingly from time to time, in the effort to coax each blossom
+into the position in which it would make the bravest show.  On one
+corner, near the waiter, stood a housewifely little basket of keys,
+through the handle of which was thrust a fresh handkerchief newly
+shaken out.
+
+When all the arrangements about the table had been completed,
+Pocahontas turned her attention to the room, giving it those manifold
+touches which, from a lady's fingers, can make even a plain apartment
+look gracious and homelike.  Times had changed with the Masons, and
+many duties formerly delegated to servants now fell naturally to the
+daughter of the house.  Perhaps the change was an improvement: Berkeley
+Mason, the young lady's brother, maintained that it was.
+
+Having finished her work, Pocahontas crossed the room to one of the
+tall, old-fashioned windows, and pushed open the half-shut blinds,
+letting a flood of sunshine and morning freshness into the room.  Under
+the window stood an ottoman covered with drab cloth, on which the
+fingers of some dead and gone Mason had embroidered a dingy wreath of
+roses and pansies.  Pocahontas knelt on it, resting her arms on the
+lofty window-sill, and gazed out over the lawn, and enjoyed the dewy
+buoyance of the air.  The September sunshine touched with golden glory
+the bronze abundance of her hair, which a joyous, rollicking breeze,
+intoxicated with dew and the breath of roses, tangled and tumbled into
+a myriad witcheries of curl and crinkle.  The face, glorified by this
+bright aureole, was pure and handsome, patrician in every line and
+curve, from the noble forehead, with its delicate brown brows, to the
+well-cut chin, which spoke eloquently of breadth of character and
+strength of will.  The eyes were gray, and in them lay the chief charm
+of the face, for their outlook was as honest and fearless as that of a
+child--true eyes they were, fit windows for a brave, true soul.
+
+The house, neutral-tinted with years and respectability, stood well
+back from the river, to whose brink the smooth, green lawn swept in
+scarcely perceptible undulation.  The river here was broad, almost
+resembling an arm of the sea it was moving languidly to join.  There
+was no haste about it, and no fret of ever active current; as all large
+bodies should, it moved slowly, and the eye rested gratefully on the
+tranquil flow.  Across the water, apparently against the far horizon, a
+dense line of trees, fringing the further shore, rose tall and dark,
+outlined with picturesque distinctness against the soft, warm blue.
+The surrounding country was flat, but relieved from monotony by a
+certain pastoral peacefulness, and a look of careless plenty which,
+with thrift, might have become abundance.  In the meadows the grass
+grew rich and riotous between the tall stacks of cured hay, and the
+fields of corn and tobacco gave vigorous promise of a noble harvest.
+The water also teemed with life and a shiftless out-at-elbow energy.
+Shabby looking fishing smacks, with dirty white wings, like birds too
+indolent to plume themselves, passed constantly, and flat-bottomed
+canoes, manned by good-humored negro oystermen, plied a lazy, thievish
+trade, with passing steamers.
+
+Presently a gate slammed somewhere in the regions back of the house,
+and there was a sound of neighing and trampling.  Pocahontas leaned far
+out, shading her eyes with her hands, to watch the colts career wildly
+across the lawn, with manes and tails and capering legs tossed high in
+air, in the exuberance of equine spirits.  Following them sedately came
+a beautiful black mare, stepping high and daintily, as became a lady of
+distinction.  She was Kentucky born and bred, and had for sire none
+other than Goldenrod himself.  In answer to a coaxing whistle of
+invitation, she condescended to approach the window and accept sugar
+and caresses.  Pocahontas patted the glossy head and neck of the
+beauty, chattering soft nonsense while the little heap of sugar she had
+placed on the window-sill vanished.  Presently she laid an empty palm
+against the nose pushed in to her, and dealt it a gentle blow.
+
+"That's all, Phyllis; positively all this morning.  You would empty the
+sugar bowl if I'd let you.  No, take your nose away; it's all gone;
+eleven great lumps have you had, and the feast of the gods is over."
+
+But Phyllis would not be convinced; she pushed her nose up over the
+window ledge, and whinnied softly.  As plainly as a horse can beg, she
+begged for more, but her mistress was obdurate.  Placing both hands
+behind her, she drew back into the room, laughing.
+
+"Not another lump," she called, "eleven are enough.  Greedy Phyllis, to
+beg for more when you know I'm in earnest.  Go away and play with the
+colts; you'll get no more to-day."
+
+"You'll never make Phyllis believe that, my dear," remarked a tall,
+gray-haired lady, in a pretty muslin cap, who had entered unperceived.
+
+"Oh, yes, mother.  She understands quite well.  See, she's moving off
+already.  Phyllis knows I never break my word, and that persuasion is
+quite useless," replied Pocahontas, turning to give her mother the
+customary morning kiss, to place her chair before the waiter for her,
+and to tell her how becoming her new cap was.  The Masons never
+neglected small courtesies to each other.
+
+The branch of the Mason family still resident at the old homestead of
+Lanarth had dwindled to four living representatives--Mrs. Mason, who
+had not changed her name in espousing her cousin Temple Mason, of
+Lanarth, and her son Berkeley, and daughters Grace and Pocahontas.
+There had been another son, Temple, the younger, whose story formed one
+of those sad memories which are the grim after-taste of war.  All three
+of the Masons had worn gray uniforms; the father had been killed in a
+charge at Malvern Hill, the elder son had lost his good right arm, and
+the younger had died in prison.
+
+Of the two daughters, Grace had early fulfilled her destiny in true
+Virginian fashion, by marrying a distant connection of her family, a
+Mr. Royall Garnett, who had been a playmate of her brothers, and whose
+plantation lay in an adjoining county.  With praiseworthy conservatism,
+Mrs. Garnett was duplicating the uneventful placidity of her parents'
+early years, content to rule her household wisely, to love and minister
+to her husband, and to devote her energies to the rearing of her
+children according to time-honored precedent.  Pocahontas, the youngest
+of the family, was still unmarried, nay, more--still unengaged.
+
+They had called her "Pocahontas" in obedience to the unwritten law of
+southern families, which decrees that an ancestor's sin of distinction
+shall be visited on generations of descendants, in the perpetuation of
+a name no matter what its hideousness.  It seems a peculiarity of
+distinguished persons to possess names singularly devoid of beauty;
+therefore, among the burdens entailed by pride upon posterity, this is
+a grievous one.  Some families, with the forest taint in their blood,
+at an early date took refuge in the softer, prettier "Matoaca;" but not
+so the Masons.  It was their pride that they never shirked an
+obligation, or evaded a responsibility: they did not evade this one.
+Having accepted "Pocahontas" as the name by which their ancestress was
+best known, they never swerved from it; holding to it undaunted by its
+length and harshness, and unmoved by the discovery of historians that
+Pocahontas is no name at all, but simply a pet sobriquet applicable to
+all Indian girls alike, and whose signification is scarcely one of
+dignity.  Historians might discover, disagree, wrangle and explain, but
+Pocahontas followed Pocahontas in the Mason family with the undeviating
+certainty of a fixed law.
+
+To the present Pocahontas (the eighth in the line) it really seemed as
+though the thing should stop.  She yielded to the family fiat her own
+case, because not having been consulted she had no option in the
+matter, but when Grace's little daughter was born she put in a plea for
+the child.
+
+"Break the spell," she entreated, "and unborn generations will bless
+you.  We Virginians will keep on in one groove until the crack of doom
+unless we are jerked out of it by the nape of the neck.  Your heart
+ought to yearn over the child--mine does.  It's a wicked sin to call a
+pretty baby by such a monstrous name."
+
+Grace trampled on the protest: "Not name her Pocahontas?  Why, of
+_course_ I shall!  If the name were twice as long and three times as
+ugly my baby should bear it.  I wonder you should object when you know
+that every Pocahontas in the family has invariably turned out an
+exceptionally fine woman.  All have been noble, truthful, honorable;
+quick to see the right and unswerving in pursuit of it.  I shall call
+my baby by that name, and no other."
+
+Pocahontas opened her eyes.  "Why, Grace," she said, "you talk as if
+the name were a talisman; as if virtues were transmitted with it.
+Isn't that silly?"
+
+"Not at all," responded Grace promptly; "unless we cease to be
+ourselves after death, we _must_ still take interest in the things of
+this world, in our families and descendants.  We may not be able
+actually to transmit our virtues to them, but surely by guardian
+influence we can help them imitate ancestral good qualities.  Guardian
+angels of our own blood are a great deal nearer than outside angels,
+and I believe the dear Lord appoints them whenever he can; and if so,
+why shouldn't the good women who are in heaven take interest in my baby
+who will bear their name?  It _is_ their name still, and it must hurt
+them to see it soiled; of course they must take interest.  Were I an
+angel, the child on earth who bore my name should be my special charge."
+
+"Then, according to your showing, Grace, six good women, now holy
+angels, have baby and me in constant keeping for love of our ugly name.
+The idea is fanciful, and I don't consider it orthodox: but it's
+pretty, and I like it.  Miss Pocahontas the ninth, you and I must walk
+with circumspection, if not to grieve the good ladies up above who are
+kind enough to take such interest in us."
+
+Pocahontas mocked at Grace's idea, but it pleased her all the same, and
+unconsciously it influenced her more than she knew.  She loved the
+legends of her house, delighted in the fact of descent from brave men
+and true women.  The past held her more than is common with the young
+people of the present day, and she sought out and treasured all the
+records of the six women who had borne her name, from the swarthy
+Indian princess down to the gentle gray-haired lady who held the place
+of honor at the Lanarth breakfast table.
+
+"Princess," said Mrs. Mason, as she distributed the sugar and cream, "I
+wish you'd ring the bell.  Rachel must have breakfast ready by this
+time, and I hear Berkeley's step outside."
+
+Princess rang the bell quite meekly.  The pet sobriquet was in as
+familiar use among them as her real name, but her touch on the bell did
+not suggest the imperiousness of royalty.  Aunt Rachel was an old
+family servant, faithful, fat, and important, and Aunt Rachel _hated_
+to be hurried.  She said "it pestered her, an' made her spile the
+vittles."  She answered promptly this time, however, entering with the
+great waiter of hot and tasty dishes before the bell had ceased its
+faint tintinnabulation.  Berkeley, a tall fair man, whose right sleeve
+was fastened against his breast, entered also.
+
+"I saw Jim Byrd this morning," he remarked as he seated himself, after
+the customary greeting to his mother and sister.  "He called here on
+his way over to Roy Garnett's, where he was going to bid good-by.  I
+asked him in to breakfast, but he couldn't stop; said he had promised
+Grace to take breakfast with them.  He has to make a farewell tour, or
+old friends' feelings will be hurt.  It's rather awful, and hard on
+Jim, but he couldn't bear the thought of the neighbors feeling
+slighted.  I suggested a barbecue and a stump speech and bow, but the
+idea didn't seem to appeal to Jim.  Poor old fellow!"
+
+"Couldn't he contrive to hold Shirley, Berke?" questioned Mrs. Mason,
+as she passed his cup.  "He had retained possession so long, there must
+have been some way to hold it altogether."
+
+"No; the thing was impossible," replied Berkeley; "the plantation was
+mortgaged to the hub before Jim was born.  The Byrds have been
+extravagant for generations, and a crash was inevitable.  Old Mr. Byrd
+could barely meet the interest, even before the loss of Cousin Mary's
+money.  During the last years of his life some of it was added to the
+principal, which made it harder work for Jim.  But for Jim's
+management, and the fact that the creditors all stood like a row of
+blocks in which the fall of one would inevitably touch off the whole
+line, things would have gone to smash long ago.  Each man was afraid to
+move in the matter, lest by so doing he should invite his own creditors
+to come down on him.  Until lately they haven't bothered Jim much
+outside of wringing all the interest out of him they could get.  While
+his sisters were single, he was obliged to keep a home together for
+them, you know.  Nina's marriage last spring removed that
+responsibility, and I reckon it's a relief to Jim to relinquish the
+struggle."
+
+"What a pity old Mr. Byrd persuaded Mary to sell out her bonds, and
+invest the money in tobacco during the war!" observed Mrs. Mason,
+regretfully.  "It would have been something for the children if she had
+kept the bonds.  It was too bad that those great warehouses, full of
+tobacco, belonging to the Byrds and Masons were burned in Richmond at
+the evacuation.  Charlie Mason persuaded Mr. Byrd into that
+speculation, and although Charlie is my own cousin and Mary's brother,
+I must admit that he did wrong.  Your father always disapproved of the
+sale of those bonds."
+
+"The speculation was a good one, and would have paid splendidly had
+events arranged themselves differently; even at the worst no one could
+foresee the burning of Richmond.  Cousin Mary's money couldn't have
+freed Shirley, but if things had gone well with the venture, that
+tobacco would have done so, and left a handsome surplus.  Charlie Mason
+is a man of fine judgment, and that he failed that time was through no
+fault of his.  It was the fortunes of war."
+
+Mrs. Mason sighed and dropped the subject.  She was unconvinced, and
+continued to feel regret that Mr. Byrd had been allowed to work his
+speculative will with his wife's little patrimony.  It would have been
+a serviceable nest-egg for the children, and a help to Jim in his long
+struggle.  All of her life, she had been accustomed to seeing husbands
+assume full control of their wives' property, using it as their own,
+and she had taken little thought of the equities of the matter.  To her
+it appeared natural that a wife's surrender to her husband should
+embrace things financial as well as things less material, but in this
+case she had always felt it a trifle hard.  It would have been such a
+pleasant thing for Jim to have had some money, and been able to hold
+Shirley.
+
+Pocahontas helped herself to hot waffles, and sugared them with a
+liberal hand.
+
+"Dear old Jim," she said, calmly, "I wish he had come in: you should
+have insisted, Berkeley.  It's cruel for him to have to give up the old
+home to strangers, and start life in a new place.  I can't bear to
+think of it.  Jim's such a good fellow, and Mexico seems a long way
+off.  When is he coming to say good-by to us, Berke?"
+
+"This evening.  He is coming to tea; so mind you have something
+special."
+
+After a pause, Mrs. Mason resumed the subject with the inquiry whether
+he had heard any thing relative to the purchaser of Shirley.  But
+Berkeley only knew that the place had been bought by a northern man, a
+retired army officer, and that his name was Smith.
+
+After they rose from the table, he lingered awhile, watching his mother
+gather the cups and saucers into the waiter in readiness for Aunt
+Rachel, and Pocahontas collect scraps for the dogs, two of which were
+already poking impatient, wistful noses into the room.  Beyond the
+threshold they were not allowed to intrude, but they stood in the
+passage outside the open door, and whined and indulged in sharp "yaps"
+of protest against hope deferred.  When they saw their mistress
+advancing with a heaped-up plate of food, both gave reins to their joy,
+and jumped and barked around her with delight.  Pocahontas loved
+animals; the nobleness and fidelity of their instincts, harmonized with
+the large faithfulness of her own nature.
+
+When his sister was out of hearing, Berkeley reopened the topic of Jim
+Byrd.  He was standing at the mantle filling his pipe, which he
+balanced dextrously against one of the ornaments, and his back was
+toward his mother as he spoke.
+
+"Mother," he questioned, "did it ever occur to you that Jim might grow
+fond of Pocahontas--might want her for a wife, in fact?  I fancy
+something of the sort has happened, and that he came to grief.  He has
+been depressed and unhappy for months; and neither business, nor
+trouble about the old place can account for his shunning us in the way
+he has been doing lately.  I don't believe he's been inside this house
+twice in the last three months."
+
+"Yes, my dear, I used often to think of it--long before Jim thought of
+it himself, I believe, Berkeley.  He spoke to Princess this summer, and
+she refused him.  She did not tell me about it; but from little things
+I could guess pretty accurately.  It's a great disappointment to me,
+for I scarcely remember when the hope that they might love each other
+first dawned on my mind.  Mary Mason and I were warm friends, as well
+as cousins, and it seemed natural that our children should marry."
+
+Berkeley knew that his mother had wished him to marry Belle or Susie,
+and that this was not the first time that she had been disappointed in
+her desire for another Byrd-Mason match.  Had Temple lived, Nina Byrd
+would have been his wife: the two had been sweethearts from babyhood.
+
+Mrs. Mason sighed regretfully.  "I wish it could have been," she said;
+"Jim is such a good fellow, and was always gentle and careful with the
+little girls, even when he grew a great rough lad; such a little
+chevalier in his feelings, too.  I remember one Christmas just after
+the war, when he was about fourteen, the children wanted some Christmas
+green to decorate the parlor.  It was the fall you were in the South,
+and they wanted to make the room pretty to welcome you home again.
+Susie, Nina and my two girls, went over into the Shirley woods to get
+it, and Jim went with them.  They found plenty of lovely holly, but no
+mistletoe for a long time; you know how scarce it is around here.  At
+last Pocahontas 'spied a splendid bunch, full of pure, waxen berries,
+way up in the top of a tall oak tree, and she set her heart at once on
+having it.  There had been heavy sleet the night before, and every limb
+was caked with ice--slippery as glass.  Climbing was doubly dangerous,
+and Grace begged him not to try, but that foolish Pocahontas looked
+disappointed, and Jim dashed right at the tree.  It was a terribly
+foolhardy thing to do, and Grace said it made her sick to watch him;
+every minute she expected to see him slip and come crashing to the
+ground.  The little girls all cried, and Grace boxed Jim's ears the
+instant he was safe on the ground again with the mistletoe.  The
+children came home in great excitement, Pocahontas with the mistletoe
+hugged tight in her arms and tears pouring down her cheeks.  When I
+scolded Jim for his recklessness, he opened those honest hazel eyes of
+his at me in surprise and said, 'But Princess wanted it,' as if that
+were quite sufficient reason for risking his life.  Poor little
+Princess."
+
+After a moment she resumed: "I wish she could have loved him in the way
+we wish.  Marriage is a terrible risk for a girl like her.  She is too
+straightforward, too uncompromisingly intolerant of every-day
+littleness, to have a very peaceful life.  She has grown up so
+different from other girls; so full of ideals and romance; she belongs,
+in thought and motives, to the last century rather than to this, if
+what I hear be true.  She is large-hearted and has a great capacity for
+affection, but she is self-willed and she could be hard upon occasion.
+If she should fall into weak or wicked hands she would both endure and
+inflict untold suffering.  And there is within her, too, endless power
+of generosity and self-sacrifice.  Poor child! with Jim I could have
+trusted her; but she couldn't love him, so there's nothing to be done."
+
+"Why couldn't she?" demanded Berkeley, argumentatively.  "She'll never
+do any better; Jim's a handsome fellow, as men go, brave, honorable and
+sweet-tempered.  What more does she want?  It looks to me like sheer
+perversity."
+
+Mrs. Mason smiled indulgently at her son's masculine obtuseness.  The
+subtleties of women were so far beyond his comprehension that it was
+hardly worth while to endeavor to make him understand.  She made the
+effort, however, despite its uselessness.
+
+"It isn't perversity, Berkeley," she said; "I hardly realize, myself,
+why the thing should have seemed so impossible.  I suppose, having
+always regarded Jim as a kindly old playmate, and big, brotherly
+friend, the idea of associating sentiment with him appeared absurd.
+Had they ever been separated the affair might have had a different
+termination; but there has never been a break in their intercourse--Jim
+has always been here, always the same.  That won't do with a girl like
+Princess.  It is too commonplace, too devoid of interest and
+uncertainty.  Yes, my dear, I know that in your eyes this is folly, but
+at the same time it is nature.  You don't understand.  Princess, I
+fear, sets undue value on intellect, holding less brilliant endowments
+cheap beside it.  And we must admit, Berkeley, dearly as we love Jim
+Byrd, and noble fellow as he is, he has not the intellectual power
+which commands admiration.  With all my respect for intellect, I can
+see that Princess greatly overrates it.  She has often declared that
+unless a man were intellectually her superior, she could never love
+him."
+
+"Intellectually--a fiddle-stick!" scoffed Berkeley, contemptously.
+"She don't know what she wants, or what is good for her.  Women rarely
+do.  They make their matrimonial selections like the blindest of bats,
+the most egregious of fools, and then, when the mischief is done, go in
+for unending sackcloth, or a divorce court.  Pocahontas will get hold
+of a fellow some day who will wring her heart--with her rubbishing
+longing after novelty and intellect, and fine scorn of homespun truth
+and loyalty.  Were I a woman, I should esteem the size of my husband's
+heart, and the sweetness of his temper, matter of more importance than
+the bigness of his brain, or the freshness of the acquaintance."
+
+"Very true, my son," assented Mrs. Mason, gently, "but you are
+powerless to alter women.  Their hearts must go as nature wills, and
+lookers-on can only pray God to guide them rightly.  But, Berkeley, you
+are unjust to your sister.  Pocahontas has sound discrimination, and a
+very clear judgment.  Her inability to meet our wishes is no proof that
+her choice will fall unworthily."
+
+Berkeley made no response in words, but he looked unconvinced, and soon
+withdrew to attend to the plantation, indulging in profound conclusions
+about women, which were most of them erroneous.
+
+In the afternoon Pocahontas, providing herself with a book and a gayly
+colored feather fan, established herself comfortably in the old
+split-bottomed rocking-chair in the deep shadow of the porch.  The day
+had been close and sultry, and even the darkened rooms felt stifling;
+outside it was better, although the morning freshness had evaporated,
+and that of evening had not yet come.  The sun sank slowly westward,
+sending long rays across the bosom of the river, whose waters were so
+still that they gleamed with opalescent splendor.  The slender leaves
+of the old willows at the foot of the lawn drooped exhaustedly, showing
+all their silver linings; and the sky was one tawny blaze of color.
+The sail-boats in sight rocked gently with the sluggish flow of the
+current, and drifted rather than sailed on their course.  Once a noisy,
+throbbing steamer, instinct with life and purpose, dashed by
+tumultuously, churning the still water with impatient wheels, and
+rupturing the slumberous air with its discordant whistle.  It jarred
+upon the quiet beauty of the scene, and it was a relief when it swept
+around a bend of the river, leaving only a trail of blue smoke, which
+was harmonious.
+
+One of the setters who had secreted himself in the house during the hot
+hours, stepped out with overdone innocence, and stretched himself in a
+shaded corner, panting and yawning dismally.
+
+Pocahontas formed the only bit of coolness in the picture, sitting in
+the shadow of the old porch, in her pretty white dress, with a cape
+jessamine blossom showing purely against the bronze knot of her hair,
+and another among the laces on her breast.  The volume of Emerson
+selected for the enlargement of her mental vision lay unheeded in her
+lap, and the big fan moved lazily, as the gray eyes gazed and gazed out
+over the parched lawn and the glistening river until the glare nearly
+blinded them.
+
+She was thinking of Jim, and feeling pitiful and sad over her old
+friend who must break away from every home association, and far from
+kindred and family, among strange faces and unfamiliar surroundings,
+make for himself a new life.  She was sorry for Jim--grieved for his
+pain in parting, for his disappointment in regard to herself, for her
+own inability to give him the love he longed for.  She would have loved
+him had it been in her power; she honestly regretted that the calm,
+true sisterly affection she felt for him could not be converted into
+something warmer.  Her friends wished it; his friends wished it.  It
+was the natural and proper thing to have happened, and yet with her it
+had not happened.  With Pocahontas, marriage was a very sacred thing,
+not to be contemplated lightly, or entered into at all without the
+sanctification of a pure, unselfish love.  If she should marry Jim now,
+it would be with the knowledge that the depths of her nature were
+unstirred, the true rich gold still hidden.  It did not seem to her
+that her old playfellow's hand was the one destined to stir the one, or
+discover the other.  She might judge wrongly, but so it appeared to
+her, and she was too loyal to Jim to imagine for an instant that he
+would be satisfied with aught save her very best.
+
+The evening freshened as the sun went down, a vagrant breeze stole out
+from some leafy covert and disported itself blithely.  The big Irish
+setter moved from the corner to the top step, and ceased yawning.  An
+old colored man appearing from behind the house took his way across the
+lawn in quest of the colts.  The dog, with his interest in life
+reawakened, bounded off the steps prepared to lend valuable assistance,
+but was diverted from this laudable object by the approach of two
+gentlemen who must be welcomed riotously.
+
+Pocahontas, rising, advanced out of the shadow to meet them--Jim Byrd,
+and a tall broad-shouldered man with a great silky red beard, her
+brother-in-law, Mr. Royall Garnett.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+After a joyous exchange of greeting with her brother-in-law, of whom
+she was unusually fond, and a sweet, gracious welcome to her old
+play-fellow, Pocahontas withdrew to tell her mother of their arrival,
+and to assure herself that every thing was perfectly arranged for Jim's
+last meal among them.
+
+Through some strange deficiency in herself, she was unable to give him
+what he most desired, but what she could give him she lavished royally.
+She wore her prettiest dress in his honor, and adorned it with his
+favorite flowers, forgetful in her eagerness to please him, that this
+might make things harder for him.  She ordered all the dishes she knew
+he liked for tea, and spent a couple of hours in the hot kitchen that
+scorching morning preparing a cake that he always praised.  With eager
+haste she took from its glass-doored cabinet the rare old Mason china,
+and rifled the garden of roses to fill the quaint century old
+punch-bowl for the center of the table.  All things possible should be
+done to make Jim feel himself, that night, the honored guest, the
+person of most importance in their world.  It was an heirloom--the
+Mason china--quaint and curious, and most highly prized.  There was a
+superstition--how originated none knew--that the breakage of a piece,
+whether by design or accident, foreboded misfortune to the house of
+Mason.  Very carefully it was always kept, being only used on rare
+occasions when special honor was intended.  During the civil war it had
+lain securely hidden in a heavy box under the brick pavement of one of
+the cellar rooms, thereby escaping dire vicissitudes.  Many pieces had
+been broken, said to have been followed in every case by calamities
+harder to endure than the loss of precious porcelain, but much of it
+still remained.  In design it was unique, in execution wonderful, and
+its history was romantic.
+
+In the olden time a rich and fanciful Mason had visited the colonies
+with one of the expeditions sent out by the Virginia Company of London.
+He was an artist of no mean repute, and during his stay in the new
+world had made sketches of the strange beautiful scenery, and studies
+from the wild picturesque life which captivated his imagination.
+
+After his return to England, he perfected these drawings from memory,
+and some years later crossed over to France, and had them transferred
+to china at fabulous cost.  The result was very beautiful, for each
+piece showed small but exquisite portrayals of life and scenery in the
+new world.  The scenes were varied, and depicted in soft, glowing
+colors, and with a finish that made each a gem.
+
+On one cup a hunter followed the chase through the silent forest;
+another showed a dusky maiden dreaming beside a waterfall; a third, a
+group of deer resting in a sunny valley; a fourth, a circle of braves
+around a council fire.
+
+When, in after years, the grandson of the artist had married a bride
+with Indian blood in her veins, the punch-bowl had been added as a
+special compliment to the lady, and the china had been sent a wedding
+gift from the Masons of England, to the Masons of Virginia.  The bowl
+was very graceful, and contained on one side a lovely representation of
+the landing at Jamestown, with the tranquil, smiling river, the vessel
+in the offing, and the group of friendly red men on the shore; on the
+other was, of course, depicted the rescue of Captain John Smith by the
+Indian girl.  The bowl was finished at top and bottom with wreaths of
+Virginia creepers, forest leaves and blossoms.
+
+To bring out this precious heirloom in honor of a guest was making him
+of consequence indeed.
+
+Jim knew all about it, and when he caught sight of the pretty tea-table
+he understood the girl's intention and shot a quick, grateful glance
+across to her from his brown eyes.  A whimsical memory of a superb
+breakfast he had once seen served to a man about to be hanged obtruded
+itself, but he banished it loyally.  As betook the cup with the
+dreaming maiden on it from Mrs. Mason's hand, he said gratefully:
+
+"How good of you to have out the beautiful old china in my honor.  When
+I was a boy, I always imagined that coffee from these cups tasted
+different--had a woodsy, adventurous flavor.  I think so still."
+
+It was a merry meal, despite the shadow in the background, for the
+gentlemen taking their cue from Pocahontas vied with each other in
+talking nonsense, and depicting ridiculous phases of camp life in the
+tropics with Jim always for the hero of the scene.  And Jim, shaking
+off the dismal emotions peculiar to farewell visits, responded
+gallantly, defending himself from each sportive attack, and illumining
+his exile with such rays of promise as occurred to him.  He knew these
+old friends were sorry to lose him, and trying to lessen the wrench of
+parting; and being a quiet, self-controlled man--more given to action
+than speech, and with a deep abhorrence of scenes, he appreciated their
+efforts.
+
+After tea, Berkeley and Royall lit their pipes and strolled out toward
+the stables, leaving Jim and Pocahontas alone together on the porch.
+The girl leaned back in her chair silently, not trying to make
+conversation any more, and Jim sat on the steps at her feet, letting
+his eyes follow wistfully the slope of the lawn, and the flow of the
+river.  Presently, without turning his head, he asked her to walk with
+him down to the old willows by the riverside, for a farewell look on
+the scene so dear to him, and Pocahontas rose instantly and slipped her
+hand within his proffered arm.
+
+Down by the river, where the lawn bent softly to the wooing of the
+water, stood two ancient willows of unusual size: they were gnarled
+with age, but vigorous and long limbed.  The story ran that once a
+Pocahontas Mason, the lady of the manor here, had lovers twain--twin
+brothers who being also Masons were her distant cousins.  One she
+loved, and one she did not, but both loved her, and being passionate
+men both swore that they would have her, come what might; and cause any
+man that came between, most bloodily to rue it.  Between the brothers
+there arose quarrels, and ill feeling, which afflicted the lady, who
+was a good woman, and averse to breaking the peace of families.  That
+brothers--twin-brothers, should be scowling venomously at each other
+because of her, appeared a grievous thing, and she set herself to mend
+it.  By marrying the man she loved, she could end the affair at once,
+but his brother would never forgive him, and before love had maddened
+them the men had been friends as well as brothers.  She gauged their
+characters thoughtfully, and hit upon a plan--which, at the expense of
+some self-sacrifice, would arrange the matter peacefully.  Bidding both
+lovers attend her one day, she brought them to this spot, and cutting
+two willow wands of exactly the same length and thickness she stuck
+them deep into the moist soil, and announced her decision.  They would
+wait three years, she said, and at the end of that time the man whose
+tree had grown the strongest, should come and claim his answer.  She
+would attend to both willows herself, giving to each the same care, and
+treating them with equal fairness.  Then she made the men shake hands
+in amity once more, and swear to abide by her decision.
+
+The story further tells that both willows flourished finely, but that
+in the last year the true love's tree outstripped its mate, as was
+right and proper.  As the lady had anticipated, when the term of
+probation expired only one of the twins appeared to claim an answer to
+his suit.  And in the pocket of the constant man, when he kissed his
+own true love, lay a letter, from across the seas, full of brotherly
+affection and congratulation.
+
+This little story was a favorite with Pocahontas, and she was fond of
+relating how her great-great-grandmother by a little wit and generous
+self-sacrifice, averted a feud between brothers, and kept family peace
+unbroken.
+
+The trees were always called "The Lovers," and under their sweeping
+branches the young people were fond of gathering on moonlit summer
+evenings.
+
+Pocahontas seated herself under the larger tree on the dry, warm grass,
+and Jim leaned against the rugged trunk, silently drinking in, with his
+eyes, the still beauty of the night--the silvery sheen of the water,
+the pure bend of the sky, the slope of the lawn, and the gray
+tranquillity of the old house in the background.  And as he gazed,
+there awoke in his breast, adding to its pain, that weary yearning
+which men call home-sickness.
+
+With a shuddering sigh and a movement of the strong shoulders as though
+some burden were settling down upon them, Jim dropped himself to the
+ground beside his companion, and suffered her gently to possess herself
+of his tobacco pouch and pipe.  The girl felt that the peacefulness of
+the scene jarred upon his mood, and set herself to soothe him into
+harmony with himself and nature.  Jim watched the white fingers deftly
+fill the bowl, and strike the match for him; then he took it from her
+hand and breathed softly through the curved stem until the fire circled
+brightly round, and the tobacco all was burning.  He leaned back on his
+elbow and sent the smoke out in long quiet wreaths, and Pocahontas,
+with her hands folded together in her lap, watched it rise and vanish
+dreamily.
+
+"I wonder," she murmured presently, "if the nights out there--in
+Mexico, I mean--can be more beautiful than this.  I have read
+descriptions, and dreamed dreams, but I can't imagine any thing more
+perfect than that stretch of water shimmering in the moonlight, and the
+dark outline of the trees yonder against the sky."
+
+"It's more than beautiful; it's _home_."  Jim's voice shook a little.
+"Do you know, Princess, that whenever the memory of home comes to me
+out yonder in the tropics, it will be just this picture, I shall always
+see.  The river, the lights and shadows on the lawn, the old gray
+house, and _you_, with the flowers on your breast, and the moonlight on
+your dear face.  Don't be afraid, or move away; I'm not going to make
+love to you--all that is over; but your face must always be to me the
+fairest and sweetest on earth."  He paused a moment, and then added,
+looking steadily away from her; "I want to tell you--this last time I
+may ever have an opportunity of speaking to you alone--that you are
+never to blame yourself for what has come and gone.  It's been no fault
+of yours.  You could no more help my loving you than I could help it
+myself; or than you could make yourself love me in return."
+
+"Oh, Jim, dear!" spoke the girl, quickly and penitently, "I do love
+you.  I do, indeed."
+
+"I know it, Princess, in exactly the same way you love Roy Garnett, and
+immeasurably less than you love Berkeley.  That isn't what I wanted,
+dear.  I'm a dull fellow, slow at understanding things, and I can't put
+my thoughts into graceful, fluent language; but I know what love is,
+and what I wanted you to feel is very different.  Don't be unhappy
+about it--or me.  I'll worry through the pain in time, or grow
+accustomed to it.  It's tough, just at first, but I'll pull through
+somehow.  It shall not spoil my life either, although it must mar it; a
+man must be a pitiful fellow, who lets himself go to the bad because
+the woman he loves won't have him.  God means every man to hold up his
+own weight in this world.  I'd as soon knock a woman down as throw the
+blame of a wasted life upon her."
+
+Pocahontas listened with her eyes on the folded hands in her lap,
+realizing for the first time how deeply the man beside her loved her.
+Would any other man ever love her with such grand unselfishness, she
+wondered, ever give all, receive nothing in return, and still give on.
+_Why_ could not she love him?  Why was her heart still and speechless,
+and only her mind responsive.  He was worthy of any woman's love; why
+could not she give him hers?
+
+Ask the question how she would, the answer was always the same.  She
+did not love him; she could not love him; but the reason was beyond her.
+
+After a little while Jim spoke again: "When you were a little girl," he
+said, "I always was your knight.  In all our plays, and troubles, it
+was always _me_ you wanted.  My boat was the one you liked best, and my
+dog and horse would come to your whistle as quickly as to mine.  I was
+the one always to care for you and carry out your will.  That can never
+be again, I know, but don't forget me, Princess.  Let the thought of
+your old friend come to you sometimes, not to trouble you, only to
+remind you when things are hard and rough, and you need comfort, that
+there's a heart in the world that would shed its last drop to help you."
+
+With quick impulse Pocahontas leaned forward and caught his hand in
+hers, and before he could divine her intention, bent her head and laid
+her soft, warm lips against it.  When she lifted her eyes to his there
+were tears in them, and her voice trembled as she said: "I will think
+of you often, old friend; of how noble you are, and how unselfish.  You
+have been generous to me all my life; far more generous than I have
+ever deserved."
+
+As they arose, to return to the house, the jasmin blossom fell from the
+girl's hair to the ground at Jim's feet; he stooped and raised it.
+"May I keep it?" he said.
+
+She bowed her head, silently.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+In the dining-room at Lanarth stood Pocahontas, an expression of
+comical dismay upon her face, a pile of dusty volumes on the floor at
+her feet.  The bookcase in the recess by the fireplace, with yawning
+doors and empty shelves, stood swept and garnished, awaiting
+re-possession.  In a frenzy of untimely cleanliness, she had torn all
+the books from the repose of years, and now that the deed was beyond
+recall, she was a prey to disgust, and given over to repentance.  The
+morning promised to be sultry, and the pile was very big; outside bugs
+and bees and other wise things hummed and sang in leafy places; the
+leaves on the magnolias were motionless, and the air asleep.  A
+butterfly, passing to his siesta on the bosom of a rose, paused an
+instant on the window ledge to contemplate her foolishness; the flowers
+in the borders hung their heads.  Berkeley passed the open window,
+looking cool and fresh in summer clothing, and Pocahontas, catching
+sight of him, put her fingers to her lips and whistled sharply to
+attract his attention, which being done, she followed up the advantage
+with pantomimic gestures, indicative of despair, and need of swift
+assistance.  Berkeley turned good-naturedly, and came in to the rescue,
+but when he discovered the service required of him, he regarded it with
+aversion, and showed a mean desire to retreat, which unworthiness was
+promptly detected by Pocahontas, and as promptly frustrated.
+
+"Do help me, Berkeley," she entreated.  "They must all be put in place
+again before dinner, and it only wants a quarter to one now.  I can't
+do it all before half-past two, to save my life, unless you help me.
+You know, mother dislikes a messy, littered room, and I've got your
+favorite pudding for dessert.  Oh, dear!  I'm tired to death already,
+and it's _so_ warm!"  The rising inflection of her voice conveyed an
+impression of heat intense enough to drive an engine.
+
+"What made you do it?" inquired Berkeley, in a tone calculated to make
+her sensible of folly.
+
+"Mother asked me to dust the books sometime ago, but I neglected it,
+and this morning when the sun shone on them I saw that their condition
+was disgraceful.  I was so much disgusted with my untidiness, that I
+dragged them all out on the impulse of the moment, and only realized
+how hot it was, and how I hated it, after the deed was done.  Come,
+Berke, do help me.  I'm so tired."
+
+Thus adjured, Berkeley laid aside his coat, for lifting is warm work
+with the sun at the meridian.  The empty shirt sleeve had a forlorn and
+piteous look as it hung crumpled and slightly twisted by his side.
+Berkeley caught it with his other hand and thrust the cuff in the
+waistband of his trowsers.  He was well used to his loss, and
+apparently indifferent to it, but the dangling of the empty sleeve
+worried him; the arm was gone close up at the shoulder.
+
+Then the pair fell to work briskly, dusting, arranging, re-arranging
+and chatting pleasantly.  Pocahontas plied the duster and her brother
+sorted the books and replaced them on the shelves.  The sun shone in
+royally, until Pocahontas served a writ of ejectment on his majesty by
+closing all the shutters; and the sun promptly eluded it by peeping in
+between the bars.  A little vagrant breeze stole in, full of idleness
+and mischief, and meddled with the books--fluttering the leaves of "The
+Faery Queen," which lay on its back wide open, lifting up the pages,
+and flirting them over roguishly as though bent on finding secrets.
+The little noise attracted the girl's attention, and she raised the
+book and wiped the covers with her duster.  As she slapped it lightly
+with her hand to get out all the dust, a letter slipped from among the
+leaves and fell to the floor near Berkeley's feet.
+
+"Where did this come from?" he inquired, as he picked it up.
+
+"Out of this book," she answered, holding up the volume in her hand.
+"It fell out while I was dusting; some one must have left it in to mark
+a place.  It must have been in the book for years; see how soiled it
+is.  Whose is it?"
+
+There is something in the unexpected finding of a stray letter which
+stimulates curiosity, and Berkeley turned it in his hand to read the
+address.  The envelope was soiled like the coat of a traveler, and the
+letter was crumpled as though a hand had closed over it roughly.  The
+writing was distinct and clerkly.  "Berkeley Mason, Esq., Wintergreen,
+---- Co., Virginia."  Mr. Mason examined the blurred, indistinct
+postmark.  "Point"--something, it seemed to be; and on the other side,
+Washington, plain enough, and the date, May, 1865.  What letter had
+been forwarded him from the seat of government in the spring of '65?
+Then memory unfolded itself like a map whose spring is loosened.
+
+Seating himself in an easy chair, he drew the letter from its envelope,
+unfolding it slowly against his knee.  It was a half-sheet of ordinary
+commercial paper and the lines upon it numbered, perhaps, a dozen.
+Mason winced at sight of the heading as though an old wound had been
+pressed.  His sister, leaning over the back of his chair, read with
+him; putting out a hand across his shoulder to help him straighten the
+page.  It ran thus:
+
+
+POINT LOOKOUT,
+
+May --, 1865.
+
+TO BERKELEY MASON, ESQ., Virginia.
+
+SIR--A Confederate soldier, now a prisoner of war at this place, giving
+his name as Temple Mason, is lying in the prison hospital at the point
+of death.  He was too ill to be sent south with the general transfer,
+and in compliance with his urgent request, I write again--the third
+time, to inform you of his condition.  He can't last much longer, and
+in event of his dying without hearing from his friends, he will be
+buried in the common cemetery connected with the prison, and his
+identity, in all probability, lost.  This is what he appears to dread,
+and he entreats that you will come to him, in God's name, if you are
+still alive.  The utmost dispatch will be necessary.
+
+Respectfully,
+
+PERCIVAL SMITH, B. G. U. S. A.
+
+Comdt., U. S. P., Point Lookout.
+
+
+Mason returned the letter to its envelope and leaned back in his chair
+thinking.  It was one of the many messages of sorrow that had winged
+their way through the country in the weeks following the close of the
+war; one of the murmurs of pain that had swelled the funeral dirge
+vibrating through the land.
+
+Pocahontas came and seated herself on her brother's knee, gazing at him
+with wide gray eyes filled with inquiry.  "When did this come?  I never
+saw it before," she questioned, gravely.
+
+Then with troubled brow, and voice that grew husky at times, he went
+over for her the sad story of the last months of the last year of that
+unhappy and fateful struggle.  In the autumn of '64 their brother
+Temple, a lad of seventeen, had been taken prisoner, with others of his
+troop, while making a reconnoissance, and they had been unable to
+discover either his condition or place of incarceration.  Mason,
+himself, had been at home on sick leave, weak and worn with the loss of
+his arm and a saber cut across his head.  All through the winter and
+spring, while calamity followed calamity with stunning rapidity, the
+wearing anxiety about Temple continued, made more intolerable by the
+contradictory reports of his fate brought by passing soldiers.
+Finally, this letter had arrived and converted a dread fear into a
+worse certainty.
+
+It had been handed to Roy Garnett by a Federal officer at Richmond, and
+Roy had ridden straight down with it all those weary miles, feeling
+curiously certain that it contained news of Temple, and sharing their
+anxiety to the full.  Roy had been stanch and helpful in their trouble,
+aiding in the hurried preparations for the journey, and accompanying
+the wounded man, and the pale, resolute mother on their desperate
+mission.  Then came the hideous journey, the arrival at the prison, the
+fearful questioning, the relief akin to pain of the reply; the
+interview with the bluff, kindly commandant, who took their hands
+heartily and rendered them every assistance in his power.  Then, in the
+rough hospital of the hostile prison, the strange, sad waiting for the
+end, followed by the stranger, sadder home-coming.  It was a pitiful
+story, common enough both north and south--but none the less pitiful
+for its commonness.
+
+With her head down on her brother's shoulder, Pocahontas sobbed
+convulsively.  She was familiar with the outlines of the tale, and knew
+vaguely of the weeks of anxiety that had lined her mother's gentle face
+and silvered her brown hair, but of all particulars she was ignorant.
+She had been very young at the time these sad events occurred; the
+young brother sleeping in the shadow of the cedars in the old
+burying-ground was scarcely more than a name to her, and the memories
+of her childhood had faded somewhat, crowded out by the cheerful
+realities of her glad girl-life.
+
+When she broke the silence, it was very softly.  "Berkeley," she said,
+"it was kindly done of that Federal officer to let us know.  This is
+the third letter he wrote about poor Temple; the others must have
+miscarried."
+
+"They did; and this one only reached us just in time.  You see,
+communication with the south in those early days was more than
+uncertain.  If Roy hadn't happened to be in Richmond, it's a question
+whether I should have received this one.  It was kindly done, as you
+say, and this General Smith was a kindly man.  I shall never forget his
+consideration for my mother, nor the kindness he showed poor Temple.
+But for his aid we could hardly have managed at the last, in spite of
+Roy's efforts.  We owe him a debt of gratitude I'd fain repay.  God
+bless him!"
+
+"Amen!" echoed Pocahontas, softly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+One bright, crisp morning about the middle of October, Pocahontas stood
+in the back yard surrounded by a large flock of turkeys.  They were
+handsome birds of all shades, from lightish red to deep glossy black;
+the sunlight on their plumage made flashes of iridescent color, green,
+purple, and blue, and that royal shade which seems to combine and
+reflect the glory of all three.  Their heads were bent picking up the
+corn their mistress threw from the little basket in her hand, but
+occasionally the great gobblers would pause in their meal, and puff
+themselves out and spread their tails and throw their crimson heads
+back against their shining feathers, and proudly strut backward and
+forward, to the admiration, doubtless, of their mates.
+
+Turkeys were the young lady's specialty, and on them alone of all the
+denizens of the poultry yard did she bestow her personal attention.
+From the thrilling moment in early spring when she scribbled the date
+of its arrival on the first egg, until the full-grown birds were handed
+over to Aunt Rachel to be fattened for the table, the turkeys were her
+particular charge, and each morning and afternoon saw her sally forth,
+armed with a pan full of curds, or a loaf of brown bread, for her flock.
+
+Her usual attendant, on these occasions, was a little colored boy named
+Sawney--the last of a line of Sawneys extending back to the dining-room
+servant of Pocahontas's great-grandmother.  The economy in nomenclature
+on a southern plantation in the olden time was worthy of Dandie Dinmont
+himself.  The Sawney in question was a grandson of Aunt Rachel, and an
+utterly abominable little darkey, inky black, grotesque, and spoiled to
+a degree.  He was devoted to Pocahontas, and much addicted to following
+her about, wherever she would allow him.  At feeding-time he always
+appeared as duly as the turkeys, for Pocahontas never forgot to put a
+biscuit, or a lump of sugar, in her pocket for him.
+
+With the largest black gobbler Sawney was on terms of deadly enmity;
+for on more than one occasion had his precious biscuit been plucked
+from his unsuspicious hand, and borne away in triumph by the wily bird.
+Half of feeding time was usually consumed by Sawney in throwing small
+stones at his enemy, who, as he was never by any chance smitten, would
+raise his head from time to time and gobble his assailant to scorn.
+
+On this particular morning there had been a lull in the feud.  Sawney
+had devoured his biscuit unmolested, and had offered no gratuitous
+insults to his foe.  Pocahontas, having emptied her basket, was
+watching her flock with interest and admiration, when Berkeley made his
+appearance on the porch with a letter in his hand.  He seemed in a
+hurry, and called to his sister impatiently.
+
+"Look here, Princess," he said, as she joined him, "here's a letter
+from Jim to old Aunt Violet, his 'mammy.'  He told me he had promised
+the old woman to write to her.  It came with my mail this morning, and
+I haven't time to go over to Shirley and read it to her; I wish you
+would.  She's too poorly to come after it herself, so put on your
+bonnet and step over there now, like a good girl."
+
+"Step over there, indeed!" laughed Pocahontas.  "How insinuatingly you
+put it.  Aunt Vi'let's cabin is way over at Shirley; half a mile beyond
+Jim Byrd's line fence."
+
+"General Smith's line fence, you mean.  I wish you'd go, Princess.
+There's money in the letter, and I don't want to send it by the
+negroes.  I promised Jim we'd look after the old woman for them.  The
+girls want her to come to Richmond, but she won't consent to quit the
+old place.  She hasn't any children of her own, you know."
+
+Pocahontas extended her hand for the letter.  "She ought to go to
+Richmond and live with Belle or Nina," she said, slipping it into her
+pocket.  "She'd die of homesickness way out in California with Susie.
+I wonder whether the new people will let her stay at Shirley?"
+
+"Oh, yes; Jim made every arrangement when he found she wouldn't consent
+to move.  He had an understanding with General Smith about the corner
+of land her cabin stands on; reserved it, or leased it, or something.
+It's all right."
+
+Always kind, always considerate, thought the girl, wistfully, even amid
+the pain and hurry of departure--the sundering of old ties, finding
+time to care for the comfort of his old nurse.  Good, faithful Jim.
+
+"Have the new people come?" she called after her brother, as he
+disappeared within the house.
+
+"I don't know.  I rather think they have," he answered.  "I noticed
+smoke rising from the kitchen chimney this morning.  Ask Aunt
+Rachel--the negroes are sure to know."
+
+Pausing a moment at the kitchen door to request the servants to inform
+her mother that she had walked over to Shirley to read a letter to old
+Aunt Vi'let, and would be home in an hour or so, Pocahontas set out on
+her expedition, never noticing that little Sawney, with a muttered "Me
+d'wine too," was resolutely following her.  The way led along a
+pleasant country road, as level as a table, which ran, with scarcely a
+bend, or turning, straight from the Masons' back gate over to the
+ancient home of the Byrd family at Shirley.  Overhead the interlacing
+branches of oak and magnolia trees made a gorgeous canopy of glossy
+green and russet, and the sunshine filtering through the leaves
+embroidered the old road with an intricate pattern of light and shadow.
+Now and then a holly tree, or bush, bright with berries, made a lovely
+dash of color, and glowed all over with suggestions of Christmas and
+rejoicing.
+
+Pocahontas sauntered slowly, enjoying the beauty of the morning, and
+thinking happy thoughts of the past, in which were mingled memories of
+the three Byrd girls, who had been her playmates, and of Jim.  It was
+just beside that holly that Nina Byrd, an enterprising child, had
+fallen over the fence into a mud puddle, while in pursuit of a little
+striped ground squirrel, and soiled her hands and dress, and afterward
+shook her and Susie because they laughed at her.  Nina was always
+passionate.  And over in that meadow, she had once been forced to take
+refuge in a tree from the hostile demonstrations of an unruly heifer
+whose calf she had annoyed with overtures of friendship.  She had sat
+among the branches, forlorn and frightened, for more than an hour,
+feeling that each moment was a month, and that such a thing as
+forgetfulness was impossible to the bovine mind, when Jim, cantering
+home from school over in the village, had spied her out and rescued her.
+
+Passing from retrospect to anticipation, the girl's mind wandered to
+the new arrivals, and idle speculations about them filled it.
+Naturally, her thoughts were colored by her wishes, and she pleased
+herself with fancying them agreeable people, refined and cultured, with
+whom association would be pleasant.  Her fancy was untrammeled, for her
+facts were few, and the name afforded no clew whatever.  People named
+"Smith" might be any thing--or nothing, regarded socially.  The name
+was non-committal, but it suggested possibilities, and its range was
+infinite.  Wits, felons, clergymen, adventurers, millionaires and
+spendthrifts, all had answered to the unobtrusive cognomen.  It was
+plain and commonplace, but as baffling as a disguise.  With Talbot,
+Meredith, or Percival, the case is different, such nomenclature
+presupposes gentility.  As the name "Percival" crossed the girl's mind
+in her whimsical musings, her thoughts seized upon it and fitted it
+instantly to the name which had preceded it, Percival--and Smith!
+Percival Smith!  That was the name signed to the letter they had
+re-discovered after its sleep of years--the letter telling them of
+Temple.  This newcomer was, or had been, an army officer--a general.
+Suppose it should be the same person?  Nay; it must be--it _was_!  Her
+mind leaped to the delightful conclusion impetuously, and before she
+had proceeded ten yards further, Pocahontas was fully convinced of the
+correctness of her conclusion, and busy with plans for returning the
+kindness they had received.
+
+Filled with pleasure in her thought, her steps quickened, as though her
+feet were trying to keep pace with her bright imaginings.  And so
+engrossed was she with castle-building, that it was only when she
+stopped to climb a fence separating the road from a field through which
+lay a short cut to Aunt Violet's cabin, that she became aware of her
+small attendant.
+
+"Why, Sawney, who told you to come?" she questioned, as she sprang to
+the ground on the other side.  The little fellow slowly and carefully
+mounted the fence, balancing his fat body on the top rail as he turned
+circumspectly in order to scramble down.  When the landing had been
+safely effected, he peered up at her with twinkling eyes, and
+announced, with the air of one imparting gratifying intelligence:
+"Nobody.  I tum myse'f.  I dwine long-er you."
+
+"There are sheep in this field; you'd better run home.  They'll scare
+you to death."
+
+"Ain't 'feard," was the valiant response.
+
+Pocahontas wrinkled up her brows; it was almost too far to send him
+back alone, and there was no one passing along the road who could
+escort him to the home gate--even if he would go, which was unlikely.
+It would not do to start him home with the certainty that he would
+return, the instant her eye was off him, and stand by the fence,
+peeping through the cracks until she should get back to him.  Since he
+had followed her so far, it would be better to let him go all the way.
+
+"Come, then," she said, doubtfully, "I suppose I must take you,
+although you had no business to follow me.  If the sheep come after us,
+Sawney, remember that you're not afraid.  You must not cry, or hold on
+to my dress with your dirty little hands.  Do you hear?"
+
+"Ya-m," acquiesced Sawney, with suspicious readiness, resuming his line
+of march behind her.
+
+They pursued their way uneventfully until they had reached the middle
+of the field when the catastrophe, which Pocahontas had anticipated,
+occurred.  A flock of sheep peacefully grazing at a little distance,
+suddenly raised their heads, and advanced with joyful bleating,
+evidently regarding the pair as ministering spirits come to gratify
+their saline yearning.  Sawney--perjured Sawney! all unmindful of his
+promise, no sooner beheld their advance, than he halted instantly, the
+muscles of his face working ominously.
+
+"Come on, Sawney," urged the young lady, encouragingly, "the sheep
+won't hurt you: they think we have salt for them; come on."
+
+But Sawney had no confidence in the explanation, and plainly
+discredited the statement of the animals' lack of hostile intention.
+He refused to stir: nay, more, he dropped himself solidly to the earth
+with an ear-splitting howl, and grabbed tight hold of Pocahontas's
+dress with both grimy paws; the sheep, meanwhile, came hurrying up at a
+sharp trot, pushing against each other in their haste, and bleating in
+glad anticipation of a treat.  Some of the boldest ventured near enough
+to sniff the girl's dress, gazing up at her expectantly, with their
+soft, pretty eyes; a proceeding which evoked redoubled yells from
+Sawney.  They were perfectly harmless; even the rams were peaceful,
+which made the child's conduct the more provoking.  In vain Pocahontas
+coaxed, threatened and commanded, in vain she assured him solemnly that
+the sheep would not hurt him, and acrimoniously that if he did not hush
+instantly and get up, she would leave him alone for the sheep to eat
+up.  Sawney would not stir.  The more she talked the louder he howled
+and the more obstinately he clung to her dress.  Then she took off her
+hat and waved it at the animals who sprang aside, startled at first,
+but returned in closer ranks with more insistent bleating.  Losing
+patience at last, Pocahontas stooped and caught the boy by his
+shoulders and shook him soundly.  She was about to proceed to more
+violent measures when a voice at her elbow said quietly:
+
+"Perhaps I can be of service to you."
+
+She started, and glanced round quickly.  A slender, dark, young man, a
+stranger, was standing beside her, glancing, with unconcealed
+amusement, from her flushed, irate countenance to the sulky, streaming
+visage at her feet.
+
+"Oh, thank you; you can indeed," accepting his proffered aid with
+grateful readiness.  "If you will kindly drive these sheep away, I'll
+be much indebted to you.  This provoking little boy is afraid of them,
+or pretends to be, and I can't induce him to stir.  Now, Sawney, hush
+that abominable noise this instant!  The gentleman is going to drive
+all the sheep away."
+
+With perfect gravity, but his eyes full of laughter, Nesbit Thorne
+flourished his cane and advanced on the flock menacingly.  The animals
+backed slowly.  "Will that do?" he called, when he had driven them
+about a hundred yards.
+
+"A little further, please," she answered.  "No, a great deal further;
+quite to the end of the field.  He won't move yet!"  Her voice quivered
+with suppressed mirth.
+
+Feeling like "Little Boy Blue" recalled to a sense of duty, Thorne
+pursued the sheep remorselessly; the poor beasts, convinced at last
+that disappointment was to be their portion, trotted before him meekly,
+giving vent to their feelings in occasional bleats of reproach.
+
+Meanwhile, Pocahontas lifted Sawney forcibly to his feet, and led him
+across to the opposite fence, over which she helped him to climb, being
+determined that no more scenes should be inflicted on her that morning.
+When she had put a barrier between him and danger, she ordered him to
+sit down and calm his shattered nerves and recover his behavior.  She
+remained within the field, herself, leaning against the fence and
+awaiting the gentleman's return, that she might thank him.
+
+By the time he rejoined her, Nesbit Thorne had decided that his new
+acquaintance was a very handsome, and unusually attractive woman.  The
+adventure amused him, and he had a mind to pursue it further.  As he
+approached, he removed his hat courteously, with a pleasant,
+half-jocular remark about the demoralized condition of her escort, and
+a word indicative of his surprise at finding a country child, of any
+color, afraid of animals.
+
+"Yes; it is unusual," she assented, smiling on him with her handsome
+gray eyes, "I can't account for his terror, for I'm sure no animal has
+ever harmed him.  If he were older I'd accuse him of trying to earn a
+cheap notoriety, but he's almost too little to pretend.  He's a
+troublesome monkey, and if I'd noticed he was following me, I'd have
+forbidden him.  I'm much indebted for your kindly service; without your
+assistance, Sawney would have sat there screaming until they organized
+an expedition at home to cruise in search of us, or the sheep had
+retired of their own accord."
+
+"Not as bad as that, I guess," he returned, extending his hand to aid
+her in mounting the fence, noticing that the one she gave him was
+delicate and shapely, and that the foot, of which he caught a glimpse,
+was pretty, and well-arched.  He would gladly have detained her talking
+in the pleasant sunshine, or even--as time was no object, and all ways
+alike--have liked to saunter on beside her, but there was no mistaking
+the quiet decision of her manner as she repeated her thanks and bade
+him good morning.
+
+"Who the dickens was she?" he wondered idly as he leaned on the fence
+in his turn, and watched the graceful figure disappearing in the
+distance.  She walked well, he noticed, without any of the ugly tricks
+of gait so many women have; firm and upright, with head finely poised,
+and every movement a curve.  Her look and voice harmonized with her
+carriage; she pleased his artistic sense, and he lowered his lids a
+little as he watched her, as one focuses a fine picture, or statue.
+
+The aesthetic side of Thorne's nature was cultured to the extreme of
+fastidiousness; ugly, repulsive, even disagreeable things repelled him
+more than they do most men.  He disliked intensely any thing that
+grated, any thing that was discordant.  If "taste is morality," Thorne
+had claims to be considered as having attained an unusual development.
+His taste ruled him in most things, unless, indeed, his passions were
+aroused, or his will thwarted, in which case he could present
+angularities of character in marked contrast to the smoothness of his
+ordinary demeanor.
+
+Women amused him, as a rule, more than they interested him.  He
+constantly sought among them that which, as yet, he had never
+found--that which he was beginning to think he never should find,
+originality combined with unselfishness.
+
+Even in that brief interview, Pocahontas had touched a chord in his
+nature no woman had ever touched before; it vibrated--very faintly, but
+enough to arrest Thorne's attention, for an instant, and to cause him
+to bend his ear and listen.  In some subtle way, a difference was
+established between her and all other women.  Her ready acceptance of
+his aid, her absolute lack of self-consciousness, even her calmly
+courteous dismissal of him, piqued Thorne's curiosity and interest.  He
+reflected that in all probability he would meet her soon again, and the
+idea pleased him.
+
+As he selected a cigar, the grotesque side of the adventure touched
+him; he smiled, and the smile broadened into a laugh as he recalled his
+own part in the performance.  What would Norma have said, could she
+have beheld him heading off sheep from a squalling little African at
+the command of an utterly strange young woman?
+
+Pocahontas related her adventure gleefully when they were all assembled
+at dinner; and the amusement it excited was great.  Berkeley insisted
+teasingly that her deliverer would develop into one of the workmen from
+Washington, employed by General Smith in the renovation of Shirley.
+One of the carpenters, or--as he looked gentlemanly and wore a coat, a
+fresco man, abroad in search of an original idea for the dining-room
+ceiling.  This idea she had obligingly furnished him, and he would be
+able to make a very effective ceiling of her, and Sawney, and the
+sheep, if he should handle them rightly.  These suggestions Pocahontas
+scouted, maintaining gayly that the dark stranger was none other than
+her "Smith," the very identical John of her destiny.
+
+Later she confided to her brother her conjecture relative to the
+identity of their new neighbor, and was more delighted than surprised
+to learn from him that her surmise had been correct.  Berkeley had
+obtained the information from the solicitor in Wintergreen, who had
+been employed in the transfer of the estate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+The Smith family speedily settled down into their new home, and after
+the first feeling of strangeness had worn off, were forced to
+acknowledge that the reality of country living was not so disagreeable
+as they had anticipated.  The neighborhood was pleasantly and thickly
+settled, the people kind-hearted and hospitable.  True, Mrs. Smith
+still secretly yearned for modern conveniences and the comforts of a
+daily market, and felt that time alone could reconcile her to the
+unreliability and inefficiency of colored servants, but even she had
+compensation.  Her husband--whose time, since his retirement, had hung
+like lead upon his hands, was busy, active and interested, full of
+plans, and reveling in the pure delight of buying expensive machinery
+for the negroes to break, and tons of fertilizers for them to waste.
+The girls were pleased, and Norma happier and less difficult than she
+had been for years.  And, best and most welcome of all, Warner appeared
+to strengthen.  As for Percival, his satisfaction knew no bounds; his
+father had given him a gun and Nesbit Thorne was teaching him how to
+use it.
+
+At the eleventh hour Nesbit Thorne had decided to accompany his
+relatives in their flitting, instead of waiting to visit them later in
+the season.  He was incited thereto by idleness and ennui, leavened by
+curiosity as to the manner in which their future life would be ordered,
+and also by a genuine desire to be of service to them in the
+troublesome move.  Perhaps there was, besides, an unacknowledged
+feeling in his breast, that with the departure of his kindred, New York
+would become lonelier, more wearisome than ever.  They had given him a
+semblance of a home, and there was in the man's nature an undercurrent
+of yearning after love and the rounding out of true domestic life, that
+fretted and chafed in its obstructed channel, and tried here and there
+blindly for another outlet.
+
+Thorne's coming with them seemed to the Smiths a very natural
+proceeding.  His aunt proposed it one day, when he had been more than
+usually helpful, vowing that she scarcely knew how to get along without
+him, and Thorne fell in with the proposal at once; it made little
+difference, since he was coming for the shooting anyway.  If Norma had
+another theory in regard to his unwillingness to be separated from
+them, she was careful to keep it hidden.
+
+The country gentry, led and influenced by the Masons, extended the
+right hand of fellowship to the new-comers, and wrapped the folds of
+the social blanket cordially around them.  The worldly affairs of the
+Virginians, like their surroundings, were in a more or less perceptible
+state of dilapidation, and their means frequently failed to match their
+hospitality.  But their intentions were the best, and the Smiths
+(well-bred people, neither arrogant, nor purse-proud) speedily became
+reconciled to informality and lack of system, and learned to overlook
+deficiencies, or to piece them out with kindness.
+
+From the first they were thrown much into the society of the Lanarth
+family, for the Masons at once assumed right of property in them, being
+bent with simple loyalty on defraying some portion of their debt of
+gratitude.  When their loved one was "sick and in prison" these
+strangers had extended to him kindness, and now that opportunity
+offered, that kindness should be returned, full measure, pressed down
+and running over.  For the general, Pocahontas conceived a positive
+enthusiasm, a feeling which the jolly old soldier was not slow in
+discovering, nor backward in reciprocating; the pair were the best of
+friends.
+
+Ever since the finding of the letter, the girl's mind had been filled
+with the story of the brother whom she scarcely remembered.  With
+tender imagination, she exaggerated his youth, his courage, his
+hardships, and glorified him into a hero.  Every thing connected with
+him appeared pitiful and sacred; his saber hung above the mantle,
+crossed with his father's, and she took it down one morning and
+half-drew the dulled blade from the scabbard.  The brass of the hilt,
+and the trimmings of the belt and scabbard were tarnished, and even
+corroded in places.  She got a cloth and burnished them until they
+shone like gold.  When she replaced it, the contrast with the other
+sword hurt her, and a rush of remorseful tenderness made her take that
+down also, and burnish it carefully.  Poor father! almost as unknown as
+the young brother, she was grieved that he should have been the second
+thought.
+
+She was restoring her father's sword to its place, and re-arranging the
+crimson sash, faded and streaked in its folds, from wear and time, when
+Norma and Blanche arrived, escorted by Nesbit Thorne.  Little Sawney
+had been sitting on the hearth-rug watching her polish the arms, and
+offering suggestions, and Pocahontas dispatched him to invite her
+guests into the parlor, while she ran up-stairs to remove the traces of
+her work.  The young people from Shirley often walked over in the
+afternoons; the way was short and pleasant, and the brother and sister
+usually accompanied them part of the way home.
+
+Thorne was fond of these informal visits; his interest in Pocahontas
+had increased; the chord, instead of merely vibrating, was beginning to
+give out faint, sweet notes, like a far-off dream of music, just
+stirring toward embodiment.  He took a keen artistic pleasure in her,
+she satisfied him, and at first he was almost shy of pressing the
+acquaintance lest she should fail somewhere.  He had been disappointed
+so many times, had had so many exquisite bubbles float before him, to
+break at a touch and leave only dirty soap-suds.  He let himself be
+interested slowly, drawing out the pleasure, and getting its full
+flavor.  Then, when he found that it was true metal and might be worked
+at will without fear of baseness, or alloy, he gave himself up to the
+pleasure of it.  Then, his instinct being always to draw to himself
+what he desired, he strove to awaken an interest in her.  He was a man
+of unusually brilliant attainments, and he spared no pains.  He began
+to seek her society, and, when in it, to exert himself and appear
+always at his best, trying to fascinate her as she was, unconsciously,
+beginning to fascinate him.  He would entrap her into ventilating her
+old-fashioned ideas and prejudices; her primitive notions of life and
+conduct.  Her straightforwardness, simplicity, absolute truthfulness,
+struck him as quaint and delicious; even her romance and almost German
+sentiment were attractive to him.  He felt like a scientist, who
+discovers old truths in an absolutely new development.  Early in their
+acquaintance he discovered her fondness for old legends, and her
+perfect acceptance of, and faith in them; and it was his delight to
+beguile her into relating tales of her kindred, and of the olden times
+so dear to the hearts of Virginians.  Her remarks and comments often
+touched, always interested him, although sometimes they well-nigh
+convulsed him with amusement.  To the mind of the man of the world they
+appeared so--almost obsolete.
+
+Pocahontas was generally willing enough to tell her stories, unless
+indeed Norma happened to be present, and then the improvisatrice was
+dumb.  Pocahontas was not in sympathy with Norma.  Norma thought old
+stories great rubbish, and did not scruple to show that such was her
+opinion, and Pocahontas resented it.  One evening, in the beginning of
+their acquaintance, the three girls had walked down to the old willows
+at the foot of the lawn, and Pocahontas, for the amusement of her
+guests, had related the little story connected with them.
+
+"I think it was all great foolishness," Norma declared.  "If she loved
+the man, why not marry him at once like a sensible woman?  The idea of
+making him wait three years, and watch a rubbishing little tree, just
+because his brother would have made a scene.  What if he did make a
+scene?  He would soon have submitted to the inevitable, and made
+friends.  The lady couldn't have cared much for her lover, to be
+willing to put up with that driveling probation."
+
+"She did love him," retorted Pocahontas, with annoyance, "and she
+proved it by being willing to sacrifice a little of her happiness to
+spare him the bitterness of a quarrel with his own brother.  The men
+were twins, and they loved one another, until unnatural rivalry pushed
+family affection into the background.  If the matter had been settled
+when both were at white heat, an estrangement would have ensued which
+it would have taken years to heal--if it ever _was_ healed.  There's no
+passion so unyielding as family hate.  They were her kinsmen, too, men
+of her own blood; she must think of _them_, outside of herself.  The
+welfare of the man she didn't love must be considered as well as that
+of the man she did love--more, if any thing, because she gave him so
+much less.  How could she come between twin brothers, and turn their
+affection to hatred?  She knew them both--knew that her own true lover
+would hold firm for all the years of his life, so that she could safely
+trust him for three.  And she knew that the lighter nature would, in
+all probability, prove inconstant; and if he left her of his own
+freewill, there could be no ill-feeling, and no remorse."
+
+Norma laughed derisively.  "And in this fine self-sacrifice she had no
+thought of her lover," quoth she.  "_His_ pain was nothing.  She
+sacrificed him, too."
+
+"And why not?  Surely no man would grudge a paltry three years out of
+his whole life's happiness to avoid so dreadful a thing as ill blood
+between twin brothers.  If _she_ could wait for his sake, _he_ could
+wait for hers.  A woman must not cheapen herself; if she is worth
+winning, she must exact the effort."
+
+"I think it is a lovely story," Blanche interposed, decidedly.  "The
+lady behaved beautifully; just exactly as she should have done.  A
+quarrel between brothers is awful, and between twin brothers would be
+awfuler still."
+
+In her eager partisanship, Blanche's language was more concise than
+elegant, but she wanted Pocahontas to know that she sided with her.
+
+Norma regarded her sister with amusement not unmixed with chagrin.
+These new friends were stealing away her follower.  Blanche was
+becoming emancipated.
+
+"Any woman who trifles with her happiness, because of a scruple, is a
+fool," she repeated, dogmatically.
+
+Pocahontas held back the angry retort that was burning on the tip of
+her tongue, and let the subject drop.  Norma was her guest, and, after
+all, what did it matter what Norma thought?  But after that she
+refrained from repeating old stories before her; and of the two
+sisters, Blanche became her favorite.
+
+As she entered the parlor with smiles and words of welcome, Blanche
+held out her hands filled with late roses and branches of green holly,
+bright with berries.
+
+"See," she said, "two seasons in one bouquet.  The roses are for your
+mother.  I found them on a bush in a sheltered corner; and as we came
+along I made Nesbit cut the holly for me.  I never can resist holly.
+That tree by your gate is the loveliest thing I have ever seen; just
+like those in the store windows at home for Christmas.  Only we never
+had such a profusion of berries, and I don't think they were as bright.
+Do you think the holly we get at home is as bright, Norma?"
+
+"Oh, yes; it looked always pretty much the same.  We got beautiful
+holly every Christmas," replied Norma, who did not like Virginia
+exalted at the expense of her native place.
+
+"But not with such masses of berries.  Just look at this branch; was
+there ever any thing more perfect?  Princess, please give me something
+to put it in.  It's far too pretty to throw away.  Can I have that vase
+on the piano?"
+
+Pocahontas smiled assent.  She could have holly by the cart-load, but
+she liked Blanche's enthusiasm.  While the others chatted, Blanche
+decked the vase with her treasure; then two others which she found for
+herself on a table in the corner.  There were still some lovely rich
+bits, quite small twigs, left when she had finished, and she once more
+clamored for something to put them in.
+
+Pocahontas, in the midst of an eager discussion with Thorne and Norma,
+in which both were arrayed against her, glanced around carelessly.
+There was a cup and saucer on a small stand near her, and she picked up
+the cup thoughtlessly and held it out to Thorne.  Just as their hands
+met in the transfer, both of them talking, neither noticing what they
+were doing, Berkeley entered suddenly and spoke, causing them to start
+and turn.  There was a quick exclamation from Pocahontas, a wild clutch
+into space from Thorne, and on the floor between them lay the fragile
+china in half a dozen pieces.
+
+Pocahontas bent over them regretfully.  It was the cup with the
+dreaming Indian maiden on it--the cup from which Jim Byrd had taken his
+coffee on that last evening.  There were tears in her eyes, but she
+kept her head bent so that no one should see them.  She would rather
+any cup of the set should have come to grief than that one.
+
+She had brought it into the parlor several days before to show to a
+visitor, who wished a design for a hand-screen for a fancy fair, and
+had neglected to replace it in the cabinet.  She reproached herself for
+her carelessness as she laid the fragments on the piano, and then the
+superstition flashed across her mind.  Could it be an omen?  The idea
+seemed foolish, and she put it aside.
+
+"Don't feel badly about it," she said to Thorne, who was humbly
+apologetic for his awkwardness, "it was as much my fault as yours; we
+neither of us were noticing.  Indeed, it's more my fault, for if I
+hadn't neglected to put it away, the accident could not have happened.
+You must not blame yourself so much."
+
+"In the actual living present, I'm the culprit," observed Berkeley,
+"since my entrance precipitated the catastrophe.  I startled you both,
+and behold the result!  Nobody dreamed of convicting me, and this is
+voluntary confession, so I expect you all to respect it; the smallest
+unkindness will cause me to leave the room in a torrent of tears."
+
+Every one laughed, and Pocahontas put the fragments out of sight behind
+a pile of music books.  She could not put the subject out of her mind
+so easily, although she exerted herself to an unusual degree to prevent
+her guests from feeling uncomfortable; the superstition rankled.
+
+As they took leave, Thorne held her hand in a warmer clasp than he had
+ever before ventured on, and his voice was really troubled as he said:
+
+"I can't tell you how worried I am about your beautiful cup.  I never
+had a small accident trouble me to the same extent before.  I feel as
+though a serious calamity had befallen.  There was no tradition, no
+association, I hope, which made the cup of special value, beyond its
+beauty, and the fact of its being an heirloom."
+
+Pocahontas was too truthful for evasion.
+
+"There were associations of course," she answered gently, "with that
+cup as well as with the rest of the china.  It has been in the family
+so many generations, you know.  Don't reproach yourself any more,
+please--remember 'twas as much my fault as yours.  And broken things
+need not remain so," with an upward glance and a bright smile, "they
+can be mended.  I shall have the cup riveted."
+
+She would not tell him of the superstition; there was no use in making
+him feel worse about the accident than he felt already.  She did not
+wish him to be uncomfortable, and had gladly assumed an equal share of
+blame.  It was extremely silly in her to allow her mind to dwell on a
+foolish old tradition.  How could the breakage of a bit of china, no
+matter how precious, presage misfortune?  It was ill doing that
+entailed ill fortune, not blind chance, or heathen fate.  She would
+think no more of foolish old portents.
+
+Still!--she wished the cup had not been broken--wished with all her
+heart that it had not been _that_ cup.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Blanche Smith was not at all a clever girl--not like Norma.  Norma had
+always stood first in her classes, had borne off prizes and medals, but
+with Blanche it was otherwise.  No amount of coaching ever sufficed to
+pull her through ah examination, or to remove her from the middle of
+her class.  Blanche was a dunce confessedly; she hated books, and the
+acquisition of knowledge by labor.  If people told her things and took
+the trouble to explain them, she remembered them sometimes; sometimes
+not.  To accomplishments she took as a duck to water--danced
+beautifully, was a fair musician, sang with taste and sweetness, and
+chattered French with absolute self-confidence and a tolerable accent,
+although her rudimentary knowledge of the tongue was of the vaguest.
+
+At school she had been more popular than her cleverer sister; the girls
+affirmed that she was sweeter tempered and more obliging.  At home
+also, she was the favorite.  Her father idolized her, her brothers
+domineered over, and petted her; even the mother made an unconscious
+difference between the girls; she admired Norma more--was prouder of
+her, but she depended upon Blanche.  Norma saw the difference, and
+sometimes it vexed her, but generally she was indifferent to it.  Her
+people did not understand her; she was not like them; when barn-door
+fowls unwittingly hatched eaglets, it was natural that the phenomenon
+should be beyond their comprehension, and that their ignorance should
+prefer the tamer members of their brood.  Not that Norma actually
+instituted such comparison, and deliberately set herself above her
+kindred; she simply acted upon the hypothesis unconsciously, and when
+the warmest of the family affection settled around Blanche, felt sure
+that it was due to natural difference, and could be no fault of hers.
+
+Little Blanche, in her deep content with her new surroundings, wondered
+how she could ever have been so besotted as to object to the move.  The
+place, the people, the mode of life were all delicious to her, and for
+the family at Lanarth, her enthusiasm was touching.  Mrs. Mason was
+just her idea of "Mrs. Washington, or Cornelia, or Lady de
+Bourgainville," she explained to Norma, mixing history and fiction, as
+usual, and was laughed at for her pains.
+
+Pocahontas never laughed at her--at least not offensively, or in a way
+to make her feel her ignorance.  She thought sometimes that her foolish
+society was preferred by her new friend to that of her clever sister;
+certainly the quaint old tales which Pocahontas poured unreservedly
+into her delighted ears were never told to Norma.  What impression lay
+in the girl's mind of handsome Berkeley Mason, had best remain
+uncanvassed.  It is ill work, violating feminine sanctuaries unless the
+need be urgent; an empty coat-sleeve, carelessly carried, is a powerful
+agent for converting a man into a hero.
+
+Christmas, the grand high festival of the year, was approaching, and
+all the community was stirred with deep desire for its worthy
+celebration.  Sociability ceased, or at best was sustained in limp,
+half-hearted fashion by the men.  The ladies had other things to think
+of; for on them rested the sole responsibility of the Christmas
+preparations--the providing of copious lodging for expected guests, the
+bedecking of rooms with evergreens and holly, the absorption of
+store-room and kitchen, the never-ending consultations with the
+cook--all the wonderful machinations, the deep mysteries and
+incantations, which would result in glittering hospitality later on.
+Realizing this, they suffered lesser matters to pass unheeded, caring
+naught for social converse, intellectual pleasures, or intelligence of
+church or state.  Women might elope, men embezzle, dynasties fall,
+ministries change, or public faith be broken, and they viewed the
+result, if indeed they noted it, with absolute composure.  But let eggs
+be unattainable, jellies become murky, the fruit in cake or pudding
+sink hopelessly to the bottom, and Rachel weeping for her children
+could not have made more wild acclaim.
+
+At Lanarth, the week of preparation (good old Virginia housekeepers
+always allowed a week at least, and Mrs. Mason adhered to the
+time-honored custom) passed busily.  Every thing turned out unusually
+well, and the store-room was a picture.  Jellies, in slender glasses,
+glittered in exquisite amber perfection, or glowed warmly crimson, with
+points of brighter hue where the sun fell on them.  Heaps of
+old-fashioned "snowballs" hid golden hearts under a pure white
+frosting, and cakes, baked in fantastic shapes, like Turks' heads and
+fluted melons, were rich, warm, brown, or white and gleaming as
+Christmas snow.  The pastry showed all shades from palest buff to
+tender delicate brown, and for depth of tone there were their rich
+interiors of dark mincemeat and golden custards.  Of the pleasures of
+this beautiful world not the least is the sight of beautiful food.
+
+And it was Christmas eve.
+
+The shadows were gathering, and the sun sending in his resignation to
+the night, when Pocahontas, tying on her pretty scarlet hood and
+wrappings, armed herself with a small basket of corn, and proceeded to
+the poultry yard to house her turkeys for the night.  They usually
+roosted in an old catalpa tree near the back gate, earlier in the
+season; but as Christmas approached Pocahontas found it expedient to
+turn the key upon them, since leaving them out caused weaker brothers
+to offend.  As she passed the kitchen door she called to little Sawney,
+whose affection for his grandmother increased at Christmas, to come out
+and help her.
+
+The little fellow had that morning been invested by a doting parent
+with a "pa'r o' sto' boots" purchased entirely with reference to the
+requirements of the future.  They were many sizes too large for him:
+the legs adorned with flaming scarlet tops, reached nearly to his
+middle; they flopped up and down at every step, and evinced an evil
+propensity for wabbling, and bringing their owner with sorrow to the
+ground.  They were hard-natured, stiff-soled, uncompromising--but! they
+were _boots_!--"sto' boots, whar cos' money!"--and Sawney's cup of
+bliss was full.
+
+Any one who has experience in the ways and wiles of the domestic
+treasure, must be aware of the painful lack of consideration sometimes
+evinced by turkeys in this apparently simple matter of allowing
+themselves to be housed.  Some evenings, they march straight into their
+apartment with the directness and precision of soldiers filing into
+barracks; on others the very Prince of Darkness, backed by the three
+Fates and the three Furies, apparently takes possession of the
+perverse, shallow-pated birds.  They wander backward and forward, with
+an air of vacancy as though they knew not what to do; they pass and
+repass the yawning portal of the turkey house, with heads erect and
+eyes fixed on futurity, not only as if they did not see the door, but
+actually as if there were no door there to see.  And when the maddened
+driver, wrought to desperation, hurls into their midst a stick or
+stone, hoping fervently and vengefully that it may break a neck or a
+leg, they leap nimbly into the air with "put-putterings" of surprise
+and rebuke, and then advance cautiously upon the missile and examine it.
+
+The Lanarth turkeys were behaving in just this reprehensible manner,
+and Pocahontas was working herself into a frenzy over them.  Three
+times she engineered the flock successfully up to the open door, and
+three times the same old brown hen advanced, peered cautiously into the
+house, started tragically aside as though she beheld some evil thing,
+and produced a panic and a stampede.
+
+"You miserable wretch!" exclaimed Pocahontas, hurling her empty basket
+impotently at the dusky author of her woe, "I could kill you!  Shoo!
+shoo!  Sawney, why don't you help me?  Head them!  Run round them!
+Shoo! shoo! you abominable creatures!"
+
+Sawney essayed to obey, grasping the straps of his boots, and lifting
+his feet very high.
+
+"Take them off and run," commanded Pocahontas.  But Sawney would as
+soon have parted with his skin.  "I dwine ter run," he responded, and
+gripped his boots valiantly.  It was of no use.  Sawney had gotten too
+much boot for his money, and if walking in them was difficult, running
+was impossible.  He held on to them bravely, but that only impeded
+progress further; the faithless cowhides wabbled, twisted, and finally
+landed him sprawling on his back in the middle of the flock, which
+promptly retired to distant parts of the poultry yard, "puttering" and
+dodging.
+
+"Sawney proves a broken reed, as usual," called a pleasant voice from
+somewhere in the background; "here, let me help you," and Nesbit Thorne
+leaped over the fence, and advanced, gun in hand, to the rescue.
+
+"It's the fault of his 'sto' boots,'" Pocahontas explained, laughing,
+as she extended her hand.  "Sawney's intentions were honorable enough.
+I shall be glad of your assistance--as usual," with a merry glance,
+"for these aggravating birds are shattering my nerves, and ruining my
+temper."
+
+Then, together, the pair pursued the unruly fowls, and pressed upon
+them and buffeted them, until the turkeys were right glad to defy the
+vision of the old brown sensationalist, and take refuge in their house.
+Pocahontas closed the door with a sharp bang almost upon the tail of
+the hindmost one, locked it, and then turned cordially to her companion
+and invited him to remain and take tea with them.
+
+Thorne glanced down at his splashed boots and corduroys.  "I'm scarcely
+in trim for a lady's tea table," he said, smiling, "you must excuse me,
+and let me come some other time.  I met your brother on the low grounds
+as I came up.  I've been shooting over his land, and called to leave
+your mother a few birds."
+
+"Had you good sport?" inquired Pocahontas, with interest, watching him
+empty the pockets of his shooting-coat on the top of an adjacent
+chicken-coop, and admiring the soft shades, and exquisite markings of
+the plumage of the dead birds.
+
+"Here's old 'bur-rabbit,'" said Thorne, reaching his hand behind his
+back, and drawing out the pretty brown beast by the legs.  "I knocked
+him over just below your garden fence in a little patch of briers.  It
+was a pretty shot; see, right through the head.  I hate to mangle my
+game.  I'd pretty fair sport; the birds are a little wild, though, and
+I had no dog.  I lost a fine duck--a canvas-back, this afternoon, by
+its falling into deep water.  I must send North for a brace of good
+dogs."
+
+"That isn't necessary," said Pocahontas, touching the birds gently, and
+stroking their soft feathers.  "Berke and Royall both have good dogs,
+trained retrievers, and used to the country.  Strange dogs don't do so
+well over unaccustomed ground.  It's a shame that you had no dog, and
+dreadfully neglectful of the boys not to have noticed.  No, no!" as
+Thorne moved away from the coop, "you must not leave all those; you
+have none for yourself, and you'll be disgraced as a sportsman if you
+go home empty-handed.  They won't believe you've killed a thing.  We
+_never_ do, when our men come home with nothing to show.  Jim Byrd
+never dared face Nina, or me, without, at least, half a dozen birds."
+
+"Who is Jim Byrd?" demanded Thorne quickly.  "I never heard you mention
+him before."
+
+"Haven't you?" regarding him with great surprise.  "Well that is
+curious, for he is one of our oldest, dearest friends, Berke's and
+mine.  A year ago I couldn't have imagined life possible without Jim's
+dear old face near us.  He formerly lived at Shirley; it was the Byrd
+patrimony for generations.  His sisters were the closest girl-friends
+Grace and I ever had, and for years the two families were as one.
+There were financial troubles handed down from father to son, growing
+always greater; the old place had finally to be sold, and your uncle
+bought it.  Jim is in Mexico now, engineering, and the girls are all
+married.  I wonder you have never heard me mention Jim.  I think, and
+speak of him frequently.  We all do."
+
+So perfectly unembarrassed was the girl's manner, that despite a faint
+wistfulness discernible in her face, Thorne put aside the half-thought
+formulated in his brain by the familiar mention of Jim Byrd's name.  He
+allowed himself to be persuaded to re-pocket part of the game,
+particularly a brace of ducks, which the soul of the general loved.  As
+he rose from his seat on the chicken-coop, Pocahontas noticed the
+handsome gun beside him, and leaning forward with a woman's instinctive
+desire to handle dangerous things, she took it in her hands with an
+exclamation of admiration.
+
+"Is it loaded?" she inquired, raising it to her shoulder, and laying
+her finger lightly on the trigger.
+
+"Yes," Thorne answered, drawing nearer, "take care, Miss Mason.  It
+always makes me nervous to see a gun in a woman's hands.  Don't pull
+the trigger, please; the charge is heavy and the recoil will hurt you."
+
+But the warning came too late; intentionally, or unintentionally, she
+_did_ pull the trigger, and the gun carelessly held, recoiled sharply,
+striking against her shoulder with such force that she staggered and
+would have fallen, if Thorne had not caught her in his arms.  The gun
+slipped to the ground, but fortunately did not discharge the second
+barrel.
+
+Thorne regarded the white face upon his breast with trepidation, amazed
+even amid his anxiety at the fierce pang that shot through his heart at
+the sight of its pallor.  Suppose she should be seriously hurt!  Brute
+that he had been, not to have taken better care of her.  Fool! _fool_!
+to have let her touch that accursed gun!  His hand trembled as he
+loosened her cloak, and passed it tenderly over her shoulder.
+Dislocated?  No; such cruel harm had not befallen her: a bruise, a
+little stiffness was the worst in store.  A passionate relief,
+bewildering in its intensity, thrilled through him; his dark cheek
+rivaled hers in pallor; his eyes glowed.
+
+Then her lids quivered, the gray eyes unclosed, and the color flushed
+back warmly, covering cheek and brow and neck with a mighty surge of
+crimson.  With a quick effort, Pocahontas disengaged herself from his
+arms, and leaned against the fence, a few steps away from him.
+Struggling for self-mastery, Thorne made his anxious inquiries,
+striving by a fierce exercise of will to still his bounding pulses, and
+banish from his eyes the expression he felt glowing within them.  And
+Pocahontas, with her paleness in force again, replied to his inquiries
+with tremulous but determined lightness, putting aside his self
+reproaches, and assuming the blame with eager incoherence.  She made a
+terrible mess of it, but Thorne was past all nicety of observation; his
+only thought, now that he was assured of her safety, was to get himself
+away without further betrayal of his feelings.  His mind was in a
+tumult, and his heart rose up and choked him.  For a moment he held the
+small, tremulous fingers in a strong, warm clasp, then with a quick
+"good-night" relinquished them, sprang over the fence and walked
+rapidly away in the direction of Shirley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Walking home in the still dusk of the winter gloaming, Thorne found
+himself compelled at last to look the situation in the face without
+disguise or subterfuge; to "take stock" of it all, as it were, and ask
+himself what should be the result.  He had lingered in Virginia,
+lengthening his stay from week to week, because the old world
+quaintness of the people, the freshness and yet antiquity of thought
+prevalent among them, charmed him, pleased the aesthetic side of his
+nature, as the softness of their voices pleased his ear, and the
+suavity of their manners, his taste.  He was tired to death of the old
+routine, weary beyond expression of the beaten track, of the sameness
+of the old treadmill of thought.  Here he had found variety.
+
+For somewhat the same reason he had sought Pocahontas, charily at
+first, dreading disappointment, but finally, as his interest deepened,
+without reserve.  She was different from other women, more candid, less
+impressible.  He could not discover what she thought of him, beyond her
+surface interest in his talents and conversation.  She piqued and
+stimulated him; in her presence he exerted himself and appeared at his
+best, which is always pleasant to a man.  Even old thoughts, and
+hackneyed theories donned new apparel when about to be presented to her
+notice.
+
+He had played with fire, and was forced now to admit that the fate of
+the reckless had overtaken him.  He loved her.  The truth had been
+dawning on his mind for weeks past, but he had put it aside, willfully
+blinding himself because of his contentment with the present.  Now,
+self delusion was no longer possible; the report of his gun had blown
+away the last rays of it forever.  When Pocahontas lay well-nigh
+senseless in his arms, when her fair face rested on his breast and her
+breath touched his cheek, he knew, and acknowledged to himself that he
+loved her with a passionate intensity such as in all his careless,
+self-indulgent life he had never before felt for a woman.
+
+And he had no right to love her; he was a married man.
+
+When this idea flashed across his mind it almost stunned him.  He had
+been free in heart and mind so long that he had ceased to remember that
+he was bound in fact.  The substance had so withdrawn itself into the
+background of his life that he had forgotten that the shadow still
+rested on him.  He was free, and he was bound.  Thorne turned the idea
+over in his mind, as one turns a once familiar thing that has grown
+strange from being hidden long from sight.  Was he a married
+man?--undoubtedly--the idea appalled him.
+
+Two years had passed since the separation and there had been no
+divorce.  Thorne had thought the matter out at the time, as a man must,
+and had decided to wait, and to let any initial steps be taken by his
+wife.  He had no love left for her, and he realized with grim intensity
+that their marriage had been a terrible mistake, but there was
+sufficient chivalry if his nature to make him feel that the mother of
+his child had claims upon him--to make him willing, for the child's
+sake, to leave her the protection of his home and name as long as she
+cared to keep it.  Then, too, the habit of thought in his family, and
+all his early influences were against divorce.  The idea had not
+presented itself spontaneously, as the natural solution of his domestic
+difficulties; he had been obliged to familiarize himself with it.  His
+family had been Catholics for generations, his mother had become one on
+her marriage, and had been ardent and devout, as is usual with
+proselytes.  Thorne was not a religious man himself, but he respected
+religion, and in an abstract way considered it a beautiful and holy
+thing.  He had never thought of it with any reference to his own life,
+but it made a halo around the memory of his mother.  Her views had
+influenced him in his decision in the matter of a divorce.  The world
+had given him credit for religious scruples of his own, but the world
+had done him more than justice; he was only haunted by the ghosts of
+his mother's scruples.
+
+Thorne leaned on the fence of the field where he had first seen
+Pocahontas, and went over his former experience of love.  What a
+miserable thing it had been, at best!  How feverish, vapory and
+unsatisfying!  What a wretched fiasco his marriage had proved!  And yet
+he had loved his wife!  Her beauty was of a type that insures its
+possessor love of a certain sort--not the best, but strong enough to
+stand the wear and tear of well-to-do existence, if only it is
+returned.  If Ethel had loved him, Thorne would have held to his lot,
+and munched his husks, if not with relish, certainly with decency and
+endurance.  But Ethel did not love him.
+
+Their marriage, from Ethel's standpoint, had been mercantile; for his
+wealth and position, she had willingly bartered her youth and beauty,
+and if he would have been content with face value, she would have been
+content.  Why should people trouble the depths of life when the surface
+was so pleasant and satisfying?  She liked Thorne well enough, but his
+ceaseless craving for congeniality, deep affection, community of
+interest, and the like, wearied, bored and baffled her.  Why should
+they care for the same things, cultivate similar tastes, have
+corresponding aspirations?  If they differed in thought and life and
+expression, let them differ--it was of no consequence.  She found her
+husband's exactions tiresome.  He had her birthright, she had his
+pottage; let the matter end there, and each be satisfied.
+
+But Thorne was _not_ satisfied.  He had married a transcendently
+beautiful woman, but he had no wife.  Half the men of his acquaintance
+envied him, but he did not rejoice, nor plume himself.  He wanted his
+wife to lean on him, to clothe the strength of his manhood with the
+grace of her womanhood--and his wife showed herself not only capable of
+standing alone, but of pushing him away with both hands.  His mood
+underwent many changes, and finally he let her go, with some disgust,
+and a deep inward curse at his past folly.  It was not a pleasant
+retrospect.
+
+Night had fallen; the air was still and brooding; across the sky
+scudded ragged masses of clouds, advanced guard of the storm that was
+mustering along the horizon; everywhere there was a feeling that
+foreboded snow.  In the sky, few stars were visible, and those
+glimmered with a cold, wan light; at the zenith a solitary planet
+burned steadfastly.  The road stretched away into the night; it was
+dark under the trees beside the fence; away in the distance the echo of
+footsteps sounded.
+
+Thorne thought of Pocahontas.  His face softened, and his eyes shone
+tenderly.  How true she was, how thorough and noble.  Her pure face and
+fearless gray eyes rose before him; with the love of such a woman to
+bless him, her hand in his, her influence surrounding him, to what
+might not a man aspire!  There were no insincerities, no half-truths,
+no wheels within wheels, such as Ethel delighted in, about this other
+woman.  Even her occasional fits of impatience and temper were indulged
+in frankly--a sudden flurry of tempest and then the bright, warm
+sunshine; no long-continued murkiness, and heavy sodden depression for
+hours and days.
+
+Did she love him?  As he asked himself the question, Thorne's heart
+bounded, and the blood coursed hotly through his veins.  He had tried
+to make her love him--had he succeeded?  Thorne was no fatuous fool,
+blinded by his own vanity, but his power over women had been often
+tried, fully proven, and he had confidence in himself.  Once only had
+he failed of securing the love he sought, and it was the memory of that
+failure which made him pause and question now.  He was not sure.  She
+liked him, was pleasant and gracious, but he had seen her so to other
+men.  Never until this evening had she changed color at his touch.  She
+liked him--and Thorne felt within him a fierce desire to change her
+passivity of regard into wild activity of passion.  He could do it.
+That tide of crimson, a vague terror and awakening in the gray eyes, as
+they met his gaze on re-opening to consciousness, had shown him a tiny
+cleft which his hand might broaden, until it should flood their two
+lives with the light of love.
+
+The echo of the footsteps deepened, merged into actual sound, drew
+nearer.  Thorne, in the deep obscurity of the trees, listened, moving
+near to the dusky, trunk of an old magnolia; he was in no mood for
+passing civilities, and in this friendly country all wayfarers
+exchanged greetings.  In the sound of the advancing steps, he could
+distinguish an unmistakable shuffle which proclaimed race--two negroes
+returning from the little village, beyond Shirley, whither they had
+gone to make Christmas purchases.  They walked by the light of a
+flaring pine knot, which was encouraged to burn by being swung around
+violently from time to time; it lighted the men's dark faces, and
+reflected itself in intermittent flashes on the sides of a bright tin
+bucket which the younger man carried, but it intensified the gloom
+around them.  Both had on their backs bags filled with lumpy things,
+like bundles.  They were talking cheerfully, and the sound of their
+rough voices and guttural laughter reached Thorne before the men
+themselves came abreast of his position.  The negro with the bucket was
+relating an anecdote.  Thorne caught part of it.
+
+"Yes, sar," he was saying, "dat was de fust ov it.  Mars Jim, he clumb
+right spang up to de tip-top de tree, an' de ice was cracklin', an'
+slippin', an' rattlin' down like broke up lamp chimblys.  De little
+gals was 'pon de groun' watchin' him, an' hollerin' an' wringin' deir
+han's.  I was loadin' de ox-cart wid pine kindlin's back in de woods,
+an' when I hearn de chil'en hollerin', I came runnin' to see what was
+de matter wid 'em."
+
+"What he clumb arter?" questioned the other negro; "hit's mighty
+dangersome gittin' up trees when dey got sleet 'pon 'em."
+
+"Mighty dangersome," acquiesced the narrator, "dat's what I 'lowed ter
+myse'f when I seed him.  He was arter a lump o' dat green truck wid
+white berries 'pon it--mizzletoe, dey calls its name.  When I got dar,
+he was comin' down de tree holdin' it by de stem wid he teef.  He
+wouldn't fling it down, kase he's feard he'd spile de berries.  Time he
+totch de groun' good, Miss Grace, she hauled off, she did, an' smacked
+his jaws ez hard ez she could stave, an' axed him how _dar'ed_ he skeer
+'em like dat?  An' Mars Jim, he larfed out loud, and said: 'Princess
+wanted it,' an' den he put de truck he'd resked his nake ter git in
+Miss Pocahontas's arms, an' she hugged it up tight, an' went long to de
+house cryin'."
+
+Thorne moved involuntarily, and the gun in his hand struck against the
+trunk of the tree behind which he stood.  The negroes paused and
+glanced around alertly, the man with the torch swinging it backward and
+forward, with a muttered "What's dat?"  Nothing of any consequence; a
+bird, or a rabbit, perhaps--nothing worth investigation.  The man with
+the bucket set his burden on the ground, and opened and shut his hand
+rapidly several times.  The wire of the handle had cramped his fingers.
+Both men transferred their bags from the right shoulder to the left,
+and leaned against the tree stems to rest themselves a moment.
+
+The elder man resumed the subject.
+
+"Love her!  Lord-er-mussy 'pon me!  Jim Byrd was fa'rly _foolish_ wid
+love.  De groun' warn't fitten fur Miss Pocahontas ter set her foots
+'pon in his notion; he'd er liked ter spread _hissef_ down to save her
+slippers.  T'want no question 'bout lovin' wid Mars Jim!"
+
+"But he gone away," objected the torch-bearer.  "I reckon Miss
+Pocahontas done kick him; dat how come he lef.  What he doin' in
+Nexican ef he kin get what he want here?  He _gone_!"
+
+"_Dat_ ain't nothin'.  He was bleeged ter go out yander ter git money
+ter buy back de old place.  Money mighty plentiful out dar, Aunt Vi'let
+say.  Gwine way ain't nothin' ter a _man_; he kin come back 'gin.  I
+went 'way ter Richmond onct myse'f ter rake up money 'nouf ter buy one
+mule, an' rent er scrop o' lan', so ez I could marry Sarah.  Mars Jim's
+comin' back; las' word he sed ter Aunt Vi'let, was _dat_.  Miss
+Pocahontas ain't kick him n'other.  What she gwine kick him fur?  Mars
+Jim's er likely man, an' all de ginnerashuns o' de Byrds an' Masons bin
+marryin' one n'other ever sence Virginny war er settle_mint_.  My ole
+gran'daddy, whar war ole Mr. Dabney Byrd's kyar'ege driver, allus
+sed--Lord, a-mussy! what DAT!!"
+
+The speaker paused with his mouth open and a chilly sensation about the
+back, as though a lump of ice were traveling down his spine.  A sound,
+as of scriptural denunciation, low, but intense, had caught his ear.  A
+bat, circling low, had grazed Thorne's face and caused him to throw up
+his hand with an impatient oath.  The wisdom of the defunct "kyar'ege
+driver" was overwhelmed in the flood of perturbation which seized his
+descendant.  The man swung his torch around nervously and peered into
+the darkness, conscious of a distrust of his surroundings that amounted
+to positive pain.  The other negro said nothing; but addressed himself
+to the adjustment of his burden in the manner least likely to impede
+retreat.
+
+Among the colored folks this portion of the road enjoyed an evil
+reputation, particularly after nightfall, for in a field near by there
+was an ancient graveyard, and the rumor went, that the denizens thereof
+were of a specially unruly, not to say malicious spirit, and found pure
+delight in ambuscades along the road side, and in sallies upon
+unsuspecting travelers with results too painful for description.
+
+"Haunts was mighty rank 'bout dar," the negroes said, and after sundown
+that part of the road was destitute of attractions.  The graveyard had
+not been used for many years; but that only made the danger greater,
+for ghosts, grown bold with long immunity of office, were held capable
+of deeper malignity, than would be within the range of ghosts oppressed
+with the modesty of debutants.  The fact that the occupants of the
+place had, in life, been of their own race, inspired the negroes with
+no feeling of kinship or confidence.  They were earnestly afraid of all
+spirits, be they white, black, or red; but most of all of black ones,
+because they seemed most in league with the devil.
+
+When, therefore, the light of the flickering pine torch fell obliquely
+on Thorne's dark figure and caught a gleam from the polished mountings
+of his gun, and another from the brass of the cartridge belt, which to
+the terrified darkeys looked like a cincture of fire, they became
+possessed with the idea that the most malevolent of all the spirits,
+perhaps the devil himself, was upon them.  Calling on their Maker with
+more urgence than they ever did at "pray'r meetin'," they grabbed up
+their belongings and addressed themselves to flight.  The bags,
+flopping up and down on their backs, held them to their speed, by
+corporeal reminder of what they had to lose if the devil should
+overtake them, and the molasses in the bucket slopped over the sides
+and sweetened the dust at every jump.  The bucket top had bounced off
+in the first burst and sped down the road before them, and the owner,
+feeling that he had no time to lose, never dreamed of stopping to look
+for it.  Every now and then the bucket banged against his leg causing
+him to feel that the evil one might be gaining, and to yell "Oh, Lawdy!
+Oh, Lawdy!!" at the top of his lungs.  The torch-bearer had flung away
+his light, thinking to elude the devil in the darkness, and all his
+soul was in his heels.
+
+Thorne laughed a little, in a mirthless fashion; but he was too
+miserable to be amused.  While the men talked, black jealousy had crept
+around the old magnolia and linked arms with him.  Twice in the same
+evening this name had crossed him.  Who the devil _was_ this Jim Byrd?
+These men had spoken of him as the avowed lover of Pocahontas, the man
+she would eventually marry.  The girl herself had admitted him to be a
+dear and valued friend--a friend so dear that his going had left a
+blank in her life.  The power he had but now felt to be his own,
+suddenly appeared to be slipping into other hands.  Another sickle was
+sharpening for the harvest; other eyes had recognized the promise of
+the golden grain; other hands were ready to garner the rich sheaves.
+
+Thorne's heart grew hot; angry blood surged from it and inflamed his
+system; every nerve tingled; his eyes glowed, and his fingers tightened
+on the barrel of the gun beside him.  His consciousness of antagonism
+grew so intense that it seemed to annihilate space and materialize his
+distant rival into an actual presence; his feeling was that which
+animates brutes when they lock horns, or fly at each other's throats;
+and, could the emotional force which swayed his soul have been
+converted into physical force and projected through space, Jim would
+never have seen the light of another day.
+
+Poor Thorne!  If suffering may be pleaded in extenuation of moods whose
+cause is mingled love and pain, he certainly was not without excuse.
+Imagination, wounded by jealousy, leaped forward into the future and
+ranged amid possibilities that made him quiver--noble, beautiful
+possibilities, filled with joy and light and sweetness--and filled for
+his rival--not for him.  As in a mirror he beheld his love in his
+rival's arms, resting on his bosom, as an hour ago she had rested on
+his own; only in this man's embrace, he pictured her glowing, sentient,
+responsive to look and caress; not cold, lifeless and inanimate.
+Should this thing be?  No! a thousand times no!  Must he always have a
+stone for bread?  Must his garners always stand empty while other men's
+overflowed with corn?
+
+Deeply the man cursed his past folly; bitterly he anathematized the
+weakness which had allowed shadowy scruples and a too fastidious taste
+to rule his judgment in the matter of a divorce.  He would wait no
+longer; he would break at once and forever the frail fetter that still
+bound him to a union from which all reality, all sanctity had fled.  He
+would be free in fact, as he was in heart and thought, to pit his
+strength against that of his rival.  This prize should not slip from
+his grasp uncontested.  No man should approach the shrine unchallenged.
+
+The wind rose, sighing fitfully; the clouds gathered and formed an army
+which stormed the zenith and threatened to overwhelm the pure light of
+the planet.  The lesser stars vanished, two or three falling in their
+haste and losing themselves forever in infinity.  The night thickened;
+snow began to fall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+The Christmas festivities were to close on
+New Year's Eve with a grand ball at Shirley.
+It was to be a sumptuous affair with unlimited
+Chinese lanterns, handsome decorations, a
+magnificent supper, and a band from Washington.
+The Smiths were going to requite the neighborhood's
+hospitality with the beating of drums, the
+clashing of cymbals, and the flowing of
+champagne.  This cordial friendly people had
+welcomed them kindly, and must have their courtesy
+returned in fitting style.  Mrs. Smith suggested a
+simpler entertainment, fearing contrast, and any
+appearance of ostentation, but the general gauged
+his neighbors better.  They were at once too well
+bred, and too self-satisfied for any idea of
+comparison to occur to them.  They would eat his
+fruit-cake, or make him welcome to their
+corn-bread with the same hearty unconcern.  His
+wealth, and their own poverty troubled them
+equally little; they were abstract facts with
+which hospitality had nothing to do.  But in their
+way they were proud; having given their best
+without grudge or stint, they would expect his
+best in return, and the general was determined
+that they should have it.  The risk of offense lay
+in simplicity, not grandeur.
+
+Mrs. Royall Garnett came over to Lanarth a day
+or so before the grand event, bearing her family
+in her train, to assist in the weighty matter of a
+suitable toilet for Pocahontas.  She was a tall,
+handsome woman, with a noble bearing, and great
+decision of character; and on most matters--notably
+those pertaining to the sacred mysteries
+of the wardrobe, her word with her family was
+law.  Grace's taste was admitted to be perfect.
+
+After an exhaustive discussion of the subject, at
+which both Berke and Royall ignorantly and
+gratuitously assisted, and were flouted for their
+pains, it was irrevocably decided that Pocahontas
+should appear in pure white unrelieved by a
+single dash of color.
+
+"She looks cheap and common in any thing but
+dead black, or pure white, at a party," pronounced
+Grace with sisterly frankness, and of course that
+settled the matter, although Mrs. Mason did
+venture on the modest protest that it would look
+"bride-like and unusual."
+
+"I want her to look unusual," declared Grace;
+"to make her so, is at present the object of my
+being.  I shall hesitate at nothing short of cutting
+off her nose to secure that desirable result.  To
+be admired, a woman must stand out distinctly
+from the throng; and I've set my heart on
+Princess's being the belle of the ball.  Have you
+plenty of flowers, dear?  As flowers are to be
+your sole garniture, you must have a profusion.
+I can't tolerate skimpy, rubbishing bouquets."
+
+"None at all, Grace," confessed Pocahontas,
+ruefully, "except a single calla.  I cut my last
+white rosebuds and camellias to send to Nina
+Byrd Marion the very day before I heard about
+the Shirley ball.  Isn't it provoking?"
+
+"Then somebody must get you some," Grace
+responded promptly, pausing in her preparations,
+and regarding her sister with the air of an autocrat;
+"if the men are not lost to all sense of honor and
+decency, you'll have plenty.  Of course you _must_
+have plenty.  If only they will have sufficient
+intellect to select white ones!  But they won't.
+I'd better instruct Roy and Berkeley at once."
+
+On the morning of the ball, Berkeley entered
+his mother's room, where the three ladies sat in
+solemn conclave regarding with discontent a
+waiter full of colored flowers which a thoughtful
+neighbor had just sent over to Pocahontas.  He
+held in his hand a good-sized box which he
+deposited in his sister's lap with the remark:
+
+"Look, Princess!  Here's a New Year's gift
+just come for you.  I don't know the writing.  I
+wonder what it is!"
+
+"A subtle aroma suggests--fruit," hazarded
+Grace, sniffing curiously.
+
+"Perhaps flowers," suggests Mrs. Mason, who
+that morning was a woman with one idea.
+
+Pocahontas wrestled with the cords, unfolded
+the wrappers, and lifted the cover.  Then she
+uttered a long drawn "oh" of satisfaction.
+
+"What is it?" demanded the others with lively impatience.
+
+Pocahontas lifted a card and turned it in her
+hand, and a smile broke over her face as she
+answered: "Flowers; from Jim Byrd."
+
+Then she removed the damp moss and cotton,
+and lifted spray after spray of beautiful snowy
+jasmin--Cape Jasmin, pure and powerful, and
+starry wreaths of the more delicate Catalonian.
+Only white flowers--all jasmin, Jim's favorite
+flower; and with them were tropical ferns and
+grasses.  As she held the exquisite blossoms in
+her hands and inhaled their rich perfume, the girl
+was conscious that when her old friend penned
+the order for the fragrant gift, his heart had been
+full of home, and of the evening beside the river
+when she had worn his flowers in hair and dress,
+and had bidden him farewell.
+
+"How beautiful they are!" exclaimed Grace,
+excitedly, "and just in time for to-night.  To
+think of the way I've made that wretched
+husband of mine charge through the country since
+day-break, this morning, in pursuit of white
+flowers, and here they come like a fairy story.  It was
+very nice of Jim.  I'd no idea there was so poetical
+an impulse in the old fellow; as the selection
+of these flowers appears to indicate."
+
+"You don't appreciate Jim, Grace.  You do
+him injustice.  If thought and care and love for
+others, combined with tenderness, and delight
+in giving pleasure, constitutes poetical impulses,
+then Jim Byrd is the noblest poet we are
+likely ever to meet."  Pocahontas spoke warmly,
+the color flushing to her cheeks, the light
+coming to her eyes.  Poor Jim!--so far away.
+Was it disloyal to her old friend to go that
+night to dance among strangers in the rooms
+that had been his,--that were full of associations
+connected with him?  At all events, no flowers
+would she wear save his; no other ornaments of
+any kind.  It would seem, then, as though he
+participated in her pleasure; rejoiced in her joy.
+Jim loved always to see her happy.  For reasons
+of their own, the two elder ladies had decided on
+remaining at home, so that Pocahontas repaired
+to the ball in male custody alone.  Blanche, who
+was on the watch for the Lanarth party, came
+forward the instant of their arrival, accompanied
+by her father, to welcome them, and to bear
+Pocahontas away to the upper regions to warm
+herself and remove her wrappings.  The rooms
+were a little chill, she explained, with a shiver,
+in spite of the splendid fires the general had
+kept roaring in them all day.  Pocahontas must
+remain where she was and warm herself
+thoroughly, and she would send one of the boys for
+her presently.  And after a little girlish gossip
+and mutual admiration of each others' appearance,
+the small maiden tripped away to her duties below.
+
+Soon there was a knock at the door, and
+Pocahontas, catching up fan, bouquet and handkerchief,
+opened it and stepped into the hall.  Nesbit
+Thorne, slender and distinguished looking, was
+awaiting her, Blanche having encountered and
+dispatched him immediately on her return to the
+parlors.  As the girl stood an instant framed by
+the open door, thrown into relief by the soft
+glowing background of the warmly lighted room,
+Thorne's heart swelled with mingled gladness and
+impatience.  Joy in the pure perfection of her
+beauty; impatience at the restraint circumstances
+forced him still to put upon his love.
+
+At the foot of the stairs they were pounced
+upon by Percival, who had selected that coigne of
+vantage as least likely to attract his mother's
+attention, there to lay in wait for the cards of the
+unwary.  He had been strictly forbidden to
+importune grown young ladies for dances unless
+they happened to be wall-flowers, and the injunction
+lay heavy on his soul.  "I _will_ ask girls other
+men ask," he muttered, darkly, "I hate putting
+up with refuse and leavings.  I'm going to ask
+the ones I want to ask," and he intrenched
+himself beside the stairway with intent to black-mail
+such girls as he should fancy.
+
+Pocahontas, who had a natural affinity for boys,
+and a great fondness for Percival, yielded to his
+demand readily enough, surrendering her card to
+him in gay defiance of Thorne's outspoken
+reprobation, and laughing mischievously as the boy
+scrawled his name triumphantly opposite a waltz.
+
+"B.M.!  Who's B.M., Miss Princess?" he
+questioned, as he dextrously avoided Thorne's
+extended hand, and placed the card in Pocahontas's.
+
+"You've got him down just above me, and you
+wrote it yourself.  Who is he?  Benevolent
+Missionary?  Brother Mason?"
+
+"Exactly!" she answered, smiling, and watching
+Thorne scribble his name in several places on
+her card.  "It is Berkeley.  The Byrd girls and I
+always saved a waltz for him to prevent his feeling
+left out.  He don't like to ask girls generally;
+his one arm makes it look awkward, and he knows
+they wouldn't like to refuse, because they all feel
+sorry for him.  _We_ put a hand on each shoulder,
+and don't care how it looks.  Berke is adroit, and
+manages quite nicely.  Often, too, it's an
+advantage to have a dance you can dispose of later
+on, so I continue to put the initials, although
+Berke seldom dances now.  He liked waltzing
+with the Byrd girls best."
+
+"You were very intimate with the Byrds, I
+think you said," Thorne remarked idly, bowing
+to an acquaintance as he spoke.
+
+"Very intimate.  See what came to me this
+morning; all these exquisite flowers, just when I
+needed them for to-night.  Roy searched the
+neighborhood through for white flowers without
+success, and then these came.  Aren't they
+beautiful?"  And she lifted her bouquet toward his face.
+
+"Extremely beautiful!" he assented, bending
+his head to inhale their fragrance.  "It was very
+kind and thoughtful of your friends to send them.
+I suppose, from the connection, that they are a
+Byrd offering."
+
+Pocahontas laughed softly.  "Yes," she said,
+"but they did not come from Belle, or Nina, and
+Susie is in California.  Jim ordered them for me.
+I am so pleased."
+
+Thorne instantly raised his head and stiffened
+his back as though the delicate perfume were
+some noxious poison, and moved on with her
+toward the parlors in silence.
+
+"I wish you knew Jim, Mr. Thorne," pursued
+the happy voice at his side; "he's such a good
+fellow, so noble, generous, and unselfish; we're all
+so fond of Jim.  I wish he were here to-night to
+tread a measure with me in the old rooms.  You
+would be sure to fraternize with Jim.  You could
+not help liking him."
+
+Thorne drew in his lips ominously.  He could
+help liking Jim Byrd well enough, and felt not
+the faintest desire for either his presence or his
+friendship.  The intervention of a woman with
+whom two men are in love has never yet established
+amity between them; the very suggestion
+of such a thing on her lips is sufficient to cause
+an irruption of hatred, malice and all unkindness.
+
+Moreover, Thorne was in a fury with himself.
+He had thought of sending for flowers for
+Pocahontas at the same time he dispatched the order
+to the Richmond florist for his aunt.  He had
+feverishly longed to do it, and had pondered the
+matter fully half an hour before deciding that he
+had better not.  He had not scrupled to pay
+Pocahontas attentions _before_ he realized that he
+was in love with her, but that fact, once established
+in his mind, placed her in a different
+position in regard to him.
+
+She was no longer the woman he wished to
+draw into a flirtation _pour passer le temps_; she was
+the woman he wished to marry--was determined
+to marry, if possible.  The instinct, common to
+every manly man, to hold in peculiar respect the
+woman whom he wishes to make his wife, led
+Thorne to feel that, until he should be free from
+the fetter that bound him, he should abstain from
+paying Pocahontas marked attention; to feel that
+she would have cause of complaint against him if
+he did not abstain.
+
+So he argued the case in cold blood; but now
+his blood was boiling and he dubbed himself fool
+in language concise and forcible.  See what had
+come of his self-denial?  Another man had done
+what he had left undone; another hand had laid
+in hers the fragrant offering it should have been
+his to bestow.  Fool that he had been, to
+stand aside and let another man seize the opportunity!
+
+Jasmin, too!  Pah!  The heavy perfume made
+him ill.  He was conscious of a fierce longing to
+snatch the blossoms from her hand and crush
+them down into the heart of the fire and hold
+them there--the pale, sickly things.  _He_ would
+have given her roses, passionate, glorious roses,
+deep-hearted and crimson with the wine of love.
+
+Pocahontas had small time for wondering over
+her cavalier's sudden moroseness, for no sooner
+had she entered the parlors than old friends
+crowded forward to speak to her and claim a
+dance; the girl was popular among the young
+people of the vicinity.  She was a wonderful
+success that night.  Not even Norma, for all her rich
+tropical beauty, was more admired.
+
+"Our little squaw is smashing things, Berke,"
+remarked Roy Garnett, later in the evening, as he
+joined his brother-in-law in the recess by the
+fireplace.  "The men all swear she's the handsomest
+woman in the room--and on my soul I believe
+they're right."
+
+"She does look well," responded Mason with
+all a brother's calm moderation.  "Her dress
+is in good taste, and she moves gracefully.  But
+she isn't the handsomest woman in the room by
+long odds.  Look at Norma Smith."
+
+"I have looked at her," retorted Roy shortly,
+"and so I suppose have the other men.  There's
+no more comparison between her and Princess
+than there is between a gorgeous, striped tulip, and
+a white tea rose."  (For some inscrutable reason
+Roy had never been able to endure Norma, and
+even grudged acknowledgment of her undeniable
+beauty).  "Look at that fellow Thorne, now!"
+he added, with the pleased alacrity of one producing
+an unexpected trump, "I should say that _he_
+shared my opinion.  He hasn't danced voluntarily
+with another woman in the room, nor left her side
+a moment that he could help.  It looks as though
+he were pretty hard hit, doesn't it?"
+
+Garnett was right; for after the episode with Jim
+Byrd's flowers, Thorne had thrown self-control to
+the winds.  He danced with Pocahontas as
+frequently as she would allow him, hovered constantly
+in her vicinity, and only lost sight of her when
+dragged off by his aunt for duty dances.  Twice
+during the evening--and only twice--did he leave her
+voluntarily, and then it was to dance with Norma,
+whose suspicions he did not wish to arouse.  The
+instinct of rivalry had overthrown all restraint and
+for this evening he was madly determined to let
+things take their course.  They were here, he and
+his family, in Jim Byrd's place; living in the
+house that had been his, entertaining the friends
+that had been his, in the very rooms that so short
+a time ago had echoed to his footsteps and
+resounded with his laugh.  He had been thrust
+aside, and must continue to stand aside; the past
+had been his, let him keep out of the present;
+let him beware how he marred the future.
+And for the bond that held himself, Thorne had
+forgotten all about it.  In his passion and
+excitement it was a thing without existence.
+
+Later in the evening, there came a gleam of
+brightness for little Blanche; a blissful hour which
+indemnified her for the boredom so unflinchingly
+endured.  As Norma only did what pleased her,
+most of the drudgery of entertaining fell upon
+Blanche, whose grievous portion it was to attend
+to the comfort of dowagers; to find partners for
+luckless damsels unable to find them for
+themselves, and to encourage and bring out bashful
+youths.  As the latter considered that the true
+expression of their gratitude lay in devoting
+themselves exclusively and eternally to their
+pretty little preceptress, Blanche had lately come
+to hold this part of her duty a wearisome affliction.
+
+She was seated on a tiny sofa surrounded by a
+band of uneasy and enamored youths ranging in
+age from sixteen to twenty, when Mason caught
+sight of her pretty, fatigued, but resolutely
+courteous face, and came instantly to her rescue.  He
+was very fond of Blanche, and teased and petted
+her with almost cousinly freedom.  He felt
+himself a middle-aged man beside her, and admired
+her sweet face, and gentle unselfishness as
+unreservedly as he would have done those of a child.
+Moving her draperies aside with a kindly, if
+unceremonious hand, he ensconced himself beside
+her right willingly and devoted his best energies
+to her amusement, and that of her small court;
+lifted the burden of their entertainment from her
+shoulders with ready tact, and waked the boys up
+vigorously, causing them to enjoy themselves, and
+forget that they were _young_; and lonesome, and
+foolish.  Kind, thoughtful Berkeley!  No wonder
+the silly little heart beside him fluttered joyously,
+and the shy blue eyes were raised to his grave
+handsome face with full measure of content.
+
+And so the hours sped, golden-footed,
+silver-footed; and the pipers piped and the men and
+maidens danced and the elders gossiped, drank
+champagne, and reveled in the fleshpots, yawning
+surreptitiously behind fans and handkerchiefs as
+the evening waned.
+
+Pocahontas, roused from a dream of enjoyment
+by Roy's mandate, sped lightly up stairs to the
+dressing-room, and arrayed herself hastily in her
+mufflings.  At the stairway Thorne joined her, and
+as her foot touched the lowest step he took her
+unresisting hand and raised it to his lips murmuring
+softly; "A happy New Year to you--my darling! my queen!"
+
+Then good-night to host and hostess, a swift,
+impulsive kiss to Blanche, and Berkeley put her
+into the carriage; Roy tightened the reins and
+they drove rapidly away in the chill gray of the
+January dawn.  The ball was over; the New Year begun.
+
+Thorne, standing by the steps watching the
+receding carriage, noticed the bouquet of
+half-faded jasmin blossoms, which had slipped
+unheeded from the girl's hand, and lay neglected
+and forgotten on the frozen ground.  The impulse
+came to him to raise them tenderly because her
+hands had touched them, and then the thought
+of who had given them arose and struck down the
+impulse.  He set his heel upon them.
+
+For him also, the New Year had begun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+The day after a ball is always a languid, wearisome period, to be dozed
+or yawned through, on bed or sofa, in a state of total collapse.  Life
+for the time is disorganized, disenchanted; there is a feeling of
+flatness everywhere, the rooms lately brilliant and joyous with light
+and color; fade out in the chilling glare of day, and appear like
+"banquet halls deserted," which each individual "treads alone,"
+surrounded by an atmosphere of fatigue, _ennui_ and crossness.  In the
+country the flatness falls with full perfection, for there is seldom
+the anticipation of more excitement to buoy one up and keep the
+effervescence of the cup of pleasure up to the proper sparkle.
+
+At a late--a very late breakfast, the morning after the Shirley ball,
+the Smiths were assembled with the exception of Blanche, who had
+entreated to be left undisturbed, since she must sleep or die, and
+Percival, who had breakfasted sketchily on scraps and confectionery,
+hours before, and was away in the woods with his gun.
+
+The mail, always deposited in a little heap beside the general's plate,
+had been distributed.  There was very little--two newspapers, a couple
+of letters for Nesbit Thorne, and one for Norma from a New York friend,
+claiming a promised visit, and overflowing with gossip and news of
+Gotham, full of personalities also, and a faint lady-like suspicion of
+wickedness--a racy, entertaining letter.  The writer, a Mrs. Vincent,
+was Norma's most intimate friend, and she often sacrificed an hour of
+her valuable time to the amusement of the girl, whom she felt convinced
+was bored to death down in that country desert.  The letter in question
+was unusually diffuse, for Mrs. Vincent was keeping her room with a
+heavy cold, and had herself to amuse as well as Norma.  Norma read
+scraps of it aloud for the edification of her mother, and the young
+men; the general, with his nose in his paper, let the tide of gossip
+pass.
+
+Thorne, after a comprehensive glance at his own correspondence, slipped
+his letters quietly into his pocket, and gave his best attention to his
+cousin's.  He had a rooted objection to reading even indifferent
+letters under scrutiny, and these he felt convinced were not
+indifferent; for one was addressed in the handsome large hand of his
+wife, and the writing on the other was unknown to him--it had a legal
+aspect.  They were letters whose perusal might prove unpleasant; so
+Thorne postponed it.
+
+There is an old adage relative to thoughts of the power of darkness
+being invariably followed by the appearance of his emissaries, and
+although Mrs. Thorne was far from being the devil, or her letter one of
+his imps, the arrival of the one, so promptly upon the heels of
+thoughts of the other, was singular; her husband felt it so.
+
+"Mamma," observed Norma, glancing up from her letter, "Kate says that
+Cecil Cumberland is engaged, or going to be engaged, I can't exactly
+make out which.  Kate words it a little ambiguously; at all events
+there appears to be considerable talk about it.  Kate writes: 'Cecil
+looks radiantly worried, and sulkily important.  His family are ranged
+in a solid phalanx of indignant opposition, which, of course, clinches
+the affair firmly.  Eva Cumberland was here this morning in a white
+heat of passion over it; and I believe apoplexy or hydrophobia is
+imminent for the old lady.  The fact of Mrs.----'"  Norma's voice
+trailed off into an unintelligible murmur, and she read on silently.
+
+"Mrs.--who, my dear?" questioned her mother, with lively interest.  "Is
+Cecil going to marry an objectionable widow?"
+
+"Wait a moment, mamma.  Kate writes so indistinctly, I'll be able to
+tell you presently," there was a shade of reserve perceptible in
+Norma's voice.
+
+"But why do the family oppose it?" persisted Mrs. Smith.  A warning
+look from her daughter admonished her to let the matter rest; that
+there were facts connected with Mr. Cumberland's marriage, the
+investigation and discussion of which had better be postponed.  Mrs.
+Smith's tongue burned with inquiries, but she bravely held them back,
+and sought to produce a diversion by idle conjectures about Percival.
+
+Norma parried the curiosity of the others adroitly, and declining any
+more breakfast, betook herself and her letter to the back parlor, where
+she drew a deep arm-chair to the fire, and settled herself comfortably
+to re-peruse that portion of her friend's epistle, which related to
+Cecil Cumberland's affairs.
+
+Thorne presently followed her, and established himself opposite.  He
+was great friends with Norma; once, in the days before his marriage,
+there had appeared a likelihood of their becoming more than friends.
+All that had been forgotten by the man; the woman's memory was more
+tenacious.  They were wonderfully good friends still, these two; they
+never worried or jarred on one another.
+
+Thorne, having no special desire to read his own letters, lighted a
+cigar, stirred the fire to a glorious blaze, and waxed conversational.
+The theme he selected for discussion was the topic introduced and
+interdicted at the breakfast table a few moments previously--the
+debatable engagement of their New York acquaintance.  On this subject
+he chose to exhibit an unusual--and as Norma felt, unnecessary, degree
+of curiosity.  He cross-questioned the girl vigorously, and failing to
+elicit satisfactory replies, laughingly accused her of an attempt to
+earn a cheap notoriety by the elaboration of a petty mystery.
+
+"I wish you'd stop trying to put me on the witness stand, Nesbit!" she
+exclaimed in vexation; "why don't you read your own letters?  One is
+from Ethel, I know.  See what she says."
+
+Thorne took his wife's missive from his pocket, opened, and glanced
+through it hurriedly; then turned back to the first page, and re-read
+it more carefully, the expression of his face hardening into cynicism,
+slightly dashed with disgust.  The letter was penned in a large running
+hand and covered eight pages of dainty cream-laid paper.  It was
+rambling in phraseology, and lachrymose in tone, but it indicated a
+want, and made that want clear.
+
+It was--divorce.
+
+Mrs. Thorne gave no special reason for desiring release from her
+marriage vows; she dwelt at length on her "lonely and unprotected"
+condition, and was very sorry for herself, and considered her case a
+hard one; suggesting blame to her husband in that he had not taken the
+necessary steps for her release long before.  She intimated that he had
+been selfish and lacking in proper consideration for her in leaving it
+to her to take the initial steps in the matter.  He should have
+arranged about the divorce at the time of the separation, she said, and
+so have spared her annoyance.  As he had not done so, she hoped he
+would show some consideration for her now, and help her to arrange the
+disagreeable business as speedily and privately as possible.  He really
+owed her indulgence "after all that had passed"; the last words were
+heavily underscored.
+
+Thorne, conscious that the present position of matters between them, as
+well as the past unhappiness, was quite as much her fault as his, and
+the act of separation more so--he having been the passive and
+consenting party, did not consider it specially incumbent on him to
+make things easy for his wife.  In his irritation and disgust at her
+heartless selfishness, he half determined to make them very much the
+reverse.  He was not surprised at his wife's communication; he knew
+perfectly well that she would seek a divorce sooner or later, as the
+liberality of the world in such matters made it natural that she should
+do.  He also knew that it was the larger command of the income which he
+had allowed her for his child's sake, combined with the lack of strong
+personal motive, which had prevented her from getting a divorce before.
+Her letter irritated him, not because she desired to break the shadowy
+bonds which still held her, but because he had behaved well to her, and
+she had taken it as her right with careless ingratitude.  What he had
+done, he had done for his son's sake, but he was none the less provoked
+that Ethel had failed of appreciation and acknowledgment.
+
+"Read _that_!" he said, and tossed the letter into Norma's lap.  While
+she was doing so, he broke the seal of the other letter which proved to
+be a communication from a firm of solicitors in a small town in
+Illinois, in whose hands Mrs. Thorne had placed her case.  It was
+delicately and ambiguously worded, as became the nature of the
+business, and contained simply a courteous notification of their
+client's intentions.
+
+Norma had been prepared for Mrs. Thorne's letter by that of her friend
+Mrs. Vincent; and perhaps also by a secret hope on which she had fed
+for years--a hope that this _would_ happen.  She read the letter
+therefore without emotion, and returned it without comment.
+
+"Well?" he queried impatiently.
+
+"Well!" she echoed.
+
+"What do you think of it?"
+
+"I think that Mrs. Thorne wishes to marry again."
+
+"No!--do you?"  The tone was thoughtful; the interrogation delivered
+slowly.  The idea was a new one, and it put a different complexion upon
+the matter, because of the child; there were still several years during
+which the personal custody of the boy was the mother's of right.  It
+behooved him to look into this matter more closely.
+
+"Yes, I'm sure of it," responded Norma; "it's town talk.  See what Kate
+Vincent says about it."
+
+She handed him her letter folded down at this paragraph: "People have
+been mildly excited, and the gossips' tongues set wagging by a rumor
+which floated down from the Adirondacks last summer, and has been
+gaining body and substance ever since.  You remember how Cecil
+Cumberland philandered after a certain lady of our acquaintance last
+winter, and how unremitting were his attentions?  Friendship, my dear!
+Harmless friendship on a pure platonic platform; you understand--_honi
+soit qui mal y pense_.  Well this autumn the plot thickened; the
+platonism became less apparent; the friendship more pronounced.
+Nothing painfully noticeable--oh no; the lady is too clever--still, the
+gossips began to take a contract, and work on it in slack seasons, and
+latterly with diligence.  It is openly predicted that madam will seek a
+divorce, and then!--we shall see what we shall see.  Cecil looks
+radiantly worried and sulkily important.  His family are ranged in a
+solid phalanx of indignant opposition, which of course clinches the
+matter firmly.  Eva Cumberland was here this morning in a white heat of
+passion over it, and I believe apoplexy or hydrophobia is imminent for
+the old lady.  The fact of Mrs. Thorne's being still a married woman
+gives the affair a queer look to squeamish mortals, and the Cumberland
+women are the quintessence of conservative old-fogyism; they might be
+fresh from the South Carolina woods for all the advancement they can
+boast.  It's wicked, and I'm ashamed of myself, but whenever I think of
+Ethel Thorne trying conclusions with those strait-laced Cumberlands,
+I'm filled with unholy mirth."  Then followed belated apologies for
+this careless handling of a family matter, and copious explanations.
+Mrs. Vincent was a wordy woman, fond of writing and apt to be diffuse
+when not pressed for time.
+
+Thorne returned the letter to his cousin, and announced his intention
+of returning to New York immediately.
+
+"By using dispatch I can catch the boat at Wintergreen this afternoon,"
+he said.  "I wish you'd tell your mother, Norma, only your mother,
+please; it will be time enough to acquaint the others when the whole
+affair is out.  And, Norma, I can trust you, I know; keep the matter
+quiet here as long as possible.  These people are strangers; they know
+nothing.  I don't want to be in every body's mouth--a nine days'
+wonder, _here_ as well as in New York.  It will be bad enough there.
+Promise me to keep it quiet, Norma."
+
+Thorne had reasons for the request.  He had ascertained, beyond all
+doubt, that no hint of his story had as yet reached Pocahontas.  He was
+surprised at first, for he thought all women gossiped, and the affair
+had never been a secret.  He did not conceive for a moment, that the
+fact of his divorce would be a permanent stumbling block in the way of
+his happiness, but he realized something of the conservatism of her
+surroundings, and the old world influences and prejudices amid which
+she had been reared.  She would be shocked and startled at first; she
+would have to grow accustomed to the idea, then reconciled to it.  He
+recognized at a glance the immense advantage it would be to him to tell
+his story himself, and, in his own way, to enlist her sympathy and to
+arouse her indignation and her partisanship.
+
+The explanation of the girl's ignorance is simple and natural.  The
+intercourse between the two families was cordial and frequent, but
+there were reservations--tracts of territory which were never trenched
+on.  There was about the Masons a certain fine reserve which
+discouraged promiscuous and effusive confidences.  Exhaustive
+investigation of their neighbors' affairs had never been their
+practice; it was a proud family; a conservative family.
+
+The Smiths had seen no reason to give publicity to their _own_
+particular family scandal.  Other people's skeletons were interesting,
+but the rattling of the bones of their own annoyed them.  Then, too, it
+was such an old story, its interest as gossip had passed, its piquancy
+had evaporated.  These people knew none of the parties; it could be to
+them of no possible interest even as narrative.  There had been no
+definite determination on the part of the Smiths to say nothing of the
+affair; but nothing had been said.  Thorne did not correspond with his
+wife, nor did any member of his family, so there were no tell-tale
+letters to excite comment or curiosity at the village post-office.  How
+was Pocahontas to know?
+
+With Thorne's good pleasure, her ignorance would remain until he
+himself should lift it.
+
+Norma gave the required promise willingly.  She, too, objected to this
+affair obtaining publicity.  While Thorne sought her father to explain
+a sudden call to New York "on business," she communicated the contents
+of Mrs. Vincent's letter to her mother, and informed her of Thorne's
+determination.  Then leaving the good lady to get the better of her
+consternation by herself, and to make impossible suggestions, to the
+empty air, she repaired to her cousin's room, and assisted him in his
+hurried preparations.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Norma was exultant.  The thing she had longed, thirsted and well-nigh
+prayed for, was coming to pass.  Thorne would be a free man once more,
+free to come back to her, free to bring again the old sweetness to her
+life, free to renew the spring of years ago.  Sitting by the library
+fire in the gloaming after her cousin's departure, Norma dreamed dreams
+and was happy--her eyes softened, and her lips smiled.  Then her face
+darkened slowly, and the hands in her lap clinched themselves.  In her
+fierce joy in the possibility of her reward coming to her at last, was
+mingled a dread that the cup might be dashed from her lips a second
+time.
+
+During the first couple of months after the removal to Virginia, Norma
+had relaxed her constant, imperceptible watch over Thorne.  He had
+accompanied them to the new home unsolicited; and having come, he had
+remained.  Small wonder that Norma had been deceived; for vanity aside,
+she could not help but know that no woman in that region--not even
+Pocahontas Mason--was her peer in beauty, wit, or accomplishments.
+What had she to fear, with habit and contrast both in her favor?  Norma
+neglected to provide against one subtle and most powerful
+element--novelty.
+
+For the past few weeks, first one thing, then another; trifles light as
+air, but forging a chain heavy enough to link suspicion with certainty,
+had filled the girl with the old fever of unrest.  Was she never to be
+at rest?  Would the glory of the past never shine upon the present?
+
+Like most women who allow their minds to dwell constantly on one theme,
+Norma exaggerated the past.  When she first left school there had been
+a little semi-sentiment and a good deal of rather warm cousinly
+attentions on Thorne's part, but without serious intention.  As has
+been stated, Thorne liked women; he sought their society and was apt to
+endeavor to awaken their interest, to gain their affection.  He thought
+that the restless craving of his nature was for love to be given him.
+It was not.  It was the wild passion in his breast seeking to give
+_itself_.  What he needed was not more love drawn into the reservoir of
+his heart, but an outlet for that already accumulated.  This he had
+never had since he had reached manhood, save only in his affection for
+his child, and that was as yet too small a channel to afford vent for
+the power of love behind.  And so it came to pass that in his need for
+an outlet, he had made a great deal of love to a great many women, and
+had looked more than he made.
+
+As Norma budded into beautiful womanhood, he had been attracted by her,
+and had yielded to the attraction, intending no harm but accomplishing
+a good deal.  He had liked and admired his cousin then, and in exactly
+the same manner and degree, he liked and admired her now.
+
+To the young lady, the affair wore a totally different aspect; the
+flirtation, which had meant nothing to him and had been long ago
+effaced from his memory, meant every thing of value on earth to _her_,
+and was as fresh in her mind as though the years that had passed had
+been days or hours.  Thorne's marriage had been a great blow to
+her--great and unexpected.  She had observed his attentions to Ethel
+Ross, and raged at them in secret; but she had seen him equally devoted
+to a score of other women, and the devotion had been evanescent; with
+her rage and jealousy, had mingled no definite alarm.  The
+engagement--an affair of six weeks, had been contracted while she was
+away from home, and the first intimation she had of it came through a
+letter from Ethel Ross inviting her to officiate as bridesmaid.  Norma
+read and the heart within her died, but she made no sound, for she was
+a proud woman--as proud as she was passionate.  She even acceded to the
+bride's request and, as Thorne's next of kin, led the bevy of girls
+selected, from the fairest of society to do honor to the occasion; her
+refusal would have excited comment.  But as she stood behind the woman,
+who she felt had usurped her place, a fierce longing was in her heart
+to strike her rival dead at her feet.
+
+After the marriage she continued her intimacy with Mrs. Thorne--and
+with Mr. Thorne.  When clouds began to gather along the matrimonial
+horizon, and "rifts within the lute" to make discord of life's music,
+she beheld the one, and hearkened to the other with savage thrills of
+satisfaction.  She did nothing to widen the breach--Norma was too proud
+to be a mischief-maker, but she did nothing to lessen it.  She watched
+with sullen pleasure the cleft increase to a crack, the crack to a
+chasm.  When the separation became an accomplished fact, it found
+Norma, of course, ranged strongly on the husband's side.
+
+During the year which had elapsed since Thorne's return from abroad,
+Norma had contrived to establish considerable influence over her
+cousin.  She studied him quietly, and adapted herself to his moods,
+never boring him with an over-display of interest, never chilling him
+with an absence of it.  Her plan was to make herself necessary to him,
+and in part she succeeded.  Thorne, lonely and cut adrift, came more
+and more frequently to his aunt's house and exhibited more and more
+decidedly his preference for his cousin's society.  The thin end of the
+wedge was in, and but for the move to Virginia, and its ill-starred
+consequences, the inevitable result must have followed.
+
+Would it follow now?  A vision of Pocahontas, with her fair face, and
+her sweet gray eyes framed in a soft cloud of white, standing on the
+lower step of the stairway, with Thorne beside her, his head bent low
+over the hand he clasped, rose before Norma's eyes and caused them to
+burn with jealous anger.  Here was the old thing repeating itself; here
+was flirtation again, the exact extent of which she could not
+determine.  It must be stopped at once, trampled out ere the flame
+should do irremediable damage.
+
+But how?  With the question came the answer.  Norma was sure that, as
+yet, no knowledge of Thorne's marriage had ever reached Pocahontas.
+She would enlighten her; and in such a way that, if there had been
+aught of love-making on the gentleman's part (and Norma, knowing her
+cousin, thought it probable there had been), every look and word and
+tone should seem a separate insult.
+
+She also decided that it would be better to accept Mrs. Vincent's
+invitation, and return to New York for awhile.  She knew very well why
+the invitation had been given, and saw through the shallow maneuvers to
+win her acceptance of it.  Hugh Castleton, Mrs. Vincent's favorite
+brother, was in New York again, and she had not abandoned her old
+scheme of a match between him and her friend.  Norma felt quite
+competent to foil her friend's plans in the present as she had foiled
+them in the past, so had no hesitation, on that score, in accepting the
+invitation.  It would be better to be in New York--on the spot, while
+this matter should be pending.  Thorne might need advice, certainly
+would need sympathy and petting; he must not learn to do without her.
+Even if he had only been amusing himself here, after his reprehensible
+wont, her presence in New York could do no harm and might be productive
+of good.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+One afternoon, several days after Thorne's departure, Norma donned her
+warmest wraps and set out for a walk over to Lanarth.  It was a dull
+afternoon following on a morning of uncertain brightness; dark clouds,
+heavy with snow, hung sullenly along the horizon; and above, the sky
+was of a somber, leaden hue.  The air felt chill and clinging, like
+that of a vault; and heaven above, and earth beneath betrayed a
+severity of mood infinitely depressing.  Norma shivered in spite of her
+heavy furs, and hurried on, burying her hands in her muff.
+
+Pocahontas, duly notified of Norma's approach by the vigilant Sawney,
+met her guest at the door, and drew her in with words of welcome, and
+praises of her bravery in venturing abroad in such gloomy weather.  The
+girls did not kiss each other--as is too much the custom with their
+sex.  Pocahontas did not like effusive embraces; a kiss with _her_
+meant a good deal.
+
+In the sitting-room Mrs. Mason and Berkeley added their welcome, and
+established Norma in the coziest corner of the hearth, where the fire
+would comfort without scorching her.  Pocahontas stooped to remove her
+furs and wraps, but Norma staid her hand; it would not be worth while,
+she said; she had only come to call.
+
+"Do stay to tea!" entreated Pocahontas.  "Berke will take you home
+afterward.  We haven't looked on a white face except our own for two
+whole days.  We are pining for change and distraction, and beginning to
+hate each other from very _ennui_.  Take pity on us and stay."
+
+"Yes, my dear, you must consent," added Mrs. Mason.  "You haven't taken
+tea with us for a long time.  Berkeley, help Norma with her wrappings.
+And, Princess, suppose you run and tell Rachel to make waffles for tea.
+Norma is so fond of them."
+
+Norma yielded to their persuasions, feeling a little curiously, but
+hardening her heart.  What she had come to say, she intended to say;
+but it would be best to wait an opportunity.  She let Berkeley take her
+wraps, and established herself comfortably, bent on making the time
+pass pleasantly, and herself thoroughly agreeable.
+
+The meal was a merry one, for Norma exerted herself unusually, and was
+ably seconded by Pocahontas, who, for some reason, appeared in
+brilliant spirits.  After tea they discovered that it was snowing
+heavily.  The threatened storm had come--evenly, slowly, in a thick,
+impenetrable cloud, the white flakes fell, without haste, excitement or
+the flurry of wind.  Already the ground was covered and the trees were
+bending with the weight of the white garment the sky was throwing over
+them.  It was unfit weather for a lady to encounter, or indeed for
+anything feminine to be abroad in, save a witch on a broomstick.  Norma
+was fain to accept Mrs. Mason's invitation and remain for the night at
+Lanarth.
+
+When the two girls, in dressing gowns and slippers, sat over the fire
+in Pocahontas's room, brushing out their long hair, Norma found the
+opportunity for which she had lain in wait the entire evening.  It was
+the hour for confidences, the house was quiet, the inmates all
+dispersed to their several couches.  Norma, brush in hand and hair
+flowing in a heavy, black veil around her, had quitted her own room
+across the passage, and established herself in a low rocking-chair
+beside Pocahontas's bright fire.  She was far too clever a diplomatist
+to introduce her subject hastily; she approached it gradually from long
+range--stalked it delicately with skillful avoidance of surprise or
+bungling.  The game must be brought down; on that she was determined;
+but there should be no bludgeon blows, no awkward carnage.  The
+death-stab should be given clean, with scientific skill and swiftness,
+and the blow once given, she would retire to her own room and let her
+victim find what solace she could in solitude.  Norma was not wantonly
+cruel; she could impale a foe, but she had no desire to witness his
+contortions.  After a death-scene she shrank from the grewsomeness of
+burial; she preferred a decent drop-curtain and the grateful darkness.
+
+After some idle conversation, she deftly turned the talk upon New York,
+and the life there, and rallied all her powers to be picturesque and
+entertaining.  She held her listener entranced with rapid, clever
+sketches of society and the men and women who composed it, drawing
+vivid pictures of its usages, beliefs, and modes of thought and
+expression.  Gradually she glided into personalities, giving some of
+her individual experiences, and sketching in an acquaintance or two,
+with brilliant, caustic touches.  Soon Thorne's name appeared, and she
+noticed that the listener's interest deepened.  She spoke of him in
+warm terms of admiration--dwelt on his intellect, his talents and the
+bright promise of his manhood; and then, observing that the brush had
+ceased its regular passes over the bright brown hair, and that the gray
+eyes were on the fire, without pause or warning she spoke of his
+hurried courtship and sudden marriage.  She winced involuntarily as she
+saw the cold, gray pallor creep slowly over the girl's face, and noted
+the sudden tremor that passed through her limbs; but she steeled
+herself against compassion, and proceeded with her brushing and her
+narrative like one devoid of sight and understanding.
+
+"I can not expect you, who know Nesbit so slightly, to be much
+interested in all this," she said, watching Pocahontas through her
+lashes; "I fear I only bore you with my story, but my mind has been so
+exercised over the poor fellow's troubles again lately, that I must
+unburden it to some one.  You have no personal interest in the matter,
+therefore you will forgive my trespassing on your courtesy--especially
+when I tell you that I've no one at home to talk to.  Nesbit wishes
+particularly that his story shouldn't get abroad here, and if I should
+revive it in Blanche's mind, she might mention it to others.  Mamma
+would not; but unfortunately mamma and I rarely look at a thing from
+the same standpoint.  It's been a relief to speak to you--far greater
+than speaking to Blanche.  Blanche is so excitable."
+
+Yes; Blanche was excitable, Pocahontas assented absently; she was
+bracing her will, and steeling her nerves to endure without flinching.
+Not for worlds would she--even by the quivering of an eyelash--let
+Norma see the torture she was inflicting.  She felt that Norma had an
+object in this disclosure, and was dimly sure that the object was
+hostile.  She would think it all out later; at present Norma must not
+see her anguish.  A woman would sooner go to the stake and burn slowly,
+than allow another woman, who is trying to hurt her, to know that she
+suffers.
+
+Norma continued, speaking gently, without haste or emotion, telling of
+the feverish brightness of those early days of marriage, and of the
+clouds that soon obscured the sunshine--telling of the _ennui_ and
+unhappiness, gradually sprouting and ripening in the ill-assorted
+union--shielding the man, as women will, and casting the blame on the
+woman.  Finally she told of the separation, lasting now two years, and
+of the letter from his wife which had caused Thorne's precipitate
+departure the day after the Shirley ball.
+
+But of the divorce now pending she said never a word.
+
+"Have they any children?" questioned Pocahontas steadily.
+
+And was told that there was one--a little son, to whom the father was
+attached, and the mother indifferent.  It was a strange case.
+
+Again Pocahontas assented.  Her voice was cold and even; its tones low
+and slightly wearied.  To herself it appeared as though she spoke from
+a great distance, and was compelled to use exertion to make herself
+heard.  She was conscious of two distinct personalities--one prostrate
+in the dust, humiliated, rent and bleeding, and another which held a
+screen pitifully before the broken thing, and shielded it from
+observation.  When Norma bid her good-night she responded quietly, and
+rising accompanied her guest to her room to see that every arrangement
+was perfect for her comfort.
+
+Far into the night she sat beside her dying fire trying to collect her
+faculties, and realize the extent of the calamity which had befallen
+her.  The first, and, for the time, dominant emotion was a stinging
+sense of shame, an agony of rage and humiliation which tingled hotly
+through her, and caused her cheek to flame, and her body to writhe as
+from the lash of a whip.  She had been degraded; an insult had been put
+upon her.  Her eyes blazed, and her hands clinched.  Oh, for strength
+to hurl the insult back--for a man's arm and a man's power to avenge
+the foul affront!  He--a married man--to come, concealing his bonds,
+and playing the part of a lover free to woo--free to approach a woman
+and to win her heart!  The proud head bent to meet the hands upraised
+to cover the pale, drawn face.  She loved him and he was unworthy.  He
+had deceived and lied to her, if not in words, then in actions; knowing
+himself bound to another woman, he had deliberately sought her out and
+made her love him.  It was cruel, cruel!  All along she had played
+virgin gold against base metal, and now she was bankrupt.
+
+When the burning, maddening sense of outrage had passed, and pride
+stood with lowered crest and listless hands, love lifted its head and
+tried to speak.  He was not without excuse, love pleaded; his life had
+been miserable; his lot hard and unendurable; he had been given a stone
+for bread, and for wine, the waters of Marah.  Until the night of the
+ball he had retained mastery over himself--had held his love in check.
+Then memory roused herself and entered testimony--words, looks, tender,
+graceful attentions thronged back upon her, and pride caught love by
+the throat and cried out that there was no excuse.
+
+Perhaps, she pondered heavily, he, too, writhed beneath this avalanche
+of pain; perhaps remorse and the consciousness of the anguish he had
+entailed upon them both tore and lacerated him.  He had gone away at
+last, out of her life, back to the home and the ties that were hateful
+to him.  He had gone away to take up his share of their joint burden,
+and he would be merciful, and never cross her path again.
+
+But would he?  The girl quivered, her hand sought the pocket of her
+dress, and her eyes glanced forlornly around the room like the eyes of
+a hunted creature.  She recalled something that the morning's post had
+brought her--something that had seemed sweet and fair, something that
+had caused her pulses to thrill, all day, with exultant happiness.
+
+Only a New Year card; a graceful white-fringed thing, showing a handful
+of blue forget-me-nots, thrown carelessly beside an old anchor on a bit
+of golden sand.  Pocahontas laid it on her lap and gazed at it with
+strained, tearless eyes, and read anew its sweet message of remembrance
+and hope.  She had been startled by Thorne's sudden departure, but had
+quietly accepted the message of explanation and farewell sent her by
+Blanche; she trusted him too implicitly to doubt that what he did was
+best and wisest, and was happy in the knowledge that he would return.
+
+How long ago it appeared to her already, since this pretty card had
+come; she looked at it strangely, with eyes in which there was longing,
+renunciation, and a wild hopelessness of love.  She must not keep it;
+it was not hers; it belonged of right to that other--the woman who was
+his wife.  No, she must not keep it--the beautiful, tender thing.  With
+steady hand, but blanched, quivering lips, she reached over and made a
+little grave among the dying embers, in which a sullen spark glowed
+like baleful eye.  Quietly, with the feeling that she was burying all
+of youth and hope and joy her life would ever know, she kissed the card
+with dumb, clinging, passionate kisses, and then with a low, dry sob,
+covered it from sight.
+
+As she raised herself up, her eyes fell on the little box lying on her
+desk in which she had placed the fragments of the cup they had broken
+between them--the cup that her old play-fellow had used on that last
+evening.  With the impulse of habit and association, her mind turned
+wearily to Jim.  He was so true; he had never failed her.  Had _he_
+suffered as she was suffering?  Poor Jim!  Was this ceaseless, gnawing
+agony that had usurped _her_ life no stranger to _his_?  If so--God
+pity him!--and her!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+On the way up from Virginia, Nesbit Thorne ran over in his mind the
+possibilities opened by this new move of his wife's, and, on the whole,
+he was satisfied.  The divorce had become as much an object with him as
+with her, and if she had remained quiescent in the matter, he must have
+moved.  He was glad to have been spared this--very glad that the
+initial steps had been of her taking.  It put him in a good position
+with himself.  The _manes_ of his mother's scruples would be satisfied,
+and would never cause him discomfort since the fault did not rest with
+him.  And then the boy--never could his son cast word or thought of
+blame to the father who had behaved so well; who had given every
+chance, foregone every advantage; acted not only the part of a
+gentleman, but of a generous, long-suffering man.  Thorne felt a glow
+of satisfaction in the knowledge that in years to come his son would
+think well of him.
+
+But this supposition of Norma's in regard to a second marriage put the
+whole matter in a new light in regard to the child.  If such a change
+should be in contemplation, other arrangements must be made about the
+boy; he could no longer remain in the custody of his mother.  _His_ son
+could not remain under the roof of his wife's second husband during his
+own lifetime.  The line must be drawn somewhere.  It did not occur to
+Thorne that his wife, with equal justice, might raise similar
+objections.
+
+He determined to see Ethel at once and discover whether or not there
+was truth in the reports that had reached him anent Cecil Cumberland.
+If there should be, he would bring such pressure as lay in his power to
+bear on her, in order to obtain immediate possession of the boy.  The
+child was still so young that the law gave the mother rights which
+could only be set aside at the expense of a disagreeable suit; but
+Thorne thought he could manage Ethel in such a way as to make her
+voluntarily surrender her rights.  He knew that her affection for the
+child was neither deep nor strong.
+
+He ascended the steps of his own house and rang the bell sharply.  It
+was answered by a strange servant who regarded him with interest;
+evidently a gentleman caller at that hour of the morning was unusual.
+Was Mrs. Thorne at home?  The man would inquire.  Would the gentleman
+walk in.  What name should he say?  Mr. Thorne--and his business was
+pressing; he must see her at once.
+
+The man opened the door of the back parlor and stood aside to let Mr.
+Thorne pass; then he closed it noiselessly and proceeded up-stairs to
+inform his mistress.
+
+Thorne glanced around the room curiously; it was two years since he had
+seen it.  On the marble hearth burned a bright wood-fire, and the
+dancing flames reflected themselves in the burnished brasses.  The
+tiles around the fireplace were souvenirs of his wedding, hand-painted
+by the bevy of bridesmaids to please a fancy of Ethel's.  Norma's was
+in the center--the place of honor.  It was a strange thing that Norma
+had selected to paint; heavy sprays of mingled nightshade and monkshood
+on a ground the color of a fading leaf; but, strange as it was, it was
+the most beautiful of them all.  There were flowers in the room and the
+perfume of heliotrope and roses filled the air.  The piano was open and
+on it one of the popular songs of the day; a loud, garish thing.  Ethel
+liked what she called "bright music;" on the keys lay a tumbled lace
+handkerchief, and on the floor, close to the pedal of the instrument,
+was a man's driving glove.
+
+Over the piano hung the portrait of a lady with soft, gray hair, and
+the expression of purity and love which medieval painters gave to their
+saints.  It was a picture of Thorne's mother and it hurt him to see it
+there.  He determined to have it removed as soon as possible.
+
+The door opened and Mrs. Thorne entered, feeling herself terribly
+ill-used and persecuted, in that her husband had elected to come to her
+in person, instead of availing himself of the simpler and more
+agreeable mode of communication through their lawyers.  It was quite
+possible that he would make himself disagreeable.  Mrs. Thorne shrank
+from any thing disagreeable, and had no tolerance for sarcasms
+addressed to herself.  She would have refused the interview had she
+dared, but in her heart she was dimly afraid of her husband.
+
+Thorne bowed coldly, and then placed a chair for her on the hearth-rug.
+"Sit down," he said, "I want to talk to you," and then he seated
+himself opposite her.
+
+For awhile he did not speak; somehow the words he had come to say stuck
+in his throat; it was so cold-blooded for them, husband and wife, to
+sit there beside their own hearth and discuss their final separation.
+A log, which had burned in half, fell and rolled forward on the marble
+hearth, sending little puffs of gray smoke into the room.  He reached
+past her for the tongs and laid the log back in its place, and the
+little action seemed to seal his lips more closely.  The tiny clock on
+the carved oak mantle chimed the hour in soft, low tones; he counted
+the strokes as they fell, one, two, and so on up to twelve.  The winter
+sunshine streamed in between the parting of the curtains and made a
+glory of his wife's golden hair.
+
+Ethel was the first to speak.  "You got my letter?" she questioned,
+keeping her eyes fixed on the fire.
+
+"Yes; that is the reason I'm here."
+
+The broken log was blazing again quite merrily, the two ends far apart.
+
+"Why not have written instead of coming?" she demanded, as one who
+protested against some grievous injury; "it would have been far
+pleasanter for both.  There's no sense in our harassing ourselves with
+personal interviews."
+
+"I preferred a personal interview."
+
+Ethel lapsed into silence; the man was a hopeless brute, and it was
+useless to expect courtesy from him.  She tapped her foot against the
+fender, and a look of obstinacy and temper disfigured the soft outlines
+of her face.  The silence might remain unbroken until the crack of doom
+for any further effort she would make.
+
+Thorne broke it himself.  He was determined to carry his point, and in
+order to do so strove to establish ascendency over his wife from the
+start.
+
+"What's the meaning of this new move, Ethel?" he demanded,
+authoritatively.  "I want to understand the matter thoroughly.  Why do
+you want a divorce?"
+
+Mrs. Thorne turned her face toward him defiantly.
+
+"Because I'm tired of my present life, and I want to change it.  I'm
+sick of being pointed at, and whispered about, as a deserted wife--a
+woman whose husband never comes near her."
+
+"Whose fault is that?" he retorted sharply; "this separation is none of
+my doing, and you know it.  Bad as things had become, I was willing to
+worry along for the sake of respectability and the child; but you
+wouldn't have it so.  You insisted on my leaving you--said the very
+sight of me made your chains more intolerable.  Had I been a viper, you
+could scarcely have signified your desire for my absence in more
+unmeasured terms."
+
+"I know I desired the separation," Mrs. Thorne replied calmly, "I
+desire it still.  My life with you was miserable, and my wish to live
+apart has only increased in intensity.  You never understood me."
+
+Thorne might have retorted that the misunderstanding had been mutual,
+and also that _all_ the wretchedness had not fallen to her share; but
+he would not stoop to reproaches and vituperation.  It was a natural
+peculiarity of her shallow nature to demand exhaustive comprehension
+for quite commonplace emotions.
+
+"It's useless debating the past, Ethel.  We've both been too much to
+blame to afford the luxury of stone-throwing.  What we must consider
+now is the future.  Is your mind quite made up?  Are you determined on
+the divorce?"
+
+"Quite determined.  I've given the matter careful consideration, and am
+convinced that entire separation, legal as well as nominal, is
+absolutely necessary to my happiness."
+
+"And your reasons?"
+
+"Haven't I told you, Nesbit?" using his name, for the first time, in
+her anger.  "Why do you insist on my repeating the same thing over and
+over, eternally?  I'm sick of my life, and want to change it."
+
+"But how?" he persisted.  "Your life will be the same as now, and your
+position not so assured.  The alimony allowed by law won't any thing
+like cover your present expenditures, and you can hardly expect me to
+be more generous than the law compels.  The divorce can make little
+difference, save to diminish your income and deprive you of the
+protection of my name.  You will not care to marry again, and the
+divorce will be a restricted one."  Thorne was forcing his adversary's
+hand.
+
+"Why will it be restricted?" she demanded, her color and her temper
+rising.  "It shall _not_ be restricted, or hampered in any way, I tell
+you, Nesbit Thorne!  Am I to be fettered, and bound, and trammeled by
+you forever?  I will _not_ be.  The divorce shall give me unlimited
+power to do what I please with my life.  It shall make me as free as
+air--as free as I was before I married you."
+
+"You would not wish to marry again?" he repeated.
+
+"Why not?" rising to her feet and confronting him in angry excitement.
+
+"Because, in that case, you would lose your child.  I neither could nor
+would permit my son to be brought up in the house of a man who stood to
+him in the relationship you propose."
+
+"You cannot take him from me," Mrs. Thorne retorted in defiant
+contradiction; her ideas of the power of men and lawyers hopelessly
+vague and bewildered.  "No court on earth would take so small a child
+from his mother."
+
+"Ah! you propose having the case come into court then?  I misunderstood
+you.  I thought you wished the affair managed quietly, to avoid
+publicity and comment.  Of course, if the case comes into court, I
+shall contest it, and try to obtain possession of the boy, even for the
+time the law allows the mother, on the ground of being better able to
+support and educate him."
+
+"I do not want the case to come into court here, Nesbit, and you know
+that I do not!  Why do you delight in tormenting me?"
+
+"Listen to me, Ethel.  I've no wish to torment you.  I simply wished to
+show you that I would abide by my rights, and that I have some
+power--all the power which money can give--on my side.  Our marriage
+has been a miserable mistake from the first; we rushed into it without
+knowledge of each other's characters and dispositions, and, like most
+couples who take matrimony like a five-barred gate, we've come horribly
+to grief.  I shall not stand in your way; if you wish to go, I shall
+not hinder you.  This is what I propose: I'll help you in the matter,
+will take all the trouble, make the arrangements, bear all the expense.
+It will be necessary for one of us to go to Illinois, and see these
+lawyers, if the divorce is to be gotten there.  It may be necessary to
+undergo a short residence in the state in order to simulate
+citizenship, and make the divorce legal.  I'll find out about this, and
+if it's necessary I will do it.  After the divorce, I'll allow you the
+use of this house, and a sufficient income to support it; and also the
+custody of our son as long as you remain unmarried.  In return, you
+must waive all right to the boy for the years you can legally claim
+him, and must bind yourself to surrender him to me, or any person I
+appoint, at least a month before any such marriage, and never, by word
+or act, to interfere in his future life, or any disposition I may think
+best to make of him.  I should also strongly object to any future
+marriage taking place from my house, and should expect legal notice in
+ample time to make arrangements about the boy."
+
+"Would you allow me to see the child whenever I wished?"
+
+"Certainly.  I'm no brute, and you are his mother.  I shall only
+stipulate that the meetings take place in some other house than yours.
+You are at liberty to visit him as often as you like, so long as you
+are faithful to our agreement and leave his mind unbiased.  I will
+never mention you unkindly to him, and shall expect the same
+consideration from you.  When he is old enough to judge between us, he
+will decide as he thinks right."
+
+"Suppose you marry again, yourself.  What about the child then?  You
+are very hard and uncompromising in your dictation to me, Nesbit, but I
+can have feelings and scruples as well as you."
+
+Thorne was startled.  He considered that he was behaving well to his
+wife.  He wanted to behave well to her; to let the past go generously,
+so that no shadow of reproach from it might fall upon the future.  Her
+tart suggestion set the affair in a new light.  It was an unpleasant
+light, and he turned his back on it, thinking that by so doing he
+disposed of it.  There was the distance of the two poles between
+Pocahontas Mason and Cecil Cumberland.  _He_ surely was the best judge
+of what would conduce to the welfare of his son.
+
+"We were discussing the probability of your re-marriage, not mine," he
+responded coldly; "the reports in circulation have reached even me at
+last."
+
+"What reports?" with defiant inquiry.
+
+"That you are seeking freedom from your allegiance to one man, in order
+to swear fealty to another.  That your vows to me are irksome because
+they prevent your taking other vows to Cecil Cumberland.  I pass over
+the moral aspect of the affair; that must rest with your own
+conscience," (it is astonishing how exemplary Thorne felt in
+administering the rebuke); "that rests with your conscience," he
+repeated, "and with that I've nothing to do.  The existence of such
+reports--which lays your conduct as a married woman open to
+censure--gives me the right to dictate the terms of our legal
+separation.  I'm obliged to speak plainly, Ethel.  You brought about
+the issue, and must abide by the consequences.  I've stated my terms
+and it's for you to accept or decline them."
+
+Thorne leaned back in his chair and watched the flames eat into the
+heart of the hickory logs.  He had no doubt of her decision, but he
+awaited it courteously.  The broken log had burned completely away, and
+a little heap of whity-gray ashes lay on each side of the hearth.
+
+Ethel sat and pondered, weighing at full value all the advantages and
+disadvantages of the proposal and deciding that the former outweighed
+the latter.  The object on which she was bent--the thing which appeared
+the greatest earthly good, was the divorce.  At any cost, she would
+obtain _that_, and obtain it as quickly and quietly as possible; no
+talk, no exposure, no disagreeable comments.  This was the main point,
+and to carry it, Ethel Thorne felt herself capable of more than the
+surrender of one small child.  The separation at worst would only be
+partial; she could see the boy every day if she wished--even after her
+marriage with Cecil Cumberland.  Nesbit had promised, and in all her
+experience of him she had never known him break his word.  Then she
+could retain the little fellow until all these troublesome affairs
+should be settled, which would disarm criticism and save appearances,
+and appearances _must_ be preserved on account of the Cumberlands.
+
+That a divorced daughter-in-law would be none too welcome in that
+stately, old-fashioned family, Mrs. Thorne was well aware.  Perhaps it
+would be as well to be unhampered by such a forcible reminder of her
+former state as the child, while she was winning the Cumberland heart
+and softening the Cumberland prejudice.  Cecil, she knew already,
+regarded the baby with scant favor, and would be unfeignedly rejoiced
+to be quit of him.  On the whole, Nesbit was behaving well to her.  She
+had expected far more difficulty, infinitely more bitterness, for, like
+the world, she gave her husband credit for the scruples of his father's
+faith.  Her heart softened toward him a little for the first time in
+years--or would have softened, but for the blow he had dealt her
+egregious self-love in letting her go so easily.
+
+She signified her acceptance of his proposal in a few brusque,
+ungracious words, for she considered it due to her dignity to be
+disagreeable, in that she was acceding to terms, not dictating them.
+
+Thorne rose from his chair with a deep breath of relief.  The interview
+had been intolerable to him, and although he had carried his point and
+acquitted himself well, his prominent feeling was one of unqualified
+disgust.  What a lie his married life had been!  What a sepulcher
+filled with dead, dry bones!  For the moment all womanhood was lowered
+in his eyes because of his wife's heartless selfishness.  Had she shown
+any feeling about the boy--any ruth, or mother-love, Thorne knew that
+he would not have driven so hard a bargain; felt that he might even
+have let his compassion rule his judgment.  But she had shown none; all
+her thought and care had been for herself, and herself alone.  And for
+her, and such as her, men wrecked their lives.  A flood of anger at his
+past folly, of resentful bitterness at the price he had been forced to
+pay for it, passed over Thorne.  He could scarcely constrain himself to
+the formal bow which courtesy required.
+
+As he left the room, the sound of a child's wailing came down to him,
+mingled with the sound of a woman's voice soothing it.  He glanced back
+at his wife; she had moved nearer the fire, her fair head with its
+golden glory of hair was thrown back against the dark velvet of the
+chair; she was smiling and the sound of the child's grief fell on
+heedless ears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Thorne had even less difficulty with his legal arrangements than he had
+anticipated.  He had, hitherto, relegated the subject of divorce to the
+limbo of things as little thought and spoken of as possible by
+well-bred people.  He knew nothing of the _modus operandi_, and was
+surprised at the ease and celerity with which the legal machine moved.
+
+"I'll have to prove my identity, and the truth of my statements to the
+men out there, I suppose," he remarked to the lawyer, from whom he
+obtained all necessary information.
+
+The lawyer laughed; he was a Southerner by birth, and his voice was
+gentle, his manner courteous.
+
+"Of your identity, Mr. Thorne, these men will take excellent care to
+inform themselves, and of your responsibility also," he answered.  "For
+the truth of your statements, they are apt to take your word, and the
+depositions of your witnesses, without troubling themselves about
+substantiating the facts.  The soundness of your evidence is your
+lookout, not theirs.  If the case were to be contested, it would be
+different, but, in this instance, there is consent of both parties,
+which simplifies matters.  This case is reduced to a matter of mere
+form and business."
+
+"Apparently, then, my statements may be a tissue of lies from beginning
+to end, for all the difference it makes," observed Thorne, curious to
+discover how small a penknife could now cut the bond which once the
+scythe of death alone was held to be able to sever.
+
+"For your veracity, Mr. Thorne, your appearance is a sufficient
+voucher," responded the lawyer, with a ready courtesy.  "And the
+looseness on which you comment, recollect, is all in your favor.  When
+a man has an unpleasant piece of business in hand, it's surely an
+immense advantage to be able to accomplish it speedily and privately."
+
+Thorne walked in the direction of his hotel in a state of
+preoccupation.  He was sore and irritated; he disliked it all
+intensely; it jarred upon him and offended his taste.  Over and over he
+cursed it all for a damnable business from beginning to end.  He was
+perfectly aware, reasoning from cause to effect, that the situation
+was, in some sort, his own fault; but that was a poor consolation.
+That side of the question did not readily present itself; his horizon
+was occupied by the nearer and more personal view.  He loathed it all,
+and was genuinely sorry for himself and conscious that fate was dealing
+hardly by him.
+
+As he turned a corner, he ran against a tall, handsome young lady, who
+put out her hand and caught his arm to steady herself, laughing gayly:
+
+"Take care, Nesbit!" she exclaimed, "you nearly knocked me down.  Since
+when have you taken to emulating Mrs. Wilfer's father, and 'felling'
+your relatives to the earth?"
+
+"Why, Norma! is it really you?" he questioned, refusing to admit the
+evidence of sight and touch unfortified by hearing.
+
+He was genuinely delighted to see her, and foresaw that she would be a
+comfort to him during the days that must elapse before it became
+possible for him to start for Illinois.  He needed sympathy and some
+one to make much of him.  And Norma, with her lustrous eyes aglow with
+the pleasure of the meeting, appeared to divine it, for she set herself
+to entertain him with little incidents and adventures of her journey
+from Virginia, and with scraps of intelligence of the people at home.
+She did not mention Pocahontas, save in reply to a direct inquiry, and
+then simply stated that she had spent a night at Lanarth a day or so
+before coming North, and that the family were all well.
+
+She cheered Thorne wonderfully, for she seemed to bring Virginia and
+the life of the last few months nearer to him--the peaceful life in
+which new hopes had budded, in which he had met, and known, and loved
+Pocahontas.  Norma did him good, raised his spirits, and made the
+future look bright and cheerful; but not in the way she hoped and
+intended.  She had come North with the hope of furthering her own
+plans, of making herself necessary and agreeable, of keeping the old
+days fresh in his memory.  And she _was_ necessary to him, as a trusted
+comrade who had never failed him; a clever adviser in whose judgment he
+had confidence; a charming friend who was fond of him, and who had, but
+now, come from the enchanted land where his love dwelt.  Of her plans
+he knew nothing, suspected nothing; and the days she brought fresh to
+his thoughts were days in which she had no part.
+
+In a little while, he went West, and there was a period of uneventful
+waiting; after which Norma received a Western paper containing a short
+and unobtrusive notice of the granting of a divorce to Nesbit Thorne
+from Ethel, his wife.
+
+She bore it away to her room and gloated over it greedily.  Then she
+took her pen and ran it around the notice, marking it heavily; this
+done, she folded, sealed and directed it in a clear, bold hand--General
+Percival Smith,--Wintergreen Co., Virginia.  It would save elaborate
+explanations.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Spring opened very late that year in Virginia--slowly and regretfully,
+as though forced into doing the world a favor against its will, and
+determined to be as grudging and disagreeable over it as possible.  The
+weather was cold, wet, and unwholesome--sulking and storming
+alternately, and there was much sickness in the Lanarth and Shirley
+neighborhood.  The Christmas had been a green one--only one small spurt
+of snow on Christmas eve, which vanished with the morning.  The negroes
+were full of gloomy prognostications in consequence, and shook their
+heads, and cast abroad, with unction, all sorts of grewsome prophecies
+anent the fattening of the church-yard.
+
+All through the winter, Mrs. Mason had been ailing, and about the
+beginning of March she succumbed to climatic influences, backed by
+hereditary tendency, and took to her bed with a severe attack of
+inflammatory rheumatism.  Pocahontas had her hands full with household
+care and nursing, and perhaps it was as well, for it drove self into
+the background of her mind, for a part of the time at least, and filled
+with anxiety the empty days.  Grace, living five miles away and loaded
+down with family cares and duties of her own, could be of little
+practical assistance.
+
+The winter had been a hard one for Pocahontas, harder, perhaps, for the
+gallant nature which forbade her to bewail herself.  She suffered
+deeply and dumbly through all the weary nights and days.  Pride and
+womanly reserve precluded all beating of the breast, and forced
+principle and nature to the ceaseless fight.  Right gallantly she bore
+herself.  The mortification, the anguish, the love, must be met, hand
+to hand, eye to eye, foot to foot.  She endeavored to keep cheerful--to
+take the same interest in life as formerly, and in the main she
+succeeded; but there would come times when the struggle would seem
+greater than she could bear, and being a woman, with a woman's heart,
+and a woman's nerves, she would be irritable and difficult.  But these
+moods were never of long duration, any more than the more desperate
+ones, when she would lock herself in her chamber and cast herself on
+the floor and lie there prone and quivering--heart and conscience
+utterly at variance--heart crying out with mad insistence that the
+struggle was in vain; for love was strengthened by repression; and
+conscience sternly replying that it should not be; the struggle should
+continue until the last vestige of love should be expunged from heart
+and life.  It was no wonder, as time went on, that the girl's cheek
+paled and that a dumb pleading came into the pure gray eyes.
+
+Sometimes the thought of Jim would come and place itself in contrast to
+the thought of the other man, for, unconsciously to her, her old friend
+was her standard in many things.  Her recognition of the nobility of
+Jim's love would force, in some sort, recognition of the selfishness of
+Thorne's love.  She put such thoughts from her fiercely, and girded at
+Jim in her aching, unreasonable heart, because his love was grander and
+truer than the love she craved.  Once, when old Sholto--the great red
+setter--came and laid his head lovingly upon her lap, she frowned and
+pushed him roughly away, because he looked up at her with eyes whose
+honest faithfulness reminded her of Jim.
+
+And the mother watched her child silently; conscious, through the
+divination of unselfish mother-love, that her daughter suffered, yet
+powerless to help her, save by increased affection and the intangible
+yet perceptible comfort of a delicate respect.  She could trust her
+child and would not force her confidence; if spoken sympathy were
+needed, Pocahontas knew that her mother's heart was open to her, and if
+to her silence should seem best, she should have her will.  From long
+experience Mrs. Mason knew that some sorrows must be left quietly to
+time.
+
+When at length the news of Thorne's divorce reached them, she warded
+off with tender consideration all remark or comment likely to hurt the
+girl, and gave straight-forward, hot-tempered Berkeley a hint which
+effectually silenced him.  In sooth, the honest fellow had small liking
+for the subject.  He bitterly resented what he considered Thorne's
+culpable concealment of the fact of his marriage.  He remembered the
+night of the ball at Shirley, and the memory rankled.  It did not occur
+to him that the matter having remained a secret might have been the
+natural result of an unfortunate combination of circumstances, and in
+no sort the consequence of calculation or dishonor on Thorne's part.
+Neither did it occur to him, large-minded man though he was, to try to
+put himself in Thorne's place and so gain a larger insight into the
+affair, and the possibility of arriving at a fairer judgment.
+Berkeley's interest in the matter was too personal to admit of
+dispassionate analysis, or any impulse toward mercy, or even justice.
+His anger burned hotly against Thorne, and when the thought of him rose
+in his mind it was accompanied by other thoughts which it is best not
+to put into words.
+
+During Mrs. Mason's illness, little Blanche was unremitting in her
+attentions, coming over daily with delicacies of her own concoction,
+and striving to help her friends with a sweet, unobtrusive kindness
+which won hearty response from both ladies, and caused them to view
+Berkeley's increasing attentions to the little maid with pleasure.
+They even aided the small idyl by every lawful means, having the girl
+with them as often as they could and praising her judiciously.
+
+With her winsome, childish ways and impulsiveness, Blanche formed a
+marked contrast to grave, reserved Berkeley Mason, and was perhaps
+better suited to him on that account.  When their engagement was
+announced, there was no lack of congratulation and satisfaction in both
+families.  The general, as he gave his hearty approbation to her
+choice, pinched her ears and asked what had become of her objections to
+Virginia; and Percival tormented her unceasingly, twitting her with her
+former wails of lamentation.  Blanche did not care.  She took their
+teasing in good part, and retorted with merry words and smiles and
+blushes.  She had made her journey to the unknown, and returned with
+treasure.
+
+Mrs. Smith, in her chamber, smiled softly, and thought on muslin and
+lace and wedding favors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+The weeks rolled by, and gradually Mrs. Mason grew convalescent.  She
+was still confined to her room, but the worst of the pain was over, and
+she could lie on the sofa by the fireside and have Berkeley read aloud
+to her in the evenings.  Blanche, if she happened to be there, would
+sit on a low chair beside the sofa, busy with some delicate bit of
+fancy work, and later in the evening Berke would take her home.
+Sometimes Pocahontas would bring her work and listen, or pretend to
+listen, with the rest, but oftener she would go into the parlor and
+play dreamily to herself for hours.  She had taken up her music
+industriously and practiced hard in her spare moments.
+
+She had been playing a long time one evening in April, and had left the
+piano for a low chair beside the open fire.  She was tired.  Although
+spring had come, the evenings were chill and the room was large.  Her
+hands were cold and she spread them out to the blaze.  The heavy
+curtains billowed and sank and billowed again, as intrusive puffs of
+wind crept officiously through the crevices of the old casements.
+Blanche and Berkeley were with her mother, and they were reading "Lorna
+Doone."  She had read the book a week ago, and did not care to hear it
+over.
+
+The front door opened quietly--it was always on the latch--and
+footsteps came along the hall; quick, eager footsteps, straight to the
+parlor door; the knob turned.  No need to turn her head, no need to
+question of her heart whose step, whose hand that was, to guess whose
+presence filled the room.
+
+Thorne came across the room, and stood opposite, a great light of joy
+in his eyes, his hands outstretched for hers.  Benumbed with many
+emotions, Pocahontas half-rose, an inarticulate murmur dying on her
+lips.  Thorne put her gently back into her chair, and drew one for
+himself up to the hearth-rug near her; he was willing to keep silence
+for a little space, to give her time to recover herself; he was
+satisfied for the moment with the sense of her nearness, and his heart
+was filled with the joy of seeing her once more.  The lamps were lit,
+but burning dimly.  Thorne rose and turned both to their fullest
+brilliancy; he must have light to see his love.
+
+"I want to look at you, Princess," he said gently, seeking her eyes,
+with a look in his not to be misunderstood; "it has been so long--so
+cruelly long, my darling, since I have looked on your sweet face.  You
+must not call the others.  For this first meeting I want but you--you
+only, my love!  my queen!"  His voice lingered over the terms of
+endearment with exquisite tenderness.
+
+Pocahontas was silent--for her life she could not have spoken then.
+Her gray eyes had an appealing, terrified look as they met his; her
+trembling hands clasped and unclasped in her lap.
+
+"How frightened you look, my darling," Thorne murmured, speaking softly
+and keeping a tight rein over himself.  "Your eyes are like a startled
+fawn's.  Have I been too abrupt--too thoughtless and inconsiderate?
+You would forgive me, love, if you knew how I have longed for you; have
+yearned for this meeting as Dives yearned for water--as the condemned
+yearn for reprieve.  Have you no smile for me, sweetheart?--no word of
+welcome for the man whose heaven is your love?  You knew I would come.
+You knew I loved you, Princess."
+
+"Yes;"--the word was breathed, rather than uttered, but he heard it,
+and made a half movement forward, the light in his eyes glowing more
+passionately.  Still, he held himself in check; he would give her time.
+
+"You knew I loved you, Princess," he repeated.  "Yes, you must have
+known.  Love like mine could not be concealed; it _must_ burn its way
+through all obstacles from my heart to yours, melting and fusing them
+into one.  Don't try to speak yet, love, there is no need to answer
+unless you wish.  I can wait--for I am near you."
+
+Pocahontas rallied her forces resolutely, called up her pride, her
+womanhood, her sense of the wrong he had done her.  If she should give
+way an instant--if she should yield a hair's breadth, she would be
+lost.  The look in his eyes, the tenderness of his voice, appeared to
+sap the foundations of her resolution and to turn her heart to wax
+within her.
+
+"Why have you come?" she wailed, her tone one of passionate reproach.
+"Had you not done harm enough?  Why have you come?"
+
+Thorne started slightly, but commanded himself.  It was the former
+marriage; the divorce; she felt it keenly--every woman must; some
+cursed meddler had told her.
+
+"My darling," he answered, with patient tenderness, "you know why I
+have come--why it was impossible for me to keep away.  I love you,
+Princess, as a man loves but once in his life.  Will you come to me?
+Will you be my wife?"
+
+The girl shook her head, and moved her hand with a gesture of denial;
+words she had none.
+
+"I know of what you are thinking, Princess.  I know the idea that has
+taken possession of your mind.  You have heard of my former marriage,
+and you know that the woman who was my wife still lives.  Is it not
+so?"  She bent her head in mute assent.  Thorne gazed at her pale,
+resolute face with his brows knit heavily, and then continued:
+
+"Listen to me, Princess.  That woman--Ethel Ross--is my wife no longer,
+even in name; she ceased to be my wife in fact two years ago.  Our
+lives have drifted utterly asunder.  It was her will, and I acquiesced
+in it, for she had never loved me, and I--when my idiotic infatuation
+for her heartless, diabolical beauty passed, had ceased to love her.
+At last, even my presence became a trouble to her, which she was at no
+pains to conceal.  The breach between us widened with the years, until
+nothing remained to us but the galling strain of a useless fetter.  Now
+that is broken, and we are free,"--there was an exultant ring in his
+voice, as though his freedom were precious to him.
+
+"Were you bound, or free, that night at Shirley?" questioned the girl,
+slowly and steadily.
+
+A flush crept warmly over Thorne's dark face, and lost itself in the
+waves of his hair.  He realized that he would meet with more opposition
+here than he had anticipated.  No matter; the prize was worth fighting
+for--worth winning at any cost.  His determination increased with the
+force opposed to it, and so did his desire.
+
+"In heart and thought I was free, but in _fact_ I was bound," he
+acknowledged.  "The words I spoke on the steps that night escaped me
+unaware.  I was tortured by jealousy, and tempted by love.  I had no
+right to speak them then; nothing can excuse or palliate the weakness
+which allowed me to.  I should have waited until I could come to you
+untrammeled--as now.  I attempt no justification of my madness,
+Princess.  I have no excuse but my love, and can only sue for pardon.
+You will forgive me, sweetheart"--using the old word tenderly--"for the
+sake of my great love.  It's my only plea"--his voice took a pleading
+tone as he advanced the plea hardest of all for a woman to steel her
+heart against.
+
+Pocahontas gazed at him in bewilderment, her mind grappling with an
+idea that appalled her, her face blanching with apprehension, and her
+form cowering as from an expected blow.
+
+"Must I understand, Mr. Thorne, that love for _me_ suggested the
+thought of divorcing your wife?" she questioned hoarsely--"that _I_
+came between you and caused this horrible thing?  It is _not_--it _can
+not_ be true.  God above!  Have I fallen so low?--am I guilty of this
+terrible sin?"
+
+Thorne's quick brain recognized instantly the danger of allowing this
+idea to obtain possession of her mind.  Fool! he thought furiously, why
+had not he been more cautious, more circumspect.  Dextrously he set
+himself to remove the idea or weaken its force--to prove her guiltless
+in her own eyes.
+
+"Princess," he said, meeting the honest, agonized eyes squarely, "I
+want to tell you the story of my marriage with Ethel Ross, and of my
+subsequent life with her.  I had not intended to harass you with it
+until later--if at all; but now, I deem it best you should become
+acquainted with it, and from my lips.  It will explain many things."
+
+Then he briefly related all the miserable commonplace story.  He
+glossed over nothing, palliated nothing; bearing hardly now on his
+wife, and again on himself, but striving to show throughout how opposed
+to true marriage was this marriage, how far removed from a perfect
+union was this union.  Pocahontas listened with intense, strained
+interest, following every word, sometimes almost anticipating them.
+Her heart ached for him--ached wearily.  Life had been so hard upon
+him; he had suffered so.  With a woman's involuntary hardness to woman,
+she raised the blame from Thorne's shoulders and heaped it upon those
+of his wife.  Her love and her sympathy became his advocates and
+pleaded for him at the bar of her judgment.  Her heart yearned over him
+with infinite compassion.
+
+If Thorne had kept silence, and left the matter there, and waited until
+she should have adapted herself to the new conditions, should have
+assimilated the new influences, which crowded thick upon her, it would
+have been better.  But he could not keep silent--he had no patience to
+wait.  He could not realize that the things which were as a thrice-told
+tale to _him_, had an overwhelming newness for _her_.  That the
+influences which had molded his thought, were very far removed from the
+influences which had made _her_ what she was.  He could not understand
+that, while the world had progressed, this isolated community had
+remained stationary, and that the principles and rules of conduct among
+them, still, were those which had governed _his_ world in the beginning
+of the century.
+
+He saw that her sympathy had been aroused, that she suffered for, and
+with, him, and he could not forbear from striving to push the
+advantage.  He went on speaking earnestly; he demonstrated that this
+marriage which had proved so disastrous was in truth no marriage, and
+that its annulment was just and right, for where there was no love, he
+argued, there could be no marriage.  With all the sophistry; with all
+the subtle arguments of which he was master--and they were neither weak
+nor few--he assailed her.  Every power of his brilliant intellect,
+every weapon of his mental armory, all the force of his indomitable
+will was brought to bear upon her--and brought to bear in vain.
+
+Calm, pale, resolute, she faced him--her clear eyes meeting his, her
+nervous hands folded tightly together.  She would not give way.  In
+their earnestness both had risen, and they stood facing each other on
+the hearth-rug, their eyes nearly on a level.  The man's hand rested on
+the mantle, and quivered with the intensity of his excitement; the
+woman's hung straight before her, motionless, but wrung together until
+the knuckles showed hard through the tense skin.  She would NOT give
+way.
+
+Thorne was startled and perplexed.  Opposition he was prepared for,
+argument he could meet and possibly refute, tears and reproaches he
+could subdue--but dumb, quiet resistance baffled him.  Suddenly he
+abandoned reason, cast self-control to the winds, and gave the reins to
+feeling.  If he could not convince her through the head, he would try a
+surer road--the heart.  Though proof against argument, would she be
+proof against love?  He knew she loved him; he felt it in every fiber
+of his being, every pulse of his heart--and he was determined to win
+her at all hazards; his she must be; his she _should_ be.
+
+"My love!" he murmured, extending his arms with an appealing tenderness
+of look and gesture.  "Come to me.  Lay your sweet face on my breast,
+your dear arms around my neck.  I need you, Princess; my heart cries
+out for you, and will not be denied.  I can not live without you.  You
+are mine--mine alone, and I claim your love; claim your life.  What is
+that woman?  What is any woman to me, save you, my darling--you only?
+My love!  My love!  It is my very life for which I am pleading.  Have
+you no pity?  No love for the man whose heart is calling you to come?"
+
+Pocahontas shivered, and bent slightly forward--her face was white as
+death, her eyes strange and troubled.  The strength and fire of his
+passion drew her toward him as a magnet draws steel.  Was she yielding?
+Would she give way?
+
+Suddenly she started erect again, and drew back a step.  All the
+emotions, prejudices, thoughts of her past life; all the principles,
+scruples, influences, amid which she had been reared, crowded back on
+her and asserted their power.  She could _not_ do this thing.  A chasm
+black as the grave, hopeless as death, yawned at her feet; a barrier as
+high as heaven erected itself before her.
+
+"I can not come," she wailed in anguish.  "Have you no mercy?--no pity
+for me?  There is a barrier between us that I dare not level; a chasm I
+can not cross."
+
+"There is _no_ barrier," responded Thorne, vehemently, "and I will
+acknowledge none.  I am a free man; you are a free woman, and there is
+no law, human or divine, to keep us asunder, save the law of your own
+will.  If there be a chasm--which I do not see; which I swear does not
+exist--_I_ will cross it.  If you can not come to me, I can come to
+you; and I _will_.  You are _mine_, and I will hold you--here in my
+arms, on my breast, in my heart.  Have you, and hold you, so help me
+God!"
+
+With a quick stride he crossed the small space between them, and stood
+close, but still not touching her.
+
+"Have you no pity?" she moaned.
+
+"None," he answered hoarsely.  "Have you any for me?--for us both?  I
+love you--how well, God knows, I was not aware until to-night--and you
+love me I hope and believe.  There is nothing between us save an idle
+scruple, which even the censorious world does not share.  I ask you to
+commit no sin; to share no disgrace.  I ask you to be my wife before
+the face of day; before the eyes of men; in the sight of heaven!"
+
+Could she be his wife in the sight of heaven?  It was all so strange to
+her, she could not understand.  Words, carelessly heard and scarcely
+heeded, came back to her, and rung their changes in her brain with
+ceaseless iteration.  It was like a knell.
+
+"Nesbit?" she said wearily, using his name unconsciously, "listen and
+understand me.  In the eyes of the law, and of men you are free; but I
+can not see it so.  In my eyes you are still bound."
+
+"I am _not_ bound," denied Thorne, fiercely, bringing his hand down
+heavily on the mantle; "whoever tells you that I am, lies, and the
+truth is not in him.  I've told you all--and yet not all.  Ethel Ross,
+the woman who was my wife--whom _you_ say is my wife still--is about to
+marry again.  To join her life--as free and separate from mine as
+though we had never met--to the life of another man.  Isn't that
+enough?  Can't you see how completely every tie between us is severed?"
+
+Pocahontas shook her head.  "I can not understand you, and you will not
+understand me," she said mournfully; "her sin will not lessen our sin;
+nor her unholy marriage make ours pure and righteous."
+
+Thorne stamped his foot.  "Do you wish to madden me?" he exclaimed;
+"there is no sin, I tell you; nor would our marriage be unholy.  You
+are torturing us both for nothing on God's earth but a scruple.  I've
+argued, reasoned, and pleaded with you, and you refuse to weigh the
+argument, to listen to the reason, to yield to the persuasion.  You are
+hard, and opinionated, and obstinate.  You set up your individual
+judgment against the verdict of the world and deem it infallible.  You
+are hard to yourself, and cruelly hard to me, for, as there is a God in
+heaven, I believe you love me, even as I love you.  Oh, my love! my
+love!" his voice melted, his arms closed around her.  "Why do you try
+me beyond my strength?  Why are you so cruel to us both?  See; I hold
+you safely; your heart beats on mine; your dear face is on my breast.
+Stay with me, my darling, my own, my wife;" and soft, clinging
+passionate kisses pressed down on hair, and cheek, and lips; kisses
+that burned like flame, that thrilled like strong wine.
+
+For a moment Pocahontas lay quietly in his arms, lulled into
+quiescence.  Then she wrenched herself free, and moved away from him.
+It had been said of her that she could be hard upon occasion; the
+occasion had arisen, and she _was_ hard.
+
+"Go!" she said, her face wan as ashes, but her voice firm; "it is you
+who are cruel; you who are blind and obstinate.  You will neither see
+nor understand why this thing may not be.  I have showed you my
+thought, and you will not bend; implored you to have pity, and you are
+merciless.  And yet you talk of love!  You love me, and would sacrifice
+me to your love; love me, and would break down the bulwarks I have been
+taught to consider righteous, to gratify your love.  I do not
+understand; love seemed to me so different, so noble and unselfish.
+Leave me; I am tired; I want to think it out alone."
+
+Thorne stood silent, his head bent in thought.  "Yes," he said
+presently; "it will be better so.  You are overwrought, and your mind
+is worn with excitement; you need rest.  To-morrow, next week, the week
+after, this matter will wear a different aspect.  I can wait, and I
+will come again.  It will be different then."
+
+"It will never be different," the voice was low; the gray eyes had a
+hopeless look.
+
+Thorne repeated his assertion in the gentle, persistent tone of one who
+is patient with the unreasonableness of a frightened child.  His
+determination to win success never faltered, rather it hardened with
+opposition into adamant; but he was beginning to realize his blunder.
+He had overwhelmed her; had brought about an upheaval of her world so
+violent that, in her bewilderment, her dread of chaos, she
+instinctively laid hold on the old supports and clung to them with
+desperation.  She must have time to think, to familiarize herself with
+the strange emotions, to adapt herself to the changed conditions.  Only
+one other thing would he say.  He held in reserve a card which he knew,
+ere now, had proved all powerful with conscientious women.  To gain his
+end, he would stop at nothing; he took both her hands in his, and
+played his card deliberately.
+
+"Think over it well," he said, "weigh every argument, test every
+scruple.  My life is in your hands.  I am not a religious man, nor a
+good man, but you can make me both.  Give me the heaven that I crave,
+the heaven of your love, and I will be by it ennobled into faith in
+that other heaven, of which it will be the foretaste.  But refuse; deny
+the soul that cries out to you; thrust aside the hands that seek to
+clasp you, as the truest, noblest, holiest thing they have ever
+touched, and--on your head be it.  I have placed the responsibility in
+your hands and there it rests."
+
+With a lingering look into her eyes and a fervent pressure of her
+hands, he turned and slowly left the room.
+
+Back to the mind of the girl, standing motionless where he had left
+her, came, unwished and unbidden, the memory of a summer night out
+yonder beside the flowing river.  She seemed to see again, the swaying
+of the branches in the moonlight, and to hear the lulling wash of the
+water against the shore; to hear also, a quiet, manly voice fighting
+down its pain, lest the knowledge of it should wound her, saying,
+simply and bravely: "Don't be unhappy about me, dear.  I'll worry
+through the pain in time, or grow accustomed to it.  It's tough just at
+first, but I'll pull through somehow.  It shall not spoil my life
+either, although it must mar it; a man must be a pitiful fellow who
+lets himself go to the bad because the woman he loves won't have him.
+God means every man to hold up his own weight in this world.  I'd as
+soon knock a woman down as throw the blame of a wasted life upon her."
+
+Plain words, poorly arranged and simply spoken, for the man who uttered
+them was not clever; but brave, manly words, for all that.  The girl
+turned from the unwelcome memory with a sharp, impatient sigh that was
+almost a groan.  It pained her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+The next day Thorne quietly returned to New York, without making any
+attempt to see or communicate with Pocahontas again.  He had considered
+the situation earnestly, and decided that it would be his wisest
+course.  Like a skilled general, he recognized the value of delay.
+Failing to carry the citadel by assault, he resorted to strategy.  In
+the girl's love for him, he possessed a powerful ally; there was a
+traitor in the camp of his adversary, and sooner or later it would be
+betrayed into his hands; of this he was convinced, and the conviction
+fortified him to trust the result to time.  Pride and principle were in
+arms now, holding love in check, but it would not be so always; soon
+her woman's heart would speak, would wield an influence more powerful
+and resistless, from the concentration engendered by repression.  Now,
+too, she was braced by the excitement of personal resistance; she was
+measuring her will, with his will, her strength with his strength.  Let
+him withdraw for a time, and what would follow?  The outside pressure,
+the immediate need of concentrated effort removed, there would
+inevitably ensue a state of collapse; purpose and prejudice would sink
+exhausted, the strain on the will relax, the weapons fall from the
+nerveless hands.  Then the heart would rally its forces, would collect
+its strength for the field; external conflict suspended, internal
+strife would commence, fierce, cruel and relentless as internecine
+struggles ever are.  Was there any doubt of the result of the battle?
+It only needed time.  Time, quietude, and earnest thought, free from
+the disturbing, stimulating power of his presence.
+
+He could wait; every affection of her loving, constant heart, every
+fiber of her self-sacrificing nature, would fight for him; prejudices,
+even the most deeply-rooted, must yield, in time, to love.  When he
+should come again it would be to claim his victory.
+
+No thought of abandoning the pursuit crossed his brain; no impulse of
+ruth stirred his heart.  Did she suffer?  So did he--keenly, cruelly.
+Let her end this torture for them both; let her lay aside these
+senseless scruples, and place her hand in his.  His arms were open to
+her, his heart yearning for her; let her come and anchor in the sure
+haven of his love.
+
+Pocahontas told her mother, very quietly, of Thorne's visit, his
+proposal, and her rejection of it; just the bare facts, without comment
+or elaboration.  But Mrs. Mason had a mother's insight and could read
+between the lines; she did not harass her daughter with many words,
+even of approval; or with questions; she simply drew the sweet, young
+face down to her bosom a moment, and held it there with tender kisses.
+Nor did Berkeley, to whom his mother communicated the fact, volunteer
+any comment to his sister.  After what had passed, Thorne's proposal
+was not a surprise, and to them the girl's answer was a foregone
+conclusion.  Poor child! the brother thought impatiently, the mother
+wistfully, how much bitterness would have been spared her could she
+only have loved Jim Byrd.
+
+During the weeks that followed Thorne's second return north, the two
+families were thrown together more and more intimately.  Blanche's
+engagement and Warner's increased illness served to break down all
+restraints.  All through the winter the boy had steadily lost ground,
+and as the spring progressed, instead of rallying as they hoped, his
+decline became more rapid.  The best advice was had, but science could
+only bear the announcement of bereavement; there was nothing to be
+done, the doctors said, save to alleviate pain, and let the end come
+peacefully; it was needless to worry the boy with change, or bootless
+experiments.  Even to the mother's willfully blinded eyes, and
+falsely-fed hopes, conviction came at last that her son's days were
+numbered.
+
+Berkeley, Royall and other of the neighboring gentlemen took turns in
+aiding with the nursing and the night-watches, as is the custom in
+southern country neighborhoods where professional nurses are unknown.
+
+Of all the kindly friends that watched and tended him through long
+weeks of illness, the one that Warner learned to love the best was
+Berkeley Mason.  There was a thoughtful strength in the nature of the
+man who had suffered, the soldier who had endured, which the weaker
+nature recognized and rested on.  To the general, during this time of
+trouble, the young man became, in very truth, a son; the old debt of
+kindness was canceled, and a new account opened with a change in the
+balance.
+
+As is usual in cases of lingering consumption, the end was very
+sudden--so sudden, in fact, that Norma, still away with her northern
+friends, received the telegram too late for word or look or farewell
+kiss.  She was traveling with Mrs. Vincent and the message followed her
+from place to place.
+
+On a still, beautiful May morning, Warner was laid to rest in the
+Lanarth graveyard beside poor Temple Mason.  It was the boy's own
+request, and his mother felt constrained to comply with it, although
+she would have preferred interring the remains of her child beside
+those of her own people at Greenwood.  The story of the young life
+beating itself out against prison bars, had taken strong hold of the
+lad's imagination, and the fancy grew that he too would sleep more
+sweetly under the shadow of the old cedars in the land the young
+soldier had loved so well.
+
+Norma and Pocahontas stood near each other beside the new-made grave,
+and as they quitted the inclosure, their hands met for an instant
+coldly.  Pocahontas tried not to harbor resentment, but she could not
+forget whose hand it had been that had struck her the first bitter blow.
+
+After Warner's death, Mrs. Smith appeared to collapse, mentally as well
+as bodily.  She remained day after day shut in his chamber, brooding
+silently and rejecting with dumb apathy all sympathy and consolation.
+Her strength and appetite declined, and her interest in life deserted
+her, leaving a hopeless quiescence that was inexpressibly pitiful.  Her
+husband, in alarm for her life and reason, hurriedly decided to break
+up the establishment at Shirley, and remove her for a time from
+surroundings that constantly reminded her of her loss.
+
+In the beginning of June, the move was made, the house closed, the
+servants dismissed, and the care of the estate turned over to Berkeley.
+With the dawning of summer, the birds of passage winged their flight
+northward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+There comes a time in human affairs, whether of nations or individuals,
+when a dull exhausted calm appears to fall upon them--a period of
+repose, a lull after the excitement of hurried events, a pause in which
+to draw breath for the renewal of the story.  Grateful are these
+interludes, and necessary for the preservation of true equipoise, but
+they are not interesting, and in novels all description of them is
+carelessly skipped over.  In stories we want events, not lingerings.
+
+The summer passed quietly for the family at Lanarth, broken only by the
+usual social happenings, visits from the "Byrd girls," as they were
+still called, with their husbands and little ones; a marriage, a
+christening, letters from Jim and Susie, and measles among the little
+Garnetts.  In August, Pocahontas and her mother went for a month to
+Piedmont, Virginia, to try the medicinal waters for the latter's
+rheumatism, and after their return home, Berkeley took a holiday and
+ran up to the Adirondacks to see Blanche.
+
+Poor Mrs. Smith did not rally as her family had hoped, and the
+physicians--as is customary when a case baffles their skill--all
+recommended further and more complete change.  They must take her
+abroad, and try what the excitement of foreign travel would do toward
+preventing her from sinking into confirmed invalidism.  General Smith,
+who had abandoned every care and interest for the purpose of devoting
+himself to his wife, embraced the proposal with eagerness, and insisted
+on the experiment being tried as speedily as possible.
+
+Blanche could not help some murmurs, both inwardly and to Berkeley, at
+the long separation in store for them; and the lover, although himself
+a little rueful, heartened her up with bright prophecies for their
+future.  An immediate marriage for them was out of the question, for
+since Warner's death Mrs. Smith clung to her younger daughter with
+absolute dependence.  The last of September was decided on for sailing,
+as that would allow General Smith time to enter Percival at school, and
+to complete other necessary arrangements before the family departure.
+The management of Shirley would remain in Berkeley's hands, and the
+house would continue closed until the return of the travelers.
+
+To Nesbit Thorne, the summer had appeared interminable, and every
+golden hour had been shod with lead.  He had passed the season partly
+in the Adirondacks with his relatives and partly in New York; but he
+was always oppressed with the same miserable unrest, the same weary
+longing.  It would appear, at times, impossible for him to hold to his
+resolution of waiting until after the re-marriage of his _ci-devant_
+wife, before again seeking Pocahontas.  He yearned to be with her, to
+hold her hands, and gaze into her eyes, so intensely at times, that it
+required the utmost exertion of his will to prevent himself from
+boarding the first southward-bound train.  He was forced continually to
+remind himself that if he should yield to the impulse, he would be
+guilty of egregious folly--having waited so long, he could surely wait
+a few weeks longer.  Ethel's marriage would dissipate every shadow of a
+tie between them, and with that fact fully established, Pocahontas
+_must_ hear him.
+
+In deference to Cumberland prejudice, Mrs. Thorne's marriage had been
+deferred until September--to that lady's great annoyance.  She saw no
+reason for delay, nor any necessity for humoring the Cumberland
+old-fogyism, and in delicate ambiguous terms she conveyed this opinion
+to her lover, and discovered, to her surprise and indignation, that he
+disagreed with her.  Some concession was due to the feelings of his
+family, and he did not wish to be hurried; on this ground, he
+intrenched himself and defied the world to move him.  When Cecil made a
+point, he held to it with the obstinacy characteristic of mediocrity,
+and Ethel, not being exactly in a position to dictate, and requiring
+moreover some portion of the Cumberland countenance, was forced to
+acquiesce.
+
+Some weeks before the day appointed for her marriage, Ethel removed
+herself and her belongings to the house of a poor and plastic aunt, who
+was in the habit of allowing herself to be run into any mold her niece
+should require.  According to their agreement, Ethel gave her whilom
+husband due notice of her plans, and Thorne at once removed the child
+to Brooklyn, and placed him under the care of a sister of his father's,
+a gentle elderly widow who had known sorrow.  His house he put in the
+hands of an agent to rent or sell, furnished, only removing such
+articles as had belonged to his parents.  The house was hateful to him,
+and he felt that should the beautiful, new life of which he dreamed
+ever dawn for him, it must be set amid different surroundings from
+those which had framed his matrimonial failure.
+
+Still in deference to the Cumberland prejudice, the re-marriage of
+Ethel Thorne took place very quietly.  It was a morning wedding, graced
+only by the presence of a few indifferent relatives, and a small crowd
+of curious friends.  The two Misses Cumberland, handsome, heavy-browed
+women, after much discussion in the family bosom, and some fraternal
+persuasion, had allowed themselves to be seduced into attending the
+obnoxious nuptials, and shedding the light of the family countenance
+upon the ill-doing pair.  Very austere and forbidding they looked as
+they seated themselves, reprobatively, in a pew far removed from the
+chancel, and their light was no better than the veriest darkness.
+
+Twelve hours after the marriage had been published to the world,
+another marked paper was speeding southward, addressed this time to
+Pocahontas, and accompanied by a thick, closely written, letter.
+Thorne had decided that it would be better to send a messenger before,
+this time, to prepare the way for him.  In his letter Thorne touched
+but lightly on the point at issue between them, thinking it better to
+take it for granted that her views had modified, if not changed.  The
+strength of his cause lay in his love, his loneliness, his yearning
+need of her.  On these themes he dwelt with all the eloquence of which
+he was master, and the letter closed with a passionate appeal, in which
+he poured out the long repressed fire of his love: "My darling, tell me
+I may come to you--or rather tell me nothing; I will understand and
+interpret your silence rightly.  You are proud, my beautiful love, and
+in all things I will spare you--in all things be gentle to you; in all
+things, save this--I can not give you up--I _will_ not give you up.  I
+will wait here for another week, and if I do not hear from you, I will
+start for Virginia at once--with joy and pride and enduring
+thankfulness."
+
+Pocahontas took the paper to her mother's room, the letter she put
+quietly away.  She would answer it, but not yet; at night--when the
+house should be quiet she would answer it.
+
+The lines containing the brief announcement were at the head of the
+list:
+
+
+MARRIED.
+
+"CUMBERLAND-THORNE.--At the church of the Holy Trinity, September 21st,
+18--, by the Rev. John Sylvestus, Cecil Cumberland to Ethel Ross
+Thorne; both of this city."
+
+
+Mrs. Mason laid the paper on the little stand beside her chair.  "My
+daughter," she said, looking up at the girl seriously, "this can make
+no difference."
+
+"No, mother," very quietly, "no difference; but I thought you ought to
+know."
+
+In her own room, at night, when the house was still, the girl sat with
+the letter in her lap thinking.  The moonlight poured in through the
+open window and made a map on the floor, whereon slender shadows traced
+rivers, mountains and boundaries.  In the trees outside, the night
+insects chirped, and bats darted and circled in the warm air.
+
+If only she could think that this made a difference.  She was so weary
+of the struggle.  The arguments which formerly sustained her had, with
+ceaseless iteration, lost their force; her battle-worn mind longed to
+throw down its arms in unconditional surrender.  Her up-bringing had
+been so different; this thing was not regarded by the world in the same
+light as it appeared to her; was she over-strained, opinionated,
+censorious?  Nesbit had called her so--was he right?  Who was _she_, to
+set up her feeble judgment against the world's verdict--to condemn and
+criticise society's decision?  Divorce must be--even Scripture allowed
+that; a limb must be sacrificed sometimes that a life might be saved.
+True, the process had always appeared to her, in her ignorance, an
+operation of cruel anguish, from which the patient came halt, or lame,
+or blind for life; but what if she should be wrong?  What if the
+present crab-like propensity for the renewal of the missing part was
+the natural and sensible condition.  This wicked woman--this wife who
+had recklessly thrown aside life's choicest gift--was happy; she had
+replaced her lopped-off limb with a new one, and it was well with her.
+Norma had said long ago that, "any woman who trifled with her happiness
+because of a scruple was a fool."  Was Norma right?  Was her hesitation
+senseless, doltish folly?
+
+The boundaries of the moonlight shifted; a long irregular cape, like a
+shining finger, stretched out across the floor and touched the hem of
+her dress.  From behind the screen in the fireplace came a little
+sound, as though a mouse were rustling fragments of torn paper.
+
+If she could only recognize that this marriage _had_ made a difference.
+It was so wearisome, this strife with a heart that would not admit
+defeat, a love that fought on and would not die.  What was required of
+her?--nothing; nothing save to sit with folded hands and let happiness
+flood her life like sunshine--only to lay away the letter in her desk
+and wait silently for her lover to come to her.  Her lover--the man
+whose influence had changed the monotonous calm of existence into the
+pulsing passion of living--the man who loved her; whom she loved.  No
+words were needed--only silence; he was so thoughtful for her, so
+anxious to spare her; only silence, and in a little while his arms
+would infold her; his beautiful eyes, heavy with tenderness, gaze deep
+into hers; his sweet, passionate kisses burn upon her lips.
+
+The radiant finger stole softly up her dress, across her lap, and made
+a little pool of brightness in the heart of which the letter lay;
+outside in the dove-cote a pigeon cooed sleepily to his mate.
+
+What was that tale of long ago that was coming strangely back to her?
+A girl, one whom they all knew and loved, had been separated from her
+husband after several years of misery, bravely borne.  Her husband had
+been a confirmed drunkard, and in his cups was as one possessed with
+devils.  They had grieved over Clare, and when her husband's brutality
+grew such that her brother interfered and insisted on her procuring a
+divorce for the protection of herself and her children, they had felt
+that it was right; and while they deplored the necessity, they had
+sided with Clare throughout.  But when, two years later, wedding cards
+had come from Clare, from some place in the West, whither she had moved
+with her children; it had been a grievous shock, for the drunkard still
+lived.  It had seemed a strange and monstrous thing, and their judgment
+had been severe--their censure scathing.  Poor Clare!  She understood
+her temptation better now.  Poor little Clare!
+
+What was it Jim had said?  The men had been guarded in the expression
+of their opinion before her; they were fastidious in conversation
+before women.  This, he had said in an under-tone to Berkeley, but she
+had caught it, and caught also the scorn of the hazel eye, and knew
+that the lip curled under the brown mustache.  He had said--"To a woman
+of innate purity the thing would be impossible.  There is a coarseness
+in the situation which is revolting."
+
+What would he think of her?  She was weighing the matter--canvassing
+its possibility.  Was her nature deteriorating?  Was she growing
+coarser, less pure?  Would her old friend, whose standard was so high,
+despise her?  Would she be lowered in the eyes of those whose influence
+and opinions had, heretofore, molded her life?  The associations of
+years are not uprooted and cast aside in days or in months.
+Responsibilities engendered by the past environed her, full-grown,
+comprehensible, insistent; responsibilities which might be engendered
+by the future, lay in her mind a tiny germ in which the embryo life had
+scarcely begun to stir.  The duty to the old life seemed to her plain
+and clear; a beaten track along which she might safely travel.  The
+duty to another life which might, in time, be equally plain and clear,
+was now a bewildering mist through which strange shapes passed, like
+phantasmagoria.  She could not think; her mind was benumbed; right and
+wrong, apparently, had changed places and commingled so, that, for the
+time, their identity was confused, indistinguishable: she could not
+guide herself, as yet; she could only hold blindly to the old supports.
+
+The silver finger had lifted itself from her lap and rested on her
+breast, forming a shining pathway from her heart, through the open
+window, out into the silence and beauty of the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Winter again; the city dull, listless and sodden of aspect in the gloom
+of a January evening.  In the country, and nature's quiet places, the
+dusk was throwing a veil over the cheerlessness of earth, as a friend
+covers a friend's deficiencies with love; but here, in the haunts of
+men, garish electric lights made plain the misery.  The air was a
+depressing compound which defied analysis; but was apparently composed
+of equal parts of snow, drizzle, and stinging sleet; the wind caught it
+in sudden whirls, and dashed it around corners and into the eyes and
+the coat collars of wayfarers with gusty malevolence.
+
+The streets were comparatively deserted, only such people being abroad
+as could not help themselves, and these plodded along with bent heads,
+and silent curses on the night.  Even the poor creatures who daily
+"till the field of human sympathy" kept close within the shelter of
+four walls, no matter how forlorn, and left the elements to hold
+Walpurgis night in the thoroughfares alone.
+
+In a comfortable easy chair, in the handsome parlor of an elegant
+up-town mansion, sat Ethel Cumberland, reading a novel.  Since her
+second marriage, life had gone pleasantly with her and she was content.
+Cecil never worried her about things beyond her comprehension, or
+required other aliments for his spiritual sustenance than that which
+she was able and willing to furnish; he was a commonplace man and his
+desires were commonplace--easily understood and satisfied.  He liked a
+pretty wife, a handsome house, a good dinner with fine wine and jolly
+company; he liked high-stepping horses, a natty turn-out, and the smile
+of Vanity Fair.  Ethel's tastes were similar, and their lives so far
+had fitted into each other without a single crevice.  The Cumberlands
+were grim and unbending, it is true, and after that one concession to
+fraternal feeling, made no more; they held themselves rigidly aloof
+from the pair, and invested all intercourse with paralyzing formality.
+Ethel did not care a pin for them or their opinion; if they chose to be
+old-fogyish and disagreeable, they were quite welcome to indulge their
+fancy.  As long as society smiled upon her, Madam Ethel was superbly
+indifferent to the Cumberland frown.
+
+Cecil worried over it, as men will worry, who have been accustomed to
+the adulation of their womenkind, when that adulation is withdrawn.  He
+grumbled and fumed over their "damned nonsense," as he called it, and
+bored his wife no little with conjectures as to their reasons for being
+stiff and unpleasant when nobody else was.
+
+Since her return from her wedding trip, which had lengthened to four
+months amid the delights of Paris, Mrs. Cumberland had found time for
+only one short visit to her little son.  There had been such an
+accumulation of social duties and engagements, that pilgrimages over to
+Brooklyn were out of the question; and besides, she disliked Mrs.
+Creswell, Thorne's aunt, who had charge of the boy, and who had the bad
+taste, Ethel felt sure, to disapprove of her.  It was too bad of Nesbit
+to put the child so far away, and with a person whom she did not like;
+it amounted to a total separation, for of course it would be impossible
+for her to make such a journey often.  When her time should be less
+occupied, she would write to Nesbit about it; meanwhile, her maternal
+solicitude found ample pacification in sending a servant across at
+intervals to carry toys and confectionery to the little fellow, and to
+inquire after his welfare.
+
+The portieres were drawn aside to admit Mr. Cumberland in smoking
+jacket and slippers, yawning and very much bored.  He was a large,
+heavy looking man, very dependent on outside things for his
+entertainment.  Failing to attract his wife's attention, he lounged
+over to the window, and drew aside the velvet curtain.  The atmosphere
+was heavy, and the light in front of the house appeared to hold itself
+aloof from the environment in a sulky, self-contained way; all down the
+street, the other lamps looked like the ghosts of lights that had
+burned and died in past ages.
+
+A little girl with a bag of apples in her frost-bitten hands came
+hastily around the corner, and, going with her head down against the
+sleet, butted into an elderly gentleman, with a big umbrella, who was
+driving along in an opposite direction.  The gentleman gave the child
+an indignant shove which caused her to seat herself violently upon the
+pavement; the bag banged hard against the bricks and delivered up its
+trust, and the apples scudded away into the gutter.
+
+Cecil laughed amusedly as the little creature picked herself up crying,
+and proceeded to institute search for the missing treasure.  A kindly
+policeman, who doubtless had children of his own, stopped on his beat,
+and helped her, wiping the mud from the rescued fruit with his
+handkerchief, and securing all again with a newspaper and a stout twine
+string which he took from his pocket; then they went away together, the
+officer carrying the bundle and the child trotting contentedly in the
+lee of him.  They seemed to be old acquaintances.
+
+Nothing else happened along to amuse him, so Mr. Cumberland let the
+velvet folds fall back in their place and came over to the fire.  He
+had been suffering with a heavy cold, and found confinement to the
+house in the last degree irksome.  His wife was too much engrossed with
+her book to be willing to lay it aside for his entertainment, and he
+spurned her suggestion of the evening paper, so there was nothing for
+it but to sulk over a cigar and audibly curse the weather.
+
+A sharp ring at the door-bell, tardily answered by a servant, and then
+footsteps approached the parlor door.  Husband and wife looked up with
+interest--with expectation.  Was it a visitor?  No; only the servant
+with a telegram which he handed Mr. Cumberland, and then withdrew.
+Cecil turned the thin envelope in his hand inquisitively.  He was fond
+of having every thing pass through his own hands--of knowing all the
+ins and outs, the minutiae of daily happenings.  "What is it?"
+questioned Ethel, indolently.
+
+"A dispatch for you.  Shall I open it?"
+
+"If you like.  I hate dispatches.  They always suggest unpleasant
+possibilities.  It's a local, so I guess it's from my aunt, about that
+rubbishing dinner of hers."
+
+Cecil tore open the envelope and read the few words it contained with a
+lengthening visage; then he let his hand fall, and stared blankly
+across at his wife.
+
+"It's from that fellow! and it's about the child," he said, uneasily.
+
+"What fellow?  What child?  Not mine!  Give it to me quickly, Cecil.
+How slow you are!"  And she snatched the telegram from his unresisting
+hand.  Hastily she scanned the words, her breath coming in gasps, her
+fingers trembling so that she could scarcely hold the paper.  "The
+child is dying.  Come at once!"  That was all, and the message was
+signed Nesbit Thorne.  Short, curt, peremptory, as our words are apt to
+be in moments of intense emotion; a bald fact roughly stated.
+
+For a moment Ethel Cumberland sat stunned, with pallid face and shaking
+hands, from which the message slipped and fluttered to the carpet.
+Then she sprang to her feet in wild excitement, an instinct aroused in
+her breast which even animals know when their young are in danger.
+
+"Cecil!" she cried, sharply, "don't you hear?  My child!  My baby is
+dying!  Why do you stand there staring at me?  I must go--you must take
+me to him now, this instant, or it will be too late.  Don't you
+understand?  My darling--my boy is dying!" and she burst into a passion
+of grief, wringing her hands and wailing.  "Go! send for a carriage.
+There's not a moment to lose.  Oh, my baby!--my baby!"
+
+"You can't go out in this storm.  It's sleeting heavily, and I've been
+ill.  I can't let you go all that distance with only a maid, and how am
+I to turn out in such weather?" objected Mr. Cumberland, who, when he
+was opposed to a thing, was an adept in piling up obstacles.  "I tell
+you it's impossible, Ethel.  It's madness, on such a night as this."
+
+"Who cares for the storm?" raved Ethel, whose feelings, if evanescent,
+were intense.  "I _will_ go, Cecil!  I don't want you, I'll go by
+myself.  Nothing shall stop me.  If it stormed fire and blood I should
+go all the same.  I'll walk--I'll _crawl_ there, before I will stay
+here and let my boy die without me.  He is _my_ baby--my _own_ child, I
+tell you, Cecil!--if he isn't yours."
+
+Of this fact Cecil Cumberland needed no reminder.  It was a thorn that
+pricked and stung even his dull nature--for the child's father lived.
+To a jealous temperament it is galling to be reminded of a predecessor
+in a wife's affections, even when the grave has closed over him; if the
+man still lives, it is intolerable.
+
+He was not a brute, and he knew that he must yield to his wife's
+pressure--that he had no choice but to yield; but he stood for a moment
+irresolute, staring at her with lowering brows, a hearty curse on
+living father and dying child slowly formulating in his breast.
+
+As he turned to leave the room to give the necessary orders, a carriage
+drove rapidly to the door and stopped, and there was a vigorous pull at
+the bell.  Thorne had provided against all possible delay.  Then the
+question arose of who should accompany her, and they found that there
+was not a single available woman in the house.  It was impossible to
+let her go alone, and Cumberland, with the curses rising from his heart
+to his lips, was forced, in very manhood, to go with her himself.
+
+In Brooklyn Mrs. Creswell met them herself at the door, and appeared
+surprised--as well she might--to see Mr. Cumberland.  She motioned
+Ethel toward the staircase, and then with a formal inclination of the
+head, ushered her more unwelcome guest into a small parlor where there
+was a fire and a lamp burning.  Here she left him alone.  Her house was
+in the suburbs, and there was nowhere else for him to go at that hour
+of the night and in that terrible storm.
+
+The room was warm and cheerful, a child's toys lay scattered on floor
+and sofa, a little hat and coat were on the table, beside a cigar case
+and a crumpled newspaper.  There was nothing for the man to do save to
+stare around and walk the floor impatiently, longing for death to
+hasten with his work, so that the false position might be ended.
+
+Guided by unerring instinct, Ethel went straight to the chamber where
+her child lay dying--perhaps already dead.  Outside the door she paused
+with her hand pressed hard on her throbbing heart.
+
+It was a piteous sight that met her view as the door swung open,
+rendered doubly piteous by the circumstances.  A luxurious room, a
+brooding silence, a tiny white bed on which a little child lay, slowly
+and painfully breathing his life away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+There were two persons in the room besides the little one: Thorne and
+the doctor, a grave, elderly man, who bowed to the lady, and, after a
+whispered word with Thorne, withdrew.  Ethel sank on her knees beside
+the low bed and stretched out yearning arms to the child; the
+mother-love awakened at last in her heart and showing itself in her
+face.
+
+"My baby!" she moaned, "my little one, don't you know your mother?
+Open your beautiful eyes, my darling, and look at me; it is your mother
+who is calling you!"  Her bonnet had fallen off, the rich wrap and furs
+were trailing on the carpet where she had flung them; her arms were
+gathered close around the little form, her kisses raining on the pallid
+face, the golden hair.
+
+The sleet beat on the window panes; the air of the room stirred as
+though a dark wing pressed it; the glow of the fire looked angry and
+fitful; a great, black lump of coal settled down in the grate and
+broke; in its sullen heart blue flames leaped and danced weirdly.  The
+woman knelt beside the bed, and the man stood near her.
+
+In the room there was silence.  The child's eyes unclosed, a gleam of
+recognition dawned in them, he whispered his mother's name and put his
+hand up to her neck.  Then his look turned to his father, his lips
+moved.  Thorne knelt beside the pillow and bent his head to listen; the
+little voice fluttered and broke, the hand fell away from Ethel's neck,
+the lids drooped over the beautiful eyes.  Thorne raised the tiny form
+in his arms, the golden head rested on his breast, Ethel leaned over
+and clasped the child's hands in hers.  A change passed over the little
+face--the last change--the breath came in feeble, fluttering sighs, the
+pulse grew weaker, weaker still, the heart ceased beating, the end had
+come.
+
+Gently, peacefully, with his head on his father's breast, his hands in
+his mother's clasp, the innocent spirit had slipped from its mortal
+sheath, and the waiting angel had tenderly received it.
+
+Thorne laid the child gently down upon the pillows, pressing his hand
+over the exquisite eyes, his lips to the ones that would never pay back
+kisses any more; then he rose and stood erect.  Ethel had risen also,
+and confronted him, terror, grief, and bewilderment, fighting for
+mastery in her face--in her heart.  Half involuntarily, she stretched
+out her hands, and made a movement as though she would go to him; half
+involuntarily he extended his arms to receive her; then, with a
+shuddering sob, her arms fell heavily to her sides, and he folded his
+across his breast.
+
+Down below, pacing the floor, in hot impatience to be gone, was the
+other man, waiting with smoldering jealousy and fierce longing for the
+end.  And, outside, the snow fell heavily, with, ever and anon, a wild
+lash of bitter sleet; the earth cowered under her white pall, hiding
+from the storm, and the wind sobbed and moaned as it swept through the
+leafless trees like a creature wailing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+The south of France.  There is music in the very words--sunshine,
+poetry, and a sense of calm; a suggestion of warmth and of infinite
+delight.  No wonder pain, care and invalidism, flock there, from less
+favored climes, for comfort and healing; returning, year after year, to
+rest beneath the shadow of olive and ilex, and to dream the luscious
+days away beside the blue waters of the Mediterranean, drinking in
+strength and peace with every far-reaching gaze into the cloudless
+azure of the southern sky, every deep-drawn breath of the sunny
+southern air.
+
+Mrs. Smith grew daily stronger, more like herself.  Time, and care, and
+ceaseless affection, had wrought their beneficent work, and mind and
+body were recovering a healthier tone; her interest revived, and her
+hold on life renewed itself.  As the weeks drifted into months, her
+condition became so materially improved that the anxiety of her family
+subsided and left room for other thoughts and interests; and finally
+her health was sufficiently re-established to admit of her husband's
+leaving them in the picturesque French village, while he returned to
+America.
+
+In the quaint little village, time glided softly by on golden-slippered
+feet, the peaceful monotony broken only by little jaunts to neighboring
+hamlets, the arrival and departure of the mails, and long, blissful
+sails on the deep blue sea.  Blanche's sweet face and gentle ways
+speedily won the simple hearts of the fisher-folks, and her letters
+were filled with anecdotes of her village _proteges_, and their
+picturesque life.  And a steamer would have been necessary to convey
+away the floral and aquatic treasures heaped on her by the kindly
+peasants and their little brown-legged children.
+
+The family would winter abroad, and return to America in the spring for
+the wedding, which Blanche had decided should take place in June.  June
+was a lovely month, she thought, past all the uncertainty of spring,
+and with the glory of summer beyond it.
+
+Some weeks after General Smith's return to New York, Nesbit Thorne
+joined his relatives in the pretty Mediterranean village.  The general
+had found his nephew so changed, so worn in mind and body, that the
+kindly old soldier became seriously alarmed, and insisted on trying the
+remedy uppermost in his mind.  He had come, with unswerving faith, to
+regard the south of France as an unfailing sanitarium, and he took his
+nephew promptly in hand, and gave him no peace until he consented to go
+abroad, never leaving him until he had secured his stateroom, and seen
+him embarked on his voyage.
+
+Thorne went indifferently enough, partly to escape his uncle's
+persistence, and partly because all places were alike, all equally
+wearisome to him.  He cherished also a hope of hearing, through
+Blanche, some tidings of the woman who still possessed him like a spell.
+
+When he first joined them, Norma's waning hopes flickered up, in a
+final effort at revivification, but not for long.  That her cousin
+should be moody, listless and thoroughly unhinged, did not surprise
+her, since the trials through which he had recently passed were
+sufficient to have tried a more robust physique than his.  She set
+herself to interest and cheer him, and, at first, was in a measure
+successful; for Thorne--always fond of Norma, observed her efforts and
+exerted himself to a responsive cheerfulness, often feigning an
+interest he was far from feeling, in order to avoid disappointing her.
+But as he grew accustomed to her ministrations, the effort relaxed and
+he fell into gloom and bitterness once more.
+
+There was in the man a sense of wrong, as well as failure.  Life had
+dealt hardly with him--the bitterness had been wrung out to him to the
+very dregs.  In all things--whether his intentions had been noble or
+ignoble, he had alike failed.  He could not understand it.  In his
+eyes, the conduct of the two women whose influence had been potent in
+his life, while springing from different causes, had resulted in the
+same effect--uncompromising hardness toward _him_.  The diverse
+properties of the solutions had made no appreciable difference in the
+crystallization.
+
+His love for Pocahontas had suffered no diminution; rather, it had
+increased.  His longing for her presence, for her love, was so great at
+times, that the thought would come to him to end the intolerable pain
+by stopping forever the beating of the heart that would not break.
+
+Her second refusal had been a cruel blow to him.  He had seemed to
+himself so patient, so tenderly considerate; he had made allowance for
+the conservatism, the old world principles and prejudices amid which
+she had been reared; he had given her time to weigh and consider and
+plead.  That the verdict should have gone against him, admitted, in his
+mind, but of one conclusion--Pocahontas did not love him.  Had she
+loved him, she _must_ have proved responsive; love, as he understood
+it, did not crucify itself for a principle; it was more prone to break
+barriers than to erect them.  And this point of hers was no principle;
+it was, at noblest, an individual conscientious scruple, and to the man
+of the world it appeared the narrowest of bigotry.
+
+His mind slowly settled to the conviction that she had never loved him
+as he had loved her--as he still loved her.  Then began a change for
+the worse.  The doubt of her love begot other doubts--a grisly brood of
+them--doubt of truth, doubt of generosity and courage, doubt of
+disinterestedness, doubt of womanhood.  Thorne was getting in a bad
+way.  Over the smoldering fires of his heart a crust of cynicism began
+to form and harden, powdered thick with the ashes of bitterness.  What
+was the worth of love?--_he_ had found it but a fair-weather friend.  A
+storm--less than a storm--a cloud, though but as big as a man's hand,
+had sent the frail thing skurrying to cover.  All ended in self--the
+_ego_ dominated the world.  Righteousness and unrighteousness arrived
+at the same result.  The good called it self-sacrifice, and blinded and
+glorified themselves; the bad were less hypocritical; _they_ gave it no
+sounding name and sought it openly.  Self--from first to last, the same
+under all names and all disguises.  Nay, the wicked were truer than the
+good, for the self-seeker inflicted no lasting injury on any save
+himself, while the ardor with which the self-immolator flourished the
+sacrificial knife imperiled other vitals than his own.
+
+Truly, Thorne was getting into a very bad way.  His was not the nature
+that emits sweetness when bruised; it cankered and got black spots
+through it.  And he knew no physician to whom he could go for healing;
+no power, greater than his own, to set his disjointed life straight.
+Love and faith, alike, stood afar off.  The waters of desolation
+encompassed his soul, without a sign of olive branch or dove.
+
+Norma, watching him with the eyes of her heart, as well as those of her
+understanding, learned something of all this.  Thorne did not tell her,
+indeed he talked little in the days they spent together, walking or
+sitting on the warm dry sand of the coast, and of himself not at all.
+His pain was a prisoner, and his breast its Bastile.
+
+But Norma learned it, all the same, and learned, too, that never while
+that stormy heart beat in a living breast would it beat for her.  She
+faced the conclusion squarely, accepted it, and took her resolution.
+Norma was a proud woman, and she never flinched; the world should know
+nothing of her pain, should never guess that her life held aught of
+disappointment.
+
+A letter from Blanche to Berkeley, written within the following month,
+contained the result of Norma's resolution.
+
+"You will be surprised," Blanche wrote, "to hear of Norma's sudden
+marriage to Hugh Castleton, which took place three days ago, at the
+house of the American Minister here in Paris.  We were amazed--at least
+mamma and I were--when Hugh joined us here, and, after a long interview
+with Norma, informed us that he had cabled father for consent and that
+the ceremony was to take place almost immediately.  Hugh, as perhaps
+you know, is a brother of Mrs. Vincent, Norma's intimate friend, and he
+has been in love with Norma time out of mind.  I do not like the
+marriage, and feel troubled and sick at heart about it.  It has been so
+hastily arranged, and Norma isn't one bit in love with her husband, and
+don't pretend to be.  Hugh is patient and devoted to her, which is my
+strongest hope for their happiness in the future.  It seems to me so
+unnatural to make a loveless marriage.  I can't understand a woman's
+doing it.  Nesbit is going to Palestine and the East.  He is miserably
+changed; his hair is beginning to streak with gray at the temples
+already, and the lines about his mouth are getting hard.  It makes me
+miserable to think about his life and his future.  I can't help feeling
+that he has had hard measure meted out to him all around.  It is cruel
+to touch happiness but never grasp it.  I know what you all think about
+the affair, Berkeley, but I'm so wrought up about poor Nesbit, I must
+and _will_ speak.  He ought not to be made to suffer so; it would be
+far kinder to take a pistol and kill him at once.  You don't think
+about _him_ at all--and you should.  I know that I'm just a silly
+little thing, and that my opinions don't amount to much, but I must say
+that I think you are wrong about this matter.  A human soul is worth
+more than a scruple, be the scruple ever so noble, and I believe the
+Heavenly Father thinks so too.  If you, who are strong and
+large-minded, will put prejudice aside and think the matter out fairly,
+you will be _obliged_ to see that Pocahontas is doing wrong.  She is
+killing herself, and she is killing him, and you ought not to let her
+do it.  You know your influence over her--I believe it is you and your
+mother--the dread of disappointing you, or lowering herself in your
+estimation, or something of that sort, that holds her back.  Don't do
+it any longer, Berkeley.  Be generous and noble and large-hearted, like
+God means us all to be toward each other.  It is awful to be so hard.
+Excess of righteousness must be sinful--almost as sinful as lack of
+righteousness.  There, I've said it all and shocked you, but I can't
+help that.  Nesbit's face haunts me so that I can't rid myself of it,
+sleeping or waking.  I am all the time picturing terrible
+possibilities.  Think of all that Nesbit has had to endure.  Think of
+how that selfish woman wrecked his past, and ask yourself if there is
+any justice--not mercy--bare justice, in letting her wreck his future,
+now that the child's death has severed the last link that bound them
+together.  Has _any thing_ been spared Nesbit?  Has not his heart been
+wrung again and again?  Put yourself in his place, Berkeley, and
+acknowledge that after so much tempest, he is entitled to _some_
+sunshine, How _can_ Pocahontas stand it?  Could _I_, if it were _you_?
+Could I endure to see you suffer?  Do you think that if _you_ were in
+Nesbit's place I would not come to you, and put my arms round you, and
+draw your head to my bosom and whisper--'Dear love, if to all this
+bitterness I can bring one single drop of sweet, take it freely, fully
+from my lips and from my love?'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+Berkeley Mason went on to New York in ample time to meet the incoming
+Cunarder.  His sister accompanied him, and as it was her first visit to
+the Empire City, Mason arranged to have nearly a week for lionizing
+before the arrival of the travelers.  Percival was allowed to come from
+Hoboken and join the party, in order that his mother's eyes might be
+gladdened by the sight of him the instant she should land.
+
+At the last moment, General Smith was prevented from joining his family
+in Paris according to his original intention, and having old-fashioned
+notions relative to the helplessness of ladies, and no sort of
+confidence in Blanche's ability to distinguish herself as her mother's
+courier and protector, he cabled privately to Nesbit Thorne, requesting
+him to defer his Eastern journey for a month, and escort his aunt and
+cousin home.  Thorne changed his plans readily enough.  He only
+contemplated prolonged travel as an expedient to fill the empty days,
+and if he could be of service to his relatives, held himself quite at
+their disposal.
+
+Pocahontas was ignorant of this change of programme, or it is certain
+that she would have remained in Virginia.  Her feelings toward Thorne
+had undergone no change, but, after the long struggle, there had come
+to her a quiescence that was almost peace.  So worn and tempest-tossed
+had been her mind, that she clung to even this semblance of rest, and
+would hardly yet have risked the re-opening of the battle, which a
+meeting with Thorne would be sure to inaugurate.
+
+She was glad to see her old friend General Smith again, for between the
+two existed a hearty affection, and more than glad to see Percival.
+That young gentleman's joy at being released from the thralldom of
+school, coupled with the exhilaration of seeing his friends, and the
+prospect of a speedy reunion with his mother and Blanche, appeared to
+well-nigh craze him.  It certainly required unusual vents for its
+exuberance--such as standing on his head in the elevator, promenading
+the halls on his hands, and turning "cart-wheels" down the passages,
+accomplishments acquired with labor and pain from his colored confreres
+in the South.
+
+It is an interesting thing to await, on the wharf of a large city, the
+incoming of a great steamer.  The feeling of expectation in the air is
+exhilarating, the bustle, hurry and excitement are contagious;
+involuntarily one straightens up, and grows alert, every sense on the
+_qui vive_, eyes observant, intelligence active, memory garnering
+impressions.  Note the variety of expression in the faces of the
+waiting crowd--the eager longing, the restless expectation of some; the
+listless inactivity, indifference, or idle curiosity of others.  Stand
+aside, if you have no business here, no personal interest in the event
+about to happen, and watch your fellow-men for your own amusement and
+profit.  Many a glimpse of domestic history, many a peep into complex
+human nature will be vouchsafed you, and if the gift of fancy be yours,
+you can piece out many a story.  See; the throbbing monster has reached
+her resting place, her fires may subside, her heart may cease its
+regular pulsations, her machinery may lapse into well-earned rest,
+given over to polishing and oil and flannel rags.  The bridge is down,
+the waiting crowds rush together, the wharf crowd merging into the deck
+crowd, and both pouring landward again in an eager flood.  There are
+embraces, kisses, congratulations, tears, a continuous stream of
+questions and reply, and a never-ending reference to luggage.
+
+There they stand, a little group apart, close beside the railing, with
+hands outstretched and eyes alight; and amid the bustle and confusion,
+the embraces and hand-clasping, the collection of hand-traps, and
+inquiries about checks, no one had time to notice that, at sight of
+each other, two faces paled, or that two hands as they met were cold
+and tremulous.
+
+In a marvelously short time after landing, the party were packed into
+carriages, and whirled away to their hotel, leaving their heavy luggage
+in the jaws of the custom-house to be rescued later by the general and
+Berkeley.  As they left the wharf, Pocahontas noticed another steamer
+forging slowly in, and preparing to occupy the berth next that of the
+Cunarder.
+
+A couple of hours after the arrival of the European travelers at the
+St. Andrew's Hotel, a squarely-built young man of medium height, with a
+handsome, bronzed face, and heavy, brown mustache, sprung lightly up
+the steps of the hotel and passed into the clerk's office.  Here he
+ordered a room and delivered his valise and umbrella to a porter,
+explaining that he should probably remain several days.  Then he turned
+to the book, pushed toward him by the clerk, to register his name.
+
+"You are late, sir," remarked that functionary, affably; not that he
+felt interest in the matter, but because to converse was his nature.
+
+"Late, for what?" inquired the gentleman, without glancing up.
+
+"For nothing, in particular," replied the clerk.  "I only made the
+remark because the other Cunard passengers got in an hour ago."
+
+"I didn't come by the Cunarder.  I'm from down South," responded the
+bronzed man.  "I saw her discharging as we came in."
+
+Then he ran his eye over the names above his own on the page of the
+register.  There were only three--Mrs. General Smith, Miss Smith,
+Nesbit Thorne.  No one he knew, so he slapped together the covers of
+the book, and pushed it from him; procured a light for his cigar,
+pocketed this key of his room, and sauntered out to have a look at the
+city, and possibly to drop in at one of the theaters later on.
+
+The clerk, in idle curiosity, pulled the register toward him, opened
+it, and glanced at the name; it was the fourth from the top, just under
+Nesbit Thorne's--James Dabney Byrd, Mexico.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+No; Blanche was not a clever woman; that could not be claimed for her;
+but her essential elements were womanly.  Pain, grief, distress of any
+sort woke in her heart a longing to give help and comfort.
+
+Since Norma's marriage, Blanche had drawn much nearer to her cousin.
+She had always been fond of him in an abstract way, and had felt a
+surface sorrow, not unmingled with aesthetic interest, in the dramatic
+incidents of his life.  She had lived in the same house with him, had
+associated with him daily, had taken his hand, had kissed him; but she
+had never _known_ him.  She had never gauged his nature with the
+understanding born of sympathy, never seen the real man.  Now it was
+otherwise.  Association with larger, simpler natures had developed the
+latent capabilities of her own, and the presence of love had made her
+more observant, more responsive.
+
+Her enlarged sympathies made her yearn over Thorne; her happiness made
+her long earnestly to help him.  She cast about in her mind what she
+should do.  She knew the strength of Berkeley's prejudices, and that
+his influence with his sister had been--and still was--silently but
+strenuously exerted to hold her back from a course from which, as
+Blanche suspected, his feelings, more than his conscience, revolted.
+
+Blanche, differently reared, could not see the matter from the Mason
+standpoint at all.  To her, the past was past; to be deplored, of
+course, but not to be allowed to cast a baleful shadow on the future.
+That, to Blanche, was morbid; she could see no sense in drawing
+conscientiousness to a point and impaling her own heart, and, worse,
+other hearts thereon.  Blanche's creed was simple--people committed
+faults, made blunders, sinned, suffered; atoned the sin by the
+suffering, and should then be kissed and forgiven.
+
+She talked to Berkeley in her gentle, persuasive way (she had not
+courage yet to talk to Pocahontas) and exerted all her influence in
+Thorne's behalf; but she speedily discovered that she made little
+headway; that while Berkeley listened, he did not assent; that he put
+down her efforts; mainly, to personal attachment to her cousin, and was
+therefore inclined to rule out her testimony.  She needed help;
+pressure must be brought to bear which had no connection with Thorne;
+some one from the old life must speak, some one who shared the
+prejudices, and was big enough and generous enough to set them aside
+and judge of the affair from an unbiased, impersonal standpoint.
+
+When this idea presented itself, her mind turned instantly to Jim.
+Here was a man from the old life, a man reared as they had been reared,
+a man in no way connected with Thorne.  Jim could help her, if he
+would, and somehow, Blanche felt assured that he would.
+
+Jim had discovered their presence in the hotel very speedily and had
+joined the party, glad, with an earnest gladness, to see his old
+friends again, glad also to meet these new friends who had become
+associated with the old ones.  Blanche had been attracted by him, as
+women, children, and dumb animals always were attracted by him; he was
+strong, and yet very gentle.
+
+She determined to speak to him, to make him understand the position,
+and to entreat him to exert his influence with Berkeley, and through
+Berkeley, with Pocahontas, to set this matter straight.  She did not
+know that she was about to do a cruel thing; was about to stretch a
+soul on the rack and turn the screws.  That fine reserve which infolded
+the Masons like a veil precluded gossiping about themselves or their
+affairs.  Blanche had never heard of Jim as the lover of Pocahontas--or
+if she had, it had been in an outside, intangible way that had made no
+impression on her.
+
+Possessed by her idea, and intent on securing an opportunity for
+uninterrupted conversation, she asked Jim to take a walk with her.  She
+had some calls to make, she said, and they would walk through the park.
+At this season the park was very beautiful, and she should like to show
+it to him; New Yorkers were very proud of it.  Blanche knew that she
+was doing an unconventional thing; but she had observed, rather
+wonderingly, the frank helpfulness with which Southerners would
+identify themselves with each others' affairs, and she felt sure that
+in speaking to Jim she ran little risk of rebuff.  Jim had known the
+Masons always, was of their blood; to put his shoulder to their wheel
+would seem to him the right, and natural thing to do.  Therefore
+Blanche made her request with confidence, and Jim, who had never in his
+life questioned a woman's right to his time and attention, went with
+her willingly.
+
+They sauntered about for a time and Jim admired all the beauties that
+were pointed out to him, and showed his country training by pointing
+out in his turn, subtler beauties which escaped her; the delicate
+shading of bark and leaf-bud, the blending of the colors of the soil,
+the way the shadows fell, the thousand and one things an artist, or a
+man reared in the woods and fields, is quick to see, if he has eyes in
+his head.  He pointed out to her a nest a pair of birds were building,
+and called her attention to a tiny squirrel, with a plume-like tail,
+jumping about among the branches overhead.  He told her stories of the
+tropics, too, and of the strange picturesque life in the land of the
+Montezumas, and made himself pleasant in a cheery, companionable way
+that was very winning.   He was pleased with Blanche, and thought that
+his old friend had done well for himself in securing the love of the
+sweet-faced maiden at his side.  He liked talking to her, and walking
+beside her in the sunshine; he decided that "Berke was a deuced lucky
+fellow, and had fallen on his feet," and he was glad of it.
+
+After awhile they turned into an unfrequented walk, and Blanche seized
+her opportunity.  She made Jim sit down on a bench under an old elm
+tree and seated herself beside him.  Then, insensibly and deftly, she
+turned the talk to Virginia.  She spoke of his old home, and praised
+its beauty, and told him how a love for it had grown up in her heart,
+although she was a stranger; she spoke of the cordial, friendly people,
+and of the kindness they had extended to her family; of Warner, his
+illness, death, and burial beside poor Temple Mason.  Then she glided
+on to Pocahontas, and spoke of her friend with enthusiasm, almost with
+reverence; then, seeing that his interest was aroused, she told him as
+simply and concisely as she could the story of her cousin's love for
+Pocahontas, and the position in which the affair now stood.
+
+"I know that she loves him," Blanche said quietly, "loves him as he
+loves her, and that she is breaking her own heart, as well as his, by
+this hesitation.  It seems to me so wrong.  What is a scruple compared
+to the happiness of a life?  The child is dead, all connection between
+Nesbit and that heartless woman is severed forever.  She is no more to
+him than she is to you, or to Berkeley.  I think that Pocahontas would
+give way, but for Berkeley, for the influences of her old life.  I
+think some one ought to speak to Berkeley, to make him see how wrong he
+is, how hard, how almost cruel.  I have spoken, but I'm of Nesbit's
+blood, on Nesbit's side, and my words haven't the weight that words
+would have coming from a person who is outside of it all, and yet who
+belongs _to them_.  If YOU would speak, Mr. Byrd, I think it would do
+good.  Berkeley would listen to you, and would come to look at this
+matter in its true light.  Pocahontas is breaking her heart, and
+Nesbit's heart, and she ought not to be let do it."  There were tears
+in Blanche's eyes and in her voice as she spoke, and she laid one small
+hand on Jim's arm appealingly.
+
+Jim never moved; he sat like a man carved out of stone and listened.
+He knew that Pocahontas had never loved _him_, as he had wanted her to
+love him; but the knowledge that her love was given to another man, was
+bitter.  He said no word, only listened with a jealous hatred of the
+man, who had supplanted him, growing in his breast.
+
+Blanche looked at him with tearful eyes and quivering lips; his gaze
+was on the ground; his face wore, to her, an absent, almost apathetic
+look.  She was disappointed.  She had expected, she did not know
+exactly _what_, but certainly more sympathy, more response.  She
+thought that his heart must be less noble than his face, and she
+regretted having given him her confidence and solicited his aid.  When
+they got back to the avenue, she released him from further attendance a
+trifle coldly.  She would make her calls alone, she said, it might be
+irksome to him, probably he had other engagements.  He had been very
+good to sacrifice so much of his time to her; she would not detain him
+longer.
+
+Jim went back to the path and sat down again, not noticing her change
+of manner, and only conscious of the relief of being free from the
+necessity of talking commonplace, of being left to think this matter
+out alone.  He thought vaguely that she was a kind, considerate woman
+and then she passed out of his mind.
+
+The first feeling with which he grappled was wonder; a strange thing
+had happened.  A few short months ago these people had been unknown to
+him; were, as far as his life had been concerned, non-existent.  And
+now!  Land, home, friends, love, all things that had been his, were
+theirs!  His place knew him no more; these strangers filled it.  It was
+a strange thing, a cruel thing.
+
+Pocahontas had been glad to see him again, but in her pleasure there
+had been preoccupation; he had felt it; it was explained now.  He knew
+that she had never loved him, but the possibility of her loving another
+man had never come home to him before.  He tried to steady himself and
+realize it; it ate into his heart like corroding acid.  Perhaps it was
+not true; there might be some mistake; then his heart told him that it
+was true; that there was no mistake.  She loved this man, this
+stranger, of whose existence she had been ignorant that evening when
+she had said farewell to _him_ under the old willows beside the river.
+She had been tender and pitiful then; she had laid her soft lips
+against his hand, had given him a flower from her breast.  He moved his
+hand, and, with the fingers of the other hand, touched the spot which
+her lips had pressed; the flower, faded and scentless, lay, folded with
+a girlish note or two she had written him, in the inside pocket of his
+vest.
+
+The shadows shifted as the wind swayed the branches; the sound of
+women's voices came from behind a clump of evergreens; they were raised
+in surprise or excitement, and sounded shrill and jarring.  In the
+distance a nurse pushed a basket-carriage carelessly; she was talking
+to a workman who slouched beside her, and the child was crying.  Two
+sparrows near at hand, quarreled and fought over a bit of string.
+
+His anger burned against Thorne.  He could see no good in his rival; no
+tragedy, no pathos, in the situation.  Had his life gone
+wrong?--Doubtless the fault had been his.  Did he suffer?  Jim felt a
+brute joy in the knowledge of his pain.
+
+What was that the young lady had said?  Thorne had been divorced--the
+woman who had been his wife lived--there were prejudices; he knew them
+all; a barrier existed; his heart leaped.  Here was hope, here was
+vengeance.
+
+A cloud passed over the sun, eclipsing its brightness; a chill was on
+the face of nature; a dead twig, broken by the squirrel in his gambols,
+fell at his feet.
+
+He had been asked to speak, to exert his influence, to smooth the path
+for his rival.  He would _not_ speak; why should he speak?  Was it any
+business of his?  Nay; was it not rather his duty to be silent, or to
+throw such influence as he possessed into the other scale?  Should he
+aid to bring about a thing which he had been taught to regard with
+aversion?  Was it not his duty as a man, as a Christian, to _increase_
+the prejudice, to build higher the barrier?  Was it not better that
+Thorne should suffer, that Pocahontas should suffer, as he himself was
+suffering, than that wrong should be done?
+
+The devil is never subtler than when he assumes the garb of priest.
+
+And if he did not speak--more, if he should solidify, by every means in
+his power, this barrier of prejudice into a wall of principle, which
+should separate these two forever, what might not be the result?  Jim's
+strong frame shook like a leaf.  His abnormally-excited imagination
+leaped forward and constructed possibilities that thrilled him.  The
+spot on his hand that her lips had touched, burned.
+
+A little girl came down the walk, trundling a hoop; it struck against
+Jim's foot and fell over.  The helpful instinct that was in him made
+him stoop and lift it for her; the child, a tiny thing, pushed back her
+curls and looked up at him with grave, wide-open eyes; suddenly her
+face dimpled; a smile like sunshine broke over it, and she raised her
+sweet lips to his, to kiss her thanks.
+
+What had happened?  A child's look, a child's kiss; it was a strange
+thing.  He raised his head and glanced around, passing his hand over
+his brow like a man aroused from a delirium of dreams.  Forces foreign
+to his nature had been at work.  He could not understand it--or himself.
+
+Words came back to him out of his past--his own words--"a man must hold
+up his own weight," and other words, "a man must help with his strength
+a woman's weakness."  He thought of his love with pity, with remorse.
+He had never failed her, never put himself first, till now.  What was
+this thing he had thought of doing?
+
+Jim stood erect and pulled himself together, lifting his head and
+squaring his shoulders as a man does who is about to face an issue
+fairly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+Pocahontas was alone.  The party had dispersed, one here, one there,
+about their own concerns, filled with their own interests.  They had
+invited her to accompany them, even urged it; but she would not; she
+was tired, she said, and would rest; but there was no rest for her.
+
+The crisis of her life had come, and she was trying to face it.
+Heretofore the fight had been unequal; the past had had the advantage
+of sun and wind and field, the old influences had been potent because
+they were present, had never been broken.  Now she was in a measure
+removed from them; the forces faced each other on neutral ground, the
+final conflict was at hand.
+
+What should she do?  How should she decide?  She was torn and swayed by
+the conflict of emotions within her; the old fight was renewed with
+added fierceness.  Her heart yearned over Thorne, her love rose up and
+upbraided her for hardness.  He was so changed, he had suffered so, his
+hair was growing gray, hard lines were deepening about his mouth, and
+to his eyes had come an expression that wrung her heart--a cynical
+hopelessness, a sullen gloom.  Was this her work?  Was she shutting out
+hope from a life, thus making a screen of a scruple to keep sunlight
+from a soul?
+
+Unconsciously she was assuming the responsibility which he had thrust
+upon her--was fitting the burden to her shoulders.  She did not analyze
+the position; did not see that he had been ruthless; that he had no
+right to use such a weapon against her.  She only saw that he suffered,
+that he needed her, that she loved him.
+
+What did it matter about herself?  Her scruple might die--and if it
+should not, she was strong enough to hold it down, to keep her foot on
+its breast.  Was her love so weak that it should shrink from pain?
+
+If only the scruple would die!  If only the old influences would lose
+their hold; if only she could see this thing as the world saw it.  Was
+she made different from others, that her life should be molded on other
+lines than _their_ lives?  God, above!  _Why_ should she suffer, and
+make Thorne suffer?
+
+Her mother, Berkeley, the dead brother whom she had exalted into a
+hero, the memory of the brave men and noble women from whom she had
+sprung, the old traditions, the old associations rose, in her excited
+fancy, and arrayed themselves on one side.  Against them in serried
+ranks came compassion, all the impulses of true womanhood toward
+self-sacrifice and love.
+
+The loneliness of the crowded hotel oppressed her; the consciousness of
+the life that environed but did not touch her, gave birth to a yearning
+to get away from it all--out into the sunshine and the sweet air, and
+the warmth and comfort of nature.  If she could get away into some
+still, leafy place, she could think.
+
+Hastily arraying herself, she left her chamber and descended the broad
+stairway.  She passed through the hall, and out into the sunshine of
+the busy street; and Jim, who, unseen by her, was standing in the
+clerk's office, turned and looked after her.  A troubled expression,
+like the shadow of a cloud, passed over his face, and he followed her
+silently.
+
+In the street it was better.  There were people, little children, a
+sense of life, a sense of humanity, and over all, around all, the warm
+sunlight.  Comfort and help abounded.  A woman, weighed down with a
+heavy burden, paused, bewildered, in the middle of a crossing--a man
+helped her; a child stood crying on a doorstep--a larger child soothed
+it; an ownerless dog looked pitifully into a woman's face--she stooped
+and stroked its head with her ungloved hand.  The longing for the
+isolation of nature slowly gave place to a recognition of the community
+of nature.
+
+A quiet street branched off from the crowded thoroughfare.  Pocahontas
+turned into it and walked on.  The roar of traffic deadened as she left
+it further and further behind; the passers became fewer.  It was the
+forenoon and the people were at work; the houses rose tall on either
+hand; the street was still and almost deserted.
+
+A man passed with a barrow of flowers--roses, geraniums, jasmin; their
+breath made the air fragrant.  In a stately old church near by some one
+was playing; a solemn, measured movement.  Pocahontas turned aside and
+entered.  The place was still and hushed; the light dim and beautiful
+with color; on the altar, tapers burned before the mother and child;
+everywhere there was a faint odor of incense.
+
+Pocahontas wandered softly here and there, soothed by the peace,
+comforted by the music.  On one side there was a small chapel, built by
+piety in memory of death.  Pocahontas entered it.  Here, too, lights
+burned upon the altar, shedding a soft, golden radiance that was caught
+and reflected by the silver candlesticks and the gold and crystal of
+the vases.  On the steps of the altar was a great basket of roses; and
+through a memorial window streamed the sunlight, casting on the
+tesselated pavement a royal wealth of color, blue and gold and crimson;
+against the dark walls marble tablets gleamed whitely.  Near one of
+them, a tiny shield, a man stood with his head bent and his shoulder
+resting against a carved oak column--Nesbit Thorne, and the tablet bore
+the inscription: "Allen Thorne, obiit Jan. 14th, 18--, aetat 4 years."
+
+Pocahontas drew back, her breath coming in short gasps; the movement of
+the music quickened, grew stronger, fiercer, with a crash of cords.
+Thorne did not move; his head was bent, his profile toward her; about
+his pose, his whole form, was a look of desolation.  His face was
+stern, its outlines sharp, its expression that of a man who had had
+hard measure meted out to him, and who knew it, and mutinied against
+the decree.  He did not see her, he was not conscious of her presence,
+and the knowledge that it was so, sent a pang through her heart.  A
+wave of pity swept over her; an impulse struggled into life, to go to
+him, to take his hand in hers, to press close to his side, to fill the
+void of his future with her love.  What held her back?  Was it pride?
+Why could not she go to him?  His unconsciousness of her presence held
+her aloof--made her afraid with a strange, new fear.
+
+Footsteps neared, echoing strangely; the music had sunk to a minor
+cadence which seemed to beat the measure of their advance.  The eyes of
+the woman were filled with a strained expectancy.  Into the waiting
+place, framed by the central arch, came the figure of a man--strongly
+built, of noble air, of familiar presence.  Eyes brave and true and
+faithful met hers gravely, a hand was outstretched toward her.
+
+Pocahontas shivered, and her heart beat with heavy, muffled strokes.
+The counter influences of her life were drawing to the death struggle.
+Thorne turned; his eyes were upon her; he advanced slowly.
+
+Jim came straight to where she stood and took her hands in his; his
+face was pale and drawn, as the face of a man who has passed through
+the white heat of suffering.  His hands were cold, and trembled a
+little as they closed on hers; he tried to speak, but his lips were dry
+and his voice inaudible.
+
+"Sweetheart," he said at length, using the tender old word
+unconsciously, and speaking brokenly, "I asked you once to let the
+thought of me come--sometimes--when life should be hard upon you; to
+let the influence, of my love stir sometimes in your memory.  That
+would be wrong now--worse; it would be selfish and unmanly.  A man has
+no right to cast his shadow on a woman's life when it has passed into
+the keeping of another man."  His voice grew husky, his lips quivered,
+but he went bravely on.  "I know your story--Berkeley has told me--the
+young lady has spoken--I take back the request.  I'd rather all thought
+of me should be banished from you in this world and in the next, than
+that it should make a breach, even in the outworks of your life, to let
+in trouble to you."
+
+He paused abruptly; through the strong frame ran a shudder, like the
+recoil from pain; but the man's will was firm, his purpose steadfast.
+All of her life he had cared for her, been tender with her; shielding
+her from trouble, or grief, or blame, as far as in him lay, and, though
+his heart should break, he would not fail her now.  Slowly he spoke
+again.
+
+"Child," he said, gently, "if I've ever said a word that hurts you,
+forget it, put it from you.  I did not understand then; I do _now_--and
+I'd give my right hand to recall it.  What you do has always been right
+in my eyes--_must_ always be right.  I can never----" his voice failed
+him; something rose in his throat and choked utterance; he bent his
+head until his lips touched the hands he held, and then turned quietly
+away.
+
+Pocahontas did not move; she scarcely breathed.  The spell of Jim's
+magnanimity held her, made her realize, at last, the grandeur, the
+immensity of love.  Her soul was awed.  Thought followed thought
+through her brain; love in its sublimity was bared to her gaze; self
+fell away--burned as dross in the fire of suffering; to guide herself
+was not enough; she must aid and comfort others.  If hands were
+outstretched in anguish, she must clasp them; if a heart cried to her
+in desolation, she had no right to turn aside.  Was she so pure, so
+clean, so righteous, that contact with another soul--one that had known
+passions and sorrows of which she was, of which she _must_ be,
+ignorant--should soil her?  If so, her righteousness was a poor thing,
+her cleanness, that of the outside of the cup and platter, her purity,
+that of unquarried marble.
+
+Thorne drew nearer; she raised her head; their eyes met; he extended
+his hands with a gesture not to be denied.
+
+With a smile of indescribable graciousness, a tenderness, a royalty of
+giving, she made a movement forward and laid her hands in his.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+Thorne did not accompany the party to Virginia, although it was tacitly
+understood that he should follow in time for Blanche's wedding, which
+would take place in June.  Pocahontas wished it so arranged, and
+Thorne, feeling that his love had come to him, as through fire, was
+anxious to order all things according to her wishes.  He was very
+quiet, grave, and self-contained; his old buoyancy, his old lightness
+had passed away forever.  The whirl and lash of a hurricane leave
+traces which not even time can efface.  A man does not come through
+fire unscathed--he is marred, or purified; he is never the same.  In
+Thorne, already, faintly stirred nature's grand impulse of growth, of
+pressing upward toward the light.  He strove to be patient, tender,
+considerate, to take his happiness, not as reward for what he was, but
+as earnest of what he might become.
+
+Jim remained in New York also.  He would go back to his work, he said,
+it would be better so.  He had come north on business for his company,
+and when that should be completed he would return to Mexico.  He would
+not go to Virginia; he did not want to see strangers in the old home;
+he would write to his sisters and explain; no one need trouble about
+him; he would manage well enough.
+
+Before they separated, Jim had a long talk with Berkeley, and in the
+course of it the poor fellow completed his victory over self.  He spoke
+generously of Thorne.
+
+"It's a big subject, Berkeley," he said, in conclusion, "and I don't
+see that you or I have any call to pass judgment on it, or to lay down
+arbitrary lines, saying _this_ is righteous, _that_ is unrighteous.  We
+may have our own thoughts about the matter--we _must_ have, but we've
+no right to lop or stretch other people to fit them.  Princess is a
+pure woman, a noble woman, better, a thousand-fold, than you or me or
+any other man that breathes.  From her standpoint, what she does is
+right, and, whether we differ with her or not, we are bound to believe
+that she has weighed the matter and made her choke in all honor and
+truth.  And, Berke, listen to me!  You are powerless to alter any
+thing, and it's a man's part to face the inevitable and make the best
+of it.  You can't better things, but you can make them worse.  Don't
+alienate your sister.  You are the nearest man of her blood, and, as
+such, you have influence with her; don't throw it away.  If you are
+cold, hard, and unloving to her now, you'll set up a barrier between
+you that you'll find it hard to level.  Never let her turn from you,
+Berke.  Stand by her always, old friend."
+
+Poor Jim!  He could not as yet disassociate the old from the new.  To
+him it still seemed as though Berkeley, and, in a measure, he himself
+were responsible for her life; must take care and thought for her
+future.  Love and habit form bonds that thought does not readily burst
+asunder.
+
+Berkeley was good to his sister--influenced partly by Blanche, partly
+by Jim, but most of all by his strong affection for Pocahontas herself.
+He drew her to his breast and rested his cheek against her hair a
+moment, and kissed her tenderly, and the brother and sister understood
+each other without a spoken word.
+
+He could not bring himself to be cordial to Thorne all at once, but he
+loyally tried to do his best, and Thorne was big enough to see and
+appreciate the effort.  There might come a time when the men would be
+friends.
+
+Poor Mrs. Mason!  Her daughter's engagement was a shock, almost a blow
+to her, and she could not reconcile herself to it at first.  The
+foundations seemed to be slipping from under her feet, the supports in
+which she trusted, to be falling away.  She was a just as well as a
+loving woman, and she knew that the presence of a new and powerful love
+brings new responsibilities and a new outlook on life.  She faithfully
+tried to put herself in her daughter's place and to judge of the affair
+from Pocahontas's standpoint; but the effort was painful to her, and
+the result not always what she could wish.  She recognized, the love
+being admitted, that Thorne had claims which must be allowed; but she
+felt it hard that such claims should exist, and her recognition of them
+was not sufficiently full and generous to make her feel at one with
+herself.  Old minds adapt themselves to new conditions slowly.
+
+However, mother-love is limitless, and, through all, her impulse was to
+hold to her child, to do nothing, to say nothing which would wound or
+alienate her.  And for the rest--there was no need of haste; she could
+keep these things and "ponder them in her heart."
+
+
+
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