mfortable room. Such buildings are quite common on Virginian farms,
and although called offices are seldom used in an official way, being
generally appropriated to the bachelors of the family or their gentleman
visitors. This one was occupied by Junius Keswick, when he was at home,
and a good many of his belongings were now in it; but as it was at
present unoccupied, nothing could be more proper than that Mr Croft
should have it.

CHAPTER XIX.

About noon of the day of Mr Croft's accident, Uncle Isham had occasion
to go to the cabin of the venerable Aunt Patsy, and, of course he told
her what had happened to the gentleman whom he and Aunt Patsy still
supposed to be Miss Annie's husband. The news produced a very marked
effect upon the old woman. She put down the crazy quilt, upon the
unfinished corner of which she was making a few feeble stitches, and
looked at Uncle Isham with a troubled frown. She was certain that this
was the work of old Mrs Keswick, who had succeeded, at last, in
conjuring the young husband; and the charm she had given him, and upon
which she had relied to avert the ill will of "ole miss," had proved
unavailing. The conjuring had been accomplished so craftily and slyly,
the bewitched plank in one place, and Mrs Keswick far off in another,
that there had been no chance to use the counteracting charm. And yet
Aunt Patsy had thought it a good charm, a very good one indeed.

Early in her married life Mrs Keswick had been the mother of a little
girl. It had died when it was very small, and it was the only child she
ever had. Of this infant she preserved, as a memento, a complete suit of
its clothes, which she regarded with a feeling almost religious. Years
ago, however, Aunt Patsy, in order to protect herself against the
conjuring powers of the mistress of the house, in which she then served
as a sort of supervising cook, had possessed herself of the shoes
belonging to the cherished suit of clothes. She knew the sacred light in
which they were regarded by their owner, and she felt quite sure that if
"ole miss" ever attempted, in one of her fits of anger, to exercise her
power of limb twisting or back contortion upon her, that the sight of
those little blue shoes would create a revulsion of feeling, and, as she
put it to herself, "stop her mighty short." The shoes had never been
missed, for the box containing the suit was only opened on one day of
the year, and then all the old lady could endure