and, as he made no retort to them, we journeyed some
little distance in silence through the mild, enchanting light of the
sun. My deliberate allusion to alcoholic girls had made plain what I
had begun to suspect. I could now discern that his cloak of gayety
had fallen from him, leaving bare the same harassed spirit, the same
restless mood, which had been his upon the last occasion when we had
talked at length together upon some of the present social and political
phases of our republic--that day of the New Bridge and the advent of
Hortense. Only, upon that day, he had by his manner in some subtle
fashion conveyed to me a greater security in my discretion than I felt
him now to entertain. His many observations about the Replacers, with
always the significant and conspicuous omission of Hortense, proved more
and more, as I thought it over, that his state was unsteady. Even now,
he did not long endure silence between us; yet the eagerness which he
threw into our discussions did not, it seemed to me, so much proceed
from present interest in their subjects (though interest there was at
times) as from anxiety lest one particular subject, ever present with
him, should creep in unawares. So much I, at any rate, concluded, and
bided my time for the creeping in unawares, content meanwhile to
parry some of the reproaches which he now and again cast at me with an
earnestness real or feigned.

We had made now considerable progress, and were come to a space of sand
and cabins and intersecting railroad tracks, where freight cars and
locomotives stood, and negroes of all shapes, but of one lowering and
ragged appearance, lounged and stared.

"There used to be a murder here about once a day," said John, "before
the dispensary system. Now, it is about once a week."

"That law is of benefit, then?" I inquired.

"To those who drink the whiskey, possibly; certainly to those who sell
it!" And he condensed for me the long story of the state dispensary,
which in brief appeared to be that South Carolina had gone into the
liquor business. The profits were to pay for compulsory education; the
liquor was to be pure; society and sobriety were to be advanced: such
had been the threefold promise, of which the threefold fulfillment
was--defeat of the compulsory education bill, a political monopoly
enriching favored distillers, "and lately," said John, "a thoroughly
democratic whiskey for the plain people. Pay ten cents for a bottle of
X, if you're