ghts, and that logic and law would soon serve to
exorcise its baleful influence.

Her mien grew graver as she reflected on the resume of objections to
the project. Her white bonnet threw a certain white reflection on her
flushed face. Her eyes were downcast as she looked at the river below,
the long lashes seeming almost to touch her cheek. She scarcely moved
them as she turned her gaze upon her brother, who was still seated on
the verge of the cliff.

"Waal, sir, I wonder that the pore old road petition hed life enough
in it ter crawl ter the court-house door. With all them agin it, thar
ain't nobody ter be fur it, sca'cely."

"Oh, yes," he admitted. "Them air fur it ez b'lieves highways improves
proputty, an' hev got land lyin' right alongside whar the road is axed
ter be run; them ez ain't got proputty alongside ain't nigh so
anxious. But that thar strange valley man ez they say hev got a lung
complaint, he won't sign nuther. He owns the house he built up thar on
the flat o' the mounting an' cornsider'ble land, though he don't keep
no stock nor nuthin'. 'Lows the air be soft an' good for the lung
complaint. He 'lows he hev been tryin' ter git shet o' the railroads
an' dirt roads an' human folks, an' he s'posed he _hed_ run ter the
jumpin'-off place, the e-ends o' the yearth; but hyar kems the road
o' civilization a-pursuin' him like the sarpient o' the Pit, with
the knowledge o' good an' evil,--a grain o' wheat an' a bushel o'
chaff,--an' he reckons he'll hev ter cut an' run again."

Narcissa's lips parted slightly. She listened in amazement to this
strange account of an aversion to that gay world in processional,
chiefly in white-covered wagons, which she longed to see come down the
county road.

"He be a powerful queer man," said Ben slowly, "this hyar Alan
Selwyn."

And she felt that this was true.

She sat down beside her brother on the rock, and together they looked
down meditatively on the river. It was reddening now with the
reflection of the reddening clouds. The water, nevertheless, asserted
itself. Lengths of steely brilliancy showed now and again amidst the
roseate suffusion, and anon spaces glimmered vacant of all but a dusky
brown suggestion of depth and a liquid lustre.

"Nar'sa," he said at last in a low voice, "ye know they 'lowed that
the traveler what war killed, some say by his runaway horse, war
a-comin' ter see _him_,--this Alan Selwyn."

The white bonnet seemed to focus and retain th