rden," she said abruptly. "Mr. Rand's affairs
must keep him busy."

"Yeth, ma'am. Tom comes and goes," said Vinie wistfully. "I wish he'd be
Governor of Virginia."

"Who? Tom?"

The girl laughed. "La, no, ma'am! Mr. Rand." The tone conveyed,
pleasantly enough, both the grotesque impossibility of Mr. Tom Mocket
aspiring to such a post, and the eminent suitability of its lying in the
fortunes of Lewis Rand. Vinie, shy and pink and faintly pretty in her
shell calico, leaned against the wooden railing beneath the grapevine,
and appealed to her visitor: "I'm always after Tom to make him say he'll
run. Tom can do a great deal with him--he always could. I reckon all his
friends want him to take the nomination. But Tom says he has a bigger
thing in mind--"

"Who? Tom?"

"No, ma'am. Mr. Rand. I forgot! Tom said I wasn't to tell that to any
one." Vinie looked distressed. "Won't you have another glass of water,
ma'am? The drouth this year is something awful--all the corn burned up
and the tobacco failing. Tom will be back soon from North Garden. Yeth,
ma'am, he works right hard for Mr. Rand. The last time he was here he
said that whether he ended in a palace or a dungeon, he'd remember Tom
somewhere towards the last. Yeth, ma'am, it was a funny thing to say,
but he was always mighty fond of Tom."

"Does he come here often?"

"Right often,--when there's work to be done at night, or when he wants
to meet some one at a quieter place than the office. He's always known
he could use this house as he pleased," Vinie ended simply. "Tom and I
would go barefoot over fire for Mr. Rand."

"Well, my dear, I hope he won't ask you to," said her visitor, with
dryness. She rose. "I've a long drive before me, so I'll not sit longer.
Who's that--I left my glasses in the coach--who's that speaking to
Gabriel?"

"It's Mr. Gaudylock."

"Gaudylock! He's not been in Albemarle for a year! When did he come
back?"

"Just the other day, ma'am." A smile crept over Vinie's face. "He
brought me a comb like the Spanish women wear. He's a mighty kind
man--Mr. Gaudylock."

The hunter and Mrs. Selden met at the broken gate. "I am glad to see you
back, Adam," she said. "You're a rolling stone, but all the same we're
fond of you in Albemarle."

"I'm surely fond of Albemarle, ma'am," answered Adam.

"When I've rolled long and far enough and the moss is ready to gather on
me, I reckon I'll roll back to a hillside in the old county. I'm sorry
to see