I will make her
forget,--I will love her so that I will make her forget. If all goes
well and greatness is in our horoscope, she shall yet be friends with
the crown upon her brow! Yes, and gracious friends with all that she has
left behind, and with her Virginian kindred! When all's won, and all's
at peace, and the clash and marvel an old tale, then shall her sister
and her cousin visit her."

He paused at the fireplace and stirred the logs with his foot. "But
that's a vision of the morrow. Between now and then, and here and there,
it never fails that there's an ambushed road." He stood a moment,
staring at the leaping flames, then returned to the table. "Back to
business, Tom! When Roselands is sold--"

"Do you know," suggested Tom, "I've been thinking that, now he is going
to be married, a purchaser might be found in Fairfax Cary."

"Fairfax Cary!" exclaimed the other, and drummed upon the table. "No;
they will not want it, those two. Poor old Tom! your intuitions are not
very fine, are they?"

"Well, I just thought he might," said the underling. "But he may live on
at Greenwood with Ludwell Cary."

Rand struck his foot against the floor. "Don't let us speak that name
to-night! I am weary of it. It haunts me like a bell--_Ludwell Cary!
Ludwell Cary!_ And why it should haunt me, and why the thought of him
always, for one moment, palsies my will and my arm, I know no more than
you! When I shake the dust of this county from my feet, it shall go hard
but I will shake this obsession from my soul! Somewhere, when this world
was but a fiery cloud, all the particles of our being were whirled into
collision. Well, enough of that! Whoever purchases Roselands, it will
not be a Cary. What's the matter now?"

"There's a horse coming up the drive."

Rand dropped the paper in his hand and sat listening. "Unlucky! I wanted
no visitor to-night. It may be but a messenger. Ring the bell, will you,
for Joab."

The horse came on and stopped before the great doorstone. There was the
sound of some one dismounting, Joab speaking, and then the voice of the
horseman. Rand started violently. "Are we awake?" he said, rising. "That
is Major Churchill's voice."

Joab appeared at the door. "Marse Lewis, Marse Edward Churchill say kin
he trouble you fer a few minutes' conversation? He say he lak ter see
you alone--"

"One moment, Joab," said the master, gathering the papers from the table
as he spoke. "Tom, you'll go back to the dining