t he more nearly belonged to this
lower order than to any other. She fixed his status relentlessly as
something to be remembered when they should meet again. At last, with
a little puckering of the brows and a firm contraction of the lips, she
dismissed the Kentuckian from her thoughts.

Betty complied with Tom's expressed wish, for she did not again visit
Thicket Point, but then she had not intended doing so. However, the
planter was greatly shocked by the discovery he presently made that she
was engaged in a vigorous correspondence with Charley.

"I wish to blazes Murrell had told those fellows to kick the life clean
out of him while they were about it!" he commented savagely, and fell
to cursing impotently. Brute force was a factor to be introduced with
caution into the affairs of life, but if you were going to use it,
his belief was that you should use it to the limit. You couldn't
scare Norton, he was in love with that pink-faced little fool. Keep
away?--he'd never think of it, he'd stuff his pockets full of pistols
and the next man who stopped him on the road would better look out! It
made him sick--the utter lack of sense manifested by Murrell, and his
talk, whenever they met, was still of the girl. He couldn't see anything
so damn uncommon about that red-and-white chit. She wasn't worth running
your neck into a halter for--no woman that ever lived was worth that.

The correspondence, so far as Betty was responsible for it, bore just on
one point. She wanted Charley to promise that for a time, at least, he
would not attempt to see her. It seemed such a needless risk to take,
couldn't he be satisfied if he heard from her every day?

Charley was regretful, but firm. Just as soon as he could mount his
horse he would ride down to Belle Plain. She was not to distress herself
on his account; he had been surprised, but this should not happen again.

The calm manner in which he put aside her fears for his safety
exasperated Betty beyond measure. She scolded him vigorously. Charley
accepted the scolding with humility, but his resolution was unshaken;
he did not propose to vacate the public roads at any man's behest; that
would be an unwise precedent to establish.

Betty replied that this was not a matter in which silly vanity should
enter, even if his life was of no value to himself it did not follow
that she held it lightly. It required some eight closely written pages
for Charley to explain why existence would be