ho lies beneath it--but
enduring, too, as he was," he murmured. He turned to Yancy and Hannibal,
and added,

"You will lay me beside him when I die."

Then when the bitter struggle came and he was wrenched and tortured by
longings, his strength was in remembering his promise to the dead man,
and it was his custom to go out under the oaks and pace to and fro
beside Mahaffy's grave until he had gained the mastery of himself. Only
Yancy and Hannibal knew how fierce the conflict was he waged, yet in the
end he won that best earned of all victories, the victory over himself.

"My salvation has been a costly thing; it was bought with the blood of
my friend," he told Yancy.

It was Hannibal's privilege to give Cavendish out of the vast Quintard
tract such a farm as the earl had never dreamed of owning even in his
most fervid moments of imagining; and he abandoned all idea of going to
England to claim his title. At the judge's suggestion he named the
place Earl's Court. He and Polly were entirely satisfied with their
surroundings, and never ceased to congratulate themselves that they had
left Lincoln County. They felt that their friends the Carringtons at
Belle Plain, though untitled people, were still of an equal rank with
themselves; while as for the judge, they doubted if royalty itself laid
it any over him.

Mr. Yancy accepted his changed fortunes with philosophic composure.
Technically he filled the position of overseer at The Oaks, but the
judge's activity was so great that this position was largely a sinecure.
The most arduous work he performed was spending his wages.

Certain trifling peculiarities survived with the judge even after he
had entered what he had once been prone to call the Portal of Hope; for
while his charity was very great and he lived with the splendid air of
plenty that belonged to an older order, it required tact, patience, and
persistence to transact business with him; and his creditors, of whom
there were always a respectable number, discovered that he esteemed them
as they were aggressive and determined. He explained to Yancy that too
great certainty detracted from the charm of living, for, after all, life
was a game--a gamble--he desired to be reminded of this. Yet he was
held in great respect for his wisdom and learning, which was no more
questioned that his courage.

Thus surrounded by his friends, who were devoted to him, he began
Hannibal's education and the preparation of his memoirs,