me newly purchased horses, and expressed the most cordial
approval of whatever he saw, somewhat to the amusement of Penhallow.

Penhallow left him when, declining to ride to the mills, Mr. Grey retired
to the library and read the _Tribune_, with internal comment on its
editorial columns. He laid the paper aside. Mr. Woodburn would probably
have arrived in the afternoon, and would have arranged with Swallow for a
consultation in which Mr. Grey would be expected to take part. It was
plain that he really must talk to the Captain. He rose and went slowly
down the avenue. A half-hour in Westways singularly relieved him.
Swallow was not at home, and Josiah, the cause of Mr. Grey's
perplexities, had certainly fled, nor did he learn that Mr. Woodburn
had already arrived.

He was now shamefully eager to escape that interview with the captain,
and relieved to find that there was no need to wait for the friend he had
brought to Westways on a vain errand. Returning to Grey Pine, he
explained to his cousin that letters from home made it necessary for him
to leave on the mid-afternoon train. Never did Ann Penhallow more
gratefully practise the virtue that speeds the parting guest. He was
sorry to miss the captain and would have the pleasure of sending him a
barrel of the best Maryland whisky; "and would you, my dear cousin, say,
in your delightful way, to the good rector how much I enjoyed his
conversation?"

Ann saw that the lunch was of the best and that the wagon was ready in
more than ample season. As he left, she expressed all the regret she
ought to have felt, and as the carriage disappeared at a turn of the
avenue she sank down in a chair. Then she rang a bell. "Take away that
thing," she said,--"that spittoon."

"If James Penhallow were here," she murmured, "I should ask him to
say--damn! I wonder now if that man Woodburn will come, and if there will
be a difficulty with James on my account." She sat long in thought,
waiting to greet her husband, while Mr. Grey was left impatient at the
station owing to the too hospitable desire of Ann to speed the parting
guest.

When about dusk the Squire rode along the road through Westways, he came
on the rector and dismounted, leaving his horse to be led home by Pole's
boy. "Glad to see you, Mark. How goes it; and how did you like Mr. Grey?"

"To tell you the truth, Squire, I did not like him. I was forced into a
talk about politics. We differed, as you may suppose. He was not quit