p from
the train. She would not tell Mrs. Durand just what happened, but
intimated that they had had a dreadful scene. You see, the young fellow
had been born and brought up in the North, and _his_ sympathies were all
with _that_ side, and he was just as enthusiastic about it as his mother
was about the other. And besides, she'd never talked to him much about
the Southern cause, so he didn't realize how she felt. At last, when he
wouldn't give in, she admitted to Mrs. Durand that she disowned him, and
told him never to see her face again.

"When he had gone to his room to pack his things, she went and dismissed
her servants, and told them to go at once. Then she locked herself in
her room till her boy went away. She never saw him again! After he had
gone, that night, she collected all her silver and hid it, and partially
packed her own things, and then decided she wouldn't take them with her.
And when she had gone around shutting up the house, it was morning. As
soon as it was daylight, she went out and got an old colored carpenter
who lived nearby to come and board up the windows and doors. She had
the boarding all in the cellar, for it had been made two years before
when she went to Europe for six months. It took him nearly all day to
finish the work, while she stood around and gave directions. I don't see
how she had the strength to do it! When it was all done, she locked the
door, walked to the station, took the train for New York, and came to
Mrs. Durand." Joyce paused in her recital, from sheer lack of breath,
and Cynthia took advantage of the silence.

"So _that_ was the way of it! And _we_ thought it was her brother, and
that he'd done something awful,--committed a robbery or forged
something! I don't see why that young Fairfax should have been treated
so! I think what he did was fine!"

"You must remember," said Joyce, "that people felt so differently about
such things in those days. We can't quite realize it now, and shouldn't
judge them for the way they acted. I suppose Mrs. Collingwood could have
forgiven him more easily if he'd committed a burglary instead! And
Great-aunt Lucia says she was terribly high-tempered, too.

"I _can't_ understand it, even so!" insisted Cynthia. "But did your
great-aunt say anything about those pictures?"

"No, but I asked her if Mrs. Collingwood had any other children, and she
said she understood that Fairfax had been a twin, but his little sister
had died when she wasn't m