, Orme! Is he here again? He was all through the West with me--I met
him everywhere there. Now I meet him here!"

"He returned last summer, and for most of his time has been living at
the Sheratons'. He and Colonel Sheraton agree very well. And he and Miss
Grace--I do not like to say these things to thee, my son, but they also
seem to agree."

"Go on," I demanded, bitterly.

"Whether Miss Grace's fancy has changed, I do not know, but thy mother
ought to tell thee this, so that if she should jilt thee, why, then--"

"Yes," said I, slowly, "it would be hard for me to speak the first word
as to a release."

"But if she does not love thee, surely she will speak that word. So then
say good-by to her and set about thy business."

I could not at that moment find it in my heart to speak further. We rose
and walked down to the street of the little town, and at the tavern barn
I secured a conveyance which took us both back to what had once been our
home. It was my mother's hands which, at a blackened old fireplace, in a
former slave's cabin, prepared what we ate that evening. Then, as the
sun sank in a warm glow beyond the old Blue Ridge, and our little valley
lay there warm and peaceful as of old, I drew her to the rude porch of
the whitewashed cabin, and we looked out, and talked of things which
must be mentioned. I told her--told her all my sad and bitter story,
from end to end.

"This, then," I concluded, more than an hour after I had begun, "is what
I have brought back to you--failure, failure, nothing but failure."

We sat in silence, looking out into the starry night, how long I do not
know. Then I heard her pray, openly, as was not the custom of her
people. "Lord, this is not my will. Is this Thy will?"

After a time she put her hand upon mine. "My son, now let us reason what
is the law. From the law no man may escape. Let us see who is the
criminal. And if that be thee, then let my son have his punishment."

I allowed the edge of her gentle words to bite into my soul, but I could
not speak.

"But one thing I know," she concluded, "thee is John Cowles, the son of
my husband, John; and thee at the last will do what is right, what thy
heart says to thee is right."

She kissed me on the cheek and so arose. All that night I felt her
prayers.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

HEARTS HYPOTHECATED

The next morning at the proper hour I started for the Sheraton mansion.
This time it was not my old horse Satan that I ro