, I say, you
did meet the savages, didn't you?"

I knew he meant the scar on the side of my neck, which still was rather
evident, but I did not care to repeat the old story again. "Yes," I
answered a bit shortly, "rather a near thing of it. I presume Captain
Orme told you?" I turned to Miss Grace, who then admitted that she had
heard something of the surgery which had thus left its mark. Harry
seemed puzzled, so I saw it was news to him. Miss Grace relieved the
situation somewhat by turning toward the house.

"I am sure you will want to talk with Jack," she said to him. "And
listen, Harry, you must have him and Mrs. Cowles over here this very
evening--we cannot think of her living alone at the old place. I shall
send Cato down with, the carriage directly, and you may drive over after
Mrs. Cowles." She held out her hand to me. "At dinner to-night, then?"

I bowed, saying that we would be very happy, by which I meant that we
would be very miserable.

This, then, was all that had been determined by my visit. I was still an
engaged man. Evidently nothing otherwise had been discussed in the
Sheraton family councils, if any such had been held. If never suitor in
Old Virginia rode up in sorrier case than mine that morning, as I came
to call upon my fiancee, certainly did never one depart in more
uncertain frame of mind than mine at this very moment. I presume that
young Sheraton felt something of this, for he began awkwardly to speak
of matters related thereto.

"It's awfully hard," he began, "to see strangers there in your own
house--I know it must be hard. But I say, your father must have plunged
heavily on those lands over West in the mountains. I've heard they're
very rich in coal, and that all that was necessary was simply cash or
credit enough to tide the deal over till next year's crops."

"My father always said there was a great fortune in the lands," I
replied. "Yes, I think another year would have seen him through; but
that year was not to come for him."

"But couldn't funds be raised somehow, even yet?"

I shook my head. "It is going to be hard in these times to raise funds
in any way. Values are bad now, and if the Republican party elects
Lincoln next month, there will be no such things as values left in
Virginia. I don't see how anything can save our property."

"Well, I'm not so sure," he went on, embarrassed. "My father and I have
been talking over these matters, and we concluded to ask you if we might