eglects it, for paltry
gratifications of the senses or the feelings, he is disgraced--he is a
coward in the ranks--a deserter from the regiment--he is an absconding
debtor, sir, and will be proceeded against as such--remember that,
sir! A pretty thing for you here, when you have your duty to
your mother to perform, to be thus dallying and cooing with this
baby--ough!"

And the lawyer scowled at Redbud with terrible emphasis.

Redbud knew Mr. Rushton well,--and smiled. She was rather grateful to
him for having interrupted an interview which her woman-instinct told
had commenced critically; and though Redbud could not, perhaps, have
told any one what she feared, still this instinct spoke powerfully to
her.

It was with a smile, therefore, that Redbud held out her hand to Mr.
Rushton, and said:

"Please don't scold Verty--he won't stay long, and he just stopped to
ask how we all were."

"Humph!" replied the lawyer, his scowling brow relaxing somewhat as he
felt the soft, warm little hand in his own,--"humph! that's the way it
always is. He only stopped to say good morning to 'all;'--I suspect
his curiosity was chiefly on the subject of a single member of the
family."

And a grim smile corrugated--so to speak--the rugged countenance.

Redbud blushed slightly, and said:

"Verty likes us all very much, and--"

"Not a doubt of it!" said the lawyer, "and no doubt 'we all' like
Verty! Come, you foolish children, don't be bothering me with your
nonsense. And you, Mr. Verty--you need'nt be so foolish as to consider
everything I say so harsh as you seem to. You'll go next and tell
somebody that old Rushton is an ill-natured huncks, without conscience
or proper feeling; that he grumbled with you for stopping a moment to
greet your friends. If you say any such thing," added Mr. Rushton,
scowling at the young man, "you will be guilty of as base a
slander--yes, sir! as base a slander, sir!--as imagination could
invent!"

And with a growl, the speaker turned from Verty, and said, roughly, to
Redbud:

"Where's your father?"'

"Here I am," said the bluff and good-humored voice of the Squire, from
the door; "you are early--much obliged to you." And the Squire and
lawyer shook hands. Mr. Rushton's hand fell coldly to his side, and
regarding the Squire for a moment with what seemed an expression
of contemptuous anger, he said, frowning, until his shaggy, grey
eye-brows met together almost:

"Early! I suppose I am to take