im, "a most pressing affair
demands my presence at C---- this afternoon. Paul must also attend me. I
may not return to-night. Paul, however, certainly will. In the meantime,
Cloudy, my boy, make yourself as much at home and as happy as you
possibly can."

"Oh! don't mind me! Never make a stranger of me. Go, by all means. I
wouldn't detain you for the world; hope it is nothing of a painful
nature that calls you from home, however. Any parishioner ill, dying and
wanting your ghostly consolations?"

"Oh, no," said Thurston, smiling.

"Glad of it! Go, by all means. I will make myself jolly until you
return," said Cloudy, walking up and down the floor whistling a love
ditty, and thinking of little Jacko. He always thought of her with
tenfold intensity whenever he returned home and came into her
neighborhood.

"Mr. Jenkins, will you follow me to my library?" said Thurston.

The officer bowed assent and Mr. Willcoxen proceeded thither for the
purpose of securing his valuable papers and locking his secretary and
writing-desk.

After an absence of some fifteen minutes they returned to the parlor to
find Paul and the constable awaiting them.

"Is the carriage ready?" asked Mr. Willcoxen.

"Yes, sir," replied the constable.

"Then, I believe, we also are--is it not so?"

The police officer bowed, and Mr. Willcoxen walked up to Cloudy and held
out his hand.

"Good-by, Cloudy, for the present. Paul will probably be home by
nightfall, even if I should be detained."

"Oh, don't hurry yourself upon my account. I shall do very well. Jenny
can take care of me," said Cloudy, jovially, as he shook the offered
hand of Thurston.

Paul could not trust himself to look Cloudy in the face and say
"Good-by." He averted his head, and so followed Mr. Willcoxen and the
officer into the yard.

Mr. Willcoxen, the senior officer and Paul Douglass entered the
carriage, and the second constable attended on horseback, and so the
party set out for Charlotte Hall.

Hour after hour passed. Old Jenny came in and put the supper on the
table, and stood presiding over the urn and tea-pot while Cloudy ate his
supper. Old Jenny's tongue ran as if she felt obliged to make up in
conversation for the absence of the rest of the family.

"Lord knows, I'se glad 'nough you'se comed back," she said; "dis yer
place is bad 'nough. Sam's been waystin' here eber since de fam'ly come
from de city--dey must o' fetch him long o' dem. Now I do 'spose sumtin