stood for a long while looking out into the gathering dusk. Then
he went over to the fireplace and began tearing the note into little
bits. Only once did he pause, to look again at his name on the envelope.

"It is an invitation to Miss Carvel's party," he said.

By Thursday of that week the Brices, with thanksgiving in their hearts,
had taken possession of Mr. Brinsmade's little house.

CHAPTER XII. "MISS JINNY"

The years have sped indeed since that gray December when Miss Virginia
Carvel became eighteen. Old St. Louis has changed from a pleasant
Southern town to a bustling city, and a high building stands on the site
of that wide and hospitable home of Colonel Carvel. And the Colonel's
thoughts that morning, as Ned shaved him, flew back through the years to
a gently rolling Kentucky countryside, and a pillared white house among
the oaks. He was riding again with Beatrice Colfax in the springtime.
Again he stretched out his arm as if to seize her bridle-hand, and he
felt the thoroughbred rear. Then the vision faded, and the memory of his
dead wife became an angel's face, far--so far away.

He had brought her to St. Louis, and with his inheritance had founded
his business, and built the great double house on the corner. The child
came, and was named after the noble state which had given so many of her
sons to the service of the Republic.

Five simple, happy years--then war. A black war of conquest which,
like many such, was to add to the nation's fame and greatness: Glory
beckoned, honor called--or Comyn Carvel felt them. With nothing of the
profession of arms save that born in the Carvels, he kissed Beatrice
farewell and steamed down the Mississippi, a captain in Missouri
regiment. The young wife was ailing. Anguish killed her. Had Comyn
Carvel been selfish?

Ned, as he shaved his master's face, read his thoughts by the strange
sympathy of love. He had heard the last pitiful words of his mistress.
Had listened, choking, to Dr. Posthlewaite as he read the sublime
service of the burial of the dead. It was Ned who had met his master,
the Colonel, at the levee, and had fallen sobbing at his feet.

Long after he was shaved that morning, the Colonel sat rapt in his
chair, while the faithful servant busied himself about the room, one eye
on his master the while. But presently Mr. Carvel's revery is broken by
the swift rustle of a dress, and a girlish figure flutters in and plants
itself on the wide arm of his m