garet Raleigh were partners and co-owners in the
business and the plant of the establishment.

"I am glad to welcome you back," said she, her hand in his. "But it
strikes me as odd to see you come upon a horse; I should have supposed
that by this time you would arrive sliding over the tree-tops on a pair
of aerial skates."

"No," said he. "I may invent that sort of thing, but I prefer to use a
horse. Don't you remember my mare? I rode her before I went away. I left
her in old Sammy's charge, and he has been riding her every day."

"And glad enough to do it, I am sure," said she, "for I have heard him
say that the things he hates most in this world are dead legs. 'When I
can't use mine,' he said, 'let me have some others that are alive.' This
is such a pretty creature," she added, as Clewe was looking about for
some place to which he might tie his animal, "that I have a great mind
to learn to ride myself!"

"A woman on a horse would be a queer sight," said he; and with this they
went into the house.

The conference that morning in Mrs. Raleigh's library was a long and
somewhat anxious one. For several years the money of the Raleigh estate
had been freely and generously expended upon the enterprises in hand at
the Sardis Works, but so far nothing of important profit had resulted
from the operations. Many things had been carried on satisfactorily and
successfully to various stages, but nothing had been finished; and now
the two partners had to admit that the work which Clewe had expected to
begin immediately upon his return from Europe must be postponed.

Still, there was no sign of discouragement in the voices or the
faces--it may be said, in the souls--of the man and woman who sat there
talking across a table. He was as full of hope as ever he was, and she
as full of faith.

They were an interesting couple to look upon. He, dark, a little hollow
in the cheeks, a slight line or two of anxiety in the forehead, a
handsome, well-cut mouth, without beard, and a frame somewhat spare
but strong; a man of graceful but unaffected action, dressed in a
riding-coat, breeches, and leather leggings. She, her cheeks colored
with earnest purpose, her gray eyes rather larger than usual as she
looked up from the paper where she had been calculating, was dressed
in the simple artistic fashion of the day. The falling folds of the
semi-clinging fabrics accommodated themselves well to a figure which
even at that moment of rest suggest