services in return. The curse of politics had not yet reached
this land of born politicians. Quietly, smoothly, yet withal keyed to
a high standard of living, the ways of this old community, as of these
two representative families, went on with little change from generation
to generation.

It was not unknown that these two families should intermarry, a Fairfax
finding a wife among the Beauchamps, or perchance a Beauchamp coming to
the Fairfax home to find a mistress for his own household. It was
considered a matter of course that young Henry Fairfax, son of Colonel
Fairfax, should, after completing his studies at the ancient
institution of William and Mary College, step into his father's law
office, eventually to be admitted to the bar and to become his father's
partner; after which he should marry Miss Ellen Beauchamp, loveliest
daughter of a family noted for its beautiful women. So much was this
taken for granted, and so fully did it meet the approval of both
families, that the tide of the young people's plans ran on with little
to disturb its current. With the gallantry of their class the young
men of the plantations round about, the young men of the fastidiously
best, rode in to ask permission of Mary Ellen's father to pay court to
his daughter. One by one they came, and one by one they rode away
again, but of them all not one remained other than Mary Ellen's loyal
slave. Her refusal seemed to have so much reason that each
disappointed suitor felt his own defeat quite stingless. Young Fairfax
seemed so perfectly to represent the traditions of his family, and his
future seemed so secure; and Mary Ellen herself, tall and slender,
bound to be stately and of noble grace, seemed so eminently fit to be a
Beauchamp beauty and a Fairfax bride.

For the young people themselves it may be doubted if there had yet
awakened the passion of genuine, personal love. They met, but, under
the strict code of that land and time, they never met alone. They rode
together under the trees along the winding country roads, but never
without the presence of some older relative whose supervision was
conventional if careless. They met under the honeysuckles on the
gallery of the Beauchamp home, where the air was sweet with the
fragrance of the near-by orchards, but with correct gallantry Henry
Fairfax paid his court rather to the mother than to the daughter. The
hands of the lovers had touched, their eyes had momentarily
encounter