ifferent, and he had
need to blink back tears of shame.

But, all the more for that, he drew himself straight and stiff and spoke
resolutely, though his voice carried the suspicion of a tremor.

"I fear me I've done made a fool mistake an' I reckon I'll say farewell
ter you-all, now."

Even then he did not wheel precipitately, under the urge of his anxiety
to be gone, but paused with a forced deliberation, and, as he tarried,
little Anne Masters stepped impulsively forward.

Anne had reigned with a captivating absolutism from her cradle on. Swift
impulses and ready sympathies governed much of her conduct, and they
governed her now.

"This is _my_ party," she declared. "Uncle Tom told me so at dinner, and
I specially invite you to come in." She spoke with the haste of one
wishing to forestall the possible thwarting of elderly objection, and
ended with a dancing-school curtsey before the boy in hodden gray. Then
the music started up again, and she added, "If you like, I'll give you
this waltz."

But Boone Wellver only shifted from one uneasy foot to the other,
fingering his hat brim and blinking owlishly. "I'm obleeged ter ye," he
stammered with a sudden access of awkwardness, "but I hain't never run a
set in my life. My folks don't hold hit ter be godly. I jest came ter
kinderly look on."

"Anne, dear," translated Basil Prince, "in the mountains they know only
the square dances. Isn't that correct?" The boy nodded his head.

"Thet's what I aimed ter say," he corroborated. "An' I'm beholden ter
ye, little gal, none-the-less."

"And now, come with me, Boone," suggested the old soldier,
diplomatically steering the unbidden guest across the hall and into the
library where over their cigars and their politics sat the circle of
devoted veterans.

Colonel Tom Wallifarro was standing before the fire with his hands
clasped at his back. "I had hoped against hope," he was indignantly
asserting, "that when the man's own hand-made triumvirate denied him
endorsement, he would end his reign of terror and acknowledge defeat."

"A knowledge of the candidate should have sufficed to refute that idea,"
came the musical voice of a gentleman, whose snow-white hair was like a
shock of spun silver.

"I was in Frankfort some days ago when Mr. Goebel sat there in
conference with his favoured lieutenants. It was reported that he
declared himself indifferent as to the outcome, but that he would abide
by the decision of his party whi