ow." She stooped to pick a blossom. Barbara was bending in another
direction. Two doves alighted on the ground near by and began to feed,
and, except for size, the four would have seemed to an on-looker to have
been very much of a kind.

Presently Fannie spoke again. "But I think pop's more and more
distrustful of the thing every day. Barb, I reckon I'll tell you
something."

Barbara crouched motionless. "Tell on."

"O--well, I asked pop yesterday what he thought of this Widewood scheme
anyhow, and he said, 'There's money in it for some men.' 'Well, then,
why can't you be one of them,' I asked him, and said he, 'It's not the
kind of money I want, Fan.'"

"O pshaw, Fannie, men are always saying that about one another."

"Yes," murmured Fannie.

"Fan," said Barbara, tenderly, "do stop talking that way; you know I'm
nearly as proud of your father as you are, don't you?"

"Yes, sweetheart."

"Well, then, go on, dear."

"I asked him if John was one," resumed Fannie, "and, said he, 'No, I
shouldn't be a bit surprised to see John lose everything he and his
mother have got.'"

Barbara flinched and was still again. "Has he told him that?"

"No, he says John's a very hard fellow to tell anything to. And, you
know, Barb, that's so. I used to could tell him things, but I mustn't
even try now."

"Why, Fan, you don't reckon Mr. Ravenel would care, do you?"

"Barb, I'll never know how much he cares about anything till it's too
late. You can't try things on Jeff-Jack."

"I wish," softly said Barbara, "you wouldn't smile so much like him."

"Don't say anything against him, Barb, now or ever! I'm his and he's
mine, and I wouldn't for both worlds have it any other way." But this
time the speaker's smile was her own and very sweet. The two returned to
the road.

"I asked pop," said Fannie, "where Jeff-Jack stands in this affair. He
laughed and said, 'Jeff-Jack doesn't take stands, Fan, he lays low.'"

"Somebody ought to tell him."

"Tell who? Oh, John!--yes, I only wish to gracious some one would! But
men don't do that sort of thing for one another. If a man takes such a
risk as that for another you may know he loves him; and if a woman takes
it you may know she doesn't."

"Fan," said Barbara, as they locked arms, "would it do for me to tell
him?"

"No, my dear; in the first place you wouldn't get the chance. You can't
begin to try to tell him till you've clean circumgyrated yourself away
down into his confidence