I have money enough
to last me until I can secure employment. I hope that I know what sort
of employment it may be, but as there is in my hope a fear of failure, I
will not tell you. My training has not been systematic enough to enable
me to be a school teacher, for I know a little of many things, but am
thorough in nothing. But in some other line the mannish books may help
me. In reading this over I realize that I am vain and affected. But put
it down as another frankness. God bless you and good-bye."

"I told you she would disgrace herself," the Major exclaimed, slapping
his hand upon the desk.

"She has done nothing of the sort," his wife replied, stepping out and
closing the door.

CHAPTER XIV.

The neighbors were curious to know why Louise had left home and whither
she was gone. Day and night they came to ask questions, and though told
that she was visiting relatives in Kentucky, they departed suspecting
that something must be wrong. The gossips were more or less busy, and
Jim Taylor snatched another idler off the fence and trounced him in the
sand.

Weeks passed and no letter came from Louise. The Major worried over her
until at last he forbade the mention of her name. During the day Mrs.
Cranceford was calm and brave, but many a time in the night the Major
heard her crying. Every Sunday afternoon Jim Taylor's tread was heard on
the porch. To the Major he talked of various things, of the cotton which
was nearly all picked, of the weakening or strengthening tendency of the
market, but when alone with Mrs. Cranceford his talk began and ended
with Louise. But in this he observed the necessity for great care, lest
the Major might hear him, and he chose occasions when the old gentleman
was in his office or when with Gid he strolled down into the woods. In
the broad parlor, in the log part of the house, Jim and Mrs. Cranceford
would sit, hours at a time; and never did she show an impatience of his
long lapses of silence nor of his monotonous professions of faith in the
run-away. And upon taking his leave he would never fail to say: "I
believe we'll hear from her to-morrow; I am quite sure of it."

In the midst of the worry that followed the young woman's departure,
there had been but one mention of the young man's affair with the niece
of Wash Sanders. Mrs. Cranceford had spoken to him, not directly, but
with gentle allusion, and he had replied with an angry denunciation of
such meddlesomeness. "I'm not g