, and when I have--and which I now do--your Christian heart must
forgive me."

She laughed and held out her hand, and with a gallantry that would have
been reminiscent, even in old Virginia, he touched it with his lips.

"Come here, Margaret," said the Major, and when she turned toward him,
smiling, he put his arms about her, pressed her to his breast and fondly
kissed her.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Mrs. Cranceford's surrender was not as complete as Gid's fancy had
fore-pictured it; he had expected to see her bundle of prejudices thrown
down like Christian's load; and therefore the dignity with which she
looked upon the establishment of his honor was a disappointment to him,
but she invited him to stay for dinner, and this argued that her reserve
could not much longer maintain itself. With pleasure he recalled that
she had given him her hand, but in this he feared that there was more of
haughtiness than of generosity. And at the table, and later in the
library, he was made to feel that after all she had accepted him merely
on probation; still, her treatment of him was so different from what it
had been, that he took the courage to build up a hope that he might at
last subdue her. To what was passing the Major was humorously alive,
and, too keenly tickled to sit still, he walked up and down the room,
slyly shaking himself. Mrs. Cranceford asked Gid if he had read the book
which she had loaned him, the "Prince of the House of David," and he
answered that when at last he had fallen asleep the night before, the
precious volume had dropped beside his pillow. There were some books
which he read while sitting by the fire, and some whose stirring
qualities moved him to walk about as he gulped their contents; but with
a godly book he must lay himself down so that he might be more receptive
of its soothing influence. Then he reviewed the book in question, and
did it shrewdly. With the Jewish maiden and the Roman centurion going to
see the strange man perform the novel rite of baptism in the river of
Jordan, he looked back upon the city of Jerusalem; and further along he
pointed out Judas, plodding the dusty road--squat, sullen, and with a
sneer at the marvel he was destined to see.

"I believe you have read it," the Major spoke up, still slyly shaking
himself.

"Read it! Why, John, I have eaten it. I gad, sir--Pardon me, ma'am."
With a nod she pronounced her forgiveness. The slip was but a pretense,
foisted to change the ta