ry. He grew more important, and let fall the
borrowed cloak of servility; his head was perched a little higher and
a trifle askew as he surveyed them. The reflected grandeur of past
days was on him, and in comparison modernity seemed common-place. All
these brilliant, dashing, elegant men and women of his youth were
gone. He was the only human echo left of their greatness, and his
diminutive person grew more erect as he realized his importance as a
landmark of the past.

"There!" said Evilena, triumphantly, "isn't that as interesting as
your Irish romances? Where would you find a landlord of England or
Ireland who would make a free gift of three thousand dollars to a
servant? They simply could not conceive of such generosity unless it
were the gift of a king or a prince, and then it would be put down in
their histories for all men to remember."

"True for you," assented Delaven, with the brogue he was fond of using
at times when with those elected to comradeship; "true for you, my
lady, but you folks who are kings and queens in your own right should
be a bit easy on the unfortunates who can be only subjects."

"They don't need to be subjects," she insisted; "they could assert
their independence just as we did."

"Oh, sometimes it isn't so bad--this being a subject. I've found life
rather pleasant down here in the South, where you are all in training
for the monarchy you mean to establish. I don't mind being a subject
at all, at all, if it's to the right queen."

"But we didn't come in here to talk politics," she said, hastily.
"Uncle Nelse, do tell Dr. Delaven about your freedom days, and all. He
is a stranger here and wants to learn all about the country and
customs. You've traveled, Nelse, so you can tell him a lot."

"Yes, reckon I could. Yes, sah, I done travelled considerable; the
onliest advantage I could conjure up in freedom was goen' wherever the
fit took me to go--jes' runnen' roun' loose. My king! I got good an'
tiahed runnen, I tell yo'. Went cleah out to the Mississippi river, I
did--spent all my money, an' started back barefoot, deed I did, an' me
worth three thousan' five hundred dollars! Nevah did know how little
sense I got till I was free to get myself in trouble if I liked, an'
didn't have no Mahs Duke to get me out again. More'n that, seem like I
done lost my luck some way--lost races I had no right to lose, till
seem like owners they got scary 'bout me, an' when I git far away from
my own sta