BIX 
 
 
 ilifornia 
 ional 
 
 ility 
 
 ARMI$TEAD C. GORDON
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 MAY TREAT MORRISON 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 ALEXANDER F MORRISON
 
 ROBIN AROON
 
 ROBIN AROON 
 
 A Comedy of Manners 
 
 By 
 
 ARMISTEAD C. GORDON 
 i 
 
 Author of "The Gift of the Morning Star" and "The 
 Ivory Gate" 
 
 New York and Washington 
 
 THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 1908
 
 Copyright, 1908, by 
 The Neale Publishing Company
 
 CM 
 cc 
 
 c 
 
 TO 
 
 W. GORDON McCABE 
 
 2 
 
 IN FRIENDSHIP AND ADMIRATION. 
 
 5 
 
 K 
 
 o 
 s 
 
 ce 
 -S 
 
 132241
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 THE FIRST PART 
 
 THE RIVER WAY 
 Chapter Page 
 
 I Nancy Carter's Eyebrows, .... 13 
 
 II Saint Elizabeth 30 
 
 III The Cap of Youth 42 
 
 IV David's Love-Song 56 
 
 V On the Dragon Swamp Road . . 70 
 
 VI Richard the Third at the Middle 
 
 Plantation 85 
 
 VII Of Dancing-Girls 97 
 
 THE SECOND PART 
 
 LOVE'S ENCHANTMENT 
 
 I An Offer of Marriage 109 
 
 II "Con Expressione" 122 
 
 III Pounds Sterling for a Pair .... 142 
 
 IV Naming the Song 154 
 
 V The Assembly Ball 171 
 
 VI Life's Sunny Morning 181 
 
 VII "These, With Haste" 196 
 
 VIII Another Man's Shoes 204 
 
 IX Accolade . 212
 
 This story is founded upon a brief sketch, 
 by the same writer, printed many years ago 
 in a weekly literary periodical. For some of 
 the incidents here narrated he is indebted to 
 certain old letters, private journals, and other 
 material of the period described.
 
 THE FIRST PART 
 THE RIVER WAY
 
 THE FIRST CHAPTER 
 
 NANCY CARTER'S EYEBROWS 
 
 Summer came up the River Way from 
 where the Gulf Stream sweeps past the Capes 
 that stand like sentinels to guard the Chesa 
 peake Bay; and the swallows, who are sum 
 mer's heralds, came before her. The sun 
 light glittered and shimmered on the waters 
 of Rappahannock, and on the white sails of 
 ships; while over the great red brick house, 
 and over the green expanse of lawn and gar 
 den, and over the broad tobacco-fields of a 
 yet darker and richer verdure, lay like a bene 
 diction the calm of a golden day. 
 
 Should you care to make search for the 
 place on any of the numerous maps in the 
 State Library at Richmond which picture 
 Virginia localities in the shadow-half of the 
 eighteenth century, you will find it marked 
 upon at least two of them as "Churchill." 
 But its well-known name throughout the 
 Colony in the year of our Lord 1774 was 
 Bushy Park; and its owner by devise in life-
 
 i 4 ROBIN AROON 
 
 tenancy, with remainder in fee to her eldest 
 son, was the soft-haired, sweet-voiced, fair- 
 faced widow of the late William Henning, 
 gentleman, then for some years past asleep, 
 and hence of indifferent mood to the world, 
 under a marble tomb, with appropriate me 
 morial carvings and an eulogistic inscription, 
 amid fine company, in the graveyard of 
 the Middle Church, sometime called the 
 Mother Church, in the tidewater County 
 of Middlesex. 
 
 It was an imposing, roomy house, with the 
 redness of it offset by Its lofty white-columned 
 portico, that reached to the full height of its 
 two tall stories, and with its staring dormer 
 windows in the roof, and its upreaching 
 chimneys at either gabled end, where a multi 
 tude of swallows spent the recurrent sum 
 mers, to the impotent wrath of the negro 
 house-servants. The mansion fronted a 
 breadth of green-turfed yard; and beyond 
 the yard lay a still broader stretch of the 
 River Way, whose waters on this sunshiny 
 morning, late in May, were dazzling to the 
 eyes of any beholder. 
 
 On both sides of the house and at its rear 
 stretched the fertile tobacco fields that had
 
 ROBIN AROON 15 
 
 made their owners rich through the genera 
 tions; and there were outbuildings offices, 
 kitchens, house-servants' quarters, stables 
 of an amplitude and dignity commensurate 
 with the establishment of one of the wealth 
 iest and most important families in the Prov 
 ince. 
 
 Nearly a mile away to the southeast and 
 farther down the River Way, the cabins of 
 the negro slaves, facing each other in rows 
 of long green streets, and' the more imposing 
 dwelling-house of the overseer, shone white 
 on a field of verdant beauty in the limpid and 
 translucent atmosphere. 
 
 The river is four and a half miles wide 
 between the Middlesex side, where the lawn 
 at Bushy Park stops sheer on the bank some 
 forty feet above its surface at flood-tide, and 
 where the apparently low-lying woods fringe 
 the Lancaster shores beyond; and looking 
 seaward from the mansion's pillared porches 
 one sees the ultimate line of the horizon fade 
 and disappear in far waters that are very near 
 to their meeting with the waters of the Bay. 
 
 Breakfast was just over in the dining- 
 room at Bushy Park, a high-ceiled, wains 
 coted room, bright with its hangings of crim-
 
 1 6 ROBIN AROON 
 
 son hangings, its carved mantel-piece and 
 hearth-slab of white Italian marble, and im 
 posing with its silver-knobbed mahogany 
 doors and wainscoting, its heavy inlaid side 
 board with the crested family silver of five 
 generations of Hennings in the Colony, and 
 its family portraits in oils on the walls, 
 that in the course of time had been 
 crowded out of the first and second parlors 
 and the long hall into this less formal though 
 equally dignified part of the mansion, where 
 they now hung cheek by jowl with pictures 
 of English hunting-scenes and prints of fa 
 mous race-horses. 
 
 The gathered company of visitors, young 
 and old, at Bushy Park, who came and went 
 as they chose by virtue of their kinship or 
 their friendship, or their neighborship, neither 
 asking nor being asked, had arisen from the 
 long table, and overflowed into the hall, the 
 parlors, the porticos and the lawn, leaving 
 in the room three members of the household. 
 
 Robert Henning, eldest son of the widow, 
 and heir apparent of the surrounding acres, 
 twenty-one years of age and a graduate, with 
 distinguished honors, of one year's standing 
 in the even then venerable college at Wil-
 
 ROBIN AROON 17 
 
 liamsburg, leaned lazily back, with knees 
 crossed, in his arm chair at the head of the 
 table; and with a quizzical glance at his 
 brother David, five years his junior, contin 
 ued a conversation which he had just begun 
 with his mother on the subject of the Carter 
 children, who had departed from Bushy Park 
 on the day before. 
 
 "It must have been a great relief to the 
 Councillor and Mistress Carter to be able to 
 keep them away from home for the three 
 weeks they spent here," he said, uncrossing 
 his stockinged legs and stretching them out 
 before him. As he spoke he fixed his regard 
 on David, who looked up with a scowl of 
 disapproval from the newspaper he had 
 spread out before him on the table. 
 
 "Middlesex jail is yawning for that 
 youngster," he continued with mock severity. 
 "If he ever comes back to this county I shall 
 warrant him convicted of all the high crimes 
 and misdemeanors committed by him during 
 his scandalous visit to Bushy Park." 
 
 "What did he do that he has so mightily 
 offended your majesty?" growled David, 
 with his eyes now fast fixed on his Virginia
 
 1 8 ROBIN AROON 
 
 Gazette. "You pestered his very vitals when 
 ever he was in the house, with your eternal 
 hauling and mauling of him for his love of 
 cock-fights and horse-races and fish-feasts. 
 Can't you be satisfied to have him gone? As 
 Greig says, 'he's flitted,' and there's an end 
 o't. What's the evil of Jack, anyway, I pray 
 your worshipful lordship?" 
 
 "Oh, I doubt if it be in my power to en 
 lighten your uncultivated mind," his brother 
 answered, smiling. "Your own tastes and 
 Jack's being of a like kind, it would be diffi 
 cult to cause you to perceive the enormity of 
 his indulgence in them. Besides, I doubt that 
 the obscure and slow moving years of child 
 hood be sufficiently progressed with you to 
 endow your undeveloped intelligence with an 
 adequate comprehension of the villainy of 
 many things that is perfectly perceptible to 
 the eyes of grown-up folk." 
 
 The boy's face flamed with a momentary 
 anger. 
 
 "Robert!" said Mrs. Henning, warningly, 
 from her seat at the end of the table near the 
 marble mantel. There was a gleam of mirth 
 in her eyes, and an almost imperceptible 
 movement of the corners of her sweet mouth.
 
 ROBIN AROON 19 
 
 which her older son did not miss as he looked 
 at her. 
 
 Robert laughed; and David said, "Never 
 care, mother. I don't mind him. I shall live 
 to return good for his evil." 
 
 Mrs. Henning smiled, as in pleasure that 
 the fraternal warfare of words was ended; 
 and taking up from the table the black leath 
 er key-basket, filled with great brass keys 
 of varied shapes and sizes, at her elbow, was 
 about to rise from her seat. 
 
 "Don't go yet, mother," said Robert Hen 
 ning. 
 
 "Listen, mother," interrupted David. 
 "The Gazette is becoming a veritable scan 
 dal-monger. Here's a dainty item to please 
 the palates of all this host of lovers and gos 
 sips now abounding at Bushy Park. I shall 
 read it to the company after the dance to 
 night" ; and shifting his position in order to 
 get a better light on the paper from the high, 
 lace-curtained window at his back, he read: 
 
 'Yesterday was married in Henrico Mr. 
 William Carter, third son of Mr. John Car 
 ter, to Mrs. Sarah Elson, relict of Mr. Ger- 
 ritt Elson, deceased, aged eighty-five, a
 
 20 ROBIN AROON 
 
 sprightly old tit worth three thousand pounds 
 fortune.' " 
 
 Mrs. JHtenning's face took on a shocked 
 expression, and Robert chuckled audibly. 
 
 "I shouldn't wonder," commented David, 
 "if he be of Jack's breed of Carters. It 
 sounds like that lofty pedigree. They have 
 a tooth for beauty and fortune; though they 
 do not all like their beauty so mellow as this 
 would seem. Jack illustrates the general 
 family inclination. My sister Elenor will 
 swear to't." 
 
 "David !" exclaimed again the warning 
 voice of Mrs. Henning, whose face showed 
 a struggle between her sense of dignity and 
 her desire to laugh. 
 
 "Yes, mother, I shall be good," said the 
 boy, returning with a grin to his paper, and 
 his mother continued: 
 
 "I think it highly improper in the Gazette 
 to print such stories. 'Tis an invasion of per 
 sonal privacy, and teaches the youth of the 
 Province an evil lesson. Soon no one will be 
 safe from the journals. They should con 
 fine their columns to the public news and to 
 politics." 
 
 "Indeed, madam," chimed in Robert, still
 
 ROBIN AROON 21 
 
 beaming, "such conduct of the press may well 
 cause us to commend the saying of Sir Wil 
 liam Berkeley to the Board at London, when 
 he was Governor here, that he was grateful 
 to God that in his day there were no printing- 
 presses in the Colony. Read us another like 
 it, Davy." 
 
 "And free-schools," added David, with 
 emphasis, "he said 'printing-presses and free- 
 schools.' He might have added 'and Scotch 
 tutors.' I heard Mr. Lee say that they were 
 getting to be thicker than fleas on a dog's 
 back in the gentlemen's families." 
 
 "Doubtless," replied his brother, "an ab 
 sence of printing, schools, and tutors would 
 prove greatly to your liking. In spite of Sir 
 William Berkeley, all three are here now; 
 and much to your advantage, if you will but 
 improve it." 
 
 "Don't lecture," said David; and Robert 
 Henning took up again the subject of the 
 young Carters. 
 
 "There wasn't a cock-fight or a horse-race 
 or a fish-feast in Middlesex during his stay, 
 that Master John Carter missed. His genius 
 seems to be toward low bets." 
 
 "You had the pleasure of seeing him at
 
 22 ROBIN AROON 
 
 most of them, I believe," interjected David 
 sardonically. 
 
 "And Nancy," continued Robert, impervi 
 ous to David's scorn, "give me Miss Nancy 
 Carter, fifteen years of age, for a witch. She 
 is vastly pretty, and knows it, with her 
 smooth white skin and her exceeding black 
 hair, and her black, full-arched eyebrows 
 
 At the word David's grin developed sud 
 denly into a discordant shout of delight, with 
 the deep-voiced basso of which Mrs. Hen- 
 ning's soprano laughter, that she seemed 
 unable to control, chimed in. 
 
 Robert Henning looked from one to the 
 other in surprise. 
 
 "What on earth" 
 
 "It is Nancy's eyebrows, Robin," explained 
 Mrs. Henning. 
 
 "The reason she had her head tied up in 
 that veil yesterday morning, on her going off 
 with her papa, and why she ran away from 
 you, when you wanted to kiss her 'good 
 bye,' " said David in further explanation to 
 Robert. 
 
 The explanations were neither intelligible 
 nor satisfactory to the latter. He saw only 
 a touch of triumph in David's reminder of
 
 ROBIN AROON 13 
 
 his unsuccessful attempt to embrace Nancy 
 Carter. 
 
 "Excuse me, mother," he said stiffly to 
 Mrs. Henning; and turning to David, de 
 manded angrily to know what he was talking 
 about. 
 
 "The foolish chit of a girl cut off her eye 
 brows the night before she left," said Mrs. 
 Henning. "Do you not remember com 
 menting on her absence from breakfast yes 
 terday morning?" 
 
 "She denied positively that she cut them 
 herself," added David quickly, "and swore 
 to the end that some mischievous person in 
 the house had done it when she was sleeping. 
 But I know her as I know my reading-book. 
 She herself clipped 'em, and none other did 
 it!" 
 
 "Why, nothing of the like," said Robert, 
 with a light dawning on him. "Mother, 
 cannot you see that David is the culprit? 
 Fie ! for shame, Master David, to steal upon 
 a helpless, unconscious young girl, and wreak 
 such a vengeance for a discarded affection!" 
 
 David looked crestfallen and sullen; and 
 Mrs. Henning said: 
 
 "I am disposed to agree with David, and
 
 24 ROBIN AROON 
 
 to think that it was an experiment she was 
 making on herself, to see how she could vary 
 the looks of her face. It made me laugh 
 when I saw it first to think how early and 
 how truly she had begun copying the ab 
 surdities of young women." 
 
 "David, hasten forthwith! take pen, ink, 
 and paper, not forgetting the sand-box for 
 the sake of the blots, and sigh like a furnace 
 with a woful ballad made to Miss Nancy's 
 eyebrows," jeered Robert. 
 
 "It is greatly to be desired that her 
 mamma will give her a violent spanking 
 when she gets home to Westmoreland for 
 that pretty trick," commented David, who 
 had assiduously wooed Nancy Carter during 
 her stay at Bushy Park, only to receive the 
 mitten at her small white hands on the last 
 day preceding her departure. 
 
 "Fie, again, David!" said his brother, "to 
 speak thus lightly of your lost lady-love. 
 Shall her mother spank so grown-up a young 
 woman? Blush, David, to think of it!" 
 
 The boy growled something inaudible, and 
 returned to the perusal of his paper. 
 
 "Speakin' o' books, Maister Davy," con 
 tinued Robert, with an evident effort at imi-
 
 ROBIN AROON 25 
 
 tating the tone and accent of some individual 
 known to the company, as he arose from his 
 chair and approached the fire-place that was 
 garnished with the green and feathery foliage 
 of asparagus-plants, "I have just come into 
 possession of one of Jack Carter's." 
 
 He picked up a volume from the marble 
 mantel-piece, and began to turn its pages. 
 
 "The Fables of Aesop," he said; "listen, 
 mother." 
 
 "Mother," interrupted David, still smart 
 ing from his brother's intimation that he had 
 clipped Nancy Carter's eyebrows, "is it be 
 coming in Bob to make sport of Greig by 
 mimicking and mocking his Scotch dialect? 
 Greig is a gentleman, and a guest of this 
 house, though he be but a tutor. But I think 
 I see through it; Mr. Robert would belittle 
 Greig because he is jealous of Betty Berke 
 ley." 
 
 "Listen, mother," repeated her elder son, 
 without deigning to notice his brother's jere 
 miad. "Aesop's Fables, edited, revised, and 
 corrected by John Carter, esquire. I caught 
 master Jack at this composition a few hours 
 before he made his much lamented flitting. 
 It seems to have been a day of activity with
 
 26 ROBIN AROON 
 
 the younger members of the House of Carter, 
 what with David's abstraction of Nancy's 
 eyebrows, and Jack's venture into literature. 
 Johnnie had ink on his wrist-laces and in the 
 corners of his mouth, and upon the tips of his 
 fingers. There was ink on his nose, and on 
 his coat; and he looked as if he needed the 
 sand-box shaken over him. The quill was a 
 vision of beauty; and Jack might have been 
 painted by Sir Peter Lely in the character of 
 Erato, the muse of love-ditties." 
 
 David's ill-humor vanished in his eager 
 ness for the forthcoming revelation. He sat 
 with open mouth, and a fixed gaze of pleased 
 expectancy, while his brother narrated the 
 story of John Carter's Aesop. 
 
 "I suppose it was written for the benefit 
 of your daughter, Elenor Henning, madam," 
 he continued, addressing Mrs. Henning with 
 mock dignity; "to be perused by her when 
 her adorer, the scribe, should be departed." 
 
 David's interest perceptibly increased. He 
 hitched his chair closer to the table, and his 
 mouth opened wider. 
 
 "I did not fail," proceeded Robert Hen 
 ning, "to observe him hanging with a youth 
 ful lover's insistency at Nelly's brief coat-
 
 ROBIN AROON 27 
 
 tails, whenever he happened with her in the 
 house. Within the pages of this com 
 pendium of wisdom I find confirmation of 
 his desire to become your son-in-law, madam. 
 On its title-page he has scrawled at the bot 
 tom of the leaf his own name at full and 
 sprawling length, and in as elegant a hand 
 as he is master of, with a dash below. This 
 he follows up with the names of half the 
 young women of quality in the Rappahan- 
 nock Valley, appending his agreeable com 
 ments to each." 
 
 "How did you get that book?" questioned 
 David. 
 
 "I bought it, Mr. Henning," said Robert; 
 "Carter's manuscript emendations, annota 
 tions, et cetera, from the shameless and ink- 
 splashed wretch himself for a mere matter of 
 three paltry pistareens." 
 
 David settled himself further back in his 
 chair, with his gaze still fixed on his broth 
 er's face. 
 
 "Now listen, mother," said Robert again; 
 and he turned the pages and read: 
 
 " 'Miss Jenny Washington of Bushfield is 
 very pretty.'
 
 28 ROBIN AROON 
 
 " 'Miss Steerman is a beautiful young 
 lady.' 
 
 " 'Miss Polly Tolliver.' 
 
 " 'Miss Aphia Fantleroy.' 
 
 " 'Miss Kitty Tayloe, Mount Airy.' 
 
 " 'Miss Lydia Pettit has damned ugly 
 freckles in her face, otherwise she is hand 
 some and tolerable.' 
 
 " 'Miss Letitia Turberville is a sweet girl'; 
 and so forth, to the end. There are one, two, 
 three, four, five, six ohl I suppose some 
 fifteen or twenty girls enrolled on Jack's love 
 roster. Last and most impudent, he con 
 cludes his effrontery this brazen-faced inti 
 mate of yours, Master David Henning with 
 this amorous inscription on the last leaf 
 in the hope that it might catch the guileless 
 eye of your young sister Nelly : 'The name of 
 the girl I love above all others is Elenor Hen 
 ning, the Lovely, of Bushy Park.' ' 
 
 David chuckled gleefully. His ill-humor 
 was all gone. 
 
 "As a matter of course," he said. "That's 
 the reason he sold you the book for three pis- 
 tareens. 'Tis a love-letter to Nelly, and you 
 are Jack's innocent post-boy." 
 
 He snatched the volume from his brother's
 
 ROBIN AROON 29 
 
 hand, and hurried out of the room in search 
 of his sister, leaving the Virginia Gazette, 
 with its unfinished column of the gossip of 
 the Province, open upon the table. 
 
 "I wanted you to hear it," Robert Henning 
 said to his mother, who sat laughing softly. 
 "It seemed vastly amusing to me. The young 
 reprobate !" 
 
 "John is a mischievous youth," said the 
 kindly lady as she arose from her seat be 
 hind the silver tea-urn, flanked with its fila- 
 greed sugar-dish and cream-pot, through the 
 interstices of which the blue glass lining 
 showed darkly; "but I think him an honest, 
 brave lad; and Nancy is both pretty and 
 clever. Integrity and courage cover a multi 
 tude of faults, even in boys, Robin; and for 
 the sake of beauty and wit and character, we 
 may pardon what may seem silly in as dear a 
 child as Nancy Carter." 
 
 "You are always generous, mother," her 
 son answered. "John Carter is a fine 
 youngster; and, though it amuses me to tease 
 David about his friend, I am truly sorry the 
 little Carters are gone home. As for Nancy, 
 she is an adorable minx."
 
 THE SECOND CHAPTER 
 
 SAINT ELIZABETH 
 
 Mrs. Henning rang a small silver bell, and 
 a tall, gray-haired negro of dignified mien 
 and leisurely movement, followed by two 
 younger negro waiters, entered the room, and 
 proceeded with their trained assistance to 
 gather upon a large wooden tray the old 
 India blue china plates and dishes from the 
 table. Mrs. Henning, with the leather key- 
 basket in her hand, started to move toward 
 the door that led into the passage-way. 
 
 "Wait another moment, mother," said 
 Robert. "I have something to say to you 
 that I did not care for even David to hear 
 just now." 
 
 She resumed her seat, with an expression of 
 quiet expectancy in her faded eyes. When 
 the servants had withdrawn with their bur 
 den of breakfast things to the kitchen in the 
 yard, Robert said: 
 
 "I have been thinking for some time past, 
 mother, that the existence which I am leading
 
 ROBIN AROON 31 
 
 here is an ignoble one for me. I have had 
 all the advantages that birth, and rearing, 
 and education can give in this country. I am 
 not an Oxford man, only because I prefer 
 to be a Virginian. These are stirring times 
 in the Colonies, and they are big with coming 
 events." 
 
 Mrs. Henning was listening attentively, 
 almost anxiously. Her face wore a look of 
 apprehension. 
 
 "If I am to be anything more than a Vir 
 ginia country gentleman I must go out into 
 the world, and become acquainted with the 
 men who are to be foremost in the great 
 drama for which the stage is being made 
 ready." 
 
 "A Virginia country gentleman?" his 
 mother expostulated mildly. "Can there be 
 anything finer in the world, my dear? Your 
 father and his father and grandfather were 
 Virginia country gentlemen. And if that is 
 not enough, though I think it is, you may 
 easily be of the Council, or in some office 
 under his excellency, the Governor. Many 
 of the Hennings have been members of Coun 
 cil or Burgesses." 
 
 Robert smiled a significant smile.
 
 32 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "If I read the signs of the times aright, 
 mother, there will be no more of them in of 
 fice in Virginia under a Royal Governor." 
 
 Mrs. Henning's face grew more troubled, 
 and she made no reply. 
 
 "I heard some things during the sessions 
 of the Burgesses," her son continued, "when 
 I was in Williamsburg in March two years 
 ago, that stirred my blood to protest against 
 this sluggish life here on the plantation 
 things that made me feel how paltry are the 
 rings of beaux who chat on a Sunday before 
 and after sermon at Christ Church, and as 
 semble in crowds after service to dine with 
 the girls at the neighborhood gentlemen's 
 houses, or to make their foolish bargains. I 
 listened to Dabney Carr move his resolutions 
 in the House of Burgesses for the Commit 
 tees on Correspondence; and I heard Rich 
 ard Henry Lee speak for the resolutions with 
 a fervor of language that will never fade 
 from my memory." 
 
 The young man's enthusiasm kindled a 
 flush in his mother's pale cheeks. She looked 
 at him with misty eyes of love. 
 
 "You might yourself be chosen a Burgess 
 for Middlesex, Robert, if you cared for it.
 
 ROBIN AROON 33 
 
 The gentlemen of the county would be glad 
 to send you, I am sure." 
 
 "This house is so full of company all the 
 time," he went on, as though oblivious of 
 her speech, "that I can find but little leisure 
 for business, and none for the study of 
 politics. I must go out and meet the men of 
 affairs." 
 
 "I have thought you always quite willing 
 to forego your books for the sake of the girls, 
 my dear," said Mrs. Henning gently, with a 
 wistful smile. 
 
 "It is indeed a pleasure to have our friends 
 here," he answered. "But I must not make 
 my life all pleasure; and I cannot achieve a 
 career by raising tobacco and entertaining 
 visitors." 
 
 He held up his left hand, and began to 
 count on his fingers with his right. 
 
 "Let's see, mother. I don't mean to seem 
 inhospitable, and I am sure I am not." 
 
 "One could not be so, and be a Henning of 
 Bushy Park," she murmured indulgently. 
 
 "But what chance is there for work, with 
 this everlasting coming and going?" he con 
 tinued. "Last Sunday, six girls and four 
 3
 
 34 ROBIN AROON 
 
 beaux, together with Mr. Conway and his 
 wife, and Mr. Ben Waller, came here from 
 church; and seven of them stayed the night. 
 Three of the girls and two of the young men 
 are here now. There's 'Silla Conway and 
 Agnes Garlington and Betty Fitz Hugh, and 
 George Lee, and Ned Eustace. Before sup- 
 pertime there'll be a dozen more of men and 
 girls. Monday, Mr. Downman and Mr. 
 Harrison, and the three Harrison children. 
 Wednesday I can't recall them all, with a 
 score more in the house, in one vast proces 
 sion coming and going. The Carters " 
 
 "My dear," interrupted his mother, empha 
 sizing the "dear," "I suppose it has been so 
 since the house was built. It has certainly been 
 the case since I first knew it; and, in the old 
 days, I am told it overflowed with hospitality. 
 Your aunt Ellis used to say to me very often 
 in her lifetime, 'Ah, sister Henning, you 
 should have known Bushy Park in the heydey 
 of its glory, when there were always seven 
 silver salvers on the table and fifty pairs of 
 linen sheets upon the privet hedge !' And 
 with it all, your father, and your grandfather 
 were both quite important men in the Col-
 
 ROBIN AROON 35 
 
 ony; yet neither, with more right to import 
 ance than you." 
 
 "I have much sympathy with my dear 
 aunt's pride in the old place," he answered, 
 gently ignoring her allusion to the continued 
 power of the Hennings; "and I have greatly 
 enjoyed this year of my stay here. Visiting 
 my neighbors, planting my tobacco, and 
 helping you entertain your unending stream 
 of guests have all possessed their charm. But 
 the impulse to action grows strong in me. 
 The very atmosphere is prophetic of coming 
 change; and I am not the only one who has 
 a vision of war on the horizon. A Henning 
 of Bushy Park must not prove a laggard at 
 the red sunrise." 
 
 Mrs. Henning looked worried. Imbued 
 with the conservatism that is always an ac 
 companiment of established wealth and 
 power, she had no sympathy with the spirit 
 of revolt then rising in the Colony. The ful- 
 minations of the political pamphleteers made 
 no impression upon her loyalty. She had 
 been reared with a proper respect for the 
 King and a proper affection for the Church, 
 and a proper estimate of her own social im 
 portance, which no rude clamor concerning
 
 36 ROBIN AROON 
 
 taxation without representation could disturb. 
 Moreover, she entertained no respect for the 
 kind of politics that interfered with the ac 
 customed tea on the breakfast table at Bushy 
 Park. 
 
 "I do not profess to understand the public 
 questions of the day, Robin," she said; "but 
 I should regret to see you involved in any po 
 litical heresy." 
 
 The young man laughed quietly. 
 
 "I am in no danger of being tried for 
 treason yet, mother. But I have well deter 
 mined to quit Bushy Park for a season, and 
 to travel in the southern colonies. There 
 are men outside of this Province with whom 
 I should acquaint myself, if I am to be cos 
 mopolite." 
 
 "There are many Virginians and their 
 children in the Carolinas," said Mrs. Hen- 
 ning. "In the Edenton and Halifax sections 
 the names are those of our people of the 
 river valleys. You will visit Edenton and 
 Halifax Borough?" 
 
 The anxiety in her face was still manifest; 
 and he could see that she was seeking to 
 charm away her own uneasiness.
 
 ROBIN AROON 37 
 
 "Yes, and Charleston and Savannah, and 
 other places to the southward," he replied. 
 
 If Mrs. Henning's knowledge of the po 
 litical conditions of the period was inade 
 quate, her shrewdness and common sense 
 were nevertheless unusual; and her acquaint 
 ance with her son's character and disposition 
 was intuitively profound. A light had flashed 
 on her suddenly out of the darkness, and dis 
 pelled her gloom. She beamed with affec 
 tion. 
 
 "After all is said, my dear, is it not true 
 that something else than your ambition is 
 taking you away from home? You need 
 have no secrets that you may not share with 
 your old mother." 
 
 He drew the chair, in which he had seated 
 himself, nearer to her own; and, reaching 
 over, took her frail blue-veined hand in his. 
 
 "Mother," he said, with a tender intona 
 tion, "you are a veritable sorceress a dealer 
 in dark magic. There is no need of trying 
 to hide anything from you. I do not doubt 
 that you have already divined it; but I shall 
 make a clean breast of what you call my 'se 
 cret.' " 
 
 432241
 
 38 ROBIN AROON 
 
 She smiled at him with eyes that were ca 
 ressing and wistful. 
 
 "Haven't you noticed, mother, the atti 
 tude of Greig toward our Saint Elizabeth?" 
 
 "I know it," she murmured, as to herself. 
 She withdrew her hand from his, and clasped 
 her jeweled fingers together. 
 
 " That he has been in love with her," he 
 persisted, "from the moment that he saw her 
 on that day when he opened his school in the 
 East Office?" 
 
 Mrs. Henning's eyes were downcast. She 
 fingered her rings nervously. 
 
 "The fact that she is Colonel Berkeley's 
 heiress," he went on, "and that Bushy Park 
 and Barn Oaks march together, as Greig 
 would say, is not enough to make her care 
 for me, mother, save in a gentle spirit of obe 
 dience; while I well, I respect and admire 
 Betty. But Bushy Park and Barn Oaks 
 under one fence could never suffice to stir in 
 me the genuinely tender passion such, for 
 example, as I might learn in a week's associa 
 tion with my charming cousin Milicent in 
 Williamsburg." 
 
 "It was your father's cherished wish, Rob-
 
 ROBIN AROON 39 
 
 ert," said Mrs. Henning protestingly, but 
 with perceptible resignation. 
 
 "Yes, I know, mother, and I am more than 
 regretful for that reason that love has never 
 smiled on the project. Sentiment is the main 
 spring of life with us gentlefolk; and it 
 moved my father in no small measure to this 
 thought of his. But the girl is in love with 
 the Scotchman, and there's an end o't. I in 
 tend to tell her this night that I have guessed 
 her heart's secret and that I am going away 
 to give Greig his chance. He is only a tutor 
 now, but he has got the stuff in him for the 
 making of a man. In the troublous times 
 that lie ahead of us I look to see him come 
 to the front. Do not doubt that he will. Let 
 him adore Betty and be happy. He is 
 worthy of her." 
 
 Mrs. Henning was fain to grieve over this 
 swift and sudden overthrowing of her dream- 
 castle, in which her fancies had dwelt since 
 her oldest son's childhood; but she knew 
 the mettle of his pasture and honored his 
 generous spirit. She laid her left hand, with 
 its jeweled rings surmounting the thin gold 
 double circlet of her marriage, upon the sin 
 ewy brown fingers that clasped her own.
 
 40 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "You mind me of the line of the Cavalier 
 poet of the old country, my son," she mur 
 mured. "I think of you in what you have 
 just said as Sir Richard Lovelace sang to Lu- 
 casta : 
 
 " 'I could not love thee, dear, so much, 
 Loved I not honour more.' 
 
 "I have half suspected Betty's attachment 
 for Mr. Greig. His for her has been for a 
 long while evident. If you are sure of your 
 ground as to her attitude in this delicate mat 
 ter, I commend your courage and your self- 
 sacrifice, though through them I lose one of 
 my dearest hopes." 
 
 "There is little of either involved," said 
 Robert. "We should never have suited each 
 other Betty and I. And while our friend 
 ship has been genuine and our comradeship 
 pleasant, neither of us has ever looked our 
 affection in the face, to test its reality; but 
 we have each rather evaded a realization of 
 its coldness. It has been all the while touched 
 with a certain frostiness, mother, that that 
 Milly's red mouth would melt in a minute." 
 
 He laughed softly with his concluding 
 words.
 
 ROBIN AROON 41 
 
 "Don't talk to me about Milly," said Mrs. 
 Henning, half-smiling, half-impatient, and 
 with a suspicious moisture in her eyes which 
 called for the intervention of her cambric 
 handkerchief. "She's a hoyden girl, who is 
 only one degree removed from Nancy Carter 
 in her wildness; and besides, she's your 
 cousin." 
 
 "Older and far more mature than Nancy, 
 mother," Robert said solemnly. 
 
 Mrs. Henning arose, and kissing her son 
 on the forehead, left the room, with the 
 leather key-basket in her hand.
 
 THE THIRD CHAPTER 
 
 THE CAP OF YOUTH 
 
 The night breeze came from the river, 
 cool and soft and sweet, and faintly stirred 
 the curtains at the open windows. Here and 
 there, on the uncertain water, the dark figures 
 of three or four ships lay in the track of the 
 low-hanging moon against a lesser darkness, 
 with now and then a light showing like a 
 jewel on the breast of it. 
 
 Through the lit casement of an upper 
 chamber in the Bushy Park house rose to the 
 ears of the two girls within, whose hair was 
 being craped by two negro maids, a hum of 
 conversation from the men sitting in a row 
 of chairs facing the porch below. The men 
 sat with their feet on the steps, and smoked 
 tobacco in long-stemmed clay pipes, while 
 they talked politics. Mingled with their talk 
 came to the young women above, the clearer 
 and more distinct twanging of a guitar to the 
 alternate accompaniment of a tenor voice, 
 and snatches of a girl's silver soprano in an
 
 ROBIN AROON 43 
 
 indistinguishable song. The ending of the 
 music was followed by a half-smothered 
 scream of the soprano singer, and then by the 
 melodious laughter of youth and maiden in 
 unison. The voices of the smokers by the 
 steps ceased, and the incense of their tobacco 
 floated higher. They were listening. 
 
 "That's Evelyn Harrison and David," 
 said the younger of the two girls. "I protest 
 that boy is a terror. Here, Libby, don't 
 spend all your energies on that part of my 
 head. The fiddle will soon sound for the 
 dance, and I shall be late." 
 
 "I don't care much if I miss it this evening. 
 One gets tired of dancing every day," said 
 the other girl, who, seated in front of a 
 Sheraton dresser, was surveying with pensive 
 pleasure her handsome and high-bred counte 
 nance in the swinging mirror. Her maid, 
 Dilsey, having finished the craping business, 
 stood behind her with an artificial rose in her 
 hand, and inquired: 
 
 "Whar 'bouts in yo' haid is I gwi' stick 
 dis-here bloom, Miss Betsy?" 
 
 "Of course you don't care for the danc 
 ing," said the first speaker, a small blonde 
 lady, barely turned of twenty years, whose
 
 44 ROBIN AROON 
 
 blue eyes and pink cheeks combined with her 
 soft light hair and her plump little figure to 
 make a most attractive appearance. She was 
 dressed in a chintz cotton gown with a pretty 
 dark-blue figure stamped on it, a sky-blue 
 silk quilt, and an apron with dark blue dots 
 of the size of a shilling. Her yellow hair 
 had been craped up with two rolls at each side 
 by the accomplished and now smiling Libby; 
 and on the top of her pretty little head was 
 a fetching small cap of gauze and lace, 
 adorned with the conventional artificial 
 flower of the period. 
 
 "Of course the dances do not interest you 
 now, since Mr. Greig does not dance; though 
 I remember it was not so when Robin first 
 came back from Williamsburg. I vow, 
 Betty, you are treating Robert Henning 
 shamefully, coquetting so with this Scotch 
 man. And your wedding-day set for Septem 
 ber, too!" 
 
 The other girl's eyes filled with tears as she 
 turned her face away from the little mirror 
 and looked out of the window into the dark 
 ness, where the far-away, uncertain lights 
 moved fitfully on the face of the waters. She 
 made no reply.
 
 ROBIN AROON 45 
 
 "I hear that Captain Blaise, the English 
 man, who is at Merry Point, from the new 
 ship just come in, will be here to-night," chat 
 tered her companion inconsequently. "He 
 made great fame for himself as a dancer 
 when he came out from England last year. 
 They do say that I shall be highly diverted 
 with his minuets. I intend to make him 
 dance one to-night." 
 
 "Captain Blaise is not a graceful dancer, 
 Mary," said the dark-eyed girl quietly. 
 "Perhaps he does not have so many oppor 
 tunities of practice as our young gentlemen. 
 But he is a very pleasant person. He has 
 all the qualifications of an accomplished gen 
 tleman; and in addition his dress is very 
 genteel and pretty." 
 
 "Adieu ! I hear the fiddle !" exclaimed the 
 blonde beauty, jumping quickly from her 
 seat. "Here, Libby, fasten this shoe, quick." 
 
 She lifted the skirts of the chintz gown to 
 a height that would have been indiscreet 
 downstairs, and showed amid frilled sugges 
 tions of snowy petticoats a tapering ankle in 
 a blue silk stocking that terminated in a little 
 foot with a finely arched instep, clad in a blue
 
 46 ROBIN AROON 
 
 morocco shoe, high-heeled and silver- 
 buckled. 
 
 The delighted Libby made fast the shoe, 
 and the girl ran out of the room with the 
 skirt of her gown still caught in the jeweled 
 fingers. 
 
 "I'll tell Robin his holy Saint Elizabeth is 
 in the doldrums again to-night," she called 
 back from the doorway. 
 
 At the first notes of David's violin the 
 young women and men had gathered, after 
 the custom of the place, in the long hall which 
 ran the front length of the house, that was 
 now illuminated with the soft effulgence of 
 wax candles, in sconces and in silver candle 
 sticks, set here and there on little tables. The 
 family pictures of five generations in the Col 
 ony, painted by Lely and Reynolds and 
 Bridges and Hesselius, the portrait paint 
 ers, great and small, in London and Vir 
 ginia looked down from the walls, in the 
 glory of satin and lace and velvet and peri 
 wig and patch on chin. With set, unchang 
 ing faces, and strangely pursuing eyes, the 
 dead burgesses and councillors and their de 
 parted womankind consorts and sisters and 
 daughters gazed from their fixed places on
 
 ROBIN AROON 47 
 
 the glittering apparition of this later genera 
 tion, who were kindled with the same joys of 
 youth and hope and love as these their pro 
 totypes had also once known and long ago 
 forgotten, since for them the pageant of life 
 had passed. 
 
 When Robert Henning entered the hall 
 through the open door, he saw descending the 
 wide stairway at its eastern end the dark-eyed 
 girl who had some minutes before protested 
 to her room-mate that she was tired of the 
 dances. She was dressed in a lead-colored 
 habit that was open in front, showing a lilac 
 lutestring petticoat. Her hair, under Dil- 
 sey's deft hand, had been craped high on a 
 cushion, and the red rose glowed above it. 
 
 Robert stepped forward to meet her; and 
 at the sight of him there was an outbreak of 
 light and color in her handsome face. 
 
 "I shan't dance to-night, Robert," she 
 murmured, as taking her hand he led her 
 down the hall. "Let me help with the mu 
 sic." 
 
 "As you wish," he answered. "I have 
 something to say to you, Betty." 
 
 She looked at him with a quick glance of 
 wonderment.
 
 48 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "I shall turn the music-sheets for you," he 
 added. 
 
 He escorted her down the length of the 
 great hall to where the spinet stood in the 
 western end; and the chatter of the gathered 
 company was involuntarily hushed as the eyes 
 of men and women alike regarded their grace 
 ful progress. 
 
 "No handsomer couple have ever walked 
 down the aisle of the Middle Church to the 
 altar, madam," commented Colonel Selden 
 to Mrs. Henning. "It is getting high time 
 for Betty to be fixing a day for what the 
 country-side understands has been agreed on 
 for these years. There could be no more 
 charming successor to the present charming 
 mistress of Bushy Park than Betty Berkeley. 
 'A very riband in the cap of youth,' " he 
 added, smiling. 
 
 Mrs. Henning was seated near one of the 
 front windows; and the Colonel, standing 
 near, bowed to her with courtly grace. He 
 noted that she made no audible response; but 
 moving her turkey-wing fan faintly, smiled 
 with a face that seemed to him somewhat wan 
 and drawn. Then he feared that he had
 
 ROBIN AROON 49 
 
 blundered, and moved quietly away, saying 
 in his thought: 
 
 "The widow doesn't like the idea of abdi 
 cating to any other queen." 
 
 In the meanwhile Elizabeth Berkeley had 
 seated herself at the spinet; and to its music 
 and the accompaniment of David's violin, the 
 younger people danced a minuet of much 
 bowing and curtsying, varied with snatches of 
 sentences and outbreaks of light laughter. 
 
 "Aren't you going to dance?" she asked 
 Henning, looking up to him with the dark, 
 deep eyes that had always seemed to him to 
 contain in them mysteries that it would never 
 be given him to fathom. 
 
 "This is better," he answered softly. 
 "When the older people begin talking I can 
 tell you what I want to say." 
 
 In a few moments scraps of conversation 
 began to be audible above the lower notes of 
 the music. 
 
 "Mr. Ball and Mr. Ludwell made each 
 girl a present of a pound of powder " 
 
 He had just returned from the races 
 at Fredericksburg. Dr. Flood's horse " 
 4
 
 50 ROBIN AROON 
 
 " They say Mr. Burwell got his discard 
 that week " 
 
 " I understand they will go from Ravens- 
 worth to Chatham, before returning " 
 
 And so the swift-winged gossip ran in va 
 rious masculine and feminine tones of airy 
 emptiness. 
 
 "I am going away to-morrow, Saint Eliza 
 beth," he said softly, bending over her; and 
 it seemed to her, in the tenderness of his 
 voice and in the surprise of his speech, that 
 he had shouted it aloud to the company. 
 There was for a single moment a faltering 
 break in the music, that had almost put the 
 dancers out of time. 
 
 "I know why you are going, Robert," she 
 murmured in words so faint that he could 
 scarcely hear them above the chords of the 
 instrument. David turned to look at the two ; 
 and wondered why she should have lost that 
 note, and what made her face so pale. 
 
 "Where's Greig?" asked Henning, with a 
 half-smile. "I haven't laid eyes on him since 
 breakfast." 
 
 Again the swift glance went up to him, 
 with an appeal breaking forth from the mys-
 
 ROBIN AROON 51 
 
 tery of her eyes. He saw that there was a 
 dew of tears on the lashes. 
 
 "I am glad that you have found it out for 
 yourself, Robert," she whispered. "It 
 would have been hard for me ever to tell you. 
 I should never have let any one know." 
 
 David's violin sang louder, with a human 
 voice of reproach, as once more a note was 
 missed in the music of the spinet. The 
 dancers danced on with bow and curtsy and 
 mingled jest and laughter. Captain Blaise 
 of The Friendship, a sturdy sailor, now clad 
 in the height of the London fashion in honor 
 of his provincial acquaintances, was dancing 
 the minuet with a solemn countenance and an 
 evident sincerity that had awakened the ill- 
 concealed amusement of his young partner, 
 the blonde girl in the chintz gown of the 
 blue-print pattern. 
 
 "I protest, your dancing is divine, Captain 
 Blaise," she laughed to him; and he bowed 
 in rigid acknowledgment. 
 
 "The romance that our elders fashioned 
 for us so painstakingly was, I doubt not, very 
 pleasing to them in the perspective," Henning 
 was whispering to Betty, while the others 
 danced and laughed. "But the god of love
 
 52 ROBIN AROON 
 
 is a self-willed young deity, and aims his own 
 arrows. I think Greig is a monstrous clever 
 man, and I look to see him do great things 
 some day." 
 
 She bent over the keys; and the music of 
 the stately dance died away with the last notes 
 of David's violin. 
 
 "Isn't Captain Blaise perfection?" ex 
 claimed the blonde, chintz girl, to David, in 
 easy hearing of the sailor, who at once hove- 
 to in his voyage down the hall, and came to 
 anchor near her. 
 
 Betty, with her hand on Robert's arm, 
 passed with him amid the chattering crowd, 
 out through the great hall door under the 
 leaded fan-window, into the white pillared 
 portico. 
 
 The short, silken-clad legs of Master Da 
 vid, who was thick set and chubby, soon grew 
 weary of the country dance that followed the 
 minuet, and for which Mrs. Henning made 
 the music upon the harpsichord. 
 
 "It's awfully tiresome," he said to his 
 pretty little partner, Miss Evelyn Harrison 
 of Wakefield, who regarded the junior son of 
 the house of Henning with an interest that 
 had secretly, but none the less profoundly, re-
 
 ROBIN AROON 53 
 
 joiced at the departure on yesterday of Nancy 
 Carter. 
 
 "This dancing business every night pleases 
 you girls vastly; but I would inform you 'tis 
 a perfect nuisance to us men." 
 
 "Us men!" the young lady mimicked, with 
 a simulated scorn that but thinly veiled her 
 admiration of her companion. "I vow, I 
 like your courage, young sir." 
 
 "Come, fair Eve, destroyer of Paradise," 
 laughed the boy; "I have some sweet noth 
 ings to whisper into your shell-like ear; and 
 there are others listening about us." 
 
 He led her, not unwillingly, to the stair 
 way at the eastern end of the hall ; where with 
 much proper bestowing of skirts, in which 
 David seemed to take an unwonted interest, 
 she seated herself on one of the lower steps. 
 He perched beside her, and the girl languish 
 ed at him; while now and then some passer 
 by saw the little love-game and laughed. 
 
 The boy, observing her mood, with a fine 
 masculine disregard of the attainable, and a 
 half-tender, half-humorous memory of Nancy 
 Carter and her clipped eyebrows, sighed and 
 soliloquized: 
 
 "Heigho! But I do miss Nancy!"
 
 54 ROBIN AROON 
 
 His companion's face took on a momentary 
 soberness, which passed in a smile for fear 
 that he would see it. 
 
 "Don't you?" he queried softly, regard 
 ing her with seductive eyes. 
 
 "Oh, did the girls tell you about Nancy's 
 trick, David?" she parried swiftly, with a 
 deft ignoring of his blunt question, and a 
 stout maintenance of the subject. "Did 
 Elenor tell you?" 
 
 "My sister Elenor seldom confides in me," 
 he answered with dignity. "She would give 
 Jack Carter a dozen confidences where she 
 gave me*half a one." 
 
 "Oh, but about her eyebrows," persisted 
 Miss Harrison. "You heard about Nancy's 
 eyebrows?" 
 
 "You're glad she's gone," said David, fac 
 ing her, and pretending a regretful sternness. 
 "Now, aren't you, Evelyn?" 
 
 "I don't care a pistareen," said the young 
 miss defiantly, thus crowded into a corner. 
 "You wouldn't have loved her anyhow with 
 her eyebrows all clipped off, and looking so 
 pale-faced and pasty." 
 
 "Pale-faced and pasty ! ho, ho ! Of 
 course you're glad she's gone!" persisted
 
 ROBIN AROON 55 
 
 David, his simulated sternness vanishing in a 
 laugh of complacency at the implied confes 
 sion that he had wrung from her. 
 
 "Not I, in sooth," she answered, with an 
 unyielding spirit and a flame in her cheeks. 
 "Why should I care? She might stay here 
 till doomsday." 
 
 The boy chuckled. 
 
 "Evelyn," he said, looking into her eyes, 
 "you're a dear little liarl" 
 
 She arose in a wrath, half-genuine, half- 
 affected; and catching up her short silken 
 skirt, with a flash of silver shoe-buckles, ran 
 up the stairway. He did not seek to pursue 
 her; but, conscious of his conquest, stood still 
 to survey her graceful flight. He saw her 
 pause on the broad landing, and lean for a 
 moment over the balustrade, looking down. 
 Then he laughed up at her. 
 
 With a well-directed aim from her coign 
 of vantage she struck him on his upturned 
 face with the rose which she had worn in her 
 craped hair. He started up the steps in pur 
 suit of her; and she vanished from the land 
 ing, leaving an echo of mocking mirth. 
 
 He turned, and walking slowly down the 
 steps, picked up the rose.
 
 THE FOURTH CHAPTER 
 
 DAVID'S LOVE-SONG 
 
 When the dancing was ended, the old din 
 ing-room servant entered the hall, and made 
 an elaborate though deprecatory bow, as 
 though it were with great regret that he in 
 truded upon such gayety. Then he announc 
 ed that dinner was served. 
 
 Colonel Selden offered his arm to Mrs. 
 Henning; and the company, paired off as oc 
 casion presented itself, proceeded to the din 
 ing-room. David escorted his young sister, 
 Elenor, to whom his gibes and jests seemed to 
 afford infinite amusement; while Henning 
 brought up the rear of the procession with 
 Elizabeth Berkeley. Mr. Greig, the grave- 
 faced, raw-boned, red-headed Scotch teacher, 
 who had seen David's "sweet little liar" run 
 up the stairway, awaited her return to save 
 her the embarrassment of entering the dining- 
 room alone; and as he waited, kept his gaze 
 fixed on the tall slim figure of Elizabeth Berk-
 
 ROBIN AROON 57 
 
 eley, until it passed out of sight down the 
 hall-passage. 
 
 After the bustle of being seated at the long 
 table had subsided, a general conversation en 
 sued, the chief topic of which was the arrival 
 in the river of Captain Blaise's ship. A num 
 ber of packages and hampers had preceded 
 the coming of that gentleman to the house; 
 and Mrs. Henning and several of the girls 
 had busied themselves in the afternoon with 
 unpacking them. 
 
 "Have you seen your mother's importa 
 tions for the table?" asked Saint Elizabeth of 
 Robert Henning. 
 
 "No," he answered, pausing in the effort 
 of carving the small long ham which fronted 
 him; "what are they?" 
 
 "A beautiful pair of fashionable silver gob 
 lets, a pair of silver sauce-cups, and a pair of 
 elegant silver decanter holders," she said. 
 
 "And all with the family crest and motto," 
 chimed in Miss Agatha Randolph, sitting 
 next to Mr. Lee. 
 
 "That's a fine ham, Robert," observed Col 
 onel Selden, regarding it with the air of a 
 bon-vivant. "When you reach me, cut near 
 the hock."
 
 58 ROBIN AROON 
 
 Then he turned to Mrs. Henning and con 
 tinued: 
 
 "It is needless to tell you, madam, that the 
 value of a ham depends on its curing; though 
 the hog should not be too fat. I always kill 
 my hogs when the wind is from the north. 
 Make a strong pepper-tea, just before salt 
 ing. Put about a spoonful of saltpetre to 
 every gallon of the pepper-mixture, pouring 
 the tea on the salt. Pack the meat for about 
 four days. Then rub with salt and Jamaica 
 molasses, dashed with Demarara rum. Pack 
 again for two weeks. At the end of the fort 
 night wash in warm water, and anoint with 
 ashes of hickory wood. Smoke with green 
 hickory; and kill the nigger, ma'am, that lets 
 the smoke-house fire go out." 
 
 He smiled reminiscently, with a gathering 
 of gustatory juices in his mouth. 
 
 " 'Tis half in the cooking, Colonel Selden," 
 answered Mrs. Henning, who was engaged in 
 depositing a fried chicken-leg on a corn batter- 
 cake for Captain Blaise; and those nearest 
 her paused to listen. 
 
 "Will you favor me with your method, 
 madam?" asked the Colonel with attention. 
 
 "Soak the ham for two days and nights.
 
 ROBIN AROON 59 
 
 Let it simmer in very hot water, half an hour 
 for each pound. At the end of half the time 
 pour off the water, and fill again with boiling 
 water. Put in a half cupful of vinegar, and 
 some cloves and cinnamon and allspice. Let 
 it soak till the time is ended. What piece 
 of the chicken do you like, Evelyn?" 
 
 Miss Harrison liked a leg, and a gizzard 
 to make her pretty. 
 
 " Then you let the ham cool in the water, 
 Colonel, and take off the skin. Put on 
 enough mustard, and cover with an egg's yel 
 low. Sprinkle with bread-crumbs, slash with 
 a sharp knife, and put in a pint of sherry. 
 Bake for a half hour, basting every five min 
 utes; and there you are!" 
 
 "Fine!" exclaimed Colonel Selden, clap 
 ping his hands; "and never forget to bury 
 the ham in clean earth for a few days before 
 hand, if it be old." 
 
 "And skin the little darky that goes to 
 sleep over the basting," added Robert as he 
 carved for Colonel Selden two generous slices 
 near the hock. 
 
 "I thank you, madam," said Colonel Sel 
 den, with unaffected gratitude ; and bowed to 
 Mrs. Henning.
 
 60 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "Did my watch and Robert's seal ring 
 come?" asked David of his mother, with boy 
 ish eagerness, as soon as the colloquy over the 
 ham was at an end. He pinched his sister 
 Elenor under the table, and whispered wrath- 
 fully: 
 
 "Why didn't you tell me about this sooner, 
 miss?" 
 
 "You saw the ship, and there's Captain 
 Blaise," said Elenor. "I thought you would 
 have sense enough to know." 
 
 Raising her voice, Elenor asked: 
 
 "And the other things, mother?" 
 
 "Let's leave the other things for another 
 occasion, dear," said Mrs. Henning, with a 
 gentle smile on her face. 
 
 "Have a dish of tea, Captain Blaise," she 
 said to the Englishman; and she poured him 
 a cup from the ebony-handled teapot near her. 
 
 "Tea still reigns at Bushy Park, madam, 
 my Lord North notwithstanding," murmured 
 Mr. Ball, a white-haired old gentleman, with 
 a rosy face and a winning smile. He rubbed 
 his hands together with pleasurable anticipa 
 tion as he addressed her. 
 
 "I see the tax has no terror for you, Mr. 
 Ball," said Mrs. Henning. "I am almost
 
 ROBIN AROON 61 
 
 afraid to offer the beverage to some of the 
 gentlemen." 
 
 "The privilege of age, madam, the privi 
 lege of age," responded Mr. Ball. "I damn 
 the tax and drink the tea, madam. Damn 
 the tax, and drink the tea." 
 
 Elenor Henning, under cover of Mr. Ball's 
 observation upon the burning political issue 
 of the day, said to the young woman next her, 
 the dainty creature of the golden crimped hair 
 and the dimity dress, whom Captain Blaise 
 at regular intervals stared at from his seat 
 on the opposite side of the table : 
 
 "Listen, Polly, I've got the invoice of my 
 own things in my pocket. Wait a moment, 
 and I'll read it to you. Turn your head the 
 other way, David." 
 
 David declined the invitation mutely, and 
 with aroused attention. Elenor produced a 
 piece of paper, and began to read its contents 
 in a low tone to Polly. 
 
 "What's that, Nelly?" asked David, peer 
 ing over from his side. "A love-letter?" 
 
 Captain Blaise, with a changeless expres 
 sion on his wooden face, and an apparent lack 
 of interest in aught but his plate, lifted his 
 eyes and stared at David. Then he laughed
 
 62 ROBIN AROON 
 
 aloud, a laugh that seemed to hurt him. 
 Elenor read on : 
 
 " 'INVOICE FOR Miss ELEXOR HENNING. 
 
 A fashionable Laced Cap, Handkerchief, Ruf 
 fles & Tuckes, 7 . o.o 
 A fashionable Brocade Suit, 16. o.o 
 A pair of Stays, 2. o.o 
 A blue Satin Petticoat i., Scarlet Cloth 
 
 Under Petticoat 2, 3. o.o 
 
 A Pair of Blue Satin Shoes, full trimmed, 1.16.0 
 
 A Hoop i., a Pr. Blue Silk Stockings 0.12, 1.12.0 
 
 A fashionable Silver Girdle i., A Fan i., 2. o.o 
 
 33. 8.0'" 
 
 "La, mother!" called David. "Hear your 
 dear daughter Elenor." 
 
 The company laid down knives and forks 
 to listen. 
 
 "She's telling George Lee about her new 
 blue-silk stockings, and her new pair of stays." 
 
 A rose-color illumined Miss Elenor's fair 
 face. 
 
 "That's a vile story, David!" she gasped. 
 
 "David!" said Mrs. Henning warningly, 
 and shaking her head at him. 
 
 "I vow," exclaimed young Mr. Lee, both 
 to relieve Miss Henning's embarrassment and 
 to egg Master Henning on, "I hope the stays 
 are not the newest fashion, Miss Elenor. I
 
 ROBIN AROON 63 
 
 saw a lady at Nomini last week with the new 
 London style of stays. They seemed suited 
 to come up to the upper part of her shoulders, 
 almost to her chin; and were swathed round 
 her as low as they could possibly, allowing her 
 any liberty to walk." 
 
 "God bless my soul! is it possible?" ejacu 
 lated Mr. Ball, setting down his second cup 
 of tea. "God bless my soul!" 
 
 Captain Blaise again laughed aloud, with 
 out the change of a muscle. 
 
 "To be sure, 'twas a vastly modest dress, 
 Miss Elenor," continued George Lee. "Do 
 the new stays seem to be the rage in London 
 town, Captain Blaise?" 
 
 "Don't know," responded the sailor, star 
 ing. "Have no talent in stays," and he re 
 sumed his interrupted attention to his dinner. 
 
 "Tell us about the newest a la mode in 
 ladies' stockings, Mr. Lee," besought David 
 flatteringly. "What are said to be the most 
 approved colors? Is blue silk fashionable?" 
 
 "David, you may withdraw," said his 
 mother, with severity; and Mr. Lee's persi 
 flage ceased. David arose and departed, 
 pausing a moment at the door to beckon with 
 significant forefinger to Evelyn Harrison, who
 
 64 ROBIN AROON 
 
 smiled at him with a negative shake of her 
 curly head. 
 
 The conversation became general, and the 
 room was filled with the chatter and laughter 
 of youth and happiness, and lit with the in 
 dulgent smiles of those from whom youth had 
 departed only to leave contentment. The 
 painted men and women on the wainscoted 
 walls, who had been known alive of Lely or 
 Reynolds or Bridges or Hesselius, gazed 
 down with their pursuing eyes, seeming the 
 while to wear on their proud faces something 
 of that reverence which is the essential qual 
 ity of gentle birth and breeding. 
 
 When the dinner was ended, at a signal 
 from Mrs. Henning the ladies arose; and 
 while the men, also arising, stood ceremoni 
 ously, left the room. 
 
 "Come on, Mr. Greig," called David from 
 the open doorway to the Scotch tutor, who 
 had sat for the most part silent through the 
 meal; and the Scotchman followed the ladies 
 into the drawing-room. 
 
 "I'm not allowed to toast, and you've no 
 mind to," said the boy, as he and Greig van 
 ished from the sight of the other men in the 
 wake of the ladies.
 
 ROBIN AROON 65 
 
 The gentlemen seated themselves again at 
 the table ; and the old negro dining-room ser 
 vant set decanters and goblets of cut glass in 
 rose-patterns upon the board. 
 
 "Sugar and hot water with the brandy, 
 William," commanded Robert Henning. 
 "Bring the old madeira, and some of the last 
 cask of West India rum. I think you take 
 yours in a dram, Colonel, instead of a toddy," 
 he observed to Colonel Selden. 
 
 "The dram, Robert," interjected old Mr. 
 Ball. "Sugar is a mistake. The dram's the 
 thing." 
 
 From the drawing-room adjoining came 
 David's fine tenor voice, singing for the ladies 
 to the melodious accompaniment of Greig up 
 on the violin. The words of the boy's song 
 caused Robert to smile significantly at Colonel 
 Selden, as the wine began to circulate. 
 
 " 'Ah, Chloris, could I now but sit 
 
 As unconcerned as when 
 Your infant beauty could beget 
 
 No happiness or pain ! 
 When I the dawn used to admire, 
 
 And praised the coming day, 
 I little thought the rising fire 
 
 Would take my rest away-' "
 
 66 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "That's for Evelyn Harrison, Colonel," 
 said Robert, with a chuckle. 
 
 "Ah!" murmured the Colonel, over his 
 madeira. He smiled in his turn, as his 
 thought conjured up the vision of his own gay 
 youth, singing love-songs to some Amaryllis 
 long since asleep in the graveyard of the Mid 
 dle Church. 
 
 "God bless 'em, Robin !" he said, with the 
 glass at his lips. 
 
 In their picturesque dress, and with the 
 suavity of their polished manners compelling 
 them, these men, no less than the women who 
 had but lately sat with them, seemed, as in 
 deed they were, some gracious portion of an 
 old world of society that had rooted itself in 
 the soil of centuries. They were of a new 
 country in comparison with that which their 
 forbears had left, and the social earth was 
 scarcely more than virgin. Yet here was 
 blooming in unsurpassed beauty and undi- 
 minished splendor the full-blown flower of an 
 ancient and lordly race. 
 
 "Is that the Scotchman playing the fiddle?" 
 queried Mr. Lee of Robert Henning. When 
 informed that Greig was quite an accomplish-
 
 ROBIN AROON 67 
 
 ed musician, he expressed a dislike of the 
 Scotch. 
 
 "Should my sister marry one of them, I 
 would never speak with her again," he said; 
 "and if I have a daughter, and she marry 
 a Scotchman, I shoot her dead at once !" 
 
 It was the hyperbole of exaggerated 
 thought, born of Henning's madeira. 
 
 "Your prejudice is foolish, George," com 
 mented his cousin, Mr. Kendall, across the 
 board. "The Scotch are becoming influential 
 people in the colony. I observe that nearly 
 all the merchants and store-keepers in my ac 
 quaintance are young Scotchmen, and most of 
 them of good family. I find it the case 
 throughout the Province." 
 
 "Merchants and storekeepers, forsooth!" 
 said Lee, smiling disdainfully. 
 
 "The Scotchmen?" asked Mr. Ball, from 
 down the table. "My dear sir, they make 
 the finest of all tutors, and many of the gen 
 tlemen have them in their families." 
 
 "I will stand sponsor for Mr. Greig," ob 
 served Robert Henning. 
 
 "I grant you, they are sometimes good 
 tailors," said Lee. "All my coats and 
 breeches, save those for dress which I get
 
 68 ROBIN AROON 
 
 from London, are made by a Scotchman in 
 Fredericksburg named Paul a very worthy 
 man, but a tailor." 
 
 "When your friends, Patrick Henry and 
 Jefferson and Carr in the Burgesses, get their 
 revolution well under way, we shall have need 
 of the Greigs and the Pauls, and the other 
 tailors and storekeepers and. tutors," said 
 Colonel Selden. 
 
 "And they will give a good account of 
 themselves, I warrant," echoed Mr. Ball 
 stoutly. 
 
 Robert Henning arose, and holding high 
 his glass, brimmed with wine, said: 
 
 "The toasts, gentlemen!" 
 
 When the crimson vintage glowed in each 
 glass, he added: "I give you Mr. Pope's 
 pledge : 'To all our loves !' ' 
 
 "Surely, not for lack of a better, Robert," 
 said George Lee, forgetting his Scotchmen. 
 He was thinking of Betty Berkeley beyond 
 the closed doors of the drawing-room, from 
 which the notes of Greig's violin still bore 
 upon their cadences the tuneful words of 
 David's love-song:
 
 ROBIN AROON 69 
 
 " 'Your charms in harmless childhood lay 
 
 Like metals in a mine; 
 Age from no face takes more away 
 
 Than youth concealed in thine. 
 But as your charms insensibly 
 
 To their perfection prest, 
 So love as unperceived did fly, 
 
 And centered in my breast.' " 
 
 "Ha, ha!" laughed Colonel Selden softly, 
 with a look at Henning, as he drained his 
 glass. "God bless 'em!"
 
 THE FIFTH CHAPTER 
 
 ON THE DRAGON SWAMP ROAD 
 
 Booted and spurred, and in traveling cos 
 tume, Robert Henning on the next morning 
 rode out of the great gate at Bushy Park; 
 and with him rode old Silas, who had been 
 carriage-driver for the family since Robert's 
 early childhood. 
 
 Silas's withered face wore an expression of 
 wrinkled misery. In front of him was 
 strapped a hugh leather portmanteau, above 
 which he discerned at intervals the tips of his 
 horse's ears. 
 
 They had passed the ancient sundial on 
 the lawn, with its unerring iron finger point 
 ing the passage of time, and its no less uner 
 ring motto graven in the marble, "Vita um 
 bra" proclaiming the evanescence of even a 
 river baron's glory. Henning thought of 
 how but a few days before he had seen Nancy 
 Carter, in a white frock, stretched at full and 
 charming length upon the greensward there 
 beside it. Each detail of her attitude flashed
 
 ROBIN AROON 71 
 
 again through his memory the taper hand 
 on chin, the half-disclosed elbow in the grass, 
 the long graceful contour of body and limbs, 
 the contemplative gaze of her eyes on a ship 
 slowly moving down the river. 
 
 The recollection of her lent a new signifi 
 cance to the sundial. 
 
 "A most alluring minx," he murmured, 
 "with a devil of a spirit." 
 
 Beyond the gate, to the right, lay the broad 
 waters -of Urbanna Creek, on whose western 
 side shone through the white morning the 
 early sunlit roofs of the little village. A dis 
 tant figure, standing erect in a tiny boat, 
 seemed a speck on the face of the sparkling 
 waters. It was one of the plantation negroes 
 tonging oysters, in a month that had no r in 
 it, for the family's breakfast at the great 
 house. 
 
 The sun was half an hour high. The blue 
 of the sky was stainless; and the atmosphere 
 seemed of translucent gold. At Henning's 
 back the stately mansion reared its gabled and 
 dormered roof; and the tall chimneys of it, 
 looking far across the mutable river to where 
 the distant banks of Lancaster smiled to the
 
 72 ROBIN AROON 
 
 summer morning, flung cool shadows over the 
 western way. 
 
 Dew-spangled webs lay upon the lush grass 
 along the roadside; and through the tangle 
 of the grass tiny morning grasshoppers were 
 beginning to slip. Early bees, from the 
 hives at the quarters to the east, were already 
 busy with the white blooms of the wild black 
 berries along the outreaching worm-fences. 
 A butterfly on rainbow-tinted wings drifted 
 aimlessly across the rider's way, wafted by 
 the soft breeze that came up from the river. 
 
 "Mars' Robert," said Silas, unmoved by 
 the opulence of the summer's splendor. 
 
 He addressed the back of Robert Henning, 
 who rode a few paces ahead, with the long, 
 swinging stirrup and the light left-handed 
 rein of the genuine Virginia horseman. A 
 slight drawing of the bridle, and a consequent 
 pressure on the bit, checked the rapid pace 
 of Henning's horse; and Silas drew nearer. 
 
 "Young marster," repeated Silas anxiously, 
 "is you a-gwine all de way f'om Bushy Park 
 ter de Guff o' Nexico, a-hoss-back, like dis- 
 heer? Hit's a-killin' yo' po' ole nigger." 
 
 Henning chuckled to think of how the old
 
 ROBIN AROON 73 
 
 man was longing for his seat on the carriage- 
 box. 
 
 "Only to Williamsburg, Silas," he ans 
 wered. "We'll get a chariot and a pair that I 
 know of there; and I'll send these back to 
 David. We'll drive most of the way to the 
 Gulf." 
 
 Down the Dragon Swamp Road they went 
 through the early morning. Their way lay 
 past the tobacco fields of the Bushy Park 
 plantation; and as far as the eye could reach 
 the earth was green with the dark rich beauty 
 of the nicotian plant. 
 
 The Virginians for a hundred years had 
 heeded the irreverent admonition of the Eng 
 lish worthy, who in the latter part of the 
 seventeenth century, upon being importuned 
 for aid to enlighten and save their provincial 
 souls, had scornfully ejaculated, "Damn 
 their souls ! Let them raise tobacco !" 
 
 They had raised tobacco. 
 
 The commerce in the weed for more than 
 a century had continued to enrich tremendous 
 ly the river barons of the Colony; and now 
 in this year of grace 1774, the tobacco lords 
 of Glasgow were promenading the Trongate 
 in long scarlet robes and bushy wigs, thinking
 
 74 ROBIN AROON 
 
 of the forty-nine thousand hogsheads which 
 the Scotch burgh in the twelvemonth preced 
 ing had imported thence, and thanking God 
 that they possessed such fair cause to name 
 one of their main thoroughfares with the 
 name of Virginia Street. 
 
 An army of negro slaves, men and women, 
 were already at work amid the greenness of 
 the Bushy Park fields; and Silas's comment 
 to his master that "hit look lak de crop gwine 
 ter be a fine un, dis year," was concurred in 
 by the lord of the manor with a nod. 
 
 The road ran nearly parallel with the river, 
 that was visible to the traveler along it, shin 
 ing and sparkling beyond the expanse of the 
 green tobacco fields.- A mile from the Bushy 
 Park gate it veered to the east, traversing the 
 adjoining plantation of Barn Oaks, until be 
 yond a fringe of woods the stuccoed walls 
 of the Glebe appeared in sight. 
 
 Out of the Glebe gate, as the travelers 
 drew near, trotted into the main road to join 
 them the minister of the parish on a power 
 ful hunter, which he bestrode with the mili 
 tary mien of a hussar riding to battle. 
 
 "Good morning, Parson," called Henning, 
 glad of other company than Silas's, though
 
 ROBIN AROON 75 
 
 but for a little distance. "Whither away so 
 betimes?" 
 
 "I have an invitation to dine at Grymeses' 
 Brandon," said the Reverend Mr. Heffernan, 
 with a rich Irish accent, "and I must stop for 
 some hours on the way to look after that ras 
 cally carpenter, Henderson, who is repairing 
 Christ Church. A plague on the rogue son 
 of a redemptioner. If he were a slave, I 
 should larrup him. Where are you going 
 with all that luggage, Robin, machree?" and 
 he cast a swift glance of his dark, deepset eyes 
 at Silas's burden. 
 
 "To Williamsburg, to see a Shakesperian 
 play by an English company, just arrived, 
 your reverence. Do you read the Gazette? 
 Later, I shall start to the southward, for rec 
 reation, and to study politics." 
 
 'Tis a nest of malcontents gathered to 
 gether over there in that town," said the Par 
 son. His thin lips covered set teeth as he 
 paused in his speech. "I wonder my Lord 
 Dunmore does not string some of them up for 
 treason. Sedition is wearing too bold a front in 
 the Province of late. Old Sir William Berke 
 ley had made short shift of them with their 
 Gazettes and their correspondences and fool-
 
 76 ROBIN AROON 
 
 ishness. Let them remember the rebel Bacon, 
 and Drummond and the earlier traitors." 
 
 The words came from his lips with a suc 
 cession of jerks that were marked by the beat 
 of his horse's hoofs in the road. Horse and 
 rider were not unlike in other respects than 
 that they both were hard-mouthed, and often 
 champed at the bit. The parson was a tall, 
 rawboned, bullet-headed Irishman, with a fine 
 Milesian brogue that gave an edge to his 
 talk. He seemed to be some forty years of 
 age. The horse, that he handled with the 
 skilled ease of a veteran rider, was also raw- 
 boned and bullet-headed. He was some six 
 teen hands high, and his trot was staccato, as 
 the minister's seat in the saddle was erect. 
 
 Henning had had a large experience of the 
 Irishman's fierce party views. No company 
 of patriotic Virginians had ever daunted him 
 in the expression of his hatred for a political 
 movement that threatened the church estab 
 lishment upon which he flourished. His 
 companion sought to change the current of 
 the talk. 
 
 "Jotank looks in fine fettle to-day, Par 
 son," said Henning, affecting to survey the
 
 ROBIN AROON 77 
 
 sorrel stallion critically. "You should enter 
 him in the next Richmond County races." 
 
 "I have offered to wager Colonel Tayloe 
 50 Virginia money that this horse can beat 
 his great Yorick in a two-mile steeple-chase, 
 he and I to ride," jerked out the Parson grim 
 ly. "But Colonel Tayloe does not approve 
 that the minister of the parish shall ride races 
 in public. He thinks, doubtless, that it may 
 give a handle to some of the Whig Dissen 
 ters." 
 
 The Reverend Mr. Heffernan laughed 
 harshly; and Henning rode on in silence. 
 
 "It seems that some of these young bur 
 gesses from the Western wilderness are prat 
 ing louder than ever about their taxation with 
 out representation. They threaten the de 
 struction of the social order; they are full of 
 false doctrine, heresy and schism; they " 
 
 They had come to a gate across the road; 
 and as the Parson rode forward to open it, 
 the conclusion of his speech was lost to his 
 companion's ears. The wide swinging gate 
 closed behind Silas with a bang; and Mr 
 Heffernan, resuming his position on Hen- 
 ning's right, said:
 
 7 8 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "I hear that your sprightly young friend, 
 Mistress George Turberville of Peckatone, 
 whom I had the honor of meeting some 
 months ago at Bushy Park, has declared war 
 on all Richmond County gates." 
 
 "Ah, has she?" queried Henning, with a 
 show of interest, and relieved at the Parson's 
 abandonment of politics. 
 
 "When she goes abroad," the latter con 
 tinued, "I learn that she is wont to arm her 
 outriders with axes. Then she gives them 
 orders to smash ever) 7 gate in the way and to 
 remove all obstacles. Colonel Landon Car 
 ter is much wrought up that she broke down 
 some of the gates on the Sabine Hall planta 
 tion." 
 
 "Colonel Landon has a testy temper when 
 aroused," Henning replied, laughing. "But 
 for his courtesy to all women, he might hale 
 the lady before the county court." 
 
 "I admire her courage," said Mr. Hef- 
 fernan. " 'Twere well if his excellency 
 might turn her and her axe-bearers loose 
 among yon treason-praters at the capital." 
 
 "We have missed you at Bushy Park, Par 
 son," remarked Robert, ignoring the minis 
 ter's application of Mrs. Turberville's im-
 
 ROBIN AROON 79 
 
 patience of obstacles to the political situa 
 tion. "The house has been full of pretty 
 girls, who have pined for you in a minuet. 
 David's violin is out of tune when he cannot 
 play with you; and Colonel Selden says he 
 hasn't had a genuine mint-julep since the last 
 one you made for him at the Glebe." 
 
 The ghost of a smile flickered over the 
 Parson's saturnine face. 
 
 "Ah, Robin, aroon," he answered, "the 
 youth of the world is still in your veins. 
 Your thought ever runs on wine, woman and 
 song. I'll have the Colonel over, to try my 
 new recipe for a julep 
 
 " 'This cordial julep here, 
 That flames and dances in its crystal bounds.' 
 
 "I'll venture to assert that the old round 
 head poet never knew anything like these 
 green drinks we brew in Virginia. The mint 
 is perfect now, and I have a cask ot old 
 brandy from Lancaster." 
 
 "They say at the Raleigh Tavern," ans 
 wered Henning, "that it is a current word 
 with the burgesses from the westward that 
 wherever the mint grows, underneath is 
 buried a Virginian of the River Ways." 
 
 Heffernan chuckled.
 
 8o ROBIN AROON 
 
 "Divulge me your recipe, Parson," con 
 tinued the young man. 
 
 "Aha!" said the minister, "I warrant me 
 that the schismatic rogues in your Raleigh 
 Tavern would hail it with more acclaim than 
 a letter from one of their pestiferous cor 
 respondence committees in Massachusetts Bay 
 or Providence Plantations, w r here the crop- 
 eared breed of rebels does most abound." 
 
 They passed through another plantation 
 gate ; and saw beyond it, where the road from 
 the south crossed that of the Dragon Swamp, 
 a horseman on a grey nag, who appeared to 
 await their coming. 
 
 "It looks like John Ree," said the Rever 
 end Mr. Heffernan. 
 
 "Dat look ter me lak Mr, Ball's grey 
 hoss," ventured Silas ruefully, from behind 
 his portmanteau. 
 
 Both surmises proved correct. 
 
 "Hail, Parson! hail, Robin!" called 
 Mr. Ree cheerfully, as they approached. 
 
 Silas surveyed the heavens, connecting 
 Mr. Ree's classic salutation with some threat 
 ened change in the weather. 
 
 The new comer was dressed in black super 
 fine broadcloth, a gold-laced hat, laced ruffles,
 
 ROBIN AROON 81 
 
 and black silk stockings, all of which looked 
 somewhat the worse for wear, and quite in 
 appropriate for a horseback ride. His 
 flushed face and disheveled costume contrast 
 ed strongly with the correct and sober dignity 
 of the minister's severely dark costume and 
 austere demeanor. 
 
 "You are out early, Mr. Ree," said Mr. 
 Heffernan. 
 
 Mr. Ree was a gentleman from beyond 
 Fredericksburg. His plantation lay not far 
 from where Governor Spotswood founded his 
 iron works at Germanna. Mr. Ree pre 
 ferred the festivities of the River region to 
 his lonely life in the backwoods. Where 
 fore, having neither chick nor child to look 
 after, and possessing a highly capable and 
 honest overseer upon his estate, he spent 
 more of his time under the roof-trees of his 
 many friends and acquaintances in the Rap- 
 pahannock Valley than under his own. 
 
 David Henning, with a nimble wit, had 
 characterized Mr. Ree, on the occasion of a 
 long stay of his at Bushy Park, as being very 
 similar to a certain character depicted in the 
 works of the late Mr. Addison,
 
 82 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "He stays," observed David, "eight or ten 
 weeks in his own house because he must, and 
 the rest of the year with his friends because 
 he can." 
 
 "This is early for me, Mr. Heffernan," 
 Mr. Ree now said to the minister confiden 
 tially, "but I came up by boat from Merry 
 Point yesterday, and lay last night at Ur- 
 banna. 'Tis a most pestiferous and immoral 
 hole, Parson. There I fell in with several 
 young bloods. We had a game or two be 
 fore retiring, which lasted to the small hours. 
 The villainous light of the candles hurt my 
 eyes, and so I am out this morning seeking 
 fresh air and eyesight." 
 
 Parson Heffernan regarded him with in 
 terest. 
 
 "Were the stakes high, Mr. Ree?" he 
 queried. 
 
 "That's a good horse of yours, Parson," 
 replied Ree irrelevantly. 
 
 Then he added: 
 
 "The stakes were not so high as yonder 
 five-barred gate. I'll ride you a race from 
 here thither for a purse of ten shillings, the 
 winner to take the gate and the next gate by 
 the church for hurdles."
 
 ROBIN AROON 83 
 
 The gate to which Mr. Ree pointed was 
 visible about half a mile away, down the in 
 tersecting road. 
 
 "Make it twenty," said the Parson grimly, 
 "and I'll ride ye." 
 
 Mr. Ree made it twenty; and the two 
 paused in the road, with their horse's flanks 
 close together, to count out the silver. 
 
 "Hold it, Robert," said Mr. Ree. 
 
 "I'm going to Williamsburg," said Hen- 
 ning, fobbing the money unwillingly. "Send 
 me word to Charlestown, in the Province of 
 Carolina, who wins the race." 
 
 They did not heed him. Side by side, and 
 bridle bit to bridle bit for a moment, the 
 grey gelding and the sorrel paused. 
 
 "Go!" shouted Henning; and down the 
 road they went, the Parson sitting bolt up 
 right, and riding as in a cavalry charge, and 
 Ree leaning forward over the neck of the 
 grey. 
 
 "Dar!" ejaculated Silas, taking a tighter 
 grip upon the portmanteau, and watching the 
 flying figures with starting eyeballs. "Dar! 
 'fo' Gord! dey done off!" 
 
 Henning laughed aloud at the sight, and 
 waited long enough to see the minister on
 
 84 ROBIN AROON 
 
 Jotank clear the gate a little in advance of 
 Mr. Ree. Then both vanished from view 
 beyond the grove of oaks, out of which rose 
 the red brick walls of the Middle Church. 
 
 "Come on, Silas," said Henning. "The 
 Parson's crazy and Ree is an ass. We are 
 going to Williamsburg." 
 
 And in the light of the shining summer 
 morning they rode on to the Dragon Swamp 
 Bridge.
 
 THE SIXTH CHAPTER 
 
 It was on a moonlight night in the same 
 month of May, two days after his departure 
 from Bushy Park, that Robert Henning es 
 corted westward along the north side of the 
 Duke of Gloucester Street in Williamsburg, 
 from the theatre near the capitol at its east 
 ern end, his charming young cousin, Miss 
 Milicent Hubbard. She was a vivacious and 
 spirited damsel of seventeen, whose talk left 
 in its wake the rippling foam of light laugh 
 ter. 
 
 Some of the young Virginians of her ac 
 quaintance thought her, though of perfect 
 figure otherwise, a trifle too long of limb. 
 But there was no man in the Colony, young 
 or old, who could look from above or on the 
 level into her dark-lashed violet eyes of in 
 nocence, and watch the coming and going of 
 the dimples about her small red mouth, or 
 note the blood whose ebb and flow paled and
 
 86 ROBIN AROON 
 
 crimsoned the oval contour of her fair face, 
 and not dream dreams and see visions. 
 
 The two young people had that evening 
 beheld from the family circle King Richard 
 the Third and Bosworth's fated field present 
 ed to the most fashionable audience in Vir 
 ginia by a company of London players; and 
 had afterward witnessed a tragic dance com 
 posed by Monsieur Denoir, called "The 
 Royal Captive," executed with charming 
 grace and abandon by a young woman of no 
 little beauty of face and a lavish abundance 
 of snowy draperies. 
 
 The breaking up of the audience after the 
 close of the tragic dance, whose tragedy had 
 nevertheless wrought some hardly restrained 
 explosions of mirth among the younger and 
 giddier of the assemblage, had presented to 
 Henning's delighted eyes the kaleidoscopic 
 effect of unusual and brilliant combinations 
 in form and color. The soft light of wax 
 candles, reflected from brass sconces on the 
 walls, illustrated a glowing concourse of 
 patrician men and women, about whom hung 
 the indefinable Old World atmosphere of 
 ruffles and brocades, of silk stockings and 
 jeweled buckles, and of crimped and powder-
 
 ROBIN AROON 87 
 
 ed hair. There had been something almost 
 startling to him, in his charmed and contem 
 plative mood, to hear the usher at the theatre 
 door call the chaises and chariots of these 
 people, whose names were those of the finest 
 men and women of the most brilliant period 
 of the Colony. 
 
 "Mr. Harrison's chariot stops the way," 
 intoned the monotonous voice; "Mr. Bas- 
 sett's; Mr. Wormeley's; Mr. Tayloe's chaise 
 is waiting!" 
 
 Thus through the roll of the barons of 
 York and Potomac, of Rappahannock and 
 James, ran the announcements; until it seem 
 ed that there were few of the grandees of 
 Virginia who had not on that night beheld 
 in the crowded theatre the hunch-backed king 
 making love to Lady Anne, and later bidding 
 bind up his wounds of battle. 
 
 "Was ever woman in this humor wooed? 
 Was ever woman in this humor won?" 
 
 The lines sang themselves in the heart of 
 more than one silken-clad gallant of the audi 
 ence when the curtain had fallen; and many 
 a young brocaded miss repeated in her after- 
 dreams that night:
 
 88 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "Their lips were four red roses on a stalk." 
 
 The river-lords of vast tobacco fields and 
 innumerable negro slaves, and long colonial 
 pedigrees, had come up to the capital from 
 varying distances, fetching their wives and 
 daughters, their sons, and cousins and friends. 
 The Middle Plantation was full of them. 
 
 "Mr. Berkeley's chaise! Mr. Randolph's. 
 Mr. Stith's. Mr. Gary's. Mr. Conway's. 
 Mr. Ball's. Mr. Page's. Mr. Nelson's." 
 
 The opulent and sensuous splendor of the 
 scene, the charm and loveliness of the women, 
 the lofty bearing of the men kindled strange 
 fires of prophecy in Henning's soul, that were 
 still burning when he found himself silent 
 after a five minutes' walk from the theatre 
 door with Milicent on his arm. 
 
 "The abolition of primogeniture for 
 these? The destruction of the established 
 church for these? The emancipation of 
 the slaves for these? The equality, of all 
 men the soiling touch of democracy, for 
 these gay aristocrats?" 
 
 "Why so glum and melancholy, Mr. Hen- 
 ning?" queried the girl mockingly. "Did
 
 ROBIN AROON 89 
 
 the tragic dancer fill you with dismal sor 
 row?" 
 
 He smiled down at her. 
 
 "I thought the dance very beautiful, Mil- 
 ly," he answered. "It appealed to me more 
 than did the play." 
 
 " 'Tis a pity we did not have our chaise 
 when 'twas ended," she observed, pouting. 
 "You might then have got me home sooner, 
 and I should not have broken in on your 
 dreams of the beautiful dancing-girl." 
 
 "Why, what's the matter, Milly?" he 
 asked, surprised. 
 
 "You're so cross," said the girl, making 
 a provoking grimace of her small red mouth. 
 Then he observed that she was carrying upon 
 her left arm the train of her white satin skirt; 
 and he reached over to take from the gloved 
 hand on his sleeve her jeweled fan of white 
 ostrich plumes. 
 
 She pulled the fan away from him. 
 
 "Pardon me, Milly," he said humbly. 
 
 "You haven't heard a word that I have 
 been saying, and I have talked to you since 
 we left the theatre door," she grumbled. 
 
 "I am all attention," he said, inclining his 
 head toward her.
 
 90 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "Mr. Bassett is to give us a ball," she chat 
 tered, her countenance returning with his 
 apology. "It will be in the week before com 
 mencement; and I am to wear a new rich 
 gown of white satin, far handsomer than 
 this," and she flirted the suspended train to 
 ward him with a deft movement of her left 
 hand. 
 
 "I shall have a blue scarf over my shoul 
 ders," she rattled on, "falling in front of my 
 dress. My slippers will be of blue satin, and 
 I have the sweetest pair of blue silk stock 
 ings." 
 
 He drew a quick breath. 
 
 "I shall wear my lovely pearl brooch that 
 father imported for me last year from Lon 
 don. All of the college boys will be there 
 Ben Harrison and Jack Nelson and Sam 
 Cabell and Jimmie Farley and Johnnie Lewis, 
 and all the others. And don't you think, 
 cousin Robert, that Tom Randolph's heart 
 my Tommy's ought to be entirely broken 
 when he takes me on his arm that night at 
 Bassett Hall?" 
 
 In her enthusiasm over the picture of her 
 self which her imagination conjured up as in 
 a mental mirror, she paused in her walk for
 
 ROBIN AROON 91 
 
 a moment. Then dropping her satin train 
 and her plumed fan at once, she clasped both 
 hands over the blue velvet sleeve of Hen- 
 ning's coat, and gazed up into his face with 
 eyes that seemed to him, in the moonlight, to 
 be kindled with the moon. 
 
 Unskilled in the artifices of this young 
 woman, he gallantly bent to pick up her fan. 
 Milly, delighted with the success of the 
 manoeuvre, stooped for it at the same mom 
 ent. The charming result of this simulta 
 neous stooping was that his face and hers 
 came so close together he could feel her 
 breath warm on his cheek, and he was con 
 scious of wondering if she could hear how his 
 heart was beating. 
 
 "That was an achievement successful be 
 yond anticipation," the girl thought delight 
 edly. "But it would scarcely be advisable to 
 adventure the ruse again to-night. It might 
 lose its charm should it seem premeditated." 
 
 As for her companion, with his heart still 
 thumping quicker for the swift, elusive semi- 
 contact, he wondered that Milicent should 
 have improved so vastly both in manners and 
 appearance since he left Williamsburg, a
 
 92 ROBIN AROON 
 
 graduate of the ancient college, but a year 
 agone. 
 
 "I don't know what will happen to Tom 
 Randolph's heart that night, Milly; but I 
 know what will happen to mine, if you drop 
 that fan again. Your Tommy should be 
 what our Scotch tutor Greig calls 'the prood 
 mon' to have you on his arm and in his heart 
 at once in such a company." 
 
 "La, cousin Robert," the girl exclaimed, 
 giving a backward kickup to her lost train, 
 and deftly catching it in her left hand, "that 
 is beautiful. A very pretty speech, truly. 
 Did you graduate in fine speeches from the 
 college, when the President and Masters last 
 June gave you those parchments of Greek 
 and Latin and the sciences? They should 
 rather have crowned you with a wreath of 
 roses, as many of the Williamsburg girls 
 would gladly have done. You looked so 
 handsome, standing there before the reverend 
 seniors, and so modest and so far away 
 from every girl in town. You are browner 
 now than you were then, Robert, aren't you?" 
 
 She looked up at him archly. 
 
 "I think it is you, fair cousin, who deserve
 
 ROBIN AROON 93 
 
 the degree of Doctor of Pretty Words," he 
 answered "summa cum laude" 
 
 "Not I, Mr. Henning, I protest. It is 
 yourself, most learned scholar in the school 
 of the Middlesex maids, and of those of Lan 
 caster. Your art possesses the perfection 
 that comes only from practice. Much study 
 of your subject has made you vastly profi 
 cient." 
 
 "The ladies of Middlesex are pleasant to 
 look upon and delightful to talk to, and to 
 ride and to dance and to drive with," he ans 
 wered, fencing with her. "And those of 
 Lancaster, with equal charms, possess for the 
 Middlesex lads the added fascination that 
 Hero had for Leander; one must needs pad 
 dle across Rappahannock to take lessons in 
 love of them. But they all fade into insigni 
 ficance, sweet cousin, in comparison with " 
 
 The sentence was finished in the sign lan 
 guage of youth. The girl drew a deep 
 breath of delight, and the episode of fan and 
 train was very near an involuntary repeti 
 tion. 
 
 "Robert," she murmured, with mingled 
 rapture and regret, "must you really leave 
 Williamsburg to-morrow? Can not you be
 
 94 ROBIN AROON 
 
 persuaded to remain a week longer till Mr. 
 Bassett's ball? I vow to you that if you wish 
 it, I'll break all my contracts with all my 
 lovers, and Tommy Randolph shall never get 
 even a glimpse of even a toe of my new blue 
 satin ball-slippers from London." 
 
 Then she sighed softly, and said : 
 
 "But I forgot about Betty Berkeley. All 
 the Province knows about you and Betty." 
 
 "Betty Berkeley and I have parted com 
 pany, Milly," he said, and repeated to her 
 what he had said to his mother. "She and 
 I have never loved each other, you know, 
 except as far-off cousins and near neighbors 
 never as genuine sweethearts." 
 
 Miss Milly looked up at him with a glance 
 that was an intimation of how "genuine 
 sweethearts" regarded each other. Then she 
 was silent for a few moments, as if in contem 
 plation of love in all its significance. The 
 silence was broken by a demure observation, 
 as if she were thinking aloud: 
 
 "But father says that near cousins 
 cousins german should not marry; and that 
 no one of his ten fair daughters and six tall 
 sons shall ever wed so near." 
 
 The young man laughed aloud, to follow
 
 ROBIN AROON 95 
 
 the current of her thought; and his mirth be 
 spoke his flattered vanity. 
 
 "Nine sisters-in-law, all beautiful, and six 
 brothers-in-law, all stalwart. How charming, 
 Milly!" 
 
 "Did you ever hear in any other country 
 of the tremendous families that the gentle 
 folk have in Virginia, Robert? It is posi 
 tively discouraging. Think of nine girls to 
 be married. And all the families I know are 
 as large!" 
 
 "You are the finest logician in the Prov 
 ince," chuckled her kinsman. "Your prem 
 ise or your conclusion may be unspoken; but 
 the sequence of your logic is direct. No 
 pundit in the faculty can excel you. You 
 need no elaborate processes of ratiocination 
 to arrive at incontrovertible finalities that 
 are plainly inevitable. You can hit the centre 
 spot of the target with both eyes shut." 
 
 She responded to his laughter with laugh 
 ter of her own. She was filled with a keen 
 zest of the game she was playing with him. 
 
 "For Heaven's sake, Robert!" she gur 
 gled, "don't talk to me in such great words. 
 You will make me forget that you are my
 
 96 ROBIN AROON 
 
 dearest cousin in the flush of your gayest 
 youth. Shut my eyes? Were I to shut my 
 eyes, I might imagine myself taking this 
 moonlight stroll with Dr. Small."
 
 THE SEVENTH CHAPTER 
 
 OF DANCING-GIRLS 
 
 The moonlight lay on the sward of the 
 Court green, where the tiny court-house de 
 signed by some provincial Sir Christopher 
 Wren stood with its quaint, unsupported, 
 projecting portico-roof fronting the long 
 wide street; on the Raleigh Tavern, 
 forum of Colonial politics; on the Powder 
 Horn ; on the Bruton Church that held in its 
 heart the memories of all the grandees who 
 had within its time frequented the Middle 
 Plantation; on the tombs of marble with 
 armorial bearings, and long inscriptions in 
 labored Latin, proclaiming the "ingenua 
 totius corporis pulchritudo" the unbought 
 grace of life of the dead in the old church 
 yard under them; on the Brafferton building, 
 named for the lordly manor in the York Rid 
 ing beyond the ocean ; on the college campus, 
 with its president's house at the north side, 
 and the recently erected statue of the royal 
 7
 
 98 ROBIN AROON 
 
 governor but lately dead, which looked 
 with unseeing eyes down the long street that 
 he had so often traversed in the flesh; and 
 on the noble college building rising two and 
 a half stories, with its dormer windows shin 
 ing through the unstirred trees. 
 
 Robert Henning and Milicent had come to 
 a point in the street where Henning involun 
 tarily paused. 
 
 "Did you ever see anything like that?" he 
 asked. "It is a strange distraction of the 
 senses; or else I am moon-mad? Since what 
 time has a stream of running water flowed 
 along any street of the city of Williams- 
 burg?" 
 
 The moonlight was very bright; and the 
 shadow of a large tree by the side of the way, 
 falling across their path, mingled with the 
 moon's magic to make an unmistakable sim 
 ilitude of moving water in the sandy road. 
 
 The girl laughed, and dragged him for 
 ward. 
 
 "Come on! Let's wade!" she cried. 
 "La ! do you know Nancy Carter, now of 
 Westmoreland? a slip of thing who lived 
 here at Williamsburg up to two years ago. 
 Had she been grown, 'twould have been un-
 
 ROBIN AROON 99 
 
 pardonable. Yet in spite of her size, she re 
 lies on her fifteen years to carry off many of 
 her pranks." 
 
 Henning interpolated into this breathless 
 chatter the statement that he had the honor 
 of Miss Carter's friendly acquaintance; add 
 ing that she had been a guest, with her broth 
 er John, at Bushy Park, a short time before; 
 and that indeed she was a distant relative of 
 his, and that he thought her bewitching. 
 
 "Oh, every one who is any one in Virginia 
 is a relative of every one else who is any one 
 in the Province," said Milly, in a breath, 
 emerging with her companion dry shod and 
 joyous, though with a slight unconscious lift 
 ing of the train which she carried, on the fur 
 ther side of the illusory stream. "Nancy 
 was here again last August; and walking 
 this way on such a night as this with one of 
 the beaux of the town. It is strange to me 
 how grown men should care to dangle after 
 a young chit like Nancy Carter." 
 
 Miss Hubbard paused in her talk to plume 
 herself in thought upon the superiority of her 
 own seventeen years. 
 
 "No, I shan't tell names and tales togeth-
 
 ioo ROBIN AROON 
 
 er," she went on. "But he was no greenling 
 student " 
 
 "Like Tommy Randolph?" asked Hen- 
 ning maliciously. 
 
 She paid no attention to his interruption, 
 but continued. 
 
 "Well, Miss Nancv arrives at this fairy 
 streamlet. She vows it to be as genuine wa 
 ter as any in Nomini Creek; and that she 
 will wade through it, being fond of wading 
 in Westmoreland, but at no risk of wetting 
 her dainty attire. So down she sits over 
 there, takes off her shoes and stockings, and 
 giving her skirts a toss, forthwith proceeds 
 over. Her beau told Mrs. Pasteur, and the 
 news of it was soon all over the town. But 
 he said it was a witching sight; and all the 
 men lauorhed, and forgave it in Nancv." 
 
 Henning capped Millv's story of Nancy 
 Carter with a narration of the episode of the 
 clipped eyebrows, suggesting discursively 
 that his brother David had been deeply smit 
 ten of Nancv's witcheries. 
 
 Something in the mere mention of David's 
 love-making seemed to stir again the well- 
 springs of the girl's sentiment. Beyond the 
 moonshine water she paused in the bright
 
 ROBIN AROON 101 
 
 light before a long, one-storied house, pro 
 jecting upon the street. Over its doorway 
 was a fan-shaped window, and the door itself 
 was approached by three broad stone-steps, 
 leading from the three sides to the stone- 
 flagged platform at the threshold. 
 
 "I never pass this house after nightfall," 
 she said, "without recalling the dead gover 
 nor, who has always seemed to me the fair 
 est figure of romance and Old World chiv 
 alry in or out of the pages of all the story 
 books." 
 
 She breathed a long-drawn sigh, and 
 added : 
 
 "I knew him when I was but a tiny little 
 girl, and I love his beautiful memory as a 
 woman." 
 
 "Ah, yes," said Henning. "Norborne 
 Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt. These are the 
 steps where he found the young women sit 
 ting, upon a moonlight night like this, twang 
 ing their guitar-strings; and here he stopped 
 to join them in their gay love-songs, and to 
 give their unknown and unsyllabled names to 
 history." 
 
 "He possessed all things that befit ro 
 mance," the girl went on devoutly "beauty,
 
 102 ROBIN AROON 
 
 wealth, distinction, power. Strange how all 
 that is left of them is a handful of dust hid 
 den over yonder beneath the Chapel floor." 
 
 "They were beautiful things to have, 
 Milly these that he owned," her com 
 panion answered, falling sympathetically in 
 with her mood. "But leaving them at his 
 exit, there lingered after him something that 
 was less mutable and far more lovely." 
 
 She looked up at him, with the tenderness 
 of infinite regret in her eyes; and he con 
 tinued. 
 
 "After the two all too brief years of his 
 kindly sway in Virginia, this peer of Great 
 Britain bequeathed to his people of this 
 Province, high and low, upon his untimely 
 death a more fragrant memory of sweet be 
 neficence than all of the other royal gover 
 nors who have ruled in the Colony." 
 
 "This is entirely too serious, cousin Rob 
 in," said Millicent. "Dead men's bones and 
 fame and fragrant memories ! You haven't 
 yet answered my question. Must you truly 
 go away to-morrow, when you have only just 
 arrived?" 
 
 "Milly," he said, half-jestingly, but with 
 a touch of tenderness in his voice which she
 
 ROBIN AROON 103 
 
 was swift to interpret, "don't tempt me, dear, 
 in this light that flings a glamour of unreality 
 about everything. Don't make me decide now 
 between a strong inclination and an uncertain 
 sense of duty. Wait until the morn's morn, 
 most beauteous lady, and I'll e'en tell you. 
 I must buy me a pair of horses to-morrow 
 for my further journey; and so I shall not 
 in any event depart until that important 
 transaction be concluded." 
 
 "A pair of horses!" she cried. "Go and 
 buy your old horses, Mr. Henning. Make 
 a moonlight bargain, and leave before the 
 dawn breaks. I hate you I" 
 
 She caught up her skirts, and swinging 
 open a gate on the street, dashed through it 
 and up the steps of a brightly lighted house. 
 Henning, startled by her sudden change of 
 humor, pursued her. But she was too swift 
 for him; though the impeding fan slipped 
 from the fingers of the hand that still grasped 
 her skirts, and fell at the foot of the steps. 
 He stooped to pick it up, and before he was 
 half way to the top of the stairway she had 
 opened the door, and passing through had 
 slammed it. 
 
 He tried the knob. She had locked him
 
 104 ROBIN AROON 
 
 out. He banged with the satyr-faced brass 
 knocker until the alarum caused night-capped 
 heads to pop from windows in the distance; 
 while a hoarse voice called from a house 
 across the wide street: 
 
 "For God's sake, stop that racket, you 
 damned devil; and let decent folk sleep!" 
 
 Disconsolately, though half amused, Hen- 
 ning started at last to leave; and before 
 reaching the gate he beheld his shadow 
 stretching gatewards from the light of the re 
 opened door behind him. Turning, he saw 
 Miss Milly Hubbard standing above him in 
 the doorway he had just left. She was blow 
 ing swift kisses to him from the tips of her 
 pretty fingers. 
 
 "Good-night, cousin Robin ! Beautiful 
 dreams!" she called, between the wafted 
 caresses. "When you return from Carolina, 
 pray come by way of Williamsburg. I shall 
 die to see your new horses on their way 
 home!" 
 
 He retraced his steps, to behold the door 
 close again and the vision vanish; and one 
 after another the lights in the house went out. 
 
 He returned to his room at the Raleigh 
 Tavern with a plumed fan in his hand, that
 
 ROBIN AROON 105 
 
 had in its softness some vague, almost imper 
 ceptible odor, which associated itself in his 
 imagination only with Milly. He put the 
 fan on the dresser; and then, moved by an 
 indefinable impulse, laid it under his pillow. 
 
 When he had climbed into the high-posted 
 bed he sought to compose himself to repose; 
 but slumber for a time avoided him. 
 
 What an utterly inconsistent girl was this 
 Milly ! How rank was her outlawry, and 
 how charming her face and her figure 
 and her eyes and her ways and 
 
 He lapsed at last into creeping drowsiness, 
 and met the images of sleep. He dreamed 
 dreams of the dancing girl at the theatre, 
 who seemed for his subconsciousness to pos 
 sess Milly's countenance in repose, and 
 Milly's round lithe figure, and Milly's grace 
 ful length of leg, and Milly's winning ways. 
 
 He dreamed of the dancing-girl, and of 
 her witchery and her charm the type, in her 
 tender movement, of all the dancers of his 
 toric tragedy that have flaunted silken dra 
 peries and flashed alluring limbs before the 
 jaded eyes of kings and conquerors; sinuous 
 similitude of every frail, fair dancer that 
 ever danced to the melodious music of im-
 
 106 ROBIN AROON 
 
 perial instruments, while cities flamed heaven 
 ward; semblance of all dancing-girls that 
 have lightened the spent hearts of sol 
 diers and seers and statesmen ; dancers of the 
 world, weaving beauty's witching spell with 
 beauty's magic motion about the lulled senses 
 of the sombre centuries; the dancing-girls 
 of the fair forms and the radiant faces, who, 
 though prophets perish and cities crumble, 
 shall yet dance down the ages until time shall 
 end, soothing the souls that are outworn with 
 the weariness of life.
 
 THE SECOND PART 
 LOVE'S ENCHANTMENT
 
 THE FIRST CHAPTER 
 
 AN OFFER OF MARRIAGE 
 
 The roses of early summer were bloom 
 ing throughout the old colonial town of 
 Halifax, on the bank of the Roanoke River 
 in Eastern Carolina. The air was vibrant 
 with the murmur of harvesting bees. A ra 
 diant-winged humming-bird flashed and quiv 
 ered in the woodbine that blossomed over the 
 long veranda of the gabled brick house. The 
 sunlight was reflected from the polished 
 brass knocker of its front door, and flickered 
 among the faintly rustling green leaves of 
 the magnolias in the yard. A breeze from 
 the river entered the hearts of the high box 
 hedges, which on either side shaded the sand- 
 walk leading from the mansion to the gate. 
 The penetrating freshness of the morning 
 pervaded house and garden, street and town. 
 
 A negro man, in his shirt-sleeves, knelt 
 near the fence, trimming with a sickle the 
 grass, over which the shadows of the trees 
 were dancing. A noise in the street attracted
 
 no ROBIN AROON 
 
 his attention. Lifting his head, he saw two 
 handsome bay horses, high bred and clean of 
 limb, following past the gate with spirited 
 step the lead of an old and withered man of 
 his own race. 
 
 "Dat's a furrin nigger," he said, while he 
 critically surveyed the horses and their 
 groom. "I ain't nuvver seed him 'bout here 
 afo'. Looks like he tho't a mighty heap o' 
 hisse'f. I wonder who dem hosses b'longs 
 ter, nohow. Ef Miss' Judy was ter see 'em, 
 dey'd p'intly set her crazy. Hi ! mon, whose 
 nags is dem dar?" 
 
 The old man, apparently purposely hard 
 of hearing, continued on his way in silence, 
 without looking either to the right or left. 
 
 "Say, nigger!" called his interlocutor in a 
 louder tone, "doncher hear me? Whose is 
 dem dar hosses, I axed ye?" 
 
 "You 'ten' ter yo' bizness, an' I gwi' 'ten' 
 ter mine," was the tart reply- "I ain't got 
 no time fur ter be a-swoppin' lies wid evvy 
 sassy sarb'n' I comes acrost in Norf C'liner." 
 
 "Uh-huh!" ejaculated the native with an 
 inimitable accent of contempt. "I knowed 
 ye soon's I sot my eyes on ter ye. Quality
 
 ROBIN AROON in 
 
 niggers is got better manners 'n you's got. 
 You b'longs ter an oberseer." 
 
 At this stage of the colloquy a voice called 
 from an upper window of the house: 
 
 "Boy." 
 
 It was not a loud voice, yet the word was 
 so clearly enunciated that the old man 
 straightway checked his horses and looked 
 up. 
 
 "Yes, marm. Sarb'n', mistis," he said, 
 and doffed his cap to the speaker, and shuf 
 fled his infirm feet in the tawny sands of the 
 street, and bowed low. His adversary of the 
 sickle, glad of an excuse to pause from his 
 labors, soliloquized: 
 
 "Dar ain't nary 'nother sich a pyar in Hal 
 ifax Bur', 'scusin' o' dat ole po' white-trash 
 vilyun dat's a-leadin' on 'em. Mars' Gil- 
 christ's sor'ls can't tetch 'em wid a forty-foot 
 pole." 
 
 "Whose horses are those?" queried the 
 young woman at the window. 
 
 "Dese here? Dese here b'longs ter my 
 young marster, marm." 
 
 "Who is your young master?" 
 
 "My young marster? He's Mars' Rob 
 ert Hennin', f'om Bushy Park, County o'
 
 ii2 ROBIN AROON 
 
 Middlesex, Tidewater in Ferginyer, on de 
 Rap'hannock Riber my ole marster dat's 
 dead and gone's oldest son." 
 
 "Where is he?" 
 
 "He's ter de tavvun, young mistis." 
 
 "What's he doing in Halifax?" 
 
 "What's he a-doin'? He ain't a-doin' 
 nothin'. He's jes a-trabbelin' fur his pledger, 
 marm ; dat's all. De Hennin's, dey don't 
 have ter do nothin', young mistis; dat dey 
 don't, de Hennin's don't!" 
 
 "Well, you go back to the tavern, and tell 
 Mr. Robert Henning, of Tidewater in Vir 
 ginia, that I'll marry him for those horses." 
 
 The pupils of the old man's eyes went into 
 eclipse, leaving visible only their bilious 
 whites. A laugh proceeded from his cavern 
 ous mouth, which was echoed by his late ad 
 versary in the yard through very sympathy. 
 
 "Dat 'ar ole nigger dunno Miss Judy," 
 commented the latter with a chuckle. 
 
 "Marry him fur dese here bosses? De 
 Lord! An' what mought yo' name be, 
 honey?" 
 
 "Now, jes' lissen, will ye!" muttered the 
 grass-cutter, his amusement giving place to 
 indignation. "He's a-makin' o' hisse'f
 
 ROBIN AROON 113 
 
 mons'ous familious-like, a-callin' o' marster's 
 Miss Judy 'honey' !" 
 
 "My name's Judith Montfort," said the 
 girl. "Maybe your master has heard of me." 
 
 "I dunno, mistis," the old man answered. 
 "But I 'spec' ef he had, he'd 'a' done been 
 here 'fo' now. My marster he thinks a heap 
 o' dese yer bosses. He gin a pile o' money 
 fur 'em at Williamsbu'g; but I lay, when 
 he sets dem eyes o' his'n on ter you, he gwi' 
 want ter make de trade. Yes, Lord! an' 
 give ye boot, if ye ax him." 
 
 She laughed aloud in her turn in tribute to 
 his flattery, and lingered at the window until 
 he had disappeared, leading the horses down 
 between the rows of trees that shaded the 
 level street. The man in the yard resumed 
 his work. 
 
 "Umph! 'fo' Gord!" he said, "I done 
 knowed she was 'bleest fur ter have 'em. 
 Mars' Gilchris an' all his Roanoke lo' 
 groun's ain't wuth shucks ter Miss Judy 
 'longside'n a purty boss." 
 
 "Jasper!" 
 
 "Yas, Miss Judy." 
 
 "Go up to the tavern, and find out all you 
 8
 
 n 4 ROBIN AROON 
 
 can about Mr. Henning. Don't let anybody 
 know, Jasper." 
 
 "Naw, Miss Judy." 
 
 He laid down the sickle in the grass, and 
 started to get his jacket from the cedar-bush 
 near by, saying to himself: 
 
 a Dat gal jes' as wile as one o' dese yer 
 maypop vines dat runs all over de face o' de 
 Lord's yarth. What she want me ter go up 
 dar ter de tavvun fur, a-seekin' roun' arter 
 dat strange man? Ole marster ketch me up 
 dar, an' ax me how de debble come I ain't 
 a-cuttin' dis here grass? den what? 
 Um-umph ! Miss Judy gwi' git me an' her 
 bofe in tribberlation some o' dese here days, 
 wid all her carryin's-on. She 'pear like she 
 boun' fur ter have all de young mens arter 
 her, dem dat lives here an' dem dat don't 
 whether dey comes f'om Tidewater ur Salt 
 Water. Whether dey's Mister Hennin' ur 
 Cap'n Paul, dey's all fish dat gits in her net. 
 An' she gethers 'em in, too, mon. She's a 
 fisher o' men, like de Good Book tells about. 
 Looks like dey all think she's jes' as sweet 
 as a Roanoke River paw-paw." 
 
 Then once more Jasper heard the tramp 
 of horses' hoofs along the quiet street. The
 
 ROBIN AROON 115 
 
 sound reached Miss Judith's ear at the same 
 moment; for she opened further one of the 
 window-shutters of her chamber, and peeped 
 out cautiously. Jasper had nearly reached 
 the gate. 
 
 "Jasper!" 
 
 "Mann." 
 
 "You need not go now." 
 
 "Naw, marm." 
 
 Jasper's reply to his mistress was made 
 aloud. His expressive comment under his 
 breath was, "Ah-yi !" 
 
 Having donned his jacket, however, he 
 continued on his way to the gate; and, wait 
 ing there with his head uncovered, took the 
 bridle-rein from the hands of the gentleman 
 who dismounted at the block. 
 
 "Good morning, Jasper," said the new 
 comer suavely. 
 
 "Mornin', Mars' Gilchris'," answered 
 Jasper. 
 
 "Is Miss Judith within?" 
 
 "She was up dar at dat upsta'rs winder, 
 jes' one minnit back, sah," he said. "I 'spec' 
 ef ye had speered up, ye mought ha' seed her, 
 afo' ye got ter de hoss-block."
 
 u6 ROBIN AROON 
 
 The window shutters were thrown wide 
 open. 
 
 "Miss Judith wishes you good-morning, 
 sir," she said. 
 
 Mr. Gilchrist, lifting his cocked hat, 
 looked up and saw her in a white summer 
 gown of some diaphanous stuff, through 
 which faint outlines of a rounded neck and 
 arms were visible. A somewhat complacent 
 expression settled upon his saturnine face. 
 Booted and spurred, he strode up the walk 
 with military mien, and entered the shady 
 veranda. 
 
 "I will meet you half way at the door," 
 the girl called to him with a nod and a 
 smile; and vanished from the window. She 
 would have blown him a kiss had he been 
 twenty years younger. 
 
 "I wish she would not meet folk half 
 way even me," thought Mr. Gilchrist. 
 
 He was beyond the midday of life, a tall, 
 dark, serious man, very erect and stalwart. 
 Thick, iron-gray hair covered his well-shaped 
 head, and ended in a queue that hung over his 
 embroidered coat-collar. He had a smoothly 
 shaven and swarthy face, and black eyes of 
 piercing brilliancy. His person and bearing
 
 ROBIN AROON 117 
 
 alike indicated that he was a character of 
 note. 
 
 "Father has gone down the street, Mr. 
 Gilchrist," the girl said, as, with a flutter of 
 white drapery, she opened the door to him. 
 She laid her slim little hand in his so frankly 
 that he was fain to detain it for a brief, 
 charmed moment. He replied to her saluta 
 tion with the ghost of a smile on his thin 
 lips. 
 
 "I called this morning to pay my respects 
 to the daughter, if she will condescend to ac 
 cept them, and at the same time deign to ex 
 cuse the costume, which the distance I have 
 been compelled to travel has necessitated. I 
 am sojourning this week at my plantation, 
 and rode up to-day." 
 
 She glanced at the top-boots, on which no 
 speck was visible; and observed that the lace 
 at his wrists and on his shirt-front was im 
 maculate. 
 
 "You do me a thousand honors" ; and she 
 half-mockingly dropped him a curtsy, catch 
 ing her skirt with her left hand, and waving 
 the disengaged hand toward him. "And 
 your costume? Why, it is perfect. With an
 
 n8 ROBIN AROON 
 
 exchange of the boots for dancing-pumps, 
 you are equipped for an assembly ball." 
 
 A light shadow of annoyance crossed Mr. 
 Gilchrist's fine face. His strict sense of pro 
 priety always suffered a shock at whatever 
 bore the semblance of a jest; and he was 
 especially prone to regard the levity, of which 
 he was an object, with severe disapprobation. 
 
 "The deference due you would have sug 
 gested a more appropriate attire," he per 
 sisted, "but circumstances forbade." 
 
 "Let us sit on the veranda, and forget cir 
 cumstances," she said. "It is cooler here." 
 
 She fluttered before him to a bench beneath 
 the vine, where the humming-bird was still 
 whirring. Intent upon yet further apologies, 
 he said as he seated himself: 
 
 "One of my coach-horses went lame yester 
 day, and so I was forced to ride." 
 
 "I am truly sorry. Was it King George?" 
 she asked, looking up at him with serious 
 face. 
 
 "No, the mare." 
 
 "Speaking of horses, I saw a most beauti 
 ful span of bays pass the gate just before 
 you came," she said. "They belong to a 
 Mr. Henning."
 
 ROBIN AROON 119 
 
 "Mr. Henning? I have not the honor of 
 his acquaintance. I think I have heard Mr. 
 Harnett say that it is thought a good name in 
 Virginia. Does he hail from that Colony?" 
 
 "He is a Virginian, and his horses are su 
 perb." 
 
 She spoke with enthusiasm, clasping her 
 hands as if to emphasize her praise. 
 
 "I sent him a message concerning them," 
 she continued. 
 
 "When did you meet him?" he asked cu 
 riously. 
 
 The smile of expectance on her lips 
 bloomed into a laugh. 
 
 "Like yourself, I have not the honor of 
 his acquaintance," she said. 
 
 Mr. Gilchrist's sense of propriety sus 
 tained a severe shock. 
 
 "And you sent a message to an unknown 
 young man, unpresented, and as far as you 
 know, unaccredited?" 
 
 "Doesn't Mr. Harnett think the name a 
 good one in Virginia?" she asked naively. 
 
 "Pray, may I be allowed to inquire with 
 what message you honored this stranger?" 
 
 "If you will not scold," she replied, lifting 
 a little white hand toward his lips, a flag
 
 120 ROBIN AROON 
 
 of truce which a younger warrior would have 
 captured and carried into camp, "I sent 
 him word that I would marry him for his 
 horses !" 
 
 "By heavens!" exclaimed Mr. Gilchrist, 
 starting up. "Is this to go on forever?" 
 
 There was a fierce scowl on his brow ; and 
 in his wrath he smote his booted leg savagely 
 with his riding-whip. The color fled for a 
 moment from young Miss Judith's cheeks. It 
 had been so long since she had seen him in an 
 angry mood that she had half-forgotten what 
 a forbidding aspect his anger gave him. 
 
 She laid her hand upon his sleeve and said: 
 
 "You should not be vexed with me for an 
 idle jest." 
 
 He was silent. 
 
 "Forgive me," she went on, "and I'll make 
 amends at the Assembly Ball." 
 
 Not trusting himself to reply, he arose and 
 bowed gravely; then turning, walked away 
 between the shining lines of box-hedges to 
 the gate. For a little moment Miss Judith 
 Montfort forgot the glory of the June morn 
 ing and the beauty of life. 
 
 Jasper, standing in the shade of the pop 
 lar on the edge of the street, in charge of
 
 ROBIN AROON 121 
 
 Mr. Gilchrist's horse, took off his hat as he 
 approached. The negro's palm was itching 
 for the accustomed shilling; but, to his sur 
 prise, it was not forthcoming. Mr. Gil 
 christ's brow was knitted, and darkness 
 clouded his countenance. As if unconscious 
 of Jasper's presence, he mechanically took 
 the proffered bridle-rein and the negro heard 
 him say, "Captain Paul or Mr. Henning. 
 She would coquette with her grandfather." 
 
 Then he mounted, and rode away; and 
 Jasper commented to himself: 
 
 "Dar! What I tole ye? He done cotched 
 up wid her!"
 
 THE SECOND CHAPTER 
 "CON EXPRESSIONS" 
 
 Later in the same day on which the girl 
 in the white, diaphanous summer dress was 
 kindling the wrath of her elderly visitor at 
 the brick house with the green box hedges, a 
 discussion of her between the young man, 
 whose name Mr. Gilchrist had coupled with 
 Henning's, and a handsome matron, was pro 
 ceeding in the morning parlor of The Grove, 
 on Quanky Creek, about a mile away to the 
 west of the town. 
 
 The man was apparently about twenty-five 
 or six years of age. He seemed of a me 
 dium height, and his figure was slight and 
 in the highest degree graceful. His bearing 
 was that of a person of consequence, whose 
 associations had been with men and women 
 of refinement and high breeding. He had a 
 straight nose, and the square jaw indicative 
 of the fighting man. His complexion was 
 swarthy, with the tinge that comes from long 
 experience on the sea, and that is sometimes
 
 ROBIN AROON 123 
 
 called "weather-beaten" ; his eyes were large 
 and dark, and at times wore an expression 
 which the young women of his acquaintance 
 regarded as deeply romantic. Some of them 
 were wont to say that this expression indi 
 cated more than his lips were ever known to 
 speak. He was dressed in the latest fashion 
 of the day, and in perfect taste, though with 
 a general effect that to older eyes would seem 
 to illustrate a love of the spectacular. His 
 suit was of lavender silk, and the waistcoat 
 of it was embroidered with silver. Lace 
 ruffles adorned his neck and wristbands. His 
 silk stockings were partridge colored; and 
 he wore silver buckles at his knees and on his 
 shoes. His chapeau bras lay on a small 
 Sheraton table near him in the bay window, 
 which was said to be the first window of its 
 kind ever built in the southern colonies. 
 Above his head hung a portrait of a clean 
 shaven man in a peruke and crimson velvet 
 coat; and on the gold frame of the picture 
 was engraven a crest of a unicorn rampant, 
 with a Latin motto. It was the portrait and 
 crest of the colonial founder of the family 
 that had long owned The Grove, who had 
 been in his youth an officer in the Brish navy.
 
 i2 4 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "Madam," said the young man to the lady 
 in a softly modulated voice of peculiar sweet 
 ness, "she is an incorrigible coquette. Any 
 man would be a fool who would disclose his 
 devotion to her, before first deeply interesting 
 her. I beg, however, to have you remember," 
 he continued apologetically, "that the words 
 which I speak are uttered in the sacred pri 
 vacy of this presence. I should not have said 
 them, save for your frank questioning, which 
 I have sought to answer frankly. I may add 
 that I have had the good fortune to know 
 many ladies of quality; and with my powers 
 of observation sharpened as they have been 
 by experience, I do not acquit myself of all 
 knowledge of the fair sex." 
 
 He spoke with grave earnestness, and the 
 words, which coming from another might 
 have seemed boastful, carried with them no 
 suggestion of vanity to the minds of his audi 
 tors." 
 
 "You do her injustice, I am sure, Captain 
 Paul," said the lady to whom he addressed 
 his speech, smiling in a conciliatory fashion 
 as she spoke. She was the mistress of the 
 mansion, and held in her lap a small red 
 morocco-covered account book, which she
 
 ROBIN AROON . . 125 
 
 had just been examining. A little negro- 
 girl, dressed in a blue checked cotton gown, 
 and with a nappy head neatly wrapped in 
 many tiny pigtails that were wound about 
 with white cotton strings, sat on a stool at 
 her feet; and gazing up at her with a stare 
 of sleepy attention, fanned her slowly with 
 a huge turkey-wing fan. 
 
 "Judith is fond of fun, I warrant you," 
 continued Mrs. Jones; "but I must affirm 
 that it does not run in the Montfort blood 
 for the women of the name to be wantonly 
 cruel. I appeal to Mr. Jones, who has had 
 experience with at least one Montfort wo 
 man." 
 
 She smiled across the room at her husband, 
 a man of middle age, whose expressive face 
 was lit up by piercing dark eyes, and indi 
 vidualized by a finely formed forehead, a 
 firm decided mouth, and a chin of character 
 and purpose. Educated at Eton, the nursery 
 of the gentlemen of England, he was already 
 one of the foremost men in the Carolina col 
 ony and destined to play a highly conspicuous 
 part- in the great drama then impending. He 
 was smoking, in her presence, by his wife's 
 permission, which he never failed first to ob-
 
 126 ROBIN AROON 
 
 tain from her, a corn-cob pipe with a reed- 
 stem of such length that it was impossible for 
 the smoker of it at once to hold the stem of 
 the pipe in his mouth and reach the bowl of 
 it with his fingers. Wherefore a young ne 
 gro man, his back flattened against the wall, 
 stood near him, in order to replenish the pipe 
 with tobacco when empty, and to fetch the 
 hot coal from the kitchen to relight it when 
 it should go out 
 
 "I crave your pardon, Mistress Jones, and 
 yours, Mr. Jones, if I have blundered," said 
 Captain Paul. He spoke with a suave indif 
 ference that betokened no embarrassment, and 
 that won the admiration of the man of the 
 world whom he addressed. 
 
 "The Earl of Selkirk himself, in his 
 drawing-room at Saint Mary's Isle, could not 
 carry it off better," thought Mr. Jones. 
 
 "I was not aware that you were a Mont- 
 fort before marriage, madam," Paul con 
 tinued; "though I did know that the young 
 ladv was your relative. However, that can 
 be neither here nor there, for you invited my 
 opinion." 
 
 "Tt is of no consequence, Captain Paul," 
 said Mr. Jones good-naturedly. "We are all
 
 ROBIN AROON 127 
 
 kinsfolk in Halifax. The place is full of 
 Joneses and Montforts and Davies and 
 Greens and Sitgreaves and Polks and Stiths 
 and Daniels, who are intermarried and re 
 lated. If relationship debarred our discus 
 sion of each other's merits or demerits, the 
 women of the community would all of neces 
 sity be dumb." 
 
 "I speak of Miss Montfort in a disinter 
 ested way," said Captain Paul. "I may say 
 that I have sometimes fancied it possible that 
 I might fall in love with some fair one; and 
 she is such a one as might well charm me, were 
 my passion not always servant to my judg 
 ment. But I opine that my wooing would be 
 a stormy one, of such a fashion haply as 
 boarding a ship, cutlass in hand. I value 
 too much the privilege I enjoy of your friend 
 ship and hospitality, madam, and yours, Mr. 
 Jones, to run the risk of being driven from 
 that deck, repulsed with an ardor no whit 
 less than my own. So I still cling to the 
 one mistress to whom my profession has at 
 tached me; and if I mistake not, the time 
 is not far off when I may have the oppor 
 tunity of putting my devotion to her to the 
 proof."
 
 128 ROBIN AROON 
 
 Mrs. Jones looked at him inquiringly. 
 
 "Van, fetch me a fresh coal," said Mr. 
 Jones to the negro servant. "This tobacco 
 seems damp." 
 
 The little girl, with the turkey-wing fan, 
 nodded in the balmy softness of the summer 
 morning, and caught herself as she was about 
 to fall from her seat. 
 
 'Tis my ambition, madam, that I adore," 
 said Captain Paul in response to Mrs. Jones's 
 look of interrogation. "She is my beautiful 
 mistress. My thoughts of her might never 
 be translated into the rude verses that I have 
 penned at times to the young women whom 
 I have known. My sw r ord sleeps in its scab 
 bard until some happv season comes when I 
 may draw it in her high honor." 
 
 Mr. Jones was listening attentively, while 
 Van relit the extinguished pipe. 
 
 "By all that I have learned," continued 
 the young man, "from Mr. Jones and his 
 brother, and from Mr. Hewes and Mr. Ire- 
 dell, and others whom I have met here and 
 in Edenton, and at Fredericksburg in the 
 Province of Virginia, I foresee the coming 
 storm of revolution." 
 
 He paused a moment, as though in con-
 
 ROBIN AROON 129 
 
 temptation; and the silence in the room was 
 only broken by the minute explosions of Mr. 
 Jones's lips as he emitted his smoke-clouds, 
 until Captain Paul resumed. 
 
 "I am a North Briton, madam; but 
 America has been the country of my fond 
 election since, at the age of thirteen, I sailed 
 out of Whitehaven harbor in The Friendship, 
 Captain Benson, that cast anchor for the 
 first time on that unforgotten voyage, in Vir 
 ginia waters, in the Rappahannock River of 
 that colony, near the port-of-entry town of 
 Urbanna." 
 
 The smoke wreaths were now curling 
 about Mr. Jones's head where he sat listen 
 ing; and his wife was all gracious attention 
 to their guest, who continued his monologue. 
 
 "In the time that I have spent here, ma 
 dam, the pure and gentle influences that are 
 your accompaniment have deeply touched 
 me. I have promised myself the privilege of 
 telling you yet more of my story than I have 
 already done; and the expression of my as 
 piration but now some day to fight for 
 America assures me that Mr. Jones will hear 
 it with an indulgence as kind as your own." 
 9
 
 i 3 o ROBIN AROON 
 
 He bowed in the direction of his host, who 
 nodded affably, and said: 
 
 "I heard your narrative on yesterday with 
 interest and pleasure, Captain Paul. It en 
 tertained me vastly; and I pray you, there 
 fore, go on." 
 
 "I had come to my last instalment," said 
 Captain Paul, sitting even more erect than 
 formerly, if that were possible, and fixing 
 Mrs. Jones with the melancholy of his dark 
 eyes, "to that unfortunate affair of Maxwell 
 at Tobago. It seemed the tragic culmination 
 of my troubles, that had begun with the re 
 grettable business of my earlier occupation. 
 The man's death in the Indies was imputed 
 to me by my enemies. I was deeply annoyed ; 
 and the apprehension that my relatives at 
 home might think evil of me, prompted me 
 to take active steps to defend my reputation. 
 But the affidavits of the most trustworthy are 
 valueless against calumny. It has been my 
 fortune to accumulate something of what the 
 Scotch call 'gear' in the trade and since; but 
 I swear, madam, by all that I reverence, that 
 I would gladly see myself a pauper to be rid 
 of that foul aspersion." 
 
 "Your friends in Carolina, Captain Paul,
 
 ROBIN AROON 131 
 
 have every confidence in your integrity of 
 character," interposed Mrs. Jones. "We do 
 not doubt that it is so with all who know 
 you, and whose esteem you value. Pray do 
 not afflict yourself with the further narrative 
 of what may be unpleasant in the recollec 
 tion." 
 
 He smiled at her with his luminous eyes. 
 
 "On the heels of this disaster I was taken 
 with a tropical fever; and for a period I im 
 agined my career was at an end. But later 
 I obtained, in the spring of last year, the in 
 dependent command of the Betsey out of 
 London to the West Indies. Again at To 
 bago a tragedy of my life befel me. In Oc- 
 tobeV I was preparing to take the Betsey 
 back to London, and found myself forced to 
 recruit the crew. They were riotous and des 
 perate men. In the enforcement of discipline 
 one of them became rebellious and attacked 
 me with a bludgeon. I had no wish for fur 
 ther trouble, after Maxwell's case ; but I was 
 forced to defend myself, and I slew him. I 
 went to a magistrate of the place, and offered 
 to surrender myself. He knew the temper 
 of my recruited crew, and advised me to
 
 i 3 2 ROBIN AROON 
 
 leave the island; and I came in a ship then 
 sailing to Edenton." 
 
 He paused in his narrative, and the mel 
 ancholy of his eyes deepened. 
 
 "It is no small comfort to me, madam," 
 he concluded, "to have found in this haven of 
 peace a solace and a refuge from my afflic 
 tions. I bless the day when I sailed into 
 your Carolina port, and formed the friend 
 ship of Mr. Hewes, who so kindly brought 
 me hither." 
 
 "I surmise that we shall see Mr. Hewes 
 again soon," said Mrs. Jones, with the gen 
 erous purpose of interrupting the young 
 Scotchman's flow of gloomy thoughts, "for 
 I hear that Isabel Johnstone arrived in Hali 
 fax yesterday, and is visiting Judith." 
 
 "Ah," sighed Captain Paul, with a touch 
 of sentiment, "I begrudge them the charm 
 of young dreams and youthful passion in its 
 blossoming." 
 
 "Speak of angels," said Mr. Jones, arising 
 at the sound of wheels on the gravel road 
 way outside, and looking out of the bay 
 window, "and we hear the whisper of their 
 wings. There is Judith Montfort now come 
 in the chair, and Isabel Johnstone with her."
 
 ROBIN AROON 133 
 
 "It is vastly kind of Isabel," said Mrs. 
 Jones, "to call so informally." 
 
 "There is nothing formal for those who 
 keep pace with Judith," remarked Mr. 
 Jones, going out to greet the two young la 
 dies. They had stopped in their pleasure- 
 drive down the Quanky road to pay a brief 
 midday call on Mrs. Jones. 
 
 Judith came in breathless, with her friend 
 following. Mr. Jones sent Van out to tie 
 the horse, and the long-stemmed pipe for the 
 nonce was laid aside. After the greetings 
 and a flutter of apparent surprise on the part 
 of Miss Judith, which seemed as artless as 
 it was charming, at the apparition of Captain 
 Paul, she said to Mrs. Jones: 
 
 "Oh, cousin Mary, the most beautiful 
 span of horses passed the house this morning, 
 and I have had a quarrel with Mr. Gilchrist 
 about them." 
 
 Captain Paul's face had lost its quality of 
 sadness. There was a light in his dark eyes 
 which seemed to glow with radiance at the 
 sight ot the girl's beauty. 
 
 "And they belong to a most interesting 
 young Virginian, cousin Wiley," she said to
 
 i 3 4 ROBIN AROON 
 
 Mr. Jones, who beamed with contagious 
 pleasure at her enthusiasm. 
 
 "His name is Mr. Robert Henning I 
 think he is Colonel Henning," she rattled on. 
 
 "All prominent Virginians are colonels," 
 interjected Captain Paul, in confirmation. 
 
 "And he lives at Bushy Park, in the 
 County of Middlesex, in the Colony of Vir 
 ginia, on the Rappahannock River, in Tide 
 water." 
 
 "Miss Montfort has clearly been studying 
 a chart, showing the locality of the Virgin 
 ian's home, Mrs. Jones," observed Captain 
 Paul softly. 
 
 "There is a place called Churchill on Jef 
 ferson and Fry's map of Virginia in father's 
 library," the girl said. "I am sure it must 
 be his place, Captain Paul." 
 
 "I vow that she has searched for it most 
 diligently, Captain Paul," said Miss Isabel 
 Johnstone. 
 
 "And he is traveling for pleasure, and he 
 is very wealthy, and very handsome, and very 
 aristocratic ; and he is now at the Silver Swan 
 Tavern; and, cousin Wiley, I do hope that 
 you will call on him, and persuade him to 
 remain to the Assembly Ball."
 
 ROBIN AROON 13$ 
 
 "There is a horse-trade in prospect, Mr. 
 Jones," said Miss Johnstone with a signifi 
 cant smile, "which I think will keep Mr. 
 Henning in Halifax for at least a day or 
 two." 
 
 "I protest, Judith, you have acquired a 
 vast store of information about this Mr. 
 Henning. From whom have you learned it 
 all, my dear?" queried Mrs. Jones. 
 
 "Mr. Gilchrist knew about him, cousin 
 Mary," said Judith. "We quarreled about 
 the horses." 
 
 "Lovers' quarrels are love's renewals, says 
 the Latin poet," observed Mr. Jones, reach 
 ing out a hand for his pipe. "Some more to 
 bacco, Van; and a coal." 
 
 "Ah, about the horses! I see," said Mrs. 
 Jones. 
 
 "Do you really see, madam?" asked Cap 
 tain Paul blandly; and his hostess laughed. 
 
 "What do you mean, Captain Paul?" 
 queried Judith uncertainly. Then she added, 
 "Do you know anything of Mr. Henning?" 
 
 "I have never seen him," answered the 
 Scotchman, "but I know of him by repute. 
 All that you have said of him, Miss Mont- 
 fort, is doubtless true. He is one of the most
 
 136 ROBIN AROON 
 
 notable young men of the Virginia Rappa- 
 hannock Valley." 
 
 "Tell me about him," she said eagerly. 
 
 "I have naught else to tell," he answered, 
 "save that I have more than once passed up 
 the river by Bushy Park; and that I have 
 counted lights burning at once in thirty win 
 dows of that mansion. Mr. Henning is one 
 of the greatest of the Virginia river barons." 
 
 Then Captain Paul turned to Miss Isabel 
 Johnstone, and said: 
 
 "I trust that my respected friend, Mr. 
 Joseph Hewes, was well when you left Eden- 
 ton?" 
 
 The girl blushed, and answered: 
 
 "When I last saw him, which was some 
 days ago, he had in contemplation an early 
 visit to his brother, Mr. Josiah Hewes, in 
 Philadelphia." 
 
 "I hope that we may see him in Halifax 
 first," observed Mr. Jones; and Mrs. Jones 
 added archly, looking at Miss Johnstone: 
 
 "I am sure we shall, Isabel." 
 
 "Oh, Captain Paul," broke in Miss Mont- 
 fort, "before we go, I wish Isabel to hear 
 you sing. Here is the spinet ready to hand, 
 and I will make the music."
 
 ROBIN AROON 137 
 
 He bowed low in courtly acknowledgment 
 of the compliment, and said: 
 
 "When you shall have first honored us, 
 Miss Montfort." 
 
 Then he took her hand, and led her across 
 the shining floor to the instrument. 
 
 Van had replenished the long-stemmed 
 pipe, and Mr. Jones, after requesting per 
 mission of the ladies, again smoked content 
 edly. 
 
 "Shall mine be something Scotch?" she 
 queried, looking up at Captain Paul with a 
 light in her eyes that to one less sophisticated 
 would "have betokened an unusual interest. 
 "It is the new song, 'Robin Adair,' lately 
 over from London," she said, adjusting her 
 skirts to the spinet-chair. 
 
 "I know the air," he replied. "I have 
 heard it in the Irish ports." 
 
 Mrs. Jones, seated where she could watch 
 the girl's face, was amused to see in the pretty 
 picture that they made a verification of Cap 
 tain Paul's charge of coquetry. 
 
 "They look well together," suggested Isa 
 bel Johnstone to Mrs. Jones, near whom she 
 sat. "It is almost like a play to see them." 
 
 There was an arch smile on Judith's face
 
 138 ROBIN AROON 
 
 as she glanced up at the young man, and 
 sang: 
 
 " 'Welcome on shore again, 
 
 Robin Adair! 
 Welcome once more again, 
 
 Robin Adair! 
 I feel thy trembling hand, 
 Tears in thine eyes do stand, 
 To greet thy native land, 
 
 Robin Adair.' " 
 
 With the air of the perfect courtier, who 
 picks up the gauntlet which an adversary has 
 flung at his feet, the Scotchman accepted the 
 implied challenge of demeanor and song. 
 
 "If you will kindly continue to play the 
 air, Miss Montfort, we may make it a duet." 
 
 She looked at him now in undisguised sur 
 prise, as her hands went over the keys. His 
 eyes were fixed on hers, and there was a 
 subtle suggestion of defiance in the words, 
 which he sang in a clear tenor voice, and with 
 great expression: 
 
 " 'I know a valley fair, 
 
 Aileen aroon ! 
 I know a cottage there, 
 
 Aileen aroon ! 
 Far in that valley's shade, 
 I know a gentle maid, 
 Flower of the hazel glade, 
 
 Aileen aroon !' "
 
 ROBIN AROON 139 
 
 The words were new to her. The wonder 
 grew in her face. 
 
 "Shall I go on?" she whispered, with the 
 color mounting high on her cheeks. 
 
 "If you please," he answered. 
 
 And she sang: 
 
 " 'Long I ne'er saw thee, love, 
 
 Robin Adair! 
 Still I prayed for thee, love, 
 
 Robin Adair! 
 
 When thou wert far at sea, 
 Many made love to me; 
 But still I thought on thee, 
 
 Robin Adair!'" 
 
 But the smile had disappeared from her 
 eyes, and she gazed at him with heaving bo 
 som and parted lips, as she played, while he 
 sang in answer: 
 
 " 'Who in the song so sweet ? 
 
 Aileen aroon! 
 Who in the dance so fleet? 
 
 Aileen aroon! 
 
 Dear are her charms to me, 
 Dearer her laughter free, 
 Dearer her constancy, 
 
 Aileen aroon!' " 
 
 A light began to dawn on her. This dar 
 ing young adventurer was seeking to read her 
 a lesson in coquetry her, the unquestioned
 
 140 ROBIN AROON 
 
 beauty and belle of the gilded youth of Caro 
 lina. 
 
 Her courage was as fine as his. With an 
 air of defiance, and with the smile returned 
 to her winning face, she wove about him the 
 tender spell of her sweet soprano singing: 
 
 " 'Come to my heart again, 
 
 Robin Adair! 
 Never to part again, 
 
 Robin Adair! 
 And if thou still art true, 
 I will be constant, too, 
 And will wed none but you, 
 
 Robin Adair!"' 
 
 She had reached the end of her tether; 
 but with a courage that was the more daring 
 for her uncertainty of what was coming, she 
 played on, giving him the last innings. Per 
 haps it was the instinctive curiosity of woman 
 that prompted her perhaps, that other 
 primal instinct of the sex to hope that the 
 other sex may prove aggressive and victor 
 ious. Her eyes smiled up at him still. His 
 had the dark sternness of some grim warrior 
 in the set cut and thrust of deadly peril. 
 
 " 'Youth must with time decay, 
 
 Aileen aroon ! 
 Beauty must fade away, 
 Aileen aroon!
 
 ROBIN AROON 141 
 
 Castles are sacked in war, 
 Chieftains are scattered far, 
 Truth is a fixed star, 
 
 Aileen aroon!' " 
 
 She arose from the spinet, as he bowed 
 low, and murmured his thanks for the honor 
 she had done him. 
 
 "Come, Isabel, dear," she said. "We must 
 go, cousin Mary. I never heard you in bet 
 ter voice, Captain Paul; and the new words 
 are beautiful. Good-bye to all of you." 
 
 She fluttered out of the room, with Miss 
 Johnstone and Captain Paul following her. 
 
 "Ha, ha, ha !" laughed Mr. Jones. "Van, 
 fetch me a fresh coal!"
 
 THE THIRD CHAPTER 
 
 POUNDS STERLING FOR A PAIR 
 
 Mr. Gilchrist drew rein at the door of the 
 Silver Swan. He was a frequent and hon 
 ored guest at the tavern; and half a dozen 
 or more negro "boys" of all ages stepped 
 forward promptly to hold his stirrup, im 
 pelled by the knowledge of how the magnate 
 recognized such offices. 
 
 "Is Mr. Henning of Virginia here?" he 
 queried of the rotund landlord, who, clad in 
 brown stuff jerkin, knee breeches and high 
 woolen hose, was sitting on the tavern's 
 stoop, surrounded by his several cronies, 
 puffing his clay pipe, which he replenished 
 at intervals from a "poke" of bright Vir 
 ginia tobacco in his capacious flap-pocket. 
 
 Mr. Gilchrist was informed that Mr. 
 Henning was at that moment in his private 
 apartment, having given orders for his coach 
 to be at the door in thirty minutes for a drive 
 beyond Quanky Creek. 
 
 "Pray inform him that I have done myself
 
 ROBIN AROON 143 
 
 the honor to call for the purpose of paying 
 my respects," said the visitor, as he was 
 ushered into the public room by the landlord. 
 
 The great man seated himself in one of 
 the hard wooden chairs that stood about on 
 the sanded floor of the sparsely furnished 
 apartment; and having laid his cocked hat 
 on a table near at hand, and crossed his legs, 
 stared at the fly-specked print of King 
 George the Third above the chimney place, 
 and awaited Mr. Henning's coming. 
 
 It was not long before he saw standing 
 in the door-way a tall, blonde young man, 
 with blue eyes, a frank countenance, and a 
 pleasant smile. The stranger was dressed in 
 the height of rashion. His stock was of the 
 finest, his knee-breeches fitted his muscular 
 legs to a nicety, his stockings were of spun 
 silk, and he wore on his low shoes large and 
 shining silver buckles. He bore himself with 
 an air of marked distinction; and Mr. Gil- 
 christ was, in spite of himself, favorably im 
 pressed with his appearance. 
 
 Mr. Henning expressed his pleasure at 
 becoming acquainted with his visitor; and 
 the landlord looked on with cheerful ap 
 proval from the threshold of the open door.
 
 144 ROBIN AROON 
 
 After the exchange of mutual compliments, 
 Mr. Gilchrist said: 
 
 "I learn that you are on the point of going 
 for a drive. Pray do not suffer me to detain 
 you." 
 
 The Virginian replied that there was an 
 abundance of time with half of the uay yet 
 before him. 
 
 Then his visitor asked : 
 
 "Would you be willing to part with your 
 horses?" 
 
 The question seemed somewhat abrupt to 
 the stranger, and his reply was curt. 
 
 "My horses are not for sale." 
 
 Mr. Gilchrist, however, took no offense; 
 but continued with unusual suavity: 
 
 "I am a great admirer of horse-flesh. I 
 care nothing for the excitement of the race 
 course, but keep a handsome stud for the 
 sake of the brutes themselves. I possess 
 some fine stock of my own raising down at 
 my plantation near here, which I should be 
 pleased to show you." 
 
 Mr. Henning expressed his gratification 
 somewhat stiffly. His visitor once more indi 
 cated a strong desire to possess the young Vir 
 ginian's horses, even at a high figure.
 
 ROBIN AROON 145 
 
 "I do not know that I care to part with 
 them," Mr. Henning said hesitatingly. Then 
 he added, with some curiosity : 
 
 "When and where did you see them?" 
 
 To a man of Mr. Gilchrist's straightfor 
 wardness the question was an embarrassing 
 one. He cast his looks to the floor, and stam 
 mered: 
 
 "I I that is to say I am forced to 
 confess that I have never seen them." 
 
 "Ah?" said Mr. Henning interrogatively. 
 
 "I only know them through what I have 
 heard," explained the would-be purchaser, 
 with a visible air of hesitancy. 
 
 "Why, that is singular," commented the 
 stranger. "I have owned these horses but a 
 sennight; and I reached this town on my way 
 from Virginia only last evening. I had no 
 idea they were of such fame." 
 
 "I can readily understand that my desire 
 seems peculiar to you," said Mr. Gilchrist, 
 recovering in a measure his composure. "I 
 regret that I am not at liberty to make expla 
 nation of it." 
 
 "It is of no consequence," replied the Vir 
 ginian; and his visitor seemed nettled. 
 
 10
 
 146 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "I will giv 7 e you one hundred pounds for 
 the span, sterling money," urged Mr. Gil- 
 christ. 
 
 "That is a high offer," was the reply; 
 "they stand me at fifty pounds." 
 
 The landlord had grown deeply interested 
 at this turn of the interview. As the conver 
 sation progressed, he advanced into the room 
 until he stood within a few feet of where the 
 two men sat. 
 
 Mr. Henning, after a moment of silence, 
 asked: 
 
 "Could I secure another pair hereabouts 
 to take me on my way in the event that I con 
 sented to dispose of them to you? My stay 
 here is necessarily short. I only remain to 
 the Assembly Ball." 
 
 "You may have the best team on my plan 
 tation at your own price," his visitor re 
 sponded. 
 
 The excited landlord blew a cloud of smoke 
 into the face of the Virginian, and shouted : 
 
 "Take him up, Squire Hennin', take him 
 up ! His nags are the staunchest and the best 
 in Halifax Bur'." 
 
 "I should be very much honored, if you 
 would accompany me to my house, and make
 
 ROBIN AROON 147 
 
 your own selection. It would please me no 
 less to have you become my guest while you 
 remain in this vicinity." 
 
 The host of the Silver Swan was scarcely 
 less surprised than was Mr. Henning. 
 
 "Squire Gilchrist has lost his head," the 
 landlord said to himself; and he went out 
 on the stoop to retail the conversation to his 
 cronies. 
 
 The young Virginian's curiosity was 
 piqued. He said to his visitor: 
 
 "You may take the horses on the terms 
 proposed. I thank you heartily for your hos 
 pitality. I should be glad at least to drive 
 with you to your place, and in person choose 
 their successors. May I inquire at what dis 
 tance from town you reside?" 
 
 It was only a matter of some four miles 
 down the river. The road was very level, 
 and the way quite shady. 
 
 "There they come now," remarked Mr. 
 Henning, as the bay horses and coach passed 
 the window. His companion looked out with 
 ill-disguised interest. The landlord appeared 
 again at the door to announce to his guest 
 the arrival of his equipage; and the two gen-
 
 148 ROBIN AROON 
 
 tlement left the public room of the tavern to 
 gether. 
 
 On the stoop stood the old negro driver, 
 with whip in hand. 
 
 "I got a word fur ye, Mars' Robert," he 
 said, as Mr. Henning approached. 
 
 "What is it, Silas?" his master asked, 
 while he fastened his glove. 
 
 "Hit's private an' pertickler, marster," 
 Silas replied, looking askance at Mr. Gil- 
 christ. 
 
 "Excuse me for a moment," the younger 
 man said, with a bow to his companion. 
 "Come here, Silas." 
 
 He led the way back into the public room. 
 
 "Now, what is your private and particu 
 lar word, sir?" 
 
 "A young mistis', jes' on de aidge o' de 
 town, at de big brick house wid de box- 
 haidge an' de vines on de po'ch, what we 
 passed by yistiddy " 
 
 "Well, what about her?" 
 
 "She axed me fur ter say ter ye, dat she'd 
 marry ye fur dem dar bosses." 
 
 "The devil you say!" 
 
 "Dat she did, sah dat she did, marster! 
 An' no debble 'bout it, nuther. Mo' belikes
 
 ROBIN AROON 149 
 
 ter un angel, she was, Mars' Robert. Yas, 
 marster." 
 
 "Who was she, Silas?" 
 
 "I axed her dat, Mars' Robert, a-thinkin' 
 dat ye mout want ter know. But somehow ur 
 nuther, I 'clar ter Gord, I done smack disre- 
 membered what she tole me she name. She's 
 a 'rusty-crat, howsomedever, marster fus' 
 fambly, an' no mistake. Dat is, ef dis yer 
 kentry is got any fus' famblies, like Tide 
 water an' de Rappahannock Valley is. An' 
 purty, too uh! uh! Nice old place, an' 
 fine folks dar, sar, I'll be boun', 'scusin' de 
 nigger dat cuts de grass." 
 
 "She is this remarkably eager gentleman's 
 remarkably spoiled daughter," thought Mr. 
 Henning, and he stepped after his new ac 
 quaintance into the yellow coach, hung high 
 on straps above its glittering wheels. 
 
 Old Silas took the ribbons, and mounted 
 the lofty box with becoming gravity. 
 
 "Drive down this street, boy," called Mr. 
 Gilchrist from the coach-window; and indi 
 cated an entirely different direction from that 
 in which stood the brick house with the box- 
 hedges. He had no desire to be seen of its
 
 150 ROBIN AROON 
 
 fair occupant, sitting behind those horses, 
 cheek by jowl with their owner. 
 
 "Since speaking with you about these ani 
 mals," said the Virginian, settling himself 
 comfortably amid the cushions, "I would ask 
 you the favor, on second thought, of releas 
 ing me from my bargain." 
 
 It was Mr. Gilchrist's turn to be surprised, 
 but he was not. 
 
 "That black scoundrel has delivered her 
 message," he thought. 
 
 He quietly asked: 
 
 "Why, what is the trouble now?" 
 
 "My boy, Silas, has brought me a better 
 offer." 
 
 "Damn your insolence!" said Mr. Gil- 
 christ under his breath, looking angrily out 
 of the window on his side. 
 
 Then he turned, and with an air of great 
 decision, replied: 
 
 "Indeed, I regret to appear discourteous, 
 Mr. Henning; but you must permit me to 
 insist that our bargain is a binding one, and 
 I cannot persuade myself to consent to rescind 
 it. You have sold me the horses." 
 
 "So I have," said Mr. Henning, with
 
 ROBIN AROON 151 
 
 i 
 
 secret amusement; "say no more about it, I 
 pray. The horses are yours." 
 
 The coach spun rapidly along the smooth 
 road, with the bays on their best mettle at 
 scarcely a touch from the lash of the ancient 
 Jehu on the box. At length the Virginian, 
 who had been surveying the landscape from 
 his side of the coach, remarked: 
 
 "I observe many handsome residences in 
 Halifax, sir. For example, the large quaint- 
 looking brick building at the northern ex 
 tremity of the street on which stands the 
 Tavern I refer to the house with the tall 
 box-hedges." 
 
 Mr. Gilchrist was fast coming to the con 
 clusion that this young man possessed the 
 knack of making himself excessively dis 
 agreeable. 
 
 "That is Judge Montfort's, sir. One of 
 the oldest houses in the town." 
 
 "A devilish handsome young woman there, 
 sir," continued Mr. Henning, with reckless 
 audacity. 
 
 "When did you see her?" asked Mr. Gil 
 christ, fixing a penetrating look upon his com 
 panion's face. The laughing blue eyes that
 
 152 ROBIN AROON 
 
 met his were not reassuring to the local mag 
 nate. 
 
 "I that is to say, I am compelled to con 
 fess that I have never seen her. I only know 
 of her beauty through what I have heard." 
 
 Mr. Gilchrist was visibly annoyed, and 
 Henning deemed it advisable at this point to 
 pursue the subject no further. 
 
 "A fine stretch of low grounds along the 
 river," he said irrelevantly; and his com 
 panion, gazing moodily from the opposite 
 window of the coach in the direction of the 
 wooded hills, acquiesced with a perfunctory 
 nod of the head. 
 
 The stream sparkled in the sunlight. The 
 air was pungent with the odorous breath of 
 pines on the uplands. Over the river banks 
 the pawpaw trees stood thick; and vines and 
 undergrowth, in rankly verdant and inter 
 woven density, spread around and beneath 
 the trees. Long rows of deep green corn shot 
 up their tasseling tops from the dark loam of 
 the bottom-lands an army with silken ban 
 ners. The only audible noises were the mur 
 mur of the river water, and the faint foot 
 fall of the horses' hoofs upon the sandy road. 
 
 As the oscillating vehicle halted at Mr.
 
 ROBIN AROON 153 
 
 Gilchrist's door, Henning's theory about the 
 girl who had sent him the offer for his horses 
 was suddenly subverted. 
 
 "You will have to put up with a bachelor's 
 accommodations, Mr. Henning. I have no 
 women-folk," said Mr. Gilchrist.
 
 THE FOURTH CHAPTER 
 
 NAMING THE SONG 
 
 The day after Mr. Gilchrist visited Hen- 
 ning at the Silver Swan Tavern and bought 
 his span of horses, Miss Judith Montfort sat 
 in her favorite coign of vantage, looking 
 out from behind green shutters, upon the 
 cool umbrageous street, at whomever chanced 
 to be passing by the house with the box- 
 hedges. Her guest, Miss Isabel Johnstone, 
 with her back to the light, and her small 
 slippered feet in a chair in front of her, was 
 seated nearby, leisurely turning the pages of 
 a play that had lately come from London, by 
 way of Philadelphia. Its title was "She 
 Stoops to Conquer; or, the Mistakes of a 
 Night," and it had been produced at Covent 
 Garden Theatre in the spring of the preced 
 ing year, and received by the fashion of the 
 town with laughter and applause. 
 
 "It is vastly agreeable," commented Miss 
 Johnstone. "The character of Tony Lump- 
 kin is highly amusing. It is a genuine and
 
 ROBIN AROON 155 
 
 delightful comedy; and I can well imagine 
 how all London town has rang with it." 
 
 "I have promised to lend it to Captain 
 Paul," said Miss Montfort. "He has quite 
 a fancy for appearing versed in the belles 
 lettres. I was very provoked with his per 
 formance yesterday, Isabel. I had not in 
 vited Captain Paul to sing a duet with me; 
 and I did not like his foolish Irish song." 
 
 "It seemed to me quite a lovely thing to 
 hear you two singing," laughed Miss John- 
 stone, moving one of the pretty feet to the 
 floor, and slightly shifting her position so as 
 more nearly to face her friend. "Captain 
 Paul's voice is well modulated; and I think 
 that he sang with much dash and spirit. But 
 his song was quite new to me." 
 
 "He was seeking to read me a lesson in his 
 lines," replied Judith. "He thinks that I am 
 a coquette, and that it is his duty to rebuke 
 me, however politely, for my delinquencies. 
 Captain Paul is a pert popinjay!" 
 
 There was a flash of a trim white-stock 
 inged ankle, and down came Miss Isabel 
 Johnstone's other foot. The London play 
 slipped to the floor, and lay there unnoticed. 
 The unspoken language of the most seductive
 
 156 ROBIN AROON 
 
 book has ever lacked attention, where two 
 attractive young women discuss an attractive 
 young man. 
 
 "But he has bewitching eyes, and a fetch 
 ing fashion with him, you must allow," said 
 Isabel, looking at Judith. 
 
 The latter responded with a shrug of her 
 shoulders quite French in effect, and a grim 
 ace of dissent. 
 
 "Mr. Hewes," continued Miss Johnstone, 
 "regards him with much favor. He says 
 that Captain Paul is an unusual instance of 
 a Scotch peasant boy rising by the force of 
 his own genius to fill a ready place in the 
 society of ladies and gentlemen of the best 
 birth and breeding." 
 
 "La, what a flighty compliment!" said 
 Judith. "But, indeed, if Mr. Hewes com 
 mend him, I shall find no further fault." 
 
 Isabel Johnstone blushed, and looked dis 
 concerted. 
 
 "I do confess," continued Miss Montfort, 
 "that he is possessed in no small degree of a 
 gift of fancy and a power of word-painting 
 well calculated to kindle the imagination and 
 win the esteem of women. He writes a beau 
 tiful round hand; he speaks French with a
 
 ROBIN AROON 157 
 
 native accent; and he can make amatory 
 verses." 
 
 "Oh, can he?" queried Miss Johnstone, re 
 covering her composure. "And you might 
 add that his career has been unusual. He has 
 seen the world " 
 
 "The flesh and the devil, I warrant you!" 
 added Judith. "I vow, as I live, he is turn 
 ing in at the gate, at this moment!" she ex 
 claimed, glancing beyond the box-hedges to 
 where a graceful, erect figure, clad in light 
 morning costume, and wearing a dress-sword 
 and a cocked hat, was leisurely leaving the 
 quiet and shady street. 
 
 "Quick, Isabel, let's go down," she said; 
 and there was a whispering swish of skirts, as 
 she arose and moved toward the door of the 
 room. 
 
 "Not I, my dear," said that young lady, 
 with a decision that smacked of pertness. "I 
 fancy that you and Captain Paul will wish 
 to settle the Robin Adair matter, and I 
 should not care to interfere. I'll take your 
 place at the window, however, and keep a 
 lookout for Mr. Gilchrist." 
 
 "Mr. Gilchrist?" repeated Judith, delay 
 ing on the threshold.
 
 158 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "And when your Captain leaves I'll fetch 
 him down the book," Isabel continued, stoop 
 ing to pick it up from where it had fallen. 
 Then she kissed her hand airily to Judith, 
 and sang in an undertone : 
 
 " 'Castles are sacked in war, 
 Chieftains are scattered far, 
 Truth is a fixed star, 
 
 Aileen aroon !' " 
 
 "You have a better memory than I could 
 wish for," retorted Judith to the graceful 
 mocking of her friend. "I don't see how you 
 manage to remember the perilous stuff." 
 
 So saying she vanished; and a few mo 
 ments later entered the cool parlor down 
 stairs, and met Captain Paul with: 
 
 "I had not expected to sing a duet with 
 you yesterday." 
 
 He held her hand which she had given 
 him in greeting, and led her to a seat with 
 ceremonious politeness. 
 
 "The air of your song fetched back to me 
 the words of mine," he said. Then he 
 added, "It seemed a more diverting game to 
 me than 'Grind the Bottle' or 'Hide the 
 Thimble.' Your kinsfolk, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Jones, appeared to enjoy it vastly."
 
 ROBIN AROON 159 
 
 "It was a performance which has lent itself 
 to later meditation," she replied, with a mim 
 icry of devoutness. 
 
 He regarded her with the immemorial and 
 haunting sorrow in his eyes that is as old in 
 those who live alone as is man's immemorial 
 love for woman. 
 
 "'Tis a song that will linger in the mem 
 ory," he said, in felicitous response. 
 
 "The words of it lie outside of the placid 
 emotions of friendship," she observed, and 
 there was a reminiscent melancholy in her 
 voice to match the melancholy of his gaze. 
 
 A shaft of sunshine came in through the 
 half-closed window, and touched to brighter 
 gold the waving wonder of her hair. 
 
 "Your song, or mine?" he queried. 
 
 "Both," she answered. She was airily 
 smiling at him now. "I was angry with you; 
 but I have forgiven you." 
 
 "Ah," he murmured, "forgiveness is the 
 fairest flower of unselfishness." 
 
 "Oh!" she exclaimed, and her blue eyes 
 went wide open. 
 
 "There is an infinite meaning in the way 
 of saying that little word which you have just 
 uttered," said Captain Paul, now in light
 
 160 ROBIN AROON 
 
 badinage, and adjusting, his speech to her 
 visible mood. 
 
 "What little word?" she asked, and her 
 eyes opened wider. 
 
 "That 'oh!' If you would but say it 
 again, as you said it!" 
 
 She stared at him in sheer surprise for this 
 new phase of his character. Then she 
 laughed in merriment, and pursed her red 
 lips to a proper shape. There was a gleam 
 of white teeth between them. 
 
 "Oh!" she said softly. 
 
 "The repetition emphasizes the truth of 
 my observation," he remarked, gravely sur- 
 vevinq- her. He drew his chair nearer hers, 
 as if to make a closer inspection of her 
 method of making the interjectional sound. 
 "This last was entirely different." 
 
 She drew back from him, a little appre 
 hensive. 
 
 "It was not at all like," he said. "Would 
 you mind repeating it?" 
 
 "Oh !" she exclaimed again, almost hys 
 terically. 
 
 "You have now uttered it in three essen 
 tially different tones, Miss Montfort, and in
 
 ROBIN AROON 161 
 
 as many manners," he commented. "The 
 first was exclamatory " 
 
 "Oh!" she repeated. 
 
 "The second was interrogative " 
 
 "Oh!" 
 
 "The third was amused " 
 
 "Oh! oh! oh! oh!" 
 
 She clasped her hands, and the exclama 
 tions came in a series of repetitions that were 
 involuntary. She seemed to be obsessed by 
 some spell of suggestion in his dark face. 
 
 "Indifferent careless sardonic scorn 
 ful," said he, with calm and scientific pre 
 cision. 
 
 She recovered herself. 
 
 " 'Grinding the Bottle' and 'Hiding the 
 Thimble' are dignified and elegant games in 
 comparison with this new one of yours, Cap 
 tain Paul," she said half-angry, half-laugh 
 ing. 
 
 "The tender 'oh' I surmise would best of 
 all adorn your rosy mouth," said the bold 
 young adventurer, regarding that feature 
 with a steady gaze. 
 
 "You think me a coquette," she ventured, 
 still dazzled by his daring, 
 ii
 
 162 ROBIN AROON 
 
 He looked into 'her eyes with an expres 
 sion so imperturbably serene, that in spite of 
 her large experience of admiration at the 
 hands of men, she yet marvelled at him. 
 
 "You had the audacity to tell me so," she 
 added tentatively. 
 
 He still surveyed her with grave, unsmil 
 ing countenance. She felt in his silence and 
 in his unwavering regard an occult and inde 
 finable fascination. 
 
 "You told not only me, but Mr. and Mrs. 
 Jones and Isabel Johnstone. You told them 
 all with your foolish song," she went on 
 breathlessly. 
 
 "Have I not just received of you absolu 
 tion?" he queried. 
 
 "Then why this new mockery of oh! and 
 oh! and oh! Captain Paul?" she asked with 
 emphasis. 
 
 She felt that there was a mist of tears in 
 her eyes. 
 
 "My dear young lady," said the Scotch 
 man gently, "I am here this morning to 
 assure you of my unfading admiration, 
 and to apologize if I seemed in any thing 
 rude with my song. May I add that, while 
 I have entertained the opinion of you with
 
 ROBIN AROON 163 
 
 which you have charged me, I do not deem 
 that such a character in woman is without 
 its virtue, as it surely is not without its 
 charm. It is the sex's nature to attract and 
 to repel by turns. I think I have read in 
 some of the classic writers that deception is 
 woman's proper weapon, for that without it 
 she might have a grace the less and a tear 
 the more. And so I deem that the fair one 
 who first fans the flame of ardor with a soft 
 and kindly breeze, and then 'turns on an icy 
 gust, is but surer to win her suitor than is the 
 quickly yielding miss, from whom he flees 
 with sated palate at the first proclamation 
 that there has come a new toast to town. 
 Life has always seemed to me to have a 
 quicker heart-beat for its uncertainty." 
 
 He was smiling at her now with a 
 debonair air of self-assurance that provoked 
 her. 
 
 "You are a very philosopher of love," she 
 answered. "And so, your 'Aileen Aroon' 
 was not for the purpose of rebuking me for 
 a serious fault, so much as to arouse my in 
 terest in you? You are vastly ingenuous, 
 Captain Paul. But I believe it is a quality
 
 1 64 ROBIN AROON 
 
 of seafaring men to be frank in a homely 
 fashion." 
 
 The insouciance of the Scotchman was im 
 penetrable. 
 
 "That air of your song suggested the 
 words of mine," he repeated. "I sang the 
 old Irish verses, because they seemed to me to 
 illustrate my view of you, and to point my 
 acceptance of the challenge which you so 
 daringly flung at me. But I thought in the 
 progress of our singing, that if I were more 
 than the poor poetaster I am, how I should 
 wish to weave into the melodious old air the 
 words of a newer song than either. And the 
 newer song should thrill with all the 
 womanly fervor and passion of your 'Robin 
 Adair,' and throb with all the heroic truth 
 and devotion that lie in the words of 'Aileen 
 Aroon' ; and it should be a song of all that 
 is sweetest in love and life, and " 
 
 He spoke with theatrical language and in 
 tonation, but with the earnestness of an un 
 mistakable sincerity. 
 
 "And when you write it, I shall name it, 
 and we will sing it together, with blending 
 voices, to admiring audiences," she ex 
 claimed; moved to a mutual mood.
 
 ROBIN AROON 165 
 
 "And the name of the song shall be ?" 
 
 "Robin Aroon!" she murmured; and the 
 look of her shook his storm-beaten heart. 
 
 There was a clang of the brass knocker at 
 the door; and the servant ushered into the 
 parlor Mr. Gilchrist. 
 
 The three who proverbially are not com 
 pany soon gave place to the two who proverb 
 ially are. Captain Paul, with the ease of an 
 accustomed man of the world, sought to en 
 gage Mr. Gilchrist for a few moments in 
 conversation upon the casual topics of the 
 town. The magnate had met him; but re 
 garded him with a certain measure of sus 
 picion even though knowing him to be under 
 the chaperonage of the Joneses. 
 
 "Mrs. Jones takes odd fancies for so sen 
 sible a woman," argued Mr. Gilchrist, 
 against his own natural predilection in favor 
 of the young Scotchman; "and Mr. Jones 
 aids and abets her in them." 
 
 He was perceptibly bored by Captain 
 Paul's brief but easy flow of speech; and 
 Judith was amused to note his relief when 
 the latter arose, and making his polite adieux, 
 departed. 
 
 "I have seen Mr. Henning," observed Mr.
 
 1 66 ROBIN AROON 
 
 Gilchrist bluntly to Miss Montfort, when 
 Captain Paul had gone. 
 
 "Oh, you have?" replied Judith, with ap 
 parent rapture, and her favorite gesture of 
 clasped hands. They were very white and 
 pretty hands, which is doubtless the reason 
 why she so favored this gesture. "Is he 
 good looking? What aged man does he 
 seem to be? Will he stay long in Halifax? 
 Mr. Gilchrist, pray tell me all that you have 
 learned about him!" 
 
 Mr. Gilchrist did not exhibit a responsive 
 enthusiasm. On the contrary, he appeared 
 decidedly sour-visaged. The young woman's 
 interest clearly nettled him. 
 
 "Indifferent well-looking, and I may not 
 guess his age. He has at least the appear 
 ance of a gentleman. I bought his horses." 
 
 There was an air of triumph in his final 
 utterance which provoked her to mirth. He 
 leaned back in his chair and regarded her 
 with an air of assured possession. 
 
 "Then he can't get away before the As 
 sembly Ball," she exclaimed. 
 
 "He has a pair of mine," said Mr. Gil 
 christ argumentatively.
 
 ROBIN AROON 167 
 
 "And he can hardly be young," she con 
 tinued. 
 
 "Why?" queried Mr. Gilchrist, with in 
 terest. 
 
 "Or else he failed to receive my offer of 
 marriage," she concluded, sagely ignoring his 
 question. 
 
 Again Mr. Gilchrist's brows lowered, and 
 he moved restlessly in his seat. 
 
 "I thought we had agreed to dismiss the 
 discussion of that piece of folly on your 
 part," he said sternly. 
 
 "However," she resumed, as if in self-com 
 munion, "it may yet be, both that he is young 
 and that he received the offer. But if so, it 
 follows that he is not adventurous. Now, 
 Captain Paul is highly adventurous." 
 
 "Good God!" exclaimed Mr. Gilchrist. 
 
 "There really is nothing more stupid than 
 an unadventurous young man, Mr. Gilchrist; 
 and so I am glad you bought Mr. Henning's 
 horses." 
 
 Mr. Gilchrist's austere features relaxed. 
 
 "I have a curious feeling about those 
 horses," the girl added "some strange inti 
 mation that I am yet to own them."
 
 1 68 ROBIN AROON 
 
 She smiled at Mr. Gilchrist, who beamed 
 back at her. 
 
 When he had gone, with a complacency 
 that the sense of successful achievement sel 
 dom fails to fetch in its wake, Judith hastened 
 upstairs. 
 
 "It was extremely provoking, Isabel," she 
 exclaimed, fluttering in to where Miss John- 
 stone still sat by the window, whence she had 
 seen the coming and going of the two men. 
 
 "It was provoking, beyond expression, 
 Judith," chimed in Miss Isabel Johnstone. 
 
 "What was, mistress?" queried Judith 
 tartly, surprised, and stopping in the middle 
 of the room to see in the French mirror on 
 the wall if her hair had been becomingly ar 
 ranged while her beaux were present. 
 
 "That Mr. Gilchrist should have inter 
 rupted Captain Paul when you imagined him 
 on the point of a proposal." 
 
 "When I imagined!" exclaimed Miss 
 Montfort. "I vow, you are very facetious !" 
 
 "Judith," said her friend gravely, "Mr. 
 Hewes knows Captain Paul with a very inti 
 mate acquaintance, and says that his ambition 
 is his ruling passion. I conceive that Captain
 
 ROBIN AROON 169 
 
 Paul can be highly agreeable to women. I 
 have seen enough of him to know that he is 
 charming and well-mannered, and indeed a 
 very pretty man. But by his own confession, 
 my dear, he is a mere peasant adventurer. 
 He would not dare to lift his eyes to you, 
 who are high-born and beautiful and the 
 belle of the Colony." 
 
 "Ah, you do not know Captain Paul," re 
 plied Miss Montfort swiftly, "for there is 
 nothing that Captain Paul would not dare. 
 He would dare lift his eyes to any princess in 
 Europe. It is this that makes him so irre 
 sistible," and she sighed, and then laughed 
 softly. 
 
 Isabel Johnstone regarded her friend with 
 the quiet wonder with which the girl, whose 
 future life is settled by a satisfactory engage 
 ment, regards the Alexandrian girl who is 
 ever pining for new worlds to conquer. 
 
 "I infer that you and Captain Paul have 
 at least settled the differences between you 
 that grew out of the song?" 
 
 "He would like to mingle his song and 
 mine in a perfect love-ditty, and name it 
 'Robin Aroon,' " said Judith musingly.
 
 170 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "I vow, I was so interested in Mr. Gil- 
 christ's coming," said Miss Johnstone, "that 
 I forgot entirely to give Captain Paul Mr. 
 Goldsmith's play."
 
 THE FIFTH CHAPTER 
 
 THE ASSEMBLY BALL 
 
 The Assembly Ball was at its height in the 
 great dancing-room of the Silver Swan. It 
 was a goodly company there gathered to 
 gether. The foremost of the eastern Caro 
 linians had come to this established function; 
 and there were Alstons and Moores and 
 Davies and Ashes and Parkers and Burtons 
 and Haywoods and Branches men destined 
 in the swift impending years to make notable 
 this town to which an English earl had 
 given his ancient name; and women, whose 
 later patriotism was to adorn the first an 
 nals of a State. There were the Crowells, 
 sprung from the house of the Lord Pro 
 tector, whose emigrant ancestor, fleeing 
 from England, to escape the persecution 
 of the restored Stuarts, still preserved 
 his family pedigree inscribed upon aristo 
 cratic vellum, whereon was recorded the 
 story of his ceremonial change of name 
 by the process of cutting from a parchment
 
 172 ROBIN AROON 
 
 sheet the letter M and casting the discarded 
 letter into mid-ocean. There, sparkling with 
 wit, and charming the brilliant circle that 
 surrounded her, was Captain Paul's hostess, 
 Mrs. Wiley Jones, daughter of a governor 
 and the later verbal discomfiter of Colonel 
 Banastre Tarleton, of His Majesty's invad 
 ing army in the Revolution. There was her 
 husband's brother, Allen Jones, of Mt. Gal 
 lant, in Northampton, with his wife the 
 lovely sister of Isaac Edwards, secretary of 
 the noted Governor Tryon, and the most ac 
 complished woman of her day in the Colony; 
 and there, also, among many others scarcely 
 less distinguished socially and politically, 
 were Nicholas Long, afterward commis 
 sary-general of the Carolina troops in the 
 Revolution, and his courageous spouse, 
 whose praises in her old age are said by the 
 historian to have been sounded by all the 
 officers of the American army, so long as any 
 were left who had known her. 
 
 Not only were Halifax and the adjoining 
 county of Northampton well represented by 
 their talent and beauty, but Edenton, to the 
 east, had sent up its annual contingent of Ire- 
 dells and Cabarruses and Dawsons and
 
 ROBIN AROON 173 
 
 Brownriggs; and the country gentry had 
 come from far and near, even out of the 
 towns of New Berne and Wilmington. 
 
 The negro fiddlers from Scotland Neck, 
 with eyeballs rolling and feet that patted en 
 thusiastic time, made music of reel and 
 minuet and country-dance and rigadoon. 
 Summer moths came in through the wide- 
 open windows, and fluttered about the sput 
 tering wax-candles; while gallants in velvets 
 and laces bowed low in the dance to ladies 
 who smiled upon them with dimpled cheek 
 and patch on chin. 
 
 Ranged about the wall, or moving back 
 and forth, were anxious mothers with mar 
 riageable daughters; indifferent fathers who 
 took snuff and were bored; handsome girls 
 and homely girls, alike beplumed, belaced 
 and bejeweled; beaux, old and young, ar 
 rayed in gorgeous splendor, who bowed and 
 smirked and capered, saying many things 
 they did not mean, and meaning many things 
 they did not say. 
 
 In apartments above the ball-room a num 
 ber of the gentlemen played cards, or toasted 
 "The Sons of America" in wine or toddy, or 
 sang Liberty songs.
 
 174 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "Sir," said one of these roysterers to Cap 
 tain Paul, "may I present you to the ladies?" 
 
 "I do not care to dance now," said the 
 sailor politely. 
 
 "Will you join a game of the cards, then?" 
 persisted the officiously hospitable young 
 man. 
 
 "Nor do I wish to game," responded Paul, 
 ever suave and urbane. 
 
 "Sir, we will drink a bumper together to 
 the sex," said the Carolinian warmly. 
 
 "Pardon me, if I deny myself that pleas 
 ure also," replied the Scotchman, seeking to 
 move on. 
 
 "Then what the devil do you mean, sir, by 
 coming to the Assembly Ball in Halifax, if 
 you can neither dance, play the cards, nor 
 drink?" 
 
 The question was rude and emphatic; but 
 the sea captain's was the soft answer that 
 turneth away wrath. 
 
 "Sir," he said gently and serenely, with 
 the dreaminess in his sad eyes that the women 
 loved, "I should be disposed to resent your 
 question as impertinent, were it not that I am 
 able to assure you truthfully that I can do all 
 three to perfection."
 
 ROBIN AROON 175 
 
 "I salute you, sir," responded the Caro 
 linian, "as a gentleman, and one after my 
 own heart." 
 
 Meanwhile, in an interval between two 
 dances, to Miss Judith Montfort, clad in the 
 low-bodiced lilac silk, just unpacked from 
 Philadelphia for the occasion, from beneath 
 whose skirt peeped at intervals a pair of 
 dainty high-heeled lilac slippers, was pre 
 sented by Mr. Gilchrist, with her kind per 
 mission, Robert Henning, esquire, of Bushy 
 Park, in the county of Middlesex, Tidewater 
 Virginia. His costume was white satin 
 threaded with gold, and his hair was 
 frizzed and powdered, and tied in a queue 
 with a white silk riband. More than one 
 person wondered to see the blush that man 
 tled the girl's soft cheek as the Virginian bent 
 almost to the floor before her; for not even 
 Mr. Gilchrist guessed that she was afraid lest 
 this young stranger might speak to her of his 
 horses. 
 
 She fingered her lace handkerchief and 
 looked down, while he twirled his cocked hat, 
 and thought how she would scorn him if she 
 but knew that he had recently parted for
 
 176 ROBIN AROON 
 
 paltry pounds with that in exchange for 
 which she had offered her own lovely self. 
 
 Captain Paul approached, with Miss 
 Isabel Johnstone on his arm. Though not so 
 tall as Henning, he seemed for his dignified 
 and elegant carriage no whit less stately and 
 important; and Mr. Joseph Hewes's fiancee 
 appeared very handsome in her white 
 brocaded silk ball-frock, with the ropes of 
 pearls that she wore blending into the snowy 
 smoothness of her round uncovered neck and 
 shoulders. 
 
 "La, it is Mr. Henning!" whispered Miss 
 Johnstone, as they approached the spot where 
 Mr. Gilchrist had just introduced the 
 stranger to Judith. 
 
 "Haply it may be Robin Aroon!" replied 
 Captain Paul, noting the mutual pleased re 
 gard of the newly met couple. Isabel had 
 but the moment before expressed to him her 
 approval of the wedding of Judith's song 
 with his own, as she phrased it; and her de 
 light in the appropriateness of its suggested 
 title. 
 
 Henning was duly presented to Miss John- 
 stone and to Captain Paul; who, thereupon, 
 after some pleasant words of commonplace,
 
 ROBIN AROON 177 
 
 moved on. Mr. Gilchrist, with fine intuition, 
 speedily perceived his continued presence to 
 be out of place. He made a somewhat stiff, 
 though entirely appropriate remark to Judith, 
 and withdrew with an exalted sense of his 
 own magnanimity; and the music beginning 
 again, Mr. Henning led Miss Montfort to 
 the polished floor, with the eyes of the as 
 sembly upon them. 
 
 When the ceremonious minuet was ended, 
 they walked together, her arm in his, on the 
 long stoop. Among the crowd of negroes 
 gathered about the Tavern, watching the fes 
 tivities with keenly eager looks, were Silas 
 and Jasper, each undiscovered of the other. 
 They stood not far apart, in the blaze of light 
 from an open window. 
 
 As the young couple passed by in their 
 promenade, Judge Montfort's servant solilo 
 quized aloud : 
 
 "Ah-yi! She done got him!" 
 
 The old driver of Mr. Henning's coach 
 almost simultaneously commented: 
 
 "Uh-ump ! Dat's good-by ter dem hosses. 
 Gord knows how we gwi' git ter de Guff o' 
 Nexico, now." 
 
 12
 
 178 ROBIN AROON 
 
 Each negro heard the other's remark; and 
 they faced about and glared fiercely at each 
 other in hostile recognition. 
 
 "J)ar's dat ole lout of a oberseer's nigger 
 agin," said Jasper. 
 
 "Well, I'll declar' ! I wan't a-lookin' fur 
 ter see dat sassy nigger dat cuts de grass, here 
 wid de white folks," said Silas. 
 
 But master and mistress walked back and 
 forth, with heads so inclined, and speaking in 
 such low whispers, as gave promise of in 
 creasing the two servants' acquaintance with 
 each other at an early date. He was telling 
 her of his travels, and of his home in Tide 
 water Virginia, and of his people mother, 
 sister, brother; and she, with the responsive 
 ness of awakened confidence, told him in turn 
 many things of herself each after the sweet, 
 immortal fashion of love's beginning since 
 the world began. Many things she told him ; 
 and, with others, that she was the spoiled 
 darling of an indulgent and widowed 
 father and that he should see the cool sum 
 mer beauty of her house with the box-hedges. 
 But there was one thing that she did not tell 
 him; and that one thing she found herself 
 half-fearing that she might never have occa-
 
 ROBIN AROON 179 
 
 sion to tell him; and there was yet another 
 theme of which each thought and neither 
 spoke. Neither mentioned the horses. 
 
 They danced again; and when in the late 
 night the ball was over, he went with her to 
 her father's chariot, and lingeringly tucked 
 the lilac silk about the little feet with the 
 high-heeled shoes, standing the while on the 
 dangerous elevation of one of the long string 
 of steps, that had been unrolled from the floor 
 of the loftily swung vehicle to the ground, 
 for my lady's exit and entrance. 
 
 "Good-night," she said. "I thank you. 
 I trust we may meet again ere you leave Hali 
 fax Borough." 
 
 "It will be your fault if we do not," he 
 answered. "I owe the thanks. Good 
 night." 
 
 Mr. Gilchrist listened, near at hand, and 
 frowned ; and Miss Johnstone, on the further 
 seat of the coach, also listened, and smiled 
 in the darkness. Then there was silence in 
 the Montfort chariot for the space of three 
 meditative minutes, as the vehicle rolled 
 along the sandy street in the direction of the 
 house with the box hedges. At the end of 
 this time Judith leaned over and took the
 
 i8o ROBIN AROON 
 
 soft responsive hand of Isabel Johnstone in 
 her own. 
 
 "Oh, Isabel," she murmured, "it was all 
 so beautiful." 
 
 "Quite beautiful," assented Miss John- 
 stone undramatically, reflecting how all things 
 lacked essential beauty in the absence of the 
 unapproachable Mr. Joseph Hewes, then 
 sailing to the nor'ward. 
 
 "And do you truly think, Isabel, that I 
 I shall really ever see him again?" 
 
 "Yes, dear," said the sapient Isabel, "to 
 morrow morning, very soon after breakfast."
 
 THE SIXTH CHAPTER 
 
 'i 
 
 LIFE'S SUNNY MORNING 
 
 It was the day after the ball. Judith's 
 time for her beauty-sleep had elapsed an hour 
 before; and in some way known only of 
 youth and love Mr. Robert Henning had dis 
 covered for himself the exact location of the 
 brick house with the box-hedges. At this 
 unseemly morning hour of eleven o'clock by 
 the dial in front of the summer-house, with 
 the flower-beds about it and above the laugh 
 ing day, Miss Montfort and the Virginian 
 found themselves seated on a rustic bench in 
 that alluring and secure retreat, shut out from 
 the inquisitive gaze of the world by a green 
 redundance of woodbines covering the frail 
 structure. The perfume of the blossoms per 
 vaded the gay June morning ; and a horde of 
 untiring bees were droning at their labor of 
 honey-making a labor of which the imag 
 inative fancy of Captain Paul, had he looked 
 upon the pretty picture that the arbor framed,
 
 1 82 ROBIN AROON 
 
 might well have woven some apt and poetic 
 simile. The very air was suggestive, to the 
 bees, of honey-making. 
 
 Perhaps there had been a show of surprise 
 in the girl's face though there was none in 
 Isabel Johnstone's when a few minutes 
 earlier Mr. Henning had been ushered into 
 the cool and dimly lit parlor, where the two 
 young women sat, after their late breakfast, 
 talking about him. 
 
 "I believe he has really fascinated you, 
 Judith," Miss Johnstone had said to her 
 friend; and a suffusion of accusing color lit 
 the latter's cheeks at the soft impeachment. 
 
 "Last night," replied Judith, with empha 
 sis. "This is the day after. It is always the 
 day after when the debt is to be paid. 'One 
 day after sight' or 'after date,' or after some 
 thing that we sometimes regret, run man 
 kind's and womankind's bills of exchange and 
 promises to pay. It is the day after, dear, 
 in which the sorrows of life are totted up in 
 a column, like the little children's sums," 
 said Judith, oppressed with an unusual melan 
 choly. "I have heard Captain Paul say 
 that this was true alike of cards and the 
 bottle."
 
 ROBIN AROON 183 
 
 "I know the cause of your gloom, sweet 
 lady," Isabel Johnstone had responded arch 
 ly. "But I am no false prophet. There he 
 is now, with his aristocratic Virginian hand 
 on the knocker." 
 
 When Henning had entered the room, 
 Isabel made a quick excuse to disappear, with 
 that irritating intimation therein of the en 
 gaged girl to the unengaged : 
 
 "I have landed my fish. I am the super 
 ior angler; but I shall not do you the injustice 
 of fishing in your own waters, with my better 
 skill and equipment." 
 
 Yet to-day Judith did not mind it. In 
 deed, in spite of her protestation of 'the day 
 after date,' she was glad of Miss Johnstone's 
 departure, in the consciousness that Henning 
 had profoundly awakened her interest. To 
 make sure against intrusion, she had invited 
 him to the summer-house "where it is cool 
 er," she had explained. 
 
 He thought that nothing could seem cooler 
 or more charming than this spacious parlor 
 where they sat; but in his worldly wisdom 
 he took the invitation to a more secluded 
 spot for a sign, and was acquiescent accord 
 ingly.
 
 1 84 ROBIN AROON 
 
 The explanation had been made with some 
 slight indication of embarrassment on 
 Judith's part, as if she feared her visitor 
 might perceive its underlying motive. This, 
 with youth's instinctive intelligence in such 
 matters, he very promptly saw; and was 
 pleased to interpret her diffidence as indica 
 tive of an interest that he was deeply anxious 
 to inspire. 
 
 The vision of her beauty at the ball had 
 overwhelmed him; and he had but lately 
 awakened from dreams of this fair, new 
 found face, which now seemed to regard him 
 with an involuntary and unconscious interest, 
 that was deeper and sweeter than surprise. 
 
 "I did not hope when we parted last night 
 that you would really come to see me so 
 soon," she said; and the tender implication 
 of a blush suffused her cheeks. 
 
 "Did you really hope for my coming?" he 
 asked gently. The intonations of his voice 
 were soft and musical; but the ultimate 
 meaning of his question was more legible in 
 the frank blue eyes that regarded her. 
 
 Her own fell to her lap; and she played 
 with a spray of the woodbine-blossoms that
 
 ROBIN AROON 185 
 
 she had nervously twisted from the vine when 
 they entered the summer-house together. 
 She did not answer his question. It seemed 
 altogether too obvious for so early an hour in 
 their love-passages. 
 
 "I was deeply interested in all that you told 
 me last night of your home in Virginia; and 
 I thought it very strange that even before I 
 had met you, though since your arrival in 
 Halifax, I had been told about Bushy Park 
 by one who had seen it." 
 
 He looked at her with a regard of curious 
 inquiry; and for the first time her eyes met 
 his own frankly. The kindly simplicity of 
 her speech and demeanor charmed him un- 
 speakably. 
 
 "Ah," she said, "Mr. Henning, you do not 
 yet know Halifax; and so I must tell you that 
 one of its most popular matrons is Mistress 
 Wiley Jones of The Grove. She has recent 
 ly taken a strong fancy to a young Scotchman, 
 who has followed a sea-fearing life, and who 
 came to the town of Edenton in the eastern 
 part of our Province from the Indies. 
 Thence he visited Halifax with letters; and 
 he has now been at The Grove for some
 
 1 86 ROBIN AROON 
 
 weeks. He possesses a distinguished air and 
 accomplished manners. He has proved a 
 great boon to the social life of our town ; and 
 Mistress Jones, who is my cousin, really 
 thinks him in love with me." 
 
 This demurely and with downcast eyes. 
 
 Henning recalled his friend Lee's opinion 
 of Scotchmen as expressed in a moment of un 
 guarded conviviality about the board at 
 Bushy Park; and for once was inclined, in 
 spite of his regard for Greig, to concur with 
 it. 
 
 "He makes bad verses to the ladies," con 
 tinued Judith. "I am a victim. He is a 
 good dancer. I have danced with him. He 
 speaks French respectably, and writes a beau 
 tiful handwriting. These are noteworthy 
 accomplishments in a foreigner, when no 
 young gentleman passing through this colony 
 is presumed to be such, unless he have 
 an acquaintance with at least dancing, box 
 ing, playing the fiddle and small swords and 
 cards. He sings divinely; and I am told by 
 my cousin, Mr. Jones, that this young man 
 has a very genteel acquaintance with all the 
 arts I have enumerated."
 
 ROBIN AROON 187 
 
 "Damn the Scotchman!" thought Hen- 
 ning, who never swore. 
 
 It is a strange thing, how many people, 
 men and women, think "damn him, her or 
 it." 
 
 Henning was hardly interested, save after 
 an antagonistic and outraged fashion, in 
 Judith's description of Captain Paul, beyond 
 the delight that he derived from looking into 
 her unfathomable eyes as she talked of him; 
 and wondering with an unspeakable longing 
 at the moist redness of her mouth, as he 
 thought what might be the emotion of him 
 who should kiss it. 
 
 "I saw him at the ball," he commented 
 aloud ; and again conceived the hot, unspoken 
 sentiment : 
 
 "Damn him!" 
 
 "Well," she went on, naively, "he told me 
 a few days ago, when I was out at The Grove, 
 that he had seen your place of Bushy Park, 
 from his ship in Rappahannock River. He 
 described it at night, with its innumerable 
 front windows blazing with light." 
 
 "Ah!" said Henning reminiscently, "how 
 it all comes back to me ! But," he continued 
 curiously, "why should Captain Paul speak
 
 1 88 ROBIN AROON 
 
 of me and of my house to you, who knew 
 nothing of me. You never heard of me be 
 fore I came to Halifax?" 
 
 Again her eyes sought the spray of wood 
 bine bloom, and she seemed distraught. 
 
 "I had talked of you first to him," she ans 
 wered; and hesitated, wondering if the ridi 
 culous old negro by any possibility might have 
 dared to deliver to him her foolish message 
 about the horses. 
 
 "And had you known of me before I came 
 to Halifax?" he asked, with fatuous delight, 
 expecting an affirmative reply. 
 
 He bent on her a smile of pleased anticipa 
 tion. 
 
 She might have truthfully answered him, 
 with that finely drawn evasion of fact and 
 skilled interpretation of fancy, which is some 
 times woman's divinest gift: 
 
 "Every one in Halifax knows of every one 
 who is any one in Virginia." 
 
 But she was an artist, and she did not. 
 She flashed at him a glance of radiant mirth, 
 and said: 
 
 "Never!" 
 
 It was her chance of which she availed her 
 self, knowing her ground. She laughed to
 
 ROBIN AROON 189 
 
 note the look of disconcerted blankness that 
 stole into his face, as his lower jaw dropped. 
 She could have hugged herself for her wit 
 and diplomacy. 
 
 "I don't understand it," he said. 
 
 "Well," she observed softly, and half- 
 hesitating continued meanwhile to beat her 
 knee with the woodbine; "Mr. Gilchrist had 
 talked to me about you. He said that your 
 family was very prominent in Virginia, and 
 that you " 
 
 She paused for a moment with fine effect; 
 then looking at him earnestly, she continued, 
 "You know, Mr. Gilchrist is one of my fath 
 er's warmest friends. My father has a very, 
 very great regard for Mr. Gilchrist." 
 
 "I do not doubt that it is well bestowed," 
 replied Henning. "Mr. Gilchrist has been 
 quite kind to me. He called on me at the 
 Swan Tavern on the morning after my arrival 
 here. I have never been so immediately and 
 overwhelmingly honored by an entire strang 
 er before." 
 
 The girl laughed a soft, delighted laugh, 
 and clasped her pretty hands together in her 
 glee. Then she lifted the wild honeysuckle
 
 i 9 o ROBIN AROON 
 
 to her face, and smiled at him through its 
 leaves and flowers. 
 
 "Ah! that was delicious," she said. 
 
 Henning was not sure whether she referred 
 to Mr. Gilchrist's early call, or to the aroma 
 of the flower. 
 
 "He seems to be a great fancier of 
 horses?" observed Henning interrogatively, 
 watching her closely. 
 
 She made no reply. 
 
 "He wanted to buy mine," he continued, 
 still eyeing her. 
 
 "You surely did not sell them to him ?" 
 she said impressively. 
 
 "I did," he answered. 
 
 There was a ludicrous ruefulness in the 
 tone of his reply. 
 
 Her eyes sparkled. 
 
 "After what I ?" she murmured. 
 
 The woodbine spray fell from her hands. 
 She did not finish the question. 
 
 "Ah, but I had not seen you then," he ex 
 plained in eager extenuation. 
 
 Then with a show of feeling he solilo 
 quized : 
 
 "What an infernal ass I was!" 
 
 She lifted to him the glory of eyes that
 
 ROBIN AROON 191 
 
 were half-shining, half-misty. He stooped 
 and picked up the bloom. 
 
 She held out a seductive hand, and said : 
 
 "May I have it, please?" 
 
 He caught the seductive hand in his own. 
 
 "A fair exchange is no robbery," he ans 
 wered, while she struggled gently and very 
 unsuccessfully to withdraw it He could see 
 that her bosom was heaving, and that her 
 eyes were averted. There was a tremor in 
 her voice as she asked, faintly smiling: 
 
 "What is the price of it, Mr. Henning?" 
 
 "Some little part of your regard," he ans 
 wered, bending toward her, with the impulse 
 to catch her in his arms. 
 
 "Then give it to me," she said, looking at 
 him unabashed. 
 
 He laid the tangle of green and pink in her 
 lap, still holding her hand. 
 
 "Mr. Henning," she said, and he 
 thought that a pallor had come into her 
 cheeks that but now had seemed rosier than 
 the woodbine bloom, "is this the fashion of 
 paying morning calls upon unprotected young 
 women in the Province of Virginia?" 
 
 The query contained a magic and indefina-
 
 1 92 ROBIN AROON 
 
 ble charm for Henning. It delighted him 
 with a subtle sense of elusive reminiscence. 
 
 "It is the fashion I am sure it must be 
 the fashion of David with Nancy Carter, 
 and of Greig with Betty Berkeley, and of 
 Tom Randolph with Milly Hubbard. It 
 certainly must be; though none of them has 
 ever told me of it. I can swear, however, 
 for myself that it has been none of mine, 
 elsewhere than here !" 
 
 "Oh!" she said warmly, "who are they? 
 Nancy, and Betty, and Milly?" 
 
 The color came back to her cheeks, and 
 the mirth to her eyes. She withdrew her 
 captive hand. 
 
 "Three love-stories! Oh! tell me a 
 beautiful love-story, Mr. Henning." 
 
 "I have but poor words to tell a love-story 
 to any woman least of all, to you," he ans 
 wered pointedly. " 'Tis more the pity, when 
 I can imagine so charming a one." 
 
 "With yourself for the hero?" 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 "And Nancy or Betty or Milly or 
 what's her name?" 
 
 "Judith," he responded tenderly, capturing
 
 ROBIN AROON 193 
 
 again the escaped hand, that seemed no long 
 er elusive or impatient of captivity. 
 
 Their eyes met; and each knew. 
 
 "I should like to kiss you," he said. 
 
 The spray of blossoms slipped, again, un 
 noticed to the ground. 
 
 "Sir," she said saucily, "do you not know 
 that such gifts are not for the mere asking?" 
 
 She wagged her pretty head at him with a 
 daring that was irresistible. 
 
 "They cannot be for the mere taking," he 
 answered, smiling and prolonging the sweet 
 suspense which gives love its finest flavor; 
 and half-afraid, too, lest he might lose her 
 by a too rough assault. "It would be un 
 pardonable rudeness." 
 
 Her maiden passion was at full tide. 
 
 "I can swear that it is a fashion that has 
 been none of mine elsewhere," she said; 
 and her breath came short. 
 
 She looked down at the toe of her slipper, 
 and then looked up at her lover, and smiled 
 at him in adoring mockery. 
 
 "Ah, me!" she sighed inexpressibly. 
 
 Then she asked in almost inarticulate 
 words : 
 13
 
 i 9 4 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "Would it be proper?" 
 
 "Perfectly so," he replied, "if it were a 
 confession." 
 
 "A confession? of what?" 
 
 "Of what I have already seen in your 
 eyes," he said with proud assurance. 
 
 His arm was around her, unresisting; and 
 he drew her to him. She lifted her face to 
 his, with the light on it that never was on land 
 or sea. He bent over her and kissed her on 
 her half-parted lips. Her eyes closed for a 
 delicious moment; then opening, bloomed 
 purple into perfect flowers of love. 
 
 She sighed heavily a suspiration of de 
 light. Then she extricated herself, and said : 
 
 "To think of it ! Here, in the broad day 
 light!" 
 
 She laughed a soft, contented laugh; and 
 taking his hand in both of hers, asked: 
 
 "Did Mr. Gilchrist really buy the horses?" 
 
 He nodded, smiling and exultant. 
 
 "And did you dare sell them to him, Robin, 
 after getting my inviting message?" 
 
 He nodded again, still smiling, yet not 
 quite so exultant. 
 
 "Oh, Robin Aroon!" she laughed, "now 
 how can I?"
 
 ROBIN AROON 195 
 
 "Can you what?" he asked, looking puz 
 zled. 
 
 "Marry you for those horses?" she said. 
 
 "Oh, I'll buy 'em back," he answered 
 bravely.
 
 THE SEVENTH CHAPTER 
 
 "THESE, WITH HASTE" 
 
 Under the woodbine arbor from which the 
 blossoms were now long gone, Judith Mont- 
 fort read aloud to Henning in the late sum 
 mer weather the letter that had just come to 
 him from the Reverend Mr. Heffernan, min 
 ister of Christ Church, Middlesex, in the 
 Colony of Virginia. It was written in a fine 
 ornate script, and was addressed "To Robert 
 Henning, esquire, in the care of Mr. Thomas 
 Gilchrist, at Halifax Borough in the Colony 
 of North Carolina: These, with haste"; 
 and it was sealed with red sealing wax, im 
 pressed with the parson's family crest. 
 
 " 'Robin aroon,' ' wrote Mr. Heffernan, 
 and read Miss Judith in a voice which Hen 
 ning thought the most musical on earth as he 
 listened: " 'Robin aroon, Your letter fetches 
 me news that I had not learned from your 
 relatives at Bushy Park. When I last visited 
 the place, which was some days ago, T found 
 your mother, brother, and sister enjoying
 
 ROBIN AROON 197 
 
 good health, and seemingly much diverted 
 that your trip through the southern colonies 
 should end at Halifax; but they made no 
 mention of your approaching marriage. Yet 
 all the while I could but observe that they 
 exchanged glances among themselves, when 
 speaking of you, that conveyed no meaning 
 to me beyond one of mystery. 
 
 'I refer to your young brother and sister 
 in this allusion to the interchange of meaning 
 looks. Your mother is ever too well-man 
 nered to indulge in such demeanor. Which 
 covert glances I now interpret as intimating 
 a hidden knowledge of that concerning which 
 your letter, now open before me as I write, 
 informs me. 
 
 " 'I am much honoured that you should de 
 sire my participation in the ceremony so soon 
 to occur, and in which you are to perform a 
 significant and important part. I hope that 
 the incumbent of the parish in Halifax is a 
 good churchman. Many of these Carolina 
 ministers are hardly loyal to the church. 
 
 'I assure you that I shall gladly comply 
 with your request Mistress Henning this 
 morning having notified me by a letter, sent 
 over from Bushy Park to the Glebe by the
 
 198 ROBIN AROON 
 
 hands of your brother David, that I am in 
 vited to make one of the wedding party out 
 of Middlesex. This procession of guests will 
 also include David and Elenor, Mr. Greig, 
 the Scotchman, and Miss Elizabeth Berkeley 
 of Barn Oaks, Colonel Selden and Mr. Ball, 
 from the northern side of Rappahannock, 
 Mr. Laurence Lee, Mr. John Ree, the 
 sprightly Mistress Turberville of Peckatone, 
 mortal foe of gates, and some others who will 
 join the line of chariots, coaches, chaises and 
 chairs in Williarnsburg. 
 
 " 'I sorrow to be compelled to pass through 
 so pestilent and treasonable a hole as that 
 same city; but I opine hopefully that no stay 
 of duration will be made there. 
 
 " 'Mistress Henning bids me say to you, 
 should I chance to write to you of my pro 
 jected coming, that John and Anne Carter 
 will also go to the southward with our wed 
 ding-party, leaving Westmoreland on the day 
 before our departure from Bushy Park, and 
 joining us at the ferry over York River. She 
 adds that you will understand, which I do 
 not, if I shall further say to you that Nancy's 
 eyebrows are now full-grown. 
 
 " 'David, who fetched your mother's let-
 
 ROBIN AROON 199 
 
 ter, and stayed to breakfast with me at the 
 Glebe, upon learning that I am to write you, 
 requests that I will make you informed of 
 the news about Miss Elizabeth Berkeley and 
 the Scotchman. He says that what he has 
 writ you on the subject is true, and that they 
 are as friendly as two peas in the same green 
 pease-pod. He also wishes me to add an un 
 seemly remark of his, to the effect that young 
 women can fling dust in your eyes as easily as 
 I can shake it from my sandbox on to this 
 writing, intimating thereby your lack of soph 
 istication, and insinuating that if you be not 
 careful, your lady love may yet give you the 
 slip. 
 
 " 'These observations in their complete 
 ness I forbear to convey to you ; but I deem it 
 my duty to inform you of their general pur 
 port, in order that you may judge how utterly 
 unable this Greig is to mould into polite fash 
 ion the manners of his young charges. 
 
 " 'Master David, I will add of my own 
 motion, after breakfasting with me, and ac 
 cepting of my hospitality freely, had the ill- 
 grace, prior to his departure, to tie a small 
 thorn bush to the tail of my riding-horse,
 
 200 ROBIN AROON 
 
 Jotank, whereby I came near to grief in my 
 morning's ride to Christ Church. 
 
 " 'I regard with apprehension and distrust 
 the probable presence of David and young 
 Carter in our journey 'cross-country to Hali 
 fax. I do not credit his confidential com 
 munication made to me, as he helped himself 
 bountifully to hot batterbread at my break 
 fast-table this morning, that he is by no means 
 certain of going. \Yhen I pressed him for a 
 reason for declining so agreeable a mission, he 
 informed me that should he go, he might find 
 himself in a devil of a fix inasmuch as Miss 
 Evelyn Harrison of Wakefield is expected to 
 join his mother's coach on the way; and that 
 between her and the aforesaid Miss Anne 
 Carter he would be like the hungry ass be 
 tween the two bundles of hay he having 
 made love to both of them. 
 
 " 'I thereupon, to comfort him, for this 
 was before his performance with the thorn- 
 bush, bade him reflect that they would not 
 travel in the same vehicle; and knowing his 
 temperament, I sang to him a stave of the 
 song in the Beggar's Opera, that the women 
 of my boyhood in Ireland were wont to carry 
 engraved upon their fans : to-wit :
 
 ROBIN AROON 201 
 
 " ' "If the heart of a man is oppressed with cares 
 
 The mists are dispelled when a woman appears; 
 Like the notes of a fiddle, she sweetly, sweetly 
 Raises the spirit and charms the ears." ' 
 
 " 'He finished the dish of batterbread in 
 pious meditation; and then went out, and 
 covertly attached the thorn. 
 
 " 'The guests still come and go at Bushy 
 Park, as I observe by their attendance at 
 Christ Church on Sundays; while I am sel 
 dom without some one staying at the Glebe. 
 Mr. John Ree has honoured me with his com 
 pany here since the day of our hurdle-race 
 over the five-barred gates, hated of the 
 sprightly Mistress Turberville. You will 
 hardly have heard ere this of the result of 
 that race a piece of news that you should 
 know as you were stake-holder for us. I won 
 the race by the misfortune befalling Mr. 
 Ree's horse of striking the last gate and 
 tumbling, whereby Mr. Ree came a cropper. 
 He was brought to the Glebe for the healing 
 of a sprained shoulder; and here, as I have 
 informed you, he has since remained, though 
 the shoulder is long since mended. The 
 Glebe being in convenient reach of Urbanna, 
 where some of his cronies foregather, he
 
 202 ROBIN AROON 
 
 spends much of his time there, having his bed 
 and board here. He promises to return to 
 his home up-country in November. He is a 
 pretty fellow, and diverting company; and 
 also loves a horse. 
 
 " 'Mr. Ree and I plan to attend the Rich 
 mond County races in October, when I trust 
 you may be returned to Bushy Park with your 
 bride, and may accompany us thither. 
 
 " 'Mann Page, of Gloucester, esquire's 
 horse, Damon, will be matched with William 
 Fitzhugh,of Chatham, esquire's Kitty Foster; 
 and I learn that Colonel Daniel McCarthy's 
 Silver Legs, Moore Fauntleroy, esquire's 
 mare, Miss Sprightly, and Colonel Francis 
 Thornton's Merryman are all entered. 
 These horses would make no despicable figure 
 at New Market, in Britain, which I have at 
 tended. 
 
 " 'Have you seen any races during your 
 stay in Carolina? 
 
 " 'I am informed that there they are much 
 attached to quarter-racing, which is always a 
 match between two horses to run one quarter 
 of a mile straight out, being merely an ex 
 ertion of speed. 
 
 " 'I must bring a long letter to a quick
 
 ROBIN AROON 203 
 
 close. It will please some of my congrega 
 tion next Sunday that I have writ at this 
 length, for I have by so much curtailed from 
 my sermon for that day. 
 
 " 'I take regret to myself, upon perusing 
 what is here set down, that so great a dis 
 course is given concerning horses; for this 
 topic, I am sure, can little concern you now 
 in your state of hymeneal expectancy. 
 
 " 'Adieu, dear Sir, until I see you. 
 " 'Your obedient, attached servant, 
 
 " 'James Heffernan.' ' 
 
 "He little dreams how the noble animals 
 have made our fate for us, Robin," said 
 Judith, when she had finished reading the 
 letter. 
 
 "He little guesses that 'tis a span of horses 
 here that is fetching him to Halifax," said 
 Henning. "Ah, those horses!" 
 
 "That you sold to Mr. Gilchrist," she 
 added mischievously. "And so you have al 
 ways been Robin Aroon?" 
 
 "He is an Irishman and a courtier, dear; 
 and the name does not mean the same to him 
 as to you and me."
 
 THE EIGHTH CHAPTER 
 
 ANOTHER MAN^S SHOES 
 
 In the little colonial church, bowered in 
 green trees, on the same street upon which 
 stood the house with the box hedges, she who 
 had been known in the Colony of Carolina 
 as "the divine Judith Montfort" became the 
 blushing bride of Robert Henning. Very 
 lovely she looked in her white silk frock; and 
 very handsome all the women of Halifax ac 
 claimed him in his dark blue costume, with 
 its cascades of finest lace and its brave show of 
 gold buttons. 
 
 The wedding was at high noon ; and the 
 noisy chirp of insects in the periwinkle vines 
 that carpeted the churchyard mingled with 
 the fine Irish brogue of the Reverend Mr. 
 Heffernan, as he pronounced them man and 
 wife, and admonished the dearly beloved 
 there assembled that those, whom God had 
 joined together, none should put asunder. 
 
 Of them who hearkened were some who 
 were especially dearly-beloved, not to Mr.
 
 ROBIN AROON 205 
 
 Heffernan, nor yet to the Reverend Mr. Fitz 
 Wilson, minister of that parish, who assisted 
 him in the ceremony, but one to another; and 
 these, regretful, looked on and dreamed day 
 dreams, as is the immemorial wont of youth 
 and beauty at all weddings. But there was 
 no outward visible sign of their dreaming, 
 since Judith was superstitious. For herself, 
 she had insisted that all young brides must for 
 good-fortune wear about them, on their wed 
 ding days, concealed in some unheralded hid 
 ing-place, 
 
 "Something old and something new, 
 Something borrowed, something blue." 
 
 For her friends and visitors, whose love- 
 stories she had learned, since Henning's 
 skill as a teller of love-tales was now never 
 vainly invoked by her, she had further in 
 sisted on the verity of the old proverb : 
 
 "Once at the altar, no more at the altar." 
 
 Whereupon Greig, the Scotch tutor, with 
 ludicrously lugubrious face, and pathetic eyes 
 that seemed to wander vainly in search of 
 some invisible, lost object, walked down the 
 aisle in the wake of the bridal pair, bearing
 
 206 ROBIN AROON 
 
 on his arm the vivacious Miss Evelyn Harri 
 son of Wakefield; Nancy Carter unwillingly 
 kept step in the procession with Launcelot 
 Lee; and David Henning, with bland and 
 seraphic face, escorted Miss Elizabeth Berke 
 ley of Barn Oaks. 
 
 Following them were John Norfleet of 
 Scotland Neck and Dorothy Davie of Hali 
 fax; Ben Harrison of Wakefield and Elenor 
 Henning; Robert Page of Rosewell and 
 Milicent Hubbard; while Captain Paul, and 
 Isabel Johnstone brought up the rear of the 
 gay procession of maids and men. There 
 were flowers on the high altar, and the sweet 
 ness of summer in the uncloistered air; and 
 the beauty and fashion of the Province 
 thronged the church to witness the solemn 
 ceremony. 
 
 "David," whispered Evelyn Harrison, 
 leaning over to where the younger Henning 
 stood with Betty Berkeley, "when we get back 
 to the house, I have something to tell you." 
 
 "S-h-h !" was David's sibilant warning, as 
 he held up a white fore-finger at her, keeping, 
 meanwhile, her promise in his memory. 
 
 Never did wedding-party appear more 
 charming than did this galaxy of pretty girls
 
 ROBIN AROON 207 
 
 and handsome youths who crowded about the 
 love-crowned bride and groom in the parlors 
 of Judge Montfort's house with the box- 
 hedges; and never in either Colony did all 
 beholders more approve a match. 
 
 "What was it you were so anxious to say 
 to me in the church, Evelyn?" asked Mr. 
 David Henning of Miss Evelyn Harrison, 
 discreetly drawing her aside into an alcove 
 near the great fire-place, that glowed in the 
 red glory of uncounted summer roses. 
 
 The girl hesitated, with a show of color 
 in her face. 
 
 "Quick!" said David; "don't you see 
 Nancy Carter over yonder watching you ?" 
 
 "Then I'll not tell you," she said indig 
 nantly. 
 
 "What were you going to say to him, 
 Evelyn?" asked Milly Hubbard, with spark 
 ling eyes, as David departed, chuckling. 
 
 "He's the most provoking boy," said 
 Evelyn; "I had intended to tell him that I 
 think so many of these old wedding super 
 stitions are utterly foolish. I don't see whv 
 T might not have him for my partner, instead 
 of Mr. Greig, as he and I had first planned." 
 
 Milly listened with pained interest, having
 
 208 ROBIN AROON 
 
 shortly before received a like confidence con 
 cerning David from Nancy Carter. 
 
 "Judith said that if we went into the church 
 together, David and I would never be mar 
 ried," continued Miss Harrison poutingly; 
 "and that changed everything. But I don't 
 believe in any such foolish notions. Do you, 
 Milly?" 
 
 "Indeed!" laughed Milly Hubbard. "I 
 protest one would think otherwise, to see you 
 insist, when we were dressing Judith this 
 morning, that she should wear your new yel 
 low garter with the diamond buckle on her 
 left foot!" she concluded, with a rising in 
 tonation, as Greig paused at her shoulder. 
 
 "Evelyn, David is beckoning to you," she 
 added hurriedly, and the little Harrison 
 slipped away. 
 
 There was a half-smile on Mr. Gilchrist's 
 saturnine face, as Mr. Iredell said to him, 
 where they stood in the midst of the chatter 
 ing throng: 
 
 "They are an extremely handsome couple, 
 Gilchrist." 
 
 He nodded acquiescence. 
 
 "He has stayed more than a month at my 
 house, Iredell," said Mr. Gilchrist, while
 
 ROBIN AROON 209 
 
 they drank the bride's health at the long side 
 board in the dining-room. "I have become 
 quite attached to him. He is a pretty gentle 
 man, and in every way worthy of her." 
 
 His friend bowed to Judge Montfort, who 
 approached them. Then all three shook con 
 gratulatory hands, effusively, in front of three 
 empty glasses. 
 
 "Ah!" said Judge Montfort, "the young 
 people do not now-a-days suffer us to arrange 
 these matters for them." 
 
 One of the three fancied that the speech 
 was meant for him. 
 
 "Judith was delighted with the span of 
 horses you sent her, Gilchrist," he added. 
 "She will thank you for them in person, if she 
 can ever escape that crowd of girls and boys." 
 
 Mr. Gilchrist bowed to Judge Montfort in 
 silence. 
 
 Jasper, near at hand in a white apron, and 
 grasping by the neck an ancestral Montfort 
 decanter of cut glass, could not contain his 
 feelings : 
 
 "Fo' Gord!" he ejaculated, "I knowed she 
 was 'bleest for ter have 'em !" 
 
 Once more his old adversary appeared, to
 
 210 ROBIN AROON 
 
 bid him his customary defiance. Silas, shuf 
 fling by under the burden of a huge silver 
 coffee urn, retorted in triumph: 
 
 "Yas, she done got 'em; but Mars' Robert 
 done got her!" 
 
 Jasper looked at the old man in wrath. 
 His impulse was to smite him. 
 
 "You come out here on dis back po'ch," he 
 muttered. 
 
 The old negro's pride was aroused. 
 
 "G'long!" he said; "I'se right dar wid 
 ye!" 
 
 Jasper, leading the way, caught a glimpse 
 in the crowd of Judith's happy face. His 
 anger faded away; and as Silas stepped upon 
 the porch behind him, he turned and said: 
 
 "Shake han's, ole man! You an' me ain' 
 gwi' quar'l dis day. You's a cullud Ferginyer 
 gent'mun, an' I'se a Norf Kliner quality nig 
 ger; an' I'se ez good ez you is, an' you's ez 
 good ez me; an' I ain' got nothin' 'gin' you 
 no mo'." 
 
 "You sho'ly is a nice gentmun," responded 
 the mollified Silas; "I ain' 'spectin' ter see 
 nothin' like you 'twixt here an' de Guff o' 
 Nexico." 
 
 They thereupon drank in turn from the
 
 ROBIN AROON 211 
 
 mouth of the decanter that Jasper still carried 
 in his hand. 
 
 "It was a beautiful wedding, dear," said 
 Isabel Johnstone to Judith, looking at her 
 with shining eyes. 
 
 "Even down to his beautiful shoes?" asked 
 Judith, half-laughing, half-wistful. 
 
 For Judith Montfort had wept and told 
 Isabel Johnstone the night before, in bedroom 
 confidence, that she had promised to marry 
 Mr. Gilchrist and that her dear father had 
 wanted her to marry Mr. Gilchrist and that 
 she had always really intended to marry Mr. 
 Gilchrist, until until she had met Robin 
 at the Assembly Ball. 
 
 And then Judith had further told her, with 
 April laughter succeeding the gust of tears, 
 that Robin's wedding pumps were found to be 
 too small when they arrived that morning 
 from Philadelphia; and that Mr. Gilchrist 
 had thereupon presented Robin with Mr. Gil- 
 christ's own beautiful new pair, which Mr. 
 Gilchrist had imported for Mr. Gilchrist's 
 own wedding with Judith Montfort ! 
 
 "Look at them, Isabel," she laughed, with 
 a glory in her face, and pointing to where her 
 young husband stood near by; "the lovely 
 jeweled buckles, and all!"
 
 THE NINTH CHAPTER 
 
 ACCOLADE 
 
 The chronicler of that glowing period in 
 the history of Halifax records with facile pen 
 that Mr. Iredell wrote a letter to a member 
 of his family at Edenton about this time, in 
 which he gave "a characteristic account of the 
 gay and opulent borough. 'The divine 
 Judith Montfort' has just been married to 
 Robert Henning, a Virginia beau. The nup 
 tials were celebrated by twenty-two consecu 
 tive dinner-parties in as many different 
 houses; the dinners being regularly succeeded 
 by dances, and all terminated by a grand 
 ball." 
 
 The first of these ever-memorable twenty- 
 two consecutive dinings took place at The 
 Grove, in the evening after the wedding, 
 while the sloop Chockayotte, on which Cap 
 tain Paul was booked for passage to Edenton, 
 lay in the Roanoke River, near by, ready to 
 sail at the sun-rising. 
 
 "I am reluctant to leave you and your hus-
 
 ROBIN AROON 213 
 
 band, madam, who have shown me more 
 kindness than it has ever been my lot to ex 
 perience, and which I may never hope to 
 know again. I would honor your name the 
 world over," he said, as he bent above his 
 hostess' hand in salutation at the breakfast 
 table that morning, while Mr. Jones smiled 
 approval from the head of the shining and 
 flower-decked board. 
 
 "But the Chockayotte does not sail until to 
 morrow," she said. "You will surely stay to 
 the dinner for the bridal party." 
 
 "Were not my brother lying sick at Fred- 
 ericksburg, as I have learned but yesterday, 
 I should be loth to depart until the Virginians 
 leave," replied Captain Paul. "I shall re 
 main to the dinner, with great pleasure." 
 
 "And we shall see you again some day? 
 You will not forget us?" said the gentle lady. 
 
 "There are clouds on the horizon, mad 
 am," responded John Paul, in the melodra 
 matic language that seemed so well to com 
 port with his character and person, "which 
 portend the breaking of an early storm. I 
 look, when that storm shall come, to fly the 
 colors of a new republic against the ships of 
 England on the sea. Haply, Mr. Jones and
 
 2i 4 ROBIN AROON 
 
 his brother, and my good friend, Mr. Joseph 
 Hewes, may in that time aid me in this ambi 
 tion of mine to command a vessel for the free 
 dom of America," and he bowed to Mr. 
 Jones. 
 
 "It shall be my pleasure, Captain Paul," 
 the latter responded, "as I am sure it will be 
 the pleasure of my brother Allen, and of Mr. 
 Hewes." 
 
 The idea of impending struggle appeared 
 to obsess the mind of the young sea-captain. 
 His face glowed with the fervor of a great 
 passion. 
 
 "It needs no prophetic vision," he said, 
 haranguing host and hostess, "to see the com 
 ing event; and even less, in considering the 
 patriotic spirit that animates the men and wo 
 men of these colonies, to foretell its favorable 
 issue. There is an undercurrent that is not 
 mistakable." 
 
 He spoke in the nautical phraseology which 
 seemed frequently to suggest itself to him. 
 
 "It is very strange of you to dwell on com 
 ing war, Captain Paul," said Mrs. Jones, 
 smiling at his enthusiasm, "when the minds 
 of all of us are so engaged with the soft de 
 lights of yesterday's wedding."
 
 ROBIN AROON 215 
 
 He regarded her with sorrowful, unsmiling 
 eyes. 
 
 "And the silken-clad, luxurious colonials 
 these laughing, joyous boys and girls, in their 
 silks and brocades, wearing their love-verses 
 on their lips, and their love-songs in their 
 hearts madam, I foresee them in the 
 front of that tremendous fray. Their ease 
 of life will be forgotten in the ardor of sac 
 rificial struggle; and they will learn, with 
 brave hearts and smiling faces, the beautiful 
 meaning of the Roman saying, that it is a 
 sweet and honorable thing to die for one's 
 country." 
 
 Then with rising intonation and uncon 
 scious eloquence, he continued: 
 
 "I mind me, madam, of that stirring story 
 in French history when, in the Wars of the 
 Fronde, the King's storming columns under 
 de Praslin were beat back from the battle 
 ments of Rethel, until, baffled and bleeding, 
 they stood aside to suffer the Guards of the 
 Royal Household to take their bloody turn. 
 I recall in the story, how, with broidery and 
 feathers, and with their ladies' love-tokens of 
 scarves and ribands on their arms, these 
 young gallants of the boudoir and the salon
 
 216 ROBIN AROON 
 
 moved forward to the assault, while de Pras- 
 lin's broken veterans called jeeringly, 'En 
 avant les gants glaces!' 
 
 "I mind me, how laughingly they leaped 
 to that gory fray. The feathers were shorn, 
 when it was over; and the ribands and 
 scarves were begrimed and reddened. Half 
 of the young, white faces lay dead in the 
 walls' broken breach; but the sweet-voiced, 
 soft-handed boys of the court had captured 
 the ramparts of Rethel. 
 
 "Madam," he concluded, as he bowed with 
 impassioned grace to his hostess, "I am peas 
 ant-born, but I have the fighting spirit and the 
 fighter's instinct. We shall yet hear that ac 
 claim for these, our Americans, 'En avant les 
 gants glaces!' and see again the young 
 household guards at the storming." 
 
 In the soft glow of wax-candles, following 
 the dinner of state in the great dining-hall 
 of The Grove, the dance took place in the 
 parlor with the bay-window, where the gene 
 rations of Joneses looked down on the gay 
 assemblage, from gilded frames, with un 
 changing faces. 
 
 Beneath the portrait of Robin Jones, in 
 the red velvet coat, first of his house in the
 
 ROBIN AROON 217 
 
 colonies, hung a sword in a metal sheath. 
 The hilt of it was of white brass, and the 
 grip-piece of the handle of twisted copper 
 wire, that shone in the bright candle-light. 
 Mrs. Jones was one of the very few of the 
 animated crowd who observed her husband, 
 in the interval between two dances, stand for 
 a moment before the portrait of his progeni 
 tor, and, with his back to the company, take 
 down the weapon. 
 
 The dance-music had ceased and the mur 
 mur of the soft Southern voices was alone 
 audible in the room. 
 
 Mr. Jones advanced to the centre of the 
 moving, laughing throng of men and women ; 
 and drawing the sword from its sheath, held 
 it, point upwards, above his head. The 
 flashing blade caught and reflected the light 
 of a hundred wax tapers. 
 
 "Ladies and gentlemen," he called, and the 
 assemblage paused in its movement, each 
 where he stood, and wondered. Some subtle in 
 fluence seemed to inform the atmosphere in 
 the deep hush that followed. Mrs. Jones 
 moved through the throng, and stopped at 
 her husband's side. 
 
 "I wish to make public to this gathering
 
 218 ROBIN AROON 
 
 of the best of two sister colonies the esteem 
 in which my wife and I hold one who yet be 
 longs to neither, though he carries in his 
 heart the welfare and the honor of both, and 
 of all America. He leaves us on the morrow 
 for Virginia ; and ere he departs I would bid 
 'God speed!' to our friend, Captain Paul." 
 
 Upon the conclusion of Mr. Jones's unex 
 pected speech there was a clapping of hands; 
 and then there was laughter, and shouts of 
 applause, and the suspense of the moment 
 was fraught with the eagerness of strained 
 anticipation. 
 
 Thereupon, forth of the applauding throng, 
 with the accustomed dignity and grace of one 
 sprung from a long line of courtiers, stepped 
 the young Scotch sea-captain, clad in his lav 
 ender suit of silk that so well became his face 
 and figure. His head was high, and his 
 cleancut nostril was dilated; and he walked 
 with an unhesitant movement of cool imper 
 turbability. 
 
 The women who knew him were thrilled to 
 see the wonted melancholy languor of his 
 dark eyes glow into a burning and a flaming 
 light. A score and more of them there, at
 
 ROBIN AROON 219 
 
 that moment, would have laid down their 
 hearts, that he might trample on them. 
 
 The assembled guests drew away before his 
 advance, half-awed and wholly spell-bound 
 by his bearing, until there was left a wide, 
 vacant space before the master and mistress 
 of the mansion. 
 
 Reaching this spot, the sailor stood for a 
 moment motionless, with all eyes fixed upon 
 him. Then in a voice that fell on the list 
 ening throng with the melodious intonations 
 of some soft musical instrument, he said: 
 
 "You do me, sir and madam, a signal and 
 unexpected honor." 
 
 He bowed low, in austere simplicity, and 
 stood facing his hosts. 
 
 "Captain Paul," said Mr. Jones, "in token 
 of the high regard in which we hold you, up 
 on this eve of your departure from Halifax, 
 where you have found many friends, and 
 upon what you and I and no few others of 
 this company believe to be also the eve of 
 mighty events in the destiny of these colonies, 
 I present to you this sword. I think that 
 you will never draw it in any save a worthy 
 cause." 
 
 He returned the weapon to its sheath, and 
 handed it, hilt foremost, to his guest.
 
 220 ROBIN AROON 
 
 "I have no words to thank you," said Cap 
 tain Paul, receiving it. 
 
 The histrionic impulse, that ever dominat 
 ed his life, was at flood tide in him. It was 
 a passionate part of his nature in all critical 
 junctures; and now it moved him as with ir 
 resistible compulsion. 
 
 He drew the blade from the scabbard, that 
 fell from his hand with a clang upon the pol 
 ished floor. Taking the weapon by the 
 point, he presented the hilt of it to Mrs. 
 Jones. 
 
 "Madam," he said, and his sweet, clear 
 voice again rang through the room, while the 
 light in his eyes melted once more to a wistful 
 and pathetic tenderness, "in the days of 
 knighthood queens sometimes gave the acco 
 lade. I should find my supremest happiness 
 in this brilliant presence to receive it at your 
 hand, with a prophetic title." 
 
 He knelt upon one knee before her. 
 
 Laughing the while, she touched his 'left 
 shoulder with the shining sword-point. 
 
 "Arise," she said, "Admiral John Paul, of 
 an American navy." 
 
 The sword fell from her hand and lay near 
 the scabbard on the floor.
 
 THE POSTSCRIPT 
 
 Many of the Seats of the Mighty still lift 
 their lofty roofs along the River Way; but 
 few of them now hold aught that is left out 
 of the faded century save memories. 
 
 No longer is tobacco a staple crop in the 
 ancient county of Middlesex; and the white 
 sails of ships forth of Glasgow and London 
 town have vanished from the lucent sunlit 
 days that yet kindle the tide-waters of Rappa- 
 hannock. 
 
 Urbanna is no more a port of entry; and 
 Halifax, under the touch of time, long since 
 ceased to be "the gay and opulent borough" 
 that Mr. Iredell described it. 
 
 The little church in which Robin Aroon 
 and Judith were married still stands, how 
 ever, in its periwinkle-covered yard, grey with 
 age and haunted of the past; but the box- 
 hedges, since grown high in air, are broken 
 in their ordered array, and the Montfort 
 mansion has become a lodging-house in the 
 ownership of strangers. 
 
 How Henning and his youthful compeers
 
 222 ROBIN AROON 
 
 justified Captain Paul's melodramatic proph 
 ecy is written in history; upon some of the 
 pages of which is also chronicled the shining 
 story of the young Scotch sailor, who gave 
 himself an imperishable name at Halifax, 
 that became an imperishable fame upon the 
 seas. 
 
 Among the manuscripts of the Philosophi 
 cal Society in Philadelphia is a lately found 
 letter, written by him after he had achieved 
 his honors, that lets in a glowing light upon 
 his career in those unrecorded years before 
 the Revolution; and in the Library of the 
 Navy Department at Washington may still 
 be seen his sword, the guard of its hilt 
 broken off, but the blade uncorrupted, that 
 once hung under the portrait of Robin Jones 
 in the red velvet coat on the long-since 
 crumbled and fallen walls of The Grove.
 
 DIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA 
 
 AT 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 LIBRARY
 
 3 1158 00927 7582 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 000249291 6