THE] [BRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CAL IFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 r, was bora ifl 
 
 Gloucester county. Va.. in I860, daughter of Jolifl 
 Tyler an'd Frances (Jackson) Beawell. Her fatheB 
 was a nephew of P'-es. John -Tyler, and came of 
 family noted in many fe enerMions for high cultureH 
 and her mother was a daughter of Maj. WillianB 
 Jackson of Baltimore, Md. ( a distinguished soldieB 
 in the second war with England. Miss Seawell'B 
 education was irregularly conducted, but in hei| 
 reading her parents were most particular that onlj 1 
 the best standard works of history and literature I 
 should come into her hands. She lived on the olc I 
 plantation until her father's death, and shortly after I 
 with her family, look up her residence in Wash 
 insrton, D. C. After a visit to England, where she 
 seems to have profited by every experience, she con- 1 
 ti United to " Lippincott's Magazine" several short! 
 stories with a Russian setting, and under a Russian j 
 
 name, founded upon incidents collected by her while 
 abroad. Their speedy acceptance encouraged her 
 to continue, and during the next few years she wrote 
 short stories and sketches, under a variety of noms- 
 de-plume, in the meanw T hile gaining a practical ex 
 perience in authorship and opportunities to correct 
 any crudities of stj'le. In 1886 she wrote "Maid 
 Marian," which, published in "Lippincott's" at 
 tracted considerable attention, and being dramatized 
 by Miss Seawell. was presented with success by 
 Rosina Yokes. Her first novel, " Hale Weston," 
 which appeared in 1889, was translated into German, 
 and achieved even greater success. Thereafter she 
 wrote under her own name, producing in succession 
 the "Berkeleys and Their Neighbors" (1888); 
 , lijhrockmorton " (1890); "A Strange, Sad Com 
 edy ^ 1892) ; "Children of Destiny " (1893), and a 
 number of short stories published in the leading 
 magazines. In 1890 she undertook her first juvenile, 
 " Little Jarvis," a naval story, which won a prize 
 offered by the ' 'Youth's Companion," over 2,000 com 
 petitors. This success, to use her own expression, 
 served to "fix her destiny as a writer of naval 
 stories," and was followed by a series of short tales 
 published under the titles "Young Heroes of the 
 Navy " (1891, '92/93, '94) ; " Quarter Deck and Fo'- 
 K'sl'e" (1895), and others. In 1891 she contributed 
 to the New York " Critic" her famous essay "The 
 Absence of the Creative Faculty in Women," which 
 excited widespread comment and discussion, and 
 was reprinted in England and throughout the con 
 tinent of Europe. The charm and merit of her style 
 was still further shown in 1895, when with her 
 novelette, "The Sprightly Adventures of Marsac," 
 she won the $3,000 prize offered by the New York 
 "Herald" in a competition for the best short story 
 It is published in book-form, and will be dramatized. 
 Miss Seawell's stories are notable for interesting motif 
 and high dramatic quality, and amply justify her 
 rapid success. Personally she is highly cultured and 
 as the possessor of many charming graces of manner, 
 is widely popular in the brilliant circles of the 
 
 natinnnl num'tnl
 
 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 ' v* C, 
 

 
 THROCKMORTON 
 
 A NOVEL 
 
 BY 
 
 MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 1890
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1890, 
 BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
 
 THKOCKMORTCOT. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 I:* a lowland Virginia neighborhood, strangely cut 
 
 off from the rest of the world geographically, and 
 
 tu wrapped in a profound and charming stillness, a little 
 
 >. universe exists. It has its oracles of law, medicine, 
 
 : and divinity ; its wars and alliances. Free from that 
 
 Fff 
 
 3 outward contact which makes an intolerable sameness 
 among people, its types develop quaintly. There is 
 
 jr peace, and elbow-room for everybody's peculiarities. 
 
 Such was the Severn neighborhood called so 
 
 from Severn church. Every brick in this old pile had 
 been brought from green England two hundred years 
 
 cj before. It seemed as if, in those early days, nothing 
 
 ^ made with hands should be without picturesqueness ; 
 
 p and so this ancient church, paid for in hogsheads of 
 black tobacco, which was also the currency in which 
 the hard- riding, hard-drinking parsons took their dues, 
 
 < was peaked and gabled most beautifully. The bricks, 
 mellowed by two centuries, had become a rich, dull 
 red, upon which, year after year, in the enchanted 
 Southern summers and the fitful Southern winters,
 
 4 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 mosses and gray lichens laid their clinging fingers. It 
 was set far back from the broad, white road, and gnarled 
 live-oaks and silver beeches and the melancholy weep 
 ing-willows grew about the churchyard. Their roots 
 had pushed, with gentle persistence, through the crum 
 bling brick wall that surrounded it, where most of 
 the tombstones rested peacefully upon the ground 
 as they chanced to fall. "Within the church itself, 
 modern low-backed pews had supplanted the ancient 
 square boxes during an outbreak of philistinism 
 in the fifties. At the same time, a wooden floor 
 ing had been laid over the flat stones in the aisles, 
 under which dead and gone vicars for the parish 
 had a vicar in colonial days slept quietly. The in 
 terior was darkened by the branches of the trees that 
 pressed against the wall and peered curiously through 
 the small, clear panes of the oblong windows ; and 
 over all the singular, unbroken peace and silence of 
 the region brooded. 
 
 The country round about was fruitful and tame, 
 the slightly rolling landscape becoming as flat as Hol 
 land toward the rich river-bottoms. The rivers were 
 really estuaries, making in from the salt ocean bays, 
 and as briny as the sea itself. Next the church was 
 the parsonage land, still known as the Glebe, al 
 though glebes and tithes had been dead these hun 
 dred years. The Glebe house, which was originally 
 plain and old-fashioned, had been smartened up by
 
 THROCKMORTON. 5 
 
 the rector, the Eev. Edmund Morford, until it looked 
 like an old country-woman masquerading in a ballet 
 costume ; but the Eev. Edmund thought it beautiful, 
 and only watched his chance to lay sacrilegious hands 
 on the old church and to plaster it all over with eccle 
 siastical knickkiiacks of various sorts. 
 
 The Kev. Mr. Morford had come into the world 
 handicapped by the most remarkable personal beauty, 
 and extreme fluency of tongue. Otherwise, he was 
 an honest and conscientious man. But he belonged 
 to that common class among ecclesiastics who know 
 all about the unknowable, and have accurately meas 
 ured the unfathomable. On Sundays, when he got 
 up in the venerable pulpit at Severn, looking so amaz 
 ingly handsome in his snow-white surplice, he dived 
 into the everlasting mysteries with a cocksureness that 
 was appalling or delightful according to the view 
 one took of it. In the tabernacle of his soul, which 
 was quite empty of guile and malice, three devils 
 had taken up their abode : one was the conviction 
 of his own beauty, another was the conviction of his 
 own cleverness, and still another was the suspicion 
 that every woman who looked at him wanted to 
 marry him. Mr. Morford reasoned thus: 
 
 I. That all women want to get married. 
 
 II. That an Edmund Morford is not to be picked 
 up every, day. 
 
 III. That eternal vigilance is the price of liberty'.
 
 (5 THROCKMORTOX. 
 
 On Sundays he scarcely dared look toward the 
 pew where General and Mrs. Temple sat, with their 
 beautiful widowed daughter-in-law, Mrs. Beverley 
 Temple, on one side of them, and Jacqueline Tem 
 ple, as lovely in her small, kittenish way, on the 
 other, for fear that one or the other of these young 
 women would fall hopelessly in love with him. Mrs. 
 Beverley, as the young widow was called, to distin 
 guish her from the elder Mrs. Temple, had the 
 fatal charm for the Rev. Edmund that all things 
 feared and admired have. He believed in his heart 
 of hearts that widows were made for his undoing, 
 and that the good old Hindoo custom of burning 
 them up alive was the only really safe disposition 
 to make of them. The charm of Judith Temple's 
 piquant face and soft, shy eyes was somewhat neu 
 tralized by a grim suspicion lodged in Mr. Morford's 
 mind that she was unnecessarily clever. The Rev. 
 Edmund had a wholesome awe of clever women, 
 especially if they had a knack of humor, and was 
 very much afraid of them. Judith had a sedate 
 way of replying to Morford's resounding platitudes 
 that sometimes created a laugh, and when he labo 
 riously unwound the meaning, he was apt to find 
 the germ of a joke ; and Judith was so grave 
 her eyes were so sweetly serious when she was laying 
 traps to catch the Rev. Edmund's sluggish wits. But 
 Judith herself thought of no man whatever, and had
 
 THROCKMORTON. 7 
 
 learned to regard the sparkle of her unquenchable 
 humor almost as a sin. However, having got a bad 
 name for cleverness, neither the most sincere modesty 
 nor the deepest courtesy availed her in keeping it 
 quiet. Morford, in his simple soul, thought a clever 
 woman could do anything ; and suppose Judith should 
 cast her eyes on at this the Rev. Edmund would 
 turn pale in the midst of his sermon when he caught 
 Judith's gray eyes fixed soberly on him. Soberness 
 and particularly Judith's soberness was deceitful. 
 
 Barn Elms, the Temple place, was near to the 
 Glebe and to Severn church. The house was ram 
 bling and shabby, and had been patched and pieced, 
 with an utter disregard of architectural proportion 
 that resulted in a curious and unexpected picturesque- 
 ness. A room was put on here, and a porch was 
 clapped up there, just as the fancy of each successive 
 Temple had dictated. It was partly of brick and 
 partly of stone. Around it stood in tall ranks the 
 solemn, black-leaved poplars, and great locust-trees 
 grew so close to the house that on windy nights the 
 sound of their giant arms beating the shingled roof 
 awoke superstitious fears in the negroes, who declared 
 it to be the " sperrits " of dead and gone Temples 
 struggling to get in through the chimneys. There 
 was a step up or a step down in every room in the 
 house, and draughts enough in the unnecessary halls 
 and passages to turn a windmill. There was, of
 
 8 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 course, that queer mixture of shabbiuess and luxury 
 about the old place and the mode of living that is 
 characteristic of Virginia. Mrs. Temple had piles and 
 piles of linen sheets laid away with the leaves of dam 
 ask roses between them in the old cedar chests, but 
 half the rooms and all the stairs and passages were 
 uncarpeted. It required the services of an able-bodied 
 negro to keep these floors polished but polished they 
 were, like a looking-glass. The instrument used in 
 this process was called a " dry-rubbin' bresh " by the 
 manipulators, and might well have been used in Pal 
 estine during the days of Herod the tetrarch, being 
 merely a block of wood covered with a sheepskin, well 
 matted with wax and turpentine. At unearthly hours, 
 in cold winter mornings and gray summer dawns, the 
 monotonous echo of this " bresh " going up and down 
 the hall-floors was the earliest sound in the Barn Elms 
 house. There was a full service of silver plate dis 
 played upon a huge and rickety mahogany sideboard, 
 but there was a lack of teaspoons. Mrs. Temple had 
 every day a dinner fit for a king, but General Temple 
 was invariably behindhand with his taxes. The gen 
 eral's first purchase after the war was a pair of splen 
 did Kentucky horses to pull the old carriage bought 
 when Mrs. Temple was a bride, and which was so 
 moth-eaten and worm-eaten and rust-eaten that when 
 it started out it was a wonder that it ever came back 
 again. The kitchen was a hundred yards from the
 
 THROCKMORTON. 9 
 
 house in one direction, and the well, with its old-fash 
 ioned bucket and sweep, was a hundred yards off in 
 another direction. The ice-house and stables were 
 completely out of sight ; while the negro houses, an 
 nually whitewashed a glaring white, were rather too 
 near. But none of these things annoyed General and 
 Mrs. Temple, who would have stared in gentle sur 
 prise at the hint that anything at Barn Elms could 
 be improved. 
 
 General Temple, six feet tall, as straight as an 
 Indian, with a rich, commanding voice and a lofty 
 stride, stood for the shadow of domestic authority j- 
 while Mrs. Temple, a gentle, affectionate, soft-spoken, 
 devoted, and obstinate woman, who barely reached to 
 the general's elbow, was the actual substance. From 
 the day of their marriage he had never questioned her 
 decision upon any subject whatever, although an elab 
 orate fiction of marital authority was maintained be 
 tween them and devoutly believed in by both. Mrs. 
 Temple always consulted the general punctiliously 
 when she had made up her mind and General Tem 
 ple, after a ponderous pretense of thinking it over, 
 would say in his fine, sonorous voice : " My dear Jane, 
 the conviction of your extremely sound judgment, 
 formed from my experience of you during thirty 
 years of married life, inclines me to the opinion that 
 your suggestion is admirable. You have my permis 
 sion, my love " a permission Mrs. Temple never
 
 10 THROCKMOETON. 
 
 failed to accept with wifely gratitude, and, like the 
 general, really thought it amounted to something. 
 This status is extremely common in Virginia, where, 
 as a rule, the men have a magnificent but imaginary 
 empire, and the women conduct the serious business 
 of life. 
 
 Brave, chivalrous, generous, loving God and re 
 vering woman, General Temple was as near a monster 
 of perfection as could be imagined, except when he 
 had the gout. Then he became transformed into a 
 full-blown demon. From the most optimistic form of 
 Episcopal faith, he lapsed into the darkest Calvinism 
 as soon as he felt the first twinge of his malady, and 
 by the time he was a prisoner in the " charmber," as 
 the bedroom of the mistress of the family is called in 
 Virginia, he believed that the whole world was created 
 to be damned. Never had General Temple been 
 known under the most violent provocation to use pro 
 fane language ; but under the baleful influence of gout 
 and superheated religion combined, he always swore 
 like a pirate. His womenkind, who quietly bullied him 
 during the best part of the year, found him a person 
 to be feared when he began to have doubts about free 
 will and election. To this an exception must be made 
 in favor of Mrs. Temple and of Delilah, the house 
 hold factotum, who was no more afraid of General 
 Temple than Mrs. Temple was. She it was who was 
 mainly responsible for these carnivals of gout by feed-
 
 THROCKMORTON. H 
 
 ing the patient on fried oysters and plum-pudding 
 when Dr. Wortley prescribed gruel and tapioca. De 
 lilah was one of the unterrified, and used these spells 
 to preach boldly at General Temple the doctrines of 
 the " Foot-washin' Baptisses," a large and influential 
 colored sect to which she belonged. 
 
 " Ole marse," Delilah would begin, argumenta- 
 tively, " if you wuz ter jine de Foot- washers " 
 
 " Jane ! Jane ! " General Temple would shout. 
 " Come here, my love. If "you don't get rid of this 
 infernal old fool, who wants absolutely to dragoon me 
 out of my religion, I'll be damned if I God forgive 
 me for swearing and you, my dear " 
 
 Sometimes these theological discussions had been 
 known to end by Delilah's flying out of the room, with 
 the general's boot-jack whi/zing after her. At Mrs. 
 Temple's appearance, though, the emeute would be 
 instantly quelled. Delilah was also actively at war 
 with Dr. Wortley, as the black mammies and the doc 
 tors invariably were, and during the visits of the doc 
 tor, who was a peppery little man, it was no infrequent 
 thing to hear his shrill falsetto, the general's loud 
 basso, and Delilah's emphatic treble all combined in 
 an angry three-cornered discussion carried on at the 
 top of their lungs. 
 
 Like mistress, like maid. As Mrs. Temple ruled 
 the general, Delilah ruled Simon Peter, her husband, 
 who since the war was butler, coachman, gardener,
 
 12 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 and man-of-all-work at Barn Elms. Mrs. Temple, 
 however, ruled with circumlocution as well as circum 
 spection, and had not words sufficient to condemn 
 women who attempt to govern their husbands. But 
 Delilah had no such scruples, and frequently treated 
 Simon Peter to remarks like these : 
 
 " Menfolks is mighty consequenchical. Dey strut 
 'bout, an' dey cusses an' damns, an' de womenfolks 
 do all de thinkin' an' de wukkin'. How long you 
 think ole marse keep dis heah plantation if it warn't 
 fur missis ? " 
 
 " Look a heah, 'oman," Simon Peter would retaliate 
 when intolerably goaded, " Paul de 'postle say " 
 
 " What anybody keer fur Paul de 'postle ? Women 
 folks ain' got no use fur dat ole bachelor. Men is 
 cornvenient fur ter tote water, an' I ain' seen nuttin' 
 else much dey is good fur." 
 
 Simon Peter's entire absence of style partly ac 
 counted for the low opinion of his abilities enter 
 tained by his better half. He was slouchy and sheep- 
 faced, and, when he appeared upon great occasions in 
 one of General Temple's cast-off coats, the tails dragged 
 the ground, while the sleeves had to be turned back 
 nearly to the elbow. Delilah, on the contrary, was as 
 tall as a grenadier, and had an air of command sec 
 ond only to General Temple himself and much more 
 genuine. She was addicted to loud, linsey-woolsey 
 plaids, and on her head was an immaculately white
 
 THROCKMORTON. 13 
 
 " handkercher " knotted into a turban that would 
 have done credit to the Osmanlis. 
 
 The war had given General Temple the opportu 
 nity of his lifetime. He " tendered his sword to his 
 State," as he expressed it, immediately organized 
 Temple's Brigade, and thereafter won a reputation as 
 the bravest and most incompetent commander of his 
 day. His ideas of a brigade commander were admira 
 bly suited to the middle ages. He would have been 
 great with Eichard Coeur de Lion at the siege of 
 Ascalon, but of modern warfare the general was as 
 innocent as a babe. It was commonly reported that, 
 the first time he led his brigade into action, he did 
 not find it again for three days. His men called him 
 Pop, and always cheered him vociferously, but point 
 edly declined to follow him wherever he should lead, 
 which was invariably where he oughtn't to have been. 
 He had innumerable horses shot under him, but, by a 
 succession of miracles, escaped wounds or capture. It 
 was a serious mortification to the general that he 
 should have come out of the war with both arms and 
 both legs ; and it was marvelous, considering that he 
 put himself in direct line of fire upon every possible 
 occasion, and galloped furiously about, waving his 
 sword whenever he was in a particularly ticklish 
 place. 
 
 Since the war General Temple had found conge 
 nial employment in studying the art of war as exem-
 
 14 THROCKMORTOX. 
 
 plified in books, and in writing a History of Temple's 
 Brigade. As he knew less about it than any man in 
 it, his undertaking was a considerable one, especially 
 as he had to give a personal sketch, with pedigree and 
 anecdotes, of every member of the brigade. He had 
 started out to complete this great work in three vol 
 umes, but it looked as if ten would be nearer the 
 mark. As regards the theory of war, General Temple 
 soon became an expert, and knew by heart every cam 
 paign of importance from those of Hannibal, the one- 
 eyed son of Hamilcar, down to Appomattox. A good 
 deal of the money that would have paid his taxes went 
 into the general's military library, which was a source 
 of endless pride to him, and which caused the History 
 of Temple's Brigade to be, in some sort, a history of 
 all wars, ancient and modern. 
 
 The pride and satisfaction this literary work of 
 his gave the general's honest heart can not be de 
 scribed. He read passages of it aloud to Mrs. Temple 
 and Judith and Jacqueline in the solemn evenings 
 in the old country-house, his resonant voice echoing 
 through the old-fashioned, low-pitched drawing-room. 
 Mrs. Temple listened sedately and admiringly, and 
 thanked Heaven for having given her this prodigy of 
 valor and learning. Nor, after hearing the History 
 of Temple's Brigade all the evening, was she wearied 
 when, at two o'clock in the morning, General Temple 
 would have a wakeful period, and striding up and
 
 THROCKMORTON. 15 
 
 down the bedroom floor, wrapped in a big blanket over 
 his dressing-gown, declaimed and dissected all the 
 campaigns of the war, from Big Bethel to Appomat- 
 tox. Mrs. Temple, sitting up in bed, with the most 
 placid air in the world, would listen, and thank and 
 admire and love more than ever this hero, whom she 
 had wrapped around her finger for the last thirty 
 years. blessed ignorance happy blindness of 
 women ! which gracious boon God has not withheld 
 from any of the sex. But there was something 
 else that made General Temple's long-winded war 
 stories so deeply, tragically interesting to Mrs. Tem 
 ple. There had* been a son the husband of the 
 handsome daughter-in-law Mrs. Temple could not 
 yet speak his name without a sob in her voice. That 
 was what she had given to the great fight. When 
 the news of his death came, General Temple, who 
 had never before dreamed of helping Mrs. Temple's 
 stronger nature, had ridden night and day to be with 
 her at that supreme moment, knowing that the blow 
 would crush her if it did not kill her. She came 
 out of the furnace alive but unforgetting. She would 
 not herself forget Beverley, nor would she allow any 
 body else to forget him. She remembered his anni 
 versaries, she cherished his belongings ; she, this ten 
 der, excellent, self-sacrificing woman, sacrificed, as far 
 as she could, herself and everybody else to the mem 
 ory of the dead and gone Beverley. As fast as one
 
 16 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 crape band on the general's hat wore out, she her 
 self, with trembling hands, sewed another one on. 
 As for herself, she would have thought it sacrilege 
 to have worn anything but the deepest black; and 
 Judith, after four years of widowhood, wore, whether 
 willingly or unwillingly, the severest widow's garb. 
 Jacqueline alone had been suffered, out of considera 
 tion for her youth and the general's pleading, to put 
 on colors. The girl, who was beautiful and simple, 
 but quite different from other girls, in her heart cher 
 ished a hatred against this memory of the dead, that 
 had made her youth so sad, so encompassed with 
 death. Jacqueline loved life and feared death ; and 
 whenever her mother began to speak of Beverley, 
 which she did a dozen times a day, Jacqueline's shoul 
 ders would twitch impatiently. She longed to say: 
 " What is he to us ? He is dead and we live. Why 
 can't he be allowed to rest in peace, like other dead 
 people ? " Jacqueline was far from heartless ; she 
 loved her sister-in-law twice as well as she had ever 
 loved her handsome silent brother, whose death made 
 no gap in her life, but had ruthlessly barred out all 
 brightness from it. Jacqueline, in her soul, longed 
 for luxury and comfort. All the discrepancies and 
 deficiencies at Barn Elms were actually painful to her, 
 although she had been used to them all her life. She 
 wanted a new piano instead of the wheezy old ma 
 chine in the drawing-room. She wanted a thousand
 
 THROCKMORTON. 17 
 
 things, and, to make her dissatisfaction with Barn 
 Elnis more complete, not a quarter of a mile away, 
 across a short stretch of feathery pine-trees, on a 
 knoll, stood a really great house, Millenbeck by name. 
 To Jacqueline's inexperienced eyes, the large square 
 brick house, with its stone balustrade around the 
 roof, its broad porch, with marble steps that shone 
 whitely through the trees around it, was quite palatial. 
 And nobody at all lived there. It was the family 
 place of the Throckmortons. The last Throckmorton 
 in the county was dead and gone ; but there was an 
 other grandson to the last a certain Major George 
 Throckmorton, who, although Virginian born and 
 bred, had remained in the regular army all through 
 the war, and was still in it. This George Throckmor 
 ton had spent his boyhood at Millenbeck with his 
 grandfather, who was evil tempered and morose, and 
 thoroughly wicked in every way. The old man had 
 gone to his account during the war, and since then 
 his creditors had been fighting over his assets, which 
 consisted of Millenbeck alone. Major Throckmorton 
 had money, and it had been whispered about that, 
 whenever Millenbeck was sold, this army Throckmor 
 ton would buy it. But it was freely predicted that he 
 would never dare show his face in his native county 
 after his turpitude during the war in fighting against 
 his State, and he was commonly alluded to as a traitor. 
 Nevertheless, at Severn church, one Sunday, it was
 
 18 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 said that this Throckmorton had bought Millenbeck, 
 and would shortly make his appearance there. 
 
 General and Mrs. Temple, as they sat on opposite 
 sides of the fireplace at Barn Elms, discussing the mat 
 ter with the profound gravity that the advent of a new 
 neighbor in the country requires, to say nothing of 
 the sensation of having a traitor at one's doors, came 
 nearer disagreeing than usual. The night was cool, 
 although it was early in September, and a little fire 
 sparkled cheerfully upon the brass andirons on the 
 hearth in the low-pitched, comfortable, shabby draw 
 ing-room. Mrs. Temple, clicking her knitting-needles 
 placidly, with her soft eyes fixed on the fire, went over 
 the enormity of those to whom Beverley's death was 
 due. To her, the gentlest and at the same time the 
 sternest of women, the war took on a personal aspect 
 that would have been ludicrous had it not been pa 
 thetic. Ah ! what was that boy that Beverley had left, 
 what was Judith the young widow, or even Jacqueline, 
 to that lost son? Nothing, nothing! Mrs. Temple, 
 still gazing at the fire, saw in her mind, as she saw 
 every hour of the day and many of the night, the dead 
 man lying stark and cold ; and, as if in answer to her 
 thoughts, General Temple spoke, laying down his vol 
 ume of Jomini : 
 
 " My love, what will you do ahem ! what would 
 you recommend me to do regarding George Throck 
 morton when he arrives? Speak frankly, my dear,
 
 THROCKMORTON. 19 
 
 and do not be timid about giving me your opin 
 ion." 
 
 A curious kind of resentment shone in Mrs. Tem 
 ple's face. 
 
 " It is not for a woman to guide her husband ; but 
 we at least can not forget what the war has cost us." 
 
 General Temple sighed. He had heard that 
 Throckmorton had got a year's leave and would proba 
 bly spend it at Millenbeck. How fascinating did the 
 prospect appear of a real military man with whom he 
 could discuss plans of campaign, and flank move 
 ments, and reconnaissances, and all the technique of 
 war in which his soul delighted ! For, although Dr. 
 Wortley had become a great military critic, as every 
 body was in those days, he had never smelt powder, 
 and was a very inferior antagonist for a brigadier- 
 general, who had been in sixteen pitched battles with 
 out understanding the first thing about any of them. 
 
 Jacqueline, who sat in her own little chair, with 
 her feet on a footstool, and her elbows on her knees, 
 began in an injured voice : 
 
 " And the house is going to be perfectly grand. 
 Mrs. Sherrard told me about it to-day. A whole par 
 cel of people " Jacqueline was a provincial, although 
 an amazingly pretty one " a whole parcel of people 
 came by the boat workmen and servants, and most 
 splendid furniture, carpets, and pictures, and cabinets, 
 and all sorts of elegant things just for those two
 
 20 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 men for there is a young man, too Jack is his 
 name." 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Temple, meditatively, as she still 
 clicked her knitting-needles together with a pleasant 
 musical sound, " the boy must be about twenty-two. 
 George Throckmorton I well remember was married 
 at twenty-one to a pretty slip of a girl, so I've heard, 
 who lived a very little while. He can't be more than 
 forty-four now. He is the last man I ever supposed 
 would ever turn traitor. He was the finest lad I re 
 member him so well when he was a handsome black- 
 eyed boy ; and when we were first married don't you 
 recollect, my dear ? " 
 
 General Temple rose gallantly, and, taking Mrs. 
 Temple's hand in his, kissed it. 
 
 " Can you ask me, my love, if I remember any 
 thing connected with that most interesting period of 
 my life?" he asked. 
 
 Neither the handsome Judith nor little Jacqueline 
 were at all discomposed by this elderly love-making, 
 to which they were perfectly accustomed. A slight 
 blush came into Mrs. Temple's refined, middle-aged 
 face. It was worth while to coddle a man, and take 
 all the labor of thinking and acting off his shoulders, 
 for the sake of this delightful sentiment. Like his 
 courage, General Temple's sentiment was high-flown 
 but genuine. 
 
 " I was about to say," resumed Mrs. Temple, when
 
 THROCKMORTON. 21 
 
 the general had returned to his chair, " that when I 
 came to Barn Elms a bride, George Throckmorton was 
 much here. You did not notice him, my love, as I 
 did but I felt sorry for the boy ; old George Throck 
 morton certainly was a most godless person. The 
 boy's life would have been quite wretched, I think, in 
 spite of his grandfather's liberality to him, but for the 
 few people in the neighborhood like Kitty Sherrard 
 and myself, who tried to comfort him. He would 
 come over in the morning and stay all day, following 
 me about the house and garden, trying to amuse Bev- 
 erley, who was a mere baby." 
 
 Mrs. Temple never spoke the name of her dead 
 son without a strange little pause before it. 
 
 "And, my dear," answered the general, making 
 another feeble effort, " can you not now embrace the 
 scriptural injunction ? " 
 
 " The Scripture says," responded sternly this other 
 wise gentle and Christian soul, " that there is a time 
 to love and a time to hate." 
 
 All this time, Judith, the young widow, had not 
 said a word. She was slight and girlish-looking. 
 Her straight dark brows were drawn with a single 
 line, and in her eyes were gleams of mirth, of intelli 
 gence, of a love of life and its pleasures, that habitual 
 restraint could not wholly subdue. When she rose, or 
 when she sat down, or when she walked about, or 
 when she arched her white neck, there was a singular
 
 22 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 grace, of which she was totally unconscious. Some 
 thing about her suggested both love and modesty. 
 But Fate, that had used her as if she were a creature 
 without a soul, had married her to Beverley Temple 
 and within two months she was a widow. The shock, 
 the horror of it, the willingness to idealize the dead 
 man, had made her quietly assume the part of one who 
 is done with this world. And Nature struggles vainly 
 with Fate. Judith, in her black gown, and a widow's 
 cap over her chestnut hair, with her pretty air of wis 
 dom and experience, fancied she had sounded the 
 whole gamut of human love, grief, loss, and joy. 
 Neither Millenbeck, nor anything but Beverley's child 
 and his father and mother and sister, mattered any 
 thing to her, she thought. 
 
 Jacqueline, however, looked rebellious, but said 
 nothing. Like her father, she was under the rule of 
 this soft-voiced mother. But it was certainly very 
 hard, thought Jacqueline, bitterly, that with Millen 
 beck beautifully fitted up, with a delightful young 
 man like Jack Throckmorton for Jacqueline had 
 already endowed him with all the graces and virtues 
 and a not old man, a soldier too, should be right at 
 their doors, and she never to have a glimpse of Millen 
 beck, nor a chance for walks and drives with them. 
 Jacqueline sighed profoundly, and looked despairingly 
 at Judith, who was the stay, the prop, the comforter 
 of this undisciplined young creature.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WITHIN a few days Throckmorton and Jack 
 Throckmorton the traitor and the traitor's son had 
 arrived at Millenbeck. 
 
 Jacqueline could talk of nothing but the dawning 
 splendors of the place. Delilah, who had an appetite 
 for the marvelous scarcely inferior to Jacqueline's, 
 kept her on the rack with curiosity. 
 
 " Dey done put Bruskins carpets all over de 
 house," she retailed solemnly into Jacqueline's greedy 
 ears, " an' velvet sofys an' cheers, an' de lookin'-glass- 
 es from de garret ter de cellar. An' dey got a white 
 man name' Sweeney mighty po' white trash, Simon 
 Peter say dat is a white nigger, an' he talk mighty 
 cu'rus. Simon Peter he meet him in de road, an' dis 
 heah Mis' Sweeney he ax him ef dey was any Orrish 
 gentmans 'bout here. Simon Peter he say he never 
 heerd o' no sich things ez Orrish gentmans, an' Mis' 
 Sweeney he lif up he stick, an' Simon Peter he took 
 ter he heels an' Mis' Sweeney arter him, an' Simon 
 Peter 'low ef he hadn't run down in de swamp, Mis' 
 Sweeney would er kilt him, sho' ! An' he doan' min'
 
 24 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 blackin' de boots at Millenbeek an' milk de cows, an' 
 den he dress up fine an' wait on de table an' he a 
 white man, too ! He done tell some folks he wuz a 
 soldier an' fit, an' he gwine ev'ywhar Marse George 
 Throckmorton go, ef it twuz hell itself. Things is 
 monst'ous fine at Millenbeek dat dey is an' all fur 
 dem two menfolks. Seem like God A'mighty done 
 give all de good times ter de menfolks an' all de 
 hard times ter de womenfolks." 
 
 " Is that so, mammy ? " asked Jacqueline, doleful 
 ly, who was simple of soul, and disposed to believe 
 everything Delilah told her. 
 
 " Dat 'tis, chile, ez sho' ez sho' ez God's truf. De 
 menfolks jes' lives fur ter be frustratin' an' owdacious 
 ter de po' womenfolks, what byar de burdens. I tell 
 Simon Peter so ev'y day; but dat nigger he doan' 
 worrit much 'bout what de po' womenfolks has got 
 ter orndure. Men is mighty po', vain, weak creetures 
 / tell Simon Peter dat too ev'y day." 
 
 " Dat you does," piously responded Simon Peter. 
 
 The windows to Judith's room possessed a strange 
 fascination in those days for Jacqueline, because they 
 looked straight out to Millenbeek. There she stood 
 for hours, dreaming, speculating, thinking out aloud. 
 
 " Just think, Judith ; there is a great big hall 
 there that mamma says has a splendid dancing-floor ! " 
 
 " Jacky, stop thinking about Millenbeek and the 
 dancing-floor. It doesn't concern you, and you know
 
 THROCKMORTON. 25 
 
 that mother will never let you speak to either of the 
 Throckmortons," answered Judith. 
 
 " Yes, I know it," said Jacqueline, disconsolately. 
 " The more's the pity. Papa is dying to be friends 
 with them when they come ; but, of course, mamma 
 won't let him." 
 
 Jacqueline's voice was usually high-pitched, rapid, 
 and musical, but whenever she meant to be saucy she 
 brought it down to great meekness and modesty. 
 
 " Major Throckmorton, you know, is a widower. 
 I don't believe in grieving forever, like mamma. Sup 
 pose, now, Judith, you should " 
 
 But Judith, whose indulgence to Jacqueline rarely 
 failed, now rose up with a pale face. 
 
 " Jacqueline, you forget yourself." 
 
 Usually one rebuke of the sort was enough for 
 Jacqueline, but this time it was not. She came and 
 clasped Judith around the waist, and held her tight, 
 looking into her eyes with a sort of timid boldness. 
 
 " Just let me say one thing. Mamma is sacri 
 ficing all of us you and me and papa to to Bev- 
 erley " 
 
 " Hush, Jacqueline ! " 
 
 " No, I won't hush. Judith, how long was it from 
 the time you first met Beverley until you married 
 him ? " 
 
 " Two months." 
 
 " And how much of that time were you together ? "
 
 26 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 " Two weeks," answered Judith, falteringly. 
 
 " And then you married him, and you had hardly 
 any honeymoon, didn't you?" 
 
 " A very short one." 
 
 " And Beverley went away, and never came back." 
 
 There was a short silence. Jacqueline was nerv 
 ing herself to say what had been burning upon her 
 lips for long. 
 
 " Then then, Judith, he was so little in your 
 life he was so little of your life." 
 
 " But, Jacqueline, when one loves, it makes no 
 difference whether it is a month or a year." 
 
 " Yes, when one loves ; but, Judith, did you love 
 Beverley that way ? " 
 
 Judith stood quite still and pale. The thought 
 was then put in words that had haunted her. She no 
 longer thought of answering Jacqueline, but of an 
 swering herself. Was it, indeed, because she was so 
 young, so entirely alone in the world, and, in truth, 
 had known so little of the man she married, that it 
 became difficult for her to recall even his features ; 
 that she felt something like a pang of conscience 
 when Mrs. Temple spoke his name ; that this per 
 petual kindness to his father and his mother seemed 
 a sort of reparation? Jacqueline, seeing the change 
 in Judith's face, went softly out of the room. Judith 
 stood where Jacqueline had left her. Presently the 
 door opened, and little Beverley came in, and made a
 
 THROCKMORTON. 27 
 
 dash for his mother. Judith seized him in her arms, 
 and knelt down before him, and for the thousandth 
 time tried to find a trace of his father in his face. 
 But there was none. His eyes, his mouth, his ex 
 pression, were all hers. Even the little bronze rings 
 of hair that escaped from under her widow's cap were 
 faithfully reproduced on the child's baby forehead. 
 This strong resemblance to his mother was a thorn 
 in Mrs. Temple's side. She would have had the boy 
 his father's image. She would have had him grave 
 and given to serious, thoughtful games, and to hang 
 ing about older people, such as her Beverley had 
 been ; but this merry youngster was always laughing 
 when he was not crying, and was noisy and trouble 
 some, as most healthy young animals are. Yet she 
 adored him. 
 
 The boy soon got tired of his mother's arms 
 around him, and uncomfortable under her tender, 
 searching gaze. 
 
 " I want to go to my mammy," he lisped. 
 
 Judith rose and led him by the hand down-stairs 
 to Delilah. The child ran to his mammy with a 
 shout of delight. His mother, sometimes awed his 
 baby soul with her gravity, when he had been 
 naughty. Often he could not get what he wanted 
 by crying for it, and got smart slaps upon his plump 
 little palms when he cried. But with Delilah there 
 was none of this. Delilah represented a beneficent
 
 28 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 Providence to him, which permitted naughtiness, and 
 had no limit to jam and buttermilk. 
 
 The Throckrnortons had at last come, but had 
 kept very close to Millenbeck for a week or two after 
 their arrival in the county ; but on one still, sunny 
 September Sunday at Severn church, just as the 
 Rev. Edmund Morford appeared out of the little 
 robing-room, after having surveyed himself carefully 
 in the mite of a looking-glass, and satisfied himself 
 that his adornment was in keeping with his beauty, 
 two gentlemen came in quietly at a side door, and 
 took their seats in the first vacant pew. They looked 
 more like an elder and a younger brother than father 
 and son. Both had the same square-shouldered, well- 
 knit figures, not over middle height the same con 
 tour of face, the same dark eyes. But it was a type 
 which was at its best in maturity. Major Throck- 
 morton was much the handsomer man of the two, 
 although, as Judith Temple said some time after, 
 when called upon to describe him, that handsome 
 scarcely applied to him he was rather distinguished 
 than actually handsome and she blushed unneces 
 sarily as she said it. His hair and mustache were 
 quite iron-gray, and he had the unmistakable look 
 and carriage of a military man. The pew they took 
 near the door was against the wall of the church, and 
 in effect facing the Temple pew, where sat all the 
 family from Barn Elms, including little Beverley, who
 
 THROCKMORTON. 29 
 
 looked a picture of childish misery, compelled to be 
 preternaturally good, until sleep overcame him, and 
 his yellow mop of hair fell over against his mother. 
 Young Throckmorton, whose eyes were full of a sort 
 of gay curiosity, let his gaze wander furtively over 
 the congregation, and in two minutes knew every 
 pretty face in the church. The two prettiest were 
 unquestionably in the Temple pew. Without bold 
 ness or obtrusiveness, he managed to keep every 
 glance and every motion in that pew in sight; and 
 Jacqueline, by something like psychic force, knew 
 it, and conveyed to him the idea that no glance 
 of his escaped her. Nevertheless, she was very de 
 vout, and the only look she gave him was over the 
 top of her prayer-book. Judith, with her large, clear 
 gaze fixed on the clergyman, was in her way as con 
 scious as Jacqueline. But Throckmorton saw nothing 
 and nobody for a time, except that he was back again 
 in Severn church after thirty years. How well he 
 remembered it all ! the little dark gallery to the right 
 of the pulpit, where in the old times Mrs. Temple 
 and Mrs. Sherrard had sat, and sung the old, old 
 hymns, their sweet, untrained voices rising into the 
 dark, cobwebbed, resonant roof voices as natural as 
 that of the sweet, shy singing birds that twittered un 
 der the eaves of the old church, and built their nests 
 safely and peacefully in the solemn yews and weeping- 
 willows of the burying-ground close by. The September
 
 30 THKOCKMORTON. 
 
 sunlight, as it sifted through the windows on the heads 
 of the kneeling people even the droning of the 
 honey-bees outside, and the occasional incursion of a 
 buzzing marauder through the windows made him 
 feel as if he were in a dream. It was not the recollec 
 tion of a happy boyhood that had brought him back 
 to Millenbeck. He remembered his grandfather as an 
 old curmudgeon, the terror of his negroes and depend 
 ents, wasteful, a high liver, and a hard drinker ; and 
 himself a lonely boy, with neither mother nor sister, 
 nor any sort of kindness to brighten his boyish soul, 
 except those good women, Mrs. Temple and Mrs. 
 Sherrard. Deep down in his being was that Anglo- 
 Saxon love of the soil the desire to return whence he 
 came. He knew much of the world, and doubted if 
 the experiment of returning to Millenbeck would suc 
 ceed, but he at least determined to try it. He had no 
 very serious notion of abandoning his profession, 
 which he loved, while he grumbled at it, but he had 
 had this project of a year's leave, to be spent at Mil 
 lenbeck, in his mind for a long, long time, and he 
 wanted Jack to own the place. Himself the most un 
 assuming of men, he cherished, unknown to those who 
 knew him best, a strong desire that his name should 
 be kept up in Virginia where it had been known so 
 long. "With scarcely a word on the subject spoken 
 between father and son, Jack had the same drift of 
 sentiment. Both had inherited from dead and gone
 
 THROCKMORTON. 31 
 
 generations a clinging to old things, old forms, that 
 made itself felt in the strenuous modern life, and 
 even a sturdy family pride that native good sense 
 concealed. 
 
 The Eev. Edmund Morford, along with his un 
 fortunate excess of good looks, inherited a rich, 
 strong voice, in which he rolled out the liturgy with 
 great elocutionary effect. He saw the two strangers 
 in the congregation, and at once divined who they 
 were, and determined to give them a sermon that 
 would show them what stuff parsons were made of in 
 Virginia. He was much struck by the scrupulousness 
 with which Major Throckmorton went through the 
 service, which the Rev. Edmund attributed partly to his 
 own telling way of rendering it. But in truth, Throck 
 morton neither saw nor heard the Eev. Edmund. 
 He went through the forms with a certain military 
 precision that very often passed for strict attention, as 
 in this case, but he was still under the spell of the by 
 gone time. Mr. Morford gave out a hymn, and the 
 congregation rose, Throckmorton standing up straight 
 like a soldier at attention. After a little pause, a 
 voice rose. It was so sweet, so pure, that Throckmor 
 ton involuntarily turned toward the singer. It was 
 Judith Temple, her clear profile well marked against 
 her black veil, which also brought out the deep tints of 
 her eyes and hair, and the warm paleness of her com 
 plexion. She sang quite composedly and unaffectedly,
 
 32 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 a few women's voices, Mrs. Temple's among the rest, 
 joining iu timidly, but her full soprano carried the 
 simple air. Her head was slightly thrown hack as 
 she sang, and apparently she knew the words of the 
 hymn by heart, as she did not once refer to the book 
 held open before her. 
 
 There is something peculiarly touching in female 
 voices unaccompanied. Throckmorton thought so as 
 he came out of his waking dream and glanced about 
 him. In an instant he took in the pathetic story of 
 war and ruin and loss that was written all over the 
 assembled people. Many of the women were in 
 mourning, and the men had a jaded, haggard, hope 
 less look. They had all been through with four years 
 of harrowing, and they showed it. In the Temple 
 pew Mrs. Temple and Judith were in the deepest 
 mourning, and General Temple wore around his hat 
 the black band that Mrs. Temple would never let him 
 take off. 
 
 Throckmorton's eye rested for a moment in ap 
 proval on Judith, and then on Jacqueline, but he 
 looked at Jacqueline the longest. 
 
 Then, after the hymn, Mr. Morford began his ser 
 mon. It was electrifying in a great many unexpected 
 ways. Throckmorton, who knew something about 
 most things, saw through Morford's shallow Hebraism, 
 and inwardly scoffed at the cheerful insufficiency with 
 which the most abstruse biblical problems were at-
 
 THROCKMORTON. 33 
 
 tacked. Morford's candor, confidence, and perfect 
 good faith tickled Throckmorton ; lie felt like smil 
 ing once or twice, but, on looking around, he saw that 
 everybody, except those who were asleep, took Mor- 
 ford at his own valuation ; except the young woman 
 with the widow's veil about her clear-cut face, whose 
 eyes, fixed attentively on Mr. Morford, had something 
 quizzical in their expression. Throckmorton at once 
 divined a sense of humor in that grave young widow 
 that was conspicuously lacking in Jacqueline, who 
 listened, bored but awed, to the preacher's sounding 
 periods. 
 
 The sermon was long and loud, and there was an 
 other hymn, sung in the simple and touching way 
 that went to Throckmorton's heart, and then a dra 
 matic benediction, after the Rev. Edmund had an 
 nounced that the next Sunday, " in the morning, the 
 Lord will be with us, and in the evening the bishop. 
 I need not urge you, beloved brethren, to be prepared 
 for the bishop." 
 
 Then the congregation streamed out for their 
 weekly gossip in the churchyard. Throckmorton 
 and Jack went out, too. No one spoke to them, nor 
 did they speak to any one. As a matter of fact, there 
 were not half a dozen people there that Throckmorton 
 would have recognized ; but he was perfectly well 
 known to everybody in the church, who, but for the 
 uniform he had worn, would have greeted him cor-
 
 34 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 dially and generously, recalling themselves to him. 
 But now they all held coldly and determinedly aloof. 
 Throckmorton, who was slow to imagine offense, did 
 not all at once take it in. But he would not lose a 
 moment in speaking to Mrs. Temple, one of the few 
 persons he recognized, and the one most endeared to 
 him in his early recollections. The Temples, possibly 
 to avoid him, had made straight for the iron gate of 
 the churchyard, and stood outside the wall, waiting 
 for the tumble-down carriage. Throckmorton quick 
 ened his pace, and went up to Mrs. Temple, carrying 
 his hat in his hand. 
 
 " Mrs. Temple, have you forgotten George Throck 
 morton ? " he asked in his pleasant voice. 
 
 Mrs. Temple turned to him with a somber look on 
 her gentle face. 
 
 " No, I have not forgotten you, George Throck 
 morton. But you and I are widely apart. Between 
 us is a great gulf, and war and sorrow." 
 
 A deep flush dyed Throckmorton's dark face. He 
 was not prepared for this, but he could not all at once 
 give up this friendship, the memory of which had 
 lasted through all the years since his boyhood. 
 
 " The war is over," he said ; " we can't be forever 
 at war." 
 
 " It is enough for you to say," she replied. " You 
 have your son. Where is mine ? " 
 
 " As well call me to account for the death of Abel.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 35 
 
 Dear Mrs. Temple, haven't you any recollection of the 
 time when you were almost the only friend I had ? I 
 have few enough left, God knows." 
 
 Here General Temple came to the front. In his 
 heart he was anxious to be friends with Throckmor 
 ton, and did not despair of obtaining Mrs. Temple's 
 permission eventually. He held out his hand solemnly 
 to Throckmorton. 
 
 " / can shake hands with you, George Throckmor 
 ton," he said, and then, turning to Mrs. Temple, " For 
 the sake of what is past, my love, let us be friends 
 with George Throckmorton.*' 
 
 Throckmorton, who in his life had met with few 
 rebuffs, was cruelly wounded. In all those years he 
 had cherished an ideal of womanly and motherly 
 tenderness in Mrs. Temple, and she was the one per 
 son in his native county on whose friendship he 
 counted. He looked down, indignant and abashed, 
 and in the next moment looked up boldly and en 
 countered Judith's soft, expressive eyes fixed on him 
 so sympathetically that he involuntarily held out his 
 hand, saying : 
 
 " You, at least, will shake hands with me." 
 
 Judith, who strove hard to bring her high spirit 
 down to Mrs. Temple's yoke, did not always succeed. 
 She held out her hand impulsively. The spectacle of 
 this manly man, rebuffed with Mrs. Temple's strange 
 power, touched her.
 
 36 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 "And this," continued Throckmorton, out of 
 whose face the dull red had not yet vanished, turning 
 to Jacqueline, " must be a little one that I have not 
 before seen. Mrs. Temple, I can't force you to accept 
 my friendship, but I want to assure you that nothing 
 nothing can ever make me forget your early kind 
 ness to me." 
 
 Mrs. Temple opened her lips once or twice before 
 words came. Then she spoke. 
 
 " George Throckmorton, you think perhaps that, 
 being a soldier, you know what war is. You do not. 
 I, who sat at home and prayed and wept for four 
 long years, for my husband and my son, and to whom 
 only one came back, when I had sent forth two 
 / know what it is. But God has willed it all. We 
 must forgive. Here is my hand and show me your 
 son." 
 
 Throckmorton, whose knowledge of Mrs. Temple 
 was intimate, despite that long stretch of years, knew 
 what even this small compromise had cost her. He 
 motioned to Jack, who was surveying the scene, sur 
 prised and rather angry, from a little distance. The 
 young fellow came up, and Mrs. Temple looked at 
 him very hard, a film gathering in her eyes. 
 
 " I am glad you have such a son. Such was our 
 son." 
 
 The carriage was now drawn up, and General 
 Temple looked agonizingly at Mrs. Temple. He
 
 THROCKMORTON. 37 
 
 wanted her to invite Throckmorton to Barn Elms, but 
 Mrs. Temple said not one word. Throckmorton, in 
 perfect silence, helped the ladies into the carriage. 
 He did not know whether to be gratified that Mrs. 
 Temple had conceded so much, or mortified that she 
 had conceded so little. 
 
 Jacqueline in the carriage gave him a friendly lit 
 tle nod. Judith leaned forward and bowed distinctly 
 and politely. General Temple, holding his hat stiffly 
 against his breast, remarked in his most grandiose 
 manner : " As two men who have fought on opposing 
 sides as two generous enemies, my dear Throckmor 
 ton I offer you my hand. I did my best against you 
 in my humble way " General Temple never did any 
 thing in a humble way in his life, and devoutly be 
 lieved that the exploits of Temple's Brigade had ma 
 terially influenced the result "but, following the 
 example of our immortal chieftain, Robert Lee, I say 
 again, here is my hand." 
 
 A twinkle came into Throckmorton's eye. This 
 was the same Beverley Temple of twenty-five years 
 ago, only a little more magniloquent than ever and a 
 little more under Mrs. Temple's thumb. Throck 
 morton, repressing a smile, shook hands cordially. 
 
 "Neither of us has any apologies to make, gen 
 eral," he said. " I think that ugly business is over 
 for good. I feel more friendly toward my own unfor 
 tunate people now than ever before. Good-by." 
 
 452605
 
 38 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 The general then made a stately ascent into the 
 carriage, banged the door, and rattled off. 
 
 Short as the scene had been, it made a deep im 
 pression upon Judith Temple. Throckmorton's dig 
 nity the tender sentiment that he had cherished for 
 his early friends struck her forcibly. The very tones 
 of his voice, his soldierly carriage, his dark, indomita 
 ble eye, were so impressed upon her imagination that, 
 had she never seen him again, she would never have 
 forgotten him. It was an instant and powerful at 
 traction that had made her hold out her hand and 
 smile at him. 
 
 Throckmorton, without trying the experiment of 
 hunting up any more old friends, turned to walk 
 home. It was a good four-mile stretch, and usually 
 he stepped out at a smart gait that put Jack to his 
 trumps to keep up with. But to-day he sauntered 
 along so slowly, through the woods and fields with his 
 hat over his eyes and his hands behind him, that Jack 
 lost patience and struck off ahead, leaving Throck 
 morton alone, much to his relief. 
 
 Throckmorton wanted to think it all over. In his 
 heart there was not one grain of resentment toward 
 Mrs. Temple. He thought he understood the work 
 ings of her strong bat simple nature perfectly well, 
 and he did not doubt the ultimate goodness of her 
 heart. And General Temple Throckmorton had 
 heard something of the general's magnificent inca-
 
 THROCKMORTON. 39 
 
 pacity during the war the bare idea of General 
 Temple as a commander made him laugh. How sweet 
 were Mrs. Beverley's eyes, and how demure she looked 
 when she dropped them at some particularly solemn 
 absurdity of the clergyman, as if she were afraid some 
 body would see the tell-tale gleam in them ! The lit 
 tle girl, though, was the most fascinating creature he 
 had seen for long. How strangely and how pitifully 
 altered was the congregation of Severn church from 
 the merry prosperous country gentry he remembered 
 so long ago ! And how quiet, how still was life there ! 
 All his usual every-day life was shut out from him. 
 "Within the circle of that perfect repose nothing dis 
 quieting could come. He stopped in the country lane 
 and listened. Nothing broke the solemn calm except 
 the droning of the locusts in the September noon. 
 Warm as it was, there was a hint of autumn in the 
 atmosphere. Occasionally the clarion cry of a hawk 
 circling in the blue air pierced the silence. 
 
 " This, then, is peace," said Throckmorton to him 
 self, and thought of the year of idleness and repose 
 before him. " Nothing ever happens here," he contin 
 ued, thinking. " Even the tragedy of the war was at a 
 distance. As Mrs. Temple says, the men went forth, 
 and those that came back will go forth no more." 
 
 Then he began to think over the way in which the 
 people had completely ignored him in the churchyard, 
 where they stopped and gossiped with each other,
 
 40 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 eying him askance. He knew perfectly well the esti 
 mate they put upon him. He could have supplied the 
 very word " traitor." This made him feel a sort of 
 bitterness, which he consoled with the reflection 
 
 "Most men of principle have to suffer for those 
 principles at some time or other." 
 
 By this time he was at his own grounds, and 
 Sweeney's honest Irish face, glowing with indignation, 
 was watching out for him. 
 
 " Be the powers," snorted Sweeney to the black 
 cook, " the murtherin' rebels took no more notice of 
 the major than if he'd been an ould hat an' he's a 
 rale gintleman, fit ter dine with the Prisident, as he 
 often has, an' all the g'yurls has been tryin' to hook him 
 fur twinty years, bless their hearts, an' the major as 
 hard as a stone to the dear things, every wan of 'em ! "
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 WITHIX a week or two after, one afternoon Mrs. 
 Kitty Sherrard made her appearance at Barn Elms, 
 with a great project in hand. She meant to give a 
 party. 
 
 Party -giving was Mrs. Sherrard 's idiosyncrasy. 
 According to the usual system in Virginia, during 
 the lifetime of the late Mr. Sherrard, there was much 
 frolicking, dancing, and hilarity at Turkey Thicket, 
 the Sherrard place, and a corresponding narrowness 
 of income and general behindhandedness. But since 
 Mr. Sherrard's death Mrs. Sherrard, along with the 
 unvarying and sublime confidence in her husband, 
 dead or alive, that characterizes Virginia women, had 
 yet entirely abandoned Mr. Sherrard's methods. The 
 mortgage on Turkey Thicket had been paid off, the 
 whole place farmed on common-sense principles, and 
 the debts declared inevitable by Mr. Sherrard care 
 fully avoided. As a matter of fact, the only people 
 in the county who paid their taxes promptly were 
 the widows, who nevertheless continually lamented 
 that they were deprived of the great industry, fore-
 
 42 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 sight, and business capacity of their defunct lords 
 and masters. Mrs. Sherrard gave as many parties in 
 Mr. Sherrard's lifetime as she did after his death ; 
 but, since that melancholy event, the parties were 
 paid for, not charged on account. 
 
 When this startling information about the coming 
 festivity was imparted, Jacqueline, who was sitting in 
 her own low chair by the fire, gave a little jump. 
 
 " And," said Mrs. Sherrard, who was a courageous 
 person, " I'll tell you what I am giving it for. It 
 is to get the county people to meet George Throck- 
 morton. Not a human being in the county has 
 called on him, except Edmund Morford, and I fairly 
 drove him to it. He began some of his long-winded 
 explanations. 'Aunt Kitty,' he said, 'what am I, 
 even though I be a minister of the gospel, that I 
 should set myself up against the spirit of the com 
 munity, which is against recognizing Throckmorton?' 
 ' What are you, indeed, my dear boy,' I answered. 
 'I'm not urging you to go, because it's a matter of 
 the slightest consequence what you do or what you 
 don't, but merely for your own sake, because it is 
 illiberal and unchristian of you not to go.' Now, 
 Edmund is a good soul, for all his nonsense." 
 
 Mrs. Temple was horrified at this way of speaking 
 of the young rector. 
 
 "And I've intimated to him that I'm about to 
 make my will I haven't the slightest notion of doing
 
 THROCKMORTON. 43 
 
 it for the next twenty years but the mere hint always 
 brings Edmund to' terms, and so he went over to 
 Millenbeck to call. He came back perfectly delight 
 ed. The house is charming, Throckmorton is a prince 
 of hospitality, and I don't suppose poor Edmund ever 
 was treated with so much consideration by a man of 
 sense in his life before." Mrs. Temple groaned, but 
 Mrs. Sherrard kept on, cutting her eye at Judith, 
 who was the only person at Barn Elms that knew 
 a joke when she saw it. Judith bent over her work, 
 laughing. " I met Throckmorton in the road next 
 day. ' So you dragooned the parson into calling 
 on the Philistine,' he said. Of course I tried to deny 
 it, after a fashion ; but Throckmorton won't be hum 
 bugged can't be, in fact and I had to own up. 
 'You can't say Edmund's not a gentleman,' said I, 
 ' and he is the most good-natured poor soul ; and if 
 he had broken his nose, or got cross-eyed in early 
 youth, he really would have cut quite a respectable 
 figure in the world.' ' That's true,' answered George, 
 laughing, and looking so like he did long years ago, 
 ' but you'll admit, Mrs. Sherrard, that he is too in 
 fernally handsome for his own good.' 'Decidedly,' 
 said I." 
 
 " Katharine Sherrard," solemnly began Mrs. Tem 
 ple, who habitually called Mrs. Sherrard Kitty, except 
 at weddings and funerals, and upon occasions like the 
 present, when her feelings were wrought up, "the
 
 44 THROGKMORTON. 
 
 way you talk about Edmund Morford is a grief and 
 a sorrow to me. He is a clergyman of our church, 
 and it is not becoming for women to deride the men 
 of their own blood. Men must rule, Katharine Sher- 
 rard. It is so ordered by the divine law." 
 
 " Jane Temple," answered Mrs. Sherrard, " you 
 may add by the human law, too ; but some women " 
 
 " Set both at naught," answered Mrs. Temple, 
 piously and sweetly. 
 
 " They do, indeed," fervently responded Mrs. Sher 
 rard, having in view General Temple's complete sub 
 jugation. " But now about the party. The general 
 must come, of course. I wish I could persuade 
 
 you." 
 
 " I have not been to a party since before the war, 
 and now I shall never go to another one." 
 " But Judith and Jacqueline will come." 
 At this a deep flush rose in Judith's face. 
 "I don't go to parties, Mrs. Sherrard." 
 " I know ; but you must come to this one." 
 Mrs. Temple set her lips and said nothing, but 
 Jacqueline, who sometimes asserted herself at un 
 looked-for times, spoke up : 
 
 " If Judith doesn't go, I I sha'n't go." 
 " You hear that ? " asked Mrs. Sherrard, delighted 
 at Jacqueline's spirit. " Stick to it, child ; there is 
 no reason why Judith shouldn't come." 
 
 Here General Temple entered and greeted Mrs.
 
 THEOCKMORTON. 45 
 
 Skerrard elaborately. Mrs. Sherrard immediately set 
 to work on the general. She knew perfectly well 
 that he could do no more in the case than Simon 
 Peter could, but she poured her fire into him, think 
 ing a stray shot might hit Mrs. Temple. Judith re 
 mained quite silent. She was too sincere of soul to 
 say she did not want to go ; and yet going to parties 
 was quite out of that life of true widowhood she 
 had laid down for herself; and life was intolerably 
 dull. She loved gayety and brightness, and her 
 whole life was clothed with somberness. She was full 
 of ideas, and loved books, and nobody in the house 
 ever read a line except General Temple, and his 
 reading was confined to the science of war, for which 
 he would certainly never have any use. She was full 
 of quick turns of repartee, that, when she indulged 
 them, almost frightened Mrs, Temple, who had the 
 average woman's incapacity for humor. Mrs. Sher 
 rard and herself were great friends and friends were 
 not too plentiful with Mrs. Sherrard, whose tongue 
 was a two-edged sword. Nevertheless, Mrs. Temple 
 and Mrs. Sherrard had been intimate all their lives, 
 and Mrs. Sherrard was one of the few persons who 
 ever took liberties with Mrs. Temple. Mrs. Sher 
 rard was clear-sighted, and she knew what nobody 
 else did how starved and blighted was Judith's life 
 by that stern repression to which she had set her 
 self ; and she had known Beverley Temple, too, and
 
 46 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 sometimes said to herself : " Perhaps it is better for 
 Judith as it is, for Beverley, brave and handsome as 
 he was, yet was a dreadfully ordinary fellow. Luck 
 ily, she was hustled into marrying him so quickly, 
 and she was so young, she didn't find it out ; but 
 if he had lived " 
 
 Mrs. Sherrard departed, impressing upon General 
 Temple that she should certainly expect to see him 
 at the party, with Judith and Jacqueline. Simon 
 Peter in the kitchen reported the state of affairs to 
 Delilah, who remarked : 
 
 " Miss Kitty She'ard, she know Miss Judy cyan 
 go twell ole missis say so. Ole marse, he got a heap 
 o' flourishes an' he talk mighty big, but missis she 
 doan' flourish none ; she jes' go 'long quiet like, an' 
 has her way." 
 
 "Dat's so," answered Simon Peter, rubbing his 
 woolly head with an air of conviction. " Missis 
 s'ut'ny is de wheel-hoss in dis heah team." 
 
 " An' ain't de womenfolks allus de wheel-hosses ? 
 Ole marse he set up an' he talk 'bout de weather an' 
 de craps, an' he specks de 'lection gwine discom- 
 fuse things, an' he read de paper an' he know more 
 'n de paper do, an' he read de Bible an' he know 
 more 'n de Bible do, an' all de time he .am' got de 
 sperrit uv a chicken." 
 
 " De womenfolks kin mos' in gen'ally git dey 
 way," cautiously answered Simon Peter.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 47 
 
 " Yes, dey kin ; an' (ley is gwine ter, 'long as men- 
 folks is so triflin' an' owdacious as dey is." 
 
 Jacqueline developed a strange obstinacy about 
 the party. She declared she was dying to go, but she 
 never wavered from her determination not to go with 
 out Judith. 
 
 " But your sister does not wish to go, Jacqueline," 
 her mother said to this. 
 
 "But I want her to go, mamma. You can't 
 imagine how I long to go to this party. It is so very, 
 very dull at Barn Elms and I have my new white 
 frock." 
 
 " Judith has no frock." 
 
 " Oh, yes she has. She has that long black dress, 
 in which she looks so nice, and she is so clever at sew 
 ing she could cut it open at the neck and turn up the 
 sleeves at the elbow." 
 
 Mrs. Temple said nothing more. Jacqueline went 
 about, eager-eyed, but silent, and possessed of but.one 
 idea the party. A day or two after this she said 
 bitterly to her mother, when Judith was out of the 
 room: 
 
 " Mamma, I know why you are willing to disap 
 point me about this party. It is because you love 
 your dead child better than your living one." 
 
 Mrs. Temple turned a little pale. The thrust 
 went home, as some of Jacqueline's thrusts did. 
 
 " And if I don't go, I will cry and cry I will cry
 
 48 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 that night so loud in my room that papa will come in, 
 and you know how it vexes him to have me cry ; and 
 it will break my heart I know it will." 
 
 Mrs. Temple went about all day with Jacqueline's 
 words ringing in her ears. That night, after Jacque 
 line was in bed, her mother went into the room. It 
 was a large, old-fashioned room, and Jacqueline's little 
 white figure, as she sat up in bed, was almost lost in 
 the huge four-poster, with dimity curtains and val 
 ance. The fire still smoldered, and the spindle- 
 shanked dressing-table, with the glass set in its ma 
 hogany frame, cast unearthly shadows on the floor in 
 the half-light. Mrs. Temple sat down by the bed. 
 Something like remorse came into the mother's heart. 
 This child was the least loved by both father and 
 mother. Jacqueline began at once, in her sweet, 
 nervous voice : 
 
 " Mamma, I have been thinking about the party." 
 
 " So have I, child." 
 
 " And may we go ? " 
 
 Mrs. Temple paused before she spoke. 
 
 " Yes, you and Judith may go," she said presently 
 in a stern voice ah! the sternness of these gentle 
 women ! 
 
 Jacqueline held out her arms fondly to her mother, 
 but Mrs. Temple could not be magnanimous in defeat. 
 She went out, softly closing the door behind her, 
 without giving Jacqueline her good-night kiss, but
 
 THROCKMORTON. 49 
 
 Jacqueline called after her in a voice tremulous with 
 gratitude and delight, " Dear, sweet mamma ! " 
 
 The moment she heard the " charmber-do','' as the 
 negroes called it, shut down-stairs, Jacqueline slipped 
 out of bed and flew across the dark passage into Ju 
 dith's room to tell the wonderful news. Judith was 
 sitting before the fire, holding her sleeping child in 
 her arms. The boy had waked and had clung to his 
 mother until she lifted him out of his little bed. He 
 had gone to sleep directly, but Judith held him close ; 
 he was so little, so babyish, yet so soft and warm and 
 clinging. 
 
 " We are going to the party, Judith," said Jacque 
 line, excitedly, kneeling down by her. 
 
 " Are we ? " answered Judith. A gleam came into 
 her eyes very like Jacqueline's. 
 
 "And and " continued Jacqueline with a sly, 
 half -laughing glance, "we will meet Major Throck- 
 morton again." 
 
 " Go to bed, Jacqueline," replied Judith in the 
 soft, composed voice that invariably crushed Jacque 
 line. 
 
 Next morning General Temple showed the most 
 unqualified delight at Mrs. Temple's capitulation. He 
 considered it becoming, though, to make some slight 
 protest against going to the party. He thought, per 
 haps, with his tendency to gout, it would scarcely be 
 prudent to expose himself to the night air, and er 
 4
 
 50 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 to Kitty Sherrard's chicken salad; and, besides, he 
 really was not justified in postponing the drawings 
 of some maps to illustrate the position of Temple's 
 Brigade at the battle of Chancellorsville ; for, like 
 all other dilettanti, General Temple's work was always 
 of present importance and admitted of no delay 
 whatever. 
 
 Mrs. Temple did not smile at this, but treated it 
 with great seriousness. 
 
 " Quite true, my dear ; but now that I have prom 
 ised Jacqueline, I can not disappoint her. You must 
 go for her sake." 
 
 " Eather let me say, my dear Jane, that I go for 
 your sake your wishes, my love, being of paramount 
 importance." 
 
 For a henpecked man, it was impossible to be 
 more imposing or agreeable than General Temple. 
 So on the night of the party he was promptly on 
 hand, at eight o'clock, in his old-fashioned evening 
 coat, the tails lined with white satin, and wearing a 
 pair of large, white kid gloves. 
 
 Jacqueline and Judith soon appeared. Jacqueline, 
 in her new white frock, looked her prettiest, albeit it 
 showed her youthful thinness and all her half-grown 
 angles. Judith's beauty was of a sort that could 
 stand the simplicity of her black gown that revealed 
 her white neck, and, for the first time since her widow 
 hood, she wore no cap over her red-brown hair. Deli-
 
 THROCKMORTON. 51 
 
 lah and Simon Peter yah-yahed and ki-yied over both 
 of them. 
 
 "Dem little foots o' Miss Jacky's in de silk stock- 
 in's ain' no bigger'n little Beverley's, hardly, and Miss 
 Judy she look like de Queen o' Sheba," delightedly 
 remarked Delilah. 
 
 Judith could scarcely meet Mrs. Temple's eyes. 
 She felt inexplicably guilty. Mrs. Temple examined 
 them critically, though, and the general was loftily 
 complimentary. 
 
 "And, Delilah," said Judith, gathering up her 
 gloves nervously, "be sure and look after Beverley. 
 He has never been left alone in his life before." 
 
 "I will look after Beverley, Judith," said Mrs. 
 Temple, and Judith blushed faintly at something in 
 the tone. 
 
 All the way, going along the country road in the 
 moonlight, Judith could feel Jacqueline's little feet 
 moving restlessly with excitement. As they drove 
 up to the house, and caught glimpses through the 
 open hall-door of the dancers and heard the sound of 
 music, Jacqueline began to bob up and down with 
 childish delight. 
 
 Like most Virginia country-houses, Turkey Thicket 
 had an immense entrance hall, which was not heated 
 and was of no earthly use the best part of the year, 
 and for which all the rooms around it were unneces 
 sarily cramped. Mrs. Sherrard's hall was of more use
 
 52 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 to her than most people's, owing to her party-giving 
 proclivities, and was brightly lighted up for dancing. 
 As Judith came down the broad stairs on General 
 Temple's arm, a kind of thrill of surprise went around 
 among the guests. Nobody expected to see her. Many 
 of them had never seen her except in her widow's veil 
 and cap. Judith, remembering this, could not re 
 strain a blushing consciousness that made her not 
 less handsome; and, besides, her good looks were 
 always full of surprises. One. never knew whether 
 she would be simply pale and pretty, or whether 
 she would blaze out into a sudden and captivating 
 beauty. 
 
 They made their way through the dancers, Jacque 
 line alternately pale and red with excitement, and the 
 general bowing right and left, until they entered the 
 small, old-fashioned drawing-room. Mrs. Sherrard, in 
 a plain black silk, but with a diamond comb in her 
 white hair and a general air of superbness, was de 
 lighted to see Judith. It was a victory over Jane 
 Temple. She detained her for a moment to whisper : 
 " My dear, I am dreadfully afraid I shall make a fail 
 ure in trying to get George Throckmorton accepted 
 here. The girls, who most of them never saw so fine 
 a man before, will hardly have a word to say to him ; 
 the men are a little better, but it isn't a pronounced 
 success by any means. I have been longing for you to 
 come. You have so much more sense than any of
 
 THROCKMORTON. 53 
 
 the young people I know, I thought you would be a 
 little less freezing to him." 
 
 At this a warmer color surged into Judith's cheeks. 
 She could not remember ever to have seen a man who 
 impressed her so instantly as Throckmorton. With 
 her clear, feminine instinct, she had seen at the first 
 glance what manner of man he was. As Mrs. Sher- 
 rard spoke to her, she turned and saw him standing 
 by the fireplace, talking with Edmund Morford. 
 Throckmorton could not have desired a better foil 
 than the young clergyman, with his faultless red and 
 white skin, his curling dark hair, his mouth full of 
 perfect teeth, and his character as a clerical dandy 
 written all over him. Throckmorton, whose good 
 looks were purely masculine and characteristic, looked 
 even more manly and soldierly by contrast. Both 
 men caught sight of Judith at the same moment. 
 Morford was thrown into a perfect flutter. He won 
 dered if Judith had put on that square-necked, short- 
 sleeved black gown to do him a mischief. Throck 
 morton, obeying a look from Mrs. Sherrard, came for 
 ward and was formally introduced. Judith offered 
 her hand, after the Virginia custom, which Throck 
 morton bowed over. 
 
 " Mrs. Temple did not present me to you on Sun 
 day," he said, with a smile and a slight flush ; " but I 
 guessed very readily who you were." 
 
 Judith, too, colored.
 
 54 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 " Poor mother, you must not take her too hardly. 
 You know how good she is, but but she is very de 
 termined ; she moves slowly/' 
 
 " Yes," replied Throckmorton, with his easy, man- 
 of-the- world manner; "but I am afraid there are 
 others as unyielding as Mrs. Temple, and not half 
 so kindly for she is a dear soul ! It seemed to 
 me the carrying out of a sort of dream to come 
 back to Millenbeck. My boy Jack that young fel 
 low yonder looks rather old to be my son, don't 
 you think?" 
 
 "Y-e-s," answered Judith, with provoking dubi 
 ousness and a wicked little smile. 
 
 " Oh, you are really too bad ! I am very tired of 
 explaining to people that Jack is nothing like as old 
 as he looks. "Well, the boy, although brought up at 
 army posts, rather wanted to be a Virginian, and 
 to own the old place; you know that sort of thing 
 always crops out in a Virginian." 
 
 " Yes," smiled Judith ; " I see how it crops out in 
 you. You are immensely proud of being a Throck 
 morton, and you would rather own Millenbeck, if it 
 were tumbling down about your ears, than the finest 
 place in the world anywhere else." 
 
 " Now, Mrs. Beverley," said Throckmorton, deter 
 minedly, " I can't have my weaknesses picked out in 
 this prompt and savage manner. I own I am a fool 
 about Millenbeck, but I'd have sworn that nobody but
 
 THROCKMORTON. 55 
 
 myself knew it. I've got a year's leave, and I've come 
 down here with Sweeney, an old ex-sergeant of mine, 
 who has owned me for several years, and my old 
 horse Tartar, that is turned out to grass ; and if I like 
 it as well as I expect, I may resign " Throckmorton 
 was always talking about resigning, as Mrs. Sherrard 
 was about making her will, without the slightest idea 
 of doing it " and turn myself out to grass like Tar 
 tar. But my reception hasn't been a exactly cor 
 dialor" 
 
 " I am sorry you have been disappointed," said 
 Judith, gently ; " but it seems to me that we are all 
 in a dreadful sort of transition state now. We are 
 holding on desperately to our old moorings, although 
 they are slipping away ; but I suppose we shall have 
 to face a new existence some time." 
 
 " I think I understand the feeling here even that 
 dead wall of prejudice that meets me. One look 
 around Severn church, last Sunday, would have told 
 me that those people had gone through with some 
 frightful crisis. I thought, perhaps being one of their 
 own county people originally might soften them to 
 ward me, but I believe that makes me blacker than 
 ever." 
 
 Judith could not deny it. 
 
 Throckmorton, who was worldly wise, read Judith 
 at a glance, besides having learned her history since 
 first seeing her. He saw that she was under a fixed
 
 56 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 restraint, and that a word would frighten her into the 
 deepest reserve. He treated her, therefore, as if she 
 had been a Sister of Charity. Judith, who made up 
 for her lack of knowledge of the world by rapid per 
 ceptions and natural talents, had seen more quickly 
 than Throckmorton. Here was a man the like of 
 whom she had not often met. Throckmorton knew 
 perfectly well the solitary lives these country women 
 led, and he had often wondered at the singular forti 
 tude they showed. He set himself to work to find out 
 what chiefly interested this young woman, who showed 
 such remarkable constancy to her dead husband, but 
 who gave indications to his practiced eye of secretly 
 loving life and its concerns very much. He had heard 
 about her pretty boy. At this Judith colored with 
 pleasure and became positively talkative. Her boy 
 was the sweetest boy she would like never to have 
 him out of her sight. Major Throckmorton, with a 
 sardonic grin, confided to Judith that he would fre 
 quently be highly gratified at having his son out of 
 his sight, because Jack made the women think he, the 
 major, was a Methuselah, and covertly made much 
 game of him, for which he would like to kick Jack, 
 but couldn't. 
 
 Judith laughed merrily at this a laugh so clear 
 and rippling, and yet so rare, that the sound of it 
 startled her. Was Mrs. Beverley fond of reading? 
 Mrs. Beverley was very fond of reading, but there was
 
 THROCKMORTON. 57 
 
 nothing newer in the array of books at Barn Elms 
 than 1840. Major Throckmorton would be only too 
 happy to supply her with books. He had had a few 
 boxes full sent down to Millenbeck. At this Judith 
 blushed, but accepted, without reflecting how Major 
 Throckmorton was to send books to a house where he 
 was not permitted to visit. 
 
 She also protested that she had read nothing at all 
 scarcely ; but Throckmorton came to find out that, for 
 want of the every-day modern literature, she was per 
 fectly at home in the English classics, and knew her 
 Scott and Thackeray like a lesson well learned. He 
 began to find this gentle intelligence and cordiality 
 amazingly pleasant after the cold shyness of the girls 
 and the unmistakable keep-your-distance air of the 
 older women. They sat together so long that Mr. 
 Morford began to scowl, and think that Mrs. Bever- 
 ley, after all, was rather a frivolous person, and with 
 every moment Judith became brighter, gayer, more 
 her natural charming self. 
 
 Meanwhile Jack Throckmorton had carried 
 Jacqueline off for a quadrille, and was getting on 
 famously. First they remarked on the similarity of 
 their names, which seemed a fateful coincidence, and 
 Jacqueline complained that the servants and some 
 other people, too, often shortened her liquid three syl 
 lables with " Jacky," but she hated it. Jack, who had 
 a sweet, gay voice, and was an inveterate joker, which
 
 58 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 Jacqueline was not, amused both her and himself ex 
 tremely. 
 
 " Will you look at the major ? " he whispered. 
 " Gone on the pretty widow I beg your pardon," he 
 added, turning very red. 
 
 " You needn't apologize," calmly remarked Jacque 
 line. " Judith is a pretty widow, and the best and 
 kindest sister in the world, besides. It is all mamma. 
 Mamma loved my brother better than anything, and 
 wants us all to think about him as much as she does." 
 
 Jack, rather embarrassed by these family confi 
 dences, parried them with some confidences of his 
 own. 
 
 " I shall have to go over soon and break the major 
 up. You see, there isn't but twenty-two years' differ 
 ence between us, and the major is a great toast among 
 the girls still, which is repugnant to my filial feel 
 ings." 
 
 Jacqueline listened gravely and in good faith. 
 
 " So, when I see him pleased with a girl, I gener 
 ally sneak up on the other side, and manage to get 
 my share of the girl's attention, and call the major 
 * father ' every two minutes. A man hates to be in 
 terfered with that way, particularly by his own son, 
 which doesn't often happen. The major has got a 
 cast in one eye, and, whenever he is in a rage, he gets 
 downright cross-eyed. Sometimes I work him up so, 
 his eyes don't get straight for a fortnight."
 
 THROCKMORTON. 59 
 
 " But doesn't he get very mad with you ? " asked 
 Jacqueline in a shocked voice. . 
 
 " Of course he does," chuckled Jack ; " and that's 
 where the fun comes in. But, you see, he can't say 
 anything; it is beneath his dignity; but his temper 
 blazes up, although he doesn't say a word. Some 
 times, when I've run him off two or three times close 
 together, he hardly speaks to me for a week not that 
 he cares about the girl particularly, but he hates to 
 be balked." 
 
 " What a nice sort of a son you must be ! " 
 
 Jack laughed his frank, boyish laugh. 
 
 " Why, the major and I are the greatest chums in 
 the world. I would do anything for him. And if 
 he ever presents me with a step-mother, I'll do the 
 handsome thing go to the wedding, and all that. 
 And he's a fascinating old fellow, too just takes the 
 girls off their feet." 
 
 When the dance was over, Jack brought Jacque 
 line back to Judith, who still sat with Throckmorton. 
 Jacqueline's eyes were shining with childish delight, 
 and she arched her thin white neck restlessly from 
 side to side. 
 
 " I have had such a nice dance ! " she cried, breath 
 lessly. 
 
 Judith, smiling, said, " Major Throckmorton, this 
 is my little sister Jacqueline." 
 
 Throckmorton, having once fixed his eyes on
 
 60 THROCKMORTOX. 
 
 Jacqueline, seemed unable to take them off, as on 
 that Sunday he had first seen her in Severn church. 
 Delilah, who noticed in her primitive way the won 
 derful power of attraction that Jacqueline had, used 
 to say, " Miss Jacky she allus cotches de beaux." She 
 certainly "cotched" Throckmorton's attention from 
 the first. Something in this slim, unformed, provin 
 cial girl was suddenly captivating to him. His genu 
 ine but sane admiration for Judith seemed tame be 
 side it. Jacqueline, however, only saw a rather strik 
 ing man, well on toward old age, in her infantile 
 eyes, and wished herself back with Jack, when Major 
 Throckmorton took her for a little promenade. Mor- 
 ford then made up to Judith, but found her singular 
 ly cold and unresponsive, and her eyes and smile were 
 quite far away, over Morford's head, as it were. The 
 truth is, the Eev. Edmund Morford was a consider 
 able let-down from George Throckmorton ; and, in 
 Judith's starved and pinched existence, it was some 
 thing to meet a man of Throckmorton's caliber. So^ 
 in place of the charming sweetness Morford had 
 learned to expect from Judith, he received a cold 
 douche of listlessness and indifference. All the rest 
 of the evening people noticed that Judith, who had a 
 good deal of smoldering vivacity under her quietness* 
 was remarkably cold and silent and rather bored, and 
 they supposed it was because of her aversion to any 
 thing like gayety. In truth, Judith had realized
 
 THROCKMORTON. 61 
 
 rather more startlingly than usual the bareness and 
 colorlessness of her life. 
 
 Mrs. Sherrard's effort was a strong one, but, as 
 she said, it was scarcely a success. General Temple 
 ostentatiously sought out Throckmorton, and tasted 
 the delights of a discussion regarding the trans- Al 
 pine campaigns of Hannibal, in which Throckmorton 
 was a modest listener, and the general a most fiery, 
 earnest, and learned expounder a past grand-master 
 of military science. But, on shaking Throckmorton's 
 hand at saying good-night, with solemn but genuine 
 effusiveness, he said not one word about calling at 
 Millenbeck. Throckmorton went home feeling rather 
 bitter toward all his county people, except his stanch 
 friend Mrs. Sherrard ; Judith, so gentle, clever, and 
 well-read ; and that fascinating child, Jacqueline.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FOE a week after the party Jacqueline lived in a 
 kind of dream. She could do nothing but talk of the 
 party. The whole current of her life had been dis 
 turbed. Since this one taste of excitement there was 
 no satisfying her. The daily routine was going down 
 to a solemn breakfast, and then getting through the 
 forenoon as best she might, with her flowers, and her 
 pets among the ducks and chickens, and romping with 
 the little Beverley for this unfortunate Jacqueline 
 had no regular employments and then the still more 
 solemn three o'clock dinner, after which she practiced 
 fitfully on the wheezy piano in the dark drawing- 
 room ; then a country walk with Judith, if the day 
 was fine, coming back in time to watch the creeping 
 on of the twilight before the sitting-room fire. This 
 was the happiest time of the day to Jacqueline. She 
 would sit flat on the rug, clasping her knees, and gaz 
 ing into the fire until her mother would say, with a 
 smile : 
 
 " What do you see in the fire, Jacky ? " 
 
 " Oh, endless things a beautiful young man, and
 
 THROCKMORTON. 63 
 
 a new piano, and a diamond comb like Mrs. Sherrard's, 
 and Oh, I can't tell you ! " 
 
 "Miss Jacky she see evils, I know she do," sol 
 emnly announced Simon Peter. " When folks sits fo' 
 de fire studyin' 'bout nuttin' 'tall, de evils an' de sper- 
 rits dat's 'broad come sneakin' up ahine an' show 'em 
 things in de fire." 
 
 General Temple, a few days after the party, fell a 
 victim to a seductive pudding prepared by Delilah, 
 and was immediately invalided with the gout. Dr. 
 Wortley was sent for, and at once demanded to know 
 what devilment Delilah had been up to in the way of 
 puddings and such, and soon found out the true state 
 of the case. A wordy war ensued between Dr. "Wort- 
 ley and Delilah, and the doctor renewed the threat 
 he had been making at intervals for twenty-five 
 years. 
 
 "Temple," he screeched, "you may take your 
 choice between that old ignoramus and me between 
 ignorance and science ! " 
 
 " Ef ole marse was ter steal six leetle sweet 'taters 
 an' put 'em in he pocket," began Delilah, undaunt 
 edly. 
 
 " Why don't you advise him to steal a wheelbar- 
 rowful instead of a pocketful ? " retorted the doctor. 
 
 " Kase he doan 'quire but six, an' he got ter steal 
 'em, fur ter make de conjurin' wuk. Den ev'y day 
 he th'ow 'way a tater, an' when he th'ow de tater 'way
 
 64 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 he th'ow de gout 'way, too. De hy'ars from a black 
 cat's tail is mighty good, too " 
 
 " Temple, how do you put up with this sort of 
 thing being uttered in your hearing?" snapped the 
 doctor. 
 
 General Temple looked rather sheepish. He had 
 never actually tried stealing six potatoes, or testing 
 the virtue in hairs from a black cat's tail, as a relief 
 from gout, but he had not been above a course of 
 tansy tea, and decoctions of jimson-weed, and other of 
 Delilah's remedies that scientifically were on a par 
 with the black cat's tail. But, being racked with 
 pain, he took refuge in pessimism and profanity. 
 
 " Excuse me, Wortley, but all medicine is a damned 
 humbug ! I mean er an empirical science. What 
 is written is written. The Great First Cause, that de 
 crees from the hour of our birth every act of our lives, 
 has decreed that I should suffer great pain, anguish, 
 and discomfort from this hereditary disease." 
 
 " Marse, ef you wuz ter repent an' be saved " 
 
 " Hold your infernal tongue ! " 
 
 " An' jine de Foot- washers " 
 
 " Damn the Foot- washers ! " howled the general. 
 
 " Plague on it ! " snarled Dr. Wortley, whirling 
 round with his back to the fire. " If you've got as 
 far as predestination, you're in for a six weeks' spell. 
 I can cure the gout, but I'll be shot if I can do any 
 thing when it's complicated with religion and black
 
 THROCKMORTON. 65 
 
 cats' tails and a constant diet like a Christmas 
 dinner ! " 
 
 In the midst of the discussion, the doctor's shrill 
 voice rising high over Delilah's, who, with arms 
 akimbo and a defiant air, only awaited Dr. Wortley's 
 departure to get in her innings with the patient, Mrs. 
 Temple, serene and sweet, came in and quelled the 
 insurrection. Delilah at once subsided, Dr. Wortley 
 began to laugh, and the general directed that Mrs. 
 Temple's chair be put next to his. 
 
 " As your presence, my love, makes me forget my 
 most unhappy foot," he said. 
 
 Mrs. Temple's adherence to either Delilah or Dr. 
 Wortley would have caused victory to perch upon that 
 side ; but Mrs. Temple, like the general, had more 
 faith in Delilah than she was willing to own up to. 
 So, between Delilah's feeding him high all the time, 
 x while the doctor only saw him once or twice a week, 
 General Temple bade fair to remain an invalid for a 
 considerable time. The attack of gout, though, just at 
 that time, had its consolatory aspects. General Tem 
 ple really wished to call at Millenbeck, but Mrs. Tem 
 ple showed no sign of yielding. For the present, 
 however, there could be no notion of his stirring out 
 of doors. As long as the gout lasted there was a good 
 excuse. But General Temple worried over it. 
 
 " My love," he said one night, while Mrs. Temple 
 and Jacqueline and Judith sat around the table in his
 
 66 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 room, where they had assembled to make his evening 
 less dull, " I am troubled in my mind regarding 
 George Throckmorton. It unquestionably seems hea 
 thenish for us to have one so intimately connected with 
 our early married life that truly blissful period 
 within a stone's throw of us, and then to deny him 
 the sacred rites of hospitality/' 
 
 Jacqueline gave a half glance at Judith which was 
 full of meaning, and Judith could not for her life 
 keep a slight blush from rising in her cheek. 
 
 Mrs. Temple said nothing, but looked hard at 
 the fire, sighing profoundly. She had made herself 
 some sort of a vague revengeful promise, that no 
 man wearing a blue uniform should ever darken 
 her doors. She had yielded first one thing, then 
 another, of that scrupulous and daily mourning and 
 remembrance she had promised herself, for Beverley 
 but this 
 
 The pause was long. Mrs. Temple, looking at 
 General Temple, was touched by something in his ex 
 pression a longing, a patient, but genuine desire. 
 Occasionally she indulged him, as she sometimes re 
 laxed a little the discipline over Jacqueline in her 
 childish days. She put her hand over her eyes and 
 waited a moment as if she were praying. Then she 
 said in broken voice, " Do what seems best to you, my 
 husband." 
 
 General Temple took her hand.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 67 
 
 " But, my own, I do not wish to coerce you. No 
 matter what I think is our duty in the case, if it 
 does not satisfy you, it shall not be done. I would 
 rather anything befell Throckmorton, than you, my 
 beloved Jane, should be grieved or troubled." 
 
 Mrs. Temple received this sort of thing as she 
 always did, with a shy pleasure like a girl. 
 
 " I have said it, my dear, and you know I do not 
 easily recede. Like you, this thing has been upon me 
 ever since Throckmorton's return. I have felt it 
 every day harder to maintain my attitude. Now, for 
 your sake, I will abandon it. Have Throckmorton 
 when you like. I will invite him over to tea on Sun 
 day evening." 
 
 General Temple fairly beamed. When Mrs. Tem 
 ple gave in to him, which was not of tener than once a 
 year, she gave in thoroughly. 
 
 " Thank you, my wife. It certainly seems unnat 
 ural that Millenbeck and Barn Elms should be es 
 tranged. It shall be so no longer, please God. And 
 that George Throckmorton is a high-toned gentle 
 man " General Temple paused a little before saying 
 this, hunting for a term magniloquent enough for the 
 occasion " no one, I think, will deny." 
 
 This was early in the week. The very next after 
 noon, Jacqueline finding time more than usually hard 
 to kill, went up into the garret and began rummaging 
 over the remains of Mrs. Temple's wedding finery
 
 68 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 of thirty years before. She dived down into a capa 
 cious chest, and brought forth two or three faded silk 
 dresses, the bridal bonnet and veil, yellowed from age; 
 and, among other antiques, a huge muff almost as big 
 as Jacqueline herself. This suddenly put the notion 
 of a walk into her head. Judith was engaged in 
 reading Napier's History of the Peninsular Wars to 
 General Temple, and Jacqueline had only herself for 
 company. So, carrying her huge muff in which she 
 plunged her arms up to her elbows, she started off. 
 It was a raw autumn afternoon. The leaves had not 
 yet all fallen, although the ground was dank with 
 them, and the peculiar stillness of a lonely and low 
 land country was upon the monotonous landscape. 
 The entire absence of sounds is a characteristic of 
 that sort of country, and it makes a gloomy day 
 more gloomy. Jacqueline, tripping along very fast, did 
 not find it cheerful. She would go as far as the gate 
 of the lane that led into the main road, and then turn 
 back. This lane was also the entrance to Millenbeck, 
 and Jacqueline had some sort of a faint expectation 
 that she might run across Jack Throckmorton. She 
 looked longingly toward Millenbeck, visible at inter 
 vals through the straggling fringe of pines. What 
 an infinity of pleasure could be had, if her mother 
 only came round thoroughly regarding the Throck- 
 mortons ! What rides and dances she could have with 
 Jack, and Judith could talk to the major ! " What a
 
 THROCKMORTON. 69 
 
 dull life Judith must lead ! " she thought, stepping 
 lightly along; It was true, Judith liked to read ; but 
 Jacqueline, who frankly confessed she could not read 
 a novel through from cover to cover, hardly appreci 
 ated reading as a resource. Jacqueline's imagination, 
 with this superstructure to build upon, went ardently 
 to work, and in a few minutes had installed Judith 
 as mistress of Millenbeck, and herself as the young 
 lady of the establishment. To do Jacqueline justice, 
 she longed for Judith's happiness, who, she sometimes 
 bitterly felt, was her only friend. Just as she had 
 arranged this scheme to her satisfaction, she looked 
 up, and saw, not twenty feet ahead of her, Major 
 Throckmorton coming out of the underbrush at the 
 side of the lane. A big slouch hat half concealed his 
 face. His usual trim and natty dress, with that un 
 mistakable " military cut," was exchanged for a shoot 
 ing suit of corduroy, much stained, and otherwise the 
 worse for wear. His stylish and immaculate hat was 
 replaced by the flapping felt, and his gun and game- 
 bag proclaimed his day's employment. Yet Jacque 
 line thought she had never seen him look so handsome, 
 and in some way she was not half so much afraid of 
 him in his shooting-togs as in his perfectly fitting 
 evening clothes. Jacqueline's face turned a rosy red. 
 As for Throckmorton, he too felt a thrill of pleasure. 
 This pretty child, as he called her, had been in his 
 mind rather constantly since he saw her at the party.
 
 70 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 He quickened his pace, and took his hat off while still 
 some distance away. 
 
 " Any more parties in prospect ? " he asked, smil 
 ing, as he took her little hand in his. 
 
 "No, I don't suppose there will be. Delicious 
 parties like that don't happen very often," answered 
 Jacqueline, quite seriously, and not in the least un 
 derstanding Throckmorton's smile as she said this. 
 " And and young Mr. Throckmorton oh, how I 
 enjoyed dancing with him ! " 
 
 The major did not smile at this. To have 
 " young Mr. Throckmorton " thrust at him by a 
 charming young girl was not particularly pleasing. 
 
 " Jack is a very jolly young fellow," he replied, 
 shortly. " We are great friends, Jack and I." 
 
 Jacqueline had turned around, and they were now 
 walking together toward Barn Elms. 
 
 " I I should think," said Jacqueline, giving him 
 one of her half-glances from under the dark fringe of 
 her eyelashes " that J Jack would be afraid of 
 you." 
 
 Throckmorton laughed aloud. 
 
 " Why should he be afraid of me ? " 
 
 " Oh, I don't know. Everybody is afraid of one's 
 father," replied Jacqueline, candidly. 
 
 "Jack and I entertain sentiments of mutual re 
 spect," laughed Throckmorton again. " The only 
 fault I find with him is that he is unduly filial some-
 
 THROCKMORTON. ft 
 
 times. For example, when I am enjoying the society 
 of a charming young lady he thinks too young for me, 
 he behaves as if I were his great-grandfather instead 
 of his father. Jack has a good deal of Satan in him." 
 
 Jacqueline did not always follow Throckmorton's 
 remarks, but she noticed he had a rich voice, and he 
 was the straightest, most soldierly-looking man she 
 ever saw in her life. Throckmorton slung his game- 
 bag around and held it open. 
 
 " Do you like robins ? " he said. They are deli 
 cious broiled on toast " and he took out a bird by 
 the legs and showed it to her. 
 
 Jacqueline stood perfectly still. Her eyes dilated 
 and her breath came quickly. She took the bird out 
 of his hand. It had long stopped bleeding, and its 
 little cold head, with half-closed eyes, fell over pite- 
 ously. Jacqueline took out her handkerchief and 
 wrapped the poor robin in it. 
 
 " Oh, the poor bird ! " she said, and suddenly two 
 large tears ran down her cheeks. 
 
 Throckmorton stood surprised, touched, delighted, 
 and almost ashamed. He had been a sportsman all 
 his life, and could see no harm in knocking over a few 
 birds in the season ; but the picture of this tender 
 hearted child, that could not see a dead bird without 
 weeping, struck him as beautifully feminine. But 
 what could he say ? If he was a bloodthirsty brute to 
 shoot a robin, what must all the slaughter of birds he
 
 72 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 had been guilty of in his lifetime make him? He 
 could only say, half shamefacedly and half laughing 
 " My dear little friend, you wouldn't have men as 
 squeamish as women, would you?" 
 
 But to this Jacqueline only responded by pressing 
 the poor bird's cold breast to her cheek. 
 
 Throckmorton, however, with an air of gentle au 
 thority, took the bird from her and put it back in the 
 bag. 
 
 " If you cry for such things as this, you will have 
 a hard time in life," he said. 
 
 Jacqueline's face did not clear up at once. 
 
 " I want you to do something for me to promise 
 me something," she said, gravely. 
 
 " What is it ? " asked Throckmorton. Jacqueline 
 had laid her charm upon him in the last ten minutes, 
 but he did not forget his caution entirely. 
 
 "It is," said Jacqueline, punctuating her words 
 with tender, appealing glances, " that you won't kill 
 any more robins never, never, as long as you live." 
 
 Throckmorton refrained from smiling, as he felt 
 inclined, but it was plainly no laughing matter to 
 Jacqueline. And if he gave the promise nobody 
 knew the absurdity of it more than Throckmorton 
 suppose Jack heard of it, what endless fun would he 
 poke at his father on the sly ! Nevertheless, Throck 
 morton, calling himself an old fool, made the promise. 
 
 Jacqueline, flushed with triumph, now conceived a
 
 THROCKMORTON. 73 
 
 bold design. She would that is, if her courage held 
 out tell him that her mother had at last come round. 
 This delightful information she proceeded to impart. 
 
 "Do you know," she said, smiling and showing 
 her little even white teeth, " that mamma has at last 
 agreed to to let us have something to do with you 
 and Jack?" 
 
 " Has she, indeed ? " replied Throckmorton, with 
 rather a grim smile. 
 
 " Yes," continued Jacqueline, with much serious 
 ness. " Occasionally she gives papa a little treat. 
 You know she always liked you, and papa has been 
 dying to call to see you. But mamma can't forget the 
 war and Beverley. At last, though she's been think 
 ing about it ever since that first day at church she 
 concluded to give in and and you're to be asked 
 to tea next Sunday evening ! " 
 
 The way this was told was not particularly flatter 
 ing to Throckmorton, but he was sincerely grateful 
 and attached to Mrs. Temple, and he knew and pitied 
 the state of feeling that had caused her to intrench 
 herself in her prejudices. She must indeed remem 
 ber those old days when she was willing to do what 
 Throckmorton suspected she had promised herself 
 never to do. " I want to be friends with Mrs. Temple 
 that's plain enough," he said, " and if she asks me 
 I shall certainly come." 
 
 " Do you know," said Jacqueline, after a pause, in a
 
 Y4 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 very confidential voice, " I sometimes wish now this 
 is a secret, remember that papa and mamma would 
 forget Beverley a little and think of Judith and 
 me ? They seem to expect Judith to wear black all 
 the time, and never to smile or to laugh or to sing, as 
 if Beverley could know. I don't believe the dead in 
 their graves know or care anything about us." 
 
 She was on delicate ground, but, her tongue being 
 unloosed, Throckmorton's attempt to check her was a 
 complete failure. 
 
 " Judith, you know," she continued, cutting in on 
 Throckmorton's awkward remonstrance, " only knew 
 Beverley a little while. Her father and mother were 
 dead, and papa was her guardian. She came to Barn 
 Elms to live after she left school, and Beverley came 
 home from the war, and they were married right 
 away almost as soon as they were acquainted. It 
 was so sudden because Beverley's leave was up, and 
 Delilah says that Beverley knew he was going to be 
 killed soon. She says he dreamed it, or something. 
 Do you believe in dreams ? " 
 
 " No, and you mustn't believe all Delilah tells 
 
 you." 
 
 " Anyhow, he went away, and he never came back. 
 That broke papa and mamma's hearts. And you 
 know little Beverley Judith's child is like her 
 and not a bit like Beverley, and mamma talks some 
 times as if it was a crime on the child's part. She
 
 THROCKMORTON. 75 
 
 says to everybody, * Don't you think the child is like 
 his father ? ' and nobody answers her quite truthfully, 
 and she knows it." 
 
 Throckmorton hardly knew how to receive these 
 family confidences, but he could not but admire the 
 color coming and going in Jacqueline's cheeks, and 
 the fitful light that burned in her eyes as she talked. 
 
 " And Judith I do love Judith. It seems hard 
 now this is another secret that she should never 
 have any more pleasure in this world. And she is so 
 bright and clever. She understands the most won 
 derful books. And there's something I can't help 
 telling you this." 
 
 " Perhaps you had better not tell me," said Throck 
 morton in a warning voice. 
 
 " But I can't help it, you are so so sympathetic : 
 I don't believe Judith cared for Beverley much." 
 
 Jacqueline drew off to see the effect of this on 
 Throckmorton. She did not at all suspect him of 
 any interest in Judith ; but this family tragedy, that 
 had stalked beside her nearly all her life, she thought 
 was of immense importance, and she wanted to see 
 how it affected Throckmorton. In fact, it only em 
 barrassed him. He said, rather briefly : 
 
 " Mrs. Beverley is very handsome very charm- 
 ing." 
 
 " She's the best sister in the world," exclaimed 
 Jacqueline. " Some people think that sisters-in-law
 
 Y6 TIIROCKMORTON. 
 
 can't love each other. Sometimes I would throw my 
 self in the river if it wasn't for Judith." 
 
 " Why should such a tender little thing as you 
 want to throw herself in the river ? " he asked ; and 
 if Jack had heard the tone in which this was spoken, 
 he would, no doubt, have found food for ungodly 
 mirth in it. 
 
 " You don't know what sorrows I have," respond 
 ed Jacqueline, gravely. And then they were almost 
 at the gate of Barn Elms, and Throckmorton bade 
 her good-by, and tramped back home, while Jacque 
 line scudded into the house to confide the wonderful 
 adventures of the afternoon to Judith. 
 
 In a day or two a note from General Temple came, 
 inviting Throckmorton and Jack to tea at Barn Elms 
 the following Sunday evening. It was rather a letter 
 than a note, General Temple spreading himself his 
 honest soul loved a rhetorical nourish and contain 
 ing many references to their early association. Throck 
 morton accepted, in a reply in which he told, much 
 more glibly than his tongue could, the grateful affec 
 tion he had cherished from his neglected and un 
 happy boyhood toward the whole family at Barn 
 Elms. On the Sunday evening, therefore, Throck 
 morton, with Jack, presented himself, and was effu 
 sively received by the general and Simon Peter, who 
 were not unlike in their overpowering courtesy to 
 guests. Judith was cordial and dignified, and Jacque-
 
 THROCKMORTON. 77 
 
 line full of a shy delight. No doubt they would be in 
 vited to Millenbeck, and she would see with her own 
 eyes the Bruskins carpets and other royal splendors 
 Delilah was never weary of recounting. 
 
 General Temple was able to be down in the draw 
 ing-room, but Mrs. Temple was not present. Delilah, 
 however, soon put her head in the door, and, crossing 
 her hands under a huge white apron she wore, brought 
 a message. 
 
 "Mistis, she say, won't Marse George please ter 
 come in de charmber." 
 
 Throckmorton at once followed her. The " charm 
 ber " at Barn Elms was a sort of star chamber, and 
 utterances within its precincts were usually of a sol 
 emn character. As Throckmorton entered, Mrs. Tem 
 ple rose from the big rush-bottomed chair in which 
 she sat. Throckmorton remembered the room per 
 fectly, in all the years since he had been in it the 
 dimity curtains, the high-post mahogany bed, the 
 shining brass fender and andirons, the tall candle 
 sticks on the high wooden mantel. He remembered, 
 with a queer, boyish feeling, sundry moral discourses 
 gently administered to him in that room on certain 
 occasions when he had been caught in the act of fish 
 ing on Sunday, or poking a broomstick up the chim 
 ney to dislodge the sooty swallows that built their 
 nests there in the summer-time, and other instances 
 of juvenile turpitude. And he well recollected once,
 
 78 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 when Mrs. Temple was ill, he had hung about the 
 place, a picture of boyish misery ; and when at last 
 he was admitted into the room where she lay, white 
 and feeble, on the broad, old-fashioned lounge, how 
 happy, how glad, how honored he had felt. He went 
 forward eagerly and raised Mrs. Temple's hand to his 
 lips. 
 
 " George Throckmorton, this is nearer forgiveness 
 than I ever expected to come," she said. 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Temple, don't let us talk about for 
 giveness. Let us only remember that we are friends 
 of more than thirty years' standing because I can't 
 remember the time when I was a boy that I didn't 
 love you." 
 
 " And I loved you, too next to my own Beverley. 
 I sent for you here that I might tell you my trouble 
 as you used to tell me yours so long ago. Often you 
 have sat on that little cricket over there and told me 
 of your grandfather's cruel ways to you he was a 
 godless man, George." 
 
 "He was indeed," fervently assented Throck 
 morton. 
 
 "And now I want to tell you of my sorrows, 
 George." 
 
 Throckmorton listened patiently while she went 
 over all of Beverley's life. She told it with a touch 
 ing simplicity. Throckmorton well saw how that still 
 stern unforgiveness might rankle in her gentle but
 
 THROCKMORTON. 79 
 
 immovable mind. Then he told her of his marriage 
 something he had never in all his life spoken of 
 to any one in that manner; but the force of sweet 
 and early habit was upon him he could talk to Mrs. 
 Temple about the young creature so much loved and 
 so long dead. Mrs. Temple, who knew what such re 
 vealing meant from a man of Throckmorton's strong 
 and self-contained nature, was completely won by 
 this. An hour afterward, when they came into the 
 drawing-room, and found Jack and Jacqueline in a 
 perfect gale of merriment, with Judith looking smil 
 ingly on, Mrs. Temple laid her hand on Throckmor 
 ton's shoulder, and said to General Temple, with 
 sweet gravity, " He is tho same George Throckmor- 
 ton." 
 
 Judith was leaning a little forward in her chair, 
 with her arm around her child. The boy was a beau 
 tiful, manly fellow, and gazed at Throckmorton with 
 friendly, serious eyes. Throckmorton, whose heart 
 was tender toward all children, smiled at him. Bever- 
 ley at this marched forward and climbed upon Throck 
 morton's knee, his little white frock, heavy with em 
 broidery worked by Judith's patient fingers, spreading 
 all around him. The boy immediately launched into 
 conversation, eying Throckmorton boldly, although 
 his eyes usually had the shy expression of his mother's. 
 He wanted to know if Throckmorton had a gun, and 
 could he beat the drum ; also, if he could ride a horse.
 
 80 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 Sometimes grandfather would take him up and let 
 him ride as far as the gate. Throckmorton answered 
 all these questions satisfactorily, and then told about 
 a pony he had at Millenbeck a pony that had been 
 Jack's, when Jack was no bigger than Beverley, and 
 that was now too old and slow for any but a very 
 little boy. While Throckmorton talked to the child, 
 Judith listened with a smiling look in her eyes. 
 Throckmorton could not but be struck by the pretty 
 picture the young mother and her child made. He 
 saw the resemblance between them at once, and when 
 he told of a tragic adventure Jack had with the pony, 
 falling through a bridge, both pairs of large, soft eyes 
 grew wide with grave amazement. Unconsciously Ju 
 dith assumed the child's expression. Beverley seemed 
 determined to monopolize his new acquaintance, but 
 presently Judith with a little air of authority sent 
 him off with Delilah. Beverley paused at the door 
 to say : 
 
 " You come again and bring the pony." 
 Presently they went into the dining-room, and the 
 old-fashioned tea was served. There was enough to 
 feed a regiment, and all of the best kind, but nothing 
 approaching vulgar display. Mrs. Temple put Throck 
 morton at her right, and every time she spoke to Jack 
 she called him George. Throckmorton had forgotten 
 nothing of the old days, and he not only began to feel 
 young himself, but he made General and Mrs. Temple
 
 THROCKMORTON. 8| 
 
 feel that time had turned backward. Jacqueline, on 
 the opposite side of the table, smiled at him and 
 talked a little. In her heart she could not quite make 
 out Throckmorton. He had arrived at an age that 
 seemed to her almost venerable ; yet he quite ignored 
 the fact that he ought to be old, and certainly was not 
 old, nor could anybody say that he was young. Jack's 
 boyish fun she understood well enough, but Throck- 
 morton's shrewd humor, his confident, experienced 
 way of looking at things, was rather beyond her. And 
 as the case had been, whenever Throckmorton saw 
 her, he had to exercise a certain restraint, lest every 
 body should see how strangely and completely she 
 magnetized him. If anybody had asked him to com 
 pare Judith and Jacqueline, he would have given 
 Judith the palm in everything even in beauty ; but 
 Jacqueline's young prettiness in some way caught his 
 fancy more than Judith's deeper and more significant 
 beauty. 
 
 But Judith had her charm too for him. She cap 
 tivated his judgment as Jacqueline captivated some 
 inner sense to which he could give no name. Judith's 
 talk was seasoned with liveliness, and Throckmorton, 
 who possessed a dry and penetrating humor of his 
 own, could always count on a responsive sparkle in 
 Judith's eye. 
 
 When they returned to the drawing-room, Mrs. 
 Temple said :
 
 82 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 "Judith, my dear, sing us some of your sweet 
 hymns." 
 
 Judith sat down to the piano and in her clear and 
 bell-like soprano sang some old-fashioned hymns, so 
 sweetly and unaffectedly that Throckmorton thought 
 it was like angels singing. The sound of the simple 
 music, the soft light of fire and lamp, the atmosphere 
 of love and courtesy that seemed to breathe over the 
 quaint circle, had a fascination for him. It was the 
 poetry of domestic life. He had often dreamed of 
 what " home " might be, but he had never known it, 
 for that brief married life of his had been too short, 
 too nickering ; they were boy and girl lovers, and, be 
 fore the new life had had time to crystallize, he was 
 left alone. But here he saw the sweet privacy of 
 home, the repose, the family nest, safe and warm. He 
 sighed a little. Money could not buy it, else he would 
 have had it at Millenbeck, comfortable handsome 
 country-house that it was. But here, at this shabby 
 old Barn Elms, it was in perfection, in all its natural 
 ness and simplicity. After all, women were necessary 
 to make a home ; even money, with a Sweeney as pre 
 siding genius, couldn't do it. 
 
 It was late when they left. Mrs. Temple's parting 
 was as solemn as her greeting : 
 
 " I have done that which I never expected to do, 
 and all because in my heart I can't but love you, 
 George Throckmorton ! "
 
 THROCKMORTON. 83 
 
 Throckmorton's keen pleasure showed in his dark 
 eyes. 
 
 " I always knew, if you would only listen to that 
 dear, kind heart of yours, you would forgive the 
 Yankees," he laughed.
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 MIRACLES usually happen in cycles. They un 
 questionably did in the Severn neighborhood. Before 
 the hurricane of talk over Throckmorton's arrival, 
 Jack's audacity, and Sweeney's brogue had fairly 
 reached a crisis, a letter came one day to General 
 Temple, from his nephew, Temple Freke, announcing 
 his intention of paying a visit to his dear uncle and 
 aunt at Barn Elms. 
 
 General Temple handed the letter to Mrs. Temple 
 with a sort of groan. 
 
 " This is he I mean, my love, this is most dis 
 composing." 
 
 At this Mrs. Temple shook her head in a manner 
 expressing perfect despair. The problem whether 
 Throckmorton should be admitted within the doors of 
 Barn Elms was a mere nothing compared with this. 
 Both of them firmly believed in a personal devil ; and 
 Temple Freke, with his extravagance, his vices, his 
 unprincipled behavior, stood for Satan himself. This 
 Freke was very unlike the conservative, home-keeping 
 type of a gentleman that prevailed in Virginia. He
 
 THROCKMORTON. 85 
 
 was born and brought up in Louisiana, and was fifteen 
 years old when, by the death of his father, General 
 Temple became his guardian, and he was brought to 
 Barn Elms to lead the staid Beverley into all sorts of 
 scrapes, and to torment General Temple's honest soul 
 almost to madness. The elder Freke, perhaps, know 
 ing the boy's disposition, had made General Temple's 
 guardianship to extend until Temple Freke's twenty- 
 fifth birthday. 
 
 Of the horrors of that guardianship, nobody but 
 the kind and simple-hearted general could tell of 
 Freke's extravagance, of his gambling and betting and 
 drinking, and one frightful scene, when Freke, with 
 a loaded pistol in his hand, swore that, unless a certain 
 debt of honor was paid, he would kill himself on the 
 spot ; and General Temple, who was not easily fright 
 ened, promptly paid it, with the conviction that the 
 young fellow was quite capable of carrying out the 
 threat. Immediately after this, General Temple 
 shipped him off to Europe, but apparently it made 
 bad worse. For six whole years was General Temple 
 commanding, entreating, praying, and wheedling to 
 get Freke back to Virginia. It was true, he might 
 have cut off supplies, but Freke made no bones 
 of saying that, if he couldn't get his own money, 
 he would contrive to get somebody else's; so the 
 poor general, with groans and moans, would cash 
 Freke's drafts on him as long as money could be
 
 86 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 screwed out of the Louisiana sugar plantations to do 
 it with. 
 
 But, as Mrs. Temple often said, Freke was unques 
 tionably a gentleman ; he was mild-mannered to a de 
 gree, and his very impertinences were brought out 
 with a diffidence that frequently hoodwinked General 
 Temple. He was not nearly so handsome as Beverley, 
 being much shorter and sandy-haired, in contrast with 
 Beverley's blonde beauty; but Mrs. Temple always felt 
 in the old days, with a little pang of jealousy, that this 
 ordinary-looking boy, with his exquisite manners not 
 the least affected or effeminate, but simply the perfec 
 tion of personal bearing could put Beverley at a dis 
 advantage. The two had little in common, and had 
 never met after their school-days, when General Tem 
 ple, in the innocence of his heart, had sent Freke 
 abroad, to reform, until the very time of Beverley's 
 death. Freke, whose courage was as flawless in its 
 way as General Temple's, had come home during the 
 war and enlisted in the Southern army. A strange 
 fate had placed him close to Beverley when he was 
 killed. He had held Beverley's dying hand, and to 
 him were intrusted the last messages to the mother 
 and the young wife, who waited and prayed at Barn 
 Elms. Nothing on earth but this could have brought 
 Mrs. Temple to tolerate Freke at all, after the sensa 
 tional career which had begun with the pistol scene. 
 Moreover, to increase the abnormal conditions about
 
 THROCKMORTON. 87 
 
 this unregenerate being, as the Temples considered 
 him, he was perfectly irresistible. How it was, Gen 
 eral Temple gloomily declared, he didn't know, but 
 Freke had the most extraordinary way of insinuating 
 himself into the good graces of both men and women 
 not by any affectation of goodness, for there was a 
 frankness about his wickedness that was peculiarly ap 
 palling to General Temple. Freke was no handsomer 
 as a man than as a boy ; he had been steadily making 
 ducks and drakes of his fortune since he was twenty- 
 five; yet, somehow, Freke always seemed to have a 
 plenty of friends, solely by the charm of his person 
 ality. The most serious escapade that had come to 
 General Temple's knowledge since Freke was of age 
 was his running away with a Cuban girl in New Or 
 leans, and afterward getting a divorce by some hocus- 
 pocus, and thereafter, with serene confidence, he bore 
 himself as an unmarried man. Now, divorce was 
 practically unknown in that old part of Virginia, and 
 the Temples regarded it as in the category with mur 
 der and arson ; so that this final iniquity of Freke's 
 would have quite put him beyond the pale, but for 
 those hours he spent kneeling on the ground with the 
 dying Beverley. 
 
 General Temple had a sort of Arab hospitality that 
 would not have begrudged itself to the Evil One him 
 self, and to tell Freke that he was not welcome under 
 the roof of Barn Elms, where his grandfather and his
 
 88 THROCKMORTOK 
 
 grandfather's father had lived, was an enormity of 
 which he was not capable. And Mrs. Temple was no 
 manner of use to him in the case. In vain he tried 
 to shuffle the decision off on her. Mrs. Temple would 
 not accept it. Like the general, she sighed and 
 groaned, and turned it over in her mind ; but always 
 came back that picture of Beverley lying bleeding and 
 dying, and Freke risking his life to stay by him. So 
 at last, after a week of mutual misery, one night, in 
 the privacy of the " charmber," Mrs. Temple, watching 
 the general stalking up and down during one of his 
 fits of midnight restlessness, said, tremulously: 
 
 " My love, we must let Freke come. We can not 
 refuse it for for Beverley 's sake." 
 
 So the next morning a letter was dispatched to 
 Freke, written by General Temple with considerably 
 less cordiality than usual, and very feeble rhetorically, 
 expressing the pleasure his uncle and aunt felt at the 
 prospect of a visit from their nephew. 
 
 The next day, as soon as the direful news of his 
 coming was made known to Jacqueline, she rushed 
 off, as she always did, to give Judith the startling in 
 formation. 
 
 Judith heard it with a strange feeling of repulsion, 
 which she at first imagined was that infinite disap 
 proval she felt for Freke ; but, if he came, all of that 
 terrible story about Beverley would have to be told 
 over. Judith had not yet come to a clear understand-
 
 THROCKMORTON. 39 
 
 ing of herself, but she had begun to shrink from that 
 dwelling on Beverley which seemed to give Mrs. Tem 
 ple such exquisite comfort. 
 
 " Everything that looked at Freke fell in love with 
 him," announced Jacqueline. " Of course, he is as 
 handsome as a dream something like Mr. Morford, 
 I dare say." 
 
 There were two or three faded photographs of 
 him at Barn Elms, and none of them gave the idea of 
 great beauty ; but protographs in those days were not 
 very artistic reproductions. 
 
 Judith laughed a little uneasily. 
 
 " I wish he wern't coming, Jacky," she said. " He 
 is too too startling a person for quiet people like 
 ourselves. There is one comfort, though : he will 
 soon get tired of us." 
 
 Within a week or two came a very well-expressed 
 letter from Freke, thanking his uncle and aunt for 
 their hospitable invitation, and saying that on a cer 
 tain day he would land from the river steamer at Oak 
 Point. Jacqueline was immensely taken with the 
 letter, which was written on paper the like of which 
 she had never seen before, and was sealed with a 
 crest. 
 
 Two immense trunks arrived in advance of the 
 expected visitor. Mrs. Sherrard happened to be at 
 Barn Elms when the luggage appeared. Mrs. Tem 
 ple's face expressed her misery.
 
 90 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 " Jane, you have ray sympathy. A more unmiti 
 gated scamp than Freke doesn't live," was Mrs. Sher- 
 rard's remark. 
 
 " Kitty," feebly protested Mrs. Temple, " he is my 
 husband's nephew." 
 
 " The more's the pity." 
 
 As a rule, the reputation of incalculable wicked 
 ness hurts nobody, in the opinion of the very young. 
 The more Mrs. Temple preached and warned, hold 
 ing on to that one saving clause, Freke's devotion to 
 Beverley in his dying hours, the more attractive he 
 seemed to Jacqueline. At last one afternoon, when 
 the carriage returned from Oak Point Landing with 
 the much-talked-of Freke, Jacqueline, who had been 
 curling her hair and prinking all day for the visitor, 
 came down into the drawing-room, and the expression 
 of acute disappointment on her face said loudly : 
 
 "Is this all?" 
 
 For Freke was neither surpassingly handsome nor 
 any of the superlative things Jacqueline had fondly 
 imagined him to be. He was not even as handsome 
 as Throckmorton, and Jacqueline thought him no 
 beauty. Freke was under middle height, and his hair 
 was as sandy as of old, and not too abundant. His 
 features were ordinary ; and Jacqueline, not being a 
 physiognomist, did not take in the piercing expression, 
 the firmness and intelligence that redeemed them from 
 commonplaceness. He did look unmistakably the
 
 THROCKMORTON. 91 
 
 gentleman, Jacqueline grudgingly admitted. This 
 the adorable, the irresistible, the But Jacqueline 
 was too disgusted to continue. 
 
 Freke, who read Jacqueline like an open book, and 
 suspected the advance impression she had received, 
 could hardly keep from laughing out aloud at the 
 girl's air and manner. He talked a little to her, 
 somewhat more to Judith, but chiefly to Mrs. 
 Temple. 
 
 It was late in the afternoon when he had arrived, 
 and tea was soon announced. Directly it was over, 
 Mrs. Temple marshaled a solemn procession into " the 
 charmber " to hear Freke's description of Beverley's 
 last hours. She went first with Judith, followed by 
 Freke and General Temple. Mrs. Temple had tried 
 to get Jacqueline to come, too, but Jacqueline, who 
 had a horror of weeping and tragedies, begged off; 
 and Mrs. Temple, who really attached but little im 
 portance to the girl at any time, did not press the 
 point. The door of the room remained closed for 
 two hours. Jacqueline, who had got tired of Delilah's 
 company and the cat's, went up-stairs early, but not 
 to bed. She waited until she heard Judith's door 
 open, and then went and knocked timidly at the 
 door. 
 
 " Come in," said Judith, in an unfamiliar voice. 
 Judith was sitting before her dressing-table, and had 
 already begun to unbraid her long, rich hair. But
 
 92 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 her eyes were fixed with a hard, staring gaze on her 
 own image in the glass. The mother had wept at 
 Freke's recital ; the widow had remained pale, tearless, 
 and turning over in her troubled mind the imma 
 turity, the transitoriness of that first girlish love-af 
 fair that had resulted, as so few first loves do, in a 
 sudden marriage a quick widowhood. And she had 
 a terrifying sense that she had betrayed herself to 
 Freke. There was one particular point in the narra 
 tive, when he described how the dead man had got 
 his death-wound. Beverley had run across a small 
 body of Federal cavalrymen, himself with only an ad 
 vance guard, and, a la General Temple, had immedi 
 ately dashed at them, as if a cavalry scrimmage would 
 affect one iota the great fight that was impending 
 the next day. Beverley himself had engaged in a 
 hand-to-hand tussle with a Federal officer both of 
 them had rolled off their horses, and the struggle be 
 tween them was more like Indian warfare than civil 
 ized warfare and Freke described, with cruel par 
 ticularity, how the two men fought in the under 
 brush, and crushed the wild rose and hawthorn 
 bushes, each one trying vainly to draw his pistol 
 and at last a shot rang out, and Beverley turned 
 over on his face with a wild shriek and a death- 
 wound. The Federal officer had got his arm en 
 tangled in his bridle-reins, and Freke thought every 
 moment the excited horse would trample the wound-
 
 THROCKMORTON. 93 
 
 ed man to death; and then, a squad of Confeder 
 ates coming up, the Federals had made off, the officer 
 mounting his horse and getting out of the way with 
 nothing worse than a few bruises. All the time he 
 was telling this he was eying Judith, who did not 
 shed a single tear. Mrs. Temple wept torrents, and 
 even so did General Temple. For poor Judith, whose 
 reading of Freke was not less keen than his reading of 
 her, it was misery enough to feel that, after all, her wid 
 owhood was not very real, and that the mourning, the 
 entire giving up of the world, the devotion to Bever- 
 ley's parents, was, in some sort, a reparation ; but that 
 it should escape her for Judith with the eagerness 
 to make amends, of a generous nature, had readily 
 adopted Mrs. Temple's view that it was a crime not 
 to mourn for Beverley. 
 
 Jacqueline slipped down on her knees beside Ju 
 dith, and, nodding her head, gravely said : 
 
 " Mamma didn't get me into the room. Ah, Judy, 
 dear, why won't they let us forget him " 
 
 " Jacqueline ! " cried Judith, turning a pale, 
 shocked face on her. 
 
 " I say," persisted Jacqueline, who had one of her 
 sudden fits of courage, " why do they trouble us to 
 remember him ? I hardly knew him ; he was always 
 off at college, and then in the war ; why won't they 
 let us mourn decently for him ? And then and then 
 everybody wants to forget griefs. I do."
 
 94 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 Judith rose and shook her off impatiently. "I 
 wish Temple Freke had never come here," she said. 
 
 " I do, too," answered Jacqueline, getting up. " I 
 am afraid of him. Judith, what two poor creat 
 ures are we ! " 
 
 " I know I am," suddenly cried Judith, breaking 
 into a storm of tears. " I know there is no peace for 
 me anywhere ! " Judith stopped as suddenly as she 
 had begun. How could she put it in words, the 
 ghastliness of this perpetual reminder of that which 
 in her heart she longed to forget this feeling that 
 had been growing on her for so long, that she ought 
 to feel more remorse for marrying Beverley Temple 
 than grief at losing him that all this solemn mourn 
 ing for him was like those state funerals, where there 
 is a great service, a catafalque, a coffin, mourners 
 everything except a corpse ? And to her candid soul 
 how wicked, heartless, and unnatural it seemed ! Jac 
 queline's eyes, so full of meaning and fixed on her, 
 troubled her. She got up after a minute and walked 
 over to the window. The red glow of the fire and 
 the dim candle-light did not prevent her from seeing 
 clearly into the moonlight night. She drew the old- 
 fashioned white curtains, apart and looked out. The 
 somber trees loomed large and black, but up on the 
 hill, a quarter of a mile away, the light from Millen- 
 beck gleamed cheerfully. From two windows on the 
 lower floor and two on the upper, as well as the great
 
 THROCKMORTON. 95 
 
 fan- and side-lights of the hall-door, a ruddy glare 
 streamed steadily. Presently Jacqueline came and 
 stood by Judith, timidly. 
 
 " Do you know," she said, " it seems queer that 
 three strangers should come into our lonely lives in 
 this quiet life here ? And the one I like the one I 
 like best is Jack Throckmorton. I can't talk to the 
 others." 
 
 Judith, who had got back a little of her compos 
 ure, smiled at this. 
 
 " You talked away fast enough with Major Throck 
 morton." 
 
 " Oh, yes, but I didn't feel at home with him. 
 Jack and I understand each other. I know what he 
 means when he talks to me. I don't always under 
 stand Major Throckmorton. Judith, is my cousin 
 Freke a very wicked man ? " 
 
 " So people say," replied Judith in a subdued voice, 
 which had not altogether overcome its agitation. 
 
 " He isn't handsome enough to be very very at 
 tractive," said Jacqueline after a pause. 
 
 But the rule of contrary seemed to suddenly pre 
 vail at Barn Elms then. "Within a week everybody 
 in the house had succumbed more or less to Freke's 
 charm. General Temple found him invaluable in 
 the preparation of the History of Temple's Brigade ; 
 and Freke, who had a store of military knowledge 
 among his great fund of general information, easily
 
 96 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 persuaded the general that he was a military histo 
 rian of the first order. When the general began his 
 evening harangues, Freke always had an example 
 pat of a certain occasion when Prince Eugene, or the 
 Duke of Marlborough, or some equally distinguished 
 leader had successfully pursued General Temple's 
 tactics. All this General Temple laboriously tran 
 scribed in his manuscript. Judith, who very much 
 doubted whether Freke were not making it up as he 
 went along, had her suspicions confirmed when Freke 
 would occasionally turn his expressive face on her and 
 actually wink with appreciation of the general's sim 
 plicity. Judith was indignant, but she could not 
 help laughing at Freke's genuine humor. Mrs. Tem 
 ple showed her regard for the returned prodigal by 
 taking him into the " charm ber " one day and reason 
 ing in a motherly way upon Freke's duty to return to 
 his wife. Judith was astounded after a while to hear 
 Mrs. Temple's gentle but intense laughter making 
 itself heard outside the room. Freke, with the most 
 good-natured manner in the world, sitting in the rush- 
 bottomed chair, with one foot over his knee, began to 
 tell Mrs. Temple some of his marital experiences with 
 his Julia. Mrs. Temple at first put on her severest 
 frown and fairly groaned aloud at his declaration that 
 he didn't know whether he was married or not in Vir 
 ginia, as his divorce was got in one of the Northwestern 
 States ; but, divorce or no divorce, he wouldn't tempt
 
 THROCKMORTON. ' 97 
 
 Fate again in another matrimonial venture even with 
 a creature as beautiful as Helen, as wise as Portia, and 
 with a million in her own right. Then he began to 
 tell of the adventures between Julia and himself which 
 had led to their separation, winding up with a descrip 
 tion of their final scene, when Julia threw a dish at 
 him and he in turn threw a bucket of ice- water over 
 Julia. Before this, though, Mrs. Temple's laughter 
 had been heard. Freke issued from the room the pict 
 ure of innocence, and at peace with himself and all 
 the world. Mrs. Temple, on the contrary, was an 
 image of guilt. Never had she before in her life been 
 beguiled from a moral lecture into unseemly laughter 
 and laughter on such a subject! Mrs. Temple's 
 conscience rose up and fought her, and she began to 
 think that all her moral foundation was tottering. 
 
 Surprises were the order of the day. One night, 
 just after family prayers, when the gout, and the 
 doubt whether anybody at all was to be saved, had 
 caused General Temple to make a more pessimis 
 tic, vociferous, and grewsome prayer than usual, in 
 which he called the Deity to account for so griev 
 ously afflicting the Temple family, Freke, whom Ju 
 dith had caught smiling in the midst of General 
 Temple's most telling periods, quietly announced that 
 he had that day bought Wareham, a place within two 
 miles of Barn Elms. 
 
 It was not much of a place, being at most about 
 7
 
 98 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 three hundred acres, with a small, untenanted house 
 on it and property went for a song, anyhow, in that 
 part of the world but, nevertheless, the news was 
 paralyzing to General and Mrs. Temple. Judith, 
 who was developing a certain dislike and distrust of 
 Freke that grew daily, could hardly forbear laughing 
 at the mute horror of General and Mrs. Temple over 
 this unlooked-for news. Freke went on to say that 
 a very little would make the place habitable for him, 
 and he liked the fishing and shooting to be had 
 especially the shooting, as the birds had had four 
 years' rest during the war. Then he said good-night 
 pleasantly, and went off to bed. 
 
 " This is the dev I mean this is most unfor 
 tunate, my love," remarked General Temple, dis 
 mally, to Mrs. Temple, at two o'clock in the morn 
 ing following this, as he paraded up and down the 
 "charmber," declaiming against Freke's iniquities. 
 
 Next day, Mrs. Sherrard came over, and the dire 
 ful news was communicated to her by Mrs. Temple, 
 with a very long face. Mrs. Sherrard's eyes danced. 
 
 " Now you'll know what it is to have a nephew 
 that one would like to be entirely unlike what he 
 is. That's my trouble with Edmund Morford. You 
 know, I hate a humbug and Edmund is a good 
 soul, but a dreadful humbug." 
 
 " Katharine ! " exclaimed Mrs. Temple. " A min 
 ister of the gospel "
 
 THROCKA10RTOX. 99 
 
 " Go along, Jane Temple ! You have no eyes 
 in your head where ministers of the gospel are con 
 cerned. Edmund is perfectly harmless that's one 
 comfort." 
 
 " I wish I could say the same of Temple Freke," 
 Mrs. Temple rejoined, dolefully. 
 
 It would be a week or two yet before Freke could 
 take possession of Wareham. Some beds and tables 
 and sheets and towels had to be procured, and mean 
 while he stayed on at Barn Elms. It would not have 
 taken a very astute person to see what the charm 
 was. It was Judith. 
 
 When the knowledge first came to these two 
 people to Judith, that Freke's eyes followed her con 
 tinually ; that, as if by some power beyond his will, 
 his chair was always next hers, his ear always alert to 
 catch her lightest word to Freke, that this young 
 countrywoman, with her spirited, expressive face, her 
 untutored singing for music was one of his weak 
 points, or strong ones, as the case might be her gen 
 tle sarcasm when he essayed a little sentiment, pretty 
 and tender enough to please a woman who knew twice 
 as much as she ; that at first sight, without an effort, 
 she had conquered his bold spirit it is hard to say 
 which was the most vexed and disgusted. Judith 
 found it easy enough to play the inconsolable widow 
 where a man who aroused a positive antagonism like 
 Freke was concerned, and denounced him in her own
 
 100 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 mind as a wretch for daring to fall in love with her. 
 And Freke after New York women and Creole 
 women, French, Spanish, Russian, English, and Ital 
 ian women to have been loved and petted, and virtu 
 ally made free of women's hearts ; that this unsophis 
 ticated Virginia girl, who had never seen six men in 
 her life, should simply take him off his feet, and that, 
 without knowing it was simply infuriating. In the 
 privacy of his bedroom, as he smoked his last cigar 
 before turning in, he swore at himself with a self- 
 deprecation that was thoroughly genuine. What did 
 he want to marry again for, anyway? Hadn't he had 
 all he wanted of that pastime ? And, of course, being 
 a divorced man, Judith would see him chopped into 
 little pieces before she would marry him and then 
 the staggering thought that, even if he were not di 
 vorced, the odds were against her marrying him at all 
 it was altogether maddening. But he did not lose his 
 head completely. Judith's indifference nay, dislike 
 saved to him his discretion. But had she warmed 
 to him for one little moment Freke, in thinking 
 over this sweet impossibility, lay back in his chair 
 and watched the smoke curling upward, and was lost 
 in a delicious reverie when suddenly, the utter pre- 
 posterousness of it came to him, and he threw the 
 cigar into the fire with a savage energy that nearly 
 wrenched his arm off. No, the little devil for he was 
 not choice of epithets in regard to this woman would
 
 THROCKMORTON. 101 
 
 throw him away with as little conscience and remorse 
 as he threw that cigar away ! Like all men of many 
 love-affairs, he regarded love-making as an aesthetic 
 amusement ; and while it was absolutely necessary for 
 its perfection that the woman should be desperately in 
 earnest for Freke did not mind a tragic tinge being 
 given to the matter it was nonsense for a man to 
 permit himself to be drawn into heroics and yet 
 but for the indifference of this girl, who was always 
 half laughing at him he would not answer for any 
 folly he might commit. 
 
 Then there was Jacqueline. She exactly suited 
 him as a victim to his charms, sardonically expressing 
 it to himself. She, too, was not particularly impressed 
 with him as yet, but that was due to her ignorance. 
 He could easily enlighten her, and she would be led 
 like a slave by him ; he could make her believe any 
 thing. So, in default of Judith, he might as well 
 amuse himself with Jacqueline; and, by resolutely 
 concealing his gigantic folly, he would in the end 
 overcome it. But he felt like a man who, having a 
 head to stand champagne and brandy and absinthe 
 and every other intoxication, comes across something 
 that looks as harmless as water, but which sets his 
 brain on fire and makes him a madman. 
 
 The general and Mrs. Temple saw nothing; a 
 man might have made love to Judith and have run 
 away with her under their very noses before they
 
 102 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 would have realized that it was possible for any man 
 to dare falling in love with Beverley's widow ; and if 
 Jacqueline's eyes saw anything, she kept it wisely to 
 herself. 
 
 Freke certainly added a new and picturesque ele 
 ment to their lives ; even Judith could not deny that, 
 although she habitually denied Freke the possession of 
 any of the graces as well as the virtues. But that 
 Freke was a wonderful, a gifted, a fascinating talker, 
 she was forced to admit. His conversation was 
 quite different from Throckmorton's manly plainness 
 of speech, who, with more brains than Freke, had not 
 them as readily soluble in talk. Judith was acute 
 enough to see the difference between the two men 
 one the man of conversation, and the other the man 
 of action. Throckmorton knew many things, and one 
 thing surpassingly well his profession. Freke ex 
 celled in conversation ; what he knew was imposing, 
 but what he could do was not. However, he had not 
 only traveled, but he had observed as well as read. 
 He never made himself the hero of his own stories ; 
 and there was a sparkle in his eyes, an animation that 
 gave a deeper tone to his voice, and Judith, in her 
 dull and colorless life, could not but feel the charm of 
 it. Nevertheless, it was not all charm. Judith felt 
 as strongly as ever the incongruity of Freke with his 
 surroundings. 
 
 So, some days more passed. Judith found that
 
 THROCKMORTON. 103 
 
 in finesse she was no match for Freke. Indifferent 
 to him as she might be, he could always place him 
 self where he wanted he managed to have a great 
 deal more of her society than she would willingly 
 have given him ; but she reasoned shrewdly with her 
 self women being naturally clever in these things : 
 " He will soon give it up. The game is not worth 
 the candle." And so it proved ; for in a little while 
 he began to shadow Jacqueline, and Jacqueline suc 
 cumbed like a bird to the charmer. If Freke was 
 present, Jacqueline, who was wont to be impatient 
 when not noticed, would sit quite quietly by her sister- 
 in-law's side, sewing demurely, or walk beside her 
 gravely, not opening her mouth but listening intently, 
 as her changing color showed. One day, when Jac 
 queline went into the gloomy, darkened drawing-room 
 to play, Freke followed her. Jacqueline sat down, and 
 began some short familiar piece, but she could not 
 render it. She missed notes, became confused, and 
 finally gave up and left the piano in mortification. 
 
 " It is because you are here," she said to Freke, 
 with a child's resentment. 
 
 " Is it, little girl ? " he asked. 
 
 He was sitting quite at the other end of the room 
 and did not come near her, but something in his tone 
 made Jacqueline halt, and brought the ever-ready 
 blood into her cheeks. Freke, after a moment, rose 
 and sauntered toward her. As he came up to her he
 
 104 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 took a stray lock of hair that had escaped, in curly 
 perversity, from the comb ; and, just as he stood with 
 it in his fingers, the door opened and Simon Peter 
 announced : 
 
 " Walk right in, Marse George. Mistis, she count- 
 in' de tuckeys in de coop, but Miss Judy, she be 'long 
 pres'n'y. Hi ! Here Miss Jacky ! " 
 
 Throckmorton walked in. His eye, which was 
 as quick as a hawk's, caught the whole thing in an 
 instant, and a sort of jealousy sprang into life. Of 
 course, he did not display the smallest symptom of it. 
 He shook hands pleasantly with Jacqueline, and also 
 with Freke, whom he had met several times. With 
 his easy, worldly judgment, he by no means ranked 
 Freke as the chief of sinners, but, without regarding 
 him as a model citizen, found him extremely good 
 company, which Freke certainly was. Jacqueline 
 looked painfully embarrassed, but Freke's coolness was 
 simply indomitable. The two men made conversation 
 naturally enough, while Jacqueline, awkwardly silent, 
 sat and twisted the unlucky lock of hair in her fingers 
 until a diversion was created by Judith's entrance, 
 with little Beverley clinging to her skirts. A faint, 
 girlish blush came into Judith's face when she met 
 Throckmorton; and for his part he felt always the 
 charm, the refinement, the sprightliness, more piquant 
 because subdued, that exhaled like a perfume wher 
 ever Judith was. Beverley made for Throckmorton,
 
 THROCKMORTON. 105 
 
 and, before his mother could interpose a warning 
 hand, was perched on the arm of Throckmorton's 
 chair, whence both of them defied her. Jacqueline 
 made but one remark. She asked Throckmorton, tim 
 idly: 
 
 " How is young Mr. Throckmorton ? " 
 
 At which the major scowled, but responded care 
 lessly that Jack was all right, as far as he knew. 
 
 Young Mr. Throckmorton ! and from those lovely 
 lips! 
 
 Presently there was a grinding of wheels, and a 
 commotion at the front door. 
 
 " Mrs. Sherrard, I know ! " said Judith. " She 
 always begins her salutations at the gate." 
 
 Sounds were distinguishable. 
 
 " Mistis be mighty glad ter see you an' Marse Ed- 
 mun'. She down at de fattenin'-coop countin' de 
 tuckeys, 'kase we didn't have no luck wid de tuckey- 
 -aigs lars' season, an' de wuffless hen-tuckeys " 
 
 So much for Simon Peter, when Delilah's voice 
 broke in : 
 
 " Miss Kitty, 'twan' de hen-tuckeys 'tall. Ef de 
 gobblers wuz ter take turns, like de pigeons, a-settin' 
 on de aigs " 
 
 " I allus did think dem he-pigeons look like de 
 foolishest critters / ever see a-settin' on de nes' while 
 de she-pigeons hoppin' roun' de groun' 'stid o' mind- 
 in' dey business "
 
 106 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 " You are right, Simon Peter," answered Mrs. 
 Sherrard, still invisible. " I wonder that Delilah 
 hasn't profited by Mrs. Temple's example. You've 
 got visitors. Whose hat is this ? " 
 
 " Marse George Throckmorton's an' Marse Temple 
 Freke's. I gwi' tell mistis you here. Marse c'yarn 
 leave de charmber yet, he gout so bad." 
 
 Mrs. Sherrard marched in, followed by Edmund 
 Morford. She wore her most commanding and hos 
 tile air. She had poohpoohed Mrs. Temple's dread of 
 Freke, but she meant to give him to understand that 
 his goings on, and particularly his matrimonial diffi 
 culties, were perfectly well known in the Severn 
 neighborhood, and properly reprobated. So she shook 
 hands all around, followed by the Rev. Edmund, who 
 never trusted himself at Barn Elms, with those two 
 pretty young women, alone and unprotected. 
 
 " I understand you have bought "Wareham," re 
 marked Mrs. Sherrard, tartly, to Freke. 
 
 " I have," answered Freke, very mildly. 
 
 " You'll repent it." 
 
 " Not if you make yourself as agreeable as you 
 ought," answered Freke. 
 
 The impudence of this tickled Mrs. Sherrard. 
 
 " I hear you are an entertaining fellow," she said. 
 " Come and talk to me." 
 
 Just then Mrs. Temple entered, but Mrs. Sherrard 
 kept fast hold of Freke. In half an hour he had won
 
 THROCKMORTON. 107 
 
 her over. Judith, responding with an intelligent 
 glance to a rather cynical smile on Throckmorton's 
 part, saw it. Not satisfied with winning Mrs. Sher- 
 rard over, Freke applied himself to Morford, and that 
 excellent but guileless person fell an instant victim to 
 Freke's tact and power. Mrs. Sherrard was so pleased 
 with her morning's visit, that she invited them all 
 over to Turkey Thicket to spend the following Thurs 
 day evening.
 
 CIIAPTEK VI. 
 
 IN the few days that followed, Judith saw more 
 plainly that Freke was deliberately casting his spell 
 over Jacqueline, and, from the soft and seductive flat 
 tery he had tried on her, Judith, at first, he exchanged 
 something like sarcasm. He would discuss constancy 
 before her, Judith meanwhile keeping her seat reso 
 lutely, but she could not prevent the tell-tale color 
 from rising into her face. But when, as Freke gener 
 ally did, he surmised that all the so-called constancy in 
 this world wasn't exactly what it purported to be, she 
 grew pale beneath his gaze. He watched her in 
 tently whenever she was with Throckmorton, and the 
 mere consciousness of being watched embarrassed 
 while it angered her. Freke, whose perceptions were 
 of the quickest, saw far into the future, and often re 
 peated in his own mind the old, old truth that all the 
 passions of human nature love, hope, despair, jeal 
 ousy, and revenge could be found within the quietest 
 and most peaceful circle. 
 
 The very next evening after Mrs. Sherrard's visit, 
 Freke appeared in the dusky drawing-room, where
 
 THROCKMORTON. 109 
 
 Jacqueline sat crouched over the fire, and Judith, with 
 her child in her arms, sang him quaint Mother Goose 
 melodies. When Freke came within the fire's red cir 
 cle of light, Judith observed that he had a violin and 
 bow under his arm. Jacqueline jumped up delight 
 edly. 
 
 " Oh, oh ! do you know any music ? " 
 
 " I can fiddle a little," answered Freke, smiling. 
 
 He settled himself, and, in the midst of the deep 
 silence of twilight in the country, began a concerto of 
 Brahms. The first movement, an allegro, he played 
 with a dainty, soft trippingness that was fit for fairies 
 dancing by moonlight. The next, a scherzo, was full 
 of tender suggestiveness a dream told in music. The 
 third movement was deeper, more tragic, full of sor 
 row and wailing. As Freke drew the bow across the 
 G-string, he would bring out tones as deep as the 'cello, 
 while suddenly the sharp cry of the treble would cut 
 into the somber depths of the basso like the shriek of 
 a soul in torment. A melody like a wandering spirit 
 appeared out of the deep harmonies, and lost, yet ever 
 found, would make itself heard with a sweet insist 
 ence, only to be swallowed up in a tempest of sound, 
 like a bird lost in a storm. And presently there was 
 an abatement, then a calm, and the music died, liter 
 ally, amid the twilight dusk and gloom. 
 
 As Freke, with strange eyes, and his bow sus 
 pended, tremblingly, as if waiting for the spirit to
 
 HO THROCKMORTON. 
 
 return, ceased, there was a perfect silence. Jacque 
 line, who had never heard anything like it in her life, 
 and who, all unknown to herself, was singularly sus 
 ceptible to music, gazed at Freke as the magician 
 who had made her dream dreams, and after a while 
 cried out : 
 
 " Why do you play like that ? I never heard any 
 body play so before." 
 
 In answer, Freke again smiled, and played a wild 
 Hungarian dance, fit for the dancing of bacchantes, 
 so full of barbaric clash and rhythm, that Jacqueline 
 suddenly sprang up and began to dance around the 
 chairs and tables. Freke half turned to glance at 
 her; he retarded the time, and softened the tones, 
 when Jacqueline, too, danced slowly and dreamily 
 until presently, with a storm and a rush of music, 
 fortissimo and prestissimo, and a resounding blare of 
 chords that sounded like the shouts of a victorious 
 army, he stopped and lay back in his chair, still smil 
 ing. 
 
 But, although Judith had twice Jacqueline's knowl 
 edge of music, with all her feeling for it, Freke was 
 piqued to see that she did not for a moment confound 
 his music with his personality. She seemed to take 
 a malicious pleasure in complimenting him glibly, 
 which is the last snub to an artist. Freke was so 
 vexed by her indifference, that he began to play cats 
 mewing and dogs barking, on his fiddle, to frighten
 
 THROCKMORTON. HI 
 
 little Beverley, who looked at him with wide, scared 
 eyes. 
 
 "Never mind, my darling," cried Judith, laugh 
 ing. " Be a brave little boy only girls are scared at 
 such things." 
 
 Beverley, thus exhorted, summoned up his cour 
 age and proposed to get grandfather's sword to defend 
 himself. Judith's laughter, the defiant light in her 
 eyes, the passionate kiss she gave the boy as a reward 
 for his bravery, annoyed Freke. His vanity as an art 
 ist, however, was consoled by hearing Simon Peter's 
 voice, in an awed and solemn whisper from the door, 
 through which his woolly head was just visible in the 
 surrounding darkness : 
 
 " I 'clar' ter God, dat fiddle is got evils in it. I 
 hear some on 'em hollerin' an' cryin' fur ter git out, 
 an' some on 'em larfin' an' jumpin'. Marse Temple, 
 dem is spirits in dat fiddle. I knows it." 
 
 " They are, indeed ; and, if I go down to the grave 
 yard at midnight and play, all the dead and gone 
 Temples will rise out of their graves and dance around 
 in their grave-clothes. Do you hear that ? " said Freke, 
 gravely. 
 
 "Lord God A'mighty!" yelled Simon Peter, "I 
 gwi' sleep wid a sifter " (a sieve) " over my hade ev'y 
 night arter dis. Sifters keeps away de evils, 'kase dey 
 slips th'u de holes." And, sure enough, a sieve was 
 hung up over Simon Peter's bed that very night, with
 
 112 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 
 
 a rabbit's foot as an additional safeguard, and a bunch 
 of peacock's feathers over the fireplace was ruthlessly 
 thrown into the fire to propitiate " de evils." 
 
 When Thursday evening came, General Temple 
 was high and dry with the gout, and Mrs. Temple, of 
 course, could not leave him alone to fight it out with 
 Delilah. 
 
 " Ole marse, you gwi' keep on havin' de gout twell 
 you 'w'yar a ole h'yar foot in yo' pocket. I done tole 
 you so, an' I ain' feerd ter keep on tellin' you so," was 
 Delilah's Job-like advice. 
 
 " That's true," snapped the general. " Gad, if I 
 had had a thousand men in my brigade as little 
 ' feerd ' as you, I'll be damned if I ever would have 
 surrendered at Appomattox ! God forgive me for 
 swearing." 
 
 " I hope and pray He will, my darling husband," 
 responded Mrs. Temple, with calm. piety. 
 
 Jacqueline was in a fever of delight, as she always 
 was when there was any prospect of going from home. 
 She danced up and down, romped with little Beverley, 
 and, hugging him, told him in a laughing whisper 
 that she would see "somebody" at Turkey Thicket, 
 and " somebody had beautiful black eyes, and was 
 only twenty-two years old." 
 
 Judith, too, felt that pleasurable excitement of 
 which she began to be less and less ashamed. A few 
 words dropped meaningly by Throckmorton, full of
 
 THROCKMORTON. 113 
 
 that sound sense which distinguished him, made her 
 look differently at life. His philosophy was not Mrs. 
 Temple's. He reminded Judith that we should ac 
 cept peace and tranquillity thankfully, and that it 
 was no sin to be happy ; and everything that Throck- 
 morton said commended itself to Judith. For the 
 first time in her narrow and secluded life she enjoyed 
 with him the pleasure of being as clever as she wanted 
 to be. He was no timid soul, like Edmund Morford, 
 to fear a rival in a woman. It never occurred to 
 Throckmorton to feel jealous of any woman's wit. 
 One of his greatest charms to Judith was that he was 
 not in the least afraid of her. Her quick feminine 
 humor, her natural acuteness, her knack of pretty 
 expression in speech and writing, appeared in their 
 true light, as mere accomplishments, contrasted with 
 Throckmorton's firm and masculine mind. The con 
 viction of his mental grasp, his will-power, all that 
 goes to make a man fitted to command a woman, 
 had in it a subtile attraction for Judith, like the spell 
 that beauty casts over a man. He was the only man 
 in all her surroundings whose calm superiority over 
 her was perfectly plain to her. It was only necessary 
 for him to express an opinion, that Judith did not 
 at once see its force. She sometimes differed courte 
 ously with him ; but it began soon to be a perilous 
 pleasure to her to find that usually Throckmorton was 
 infinitely wiser, more liberal, more just than herself.
 
 114 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 When the Thursday evening came, only Judith, 
 Jacqueline, and Freke were to go. It had turned 
 bitterly cold. Simon Peter, sitting in solitary mag 
 nificence on the box, handled the ribbons over the 
 Kentucky horses, who dashed along so briskly that 
 the carriage, which was in the last stage of "befo' 
 the war " decrepitude, threatened to tumble to pieces 
 and drop them all in the road. 
 
 Going along, Jacqueline sat back in the carriage, 
 very quiet and silent. Freke, with his back to the 
 horses, talked to Judith. Occasionally in the dark 
 ness, by a passing gleam, he could see Jacqueline's 
 eyes shining. 
 
 "What do you think of Major Throckmorton," 
 he asked Judith. 
 
 Although not versed in knowledge of the world, 
 Judith was not devoid of self-possession. The ques 
 tion, though, embarrassed her a little. 
 
 " I I think he is most interesting, kind and " 
 
 " Military men are, as a rule, rather narrow, don't 
 you think?" 
 
 "I never saw enough to judge. I should think 
 they ought to be the other way." 
 
 " Every time I see Throckmorton, the conscious 
 ness comes to me that I have seen him before seen 
 him under some tragical and unusual circumstances. 
 If I didn't know that those who have good con 
 sciences, like myself, should be above superstition, I
 
 THROCKMORTON. 115 
 
 should say that in some previous state of being I had 
 known him ; however, I am too strictly orthodox in 
 my beliefs to tolerate such notions. But some time 
 or other perhaps to-night I intend to find out from 
 Throckmorton himself if we haven't had the pleasure 
 of meeting in another cycle or state of being. There 
 is, by the way, an ineffable impudence in ThrocKmor- 
 ton returning to this county now." 
 
 Judith suspected that Freke's peroration was made 
 with the intention of provoking a reply. 
 
 They were driving along an open piece of the 
 road, and it was comparatively light in the carriage, 
 although there was no moon. Freke glancing up to 
 see the cause of Judith's silence, caught the gleam of 
 her white teeth in a broad smile. She was laughing 
 at him. It certainly was delicious to hear Temple 
 Freke commenting on anybody's having impudence 
 in returning to the county. Freke, who hated to 
 be laughed at, promised himself he would be avenged. 
 " I'll make you wince, my lady ! " he thought to 
 himself. Presently, though, Judith said, in a tone 
 with a sharpness in it, like one who has been wounded : 
 
 " I can't imagine anybody applying the word im 
 pudence to Major Throckmorton. He is very reserved 
 very dignified." 
 
 " Throckmorton, I see, has an advocate. And lit 
 tle Cousin Jacky, what do you think of the other 
 Jacky Jacky Throckmorton ? "
 
 116 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 " I think he's perfectly delightful," assented Jac 
 queline, after a pause. 
 
 Freke said no more about the Throckmortons. 
 The women were evidently against him there; and 
 soon they were driving up to the door at Turkey 
 Thicket, and going up the hall stairs to take off their 
 wraps, very much as on that last evening, when Mrs. 
 Sherrard took occasion to rehabilitate Throckmorton 
 in the good graces of the county people, as she was 
 now trying to do with Freke. 
 
 When Judith and Jacqueline came down the 
 stairs, Freke met them at the foot. Jacqueline had 
 pleaded hard to wear a white dress, but Mrs. Temple 
 was inexorable. She might catch cold ; consequently, 
 she wore a little prim, Quakerish gown of gray. Ju 
 dith, as usual, was stately in black. 
 
 Throckmorton was standing on the rug before 
 the drawing-room fire, talking gravely with Mrs. 
 Sherrard. Edmund Morford was there and Dr. Wort- 
 ley, who, with Jack Throckmorton, constituted the 
 company. Mrs. Sherrard drew Judith into the con 
 versation that she had been carrying on with Throck 
 morton. He said to Judith : 
 
 " I will continue what I was saying but I assure 
 you it is something I could speak of to but few peo 
 ple. It is this absolute barring out on the part of the 
 county people toward me. Not a soul except Mrs. 
 Sherrard and Mrs. Temple has asked me to break
 
 THROCKMORTON. H7 
 
 bread. I thought I knew Virginians I thought 
 them the kindest, easiest, least angular people in the 
 world ; but, upon my soul, anything like this cold and 
 deliberate ostracism I never witnessed ! Why, half the 
 county is related to me and I've been to school with 
 every man in it and yet, I am a pariah ! " 
 
 " You don't look at it from their point of view," 
 replied Mrs. Sherrard, with more patience than was 
 her wont. " Think how these people have suffered. 
 You see yourself, never was there such ruin wrought, 
 and then remember that you are associated with that 
 ruin. Can't you fancy the dull and silent resentment, 
 the cold anger, with which they must regard all ' 
 
 " Blasted Yankees ? " cheerfully remarked Throck- 
 morton, recovering his spirits a little. 
 
 " But you know," said Mrs. Sherrard, whose ideas 
 on some subjects were rudimentary, but speaking 
 kindly though positively, " you mustn't wear your 
 uniform down here." 
 
 Throckmorton laughed rather harshly. 
 
 " As I'm not going to be married or buried, I can't 
 see what chance I would have to wear it. But what 
 you say disposes me to put on my full-dress uniform, 
 with sword and chapeau, and wear it to church on 
 Sunday." 
 
 Then Mrs. Sherrard went off after her latest pas 
 sion, Temple Freke, and left Judith and Throckmor 
 ton standing together.
 
 118 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 " I think / understand you," said Judith, with her 
 pretty air of diffidence. " But, as you know, the peo 
 ple here have one principle which stands for honor, 
 and you have another. You have got power and 
 and victory out of your principle, and we have got 
 nothing but ruin and defeat and wretchedness out of 
 our principle. How can you hold us to a strict 
 account ? " 
 
 " I do not God knows I do not ! but I want a 
 little human kindness. I get it from a few. Dr. 
 Wortley, who was my tutor at my grandfather's, and 
 has licked me a hundred times and Morford, and 
 the families at Turkey Thicket and Barn Elms but 
 none of them, I think," continued Throckmorton, 
 looking into Judith's eyes with admiration, " exactly 
 understand how / feel as well as you. What kept me 
 in the army was, as you say, a principle of honor. It 
 was like a knife in *me, every Southern officer who 
 resigned. I respected them, because I knew, as only 
 the naval and military men knew, that they were giv 
 ing up not only their future and their children's 
 future, for what they thought right, but that they 
 knew the overwhelming odds against them. I don't 
 believe any one of them really expected success they 
 knew too much it was a sacrifice most disinterested. 
 I could not go with them ; but I had to face as much 
 obloquy among my people by staying in the army as 
 they had to face in going out. But I swear I never
 
 THROCKMORTON. 119 
 
 gave one thought to the advantage to me of staying 
 where I was ! I stayed because I could not, as a man 
 of honor, do otherwise. I thought my own people 
 would recognize this that by this time the bitterness 
 would be over." 
 
 " Never mind," said Judith, with a heavenly smile, 
 " it will come it will come." 
 
 A little later, Mrs. Sherrard whispered to Throck- 
 morton : 
 
 " Are not my two beauties from Barn Elms sweet 
 creatures ? " 
 
 " Very," answered Throckmorton, a dark flush 
 showing under his tan and sunburn. " Little Jacque 
 line is a charming creature." 
 
 " Oh, pooh ! Jacqueline. You mean Judith." 
 
 " Mrs. Beverley is most dignified, charming, and 
 interesting ; but little Miss Jacky " 
 
 " I should think she would be a nice playmate for 
 your Jack," remarked Mrs. Sherrard. 
 
 Throckmorton looked awkward, not to say foolish. 
 Had he forgotten his forty-four years, his iron-gray 
 hair, all the scars of life ? Jacqueline and Jack were 
 inseparable from the start, and their two heads were 
 close together on the deep old-fashioned, sofa, at that 
 very moment. 
 
 " The major stole a march on me the other day, 
 going over to Barn Elms," remarked Jack, confiden 
 tially. " However, I'll get even with him yet."
 
 120 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 " Oh, how can you talk so about your own 
 father ? " 
 
 " Why shouldn't I talk so about my own father ? " 
 
 " Because it's not right." 
 
 " Look here, Miss Jacky. Nobody thinks as much 
 of the major as I do he's the kindest, noblest, gamest 
 chap alive but you see, I'm a man, and he's a man. 
 When he got married at twenty-one, he took the risk 
 of having a son in the field before he was ready to 
 quit himself." 
 
 " Do you do you remember your mother ? " 
 asked Jacqueline, in a low voice. 
 
 "No," answered Jack, fixing his dark eyes seri 
 ously on Jacqueline. " I have a miniature of her 
 that my father gave me when I was twenty-one. He 
 keeps her picture in his room, and on the anni 
 versary of her death he spends the day alone. Once 
 in a great while he has talked to me about her." 
 
 Jacqueline glanced at Throckmorton with a new 
 interest. He was still talking to Judith. The pleased 
 look on the major's face aroused the mischievous 
 devil in Jack. In five minutes Jacqueline, to her 
 disgust and disappointment, found herself talking to 
 Dr. Wortley, while Jack had established himself on 
 the other side of Judith. Neither Throckmorton nor 
 Judith was pleased to see him. 
 
 " You ought to hear my father tell about some of 
 his campaigns 'way back in the fifties," remarked
 
 THROCKMORTON. 121 
 
 Jack. " It's a good while ago, but the major isn't 
 sensitive about his age like some men." 
 
 Perhaps the major was not, but Jack's observation 
 was received in grim silence. 
 
 "I am sure Major Throckmortou can tell us a 
 great many interesting things," answered Judith, 
 smiling involuntarily " particularly to us who lead 
 such quiet lives, and who know so little. I sometimes 
 wonder how I shall ever be able to bring up my boy ; 
 I have so few ideas, and they seem to be all rusting 
 away." 
 
 " I thought you were a great reader," said Throck- 
 morton. 
 
 " I like to read, but" 
 
 " My father is a Trojan of a reader," continued 
 Jack, " and his eyesight is really wonderful." 
 
 At this the major, with the cast in his eye very 
 obvious, rose and walked over to where Jacqueline 
 was sitting. Jack had accomplished his object, and 
 ran his father out of the field. But Judith felt a 
 sense of bitter disappointment. However, with the 
 sweetness of her nature, she overcame her resentful 
 feelings toward Jack, and, in spite of his boyish dispo 
 sition to make people uncomfortable, really began to 
 like him. 
 
 Throckmorton, though, was not ill pleased on the 
 whole. It was by an effort that he had kept away 
 from Jacqueline until then. But, after talking with
 
 122 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 her awhile, he was not quite so well satisfied. Her 
 childishness was pretty, and the acuteness of her re 
 marks sometimes surprised him, but there was noth 
 ing to her she talked and thought about herself. 
 Throckmorton tried once or twice to get her into the 
 channel of rational conversation, but Jacqueline 
 rebelled. She acknowledged with a pretty smile that 
 she hated books, and that she was poor company for 
 herself. Throckmorton felt a tinge of pity for her. 
 What would become of her twenty years hence so 
 pretty, so charming, so inconsequent ? 
 
 Freke had in the mean time completed his con 
 quest of Mrs. Sherrard. Presently he went to the 
 piano and trolled out songs in a rich barytone, playing 
 his own accompaniments. This musical gift was a 
 revelation to Mrs. Sherrard. It was not comparable, 
 though, to his violin-playing. Nevertheless, it was 
 enough to turn Jacqueline's head a little. Freke sang 
 a sentimental song, with a tender refrain, and every 
 time he sang this refrain he cast a glance at Jacque 
 line. 
 
 Gradually the blood mounted to her face, until, 
 when he stopped, she was as rosy as the morning. 
 Then Freke sat down by her, and after that Jacque 
 line had no eyes for anybody else not even Jack. 
 
 Throckmorton saw it, with a strong disgust for 
 Freke, and with that same strange pang of jealousy he 
 had felt before. Judith's angry disapproval burned
 
 THROCKMORTON. 123 
 
 within her, but she made no attempt to circumvent 
 Freke until, looking around after a while, she missed 
 him and Jacqueline both. 
 
 Judith, watching her opportunity, slipped out into 
 the hall, and there found the culprits. Jacqueline 
 made a little futile effort to pretend that they were 
 looking at some prints by the light of a solitary kero 
 sene-lamp ; but Freke, who at least had no pretence 
 about him, held on boldly to Jacqueline's hand, until 
 she wrenched it away. 
 
 "Jacqueline, dear," said Judith, trying to speak 
 naturally, " it is cold out here ; come in ! " 
 
 " I'm not cold," answered Jacqueline after a pause. 
 
 " But it is not polite to run away like this," urged 
 Judith, casting an angry look at Freke, who, with 
 folded arms, was whistling softly. 
 
 " I can't help that, Judith," answered Jacqueline, 
 pettishly. " Why do you want me in that stiff draw 
 ing-room with old Dr. Wortley and Mrs. Sherrard, 
 and" 
 
 " But Jacqueline, I want you ! " 
 
 There was no mistaking that tone. 
 
 " Go along, Jacky," said Freke, with cheerful sub 
 mission. "You'll be liable to catch some dreadful 
 moral complaint if you breathe the same atmosphere 
 with me too long. I am a sinner of high degree, I 
 am." 
 
 Jacqueline turned and sullenly followed Judith
 
 124 TimOCKMORTON. 
 
 back, while Freke, smiling and unruffled, walked by 
 her side. And then supper was served, but Jacqueline 
 was perfectly distrait and could not keep her eyes off 
 Freke, who was the life and soul of the party. The 
 supper was after the Virginia order very good and 
 so profuse it could not all be got on the table. 
 
 On the drive home there was perfect silence. 
 Freke made one or two observations to Judith, but 
 her cold silence convinced him that it was useless. 
 He was not afraid of her, but he saw no good in 
 pretending to placate her. When they reached Barn 
 Elms and were standing in the cold hall, Judith said 
 to Jacqueline : 
 
 " Go on. I shall be up in a moment." 
 
 " I'll wait for you," replied Jacqueline, doggedly. 
 
 "You may wait, but I wish to speak to Freke 
 privately. I shall take him into the drawing-room." 
 
 At this, Jacqueline went slowly and unwillingly 
 up the stairs. 
 
 Judith picked up the lamp and went into the 
 dark drawing-room. The fire still smoldered dimly 
 in the great fireplace. Freke took up the -tongs and 
 made a vigorous attack on the fire, and in two min 
 utes the flames were leaping around the brass firedogs. 
 Then he settled himself comfortably in the corner of 
 the sofa. 
 
 Judith, although her determination was made, yet 
 felt timid, and her heart beat.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 125 
 
 "What excuse can you give," she asked in an 
 unsteady voice, "for your behavior with that child 
 to-night ? " 
 
 " None whatever," answered Freke, coolly. " I am 
 not bound to justify myself to you, nor do I admit 
 there was anything to be excused." 
 
 " You are right in saying you are not bound to 
 justify yourself to me," said Judith ; " but can you 
 justify yourself to her father and mother? You 
 see how she is. You know what they what we all 
 think of you. You are a married man, remember." 
 
 " Am I ? " asked Freke, laughing. " By Jove, I 
 wish I knew whether I was or not ! " 
 
 "What right have you to fill Jaqueline's head 
 with dreams and notions ? The child was well 
 enough until you came. Why can't you go away and 
 leave her in peace ? " 
 
 Freke smiled at this. " I don't feel like going 
 away," he said, " and particularly now that I see you 
 wish me to go. I have rather different plans in view 
 now that I have bought property here. It doesn't 
 look well for a man to be cast off by his relations ; 
 and I intend to have, if I can, the backing of the 
 Temples." 
 
 " But how long, think you, could you stay, if the 
 child's mother knew of your behavior to-night ? " 
 
 " That I don't know. But I wish to stay, Madam 
 Judith ; and, since you are so prudish, I will promise
 
 126 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 you not look at Jacqueline again. Will that satisfy 
 you?" 
 
 " I will first see how you keep your promise. But 
 I warn you, Freke, if you remain here much longer, 
 I shall use all the influence in my power to get you 
 out of this house. You are no advantage to the 
 child. It would be better for her if you went away 
 and never came back." 
 
 Freke had been sitting all this time, while Judith, 
 standing up, pale and disdainful, spoke to him. But 
 now he rose. 
 
 "Xow," he said with sudden seriousness, "since 
 you have expressed that hospitable intention concern 
 ing me, let me tell you something something very 
 interesting, that I have suspected for some time, but 
 only found out to-night. You remember I told you 
 of that death-struggle of Beverley's with an officer 
 how they rolled over and over and fought." 
 
 Yes yes " 
 
 " And how the officer's horse, held by the bridle, I 
 thought every moment would trample " 
 
 " Yes yes yes ! " cried Judith. 
 
 "Well," said Freke, coming up close to her, 
 " Throckmorton was that officer ! " 
 
 Freke had meant to give her one fierce pang ; it 
 was a delicious thing to him to strike her through 
 Throckmorton ; but he was quite unprepared for the 
 result, for Judith, although young and strong, after
 
 THROCKMORTON. 127 
 
 standing for a moment gazing at Freke with wild eyes, 
 swayed and without a sound dropped to the floor in a 
 dead faint. 
 
 Freke, cursing his own folly, ran to her and called 
 loudly. His voice echoed through the midnight si 
 lence of the house. It brought Mrs. Temple, fright 
 ened and half dressed, into the room, followed by De 
 lilah, struggling into her petticoats, and Simon Peter, 
 scratching his wool and but half awake. 
 
 Freke had raised Judith on his arm. Something 
 strange, like pity, of which he knew but little, came 
 to him as he looked at her pallid face. 
 
 " You git 'way, Marse Temple," said Delilah, with 
 authority. " Me an' mistis kin manage dis heah. Hi, 
 Miss Judy ! Open yo' eyes, honey, an' tell what de 
 matter wid you." 
 
 Mrs. Temple, who never lost her head in emergen 
 cies, in five minutes had Judith in a fair way of com 
 ing to herself. Freke said truthfully that he never 
 was so surprised in his life as when Judith fell over. 
 Mrs. Temple could not account for it either, and pro 
 posed to leave the solution to Dr. Wortley when he 
 should be sent for in the morning. In a few minutes 
 more Judith came to and sat up. Almost her first 
 conscious glance fell on Freke. She gazed at him 
 steadily, and in an instant the conviction that what 
 he had said was mere wanton cruelty came to her. 
 Freke himself avoided her glance uneasily.
 
 128 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 "Honey, tell yo' ole mammy wh'yar hu'ts you," 
 pleaded Delilah, anxious to take charge of the case in 
 advance of Dr. Wortley. 
 
 "Nowhere at all. I only want to get to bed. 
 Mother, I hope father wasn't waked." 
 
 "My dear, nothing short of an explosion would 
 wake him." 
 
 Mrs. Temple wisely refrained from tormenting 
 Judith with questions. Her fainting-fit was cer 
 tainly unaccountable, but Mrs. Temple remembered 
 once or twice in her own early days when she had 
 done the same thing. So she merely gave Judith 
 some brandy - and - water, and in a few minutes, 
 with Delilah's help, got her on the old-fashioned 
 sofa. 
 
 While Mrs. Temple and Delilah were stirring 
 about the room, shutting up for the night and raking 
 the fire down, Freke came up to Judith. Eevenge 
 was familiar to him, but not revenge on women, and 
 remorse was altogether new to him. 
 
 "What I told you," he began, awkwardly, "the 
 facts in the case " 
 
 " Say no more about it ; I don't believe you ! " an 
 swered Judith in a low voice, but scornful beyond de 
 scription. 
 
 Freke's rage blazed up under that tone. 
 
 " You don't believe me? Then I'll make Throck- 
 morton tell you himself. I can find it out from him
 
 THROCKMORTON. 129 
 
 without his suspecting it, and I'll make him tell you 
 how he killed your husband." 
 
 Judith drew back and gave him a look that was 
 equivalent to a slap in the face. Just then Mrs. Tem 
 ple and Delilah went out into the hall to make fast 
 the door. 
 
 " Well, then, if by any accident you have told me 
 the truth, it was the fortune of war " 
 
 " Yes, but the hand that killed your husband ! 
 Ah ! do you think I don't see it all all all not 
 only what has happened, but what is happening 
 now ? " 
 
 Judith rose slowly from her sofa, forgetting her 
 weakness. At that moment Freke thought he had 
 never seen her look so handsome. Her eyes, usually 
 a soft, dark gray, were black with indignation ; her 
 cheeks burned ; she looked capable of killing him 
 where he stood. She opened her lips once or twice 
 to speak, but no sound came. She had no words to 
 express what she felt at that moment. Freke felt a 
 sensation of triumph. At last he had brought this 
 proud spirit to book ; and Throckmorton at least if 
 she scorned himself, Freke she was forever out of 
 Throckmorton's reach. There was a gulf between 
 them now that nothing on earth could bridge over. 
 He stood in a calm and easy attitude, his face only 
 less expressive than Judith's. Nobody who saw Freke 
 then could say, as Mrs. Temple sometimes had said, 
 9
 
 130 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 " What is there so interesting in Freke's face ? " It 
 was full of power and passion. 
 
 It seemed an age to each as they stood there, but 
 it was really only a few moments. Mrs. Temple and 
 Delilah came back. Judith nodded to Freke, and 
 walked off, disdaining Delilah's arm. She felt pride 
 in showing him her strength and composure. She 
 even glanced back at him, and gave him a smile from 
 her pale lips. 
 
 " You have a spirit like a man ! " he cried after 
 her, involuntarily. Mrs. Temple thought he meant 
 because Judith had rallied so quickly from her faint 
 ing-fit. 
 
 " Bather a spirit like a woman ! " answered Judith, 
 in a loud, clear voice, as she went up the stairs. 
 
 It was some little time before she could get rid of 
 Mrs. Temple and Delilah. But presently the door 
 was locked, and she was alone. 
 
 Some power beyond her will drew her steps to the 
 window that looked toward Millenbeck. The moon 
 had gone down, and a few clouds scurried across the 
 pale immensity of the sky, whipped by the winds of 
 night. There was enough of the ghastly half-light to 
 distinguish the dark masses of the trees and even the 
 outline of the Millenbeck house. From the window 
 which she knew well enough belonged to Throckmor- 
 ton's own den the cheerful light still streamed. He 
 was sitting there, reading and smoking, no doubt
 
 THROCKMORTON. 131 
 
 She could imagine exactly how he looked. His face, 
 when he was silent, was rather stern, which made the 
 charm of his smile and his words more captivating 
 by contrast. And what horror she ought to feel of 
 this man ! for, in spite of that first involuntary pro 
 test that she did not believe Freke, the heart-breaking 
 conviction came to her every moment that he was tell 
 ing the truth. But did she feel horror and hatred of 
 Throckmorton ? Ah ! no. And when she tried to 
 think of Beverley, the feeling that he was dead ; that 
 he would trouble her no more; that he was forever 
 gone out of her life, filled her with something that 
 was frightfully like joy. 
 
 But when she remembered that an open grave lay 
 between her and Throckmorton, it was not something 
 like anguish she felt it was anguish itself. Here was 
 a man she might have loved a man infinitely worthy 
 of love this much she acknowledged to herself ; and 
 yet Fate had married her to a man she never could 
 have loved. For at that moment she saw as by a flash 
 of lightning the falseness of her marriage and her 
 widowhood. She dared not think any longer; she 
 could only throw herself on her bed, and try and stifle 
 among the pillows her sobs and cries. And, remem 
 bering Beverley and Throckmorton and Freke, and 
 his words to her that night, this gentle and soft 
 hearted creature sounded all the depths of grief, love, 
 shame, hatred. She tried to pray, but her prayers
 
 132 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 if prayers they could be called were mere outcries 
 against the inexorable and unpitying God. " Dear 
 Lord, what have I done to thee that I should suffer 
 so?" 
 
 The night wore on, the candles burned out, the 
 fire was a mere red glow of embers. Anguish and 
 despair, like other passions, spend themselves. Judith 
 had ceased to weep, and lay on her bed with a sort of 
 icy torpor upon her. Little Beverley, who rarely 
 stirred in his sleep, waked up and called for his moth 
 er ; but even the child's voice had no power to move 
 her. The little boy, finding himself unnoticed, 
 crawled out of his small bed and came to his moth 
 er's side. The sound of his baby voice, the touch of 
 his little warm, moist hands, awakened something like 
 remorse in her. She tried to help him up on the bed, 
 but her arms fell helplessly she, this strong young 
 woman, was as weak as a child with the conflict of 
 emotions. The boy, however a sturdy little fellow 
 climbed up alone and nestled to her. She covered 
 him up and held him close to her, and kissed him 
 coldly once or twice. " My child, he killed your 
 father," she said to him, thinking of Throckmorton, 
 and that perhaps, for the child's sake, she might 
 arouse some feeble spark of regret for the father 
 some dutiful hatred of Throckmorton. But she could 
 do neither the one nor the other. 
 
 At last, as a wet, miserable, gloomy dawn ap-
 
 THROCKMORTON. 133 
 
 preached, she fell into a wretched sleep. Judith's 
 unexpected fainting-fit was a very good excuse for 
 her keeping her room for a day or two a merciful 
 provision for her, as, along with other new experi 
 ences, she found for the first time that her soul was 
 stronger than her body, and that grief had made her 
 ill. She expected, in all those wretched hours that 
 she lay in her darkened room, that every time the 
 door opened it would be Mrs. Temple coming with 
 a ghastly face to tell her the dreadful thing that 
 Freke knew; and the mere apprehension made her 
 heart stand still. She, this candid and sincere wom 
 an, rehearsed to herself the very words and tones 
 that she would express a grief and horror she did 
 not feel. But when several days passed, and the 
 explosion did not come, she concluded that Freke, 
 for his own reasons, meant to keep it to himself. 
 
 For Freke's part, he had no intention of telling 
 anybody except Judith. He had no mind to bring 
 about the storm that would follow his revelation. 
 He meant to show Judith that gulf between Throck- 
 morton and herself, and that was all. He would 
 have been unfeignedly sorry had the hospitable doors 
 of Millenbeck been no longer open to him. 
 
 When Judith came down-stairs, he felt a great 
 curiosity to know how she would meet him. He 
 himself was perfectly easy and natural in his man 
 ner to her; and she, to his enforced admiration, was
 
 134 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 equally self-possessed with him, although she could 
 not always control the expression of her eyes. " What 
 a Spartan she is ! " thought Freke to himself. " She 
 could die of grief and chagrin with a smile on her 
 lips, and with her voice as smooth and musical as 
 the velvet wind of summer."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE autumn crept on. Freke had gone to "Ware- 
 ham, to Judith's delight, but she found that she had 
 rejoiced too soon, for he was at Barn Elms nearly 
 every day. The still, silent enmity between Judith 
 and himself showed itself, on her part, by a certain 
 fine scorn an almost imperceptible raising of her 
 narrow brows, that was infuriating to Freke. Still, he 
 could not shake her self-possession. She even listened 
 to his talk, and to his captivating violin-playing, with 
 a cool and critical pleasure. When, as often hap 
 pened, his step was heard in the hall at twilight, and 
 he would walk into the drawing-room or the dining- 
 room, as if Barn Elms were his home, with his violin 
 in his hand for he kept one at Barn Elms and 
 seating himself would begin to play in his masterly 
 way, Judith would listen as closely as Jacqueline. 
 But the spell was merely the spell of the music. She 
 could listen to the celestial thrilling of the strings, 
 the soft lamenting, without in the slightest degree 
 succumbing to the player not even when Freke, play 
 ing a wandering accompaniment, like another air
 
 136 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 from the one he was singing, would sing some of 
 Heine's sea-songs, in which she could almost hear the 
 sound of the wind as it rose and wailed and died upon 
 the waves. When the music stopped, and Freke would 
 look at her piercingly, she was no more moved by 
 it emotionally than General Temple was, who pro 
 nounced it " uncommon fine fiddling, by George ! 
 Some of the tunes haven't got much tune, though." 
 This unbroken resistance on Judith's part piqued 
 Freke immeasurably ; but quite naturally, as it often 
 is with men of his temperament, as he could not 
 please her, he determined to spite her and he did it 
 by a silent, furtive courtship of Jacqueline. Of this, 
 neither General nor Mrs. Temple suspected anything. 
 In one sense, the girl had suffered from neglect. 
 Beverley had been the favorite of both parents. He 
 had been the conventional good son, the comfort of 
 his parents' hearts, while Jacqueline was more or less of 
 a puzzle to both of them. In vain Mrs. Temple tried 
 to interest her in household affairs ; Jacqueline would 
 have none of them. She shocked and mystified her 
 mother by saying that she hated Barn Elms it was 
 so old and shabby, and there were not enough carpets 
 and curtains in the house ; and the hair-cloth furni 
 ture in the drawing-room made her ill. Mrs. Temple, 
 who excelled in all sweet, feminine virtues, who would 
 have loved and bettered any home given her, thought 
 this sort of thing on Jacqueline's part very depraved.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 137 
 
 The mother and the daughter did not understand 
 each other, and could not. Judith's superior intelli 
 gence here came in. Jacqueline loved her, and, while 
 she obeyed her mother from sheer force of will on 
 Mrs. Temple's part, she rebelled against being influ 
 enced by her. Judith, on the contrary, without a 
 particle of authority over Jacqueline, could do any 
 thing she wished with her. Mrs. Temple could only 
 command and be obeyed in outward things, but Ju 
 dith ruled Jacqueline's inner soul more than anybody 
 else. 
 
 The county people, outside of the Severn neigh 
 borhood, still held perfectly aloof from Throckmor- 
 ton. This angered him somewhat, although, as a 
 matter of fact, the people who did recognize him sup 
 plied him with all the company he wanted; for 
 Throckmorton was always enough for himself, and de 
 pended upon no man and no woman for his content. 
 He had bought Millenbeck and come there for a year, 
 and a year he would stay, no matter what the Carters 
 and the Carringtons and the Randolphs thought 
 about it. Then he really had enough of company, and 
 all the books and cigars he wanted, and plenty of the 
 finest shooting, although he never killed a robin after 
 that absurd promise he made to Jacqueline, but he 
 never saw one without giving a thought to her and a 
 grim smile at himself. And so the quiet autumn 
 slipped away. Throckmorton felt every day the charm
 
 138 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 of exquisite repose. In his life lie had known a good 
 deal of excitement the four years of the war he had 
 been in active service all the time and this return to 
 quiet and a sort of refined primitiveness pleased him. 
 He was charmed with the simplicity of the people at 
 Barn Elms the simplicity of genuine country people, 
 whose outlook is upon nature. He had often heard 
 that country people never were really sophisticated, 
 and he began to believe it. Even in the stirrings of 
 his own heart toward the place of his boyhood, after 
 the lapse of so many busy and exciting years, he rec 
 ognized the spell that Nature lays softly upon those 
 whose young eyes have seen nothing but her. Throck- 
 morton, in spite of a certain firmness that was almost 
 hardness, was at heart a sentimentalist. He found 
 content, pleasure, and interest in this lazy, dreamy life. 
 Of happiness he had discovered that, except during 
 that early married life of his, he had none, for he was 
 too wise to confound peace and happiness. At forty- 
 four, when his dark hair had turned quite gray, he 
 acknowledged to himself that nothing deserved the 
 name of happiness but love. But all these dreams 
 and fancies he kept to himself, and revolved chiefly in 
 his mind when he was tramping along the country 
 roads with a gun over his shoulder, or stretched 
 before a blazing wood-fire in the library at Millen- 
 beck smoking strong cigars by the dozen. He man 
 aged to keep his sentimentalism well out of sight,
 
 THROCKMORTOX. 139 
 
 not because he was ashamed of it, but because he 
 respected it. 
 
 Freke was a positive acquisition to him. Throck- 
 morton had that sort of broad, masculine tolerance 
 that can find excuses for everything a man may do 
 except cheating at cards. Freke came constantly to 
 Millenbeck, much oftener than Throckmorton went 
 to Wareham. 
 
 Millenbeck, though, was a pleasant place to visit. 
 Throckmorton had left the restoration and fitting up 
 of the place to people who understood their business 
 well ; and consequently, when he arrived, he found he 
 had one of the most comfortable, if not luxurious, 
 country-houses that could be imagined. His fortune, 
 which at the North would have been nothing more 
 than a handsome competence, was a superb patrimony 
 in the ruined Virginia, and with ready money and 
 Sweeney anybody could be comfortable, Throckmorton 
 thought. The Rev. Edmund Morford also gave him 
 much of his (Morford's) company, and obtained avast 
 number of household receipts and learned many con 
 trivances for domestic comfort from Sweeney. 
 
 " Be jabers, the parson's more of an ould woman 
 than mesilf," Sweeney would remark to his colored 
 coadjutors. "He can make as good white gravy as 
 any she-cook going, and counts his sheets and towels 
 every week as reg'lar as the mother of him did, I 
 warrant," which was quite true. But the parson's
 
 140 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 good heart outweighed his innocent conceit and his 
 effeminate beauty with Throckmorton. Morford tried 
 conscientiously to get Throckmorton into the church, 
 but with ill success. 
 
 " Sink the parson, Morford," Throckmorton would 
 laugh. " Perhaps I'll get married some day, and my 
 wife will pray me into heaven, like most of the men 
 who get there, I suspect." 
 
 Nevertheless Throckmorton had a reverent soul, 
 and, although he would have turned pale and have 
 been constrained by an iron silence had he got up and 
 tried to open his mouth on the subject of the inscru 
 table problems that Morford attacked with such glib 
 self-sufficiency, he revered religion and did not scoff 
 even at the callowest form of it. 
 
 Both Jack and himself got to going over to Barn 
 Elms often; Throckmorton, however, being an old 
 bird, exercised considerable wariness, so as not to col 
 lide with Jack at these times. Jack kept up a contin 
 ual fire from ambush at his father, regarding which 
 of the young women at Barn Elms the major would 
 eventually capitulate to ; but Throckmorton treated 
 this with the dignified silence that was the only weap 
 on against Jack's sly rallying. As for General Tem 
 ple, he regarded all of Throckmorton's visits as par 
 ticularly directed toward himself, for the purpose of 
 acquiring military knowledge ; and Throckmorton 
 heard more of the theory of war from General Temple
 
 THROCKMORTOX. 
 
 at this time than he ever heard in all his life before. 
 While the general, who had all campaigns, modern 
 and ancient, at his finger-ends, declaimed with sono 
 rous confidence on the mistakes of Hannibal, Caesar, 
 Scipio, and other well-known military characters, 
 Throckmorton listened meekly, seldom venturing an 
 observation. General Temple indicated a faint sur 
 prise that Throckmorton, during his career, had never 
 undergone any of the thrilling adventures which had 
 actually happened to General Temple, who would have 
 been a great soldier after the pattern of Brian de Bois 
 Guilbert ; nor could Throckmorton convince him 
 that he, Throckmorton, conceived it his duty to stay 
 with his men, and considered unnecessary seeking of 
 danger as unsoldier-like in the highest degree. Throck 
 morton, however, did not argue the point. In place 
 of General Temple's innumerable and real hair-breadth 
 escapes, and horses shot under him, Throckmorton 
 could only say that the solitary physical injury he re 
 ceived during the war was a bad rheumaticky arm 
 from sleeping in the wet, and a troublesome attack of 
 measles caught by visiting his men in the hospital. 
 But General Temple knew that Throckmorton had 
 been mentioned half a dozen times in general orders, 
 and had got several brevets, while General Temple 
 had narrowly missed half a dozen courts-martial for 
 being where he didn't belong at a critical time. The 
 fact that he was in imminent personal danger on all
 
 142 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 these occasions, General Temple considered not only 
 an ample excuse, but quite a feather in his cap. 
 
 Occasionally, though (during the general's disqui 
 sitions), Throckmorton's eye would seek Judith's as 
 she sat under the lamp, with a piece of delicate em 
 broidery in her hand, stitching demurely, and some 
 thing like a smile would pass between them. Judith 
 understood the joke. The mingled softness and arch 
 ness of her glance was very beautiful to Throckmor- 
 ton, but it had not the power over him of Jacqueline's 
 coquettish air. Throckmorton was rather vexed at the 
 charm this kittenish young thing cast over him. He 
 had always professed a great aversion to young fools, 
 who invariably turn into old bores, but he could not 
 deny that he was more drawn to sit near Jacqueline 
 in her low chair, than to Judith sitting gracefully 
 upright under the lamp. That Jacqueline was not 
 far off from folly, he was forced to admit to himself 
 every time he talked with her, but the admission 
 brought with it a slight pang. Then he never lost 
 sight of the disparity in their years; and this was 
 painful because of the secret attraction he felt for her. 
 Sometimes, walking home from Barn Elms, across 
 the fields in autumn nights, he would find himself 
 comparing the two women, and wishing that the older 
 woman possessed for him the subtle charm of the 
 younger one. Any man might love Judith Temple 
 she was so gentle, so unconscious of her own superi-
 
 THROCKMORTON. 143 
 
 ority to the average woman, so winning upon one's 
 reason and self-respect and then Throckmorton 
 would sigh, and stride faster along the path in the 
 wintry darkness. Suppose suppose he should seri 
 ously try to win Jacqueline? How long would he 
 be happy? And what sort of a life would it be 
 for her, with that childish restlessness and inabil 
 ity to depend for one moment on herself? And 
 Throckmorton knew instinctively that, although he 
 possessed great power in bending women to his will, 
 it was not in him to adapt himself to any woman. 
 He might love her, indulge her, adore her, but he 
 could not change his fixed and immutable character 
 one iota. It would be a peculiar madness for him to 
 marry any woman who did not possess adaptability in 
 a high degree ; and this Throckmorton had known, 
 ever since he had grown hair on his face, went only 
 with a certain mental force and breadth in women. 
 He had the whole theory mapped out, that the more 
 intellectual a man was, the less adaptable he was, 
 while with women the converse was strikingly true 
 the more intellectual a woman was, the more adapt 
 able she was. He also knew perfectly well that in 
 women the emotions and the intellect are so inextri 
 cably involved that a woman's emotional range was 
 exactly limited by her intellectual range ; that there 
 is nothing more commonplace in a commonplace 
 woman than her emotions. Nay, more. He remem-
 
 144 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 bered Dr. Johnson's thundering against female fools : 
 " Sir, a man usually marries a fool, with the expecta 
 tion of ruling her ; but the fool, sir, invariably rules 
 the man." But all this went to pieces when he saw 
 Jacqueline. She was to him as if a figure of Youth 
 had stepped out of a white Greek frieze ; and when 
 ever he realized this charm of hers, he sighed to him 
 self profoundly. 
 
 People are never too old or too sensible to commit 
 follies, but people of sense and experience suffer the 
 misery of knowing all about their follies when they do 
 commit them. 
 
 To Freke, who was incomparably the keenest ob 
 server in all this little circle, the whole thing was a 
 psychic study of great interest. He had the art in a 
 singular degree of getting outside of his own emo 
 tions ; and the fact that he had been guilty of the 
 egregious folly of falling in love with Judith at 
 first sight made him only keener in studying out the 
 situation. He took an abstract pleasure in partly con 
 fiding his discoveries to Mrs. Sherrard, who was a 
 bold woman, and had become an out-and-out partisan 
 of his the only one he could count on, except Jac 
 queline, under the rose. It was a subject of active 
 concern why Freke ever bought Wareham in the be 
 ginning, and still more so why he should continue to 
 stay there. "When pressed on the subject by Mrs. 
 Sherrard they were sitting in the comfortable draw-
 
 THROCKMORTON. 14.5 
 
 ing-room at Turkey Thicket, the blazing wood-fire 
 making the dull wintry afternoon, and the flat, mo 
 notonous landscape outside more dreary by contrast 
 Freke declared that he had settled in the country in 
 order to cultivate the domestic virtues to advantage. 
 
 " Pooh ! " said Mrs. Sherrard. 
 
 Freke then hinted at a possibility of his marrying, 
 which, considering his divorced condition, gave Mrs. 
 Sherrard a thrill of horror. He saw in an instant 
 that this divorce question was one upon which Mrs. 
 Sherrard's prejudices, like those of everybody else in 
 the county, were adamantine, and not to be trifled 
 with ; so he dropped the obnoxious subject promptly 
 and wisely. 
 
 " The fact is," he said, standing up with his back 
 to the fire, and causing Mrs. Sherrard to notice how 
 excellent was his slight but well-knit figure, " I've got 
 to live somewhere, and why not here ? I don't know 
 whether I've got anything left of my money or not 
 anything, that is, that my creditors or my lawyers will 
 let me have in peace but there's excellent shooting 
 on the place, and it only cost a song. I think I can 
 stay here as long as I can stay anywhere ; you know 
 I am-.a sort of civilized Bedouin anyhow. And then 
 I own up to a desire to see that little comedy be 
 tween between Millenbeck and Barn Elms played 
 through. It's an amusing little piece." 
 
 Mrs. Sherrard pricked up her ears. Freke's repu- 
 10
 
 146 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 tation as a conquering hero had inspired in her the 
 interest it always does in the female breast. Was it 
 possible that he shouldn't be making love to either 
 Judith or Jacqueline ? 
 
 " I'll tell you what," he cried, smiling, " they are 
 the most precious pack of innocents at Barn Elms ! 
 There's my uncle a high-minded, good-natured, un- 
 terrified old blunderbuss the most unsophisticated of 
 the lot. Then my aunt, who belongs properly to the 
 age of Eowena and Eebecca and Judith." 
 
 Here Freke's countenance changed a little from 
 its laughing carelessness. His rather ordinary feat 
 ures were full of a piercing and subtile expression. 
 
 "Judith fancies, because she has been a wife, a 
 mother, and a widow, that she knows the whole 
 gamut of life, when actually she has only struck the 
 first note correctly a little while ago no, I forget 
 that young one. But that's very one-sided, although 
 intense. She loves the child because he is her own, 
 not because he is Beverley's rather in spite of it, I 
 fancy." 
 
 Mrs. Sherrard, in the excitement of the moment 
 for what is more exciting than unexpected and inside 
 discoveries about our neighbors ? got up too. 
 
 " I knew it I knew it ! " she answered, her sharp 
 old eyes getting bright. " I saw Judith when she 
 was a bride, and she wasn't in the least rapturous. 
 And the next time I saw her she had on that odd
 
 THROCKMORTON, 147 
 
 widow's cap she wears, and that blessed baby in her 
 arms ; and if ever I saw secret happiness painted on 
 any human countenance it was hers ; and all the 
 time she was trying to imagine herself broken-hearted 
 for Beverley Temple." 
 
 " Fudge ! " almost shouted Freke. " It's my be 
 lief she'd have traded off six husbands like Beverley 
 for one black-eyed boy like that young one." 
 
 " Beverley," began Mrs. Sherrard, delighted, yet 
 fluttered by this plain speaking, " you remember, was 
 a big, handsome fellow rode like a centaur, danced 
 beautifully, the best shot in the county as polite as 
 a dancing-master or General Temple as brave as a 
 lion" 
 
 " Oh, good God, don't talk to me about Beverley 
 Temple ! He was the most wooden-headed Temple 
 I ever knew, and that's saying a good deal, ma'am ! " 
 responded Freke, with energy. 
 
 " You are no fool," said Mrs. Sherrard, as if will 
 ing to argue the point. 
 
 "Yes, but you couldn't any more take me as a 
 type of the Temples than you could take Edmund 
 Morford as a type of the Sherrards. Lord, Mrs. Sher 
 rard, what an ass your nephew is ! " 
 
 " Isn't he, though ? But he is a good soul," was 
 Mrs. Sherrard's answer. 
 
 Was it Judith or was it Jacqueline that Freke was 
 trying his charms on, thought Mrs. Sherrard, taking
 
 148 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 her afternoon nap over the fire, after Freke left 
 Freke, however, really could not have enlightened 
 her. For Judith his admiration increased every day 
 her very defiance of him was captivating to him. 
 He well knew that she hated every bone in his body, 
 and he had made up his mind, as a set-off to this, to 
 get a description of a certain scene during the war 
 out of Throckmorton some time in her presence. It 
 was a species of vivisection, but she deserved it de 
 served it richly for had she not brought it on her 
 self by the way she treated him, Temple Freke ? And 
 then Jacqueline she was certainly a fascinating little 
 object, though not half the woman that Judith was 
 this Freke magnanimously allowed, riding briskly 
 along the country road in the wintry twilight. 
 
 The family at Barn Elms had never yet dined 
 with Throckmorton, owing to General Temple's con 
 tinued wrestle with the gout, that had now made him 
 a prisoner for four long weeks. Mrs. Temple, who 
 every day got fonder of George, as she called Throck 
 morton, had promised to dine at Millenbeck when the 
 general was able to go ; but, as she invested all their 
 intercourse with Millenbeck with the solemnity of a 
 formal reconciliation, she delayed until the whole 
 family could go in state and ceremony. At last Dr. 
 Wortley, having gained a temporary advantage over 
 Delilah, and brought General Temple to observe his 
 (Dr. Wortley's) regimen, instead of Delilah's, a week
 
 THROCKMORTOX. 149 
 
 or two marked a decided improvement. The gener 
 al's Calvinism abated, his profanity mended, and he 
 became once more the amiable soldier and stanch 
 churchman that he was by nature. 
 
 " Now, Mrs. Temple," said Throckmorton one 
 evening as he was going away, " if you will keep the 
 general out of mischief for a day or two longer, you 
 will be able to pay me that long-promised visit. Let 
 me know, so I can get Mrs. Sherrard and Dr. Wortley 
 and Morford and Freke ; but you, my dear friend, 
 will be the guest of honor." 
 
 Mrs. Temple blushed like a girl, with pleasure 
 Throckmorton's way of saying this was so whole- 
 souled and affectionate. 
 
 " You say right, my dear Throckmorton," re 
 marked General Temple, putting his arm around Mrs. 
 Temple's waist, " the tenderest, sweetest, most obedi 
 ent wife" at which Simon Peter, putting wood on 
 the fire, snickered audibly, and Throckmorton would 
 have laughed outright had he dared. 
 
 So it was fixed that on the following Friday even 
 ing they were all to dine at Millenbeck, Mrs. Temple 
 promising to watch the general, lest he should relapse 
 into gout and gloom and a promise from Mrs. Tem 
 ple was a promise. She went about, a little surprised 
 at the complete way that Throckmorton had brought 
 her round. Here was one Yankee whom she loved 
 with a genuine motherly affection and he was a
 
 150 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 Virginia Yankee, too which she esteemed the very 
 worst kind. 
 
 Jacqueline, as usual, was off her head at the notion 
 of going, and Judith's suppressed excitement did not 
 escape Mrs. Temple's eye. Both of them, provincials 
 of provincials, as they were, felt a true feminine curi 
 osity regarding the reputed splendors of Millenbeck, 
 which was, in fact, destined to dazzle their countr}'- 
 fied eyes. 
 
 On the Friday evening, therefore, at half-past six, 
 they found themselves driving down the Millenheck 
 lane. General Temple had begun, figuratively speak 
 ing, to shake hands across the bloody chasm from the 
 moment he started from Barn Elms. He harangued 
 the whole way upon the touching aspect of the rec 
 onciliation between the great leaders of the hostile 
 armies, as typified by his present expedition. Going 
 down the lane they caught up with Mrs. Sherrard, 
 being driven by Mr. Morford in a top buggy. 
 
 " Jane Temple, are we a couple of fools ? " called 
 out Mrs. Sherrard, putting her head out of the 
 buggy. 
 
 " No, Katharine Sherrard, we are a couple of 
 Christians," piously responded Mrs. Temple. 
 
 General Temple thrust his bare head out of the 
 carriage-window, holding his hat in his hand, as it 
 was his unbroken rule never to speak to a woman 
 with his head covered, and entered into a disquisition
 
 THROCKMORTON. 151 
 
 respecting the ethics of the great civil war, which 
 lasted until they drew up to the very door of Millen- 
 beck. 
 
 A handsome graveled drive led up to the door, 
 and a porte-cochere, which was really a very modest 
 affair of glass and iron, had been thrown over the 
 drive; but, as it was the only one ever seen in the 
 county, all of them regarded it with great respect. 
 Throckmorton, with old-time Virginia hospitality, 
 met them at the steps. Like all true gentlemen, he 
 was a model host. As he helped Mrs. Temple to 
 alight, he raised her small, withered hand to his lips 
 and kissed it respectfully. 
 
 "Welcome to Millenbeck, my best and earliest 
 friend," he said. 
 
 " George Throckmorton," responded Mrs. Temple, 
 with sweet gravity, "you have taught forgiveness to 
 my hard and unforgiving heart." 
 
 Within the house was more magnificence. The 
 inevitable great, dark, useless hall was robbed of its 
 coldness and bleakness by soft Turkish rugs placed 
 over the polished floor. There was no way of heat 
 ing it in the original plan, but Throckmorton's 
 decorator and furnisher had hit upon the plan of 
 having a quaint Dutch stove, which now glowed 
 redly with a hard-coal fire. The startling innova 
 tion of lighting the broad oak staircase had like 
 wise been adopted, and at intervals up the stair-
 
 152 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 way wax-caudles in sconces shed a mellow half-light 
 in the hall below. 
 
 General Temple was exuberant. He shook hands 
 with Throckmorton half a dozen times, and informed 
 him that, strange as the defection of a Virginian 
 from his native State might appear, he, General 
 Temple, believed that Throckmorton was actuated 
 by conscientious though mistaken notions in re 
 maining in the army after the breaking out of the 
 war. 
 
 " Thank you," laughed Throckmorton, immensely 
 tickled ; " I haven't apologized for it yet, have I, gen 
 eral?" 
 
 Up-stairs, in a luxurious spare bedroom, the ladies' 
 wraps were laid aside. Here, also, that perfect com 
 fort prevailed, which is rare in Virginia country- 
 houses, although luxury, in certain ways, is common 
 enough. As they passed an open door, going down, 
 they caught sight of Throckmorton's own room. In 
 that alone a Spartan simplicity reigned. There was 
 no carpet on the spotless floor, and an iron bedstead, 
 a large table, and a few chairs completed the furnish 
 ing of it. But it had an air of exquisite neatness and 
 military preciseness in it that made an atmosphere 
 about Throckmorton. Over the unornamented man 
 tel two swords were crossed, and over them was a 
 pretty, girlish portrait of Jack's mother. Judith, in 
 passing^ craned her long, white neck to get a better
 
 THROCKMORTON. 153 
 
 look at the portrait, was caught in the act by Mrs. 
 Temple, and blushed furiously. 
 
 She had a strange sensation of both joy and fear 
 in coming to Throckmorton's house. In her inmost 
 soul she felt it to be a crime of great magnitude ; and, 
 indeed, the circumstances made it about as nearly a 
 crime as such a woman could commit. More than 
 that, if it should ever be known and it was liable to 
 be known at any moment the deliberate foreknowl 
 edge with which she went to Millenbeck, she would 
 never be allowed to remain another hour under the 
 roof of Barn Elms : of that much she was perfectly 
 sure. This, however, had but little effect on her, al 
 though she was risking not only her own but her 
 child's future; but the conviction that it was abso 
 lutely wrong for her to go, caused her to make some 
 paltering excuse when Throckmorton first asked her. 
 He put it aside with his usual calm superiority in 
 dealing with her scruples about going to places, and 
 she yielded to the sweet temptation of obeying his 
 wishes. She took pains, though, to tell Freke herself 
 that she was going a risky but delicious piece of brag 
 gadocio at which Freke lifted his eyebrows slightly. 
 Inwardly he determined to make her pay for her 
 rashness. She was the only woman who had ever 
 fought him, and he was not to be driven off the field 
 by any of the sex. 
 
 Judith's blush lasted until she reached the draw-
 
 154: THROCKMORTON. 
 
 ing-room, and made her not less handsome. There 
 the gentlemen were -being dazzled by still further 
 splendors. This room, which was large and of stately 
 proportions, was really handsome. Throckmorton, 
 who cared nothing for luxury, and whose personal 
 habits were simplicity itself, was yet too broad-minded 
 to impress his own tastes upon anybody else. Since 
 most people liked luxury, he had his house made 
 luxurious ; and his own room was the only plain one 
 in it. Jack's was a perfect bower, " more fit," as 
 Throckmorton remarked with good-natured sarcasm, 
 " for a young lady's boudoir than a bunk for a hulk 
 ing youngster." In the same way Throckmorton 
 managed to dress like a gentleman on what Jack 
 spent on hats and canes and cravats ; but nobody ever 
 knew whether Throckmorton's clothes were new or 
 old. His personality eclipsed all his belongings. 
 
 Jacqueline was completely subdued by the luxury 
 around her. No human soul ever loved these pleas 
 ant things of life better than she loved them. Com 
 fort and beauty and luxury were as the breath of life 
 to her. She had hungered and thirsted for them ever 
 since she could remember. Going down the stairs 
 she caught Judith's hand, with a quick, childish 
 grasp. The lights, the glitter, almost took her breath 
 away ; and when she saw a great mound of roses on 
 the drawing-room table, got from Norfolk by the phe 
 nomenal Sweeney, she almost screamed with delight.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 155 
 
 " God bless my soul, this is pleasant ! " remarked 
 Dr. Wortley, rubbing his hands cheerfully before the 
 drawing-room fire, where the gentlemen, including 
 Morford and Freke, were assembled. " Here we are 
 all met again, under Millenbeck's roof, as we were be 
 fore the war. Let by-gones be by-gones, say I, about 
 the war." 
 
 "Amen," answered Mrs. Temple, after a little 
 pause, piously and sweetly. 
 
 Sweeney, who could make quite a dashing figure as 
 a waiter, now appeared, dressed in faultless evening 
 costume of much newer fashion than Throckmorton's, 
 and announced dinner. Throckmorton, with his 
 most graceful air for he was on his mettle in his own 
 house, and with those charming, unsophisticated 
 women gave his arm to Mrs. Temple ; the general, 
 with a grand flourish, did the same to Mrs. Sherrard ; 
 Judith had the doctor of divinity on one hand and 
 the doctor of medicine on the other and Jacqueline 
 brought up the rear with Jack Throckmorton and 
 Temple Freke. Judith, when she saw this arrange 
 ment, comforted herself with the reflection that, if 
 anybody could counteract Freke's influence over Jac 
 queline, it was Jack Throckmorton, whom Jacqueline 
 candidly acknowledged was infinitely more attractive 
 to her than the master of Millenbeck. 
 
 But Jacqueline needed no counteraction. Freke, 
 who read her perfectly, was secretly amused, and an-
 
 156 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 noyed as well, when he saw that Jacqueline was every 
 moment more carried away by Throckm or ton's wax- 
 candles and carved chairs and embroidered screens 
 and onyx tables, and glass and plate. He felt not one 
 thrill of the jealousy of Throckmorton, where Jacque 
 line was concerned, that Throckmorton sometimes 
 felt for him, because he was infinitely more astute in 
 the knowledge of human and especially feminine 
 weaknesses and follies ; and he saw that the chairs and 
 tables at Millenbeck were much more fascinating to 
 Jacqueline than Throckmorton with his matured 
 grace, his manly dignity. Freke, too, having long 
 since worn out his emotions, except that slight lapse 
 as regarded Judith, for whom he always felt some 
 thing admiration, or pity, or a desire to be revenged 
 had an acute judgment of women which was quite 
 unbiased by the way any particular woman treated or 
 felt toward him. Judith, although she hated him, 
 and he frankly admitted she had cause to, he ranked 
 infinitely above Jacqueline. He had seen, long before, 
 that Jacqueline, if she ever seriously tried, could draw 
 Throckmorton by a thread, and it gave Freke a certain 
 contempt for Throckmorton's taste and perception. 
 Any man who could prefer Jacqueline to Judith was, 
 in Freke's esteem, wanting in taste ; for, after all, he 
 considered these things more as matters of taste than 
 anything else. 
 
 The dinner was very merry. "When the general
 
 THROCKMORTON. 157 
 
 had told his fifth long-winded story of his advent 
 ures and hair-breadth escapes during the war, Mrs. 
 Temple, with a glance, shut him up. Freke was in 
 his element at a dinner-table, and told some ridicu 
 lous stories about the straits to which he had been 
 reduced during his seven years' absence in Europe 
 " when," as he explained " my laudable desire to ac 
 quire knowledge and virtue threatened to be balked at 
 every moment by my uncle getting me home. How 
 ever, I managed to stay." He told with much gravity 
 how he had been occasionally reduced to his fiddle 
 for means of raising the wind, and had figured in con 
 cert programmes as Signer Tempolino, at which sto 
 ries all shouted with laughter except Mrs. Temple and 
 the general Mrs. Temple sighing, and the general 
 scowling prodigiously. Edmund Morford, who was 
 afraid that laughing was injurious to his dignity, 
 tried not to smile, but Freke was too comical for him. 
 Amid all the laughter and jollity and good-cheer, 
 Jacqueline sat, glancing shyly up at Throckmorton 
 once in a while with a look that Nature had endowed 
 her with, and which, had she but known it, was a full 
 equivalent to a fortune. She had never, in all her 
 simple provincial life, seen anything like this end 
 less forks and spoons at the table; queer ways of 
 serving queerer things ; an easy-cushioned chair to sit 
 in ; no darns or patches in the damask ; and the aro 
 ma of wealth, an easy income everywhere. The de-
 
 158 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 sire to own all this suddenly took possession of her. 
 At the moment this dawned upon her mind, she act 
 ually started, and, opening her fan in a flutter, she 
 knocked orer a wine-glass, which Jack deftly re 
 placed without stopping in his conversation. Then 
 she began to study Throckmorton under her eye 
 lashes. He was not so old, after all, and did not have 
 the gout, like her father. And then she caught his 
 kind eyes fixed on her, and flashed him back a look 
 that thrilled him. Jack was talking to her, but she 
 managed to convey subtly to Throckmorton that she 
 was not listening to Jack, which pleased the major 
 very much, who had heretofore found Jack a danger 
 ous rival in all his looks and words with Jacqueline. 
 
 Freke, telling his funny stories, did not for one 
 moment pretermit his study of the little comedy be 
 fore him Jacqueline and Throckmorton and Judith. 
 It was as plain as print to him. Judith, in her black 
 gown, which opened at the throat and showed the 
 white pillar of her neck, and with half-sleeves that 
 revealed the milky whiteness of her slender arms, sat 
 midway the table, just opposite Jacqueline. Usually 
 Judith's color was as delicate as a wild rose, but to 
 night it was a carnation flush. 
 
 " Is Throckmorton a fool ? " thought Freke, in the 
 midst of an interval given over to laughter at some of 
 his stories, which were as short and pithy as Gen 
 eral Temple's were sapless and long drawn out ; for
 
 THROCKMORTON. 159 
 
 Throckmorton, who did nothing by halves, and was 
 constitutionally averse to dawdling, returned Jacque 
 line's glances with compound interest. Before they 
 left the table, two persons had seen the promising be 
 ginning of the affair, and only two, none of the others 
 having a suspicion. These two were Freke and Ju 
 dith. 
 
 The knowledge came quickly to Judith. Women 
 can live ages of agony in a moment over these things. 
 Judith, smiling, graceful, waving her large black fan 
 sedately to and fro, by all odds the handsomest as well 
 as the most gifted woman there, felt something tear 
 ing at her heart-strings, that she could have screamed 
 aloud with pain. But even Freke, who saw every 
 thing nearly, did not see that ; he only surmised it. 
 It was nearly ten o'clock before they went back into 
 the drawing-room. Throckmorton gave nobody occa 
 sion to say that he devoted himself particularly to any 
 of the four women who were his guests ; but his look, 
 his talk, his manner to Jacqueline underwent a sub 
 tile change ; and when he sat and talked to Judith he 
 thought what a sweet sister she would make, and 
 blessed her for her tenderness to Jacqueline. Judith's 
 color had been gradually fading from the moment she 
 caught Throckmorton's glance at Jacqueline. She 
 was now quite pale, and less animated, less interest 
 ing, than Throckmorton ever remembered to have 
 seen her. At something he said to her, she gave an
 
 160 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 answer so wide of the mark that she felt ashamed and 
 apologized. 
 
 " I was thinking of my child at that moment and 
 wondering if he were asleep," she said. 
 
 From the moment of that first meaning glance of 
 Throckmorton's at Jacqueline, the evening had spun 
 out interminably to Judith. Mrs. Temple noticed it 
 with secret approval, as a sign of loyalty to her widow 
 hood. 
 
 At eleven o'clock a move was made to go, when 
 Throckmorton suddenly remembered that he had not 
 showed them his modest conservatory, which appeared 
 quite imposing to their provincial eyes. He took 
 Judith into the little glass room opening off the hall. 
 It was very hot, very damp, and very close, as such 
 places usually are, and full of a faint, sickly perfume. 
 Freke followed them in. At last he had got his 
 chance. He began to talk in his easy, unconstrained 
 way, and in a minute or two had got the conversation 
 around to something they had been speaking of the 
 night of the party at Turkey Thicket. 
 
 " You were saying," said Freke, " something about 
 a bad quarter of an hour you had with that old sorrel 
 horse of yours " 
 
 "Well, I should say it was a bad quarter of an 
 hour," answered Throckmorton. " To be ridden down 
 and knocked off my horse was bad enough, with that 
 strapping fellow pinioning my arms to my side so I
 
 THROCKMORTON. 161 
 
 couldn't draw my pistol; and old Tartar, perfectly 
 mad with fright the only time I ever knew him to 
 be so demoralized tearing at the reins that wouldn't 
 break and that I couldn't loose my arm from, and 
 every time I looked up I saw his fore-feet in the air 
 ready to come down on me " 
 
 " And what sort of a looking fellow was it you say 
 that rode you down ? " 
 
 " A tall, blonde fellow an officer evidently. Good 
 God ! Mrs. Beverley, what is the matter ? " For the 
 color had dropped out of Judith's face as the mercury 
 drops out of the tube, and she was gazing with wide, 
 wild eyes at Throckmorton. How often had she 
 heard that grewsome story even that the plunging 
 horse was a sorrel! But at least Freke should not 
 see her break down. She heard herself saying, in a 
 strange, unnatural voice : 
 
 " Nothing. I think it is too warm for me in here." 
 Throckmorton took her by the arm and led her back 
 into the hall, and to a small window which he opened. 
 He felt like a brute for mentioning anything con 
 nected with the war of course it must be intensely 
 painful to Judith but she stopped his earnest apolo 
 gies with a word. 
 
 " Don't blame yourelf pray, don't. It was -very 
 warm and Freke oh, how I hate him ! " 
 
 Throckmorton had been afraid she was going to 
 faint, but the energy with which she brought out her 
 11
 
 162 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 last remark convinced him there was no danger. It 
 brought the blood surging back to her face in a tor 
 rent. 
 
 Nobody else had known anything of the little 
 scene in the conservatory ; and then Throckmorton 
 had to show Jacqueline over it, and Judith caught 
 sight of him, standing in one of his easy and graceful 
 attitudes, leaning over Jacqueline in expressive panto 
 mime ; and then came the general's big, musical 
 voice : " My love, it is now past eleven o'clock ; we 
 must not trespass on Throckmorton's hospitality." 
 Throckmorton felt at that moment as if the evening 
 had just begun ; while to Judith it seemed as if there 
 was a stretch of years of pain between the dawn and 
 the midnight of that day a pain secret but consum 
 ing. 
 
 There was the bustle of departure, during which 
 Judith managed to say to Freke : 
 
 "You have had your revenge perfect but com 
 plete." 
 
 " That's for calling me a liar," was Freke's reply. 
 It was, moreover, for something that Judith had 
 made him suffer absurd as it was that any woman 
 could make Temple Freke suffer. But, after what he 
 had . seen that night, he reflected that it was perhaps 
 a work of supererogation to build a barrier between 
 Judith and Throckmorton. The major had other 
 views.
 
 THROCKMORTOX. 163 
 
 Throckmorton handed the ladies into the car 
 riage ; and, in spite of the light from the open hall- 
 door, and not from the carriage-lamps for the Barn 
 Elms carriage had long parted with its lamps he 
 pressed a light kiss on Jacqueline's hand, under Gen 
 eral and Mrs. Temple's very eyes, without their seeing 
 it. Judith, however, saw it, and was thankful that it 
 was dark, so that the pallid change, which she knew 
 came over her, was not visible. 
 
 Throckmorton went back into the house, shut 
 himself up in his own den, and smoked savagely for 
 an hour. Yes, it was all up with him, he ruefully 
 acknowledged.
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 A DAY or two after this, however, came a snow, 
 deep and lasting, more like a midwinter snow in New 
 England than a December flurry in lower Virginia, 
 For four weeks the sun scarcely shone, and the earth 
 was wrapped in white. The roads were impassable, 
 the river-steamers stopped running, and the mails 
 were delayed for days at a time. The country people 
 were much cut off from each other. Mrs. Temple 
 missed four successive Sundays at church a thing 
 she had never done in her life before. Nobody could 
 get to Barn Elms except the Throckmortons and 
 Freke, but they came often in the evenings. Throck- 
 morton saw what was before him with Jacqueline, yet 
 held back, as engineers put down the brakes on a wild 
 engine on a down grade it does not, however, ma 
 terially alter the result. He sometimes thought, with 
 a sense of the grotesqueness of human affairs, how 
 strange it was that things had not arranged them 
 selves so that Jack had not been Jacqueline's victim, 
 and himself Judith's. For Jack was undeniably fond 
 of Jacqueline, and so far did not in the slightest
 
 THROCKMORTON. 105 
 
 degree suspect his father's infatuation, as Throck- 
 morton frankly and bitterly acknowledged it to be. 
 As for Judith, Nature leaves no true woman unarmed 
 for suffering like hers. Even Jacqueline, who was 
 sharp-eyed, only noticed that Judith at this time was, 
 if anything, a little sweeter and kinder than before 
 even a little more gay. Little Beverley found his 
 mother better company than usual, and more ready 
 for a romp than ever before. The child, whom she 
 had thought everything to her before, became now 
 more passionately dear to her. Alone with him, she 
 would take him in her arms and hold him close to 
 her ; she felt an actual softening of the pain at her 
 heart when the child's curly head rested over it. 
 Then she would talk to him in a way the child only 
 half understood, as he gazed at her with grave, mysti 
 fied eyes, and, while laughing at his childish wonder, 
 she would almost smother him with kisses. Judith was 
 positively becoming merry. In her voice was a ring, 
 in her eyes a light that was different from that calm, 
 untroubled composure that had once marked her. 
 Her manner to Throckmorton was perfect ; the same 
 gentle gayety, the same graceful dignity. She did 
 not avoid 'him ; pain wrung no such concession from 
 Judith Temple. But Judith's invincible cheerful 
 ness was strangely antagonized by Jacqueline. Jac 
 queline, who talked to her own heart in a very primi 
 tive, open fashion, was vexed at the notion that, in
 
 166 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 order to be mistress of Millenbeck, she would have to 
 marry Throckmorton. How much nicer, thought 
 Jacqueline, with great simplicity, if it were Jack who 
 gave her those looks, those words, who had pressed 
 that kiss upon her hand ! Throckmorton was toorold, 
 and had too much sense ; Jacqueline made no secret 
 in acknowledging that mature men of sense bored 
 and restrained her. It was very hard, she thought, 
 disconsolately. Ever since that dinner at Millenbeck, 
 Barn Elms had appeared shabbier and sorrier than 
 ever before. Although Mrs. Temple' continued to 
 have five kinds of bread for breakfast, and had in 
 vited a regiment of poor relations to spend the com 
 ing summer with her, under the Virginia delusion 
 that it costs nothing to harbor a garrison for -an in 
 definite time, things were certainly going very badly 
 at Barn Elms ; a condition of affairs, though, to which 
 General Temple was perfectly accustomed, and who 
 knew no other way of paying Peter than by robbing 
 Paul. The old carriage went all to pieces just about 
 that time, and there was no money to buy another one. 
 As for a new piano, that was an impossible dream ; 
 and there were two splendid new pianos at Millen 
 beck, and not a soul to touch them ! And Jacqueline 
 wanted a new frock, and endless other things, which 
 were distinctly out of the question, and the only way 
 to get them, that she could see, was to encourage 
 Throckmorton's attentions and be mistress of Millen-
 
 THROCKMORTON. 167 
 
 beck. All this was not lost on Freke, who, with his eyes 
 open, began to play with Jacqueline, and like Throck- 
 morton got his wings scorched. The girl certainly 
 had a power of compelling love. Had Judith ever 
 relented toward Freke, Jacqueline would have had 
 cause for jealousy if she loved him. But, in truth, as 
 it came to pass, Freke cast as much of a spell upon 
 Jacqueline as she did upon him. If Freke owned 
 Millenbeck, instead of that wretched old Wareham, 
 that actually was not as good as Barn Elms ! So 
 Jacqueline fretted to herself. 
 
 The loneliness of those cold, snowy days was kill 
 ing to Jacqueline. The long afternoons when she sat 
 by the drawing-room fire and dreamed dreams, were 
 almost intolerable to her. When she heard Beverley's 
 shouts, as Judith romped with him in the cold hall, 
 and hid from him in the dusk until the child set up a 
 baby cry, it was the only living cheerful noise about 
 the house. Judith would come to her and say, " Now, 
 Jacky, for a walk in the hall!" Jacqueline would 
 answer fretfully : 
 
 " What do I want to walk for ? " 
 " Because it is better than sitting still." 
 Judith would take her by the waist and run her 
 up and down the long, dusky hall. It was so cold 
 they shivered at first, and the rattling of the great 
 windows let icy gusts of air in upon them ; and some 
 times the moon would glare in at them in a ghastly
 
 168 TIIROCKMORTON. 
 
 way. Presently they would hear Simon Peter bring 
 ing in wood for the night by the back way, shaking 
 the snow off his feet, and announcing to Delilah : " I 
 tell you what, ole 'oman, 'tis everlastin' cole an' gwine 
 ter keep so, fer I seed de hosses in de stable kickiu' 
 de lef hine-foots ; an' dat's sho' an' suttin sign o' 
 freezin'." 
 
 " You better kick dat lef hine-foot o' yourn, an' 
 stop studyin' 'bout de hosses, fo' mistis come arter 
 you ! Ez long ez ole marse holler at you, you doan' 
 min' ; but jes' let mistis in dat sof ' voice say right 
 fine, ' Simon Peter ! ' I lay you jes' hop," was Delilah's 
 wifely reply. 
 
 General Temple, confined to the house by the 
 weather, drew military maps with great precision, and 
 worked hard upon his History of Temple's Brigade. 
 The fact that he knew much more about the Duke of 
 Marlborough's campaigns, or Prince Eugene's, or any 
 body's, in fact, than he did about any he had been 
 directly engaged in, in no Avise set him back. Mrs. 
 Temple, who thought the general a prodigy of mili 
 tary science, was rejoiced that he had something 
 to divert him through the long wintry days, when 
 Barn Elms was as completely shut in from even the 
 little neighborhood world as if it were in the depths 
 of a Eussian forest. Jack Throckmorton, who after 
 a while began to see that the major was certainly 
 singed, as he expressed it to himself, did not carry out
 
 THROCKMORTON. 169 
 
 his usual tactics of making his vicinity too hot for 
 his father, but when he wished to see Jacqueline went 
 over in the mornings. If the weather was tolerable, 
 they were pretty sure to find their way to the ice- 
 pond. Jack, carrying on his arm a little wooden 
 chair, and putting Jacqueline in it, would push it over 
 the ice before him as he sped along on skates. Then 
 Jacqueline's fresh, young laugh would ring out shrilly 
 then she was happy. Sometimes Judith and Throck- 
 morton, smiling, would watch them. Jack liked Mrs. 
 Beverley immensely, but he confided to Jacqueline 
 that he was a little afraid of her just as Jacqueline 
 candidly admitted she was in awe of Major Throck- 
 morton. Throckmorton, watching this childish boy 
 and girl fun, would sometimes laugh inwardly and 
 grimly at himself. How true was it, as Mrs. Sherrard 
 had said, that Jacqueline would make a good play 
 mate for Jack ! And then he would turn to Judith, 
 and try to persuade himself of her sweetness and 
 truth. But love comes not by persuasion. 
 
 Jack had been giving Jacqueline glowing accounts 
 of the sleigh -rides he had had in the Northwest. 
 Jacqueline was crazy for a sleigh-ride, but there was 
 no such thing as a sleigh in the county. One even 
 ing, after tea, as Jacqueline sat dolefully clasping her 
 knees and looking in the fire, and Judith, with hands 
 locked in her lap, was doing the same ; Mrs. Temple 
 knitting placidly by the lamp, while General Temple
 
 1YO THROCKMORTON. 
 
 held forth on certain blunders he had discovered in 
 the Retreat of the Ten Thousand a strange tinkling 
 sound was heard far far away almost as if it were 
 in another world ! Jacqueline sat perfectly still and 
 gazed into Judith's eyes. Judith got up and went 
 into the hall. A great patch of moonlight shone 
 through the uncurtained window, and outside it was 
 almost as light as day. The limbs and trunks of the 
 great live-oaks looked preternaturally dark against the 
 white earth and the blue-black, star-lit sky. Suddenly 
 Simon Peter's head appeared cautiously around the 
 corner of the house, and in a minute or two he came 
 up the back way and planted himself at Judith's elbow. 
 
 " Gord A'mighty, Miss Judy, what dat ar' ? What 
 dem bells ringin' fur ? I 'spect de evils is 'broad. I 
 done see two Jack-my-lan terns dis heah night." 
 
 Judith fixed her eyes on the long, straight lane 
 bordered with solemn cedars ; she saw a dark object 
 moving along, and heard the sharp click of horses' 
 shoes on the frozen snow. 
 
 " It's somebody coming," she said, and in a mo 
 ment, she cried out joyfully : 
 
 " Jacky, come come ! it's a sleigh I see Jack 
 Throckmorton driving Major Throckmorton is there 
 and there are four seats ! " 
 
 Jacqueline jumped up and ran out. She had 
 never seen a sleigh in her life, and there it was turn 
 ing into the drive before the house. Jack had the
 
 TimOCKMORTON. 171 
 
 reins, and the major's two thoroughbreds were flying 
 along at a rattling pace, and the bells were jingling 
 loudly and merrily. Jacqueline almost danced with 
 delight. By the time the sleigh drew up at the door, 
 Simon Peter was there to take the reins, and Throck- 
 morton and Jack jumped out and came up the steps. 
 The general and Mrs. Temple were also roused to 
 come out and meet them. As the hall-door swung 
 open, a blast of arctic air entered. Throckmorton's 
 dark eyes looked black under his seal-skin cap. Jack 
 plunged into business at once. 
 
 " Now, Mrs. Temple, you must let me take Miss 
 Jacqueline for a spin to-night ; never saw better sleigh 
 ing in my life. The major's along, and you know he 
 is as steady as old Time " the major at heart did not 
 relish this " and, if Mrs. Beverley will go, it will be 
 awfully jolly." 
 
 Mrs. Temple began some mild protest : it was too 
 cold, or too late, or something ; but for once Jacqueline 
 did not hear her, and bounded off up-stairs for her 
 wraps. Even Judith, usually so calm, was a little car 
 ried away by the prospect. 
 
 " Come, mother, Major Throckmorton and I will 
 take care of them." 
 
 Mrs. Temple yielded. 
 
 " I will take care of Beverley while you are gone," 
 she said, and Judith blushed. Was she forgetting the 
 child ?
 
 172 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 In five minutes both of them were ready. Judith 
 had pressed her soft cheeks to Beverley's as she leaned 
 over the sleeping child. Surely nobody could say she 
 was a forgetful mother. 
 
 The sleigh was Jack's. He had sent away and 
 bought it, and it had arrived that evening. Jacque 
 line sat on the front seat with him, her face glowing 
 with smiles on the clear, cold night, as he wrapped 
 the fur robes around her. Throckmorton did the 
 same for Judith. For once she had left off her 
 widow's veil, and for once she forgot that secret pain 
 and determined to be happy. Jack touched up the 
 horses, and off they flew. As for Jacqueline and him 
 self, their pleasure was of that youthful, effervescing 
 sort that never comes after twenty-five ; but Throck 
 morton and Judith began to feel some of the exhila 
 ration and excitement. Throckmorton had lately 
 heard Mrs. Sherrard's views about Judith's marriage, 
 and it had made him feel a very great pity for her. 
 
 " Where are we going ? " cried Jacqueline, as they 
 dashed along. 
 
 " Anywhere nowhere to Turkey Thicket ! " re 
 plied Jack, lightly touching the flying horses with his 
 whip. 
 
 " We will frighten Mrs. Sherrard to death ! " said 
 Judith, from the back seat, burying her face in her 
 muff. 
 
 It was not a time to think about anybody else,
 
 THROCKMORTON. 173 
 
 though. The five miles to Turkey Thicket sped away 
 like lightning. "When they dashed through the gate 
 and drew up before the house, half a dozen darkies 
 were there gaping; and Mrs. Sherrard, with a shawl 
 thrown over her head, was standing in the doorway, 
 and standing behind her was Freke. 
 
 As they all got out, laughing, huddling, and slip 
 ping up the stone steps, Mrs. Sherrard greeted them 
 with her characteristic cordiality, demanding that they 
 should take off their wraps before they were half up 
 the steps. She gave Throckmorton a comical look, 
 and whispered to him as he shook hands with her : 
 " Out with the Sister of Charity, hey ? Or is it the 
 child Jacky ? " Throckmorton laughed rather uneas 
 ily. He had never got over that remark of Mrs. Sher- 
 rard's about Jacqueline being a playmate for Jack. 
 
 They all went trooping into the dining-room, 
 where a huge fire blazed. Mrs. Sherrard called up 
 her factotum, a venerable negro woman, Delilah's 
 double, and in ten minutes they were sitting around 
 the table laughing and eating and drinking. The 
 colored factotum had brought out a large yellow bowl, 
 a big, .flat, blue dish, and a rusty bottle. Eggs and 
 milk followed. 
 
 " Egg-nog," whispered Jack to Jacqueline. 
 
 So it was. Freke broke up the eggs, and Mrs. 
 Sherrard, with a great carving-knife, beat up the 
 whites, while she talked and occasionally flourished
 
 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 the knife uncomfortably near Freke's nose. Throck- 
 morton poured in the rum and brandy with such lib 
 erality that Judith with great firmness took both bot 
 tles away from him. The egg-nog was a capital brew. 
 Then Freke produced his violin, and saying, " Hang 
 your Brahms and Beethovens ! " dashed into waltzes 
 of Strauss and Waldteufel that made the very air vi 
 brate with joy and gayety and rhythm. Jack seized 
 Jacqueline, and, opening the door, they flew out into 
 the half-lighted hall and spun around delightedly. 
 As Freke's superb bow-arm flashed back and forth, 
 and the torrent of melody poured out of the violin, 
 his eyes flashed, too. He did not mean to play always 
 for Jacqueline to dance. 
 
 Judith, standing at the door, watched the two 
 young figures whirling merrily around in the half- 
 light to the resounding waltz-music. She was alto 
 gether taken by surprise when Throckmorton came 
 up to her, and said, half laughing and half embar 
 rassed : 
 
 "My dancing days are over, but that waltz is 
 charming." 
 
 Judith did not quite take in what he meant, but 
 without a word he clasped her waist, and she was 
 gliding off with him. Throckmorton would have 
 scorned the characterization of a " dancing man," but 
 nevertheless he danced well, and Judith moved like 
 a breeze. She went around the big hall once twice
 
 THROCKMORTON. 175 
 
 before the idea that it was inconceivably wicked of 
 her to dance with Throckmorton came to her ; not, 
 indeed, until she saw Freke's wide mouth expanded 
 into a smile that was infuriating. And then, what 
 would Mrs. Temple say to her dancing at all ? 
 
 " Oh, pray, stop ! " she cried, blushing furiously. 
 " I can't dance any more ; I ought never to have be 
 gun. I haven't danced for for years." 
 
 Throckmorton stopped at once, with pity in his 
 eyes. He suspected the sort of angelic dragooning to 
 which she was subject from his dear Mrs. Temple. 
 
 " Why shouldn't you dance ? " he said. " I see 
 you like it. Come, let's try it again. I'm a little 
 rusty, perhaps, but we got on famously just now." 
 But Judith would not try it again. 
 
 Freke now meant to have his innings. 
 
 " Do you know this is Twelfth-night the night 
 for telling fortunes?" he said, laying down his vio 
 lin. " Come, Jacky, let me take you out of doors and 
 show you the moon and tell yours." 
 
 " In this snow ! " screamed Mrs. Sherrard ; but by 
 that time Freke had thrown a shawl over Jacqueline's 
 head, and had dragged her out of the room, and the 
 hall-door banged loudly after them. 
 
 Outside, in the cold, white moonlight and the 
 snow, Freke pointed to the moon. 
 
 " Now make your wish," he said ; " but don't wish 
 for Millenbeck."
 
 1Y6 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 Jacqueline's face could turn no redder than it was, 
 but she looked at Freke, and answered on impulse, as 
 she always did : 
 
 " Millenbeck is finer than Barn Elms " 
 
 " Or Wareham," responded Freke, fixing her at 
 tention with a stare out of his bold eyes. " See here, 
 Jacqueline, I know how it is. You think you will be 
 able to put up with Throckmorton for the sake of 
 Millenbeck. My dear, he is old " 
 
 " He is only forty-four," answered Jacqueline, de 
 fiantly. 
 
 " And you are only twenty-one. You would be 
 happier even at Wareham with me, than at Millen 
 beck with Throckmorton." 
 
 "I couldn't be happy in a five-roomed house," 
 quite truthfully said Jacqueline. 
 
 " Yes, you could. I could make you forget wheth 
 er it had five or ten rooms." 
 
 At this, he put two fingers under her chin, and, 
 tilting up her rosy face, kissed her on the mouth. 
 " Come ! " cried Freke, after a little while, remember 
 ing how time Avas flying, which Jacqueline had evi 
 dently forgotten, and making for the steps ; but Jac 
 queline stopped him with a scared face. 
 
 " Aren't you married, Freke? " she asked. 
 
 " Not a bit of it," answered Freke, stoutly. " Don't 
 you believe all the old women's tales you hear about 
 me, Jacky. I'm no more married than you are this
 
 THROCKMORTON. 177 
 
 minute. I have been, I admit, but I slipped my 
 head out of the noose some time ago. Do you believe 
 me?" 
 
 " Yes," answered Jacqueline, who could believe 
 anything, " If if people can really be divorced." 
 
 They had not been gone ten minutes, when they 
 returned, yet Freke saw a danger-signal flying in Ju 
 dith's cheeks. She did not mean to have any more 
 of this. Mrs. Sherrard, who had become an active 
 partisan of Freke's, asked, as soon as they came in : 
 
 " What wish did you make, Jacky ? " 
 
 Jacqueline started. She had made no wish at all. 
 
 " Freke ran me out of the house so fast," she be 
 gan complainingly, " I was perfectly out of breath." 
 
 " And of course couldn't make a wish," said Jack 
 Throckmorton, laughing. 
 
 " I wished for everything," replied Jacqueline. 
 
 Presently they were driving home through the 
 still, frosty night. Judith felt a complete reaction 
 from the ghost of merriment that had possessed her in 
 going that road before. Even Throckmorton noticed 
 the change. She laughed and talked gayly, but her 
 speaking eyes told another story. Throckmorton 
 could not but smile, and yet felt sorry, too, when Jac 
 queline, fancying herself unheard, whispered to Ju 
 dith : 
 
 " I won't tell mamma about the waltz." 
 
 But Jacqueline was absent-minded too. When 
 12
 
 178 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 they had got home and had gone up-stairs, instead of 
 Jacqueline following Judith to her room, as she usu 
 ally did when she had anything on her mind, she went 
 straight to her own room, and, locking the door, began 
 to walk up and down, her hands behind her back. 
 How strange, fascinating, overpowering was Freke, 
 after all ! Was a divorced man really a married man ? 
 Divorces were dreadful things, she had always known 
 but suppose, in some other world than that about 
 the Severn neighborhood, it should be considered a 
 venial thing ? Jacqueline became so much interested 
 in these puzzling reflections that she unconsciously 
 abandoned the cat-like tread which she had adopted 
 for fear of waking her mother, and stepped out in 
 her own brisk way up and down the big room. Mrs. 
 Temple, hearing this, quietly opened her own cham 
 ber-door beneath. That was enough. The walk 
 stopped as if by magic, and in ten minutes Jacqueline 
 was in bed.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THROCKMORTOX made one short, sharp struggle 
 with himself, and then yielded to Jacqueline's fasci 
 nation. 
 
 Without Freke's keen perceptions, Throckmorton 
 knew enough to doubt whether he ought to congratu 
 late or curse himself if he won Jacqueline ; and that 
 he could win her, his own good sense told him soon 
 enough. Jacqueline's nature was so impressionable 
 that a strong determination could conquer her at any 
 time and at any thing for a season. Throckmorton, 
 tramping about the country roads with his gun on his 
 shoulder ; having jolly bachelor parties at Millenbeck, 
 which were confined strictly to the Severn neighbor 
 hood ; in church on Sunday, half -listening to Mor- 
 ford's pyrotechnics in the pulpit; smoking at un 
 earthly hours in his own den ; riding hard after the 
 hounds the thought of Jacqueline was never far away, 
 and never without a suspicion of pain and dissatis 
 faction. He was not given to paltering with himself, 
 and nothing could utterly blind his strong common 
 sense a common sense that was so imperative to be
 
 180 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 heard, so difficult to answer, so impossible to evade. 
 It was not in him to surrender his judgment abso 
 lutely. He faced bravely the discrepancy in their 
 ages, but he soon admitted to himself that there were 
 other incongruities deeper and more significant than 
 that. Nevertheless, although Reason might argue and 
 preach, Love carried the day. Throckmorton remind 
 ed himself that miracles sometimes happened in love. 
 He did not suffer himself to think what Jacqueline 
 would be twenty years from then. Time is always 
 fatal to women of her type. Even her beauty was 
 essentially the beauty of youth. In twenty years she 
 would be stout and florid Here Throckmorton, in 
 his reflections, unexpectedly went off on Judith, 
 Hers was a beauty that would last the beauty of ex 
 pression, of esprit. Then his thoughts, with a sort 
 of shock, reverted to Jacqueline 
 
 As for Freke, Throckmorton did not once connect 
 him with Jacqueline. Freke was a black sheep, and, 
 as Throckmorton devoutly and thankfully remem 
 bered, the daughter of General and Mrs. Temple 
 would not be likely to regard a divorced man as a 
 single man. So, in the course of two or three weeks, 
 Throckmorton had gone through all his phases, and 
 had made up his mind. He could not but laugh at 
 Mrs. Temple's unsuspecting security. She had always 
 regarded Jacqueline as a child, and indeed regarded 
 her very little in any way.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 181 
 
 This excellent woman, whose gospel was embodied 
 in her duty to her husband and her children, had 
 always been a singularly unjust mother ; but she 
 thought herself the most devoted mother in the 
 world, because she regularly superintended Jacque 
 line's changes of flannels, and made her take off her 
 shoes when she got her feet wet. Both Mrs. Temple 
 and the general were absolutely incapable of enter 
 taining the idea that Freke was growing fond of Jac 
 queline; and Freke was not only astute enough to 
 keep them in the dark, but to keep Judith, too, who 
 fondly imagined that she herself had reduced Freke 
 to good behavior as regarded Jacqueline. Freke's 
 estimate of the two young women had not changed 
 in the least only Jacqueline was come-at-able and 
 Judith was not and he loved to cross Judith and 
 vex her, and give her pin-sticks as well as stabs in 
 return for the frank hatred she felt for him. She 
 had elected her own position with him so let her 
 keep it. 
 
 It never took Throckmorton long to act on his 
 determinations. Jacqueline saw what was coming. 
 He had a way of looking at her that forced her to 
 look up and then to look down again. He said little 
 things to her, instinct with meaning, that brought the 
 blood to her face. He performed small services for her 
 that were merely conventional, but which were from 
 him to her acts of adoration. And Judith saw it all.
 
 182 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 He did not have to wait long for an opportunity. 
 One evening he went to Barn Elms. The general 
 was threatened with a return of his gout, which had 
 got better, and Mrs. Temple had imprisoned him in 
 the " charmber," where she mounted guard over him. 
 Only Jacqueline and Judith, with little Beverley, who 
 had been allowed to stay up until eight o'clock, as a 
 great privilege, were in the drawing-room when he 
 walked in. The boy and Throckmorton were such 
 chums that there was no hope of getting Beverley off 
 under a half-hour. He stood between Throckmor- 
 ton's knees, perfectly happy to be with him, asking 
 endless questions in a subdued whisper, and frowning 
 out of his expressive eyes when Throckmorton wanted 
 to know when his mother intended to cut off his long, 
 yellow curls, so that he would be a real boy. Judith, 
 sitting in her usual place, smiling and calm, soon 
 settled that the winged word would be spoken that 
 night. What better chance would Throckmorton 
 have than when she should be gone to put the child 
 to bed ? She watched the tall clock on the high man 
 tel with a fearful sinking of the heart, that drove the 
 color out of her face. Presently it was half -past 
 eight. 
 
 " Come, dearest," she said to the child. 
 
 Beverley held back. 
 
 " I don't want to go with you," he said. " I want 
 to stay and play."
 
 THROCKMORTON. 183 
 
 This childish treason to her at that moment was a 
 stab. She got up with a smile, and opened her arms 
 wide, her eyes shining under her straight brows. 
 
 " Come, dear little boy," she said. 
 
 The tone was so winning, so compelling, it went 
 to the child's baby heart. He ran to his mother, with 
 wide-open arms, who caught him and held him tight, 
 covering his yellow mop of hair with kisses. Throck- 
 morton looked on surprised and admiring. He had 
 never seen Judith yield to anything emotional like 
 that ; she was laughing, blushing, and almost crying, 
 as Beverley swung round her neck. And Throck- 
 morton thought he had never seen her look so hand 
 some as when she ran out of the room, carrying the 
 child, who was a sturdy fellow, in her slender arms, 
 her face deeply flushed. Throckmorton, as he held 
 the door open for her to pass out, gave her a meaning 
 smile ; but Judith would not look at him. Up-stairs, 
 Beverley was soon in his little bed. Judith, sitting on 
 the floor, with both arms crossed on the crib, held one 
 of the child's little warm hands in hers ; the only real 
 and comforting thing in life then seemed that child 
 ish hand. 
 
 " I will stay an hour," she said. " Mother will be 
 vexed" Mrs. Temple had old-fashioned ideas about 
 leaving girls to themselves " but he shall be happy. 
 I will see that he has his chance." But, like Throck 
 morton himself, she feared for his happiness. No-
 
 184: THROCKMORTON. 
 
 body knew better than she Jacqueline's weakness. 
 She had, indeed, a sort of childish cleverness, which 
 was, however, of no practical good to her ; but then, 
 as Judith remembered, Throckmorton's love could 
 transform any woman. " Yes, I shall go through it," 
 she thought, still kneeling on the carpet, and pressing 
 her face to the child's in the crib ; " Jacqueline will 
 insist that I shall take off the mourning I wear for 
 the man I never loved, at the wedding of the man I 
 do love. If Throckmorton has any doubts or troubles 
 with Jacqueline, he will certainly come to me. I will 
 help him loyally, and he will need a friend. So far, 
 though, from making me suffer more, the hope of 
 befriending him is the only hope I have left in the 
 world. I wonder how it feels to have one's heart ach 
 ing and throbbing for another woman's husband to 
 be counting time by the times one sees him ? For 
 assuredly a few words spoken by a priest can not 
 change this." She struck her heart. " And in every 
 thing Jacqueline will be blest above me. See how 
 poor and straitened we are, and Jacqueline's life 
 will be free from any care at all ! However, to be 
 loved by Throckmorton must mean to be rich and 
 free and happy." And then, with a sort of clear-eyed 
 despair, she began to look into the future, and see all 
 of Jacqueline's and Throckmorton's life spread out 
 before her. " And how unworthy she is ! " she almost 
 cried out aloud. She had now risen from the crib
 
 THROCKMORTOX. 185 
 
 and was gazing out of the window at Millenbeck, that 
 was plainly visible across the white stretch of snow 
 between the two places. "Of course, she will love 
 him no woman could help that but she can't un 
 derstand him. She will not have the slightest re 
 spect for his habits, and will always be wanting him 
 to alter them for her. She never will understand 
 the reserves of Throckmorton's nature. She will 
 tease him with questions. I would not care if Jacque 
 line were the one to be unhappy " for so had pain 
 changed her toward the child that had been to her 
 almost as her own " but in a few years the spell will 
 have vanished. Throckmorton will find out that she 
 is no companion for him. There can be no real com 
 panionship for any man like Throckmorton except 
 with a woman somewhere near his own level least of 
 all now, when he is no longer young." 
 
 Then she came back and took the child out of his 
 little bed, and held him in her arms and wept passion 
 ately over him. " At least I have you, darling ; I 
 have you ! " she cried. 
 
 Down-stairs, in the drawing-room, Throckmorton 
 made good use of his time. "With very little appren 
 ticeship, he knew how to make love so that any woman 
 would listen to him. 
 
 He told Jacqueline that he loved her, in his own 
 straightforward way ; and Jacqueline, whose heart beat 
 furiously, who was frightened and half rebellious, suf-
 
 186 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 fered him to get a few shy words from her. Throck- 
 morton did not stoop to deny his age, but he conde 
 scended to apologize for it. In a dim and nebulous 
 way Jacqueline understood the value of the man who 
 thus offered his manly and unstained heart, but she 
 felt acutely the want of common ground between them. 
 
 Throckmorton's love-making was not at all what 
 simple Jacqueline fancied love-making to "be. He did 
 not protest he did not talk poetry, nor abase himself ; 
 he made no exaggerated promises, nor did he sue for 
 her love. At the first sign of yielding, he caught her 
 to his heart and devoured her with kisses. Yet, 
 when Jacqueline wanted to escape from him, he let 
 her go. He would not keep her a moment unwill 
 ingly. Jacqueline did not understand this masterful 
 way of doing things. She fancied that a lover meant 
 a slave, and apparently Throckmorton considered a 
 lover meant a master. 
 
 At the end of an hour, Judith returned to the 
 room. Throckmorton was standing alone on the 
 hearth-rug, in a meditative attitude. In his eyes, 
 as they sought Judith's, was a kind of passionate, 
 troubled joy ; he doubted much, but he did not doubt 
 his love for Jacqueline. He went forward and took 
 Judith's hand, who lifted her eyes, strangely bright, 
 to his face. She was smiling, too, and a faint blush 
 glowed in her cheeks. There were no visible signs of 
 tears.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 187 
 
 " I am a happy man," said Throckmorton to her. 
 " Jacqueline has promised to marry me." 
 
 His words were few, but Judith understood how 
 much was conveyed in his sparing speech. 
 
 " I am happy, too," she returned, pressing his hand. 
 " You deserve to be happy, and you will make Jac 
 queline happy." 
 
 As she said this, she smiled tremulously. Throck 
 morton was too much absorbed to notice it. 
 
 " I will, so help me Heaven ! " he answered. 
 
 In all his life before, Throckmorton did not re 
 member ever to have felt the desire of communion 
 about his inner thoughts and feelings. Was it be 
 cause he himself had changed, or that Judith had that 
 delicate and penetrating sympathy that drew him on 
 to speak of what he had never spoken before ? Any 
 way, he sat down by her, and talked to her a long time 
 talked of all the doubts and pitfalls that had beset 
 him ; his plans that Jacqueline might be happy ; his 
 confidence that Judith would be his strongest ally 
 with Mrs. Temple, who was by no means a person to 
 be counted on. She might object to Throckmorton's 
 profession, to his being in what she continued to call 
 the Yankee army, to his twenty-odd years' seniority, 
 to his not being a member of the church ; as like as 
 not this was the very rock on which Throckmorton's 
 ship would split. Judith, with the same heavenly 
 smile, listened to him ; she even made a little whole-
 
 188 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 some fun of him ; and when he rose to go, Throckmor- 
 ton felt, even at that time and nobody could say that 
 he was a laggard in love that he had gained some 
 thing else besides Jacqueline, in the sweet friendship 
 of a woman like Judith. He took her little hand, and 
 was about to raise it to his lips with tender respect, 
 when Judith, who had stood as still as a statue, sud 
 denly snatched her hand away and gave Throckmor- 
 ton a look so strange that he fancied her attacked by 
 a sudden prudery that was far from becoming to her 
 or complimentary to him. She slipped past him out 
 of the door, and he heard her light and rapid footfall 
 as she sped up the stairs. As there was nobody left 
 to entertain the newly accepted lover, he put on a bat 
 tered blue cap, for which he had a sneaking affection, 
 and sometimes wore under cover of night, and let 
 himself out of the front door and went home across 
 the snow-covered fields, in an ecstasy. 
 
 Meanwhile, Jacqueline, as soon as she had heard 
 the bang of the hall-door after Throckmorton's 
 quick, soldierly step, stole out of her own room into 
 Judith's. In answer to her tap, Judith said, " Come 
 in." 
 
 Judith was seated before the old-fashioned dress 
 ing-table, her long, rich hair combed out, and was 
 making a pretense of brushing it, but occasionally 
 she would stop and gaze with strange eyes at her 
 own image in the glass. She rose when Jacqueline
 
 THROCKMORTON. 189 
 
 entered, and took the girl in her arms as Jacqueline 
 expected. 
 
 " Judith," Jacqueline said, " I am to be married 
 to Major Throckmorton. I wonder what Freke will 
 say!" 
 
 Judith held her off at arm's length, and looked 
 down at her with eyes full of anger and disdain. 
 
 " Don't mention Throckmorton and Freke in the 
 same breath, Jacqueline ! What does Freke's opinion 
 count for what does Freke himself? It is an insult 
 to Throckmorton to to " 
 
 " But, Judith," said Jacqueline, " Freke talks bet 
 ter than Major Throckmorton " 
 
 "And plays and sings better. Ah! yes. At the 
 same time, Throckmorton's little finger is worth more 
 than a dozen Frekes." 
 
 " But it troubles me about Freke. I know Major 
 Throckmorton can manage mamma he can do any 
 thing with her now ; and mamma, of course, will man 
 age papa ; but nobody can do anything with Freke." 
 
 " Jacqueline," said Judith, sitting down and tak 
 ing Jacqueline in her lap, and changing all at once 
 into the sweetest sisterly persuasion, " no other man 
 on earth must matter to you now but Throckmorton. 
 Let me tell you what a true marriage is. It is to love 
 one man so much that with him is everything with 
 out him is nothing. It is to study what he likes, and 
 to like it too. It is to make his people your people,
 
 190 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 and his God your God. I think one need not know a 
 great deal in order to be worthy of a man for his 
 love makes one worthy ; but one should know a great 
 deal in order that one may be creditable to him in 
 the eyes of the world. Think how Throckmorton's 
 wife should conduct herself ; fancy how frightful the 
 contrast, if she should not in some degree be like him ! 
 I tell you, Jacqueline, a woman to sustain Throck 
 morton's name and credit should be no ordinary 
 woman. If you do not love him, if you do not make 
 him proud and happy to sa} r , ' This is my wife,' you 
 deserve the worst fate " 
 
 One of Jacqueline's fits of acuteness was on her. 
 She looked hard at Judith. 
 
 "It seems to me, Judith, that you would make a 
 much more fitting wife for him than I." 
 
 " Don't say that ! " cried Judith, breathlessly. 
 " Never, never say that again ! " . 
 
 Jacqueline, who knew well enough when to stop, 
 suddenly halted. After a little pause, she began again : 
 
 " I know it will be dreadfully lonely at Millenbeck. 
 Major Throckmorton loves to read, and I shall be a 
 great interruption to his evenings. I don't know how 
 I shall treat Jack. Don't you think it would be a 
 good idea to get a companion somebody who knows 
 French?" 
 
 " You musn't think of such a thing. Good 
 heavens! a companion, with Throckmorton? You
 
 THROCKMORTON. 191 
 
 can learn more from him in one week than all the 
 governesses in creation can teach you." 
 
 " I didn't say governess," replied Jacqueline, with 
 much dignity. " I said companion." 
 
 Then, as Jacqueline leaned her head on Judith's 
 shoulder, Judith talked to her long and tenderly of the 
 duty, the respect, the love she owed Throckmorton. 
 Jacqueline listened attentively enough. When the 
 little lecture was finished, Jacqueline whispered : 
 
 " I feel differently about it now. At first, I could 
 only think of Millenbeck arid a new piano, and doing 
 just as I liked ; but now, I will try I will really try 
 not to vex Major Throckmorton." 
 
 That was all that could be got out of her. 
 
 Judith went with her to her room, and did not 
 leave it until Jacqueline was tucked in her big four- 
 poster, with the ghastly white tester and dimity hang 
 ings. Jacqueline kissed her a dozen times before she 
 went away. Judith, too, was loath to leave. As long 
 as she was doing something for Jacqueline, she was 
 doing something for Throckmorton. For was not 
 Jacqueline Throckmorton's now ?
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THROCKMORTOX, who was modesty and respectful 
 ness itself in the presence of the woman he loved, was 
 far from being nervous or diffident with her family. 
 Next morning, having devoted all his smoking hours, 
 which comprised the meditative part of his life, to 
 Jacqueline, it occurred to him that he would have 
 to tackle Mrs. Temple. That quite exhilarated and 
 amused him. He knew well enough the Temple tra 
 dition, by which the master of the house was the 
 nominal ruler, while the mistress was the actual ruler, 
 and he also knew it would not be repeated at Millen- 
 beck. He was indulgent toward women to the last 
 degree indulgent of their whims, their foibles, their 
 faults and follies ; but it was an indulgence, not a 
 right. Jacqueline would find she had as much liberty 
 as ever her mother had, but it would not be by virtue 
 of a strong will over a weak one, but the free gift of 
 affection. The major was not a person subject to 
 petticoat government. In fact, he did not exactly 
 know what it meant, and the woman did not live who 
 could make him understand it. He rather looked
 
 THROCKMORTON. 193 
 
 forward to a brush with Mrs. Temple. He knew that 
 Millenbeck and all the worldly advantages of the 
 match would not influence her one iota. The con 
 viction of this, of her entire disinterestedness and in 
 tegrity, gave him pleasure. He knew that it was he 
 George Throckmorton who would be weighed by 
 Mrs. Temple, if not by Jacqueline ; this last an after 
 thought that came to him unpleasantly. 
 
 At breakfast, Throckmorton could not but feel a 
 sense of triumph over Jack, who, unconscious of an 
 impending step-mother, sat opposite his father, and 
 talked in the free, frank way to him that Throckmor 
 ton had always encouraged. The young rascal would 
 see, thought Throckmorton, with much satisfaction, 
 that it was possible for a man of forty- four, with more 
 gray hairs than black in his head, to hold his own 
 even against a fellow as fascinating as Jack fancied 
 himself to be. As luck would have it, Jack began to 
 talk about the Temples. 
 
 " Major, don't you think Mrs. Beverley a very 
 captivating woman ? By George ! she looks so pretty 
 in that little black bonnet she wears, if it wasn't for 
 interfering with you, sir, I would be tempted to go in 
 and win myself." 
 
 The boy's impudence tickled Throckmorton. He 
 
 could not but laugh in spite of himself at the idea 
 
 Jack, whom Judith treated very much as she did 
 
 Beverley! But Jack evidently thought his father 
 
 13
 
 194 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 had designs in that quarter, which misapprehension 
 still further amused the major. 
 
 "Mrs. Beverley is indeed a charming woman," 
 he answered. 
 
 Jack, however, became serious. In his heart he 
 sincerely admired and revered Judith, and his bless 
 ing was ready whenever the major informed him that 
 she would be the future mistress of Millenbeck. 
 
 " Mrs. Beverley has more sense and sprightliness 
 than any other woman I know. If she could be per 
 suaded to take off those black things she wraps her 
 self up in, and be herself which she isn't I should 
 think she would be great fun." 
 
 Jack knew Throckmorton well enough to see that 
 the shot had not hit the bull's-eye. Throckmor 
 ton was too ready to praise, discuss, and admire Ju 
 dith. " What does the old fellow want, anyway ? " 
 thought Jack to himself, " if Mrs. Beverley doesn't 
 suit him?" So then and there he entered into a dis 
 quisition on women in general and Judith Temple in 
 particular, which caused Throckmorton to ask sarcas 
 tically : 
 
 " May I ask where you acquired your knowledge 
 of the sex?" 
 
 " It would be impossible to associate with you, 
 major, without learning much about them," an 
 swered Jack, " you are such a favorite with the ladies. 
 You are a very handsome man, you know, sir "
 
 TIIROCKMORTON. 195 
 
 Here Throckmorton smiled. 
 
 " For your age, that is " 
 
 The major frowned slightly. 
 
 " They all like you even little Jacqueline." 
 
 To save his life, Throckmorton could not prevent 
 a flush from rising to his face, which he hated ; for 
 the emotions of forty-four are infinitely ridiculous to 
 twenty-two. But it was just as well to have things 
 settled then. A queer glitter, too, showing under 
 standing, had come into Jack's eyes. 
 
 " I may say to you," said Throckmorton, after a 
 little pause, " that you would do well to be guarded in 
 your references to Miss Temple. She has promised 
 to marry me." 
 
 They had finished breakfast by that time, and 
 were about to separate for the morning. Jack got 
 up, and Throckmorton noticed his handsome young 
 face paled a little. He had not escaped Jacqueline's 
 spell any more than Throckmorton and Freke ; but it 
 was not an overmastering spell, and in his heart he 
 loved his father with a manly affection that he never 
 thought of putting into words, but which was stronger 
 than any other emotion. He walked up to Throckmor 
 ton and shook hands with him, laughing, but with a 
 nervousness in his laugh, an abashed look on his face, 
 that told the whole story to Throckmorton's keen eye. 
 
 " I congratulate you, sir. She is a a beautiful 
 girl and and I hope you will be very happy."
 
 196 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 " I think I shall," gravely responded Throckmor- 
 ton. " I can not explain things to you that you can 
 only learn by experience. I have not forgotten I 
 never can forget your mother, who made my hap 
 piness during our short married life. I have been 
 twenty years recovering from the pain of losing her 
 enough to think of replacing her." 
 
 Jack had recovered himself a little while Throck- 
 morton was speaking. The wound was only skin- 
 deep with him. 
 
 " And is it to be immediately ? " he asked. 
 
 " As soon as I can bring it about," replied Throck- 
 morton ; " but I have got to bring my dear, obstinate 
 old friend Mrs. Temple round first " here both of 
 them laughed " so you will see the necessity of keep 
 ing the affair absolutely quiet." 
 
 " You had better join the church, sir," said Jack, 
 who was himself again. " That will be your best 
 card to play." 
 
 " Very likely," responded Throckmorton, good- 
 humoredly, " but I think I can win the game even 
 without that." 
 
 In the bright morning sunshine out - of - doors 
 Throckmorton began to take heart of grace about 
 Jacqueline. Jack did not seem to think it such an 
 unequal match. With love and patience what might 
 not be done with any woman ? Throckmorton began 
 to whistle jovially. He went out to the stable lot to
 
 THROCKMORTON. 197 
 
 take a look at the horses, as he did every morning. 
 Old Tartar, that had carried him during four years' 
 warfare, and was now honorably retired and turned 
 out to grass, came toward him whinnying and ready 
 for his morning pat all horses, dogs, and children 
 loved Throckmorton. Tartar, who had lost an eye 
 in the service of his country, turned his one remain 
 ing orb around so as to see Throckmorton, and rubbed 
 his noble old head against his master's knee. Throck 
 morton noticed him more than usual his heart was 
 more tender and pitiful to all creatures that morning. 
 
 Toward noon he went over to Barn Elms. The 
 morning was intensely cold, though clear, and the 
 fields and fences and hedges were still white with 
 snow. For the first time Throckmorton noticed the 
 extreme shabbiness of Barn Elms. 
 
 " Dear little girl," he said, " she shall have a dif 
 ferent' home from this." 
 
 When he reached the house he was ushered straight 
 into the plain, old-fashioned drawing-room, and in a 
 moment Mrs. Temple appeared, perfectly unsuspicious 
 of what had happened or what was going to happen. 
 
 " Good - morning," cried Throckmorton some 
 thing in his tone showing triumph and happiness, and 
 in his dark face was a fine red color. " Mrs. Temple, 
 I came over to make a clean breast to you this morn- 
 ing!" 
 
 " About what ? " asked Mrs. Temple, sedately.
 
 108 TIIROCKMORTON. 
 
 They were both standing up, facing each other. 
 
 "About Jacqueline." Throckmorton spoke her 
 name almost reverently. 
 
 A sudden light broke in upon Mrs. Temple. She 
 grew perfectly rigid. 
 
 " Jacqueline ! " she said, in an undescribable tone. 
 
 " Yes, Jacqueline," answered Throckmorton, coolly. 
 " I love her I think she loves me and she has prom 
 ised to marry me. You may depend upon it, I shall 
 make her keep her promise." 
 
 Mrs. Temple remained perfectly silent for two or 
 three minutes before recovering her self-possession. 
 
 "You are forty-four years old, George Throck 
 morton." 
 
 " I know it. I never lied about my age to any 
 body." 
 
 " You are in the Yankee army ! " 
 
 " Yes, I am," responded Throckmorton, boldly, 
 " and I shall stay in it." 
 
 " And my daughter " 
 
 " For God's sake, Mrs. Temple, let us talk reason 
 ably together ! I am not going to take your daughter 
 campaigning." 
 
 " It isn't that I mean, George Throckmorton. I 
 mean the uniform you wear " 
 
 " Is the best in the world ! Now, my dear old 
 friend the best friend I ever had I want your con 
 sent and General Temple's I want it very much, but
 
 THROCKMORTON. 199 
 
 it isn't absolutely necessary. Jacqueline and I are to 
 be married. We settled that last night." 
 
 Mrs. Temple, with whom nobody had ever taken 
 a bold stand before, looked perfectly aghast. Throck- 
 morton saw his advantage, and pressed it hard. 
 
 " Have you any objection to me personally ? Am 
 I a drunkard, or a gambler, or a cad ? " 
 
 "You are not," responded Mrs. Temple, after a 
 pause. " I think you are, on the whole, except my 
 husband and my dead son, as much of a man " 
 
 Throckmorton took her hand and pressed it. 
 
 " Thank you ! thank you ! " His gratitude spoke 
 more in his tone than his words. "And now," he 
 cheerfully remarked, " that you have given your con 
 sent" 
 
 Mrs. Temple had given no such thing. Neverthe 
 less, within half an hour she had yielded to the in 
 evitable. She had met a stronger will than her own, 
 and was completely vanquished. 
 
 Jacqueline came down, and Throckmorton had a 
 half-hour of rapture not unmixed with pain. If only 
 his reason could be silenced, how happy he would 
 have been ! He did not see Judith ; he had quite for 
 gotten her for the time.
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 THROCKMORTOX, who was nothing if not prompt, 
 had infused so much life and spirit into his love-affair 
 that at the end of a week it was settled that the wed 
 ding should take place the last of February only a 
 month off. Jacqueline's trousseau was not likely to 
 be imposing, and the few, feeble reasons which Mrs. 
 Temple urged for delay were swept away by Throck- 
 morton's impetuosity. It was not the custom in that 
 part of the world for engagements to be formally 
 announced ; on the contrary, it was in order to deny 
 them up to the very last moment, and to regard them 
 as something surreptitious and to be hid under a 
 bushel. General Temple had magniloquently given 
 his consent, when Throckmorton went through the 
 form of asking it. Mrs. Temple still shook her head 
 gravely over the matter, particularly over the brief 
 engagement, which was quite opposed to the leisurely 
 way in which engagements were usually conducted in 
 her experience ; but Throckmorton seemed to have 
 mastered everybody at Barn Elms. For himself that 
 period was one of deep joy, and yet full of harassing
 
 TIIROCKMORTON. 201 
 
 doubts. The more he studied Jacqueline under her 
 xnew aspects, the stranger things became. It cut him 
 to see how little real consequence either her mother 
 or her father attached to her. Judith seemed to be 
 the only person who was concerned to make Jacque 
 line love him ; to regard the girl as a woman, and not 
 as a child. For Jacqueline herself, she was as change 
 able as the weather. Had she been steadily indiffer- 
 ent to him, Throckmorton would have thought noth 
 ing necessary but a manly fight to win her ; but 
 sometimes she showed devoted fondness for him, and, 
 without rhyme or reason, she would change into the 
 coldest indifference or teasing irritability. Throck 
 morton told himself it was the coyness and fickleness 
 of a young girl in love; but sometimes a hateful sus 
 picion overcame him that there was in Jacqueline an 
 innate levity and inconstancy that went to the root of 
 her nature. The evident delight she took in the lux 
 ury and pleasures that were to be hers the horses, 
 carriages, pianos, and flowers at Millenbeck was 
 rather that of a child dazzled with the fineries of life. 
 Her love for them was so unthinking and uncalculat- 
 ing that it did not shock Throckmorton ; yet how 
 could he, with his knowledge, his experience of men, 
 women, and things, help seeing the differences be 
 tween them differences that, had his infatuation 
 been less complete, would have appalled him ? As it 
 was, just as Judith had predicted to herself, he often
 
 202 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 came to her for sympathy and encouragement not 
 expressed in words, but in the subtile understanding 
 between them. Judith always spoke in praise of Jac 
 queline ; she artfully managed to show Throckmorton 
 the best of her. But for Judith the marriage could 
 never have been hastened on, as Throckmorton de 
 sired ; for, as soon as she found out Throckmorton's 
 wish, she went to work on Jacqueline's trousseau with 
 a sort of desperate energy that carried things through. 
 Jacqueline could have no fine silk gowns, but she was 
 to have piles of the daintiest linen, of which the ma 
 terial cost little, but the beautiful handiwork lavished 
 upon it by Judith was worth a little fortune. Jacque 
 line herself, spurred on by Judith's industry, sewed 
 steadily. As for Judith, the fever of working for 
 Jacqueline seized her, and never abated. She even 
 neglected her child for Jacqueline, until Mrs. Temple, 
 with stern disapproval, took her to task about it. Ju 
 dith, blushing and conscience-stricken, owned to her 
 fault, although nobody could accuse her of lacking 
 love for the child. But still she managed to sew 
 for Jacqueline, sitting up secretly by night, and 
 with a pale, fixed face stitch, stitch, stitching ! 
 Jacqueline could not understand it at all ; and when 
 she asked Judith about it once, she was so sud 
 denly and strangely agitated that Jacqueline, a little 
 frightened, dropped the subject at once. But, in 
 truth, this was to Judith a time of new, strange, and
 
 THROCKMORTON. 203 
 
 terrible grief and disappointment. How she had ever 
 permitted Throckmorton to take up her whole heart 
 and mind she did not know any more than she could 
 fathom now how she ever came to mistake an early 
 and immature fancy for a deep and abiding passion, 
 and had suffered herself to be married to Beverley 
 Temple. She endured agonies of remorse for that, 
 and yet hourly excused herself to herself. "How 
 could I know," she asked herself in those long hours 
 of the night when men and women come face to face 
 with their sorrows. But all her remorse was for Bev 
 erley. As for the hatred she ought to feel for Throck 
 morton as the slayer of her husband, she had come to 
 laugh it to scorn in her own mind. But, like all true 
 women, she respected the world the narrow circle 
 which constituted her world and she felt oppressed 
 with shame at the idea that the whole story might all 
 one day come out, and then what would they think 
 of her'? What would they do to her? She could 
 not say, as she had once said, " I do not believe it." 
 She had heard it from Throckmorton's own mouth. 
 She would have to say, " I knew it, and went to his 
 house, and continued to be friendly with him, and 
 spoke no word when he wished to marry Beverley's 
 sister." She could not divine the reason of Freke's 
 silence, but, torn and harassed and wearied with strug 
 gles of heart and conscience, she simply yielded to the 
 fatalism of the wretched, and let things drift. Some-
 
 204: THROCKMORTON-. 
 
 times in her own room, after she had spent the even 
 ing with Throckmorton and Jacqueline, seeing clearly 
 under his perfectly self-possessed exterior his infatua 
 tion for Jacqueline, she would be wroth with him. 
 Judith, the most modest and unassuming of women, 
 would say to herself, with scorn of Throckmorton: 
 "How blind he is! To throw away on Jacqueline, 
 who in her turn throws it to the wind, what would 
 make me the proudest creature under heaven ! And 
 am I unworthy of his love, or less worthy than Jac 
 queline?" To which her keen perceptions would 
 answer rebelliously, " No, I am more worthy in every 
 way." She would examine her face carefully in the 
 glass, holding the candle first one side, then the other, 
 " This, then, is the face that Throckmorton is indif 
 ferent to. It is not babyish, like Jacqueline's ; there 
 are no dimples, but" Then the grotesqueness of it 
 all would strike her, and even make her laugh. The 
 fiercest pain, the most devouring jealousy never wrung 
 from her the faintest admission that there was any 
 thing to be ashamed of in cherishing silently a pro 
 found and sacred love for Throckmorton. He was 
 worthy of it, she thought, proudly. Toward him her 
 manner never changed she was mistress of some of 
 the nobler arts of deception but sometimes, although 
 working for Jacqueline, and tending her affection 
 ately, she would be angry and disdainful because Jac 
 queline did not always render to Throckmorton his
 
 THROCKMORTON. 205 
 
 due. She almost laughed to herself when she com 
 pared this horror of pain and grief which she now 
 endured with the shock and pity of Beverley's death. 
 She remembered that the joy her child gave her 
 seemed almost wicked in its intensity at that time. 
 What passions of happiness were hers when she would 
 rise stealthily in the night and, taking him from his 
 little crib, would hold him to her throbbing heart; 
 and often, from the next room, she could hear Mrs. 
 Temple pacing her floor, and could imagine the silent 
 wringing of the hands and all the unspoken agonies 
 the elder mother endured for her child ! Then she 
 would swiftly and guiltily put the child back in his 
 cradle, and, with remorse and self-denial, lie near 
 him without touching him. Often in that long-past 
 time, when she met him in his nurse's arms, she 
 would fly toward him with a merry, dancing step, 
 laughing all the time she was so happy, so proud 
 to have him and, looking up, would catch Mrs. 
 Temple's eyes fixed on her with a still reproach she 
 understood well enough. Then she would turn 
 away from him, and, sitting down by Mrs. Temple, 
 would not even let her eyes wander to the child, 
 and would remain silent and unanswering to his 
 baby wail. 
 
 But in this first real passion of her life, the child, 
 much as she adored him, was secondary. He was her 
 comfort she would not, if she could, have let him
 
 206 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 out of her sight or out of her arms but he could 
 no more make her forget Throckmorton than any 
 thing else ; he could only soften the intolerable ache 
 a little, when he leaned his curly head upon her 
 breast ; and as for that easy and conventional phrase, 
 the goodness of God, and that ready consolation that 
 had seemed so apt at the time of Beverley's death, 
 she began to substitute, for the mild and merciful 
 Divinity, a merciless and relentless Jehovah, who had 
 condemned her to suffer forever, and who would not 
 be appeased. 
 
 At first, the secret of the engagement was well 
 kept. Only Jack Throckmorton, who behaved beau 
 tifully about it, and Freke, knew of the impending 
 wedding. Freke's behavior was singular, not to say 
 mysterious. He was so cool and unconcerned that 
 Jacqueline was furiously piqued, and could scarcely 
 keep her mind off her grievance against him for 
 not taking her engagement more to heart, even when 
 Throckmorton was with her. Freke's congratulations 
 were quite perfunctory as unlike Jack Throckmor- 
 ton's whole-souled good wishes as could be imagined. 
 One morning, soon after the news had been confided 
 to Freke, he came into the dining-room, where Judith 
 was sewing, with Jacqueline, also sewing, sitting de 
 murely by her side. 
 
 " Making wedding finery, eh ? " was Freke's re 
 mark as lie seated himself.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 207 
 
 " Yes," answered Judith, quietly, without laying 
 down her work. 
 
 "I want to see how much Jacqueline will be 
 changed by marriage You mustn't flirt with Jack, 
 little Jacky." 
 
 He said this quite good-humoredly, and Jacque 
 line turned a warm color. 
 
 " And don't let me see you running after the 
 chickens, as I saw you the other day. That wouldn't 
 be dignified, you know ; it would make Major Throck- 
 morton ridiculous. You must do all you can to keep 
 the difference in your ages from becoming too ob 
 vious." 
 
 Judith felt a rising indignation. Jacqueline's 
 head was bent lower. She dreaded and feared that 
 people would tease her about Throckmorton's age. 
 Freke saw in a moment how it was with her, and 
 kept it up. 
 
 " Throckmorton is sensible in one way. His hair 
 is plentifully sprinkled with gray, but he doesn't use 
 art to conceal it." 
 
 " I do not think forty-four is old," said Judith, 
 indignant at Jacqueline's tame submission to this sort 
 of talk. " I think, with most women, Major Throck 
 morton would have the advantage over younger 
 men." 
 
 As soon as she said this, she repented. Freke 
 glanced at her with a look so amused and so exasper-
 
 208 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 ating that she could have burst into tears of shame 
 on the spot. 
 
 " Come, Jacqueline," cried Freke, rising, " let us 
 go for a walk. I don't know whether Throckmor- 
 ton will permit this after you are married. Marriage, 
 my dear little girl, is more of a yoke than a garland. 
 I am well out of mine, thank Heaven ! " 
 
 Judith cast a beseeching look at Jacqueline, but 
 Freke had fixed his eyes commandingly on her. 
 That was enough. Jacqueline rose and went out to 
 get her hat. 
 
 Judith sat quite silent. She rarely spoke to Freke 
 when she could help it. 
 
 " What do you think of this ridiculous marriage?" 
 he asked. 
 
 " I, at least, don't think it ridiculous. There are 
 incongruities much worse than a difference in age." 
 
 " Yes, I understand," assented Freke, with mean 
 ing. " I have found it so. If I were as free as Throck- 
 morton, though, I would be in no hurry to put my 
 head in the noose." 
 
 " You said just now you were free." 
 
 " Did I ? Well, in fact I am free in some States 
 and not in others. You people down here seem to 
 regard me as an escaped felon. That sort of thing 
 doesn't exist any longer in civilized communities." 
 Judith made no reply. She hated Freke with a kind 
 of unreasoning hatred that put a guard upon her lips,
 
 TI1ROCKM011TON. 209 
 
 lest she should be tempted to say something rash. 
 And in a moment Jacqueline was back, and, with a 
 defiant look at Judith, went off with Freke. Freke 
 caught a glance from Judith's eyes as they went out. 
 The fact that it expressed great anger and contempt 
 for him did not make him overlook that her eyes were 
 remarkably full of fire and the turn of her head some 
 thing beautiful. 
 
 "Judith is a thoroughbred there's no mistake 
 about that," he said to Jacqueline and kept on talk 
 ing about Judith until he reduced Jacqueline to a 
 jealous silence, and almost to tears when a few 
 words of praise restored her to complete good humor. 
 Throckmorton never played off on her like this it 
 was quite opposed to his directness and straightfor 
 wardness. 
 
 Freke was more constantly at Barn Elms than 
 ever before. It often occurred to Judith that he took 
 pains to keep secret from Throckmorton all the time 
 he passed with Jacqueline. Sometimes she even sus 
 pected that Jacqueline had some share in keeping 
 Throckmorton in the dark, so constant was Freke's 
 presence when Throckmorton was absent, and so un 
 varying was his absence when Throckmorton was 
 present. 
 
 After a while, though, a hint of the engagement 
 got abroad in the county, and the people generally, 
 
 who had never relaxed in the slightest degree their 
 14
 
 210 THROCKMOIITON. 
 
 forbidding exterior to Throckmorton, now some 
 what included the Temples in the ban. Throckmor 
 ton, engrossed with his own affairs, had ceased to 
 care for himself, bqing quite content with the few 
 people around him who took him into their homes. 
 But he felt it acutely for Jacqueline, who told him, 
 with childish cruelty, without thinking of the pang 
 she inflicted, of the strange coolness that all at once 
 seemed to have fallen between her and her acquaint 
 ances. And Judith was sure that Freke put notions 
 of that kind and of every kind into the girl's head. 
 Once, after one of Freke's daily visits for, if any 
 thing, he came oftener than Throckmorton Jacque 
 line said, quite disconsolately, to Judith : 
 
 " Freke says I shall never have any more girl 
 friends after I am married. Throckmorton is too old ; 
 and, besides, the people in this county will never, 
 never really recognize him." 
 
 " This county is not all the world and, Jacque 
 line, pray, pray don't listen to anything Freke has to 
 say." 
 
 " I know you don't like Freke." 
 
 " I hate him." 
 
 Judith, when she said this, looked so handsome 
 and animated that Throckmorton, entering at that 
 moment, paid her a pretty compliment, which she 
 received first with so much confusion and then with 
 so much haughtiness that Throckmorton was as com-
 
 THROCKMOBTON. 211 
 
 pletely puzzled as the night he offered to kiss her 
 haud, and concluded that Judith was as freakish as 
 all women are. 
 
 Among the smaller irritations which Throckmor- 
 ton had to bear, at this strange time, was Jack's sly 
 rallying. Jack assumed his father to be a love-sick 
 octogenarian. Anything less love-sick than Throck- 
 morton's simple and manly affection, or less suggest 
 ive of age than his alert and vigorous maturity, would 
 be hard to find. But Jack had always possessed the 
 power of tormenting his father where women were 
 concerned the natural penalty, perhaps, of having a 
 son so little younger than himself. Jack felt infinite 
 respect for Jacqueline, and never once indulged in 
 a joke calculated to really rouse Throckmorton ; but 
 some occasions were too good for him to spare the 
 major. Such conversations as these were frequent : 
 
 "Major, are you going over to Barn Elms this 
 evening ? " 
 
 " No, I was there this morning." 
 
 " I understand, sir, that two visits a day, when the 
 young lady is in the immediate neighborhood, is the 
 regulation thing." 
 
 " You are at liberty to understand what you please. 
 With youngsters like yourself, probably three visits 
 would hardly be enough." 
 
 " I have been told that these things affect all ages 
 alike."
 
 212 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 Throckmorton scowled, but scowls were wasted on 
 Jack, whose particular object was to put the major in 
 a bad humor ; in which design, however, he rarely 
 succeeded. 
 
 In spite of the silence that had been maintained 
 by the Barn Elms people regarding the engagement, 
 Mrs. Sherrard, who had what is vulgarly called a nose 
 for news, found it out by some occult means, and 
 Throckmorton was held up in the road, as he was rid 
 ing peacefully along, to answer her inquiries. 
 
 " I think you and Jacky Temple are going to be 
 married soon, from what I hear," was her first ag 
 gressive remark, putting her head out of the win 
 dow of her ramshackly old carriage. 
 
 " Do you ? " responded Throckmorton, with laugh 
 ing eyes. " You must think me a deuced lucky fel 
 low." 
 
 Mrs. Sherrard did not speak for a moment or two, 
 and a cold chill struck Throckmorton, while the 
 laugh died out of his eyes. 
 
 " That's as may be," she replied, diplomatically ; 
 " but the idea of your marching about, thinking you 
 are deceiving me ! " 
 
 " I am young and bashful, you know, Mrs. Sher 
 rard." 
 
 " You are not young, but you are younger than 
 you are bashful. You always were one of those quiet 
 dare-devils the worst kind, to my mind."
 
 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 " Thank you, ma'am." 
 
 And Jane Temple ha ! ha ! " 
 
 Throckmorton joined in Mrs. Sherrard's fine, ring 
 ing laugh. 
 
 " A Yankee son-in-law ! " screamed Mrs. Sherrard, 
 still laughing ; then she became grave, and beckoned 
 Throckmorton, sitting straight and square in his sad 
 dle, to come closer, so the black driver could not hear. 
 " Jane, you know," she said, confidentially, " was 
 always daft about the war after Beverley's death ; and, 
 let me tell you, Beverley was a fine, tall, handsome, 
 brave, silly, commonplace fellow as ever lived. Judith 
 has more brains and wit than all the Temple men 
 put together, and most of the women. Hers was as 
 clear a case of a winged thing that can soar married 
 to a Muscovy drake as ever I saw. Luckily, she 
 hadn't an opportunity to wake up to it fully, be 
 fore he was killed ; and then, just like a hot-headed, 
 romantic thing, she wrapped herself in crape, and has 
 given up her whole life to Jane and General Temple, 
 and Jacky." 
 
 Throckmorton felt a certain restraint in speak 
 ing of Judith to Mrs. Sherrard, who had assumed 
 that it was his duty to fall in love with Judith instead 
 of Jacqueline. So he flicked a fly off his horse's neck 
 and remained silent. 
 
 " I do wish," resumed Mrs. Sherrard, pettishly, 
 " that Jane Temple would act like a woman of sense,
 
 THROCKMOKTON. 
 
 and send for me over to Barn Elms, and show me 
 Jacky's wedding things." 
 
 " Very inconsiderate of Jane, I am sure. If it 
 would relieve your mind at all, you might come to 
 Millenbeck, and I would be delighted to show you 
 my coats and trousers. They are very few. I always 
 have a plenty of shirts and stockings, but my outside 
 wardrobe isn't imposing." 
 
 " I don't take the slightest interest in your clothes. 
 You don't dress half as much as Jack does." 
 
 " Of course not ; I can't afford it." 
 
 " One thing is certain. If you have any sort of a 
 wedding at Barn Elms, they'll have to send over and 
 borrow my teaspoons. There hasn't been a party at 
 Barn Elms for forty years, that they haven't done it, 
 and I always borrow Jane Temple's salad-bowl and 
 punch-ladles whenever I have company." 
 
 " I don't think there will be any wedding feast 
 there?' answered Throckmorton. 
 
 " Jacky wants one, / know," said Mrs. Sherrard, 
 very knowingly. "Jacky loves a racket." 
 
 " Quite naturally at her age." 
 
 " Oh, yes, of course her age, as you say. I shall 
 tell Edmund Morford to pay you a pastoral visit, as 
 he always does upon the eve of marriages, to instruct 
 you in the duties of the married state." 
 
 " Then I shall tell Edmund Morford that I know 
 considerably more about my duties in the premises
 
 .TIIROCKMOKTON. 215 
 
 than he does; and I'll shut him up before he has 
 opened his mouth, as Sweeney would say." 
 
 " If anybody could shut my nephew up, I believe 
 it is you, George Throckmorton. Has Jane Temple 
 suggested that you should join the church yet ? " 
 
 " She suggests it to me every time I go to Barn 
 Elms, and whenever I go off for a lover's stroll with 
 Jacqueline, Mrs. Temple tells me I ought to go home 
 and seek salvation." 
 
 " And do you mind her ? " asked Mrs. Sherrard, 
 quite gravely ; at which Throckmorton gave her a look 
 that was dangerously near a wink. 
 
 Mrs. Sherrard drove off, triumphant. She had got 
 at the whole thing, in spite of Jane Temple. 
 
 The wedding preparations went bravely along; 
 carried on chiefly by Judith. Jacqueline had set her 
 heart on a white silk wedding dress, which for a time 
 eclipsed everything else on her horizon. Mrs. Temple 
 declared that it was extravagant, but Judith, by keen 
 persuasion, succeeded in getting the wedding-gown. 
 She made it with her own hands, and across the front 
 she designed a beautiful and intricate embroidery, to 
 be worked by her. 
 
 " Judith, you will kill yourself over that wedding- 
 gown," Mrs. Temple once remarked. " You have 
 drawn such an elaborate design upon it that you will 
 have to work night and day to get it finished." 
 
 "I shall simply have to be a little more indus-
 
 216 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 trious than usual," replied Judith, with the deep 
 flush that now alternated with extreme paleness. 
 
 Jacqueline herself was deeply interested in this 
 gown ; more so than in any particular of the coming 
 wedding. Judith had marked off for herself a cer 
 tain task of work each day upon the embroidery of 
 the gown. Every night, when she stopped at the end 
 of her task, it was as if another stone were laid upon 
 her heart. Throckmorton had noticed her industry, 
 and had admired her handiwork, which she proudly 
 showed him. 
 
 " But you are getting white and thin over it," he 
 said. " Wouldn't it be better that Jacqueline should 
 not have such a beautiful frock, than for you to work 
 yourself ill over it ? I have a great mind to speak to 
 Mrs. Temple about it." 
 
 " No, no, pray don't ! " cried Judith, with a kind of 
 breathless eagerness. " It would break my heart not 
 to finish it. ?; 
 
 Throckmorton looked at her closely. She was not 
 given to that kind of talk. But suddenly she began 
 telling him a funny story of Mrs. Sherrard coming 
 over to pump Mrs. Temple about the coming event, 
 and then she laughed and made him laugh too. 
 Walking back home that night, he found himself 
 speculating on this development of fun and merriment 
 in Judith a thing she had always suppressed and 
 kept in abeyance until lately.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 217" 
 
 " Certainly she is in better spirits more like what 
 one can see her natural self is in the last month or 
 two," he thought ; and then he began to think what 
 a very sweet and natural woman she was, and to hope 
 that, when Jacqueline was her age, she would have 
 developed into something like Judith. But he never 
 liked to look very far into the future with Jacque 
 line. 
 
 As the time drew nearer for the wedding, Freke's 
 continued presence at Barn Elms became more 
 marked. He did not avoid Throckmorton any long 
 er, who thought no more of it than he did of 
 Jack's frequent visits. Jack had quite got over any 
 chagrin or disappointment he might have felt, and 
 was kindness and attention itself to Jacqueline. 
 Throckmorton sometimes felt annoyed and discour 
 aged at seeing how much more Jacqueline had in 
 common with Jack than with himself. They were 
 on the terms of a brother and sister Jack teasing 
 and joking, yet unvaryingly kind to her, and Jacque 
 line always overflowing with talk to him, while with 
 Throckmorton she was sometimes at a loss for words. 
 But one glance from her dark eyes that peculiar 
 witching glance that had fixed Throckmorton's atten 
 tion on her that very first Sunday in church could 
 always make amends to him. As for Freke, he came 
 and went with his violin under his arm, and nobody 
 attached any importance to him except Judith, who
 
 218 TimoCKMORTON. 
 
 honored him with the same still, guarded ill-will that 
 Freke perfectly recognized, and did not apparently 
 trouble himself about. His eternal presence in the 
 house was a nightmare to Judith. She wondered if 
 he would keep on that way after Jacqueline was gone 
 when Jacqueline was mistress of Millenbeck; but 
 she could not dwell on that without a tightening at 
 her heart. At all events, it would soon be over. 
 
 Mrs. Temple had at last got interested in the 
 wedding preparations, and everything was going on 
 famously until about two weeks before the wedding, 
 when one day General Temple got a letter. There 
 was to be a reunion of Beverley's old command at 
 Richmond, and it was desired that the Temple family 
 should attend. 
 
 Such a request was sacred in the eyes of General 
 and Mrs. Temple. It was at once decided that 
 General Temple must go, and he insisted that Mrs. 
 Temple should go also. She was only too willing. 
 Inconvenient as it might otherwise be to leave home, 
 the idea of having Beverley talked of, eulogized, re 
 membered, was too near the idolatrous mother's heart 
 to be foregone. The invitation also included Judith, 
 but it was clearly impossible for both Judith and 
 Mrs. Temple to leave Barn Elms at the same time 
 just then ; so it was quickly settled, to Judith's infinite 
 relief, that Mrs. Temple should be the one to go. 
 Mrs. Temple was helped to a decision by the reflection
 
 THROCKMORTON. 219 
 
 that Judith, being young and handsome, it was not 
 impossible that some miscreant might suggest the 
 possibility of her marrying again ; and, without utter 
 ing this impious thought, it had its influence upon 
 her. So it was fixed that, within a day or two, they 
 were to start, and would be gone probably four days. 
 Throckmorton was vexed at the decision vexed at 
 the entire readiness to sacrifice Jacqueline's conven 
 ience to that of the dead and gone Beverley. But he 
 wisely said nothing ; in a little while Jacqueline would 
 have some one that woiUd always consider her first 
 But suddenly Jacqueline raised a tempest by de 
 claring that she wanted to go with her father and 
 mother as far as a certain station on the railroad, 
 near Richmond, and thence to pay a visit to her 
 Aunt Susan Steptoe. Now, Jacqueline had never 
 showed the slightest fondness for this Aunt Steptoe, 
 and, in fact, was singularly lacking in family affection, 
 after the Virginia pattern, which takes in a whole 
 family connection. Consequently, the notion was the 
 more remarkable. When it was first broached, it was 
 simply pooh-poohed by the general, and calmly ignored 
 by Mrs. Temple. Judith looked at her with reproach 
 ful eyes. 
 
 " You know, Jacqueline, there is no earthly reason 
 for such a whim ; and I am sure Major Throckmor 
 ton would not like it." 
 
 " It's of no consequence what Major Throckmor-
 
 220 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 ton thinks about it ! " cried Jacqueline, unterrified by 
 a warning light in Judith's eye it always made 
 Judith angry when Jacqueline spoke slightingly of 
 Throckmorton. 
 
 But Jacqueline held to her notion with the most 
 singular and startling pertinacity. Usually a word or 
 two from Judith would bring her back to the basis of 
 common sense ; but in this case, nothing Judith could 
 say would alter Jacqueline's determination. She was 
 tired of wedding clothes tired of Barn Elms tired 
 of everybody; in fact, she made no secret to Judith of 
 being tired of Throckmorton, and wanting to escape 
 from him for a time, if only for four days. She forced 
 her mother to listen to her, and would take no denial. 
 At last she hit upon the argument to move Mrs. Tem 
 ple. It was the last request she had to make until she 
 was married, and, if Mrs. Temple could do so much for 
 the dead Beverley, she certainly could not refuse this 
 trifling request from the living Jacqueline. Mrs. 
 Temple turned pale at this ; and she faltered out that, 
 childish and unreasonable as the scheme was, she 
 would agree provided Throckmorton gave his con 
 sent. 
 
 That night, when Throckmorton came for his 
 usual visit, Jacqueline met him at the hall-door with 
 a tenderness that surprised and charmed him. It was 
 so sweet, he could hardly believe it to be true. But, 
 before the evening was over, Jacqueline demanded
 
 THROCKMORTON. 221 
 
 payment in the shape of his consent that she should 
 pay this little visit to her Aunt Susan. 
 
 " Damn Aunt Susan ! " was Throckmorton's inward 
 remark at this ; and he managed to convey practically 
 the same idea to Jacqueline. But it did no good. 
 Jacqueline had the scheme in her head, and it must 
 be carried out. It was in vain that Throckmorton 
 reasoned gently with her. lie had often heard that 
 weak women were the most intractable in the world, 
 and the recollection made him wince when he saw 
 how dense this lovely young creature was to common 
 sense. But she was so ineffably pretty she leaned 
 her bright head on his shoulder and pleaded and, of 
 course, after a while, Throckmorton yielded, ostensibly 
 because Jacqueline asked him so sweetly, but really 
 because she was utterly impervious to reason. 
 
 "When the consent was at last wheedled out of him, 
 Throckmorton felt sore at heart and humiliated. He 
 also felt, for a brave man, a little frightened. How 
 often was this sort of thing going to happen ? It was 
 true that, after he was married, he could use his au 
 thority as Jacqueline's husband to prevent her from 
 doing anything particularly foolish, but it did not 
 please him that he should rule his wife as if she were 
 a child. Jacqueline saw nothing of Throckmorton's 
 secret dissatisfaction ; but Judith, with the clairvoyance 
 of love, saw it in an instant. For the first time in her 
 life, she followed him out into the hall, where he was
 
 222 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 getting into his overcoat, with rather a black counte 
 nance. 
 
 " Don't be troubled about it," she said, in her 
 charming way. " She is so young she will learn so 
 much from you ! " 
 
 Throckmorton took Judith's hand in his. She 
 made no resistance this time that quick inner sense 
 told her instinctively that there was something com 
 forting to him in her gentle and womanly clasp. He 
 looked at her with a somber expression on his face 
 that gradually lightened. 
 
 "Do you think she will ever be different ? " 
 
 " Yes," cried Judith, gayly. " How perfectly igno 
 rant you are of love ! I declare you are worse than 
 Jacqueline. It's the greatest reformer in the world 
 the most cunning teacher as well. It will teach 
 Jacqueline all she ought to know ; but it can't do it 
 at once." 
 
 "But does she love me?" asked Throckmorton, 
 smiling a little. 
 
 "How could she help it?" answered Judith, turn 
 ing her head archly, and implying that Throckmorton 
 considered himself a lady-killer which made him 
 laugh, and sent him off home in a little better humor 
 with the world and himself. 
 
 Meanwhile, back in the drawing-room, Jacqueline 
 was having a conversation with Simon Peter, who was 
 raking down the fire for the night. General and Mrs.
 
 TIHIOCKMORTOX. 223 
 
 Temple had left the room. Usually Jacqueline slipped 
 off to bed an hour before they did ; but to-night she 
 lingered, standing over the fire with one little foot on 
 the brass fender. 
 
 " How does it look to-night, Uncle Simon ? " she 
 asked, meaning how did the sky look, and what were 
 the chances for good weather. 
 
 " Hit looks mighty cu'rus to me, Miss Jacky," an 
 swered Simon Peter, in a queer sort of a voice that 
 made Jacqueline stare at him. " I seed two tuckey- 
 buzzards flyin' ober de house tog'er'r and dat's a 
 sign " 
 
 "A sign of what?" 
 
 " A sign 'tain' gwi' be no weddin' at Barn Elms dis 
 year." 
 
 Jacqueline turned a little pale. It had not been a 
 great many years since she had fully believed every 
 one of Simon Peter's signs and omens ; and even now, 
 his solemn prophecies sent a chill to her childish 
 heart. 
 
 "An'," continued Simon Peter, advancing and 
 raising a prophetic forefinger, " dis heah night I done 
 heah de owls hootin' ' Tu-whoo, tu-whoo, tu-whoo ! ' 
 three times, dat ar way dat doan' means nuttin' but 
 a funeral, when owls hoots dat away." 
 
 Jacqueline shuddered. 
 
 " Uncle Simon, hush ! " 
 
 " I tolo you kase you arsk me," replied Simon
 
 224: TIHIOCKMORTON. 
 
 Peter, stolidly; and at that moment Delilah came 
 in. 
 
 " mammy," cried Jacqueline, fairly bursting 
 into tears, " you don't know what awful signs and 
 things Uncle Simon has been seeing funerals, and 
 buzzards, and no wedding ! " 
 
 " He have, have he ! " snapped Delilah, with wrath 
 and menace. " Simon Peter, he su't'ny is de fool- 
 ishest nigger I ever seed. He ain't never got 'ligion 
 good; he allus wuz a blackslider, an' heah he come 
 skeerin' my little missy ter def wid he buzzards an' he 
 things ! " 
 
 Simon Peter, who bore this marital assault with 
 meekness, copied from General Temple, only remarked 
 sheepishly : 
 
 " I done see de signs ; an', Miss Jacky, she arsk 
 me, an' I done tole her 'bout de two buzzards." 
 
 " Wid de tails tied tog'er'r, I reckon ! " answered 
 Delilah, with withering sarcasm; "an' maybe dey 
 wuz gwi' fly ter Doc Wortley's ter see ef anybody gwi' 
 die soon. Doan' you min' Simon Peter, honey ; jes' 
 come wid mammy up-sty'ars an' she holp you to on- 
 dress an' put you in yo' bed." 
 
 Jacqueline went off, and in half an hour was 
 tucked snugly in the great four-poster. But she 
 would not let Delilah leave her. She kept her pulling 
 the window-curtains this way and that, then raking 
 down the fire because the light from the blazing logs
 
 THROCKMORTON". 225 
 
 hurt her eyes, and then stirring the flames into a blaze 
 so that she might see the shadows on the wall. At 
 last, however, Delilah got out, Jacqueline calling after 
 her disconsolately : 
 
 " mammy, do you believe in the two buzzards 
 flying" 
 
 " You jes' shet dat little mouf, an' go ter sleep, 
 honey," was Delilah's sensible reply, as she weut 
 
 out. 
 
 The next day the whole party got off, General Tem 
 ple leaving directions enough behind him to last if he 
 were going to Turkey instead of ,to Richmond. Jac 
 queline at the last seemed loath to part from Judith. 
 She said good-by half a dozen times, and wept a little 
 at parting. There would be no need of letters, as 
 they would only be gone four days. Jacqueline was 
 to stop off at the station, and join her father and 
 mother there on their return from Richmond, getting 
 home ten days before the wedding. There was some 
 talk of asking Mrs. Sherrard to come over and stay with 
 Judith during the absence of General and Mrs. Tem 
 ple, but Judith protested. With her child she would 
 not suffer for company, and the work on Jacqueline's 
 wedding-dress would keep her busily employed, while 
 Delilah and Simon Peter were protection enough for 
 her at night. Besides this, Throckmorton and Jack 
 would be over every day to look after her. When it 
 was all arranged, Judith felt a sensation of gladness. 
 15
 
 226 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 She would have four days in which she would not be 
 compelled to play her silent and desperate part. She 
 could weep all night without the fear that Mrs. Tem 
 ple's clear eyes would notice how pale and worn she 
 was in the morning ; she could relax a little the con 
 tinual tension on her nerves, her feelings, her expres 
 sion. So, when they were gone, she came back into 
 the lonely house, and, leaving Beverley with his mam 
 my, went up to her own room, and taking out the 
 white silk wedding-gown went to work on it with a 
 pale, unhappy face ; she had dared not show an un 
 happy face before. 
 
 The day passed quickly enough, and the short 
 winter afternoon closed in. Judith would no longer 
 take time for her usual afternoon walk; every mo 
 ment must be devoted to Jacqueline's gown. About 
 eight o'clock, as she sat in the drawing-room, stitch 
 ing away, while overhead in her own room Delilah 
 watched the little Beverley as he slept, she heard 
 Throckmorton's step upon the porch. As she heard 
 it, she gave a slight start, and put her hand on her 
 heart something she always felt an involuntary in 
 clination to do, and which she had to watch herself 
 to prevent. Throckmorton came in, and greeted her 
 with his usual graceful kindness. 
 
 " I thought I would come over and see that nobody 
 stole you and Beverley," he said. 
 
 " There's no danger for me," answered Judith ;
 
 THROCKMORTON. 227 
 
 "but for a beautiful boy like my boy why, he's 
 always in danger of being stolen." 
 
 Throckmorton scoffed at this. 
 
 In five minutes they were seated together, having 
 the first real tete-a-tete of their lives. Judith sat 
 under the mellow gleam of the tall, old-fashioned 
 lamp, the light falling on her chestnut hair and black 
 dress and the billowy expanse of white silk spread 
 over her lap, making high white lights and rich shad 
 ows. Throckmorton had often admired her as she 
 sewed. Sewing was a peculiarly gracious and femi 
 nine employment, he thought, and Judith's sewing, 
 when he saw it, was always something artistic like 
 what she was now doing. Throckmorton lay back in 
 one corner of the great sofa, his feet stretched out to 
 the fire. They talked occasionally, but there were 
 long stretches of silence when the only sound was the 
 crackling of the wood-fire and the dropping of the 
 embers. Yet the unity was complete; there is no 
 companionship so real as that which admits of per 
 fect silence. Throckmorton, on the whole, though, 
 talked more than usual. Something in Judith always 
 inspired him to speak of things that he rarely men 
 tioned at all. They talked a little of Jacqueline, but 
 there were innumerable subjects on which they found 
 themselves in sympathy. The evening passed quickly 
 for both. When Throckmorton had gone, and tho 
 house was shut up for the night, Judith felt that she
 
 228 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 had passed the evening in a sort of shadowy happi 
 ness ; it would have been happiness itself, except that 
 in ten days more it would be wrong even to think of 
 Throckmorton. 
 
 Two days more passed. Every evening Throck 
 morton found himself making his way toward Barn 
 Elms. Each evening passed in the same quiet, simple 
 fashion, but yet there was something different to 
 Throckmorton from any evenings he had ever spent 
 in his life. As for Judith, after the first one, she 
 began to look forward with feverish eagerness to the 
 evening. She lived all day in expectation of that 
 two hours' talk with Throckmorton. She dressed 
 for him ; she hurried little Beverley to bed that she 
 might be ready for him. Her eyes assumed a new 
 brilliancy, and she became handsomer day by day. 
 
 On the day that the general and Mrs. Temple 
 were to leave for home a letter arrived from Mrs. 
 Temple. The general had been seized with an acute 
 attack of gout, and it would probably take two or 
 three days nursing to bring him around, so that they 
 would not be home until the last of the week. Mrs. 
 Temple had written to Jacqueline, and would write 
 again in a day or two, notifying Judith when to send 
 to the river landing for them. The delay was pecul 
 iarly inconvenient then, but it was God's will. Mrs. 
 Temple never had any trouble in reconciling herself 
 to God's will, except where Beverley was concerned.
 
 THROCKMORTOX. 229 
 
 Not a line had been received from Jacqueline. 
 It did not surprise Judith, because Jacqueline hated 
 letter-writing; but Throckmorton admitted, in an 
 embarrassed way, that he had written to her, but she 
 had not answered his letter. 
 
 During all this time Freke had not put in an 
 appearance, for which Judith was devoutly thankful. 
 
 On the fifth evening that Throckmorton went his 
 way to Barn Elms, it occurred to him that he went 
 there oftener when Jacqueline was away than when 
 she was there, and he was glad there were no gossip 
 ing tongues to wag about it. But luckily little Bever- 
 .ley, Delilah, and Simon Peter were the only three 
 persons who knew where Throckmorton spent his 
 evenings, and none of them were either carping or 
 critical. 
 
 He found Judith as usual in the drawing-room, 
 and as usual embroidering on the wedding-dress. 
 But there was something strange about her appear 
 ance; she looked altogether different from what she 
 usually did more girlish, more unrestrained. Throck 
 morton could not make it out for a long time. Then 
 he said, suddenly, " You have left off your widow's 
 cap." 
 
 Judith let her hands fall into her lap, and looked 
 at him with glittering eyes. 
 
 " Yes," she said, calmly. " I grew intolerably tired 
 of being a hypocrite, and to-night I determined for
 
 230 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 once to be my true self, so I laid aside my widow's 
 cap. I believe, if I had owned a white gown, I should 
 have put it on." 
 
 Throckmorton was so startled that he rose to his 
 feet. Judith rose, too, letting the white silk fall in a 
 heap on the floor. 
 
 " Are you surprised ? " she asked, with suppressed 
 excitement. "Well, so am I. But I will tell you 
 what I never dared breathe before I am no true 
 widow to Beverley Temple's memory. I never loved 
 him. I married him because because I did not 
 know any better, I suppose. I spent two miserable 
 weeks as his wife. I was beginning to find out . 
 and then he went away, and almost before I realized 
 it, he was killed." She hesitated for a moment ; the 
 picture of Throckmorton and Beverley in their life- 
 and- death struggle came quickly before her eyes. 
 Throckmorton was too dazed, astounded, confounded, 
 to open his mouth. He only looked at her as she 
 stood upright, trembling and red and pale by turns. 
 
 " I had no friends but General and Mrs. Temple ; 
 he was my guardian. You know, I had neither father 
 nor mother, brother nor sister. I felt the most acute 
 remorse for Beverley, and the most intense pity for 
 him, cut off as he was, and I fancied I felt the pro- 
 foundest grief. One suffers in sympathy, you know, 
 and, when I saw his mother's pitiable sorrow, it made 
 me feel sorry too. The world my world saw me a
 
 THROCKMORTON. 231 
 
 broken-hearted widow a widow while I was almost a 
 bride. Don't you think any woman of feeling would 
 have done as I did tried to atone to the man I had 
 mistakenly married by being true to his memory ? I 
 determined to devote my life to his father and mother ; 
 and, in some way I can't explain, except that you know 
 how Mrs. Temple is, I pretended that my heart was 
 broken ; but I tell you, Beverley Temple never touched 
 my heart, either in life or death, although I did not 
 know it then. But for for some time the deceit has 
 lain heavy upon me. I am tired of pretending to be 
 what I am not. I wish for life, for love, for happi 
 ness." 
 
 She stopped and threw herself into a chair with an 
 abandon that Throckmorton had never seen before. 
 Still, he did not utter a word. But Judith knew that 
 he was keenly observing her, feeling for her, and even 
 deeply moved by what she told him. 
 
 " So to-night the feeling was so strong upon me, I 
 took off my widow's cap and threw it on the floor ; it 
 was a sudden impulse, just as I was leaving my room, 
 and I took Beverley's picture from around my neck, 
 and I didn't have the courage to throw it in the fire as 
 I wanted to ; I only " with a nervous laugh " put it 
 in my pocket." 
 
 She took the picture from her dress and handed it 
 him. Throckmorton received it mechanically, but, 
 the instant his eyes fell upon it, his countenance
 
 232 THEOCKMORTON. 
 
 changed. In a moment or two he said, in an inde 
 scribable voice : 
 
 " I know this face well ; he was killed on the 14th 
 of April. I shall never forget that face to my dying 
 day." 
 
 " I know all about it," responded Judith, rising 
 and coming toward him ; " Freke told me." 
 
 Her excitement was no longer suppressed, and 
 Throckmorton was deeply agitated. He took Judith's 
 hand. 
 
 " But did he tell you all ? / did not fire the shot 
 that killed your husband ; it was fired by one of his 
 own men probably aimed for me. I never succeeded 
 in drawing my pistol at all. The first I knew, in those 
 frightful moments, was when he shrieked and threw 
 np his arms. I thought he would never breathe 
 again." 
 
 " But he lived some hours," continued Judith, " and 
 and I thought it was you, and I ought to have hated 
 you for it, but I could not ; I could not ; and now, God 
 is so good ! " 
 
 She dropped into a chair. Throckmorton felt as 
 if the world were coming to an end, his ideas about 
 Judith were being so quickly and strangely trans 
 formed. He was too stupefied to speak, and for five 
 minutes there was a dead silence between them. 
 Then Throckmorton's strong common sense awoke. 
 He went to her and took her hand.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 233 
 
 " For your own sake, for your child's sake, be care 
 ful. Do not tell any one what you have told me. 
 The penalty of deception is great, and your penalty 
 will be to keep it up a little while longer. When I 
 am married to Jacqueline, you will have a friend, a 
 home. Then, if you want to take off those black gar 
 ments, to be yourself, you may count on me ; but, for 
 the present, be prudent. You are so impulsive." 
 
 But Judith now was weeping violently and accus 
 ing herself. The reaction had come. Throckmorton 
 felt strangely thrilled by her emotion. He comforted 
 her, he held her hands, and even pressed kisses on 
 them. In a few minutes he had soothed her. The 
 old habits of self-control came back to her. She ral 
 lied bravely, and in half an hour she was quite com 
 posed. But it was the composure of despair. She 
 remembered, then, had Throckmorton but loved her, 
 the only obstacle between them would have been 
 shown to be imaginary. 
 
 Throckmorton stayed late. In spite of Judith's 
 quietness, he felt unhappy about her. She was too 
 quiet, too deathly pale. He felt an intense pity for 
 her, and he feared that she and her child would not 
 much longer find a home under the roof of Barn 
 Elms. 
 
 Three days more passed. There was still no word 
 from Jacqueline, and Mrs. Temple wrote that the gen 
 eral's gout bade fair to be a much more serious matter
 
 234: THROCKMORTON. 
 
 than they had first anticipated. It might be that the 
 wedding which was to be of the quietest sort might 
 have to be postponed. But that was nothing to Mrs. 
 Temple and the general, who reveled in the luxury 
 of a meeting where Beverley was remembered, praised, 
 and eulogized as can be done only by Southerners. 
 Nor did it seem to matter to Jacqueline. In fact, 
 Throckmorton and Judith appeared to be the only 
 persons particularly interested in it. As for Freke, 
 he had not been seen by either of them since the day 
 the Barn Elms people left. 
 
 Throckmorton continued to spend his evenings at 
 Barn Elms. The idea of Judith sitting solitary and 
 alone in the drawing-room the whole long, dull even 
 ing, drew him irresistibly. Not one line had Jacque 
 line written, either to him or to Judith. Nor had 
 Throckmorton written again to her. He was not the 
 man to give a woman more than one opportunity to 
 snub him. In his heart he was cruelly mortified ; his 
 pride, of which he had much, was hurt. He feared 
 that it was a part of that arrogance which first youth 
 shows to maturity. 
 
 On the eighth day after Jacqueline's departure 
 something like alarm began to possess Judith. She 
 called it superstition, and tried to put it away from 
 her. The day had been dull and gloomy a fine, 
 drizzling rain falling. The flat, monotonous land 
 scape looked inexpressibly dreary in the gray mist
 
 THROCKMORTON. 235 
 
 that hung low over the trees. It was dark long before 
 six o'clock. The night had closed in, and Judith, sit 
 ting alone in the drawing-room, had risen to light the 
 lamp, when she heard the front door open softly, and 
 the next instant she recognized Jacqueline's peculiar 
 light step so light that even Mrs. Temple's keen 
 ears could not always detect it when fits of restless 
 ness seized the girl at night, and she would walk up 
 and down her room over her mother's head. And 
 in a moment Jacqueline came into the room, and up 
 to Judith, and looked at her with strange, agonized 
 eyes. 
 
 The surprise, the shock of seeing her at that hour 
 and in that way, was extreme ; and Judith's first 
 words as her hands fell on Jacqueline's shoulder were : 
 
 " Jacqueline, you are wet through." 
 
 " I know it," answered Jacqueline, in a voice as 
 unlike her own as her looks ; " I have been out in the 
 rain for hours and hours ! " 
 
 "What is the matter with you?" cried Judith, 
 taking hold of her. " Something dreadful has hap 
 pened ! " 
 
 " Dreadful enough for me ! " replied Jacqueline, 
 white and dry-eyed. 
 
 " What is it ? " Judith was not easily frightened, 
 but she trembled as she spoke. 
 
 " Everything ! " answered Jacqueline. " In the 
 first place, I have left Freke. That broke my heart ! "
 
 236 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 " Left Freke ! " 
 
 " Yes. I didn't go to Aunt Steptoe's. I got off 
 at the station and Freke was there. He took me to 
 a minister's and got him to marry us. The man 
 could hardly read and write, and he said something 
 about a license ; but Freke gave him fifty dollars, and 
 he performed the ceremony." 
 
 Judith caught hold of her, to see if she were really 
 in the flesh, talking in this way. 
 
 " Don't hold me so hard, Judith. I will tell you 
 all I can ; but I feel as if I should die, I am so weak 
 and ill " and she suddenly began to cough violently. 
 Judith ran and got her a glass of wine. The first 
 idea in her mind was, not the poor, deluded child, but 
 Throckmorton. 
 
 " But where is Freke and your father and moth 
 er? Jacqueline, Jacqueline ! " 
 
 " Don't reproach me, Judith. But for you I would 
 never have returned. My father and mother know 
 nothing about it. Freke found out they were yet in 
 Kichmond. If they had been at Barn Elms, I don't 
 think I ever would have had the courage to come 
 back. The feeling soon came to me that I had com 
 mitted a great wrong in marrying Freke ; and then 
 and then he told me perhaps we weren't married at 
 all in Virginia, and so I would have to go with him 
 out to the place somewhere in the West and be 
 married to him straight and right."
 
 THROCKMORTON. 237 
 
 " If Freke had never committed any other wrong 
 in his whole life, his telling you that made him de 
 serve to be killed ! " cried Judith. 
 
 " Don't say a word against Freke," said Jacqueline, 
 a new anger blazing up in her eyes. " I love Freke ; 
 it almost kills me when I think I may never see him 
 again, for I ran away from him. At first I thought 
 all the time of the trouble I should bring upon you 
 all. I could see my father's gray head sink down in 
 his hands. I could imagine how my mother would 
 shut herself up in her room as she did when Beverley 
 died. They had always thought so little of me that 
 it gave me a kind of triumph when I remembered, 
 ' They'll have to think about me now ! ' " 
 
 " And Throckmorton ? " 
 
 "I never thought about him at all. As Freke 
 said, he was entirely too old for me. But I will not 
 speak of him. He knew I never loved him or he 
 ought to have known it. Then, when Freke found 
 out that mamma and papa were still in Kichmond, 
 it came to me like a flash that I could get home, and 
 I was sure of one friend, and only one in the world 
 now yourself. And I thought you were so clever 
 you could manage to keep anybody from finding out 
 where I had been. I seemed to hear your voice call 
 ing to me all the time, and every moment it seemed 
 to crush me more and more that Freke was a divorced 
 man, and that, however he might say he was free, he
 
 238 THBOCKMORTON. 
 
 was not. So, we were staying at a little town through 
 which the railroad passed, and Freke had to go into 
 Kichmond yesterday to get some money, and my con 
 science suddenly rose up and tortured me, and I 
 couldn't stay another moment and, mind you, Judith, 
 I love Freke. So I took the train all alone, and made 
 the boat, and landed at Oak Point about twelve 
 o'clock. I pretended to be surprised that nobody was 
 there to meet me, and said I would walk as far as 
 Turkey Thicket you know it is only a little way 
 from the landing. But, of course, I did not. Then 
 I was so afraid that some one Avould see me that, in 
 stead of taking the main road, I came through the 
 fields and by-paths. I believe I have walked ten 
 miles instead of six, from Oak Point and it was 
 raining, too. I was nearly frightened out of my life 
 frightened by negroes and stray dogs, and afraid 
 that I should see Freke every moment before me, and, 
 if he should overtake me, I knew I should go back 
 with him. I can no more resist him when he is with 
 me than I can stop breathing. Well, with weakness 
 for I felt ill from the moment I started and with 
 fear, and being so tired, and the rain, I thought I 
 should die before I reached here. But now I am 
 home home ! ' Jacqueline's voice rose in a piteous 
 cry. She had been weeping all the time, but now she 
 burst into a perfect tempest of sobs and tears that 
 shook her like a leaf.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 239 
 
 In her quiet life Judith had never been brought 
 face to face with any terrible emergency, and this one 
 unnerved and horrified her so that for a time she was 
 as helpless as Jacqueline. She walked the floor, strug 
 gling with the wild impulse to send for Throckmor- 
 ton ; that he alone could tell them what to do ; and 
 else she and the poor child would sink under the hor 
 ror of the situation, for to her simple and straight 
 forward mind both conscience and the social code 
 were unalterably opposed to considering a divorced 
 man as a single man. But some instinct of common 
 sense saved her saved her even from calling Delilah, 
 and caused her to face the thing alone. She gave 
 Jacqueline brandy, she rubbed her vigorously; she 
 even got her up-stairs alone and into her bed. By 
 that time the violence of her emotions was spent; 
 Jacqueline lay in the large four-poster perfectly calm 
 and white. After a while even a sense of physical 
 well-being seemed to possess her ; warmth and light 
 and stimulation had their effect. She fell into a 
 heavy sleep, but Judith was terrified to notice her 
 pallor give place to a crimson flush on her face, and 
 her icy hands grow burning hot. By that time Ju 
 dith's composure had partly returned. She called 
 Delilah, who came in wondering, and told her briefly 
 that Jacqueline had come home unexpectedly and was 
 not well, without mentioning how she had come from 
 the river-landing. Delilah, who was not of a curious
 
 240 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 turn, saw for herself that part of Judith's statement 
 was true, for Jacqueline had a burning fever. It was 
 impossible to get Dr. "Wortley before morning, but, 
 like most women who live in the country, Judith 
 could cope with ordinary ailments, and, whenever the 
 doctor was called in, he always found that the proper 
 thing had been done beforehand. 
 
 But, besides Jacqueline's undeniable illness, the 
 thought that tormented Judith was how to keep the 
 dreadful thing that had happened from Jacqueline's 
 father and mother and from the world. It must in 
 evitably come out that she had not been near Mrs. 
 Steptoe's, and only the fact that Jacqueline was a 
 poor correspondent had kept it from being known 
 already. On the impulse of the moment, Judith sat 
 down and wrote Mrs. Steptoe a letter, begging her, 
 for General and Mrs. Temple's sake, not to mention 
 until she heard further from Barn Elms, that Jacque 
 line had not been with her; and as she wrote hur 
 riedly and nervously, she could hear Jacqueline's 
 heavy and fitful breathing. Some simple remedies 
 had been applied, but Judith knew that the best 
 thing for her was to sleep, and so her troubled slumber 
 was undisturbed except by her own feverish mutter- 
 ings. All the time it hung like a sword over Judith. 
 "What will Throckmorton say?" for, of course, he 
 must be the first one to know it ; there could be no 
 mercy in deceiving him. Judith, sitting before the
 
 THROCKMORTON. 241 
 
 fire, gazing into it with troubled eyes and aching heart, 
 began thinking, pitying, praying for Throckmorton. 
 Yes, it would be a frightful blow to him. There 
 would be no need for the wedding-gown now. As 
 this thought occurred to her, Judith rose and, going 
 softly toward the wardrobe Avhere she kept her dainty 
 work, took out the dress, and, unwrapping it from 
 the white cloth in which she laid it away so carefully 
 every night, spread it over her knees. How much 
 love, despair, and torture had been worked into that 
 embroidery ! " It is so pretty, it is a pity it can't be 
 used," she said to herself, absently, turning the silk 
 about in her fingers ; and at that moment she heard 
 a choking, gurgling sound from the bed. Jacqueline 
 was half sitting up, her head supported on her arm, 
 and a thin stream of blood was trickling from her lips. 
 
 Judith, who for once lost her presence of mind, 
 ran toward the bed, and, supporting Jacqueline's head, 
 called loudly for help. In her haste she had thrown 
 the dress almost across Jacqueline, and a few drops of 
 blood fell upon it. 
 
 " Look, look ! " gaspsd Jacqueline ; " my dress is 
 being ruined ! " 
 
 Judith heard Delilah running up the stairs in re 
 sponse to her frightened call, but Jacqueline's eyes 
 had such a strange expression in them that she asked 
 her involuntarily, as she tremblingly supported her : 
 
 " Jacqueline, do you know me ? " 
 16
 
 242 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 " Perfectly," answered Jacqueline. " I know every 
 thing about me." 
 
 Delilah, who was a natural-born nurse, was as calm 
 as Judith was agitated. 
 
 "T'ain' nuttin' tall, chile; 'scusin' 'tis er leetle 
 speck o' blood f um yo' th'oat. I kin stop it righter 
 way " ; and, sure enough, in ten minutes she had ap 
 plied some simple remedy and the blood ceased to 
 flow. Meanwhile Jacqueline, unable to speak, had 
 motioned eagerly and violently to Judith to remove 
 the white silk dress. Judith threw it on a chair. 
 Jacqueline's eyes filled with tears. 
 
 "It is such a pity to have it ruined and one's 
 wedding-dress, too ! " 
 
 " Hush hush ! you must not talk," cried Judith. 
 
 The flow of blood apparently was a trifle, and in a 
 little while Jacqueline lay back in the great, old-fash 
 ioned bed silent, deadly white, but composed. 
 
 Judith, with overflowing eyes, folded up the white 
 dress, but she could not prevent some tears falling on 
 it, and the dress, already stained with blood, was also 
 stained with tears. The thought of Jacqueline, 
 though, could not banish the thought of Throckmor- 
 ton ; the more so when Jacqueline, beckoning, brought 
 Judith close to her. Judith thought she wanted some 
 thing for her comfort. 
 
 " You must tell him ; he will take it better from 
 
 you."
 
 THROCKMORTON. 243 
 
 Jacqueline, lying wide awake in the bed, and 
 Judith, sitting by her, holding her hand, were both ex 
 pectant of Throckmorton. At last, about half-past 
 eight, his firm step was heard on the porch. Judith's 
 heart leaped into her mouth ; she did not exactly take 
 in all the bearings of what Jacqueline had told her, or 
 whether she was or was not married to Freke; and 
 Throckmorton, with his knowledge of affairs, would 
 know all. 
 
 She rose silently and went down-stairs, leaving 
 Delilah with Jacqueline. Throckmorton was standing 
 before the fire in the drawing-room. There was some 
 thing in his determined eye and in his tone as he spoke 
 to her that struck a chill to Judith's heart. 
 
 " Jacqueline, has come, you know," she said. 
 
 " Yes, Simon Peter told me so at the door. It 
 does not surprise me." 
 
 Judith remained silent for a few moments, when 
 Throckmorton, suddenly wheeling toward her, and 
 looking her straight in the face, said, curtly : 
 
 " What is all this ? She never was near Mrs. Step- 
 toe's. I found out, by having my letter returned to 
 me by Mrs. Steptoe herself. What has made her ill ? 
 Don't tremble so, but tell me you know I have a 
 right to know it all." 
 
 But Judith continued to be silent and to tremble. 
 She even began to weep ; but Throckmorton, taking 
 her hand, said, firmly :
 
 244 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 " There must be no concealments." 
 
 His own stern composure controlled Judith's agi 
 tation. 
 
 " All ? " she asked, faintly. 
 
 " Yes all ! " he answered. 
 
 "When Throckmorton used an authoritative tone 
 with her, he could always compel her ; and so, scarcely 
 knowing how she did it, with tears and sobs, and faint 
 deprecations for Jacqueline, she told him all. She 
 noticed Throckmorton's dark skin growing paler and 
 paler ; he began to gnaw his iron-gray mustache 
 always a sign of extreme agitation with him. 
 
 " Now, tell me this collect your thoughts and 
 don't cry so does she does she love that " He 
 could not bring himself to utter Freke's name. 
 
 Judith remained silent. Throckmorton, in his de 
 termination to make her answer, seized her arm. It 
 hurt her so that she could have cried out, but she 
 made no sound. 
 
 " Tell me ! " he said, in a voice and manner so unlike 
 his own gentle courtesy, that Judith could scarcely 
 have recognized it. But Judith was obstinately silent. 
 Nevertheless, she lifted her eyes to his with so elo 
 quent a plea for mercy for Jacqueline, that he was 
 unconsciously softened. 
 
 " You will not tell me ! " he said, relaxing his fierce 
 hold. " I can't make you answer you have a spirit 
 like a soldier. But it makes no difference now
 
 THROCKMORTON. 245 
 
 whether she loves him or not. If she were free to 
 morrow, I could kill her with my own hands easier 
 than I could marry her ! and yet I loved her well." 
 
 " But," cried Judith, putting her hand on his arm 
 in her eagerness, " something must be done. It must 
 be managed so that people, shall not know it, until her 
 father and mother have decided what is to be done." 
 It will almost kill them ! " 
 
 "Yes. But if you can manage with Mrs. Step- 
 toe" 
 
 " I have already written to her." 
 
 " I am no lawyer, but it seems to me that it rests 
 with Jacqueline whether it is a marriage or not. But 
 General and Mrs. Temple would rather see her in her 
 grave than married to any divorced man and to 
 him ! " 
 
 " And there is a good deal of doubt about his 
 divorce, I believe," added Judith. 
 
 " There is at present nothing to be done. Gen 
 eral and Mrs. Temple will no doubt be here as soon 
 as possible ; it is hardly worth while to alarm them. 
 Is she very ill, do you think ? " 
 
 " I don't know Jacqueline was always delicate. 
 And what of him of Freke ? " continued Judith, in 
 a trembling voice. " Is there to be no punishment 
 for him?" 
 
 Like a woman, Judith could not look at the case 
 in its practical light ; but like a man, Throckmorton,
 
 246 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 in the midst of his horror, grief, and surprise, yet re 
 tained his balance. 
 
 " Any punishment of him would react on her to 
 have her name made public with his Good God ! 
 But there is no power on earth to keep General Tem 
 ple from committing some frightful folly when he 
 knows of it." 
 
 This was a new horror to Judith. A painful 
 pause followed. Then Judith said : 
 
 " How like Freke it was how perfectly reckless 
 of consequences ! He is unlike any man I ever saw 
 or heard of. I believe, in his strange way, he loves 
 Jacqueline ; but what does any one know of such a 
 man ! " 
 
 The absence of vindictiveness toward Freke, on 
 Throckmorton's part, surprised Judith ; but, in truth, 
 he scarcely thought of Freke : a creature as weak and 
 impressionable as Jacqueline was bound to succumb to 
 the first overmastering influence. Throckmorton him 
 self had never been able to get any real influence over 
 her. Presently Judith said : 
 
 " One thing I do know she wants your forgive 
 ness." 
 
 " She has it, poor child ! " 
 
 Then there was another pause. Throckmorton, 
 after a while, rose to go. 
 
 " If you want anything, send for me. I shall be 
 over early in the morning." He hesitated a moment,
 
 THROCKMORTOK 247 
 
 and then said : " This has been a strange experience 
 for me ; but it is over " And then, as if checking a 
 confession, went out of the room and out of the house. 
 
 "When Judith went up-stairs, Jacqueline was still 
 sleeping, but presently she wakened, and turned her 
 lovely, troubled eyes on Judith. 
 
 " He is very sorry, Jacqueline, and he forgives 
 you and will trouble you no more," she whispered. 
 A look of relief came into Jacqueline's face. . She 
 closed her eyes as if to sleep.
 
 CHAPTEK XII. 
 
 THE next day Jacqueline was better, and about 
 noon General and Mrs. Temple arrived. Mrs. Tem 
 ple showed no surprise when she heard that Jacque 
 line had come the day before ; and when Judith said, 
 falteringly, that Jacqueline had probably misunder 
 stood their plans, Mrs- Temple accepted it quite nat 
 urally. About the same time Dr. Wortley, who had 
 been sent for, came, and pronounced Jacqueline's at 
 tack to be nothing but cold and fever, and raised the 
 prohibition against her talking. The first time Mrs. 
 Temple was out of the room, Jacqueline called Judith 
 to her. 
 
 " Judith, I have been thinking about this, and I 
 have made up my mind." 
 
 This was so unlike Jacqueline that Judith stared. 
 
 " If I thought Freke was really a single man, I 
 would give up everybody even you for him. But 
 nobody on earth knows what I suffered from my con 
 science while I was with him ! And I believe Freke 
 told the truth when he said we weren't married, after 
 all, in spite of that minister and the fifty dollars.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 249 
 
 And now, dear Judith, it seems so easy to keep papa 
 and mamma from knowing it." 
 
 " Easy, Jacqueline ? " 
 
 " Yes, easy, if you will only write to Aunt Steptoe ; 
 and it would kill me to have to face them ! " 
 
 " But, Jacqueline, suppose suppose Freke should 
 claim you, or you might, in years to come, want to 
 marry some one else ? " 
 
 " I will promise you I will not I will swear it if 
 I can't marry Freke, you may depend upon it I 
 sha'n't marry anybody else ! But, Judith, will you 
 promise me to say nothing to papa and mamma until 
 you have seen Freke, for he knows what ought to be 
 done ? I know and I am sure he will come back 
 in a day or two. He knows well enough where I have 
 run away to." 
 
 Judith was loath to making any promise at all, but 
 Jacqueline became so violently agitated and distressed 
 that at last, almost beside herself, Judith promised 
 that for a few days, at least, she would say nothing 
 about it. 
 
 Mrs. Temple was so full of Beverley, and the pro 
 ceedings at Richmond, that she troubled Jacqueline 
 but little with questions ; and Judith was amazed at 
 hearing Jacqueline describe to her mother a visit to 
 her aunt, as if it had really been paid. The idea of 
 concealment had taken complete possession of Jacque 
 line's mind, and she stopped at nothing.
 
 250 THBOCKMOBTON. 
 
 Of course, the wedding had to be postponed ; and 
 Jacqueline surprised her mother, after two letters had 
 passed between Throckmorton and herself, by telling 
 her quite calmly one day that the wedding was off, 
 and that Throckmorton would shortly leave the 
 county. General and Mrs. Temple were stunned ; and 
 Mrs. Temple, who had secretly thought the marriage 
 preposterous from the start, now suddenly changed 
 front, and was bitterly disappointed at this strange 
 and unaccountable breaking off. Jacqueline would 
 only say, "I found I didn't love him, and couldn't 
 marry him"; and she repeated this with a sort of 
 childish obstinacy so it seemed to Mrs. Temple. 
 Throckmorton accepted his supposed bad news with 
 the firmness and dignity that always characterized 
 him. He told Mrs. Temple, when she and the gen 
 eral, sitting in solemn conclave in the drawing-room, 
 had sent for him to give him this unalterable determi 
 nation of Jacqueline's : 
 
 " Her happiness should be first always. The differ 
 ence in our years I always felt; but, when she began 
 to feel it, she was right in breaking with me. It is 
 better that it should come now than later on." 
 
 Mrs. Temple was thoroughly puzzled by Throck 
 morton. She could not make out his quiet acquies 
 cence in Jacqueline's decision it was so unlike his 
 usual vigorous way of overcoming obstacles. But, be 
 fore he left, Freke had reappeared, and the dreadful
 
 THROCKMORTON. 251 
 
 truth had come to him and to Throckmorton and to 
 Judith that, after all, according to the statutes of 
 Virginia, he was not at liberty to marry again. Dread 
 ful it was to Freke, who, light-minded and evil as he 
 Avas, had really believed himself free, and whose im 
 plied doubt to Jacqueline was merely for the purpose 
 of frightening her into submission. Freke went up to 
 Eichmond one day and returned the next. Half an 
 hour's interview each with half a dozen lawyers had 
 settled a hypothetical case that covered Freke's exact 
 ly : not all the clerks and licenses and ceremonies in 
 Virginia could make his marriage to anybody good as 
 it stood. It was true that there was an excellent 
 chance that in the course of time various defects in 
 the somewhat informal divorce proceedings that Freke 
 had really thought sufficient might be remedied, and 
 he would be a free man ; but, for the present, he cer 
 tainly was not. 
 
 Freke, who had thought his courage impeccable, 
 found it failed him when he met Judith, for the first 
 and last time, to settle upon the best course to pursue. 
 Judith had Throckmorton's advice and assistance to 
 back her up. Freke positively cowered under her 
 gaze. It was settled that he was to go to the North 
 west immediately, and devote all his energies to 
 straightening out the strange tangle in which he had 
 left his matrimonial affairs there ; and, when it was 
 settled, he was to return to Virginia, and then let
 
 252 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 Jacqueline decide what was to be done. He swore 
 and swore so that Judith believed him that he 
 thought himself a free man, and only despised the nar 
 rowness of people who believed there was no such 
 thing as divorce. Why he should have fallen in love 
 with Jacqueline did not puzzle Judith : had she not, 
 with those irresistible glances of hers, ensnared a much 
 stronger man ? But one thing was decided as much 
 by Jacqueline's agony of fear as anything else : noth 
 ing was to be said about the terrible complication to 
 General and Mrs. Temple. Mrs. Steptoe's answer to 
 Judith's letter gave a promise that nothing should be 
 said about Jacqueline's non-appearance ; and that re 
 moved any immediate danger of discovery. And, in 
 a little while, both Freke and Throckmorton were 
 gone Freke, to move heaven and earth to get his di 
 vorce in proper shape ; and Throckmorton, merely to 
 be out of the way, and as far out of the way as pos 
 sible. 
 
 To Judith it seemed as if the world were coming 
 to an end. How a thing so dreadful, so unlike any 
 thing she had ever known before, could happen in 
 their quiet lives, seemed more and more extraordinary. 
 Here was Jacqueline last year a child in heart, and 
 now the first person in a tragedy. Never had she any 
 thing to conceal before ; and now, with the most per 
 fect art and premeditation, she was concealing, every 
 day and hour, something that would be even more
 
 THROCKMORTON. 253 
 
 overwhelming to her father and mother than Bever- 
 ley's death, and would convulse the little world in 
 which they lived. As for the innumerable chances 
 that it might be found out any day, Judith was ab 
 normally alive to them. Every morning, when she 
 went down-stairs, she half expected that the disclosure 
 would come ; every night she thanked Heaven it had 
 been postponed a day. 
 
 Meanwhile Jacqueline, lying in her great four- 
 poster, progressed slowly but gradually toward re 
 covery. One night she called Judith to the bedside. 
 She was fast getting well then. 
 
 " Judith," she said, " you know what queer notions 
 I take ? Well, I have been lying here thinking, think 
 ing, perhaps you won't be able to keep the whole 
 county from knowing about " 
 
 The haunting fear of this never left Judith, but 
 she could not but try and comfort Jacqueline. 
 
 " We will try Jacqueline, we will try ! " 
 
 " And do you know it has troubled me even more 
 than losing Freke ; for I feel he is lost to me, even if 
 he were to come to-morrow morning and say he was a 
 free man ; the fear that when I get well I shall be 
 avoided ; the people will leave me alone at church, and 
 the county people will stop visiting us. That would 
 indeed kill me." 
 
 " Dear child, we will hope and pray. I believe it 
 would kill me too."
 
 254 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 Jacqueline at this worked herself up -into such 
 a violent fit of weeping that Judith was frightened 
 into giving her a great many more assurances of safety 
 than her own anxious heart believed, but Jacqueline 
 at last was quieted. In both of them, so widely unlike, 
 was that profound respect for their neighbors, charac 
 teristic of simple and provincial souls. They knew 
 no other world but that little neighborhood around 
 Severn church, and its opinion was life or death. 
 
 But it troubled Judith that by degrees visitors be 
 gan to fall off and inquiries ceased for Jacqueline. 
 The temper and habit of the people were such 
 that Judith knew Jacqueline could never hope for 
 any forgiveness if that week's journey should be 
 known. Jacqueline too, although she was entirely 
 silent afterward upon the subject, was thinking and 
 dreading and fearing. It was the custom for many 
 kindly and neighborly visits to be paid the sick, many 
 flowers and delicacies to be sent them; but after a 
 while Jacqueline ceased to have either flowers or vis 
 itors. She was nearly well, though, or at least she 
 protested that she was. But, although Jacqueline 
 declared to Judith that, if Freke were legally free to 
 morrow, she would not marry him as long as that 
 other woman lived, it was plain that he had com 
 pletely captivated her imagination. She loved him in 
 her own wild, unreasoning way. Judith was hourly 
 amazed at the sudden self-control, finesse, the power
 
 THROCKMORTON. 255 
 
 to deceive, that Jacqueline developed regarding him. 
 Usually her composure was perfect, but once in her 
 own room, Jacqueline threw herself on the rug before 
 the fire and wept and sobbed so that Judith was seri 
 ously alarmed. But, still trying to keep the burden 
 from the unconscious father and mother, she remained 
 with Jacqueline until a calm had come after the 
 storm. 
 
 " I love him ! I love him ! " was all Jacqueline 
 would say, and Judith believed her. 
 
 " You told me how I ought to love Throckmorton," 
 she said that night, with a melancholy smile ; " it is 
 exactly how I love Freke. Don't look at me in that 
 indignant way, Judith. It is not my fault." 
 
 Jack Throckmorton had remained at Millenbeck 
 when his father left. Throckmorton had briefly an 
 nounced to him that the wedding was off. Jack came 
 at last to see them, looking very sheepish. Judith sus 
 pected that he came in obedience to Throckmorton's 
 wishes. But Jacqueline at once slipped back into her 
 old friendly way, if a little less gay and thoughtless 
 than before. Jack sent her flowers, and would have 
 brought his dog-cart over every day to take her to drive, 
 so much touched was he by Jacqueline's illness, but 
 Judith would not let him. Nevertheless, he was in 
 and out of the house very much as he had been ever 
 since that first night he was there. Judith, who had 
 come to love him for his sweet, bright, boyish nature,
 
 256 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 he felt was his friend, as indeed everybody at Barn 
 Elms was. The whole affair was intensely puzzling to 
 Jack. He dared not show Throckmorton the awk 
 ward sympathy that he was struggling first to ex 
 press and then to repress ; but Jacqueline was young 
 and ill, and had few pleasures, and he had once 
 been a little gone on her, so it seemed the most 
 natural thing in the world that he should be kind 
 to her. 
 
 There were mysterious hints, though, flying about 
 the county regarding Jacqueline's affairs. Mrs. Sher- 
 rard was dying with curiosity, and made many visits 
 to Barn Elms for the purpose of gratifying it. But 
 she soon found out that, beyond knowing that Jac 
 queline had tired of her engagement and had thrown 
 Throckmorton over, neither General nor Mrs. Temple 
 knew anything to communicate. About this time, 
 too, the party-giving fever, which was never long in 
 abeyance with Mrs. Sherrard, seized her. A party she 
 must give. General Temple brought a note to that 
 effect, coupled with a request for Mrs. Temple's salad- 
 bowls and ladles, one day from the post-office. Jac 
 queline, who had been out-of-doors several times and 
 had quite given up her invalidism, showed the keenest 
 and the most unexpected delight when she heard of 
 the party. She jumped up and down, clapped her 
 hands, and began to dance. 
 
 " Oh, how glad I am ! It has been so stupid lately.
 
 THROCKMORTOK 257 
 
 I do want to dance again dreadfully. How I wish I 
 could go to a ball every night in the week ! " 
 
 Judith was surprised at Jacqueline's eagerness 
 about the party. Mrs. Temple had first said decidedly 
 that Jacqueline should not go, at which Jacqueline 
 threw her hands up to her face and burst into such a 
 passion of stormy weeping that Mrs. Temple was com 
 pletely puzzled, and so was Judith. 
 
 " But, my child, you are not strong enough ! " 
 
 " I am ! I am ! " cried Jacqueline. " I will ask 
 Dr. Wortley if I can't go to the party. I am sure I 
 will cry myself ill if I don't go ; and I am so well and 
 strong." 
 
 Mrs. Temple, who had got a little indulgent to 
 Jacqueline since her illness, agreed to leave it to Dr. 
 Wortley. The next time he came over to pay a 
 friendly visit, Jacqueline took him off to herself, and 
 came back triumphant. Dr. Wortley had agreed. 
 The old doctor had a queer look in his face. 
 
 " I consented, madam," he said to Mrs. Temple, 
 " because this young lady promised me that she would 
 make herself ill if she did not go ; and I have known 
 young women to keep that promise. She has given 
 me her word she will be very prudent will not over 
 exert herself ; and Mrs. Beverley is to watch her." 
 
 " And I'll come home the instant Judith proposes 
 it ! " cried Jacqueline. 
 
 Mrs. Temple finally agreed, upon condition that 
 17
 
 258 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 the weather was fit. For some days before the party 
 it threatened to be very unfit. Dark clouds overhung 
 the sky, and a biting March wind swept over the bare 
 fields and through the somber aspens and Lombardy 
 poplars, as yet leafless and wintry, around the house. 
 Jacqueline seemed to have but one idea in her head, 
 and that was the party. She haunted the windows 
 where the cutting wind came in through the open 
 chinks and crannies, until Judith warned her that she 
 would soon begin to cough again, and worse, if she 
 did not take care of herself. She pestered Simon 
 Peter with asking for weather signs. When the 
 morning broke, cloudy and overcast, Jacqueline was 
 almost in despair ; she could eat no breakfast, but sat 
 at the table watching the clouds. Presently the sun 
 came out upon the dreary landscape, and the sun in 
 Jacqueline's eyes came out too. From the deepest 
 gloom she passed to the wildest gayety. Her eyes 
 shone ; and taking little Beverley into the great, empty 
 drawing-room, she waltzed around with him, singing 
 and capering about until the boy, like herself, was in 
 a gale of good humor. Judith had never ceased being 
 puzzled by it. Still another obstacle, though, seemed 
 to arise in Jacqueline's path. General Temple had a 
 suspicion of gout, and declared that the party was out 
 of the question for him. At this, Jacqueline looked 
 so pale and disappointed that even Mrs. Temple's 
 heart melted toward her.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 259 
 
 " But I can take care of Jacqueline, mother," said 
 Judith; "we are safe, you know, with Simon Peter on 
 the box, and we will come home before twelve o'clock." 
 
 Mrs. Temple consented, and for the second time 
 that day Jacqueline's spirits rose. Toward twilight, 
 when the fires had been lighted in their rooms for the 
 two girls to dress, for early hours prevail in the coun 
 try, Judith went into Jacqueline's room. Jacqueline 
 was twisting up her beautiful blonde hair into a knot 
 on top of her head, taking infinite pains ; her eyes 
 were shining, her whole air one of quick expectancy. 
 
 " Why are you so anxious about this party, Jacque 
 line ? " asked Judith, to whose lips the question had 
 often risen during the last week. 
 
 " Wait a moment and I will tell you," replied Jac 
 queline, still intent on her hair. 
 
 Judith waited until the last tress was in place, and 
 Jacqueline came over to the fireplace. 
 
 " Because because, Judith, I have a feeling I 
 don't know where it comes from that everybody 
 knows about " She stopped and cast down her eyes 
 in a troubled way, but without blushing. "And I 
 thought if I went to this party I would be convinced 
 that it was all a mistake. I know it is very silly, but 
 it has kept me awake at night ever since I was first 
 ill, thinking how the people would eye me at church. 
 You know how sick people take up those fancies. 
 Well, I am determined to prove to myself it isn't so.
 
 260 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 Jack Throckmorton won't be at the party, but I shall 
 no doubt have a plenty of partners, and this horrible 
 feeling that I am disgraced in some way will leave 
 me ; I am sure it will. You know mamma's way of 
 treating these notions. 'Just give your secret fears 
 an airing, and see how they will disappear,' that's what 
 I mean to do. Like ghosts, they vanish when you 
 speak to them and try to handle them, and then you 
 are rid of them for good." 
 
 Judith said not a word. The same horrible fear 
 had been with her. Freke and Throckmorton were 
 safe General and Mrs. Temple suspected nothing it 
 made her sick at heart as she thought about the news 
 traveling over the county. 
 
 When Jacqueline was dressed in the same white 
 frock she had worn the evening she had captivated 
 Throckmorton, she preened like a young peacock be 
 fore the admiring eyes of Delilah and Simon Peter. 
 She whirled round on her toes like a ballet-dancer. 
 She courtesied to the ground, showing them how she 
 would do at the party. She walked away from the 
 little glass on her dressing-table, arching her neck and 
 fluttering her fan. 
 
 " I allus did say Marse George Throckmorton wuz 
 too ole fur little Miss Jacky," Simon Peter remarked 
 to Delilah, after the performance. Delilah, who was 
 bound to differ with Simon Peter, promptly took 
 issue.
 
 THROCKMORTOX. 261 
 
 " Marse George, he ain' ole, he jes' in he prime. 
 Dat's de way wid you wuffless niggers call a man ole 
 in he prime." 
 
 " But whar' lie gwi' be, when she in her prime ? 
 You heah me, 'oman ? " 
 
 Delilah, for once, had no answer to make. The 
 reflection had occurred to her. 
 
 As Judith and Jacqueline were jolted along the 
 road, in the darkness, toward Turkey Thicket, both 
 of them were reminded of that other party there, 
 when Throckmorton had been present. Neither of 
 them said anything, though. Judith, as she watched 
 the shadowy trees slip past, began to think how 
 strangely things had gone with her since then. Almost 
 from that time she had felt a steady and ceaseless 
 pain associated with Throckmorton. She then suf 
 fered, she thought, with him, and for him, although 
 not one word had come from him since he had left 
 the county, a month ago. Where was he ? What was 
 he doing at that very moment ? Then she tried to 
 fancy how it would have been with her had she seen 
 daily before her Throckmorton and Jacqueline's mar 
 ried happiness. The sight of it would have been in 
 tolerable to her. " And nobody in the world suspects 
 me of being the most impressionable, emotional, jeal 
 ous, and miserable woman on earth," she thought 
 to herself. 
 
 Jacqueline sat back in the carriage, occasionally
 
 262 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 speculating on who would be at the party, and how 
 often she might dance without breaking Dr. Wortley's 
 orders. 
 
 When they drove up to the door and got out, 
 Jacqueline ran lightly up the steps, like her old self. 
 Judith followed her. In Mrs. Sherrard' s own com 
 fortable old-fashioned room, where the ladies' wraps 
 were removed, a number of girls about Jacqueline's 
 age were laughing, chattering, getting their wraps off 
 and their slippers on. Jacqueline ran up to them, 
 and was about to join their circle; but by a slight, 
 indescribable motion, they all drew back. It was a 
 mere gesture, but it froze Jacqueline as she stood. 
 She turned a frightened, piteous glance on Judith, 
 who, with a flushed face, walked straight up to the 
 little group. 
 
 " How do you do ? " she said, calling each one by 
 name, and holding out her hand. If there were any 
 cloud upon the Temple family, she would force them 
 to come out boldly and define it. Her fine nostrils 
 dilated with anger for not only was it her duty to 
 stand by Jacqueline, but was not she, Judith, a Tem 
 ple, too ? And Judith had one of those proud and 
 self-respecting souls to whom everything and every 
 body closely connected with her was due a certain 
 deference. Something in her eye and manner com 
 manded civility then her greetings were answered 
 even more cordially than she had given them.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 263 
 
 But there was still an ominous change toward Jac 
 queline. The color had all dropped out of her face, 
 and she had not recovered the plumpness she had lost 
 during her illness. She looked nearer ugly than at 
 any time in her whole life. 
 
 Judith was soon ready to go down-stairs. She no 
 longer wore black dresses, but white ones. They were 
 as severely simple as the black ones, though. She 
 turned with Jacqueline following her, and went slowly 
 out the door, and down the broad, old-fashioned stairs. 
 In the large, uncarpeted hall, dancing was going on. 
 As Judith, tall and stately in her white dress, holding 
 gracefully a large white fan in her hands, passed 
 through the hall, she was greeted with the hearty 
 kindness she had always met with ; but Jacqueline at 
 her side, who was wont to run the gantlet of laugh 
 ter and jokes and merry salutations, was met with a 
 strange and distant politeness that blanched her face, 
 and brought a glitter to Judith's usually soft eyes. 
 She could have borne it better for herself; but for 
 this unthinking child this young creature Throek- 
 morton loved it was too much. 
 
 Mrs. Sherrard, with her diamond comb shining in 
 her gray hair, and looking as she always did superbly 
 dressed, without anything splendid about her, received 
 them. In her there was no change. She met Jacque 
 line just as she always did. 
 
 " Why, little Jacky," she cried, " how glad I am to
 
 264 THJiOCKMORTON. 
 
 see yon out again ! You must let me see your little 
 feet tripping about as if you had never been ill." 
 
 Jacqueline responded with a faint smile. Suppose 
 she should not be asked to dance ? 
 
 Judith, taking in at once this universal shyness 
 shown toward Jacqueline, did not move from her side. 
 People came up and spoke to them civilly enough, 
 but chiefly the older people. Out in the hall beyond, 
 the black fiddlers were scraping, and Jacqueline could 
 see a large quadrille forming. But no partner appeared 
 for her. Until the very last she hoped desperately. 
 Never before had Jacqueline, in the few parties she 
 had been to in her short life, failed to be asked to 
 dance she was so pretty, so undeniably captivating. 
 She turned two despairing dark eyes and two pale 
 cheeks on Judith. It was indeed cruel and heart 
 breaking. Jacqueline's evident anguish almost took 
 away Judith's self-possession. 
 
 " Perhaps you will have better luck next time, 
 dear," she whispered. 
 
 " No," replied Jacqueline, trembling, " I feel it. I 
 know what it means. They all know it. Heavens ! 
 what do they think I am ? " 
 
 The quadrille was soon over, but the time seemed 
 interminable to Judith and Jacqueline. Some of the 
 dancers, flushed and excited, were walking around the 
 hall, while others, more indefatigable, whirled around 
 in a waltz. It was all quite plain to Jacqueline, watch-
 
 TUROCKMORTON. 265 
 
 ing them with strange and miserable eyes. "Was she 
 then barred out forever from those people, and all for 
 Freke, while even the happiness of being with him 
 was denied her? Mrs. Sherrard, seeing Jacqueline 
 sitting so still and quiet by Judith, came over to 
 them. 
 
 "My dear, I see you are not dancing; shall I get 
 you a partner ? " 
 
 Mrs. Sherrard's sharp eyes saw something was 
 amiss. 
 
 " No, please, Mrs. Sherrard," cried Jacqueline, in 
 an eager voice. " I promised Dr. Wortley not to 
 dance much ; perhaps I will dance a little after a 
 while." 
 
 But she did not. Nobody came near her to ask 
 her ; and even to Judith it was plain that people 
 avoided them both. Most of the county people they 
 knew came up and talked a little, but there was a 
 changed atmosphere around them. Judith looked 
 wonderingly at these people. In all the years they 
 had lived in that county there had been nothing but 
 neighborly kindness, good- will, and friendliness ; and 
 now, not one among them, seemed to feel the slightest 
 spark of pity or charity for Jacqueline. They had all 
 condemned her unheard. What version of the story 
 had got abroad, she could not tell ; but it was enough 
 to blast the friendship of generations. 
 
 It was getting on, hour after hour.
 
 2GG THROCKMORTON. 
 
 " Shall we go home, Jacqueline ? " whispered Ju 
 dith. 
 
 " Not yet not yet ! " Jacqueline would answer, 
 with trembling lips. She kept on hoping against 
 hope. By that time everybody in the rooms had seen 
 it all, except Mrs. Sherrard. She supposed she had 
 done her best, coming up and talking to them inces 
 santly ; but, Jacqueline having refused a partner when 
 offered one, Mrs. Sherrard naturally supposed she did 
 not dance from preference, and accepted the idea that 
 Dr. Wortley was responsible. It was past midnight 
 before Jacqueline would agree to go. Judith, as 
 stately, if paler and haughtier than ever in her life, 
 went up to Mrs. Sherrard, made her farewells, and 
 walked the whole length of the rooms, holding Jac 
 queline's hand. The poor child tried to hold her 
 head up, inspired by Judith's courage, but it drooped, 
 and she could not raise her eyes from the floor. A 
 slight thrill of remorse seemed to come over those who 
 saw her, at the piteous sight ; but it was now too late. 
 Jacqueline only longed to escape. 
 
 The instant they were in the carriage and alone, 
 Jacqueline threw her arms around Judith and began 
 to weep and sob desperately. Judith could only hold 
 her to her heart and say : " Never mind, Jacqueline ; 
 if all the world should be against you, I would not be 
 nor Throckmorton." 
 
 But Jacqueline did not cease to sob and weep with
 
 THROCKMORTON. 267 
 
 a sort of despair that struck a chill to Judith's heart. 
 She had never seen anybody weep so. When they 
 reached home, Judith got her up-stairs to her room 
 and undressed her, taking off the little chain around 
 her neck that held the pearl pendant Jacqueline only 
 wore on great occasions, uncurling the bright hair 
 she had dressed so carefully, and laying away the sim 
 ple white dress Jacqueline's only ball -dress that 
 she had admired herself in so much. Jacqueline sub 
 mitted, still sobbing a continual sob, that showed no 
 signs of abatement. Judith put her in bed, turned 
 out the lamp, and kissing her affectionately went out, 
 thinking Jacqueline would soon cry herself to sleep. 
 
 An hour afterward Judith, who had keen hearing, 
 fancied she heard a sound from Jacqueline's room. 
 She went in softly. In the ghastly light that came 
 through the closed shutters she saw Jacqueline sitting 
 up in the great, white bed, still weeping. 
 
 " My darling," said Judith, taking the girl in her 
 arms, " you will be ill ! " 
 
 " 111 ! " cried Jacqueline ; " I am ill now so ill, I 
 never shall be well again ! Judith, I can't live under 
 this. I am going to die ; and I am glad of it." 
 
 " Hush, hush ! what nonsense are you talking ? " 
 
 " Nonsense or not, those wicked people will see 
 that they have killed me ! " 
 
 Judith did not leave her any more, nor did Jac 
 queline sleep one moment, or cease her weeping. She
 
 268 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 held Judith tightly about the neck, and her warm 
 tears dropped incessantly. Toward daylight Judith 
 began to be alarmed. But nothing was to be done. 
 It would simply break the hearts of the unconscious 
 father and mother if they knew what had happened, 
 and if she roused them they must know. Judith 
 went to her own room and brought back some brandy, 
 which she forced Jacqueline to take. In a little while 
 it began to show its effect. Jacqueline stopped sob 
 bing, and lay in the great dawn, with her face white 
 and drawn and tear-stained. Judith, again hoping 
 she might sleep, left her. 
 
 All that day Jacqueline lay in her bed dumb and 
 motionless. Judith said the child was tired after the 
 ball ; perhaps she would get up later on. Mrs. Tem 
 ple, supposing she was resting after her dissipation, 
 did not go up to see her in the morning. In the 
 afternoon, as Jacqueline showed no signs of getting 
 up, Mrs. Temple went up to her. One look at her 
 pallid face, and Mrs. Temple, calm and self-possessed 
 as she usually was, almost shrieked, Jacqueline was so 
 changed. 
 
 " Tell your master to come here at once ! " she cried 
 to Delilah. 
 
 General Temple came up-stairs, hurried and flur 
 ried, and felt for Jacqueline's pulse, but could detect 
 no beating. And then Delilah owned up : 
 
 " Dat ar chile am' tech a mou'ful dis day. I bring
 
 TIIROCKMORTON. 269 
 
 her up nice hot breakfus', an' she jes' tu'n her face 
 ter de wall an' say, ' Go 'long, mammy, I c'yarn eat.' 
 Now, huccome she c'yarn eat? " 
 
 "My daughter, what is the matter with you?" 
 asked Mrs. Temple, anxiously. 
 
 Of late this half- forgotten child had been steadily 
 forcing herself upon Mrs. Temple's notice. 
 
 " Nothing," answered Jacqueline, quietly. 
 
 But Jacqueline would not eat anything to speak 
 of. In vain Mrs. Temple commanded, General Tem 
 ple prayed her; Judith also pleaded with her, and 
 Delilah even little Beverley, climbing on the bed, 
 said: 
 
 "Jacisy, won't you eat a piece o' mammy's ash- 
 cake if she bake it for you ? " 
 
 Jacqueline smiled a faint smile that made Judith 
 almost weep. 
 
 " I can't, dear," she said. 
 
 It was impossible to force her to eat, and the next 
 morning Dr. "Wortley was sent for. He came up in 
 his cheery way; he had heard something of the 
 Turkey Thicket party, but he would say no word to 
 the anxious father and mother. He talked cheerfully 
 to Jacqueline, without assuming to doctor her, and 
 called her attention to the beautiful spring weather. 
 It was March, but the air was as mild as April. 
 
 " All my hyacinths and jonquils are out," he said. 
 " There is a bed in my garden that is protected on the
 
 270 THROCKMORTON". 
 
 north by a hedge and an arbor, and everything in that 
 bed is a week ahead of the rest of the neighborhood. 
 I will bring you everything that is blooming there 
 to-morrow. By the way, what would you fancy to 
 eat, Jacky?" 
 
 "I can't eat anything," replied Jacqueline, with 
 quiet obstinacy. 
 
 Next day Dr. Wortley came again, with a great 
 bunch of hyacinths and jonquils, and laid them on 
 Jacqueline's bed. Her large and lusterless eyes gazed 
 at them with indifference. Usually they danced with 
 delight at the sight of flowers. Delilah put a spray 
 of pink hyacinths in her hand. 
 
 " Doan' you 'member, honey, how you useter like 
 dese heah hy'cints, an' plague yo' mammy when you 
 wuz little ter plant 'em fur you ? " 
 
 " Yes, I remember," said Jacqueline, calmly. 
 
 Judith and Mrs. Temple were present. Dr. Wort- 
 ley said nothing about Jacqueline's refusing to eat, 
 but talked away, telling all the neighborhood gossip. 
 Then, in a careless way, he felt for Jacqueline's pulse 
 and listened to the beating of her heart. Both were 
 so faint that Dr. Wortley's eyes became grave. After 
 he left the room, he beckoned to Mrs. Temple to fol 
 low him. Delilah came, too. 
 
 " Marse Doctor, she ain' tech nuthin' but a leetle 
 bit o' toast an' tea since yistiddy, an' it wan' 'nough 
 to keep a bird 'live, let 'lone a human."
 
 THROCKMORTON. 271 
 
 Dr. Wortley wheeled round on his old enemy and 
 snapped out : 
 
 "If you'll just use some of your persuasive elo 
 quence and stuff her up with jellies and custards as 
 you. do your master when he ought to be living on tea 
 and toast, she'll be all right." 
 
 Delilah flounced back into Jacqueline's room, 
 her head-handkerchief bobbing about angrily. Mrs. 
 Temple being present, she could not retaliate on Dr. 
 Wortley. 
 
 "But, doctor," said Mrs. Temple, trembling 
 strangely, "this is so unlike Jacqueline. I don't 
 know what has been the matter with her lately. She 
 isn't grieving for Throckmorton, but something is on 
 her mind, that is that is " 
 
 The doctor waited, thinking Mrs. Temple would 
 finish what she was saying. But she did not. This 
 was, indeed, unlike Jacqueline unlike any instance 
 Dr. Wortley, in his simple experience, had ever 
 known. 
 
 " Let her alone for a few days," he said. " We will 
 see." 
 
 At the end of a few days Jacqueline had indeed 
 consented to take enough food to keep life in her, but 
 she had lost ground frightfully. Her round, girlish 
 face was sharp and pinched. 
 
 Judith tried persuasion, to which Jacqueline re 
 sponded, " How can I eat anything, when all night
 
 272 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 long I cry and cry, thinking of the hard-hearted 
 people who " 
 
 Then she stopped suddenly. 
 
 " Mise Judy," said Delilah, after a while, " I lay on 
 de pallet by de baid, an' all night long I heah her cry- 
 in', jes' cryin' quiet she doau' make no noise. I say : 
 * What de matter, honey ? Tell yo' ole mammy dat 
 nuss you ? an' she make 'tense den she 'sleep. But I 
 know she am' sleep she jest distrusted at de way dem 
 folks treat her at that nngordly party at Tuckey 
 Thicket." 
 
 General and Mrs. Temple were anxious about Jac 
 queline, but by no means despairing. Neither of 
 them thought that anybody could die without having 
 anything ostensibly the matter. Judith, on the con 
 trary, thought this the most alarming thing about 
 Jacqueline. There she lay, steadily losing her hold 
 on life, without any reason in the world that she 
 should not be up and about except, indeed, that 
 sickness of the soul which saps the very foundations 
 of life. This fear that Jacqueline was slipping 
 away from them impelled her to write Throckmorton 
 a few lines guarded, but without disguising any 
 thing. 
 
 Meanwhile, the day that was to have been the wed 
 ding-day had come and gone. Jacqueline had not 
 noticed it she seemed to notice nothing in those days 
 but toward noon she said to Judith :
 
 THROCKMORTON. 273 
 
 " I want to see my wedding-dress to see if it is 
 quite ruined." 
 
 Judith, without protesting, went and got it. She 
 spread it out on the bed. It was rich and white and 
 soft, and was beautiful with Judith's handiwork ; but 
 it was bloodstained in many places. 
 
 " That blood, I think, came from my heart," said 
 Jacqueline ; her eyes were soft and luminous. " I've 
 been thinking about Throckmorton in the last 
 two or three days for the first time. I have been 
 so busy with my own sorrow and Freke's that I 
 haven't had time to think about anything else. Now, 
 though, I want to see him if he can get here in 
 time." 
 
 " He will soon be here," answered Judith, folding 
 up the dress. " I wrote him four days ago." 
 
 " That is so like you ! None of the others know 
 what I want, or will let me have my own way, but 
 you." 
 
 And that very day Freke appeared. 
 
 The hatred that Judith had always felt for him 
 was now intensified into a horror of him he was the 
 murderer of the poor child lying on her death-bed up 
 stairs and she had thought her heart so hard toward 
 him that nothing could soften it ; but, strange as it 
 might seem, she did soften toward him when she saw 
 how acute was his misery. 
 
 Remorse was new to him. He had rather gloried 
 18
 
 274 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 in going against the antique notions and prejudices of 
 the people in that shut-in, provincial place ; but that 
 anything tragic could come of it never really dawned 
 upon him until he saw the terrible consequences he- 
 fore his eyes. He was, indeed, a free man, legally, 
 when he came back ; but the moral law, the social 
 prejudice, stood like an everlasting wall between him 
 and Jacqueline. Moreover, there could be no talk of 
 marriage with Jacqueline then she was the bride of 
 death ! 
 
 Judith herself told him this. Whether Jacqueline 
 had ever had any deep hold upon him or not, there 
 was no doubt of the sincerity of his grief and his re 
 morse. He said but little, but one look at his changed 
 and agitated face was enough. He asked to see her 
 a request Judith could not refuse. But the sight of 
 him threw Jacqueline into such a paroxysm of agita 
 tion, that Judith almost forced him from the room. 
 There was something a little mysterious, about the 
 whole thing, to General and Mrs. Temple, but merci 
 fully they suspected nothing of the real state of af 
 fairs. After one more attempt to see Jacqueline, and 
 the extreme agitation into which it threw her, it be 
 came plain that it could not be repeated. Jacqueline 
 herself begged that she might not see him. 
 
 " Not that I don't love him don't think that for 
 a moment, Judith ! " she cried ; " but the sight of 
 him nearly kills me. Then I am sorry that I am go-
 
 THROCKMOETO^. 275 
 
 ing to die I am so sorry for myself that I feel as if I 
 should cry myself into convulsions." 
 
 Judith tried gently to check this sort of talk, but 
 Jacqueline, with a shadowy smile, laughed at her. 
 
 " Don't be silly, Judith you know how it is. All 
 that I hope is, that those hard-hearted people will be 
 sorry when they have killed me with their cruelty." 
 
 Freke, still coming every day, walked about the 
 lower floor dismally. Jacqueline, whose senses became 
 preternaturally sharp, soon recognized his footsteps. 
 Even that unnerved her. Judith told him so kindly, 
 and afterward he would sit motionless before the din 
 ing-room fire, always turning his head away from Jac 
 queline's little chair. Like Judith, he was clear-sight 
 ed about her. Of them all, General and Mrs. Temple 
 were the only ones who would not or could not see 
 that Jacqueline would soon be gone. Mrs. Temple 
 had never seen anybody die without being ill, and 
 could not believe that Jacqueline, who suffered no pain, 
 should go. She had been in truth much frightened at 
 the time of Jacqueline's illness ; but, now, there was 
 nothing to prevent her getting well except except 
 
 " That she is determined to die," Dr. "Wortley in 
 wardly remarked when Mrs. Temple talked to him in 
 this way. 
 
 Jacqueline began to show a strange eagerness for 
 Throckmorton's arrival. He was somewhere in the 
 Northwest ; but Jack, acting on his own responsibility,
 
 276 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 telegraphed his father, and put him on the track of 
 Judith's letter. 
 
 The news of Jacqueline's illness had got abroad in 
 the county, and something like remorse was felt by 
 many who had seen her at the Turkey Thicket party. 
 By degrees the impression that she was indeed in a 
 bad way became general. 
 
 If Judith and Jacqueline had never loved Jack 
 Throckmorton before, they would have loved him 
 then. The sweetness, tenderness, and gentleness of 
 the boy came out every day. There had always been 
 an affinity between Jacqueline and him, and, as other 
 ties weakened, this seemed to grow stronger. He never 
 tired or bored or agitated her. Eegularly he came 
 twice a day, with flowers, or game, or with a new book. 
 Dr. "Wortley encouraged Jacqueline to see him, as it 
 was plainly through her mind that her body must be 
 cured. So every day Mrs. Temple or Judith would take 
 Jack up to Jacqueline's room, and he would sit down 
 by the bed and tell her his droll stories. Sometimes 
 the ghost of a laugh would come from Jacqueline, and 
 when, at parting, Jack would stand over her, holding 
 her hand and saying, " Miss Jacky, I swear this is not 
 to be stood for another day! I'm coming over to-mor 
 row to take you to drive ! " Jacqueline would almost 
 laugh aloud. Jack never mentioned Throckmorton to 
 her, though ; but one day, when he had brought her 
 a great bunch of violets and narcissus, which had act-
 
 THROCKMORTON. 277 
 
 ually brought a little color to Jacqueline's cheeks, and 
 had induced her to eat a piece of bread about as big 
 as a silver dollar, he turned to Judith as he got out 
 of the room : " The major is coming," he said, with 
 an altogether different look in his handsome, boyish 
 face. "I got a dispatch from him to-day. If he 
 makes connections, he can be here by day after to 
 morrow." 
 
 " How glad I am and how glad Jacqueline will 
 be ! " answered Judith. 
 
 For the first time, that day Judith had begun to 
 hope that Jacqueline would get well. She had cer 
 tainly brightened, and this strange interest in Throck- 
 morton's arrival was encouraging. Perhaps, after all, 
 she cared for him more than she thought and if he 
 came 
 
 Till that day Jacqueline seemed to be brighter and 
 better. The next day the weather turned suddenly 
 cold and blustering, with violent gusts of snow and 
 sleet. Jacqueline, who could see out of the window 
 from her bed, seemed singularly depressed by the 
 weather, although the pleasant, old-fashioned room was 
 a nest of warmth and comfort. 
 
 Delilah sat in the great rush-bottomed chair by 
 the sparkling fire, knitting, while Judith, with some 
 work in her lap, sat close by the bed, and occasionally 
 talked hopefully to Jacqueline. 
 
 " How sad it is ! " presently said Jacqueline ; " the
 
 278 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 peach-trees are all in bloom, and the buds will be 
 killed by this snow and the little hyacinths that are 
 just coming up all the young growing things will die 
 to-day." 
 
 " Not the plants, dear only the blossoms," replied 
 Judith, cheerfully. " In a week they will have forgot 
 ten all about this snow." 
 
 " It is very sad," sighed Jacqueline. 
 
 All day Jacqueline seemed affected by the weather. 
 Barn Elms, never a cheerful place at any time, was apt 
 to be funereal when winter blasts swept the branches 
 of the melancholy poplars and elms against the sides of 
 the house, and when the wind howled amid the loosely 
 built chimneys. A blackbird had begun building 
 her nest in the tree nearest Jacqueline's window ; and 
 often, during the long days when she had lain in her 
 bed, she had watched the bird flying and fluttering 
 back and forth. The wind, which raged fitfully, came 
 on stronger toward the afternoon. It lashed the still 
 bare branches of the trees, beating them frantically 
 about. The nest soon went. The poor bird, flying 
 wildly around the place where it had been, was sud 
 denly caught by a swaying branch, and, numbed with 
 the cold, was dashed against the window. Jacqueline 
 almost shrieked. Judith ran down-stairs, and out 
 bareheaded in the sleet and snow, and found the bird 
 but it was already dead. When she went back, 
 Jacqueline was crying.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 279 
 
 " See how it is, Judith everything that is young 
 and weak will die in this weather." 
 
 A book lay on the bed beside Jacqueline Jack 
 Throckmorton had brought it over to her a day or 
 two before. Jacqueline, laboriously for she was very 
 weak turned over the pages and showed a paragraph 
 to Judith : 
 
 " And the fire is lighted and the hall warmed, and 
 it rains and it snows and it storms without. Then 
 cometh in a sparrow and flieth about the hall. It 
 cometh in at one door and goeth out at another. 
 While it is within, it is not touched with the winter 
 storm. But that is only for a moment, only for the 
 least space" 
 
 Judith thought that Jacqueline, in her simplicity, 
 had taken it literally ; but she had not. 
 
 " Once, Throckmorton read some in this book to 
 me. He said that meant human life that little mo 
 ment. Why can't people let other people be com 
 fortable in that least space, instead of of killing 
 them as being so unkind to them?" Jacqueline 
 stopped. Her mind was ever working on that deep 
 resentment against her county people. " And Throck 
 morton, too," she continued, after a pause, " you 
 know, Judith, how noble he is and see how they 
 have treated him ! " 
 
 " My dearest," answered Judith, " you don't un 
 derstand. These people are really kind and tender-
 
 280 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 hearted; but they move very slowly and they have 
 queer prejudices notions that they will die with, 
 and die for, I think ; but don't think about that 
 think about getting well, and running about again 
 with Beverlcy. You ought to see him, trotting around 
 down-stairs, saying : ' Where is my Jacky ? I want 
 my Jacky.' He was so naughty to-day that Delilah 
 threatened to whip him, and even mother had to 
 take a stand against him. He is getting thoroughly 
 spoiled while I am up here with you." 
 
 Jacqueline smiled slightly, but soon returned to 
 watching the gloomy day without. At twilight she 
 would not have the shutters closed, but lay striving 
 to catch the last fading glimpses of the somber day 
 light. Judith began to feel an intense longing for 
 Throckmorton to come. Jacqueline, too, who had 
 been so strangely forgetful and neglectful of Throck 
 morton until lately, had asked a dozen times that day, 
 when it was possible for him to get there, and what if 
 he should miss the boat, and many other questions. 
 About seven o'clock Judith went down to tea, leaving 
 Delilah with Jacqueline. 
 
 Delilah, sitting up black and solemn, listened to 
 Jacqueline's faint and sorrowful talk. 
 
 " Doan' you fret, honey, 'bout dem blackbirds, an' 
 dem peach-blossoms, an' dem little lambs out in de 
 cold. De Lord gwi' teck keer on 'em. He gwi' meek 
 de sun ter shine, an' de win' ter blow ; an' He gwi'
 
 THROCKMORTON. 281 
 
 down in de rain an' de gloomerin' fur ter fin' do po' 
 los' sheep. He ain' gwi' lef 'em out d'yar ter dcy- 
 selves. lie gwi' tote 'em home outen' de rain an' de 
 darkness." 
 
 " Do you think so, mammy ? " 
 
 " I knows hit, chile." 
 
 Down-stairs, General and Mrs. Temple, with little 
 Beverley and Judith, were all that were present around 
 the table. Not yet even had Mrs. Temple begun to 
 be alarmed about Jacqueline, who had not had a pain 
 or an ache. 
 
 Jacqueline's vacant chair struck Judith more pain 
 fully than usual. Scarcely had she taken her place at 
 the table, when she saw Delilah peer in at the door, a 
 queer, ashy tinge over her black face. Judith rose 
 and went out quietly, Mrs. Temple looking surprised, 
 but saying nothing. Judith, Mrs. Temple thought, 
 coddled Jacqueline rather too much for her own 
 good, so Kitty Sherrard and Dr. Wortley both said. 
 
 " Miss Judy," whispered Delilah, " Miss Jacky is 
 a-gwine she done start on de road " 
 
 Judith, without a word, flew up-stairs. Jacqueline 
 lay, scarcely breathing, her face perfectly white, her 
 dark and beautiful eyes wide open. Judith raised her 
 up, Jacqueline protesting feebly. 
 
 " Judith, it is come ! I feel it. I am not at all 
 frightened. It was those cruel people at Mrs. Sher- 
 rard's party "
 
 282 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 " Don't don't say that, Jacqueline ! You are 
 only a little faint and discouraged. Here is Delilah 
 coming." 
 
 " Tell Throckmorton I tried to live until he came, 
 but my breath won't hold out any longer, and my 
 heart has scarcely beat at all for a week, it seems to 
 me." 
 
 Judith made a sign to Delilah to go for Mrs. Tem 
 ple. Scarcely was she out of the room, before Jac 
 queline's head fell back on Judith's shoulder. Judith, 
 brave as she was, began to tremble and to weep. 
 
 " I did so want to see Throckmorton, to tell him 
 something. I wanted to say to him Judith " 
 
 Mrs. Temple came in swiftly, followed by the 
 general. Jacqueline had strength enough left to hold 
 out a thin little hand. A smile like moonlight passed 
 over her face. She gasped once, and all was over.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE next night at midnight there was a solemn 
 stir, a painful and heart-breaking commotion, at Barn 
 Elms. Throckmorton had come. He had indeed 
 missed the boat, and had driven seventy miles rather 
 than wait a day. Mrs. Temple, as when Beverley died, 
 had shut herself up in the " channber " with General 
 Temple. Most people thought it was to comfort Gen 
 eral Temple, but in those two dreadful tragedies of 
 her life it was General Temple who comforted Mrs. 
 Temple. Both parents felt something like remorse in 
 their grief. They had been good parents after their 
 lights, but the wayward, capricious Jacqueline, 
 although their child, was outside of their experience. 
 Her nature had eluded both of them. 
 
 " Ole marse," said Delilah, in a solemn whisper to 
 Judith, sitting in Jacqueline's peaceful room, " he set 
 by mistis. He hole her han' an' he read de Bible ter 
 her, an' he tell her she ain' got no reproachments fur 
 ter make. Mistis, she jes' lay in the bed, ez white ez 
 de wall, an' her eyes wide open, a-hole'in ole marse 
 like she wuz drowndin'. It seem like ole marse ain'
 
 284 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 got no sort o' idee, 'cep 'tis ter comfort mistis. She 
 do grieve so arter her chillen. She ain' got none 
 now." 
 
 To Judith, whose grief was poignant and complex, 
 was left the task of watching by Jacqueline. With 
 tender superstition, she got out the wedding-gown it 
 could be put to no other use and she and Delilah put 
 it on Jacqueline, deftly hiding the blood-spots. 
 
 " My pretty little missy," said Delilah, smoothing 
 down the frock with her hard black hand. " Arter all, 
 you gwi' w'yar dis pretty little frock Miss Judy done 
 wuk for you to git married in." 
 
 And to Judith also fell the task of showing Freke 
 into the white and darkened room. 
 
 As they looked into each other's eyes, and realized 
 that, after all, they were the chiefest mourners, Ju 
 dith's old enmity melted away. 
 
 " You and I have struggled for this child's soul," 
 he said. " Had you but let me see her had she but 
 gone with me she would be alive this day." 
 
 " And wretched ! " Judith could not help saying. 
 
 " No most happy. I understood her better than 
 anybody else. It was that which gave me my power 
 over her. She wanted nothing in this world except 
 to be loved." 
 
 He went in and stayed so long that Judith opened 
 the door softly two or three times. Sometimes, by the 
 dim light, he was kneeling by the bed, holding the
 
 THROCKMORTON. 285 
 
 cold little hand in his. Again, he sat on a chair, 
 stroking the bright hair that rippled over the fore 
 head. Judith had not the heart to speak to him until 
 midnight, when the sound of Throckmorton's step 
 in the hall told her he had come. She went in and 
 said to Freke hurriedly, but not unkindly, " You must 
 go Throckmorton is here." 
 
 " Then I will go," he said. But with a queer sort 
 of triumph in his voice he added : " She never was 
 Throckmorton's, living or dead. She was mine as far 
 as her heart and her soul and her will went." And 
 so saying, he went down the stairs and out and away, 
 without meeting Throckmorton. 
 
 Judith went down into the dining-room, where 
 Throckmorton sat before the decaying fire, with only 
 the light of two tall candles to pierce the darkness. 
 He arose silently and followed her. At the door of 
 the room his courage, which Judith had thought in 
 vincible, seemed suddenly to leave him. He, the 
 strong man, turned pale, and clung to the weak 
 woman's arm. Something of the divine pity in Ju 
 dith's face went to his soul. He stayed only a few 
 minutes. It came to Judith, like a flash, that his grief 
 was not like Freke's. Throckmorton pitied Jacque 
 line. Freke pitied himself, for the sharp misery of 
 life without her. "When Throckmorton came out, 
 Judith went in and resumed her watch. 
 
 The day of the funeral was as stormy as the day
 
 286 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 of Jacqueline's death. But for that, the whole county 
 would have been at the funeral. Something of the 
 truth had leaked out, and the people were conscience- 
 stricken. Poor Jacqueline, who two weeks before had 
 in vain asked for a little human pity from them, now 
 had her memory deluged with it. But the storm was 
 so violent that but few persons could be present. As 
 Judith stood at the head of the small grave in the 
 wind and the rain, listening to Edmund Morford's 
 rich voice, now touched with real feeling, she glanced 
 toward Freke, standing by himself, with his hands 
 clasped behind his back, his eyes fixed devouringly 
 upon the coffin. As the first damp clods fell resound 
 ing on the lid, he said to himself : " Jacqueline ! Jac 
 queline ! " 
 
 Throckmorton, with folded arms and his iron jaw 
 set, gave no sign of his feelings through his stern 
 composure. Judith's heart was wrenched as if she 
 were burying her own child. When they left the 
 grave, Freke remained standing alone, his hat off, and 
 the sleety rain pelting his bare head. At that sight 
 Judith, for the first time, forgave him from her heart.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THROCKMORTON'S year of leave was not up, yet he 
 went immediately back to his post. Everything that 
 had happened to him in the last six months had been 
 so unreal, so out of all his previous experiences, that 
 he needed the every-day routine of duty to enable him 
 to get his bearings. He wanted to find out if he him 
 self was changed. There was certainly a change in 
 him, which everybody saw ; but he was not a man to 
 be questioned. He went about his duty, quietly and 
 self-containedly. He had always found a plenty to do, 
 and wondered at the idleness that he sometimes saw 
 around him ; and now he was busier than ever. He 
 was not a philanthropic meddler, and was as loath 
 to offer his advice unasked to a soldier as to an 
 officer, but he earnestly desired, now more than 
 ever, to be of help to his fellow-men, and Throck- 
 morton's help was always efficient because it never 
 hurt the self-respect of those who received it. Cer 
 tain of the non-commissioned officers at his post were 
 competing for a commission. To his surprise and 
 gratification, he found them anxious to be instructed
 
 288 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 by him. So lie turned schoolmaster, and patiently and 
 laboriously, night after night, gave them the advan 
 tage of all he knew. Only one got the commission, 
 but all were qualified when Throckmorton got through 
 with them. He was not any less alert and attentive 
 than before, but in all his waking moments, when his 
 mind was not imperatively drawn to other things, he 
 was thinking over those six months at Millenbeck 
 the hopes with which he went back ; the strangeness of 
 finding himself under the ban among his own people ; 
 the renewal of the link with Barn Elms, after thirty 
 years' absence ; his complete infatuation with Jacque 
 line and, out of it all, rose Judith's face. How hard 
 had been her lot ; and how strange it was that he had 
 made confidences to her, and that, of all the women he 
 had ever known, she was the only one of whose sym 
 pathy he had ever felt the need ! He considered his 
 somewhat barren life his reserved habits and some 
 times thought Heaven was kind to Jacqueline in not 
 giving her to him, for he could not bend his nature to 
 any woman's the woman must conform to him ; and 
 it was not in Jacqueline to be anything but what 
 Nature had made her. 
 
 Jack was off at the university, and Millenbeck was 
 shut up, silent and deserted. 
 
 Freke was gone. He disappeared apparently from 
 the face of the earth. He wanted neither to see nor 
 hear anything of anybody connected with Jacqueline.
 
 THROCKMORTON. 289 
 
 Throckmorton, on the contrary, clung to the ties at 
 Barn Elms. 
 
 But to Judith Temple life had become infinitely 
 sadder and poorer than ever before. She had caught 
 one glimpse of paradise, and that had changed the 
 whole face of life for her, and she seemed all at 
 once to be very much alone. But in one sense she 
 was less alone than ever before. Mrs. Temple's will 
 and courage and purpose seemed gone. She changed 
 strangely after Jacqueline's death. She, who had once 
 silently resented the slightest forgetfulness of Bever- 
 ley, now seemed to feel acutely that the living should 
 not be sacrificed to the dead. She began to urge 
 Judith to go from home ; to take off her mourning 
 at the end of a year. Judith gently protested. The 
 truth was that, although Mrs. Temple had at last 
 come out of that strange forgetfulness of Jacqueline 
 and mourned as other mothers do, Jacqueline took 
 nothing out of her life. With Judith it was as if her 
 child had been taken. She could not pass Jacque 
 line's empty room without remembering how she 
 would waylay her, and draw her in to sit by the fire 
 and dream and romance. She could not sew or read 
 or do anything without feeling the loss of the childish 
 companionship. Even when she laid aside her seri 
 ousness for her child and romped and played with the 
 boy, he was apt to say, " I wish Jacky would come 
 back and play with me again." 
 19
 
 290 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 At intervals Mrs. Temple received kind and sym 
 pathetic letters from Throckmorton, and replied to 
 them with letters worded with her own simple elo 
 quence. In Throckmorton's letters he spoke of Jac 
 queline rather as if she had been his child than his 
 promised wife. Among them all Jacqueline's memory 
 was that of a child. Throckmorton sent kind mes 
 sages to Judith ; and Mrs. Temple, when she wrote, 
 conveyed short but expressive replies from Judith. 
 
 Two years had passed. So quiet and uneventful 
 had been their lives, that Judith would have had diffi 
 culty in persuading herself that the years were slip 
 ping by, but for little Beverley, now a handsome, 
 sturdy urchin, whose long, fair hair had been cut off, 
 and who emerged from dainty white frocks into kilts. 
 The grandfather and grandmother daily more adored 
 the child. Judith thought sometimes they were fast 
 forgetting Jacqueline. The grass was quite green 
 over Jacqueline by this, and the head-stone had lost its 
 perfect whiteness. But to Judith there was no for 
 getting. She had loved the child as if she had been 
 her own, and she loved Throckmorton still. Jack 
 wrote to her at intervals, his letters always containing 
 some allusion to Jacqueline. Judith thought some 
 times, with wonder, that Fate should not in the first 
 instance have united those two young creatures, boy 
 and girl. 
 
 One night, two winters after Jacqueline had gone
 
 THROCKMORTON. 291 
 
 away, Judith, who every night before going to bed 
 went to her window, and, drawing the curtain, looked 
 long toward Millenbeck, saw a bright light shining 
 from the hall-door and two of the lower windows of 
 the house. Every night, as she gazed at it, she had 
 seen it black and tenantless, and utterly deserted; 
 but, now 
 
 " Throckmorton has come ! " she said to herself. 
 
 Next morning he came over early to see them. 
 He found General Temple the same General Temple 
 courteous and verbose. His health being very good, 
 he was an Episcopalian for the time being; but, 
 whenever the gout appeared, he had his old way of 
 lapsing into Presbyterianism. Mrs. Temple was the 
 same, and yet not the same. Throckmorton saw a 
 change in her. She, the most unyielding of women, 
 had become easy and indulgent. Simon Peter and 
 Delilah came in to speak to him, and a wifely rebuke, 
 administered in the pantry, was distinctly audible to 
 Throckmorton : 
 
 " Huccome you am' taken off dat ole coat, nigger, 
 an' put on dat one mistis give you, fur ter speak ter 
 Ma-rse George Throckmorton ? He sut'ny will think 
 we 'all's po', ef you keep on dat er way." 
 
 " We is po', but we is first quality, 'ooman ! " 
 
 Judith, who had great self-command, could con 
 trol her eyes, her voice, her manner ; but happiness, 
 the outlaw, at seeing Throckmorton again, brought
 
 292 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 the red blood surging to her cheeks. Throckmorton, 
 who was exactly like his old self, was surprised and 
 inwardly agitated at it. They spoke some tender 
 words of Jacqueline, all of them sitting together in 
 the old-fashioned drawing-room. Her little chair was 
 in its old place, but Judith sat in it ; and even the 
 ragged footstool on which Jacqueline had toasted her 
 little feet was near it. Throckmorton noticed all 
 these things with tenderness in his dark eyes. He 
 was a little grayer than before, but he was the same 
 erect, soldierly figure ; he had the same simple but 
 commanding dignity. 
 
 He walked home in a curious state of emotion. 
 In those two years he had not ceased thinking deeply 
 over that short episode, so full of happiness and pain 
 the happiness a little unreal, and vexed with many 
 pangs; the pain very real, but with strange sugges 
 tions that, after all, the happiness held more possi 
 bilities of wretchedness. He could think, for Jacque 
 line's eake, how much better off she was, lying so 
 peacefully in the old grave-yard, than if she had lived, 
 so weak, so captivating, so unthinking. What would 
 life have been to her? And so, at forty-six, after 
 having experienced more than most men, he began 
 the analysis of his own emotions, and realized that 
 all he had known of love was perilously like a mirage. 
 He had entered into a fool's paradise, but he knew 
 that he of all men could least be satisfied there. His
 
 THROCKMORTON. 293 
 
 reason, his intellect, always overmastered him in the 
 end ; and what was there in this bewitching child to 
 satisfy either ? Jacqueline, young, was a dream ; Jac 
 queline, old, was a fautasm. All this had come to 
 him soon after Jacqueline's death, in that period of 
 self-searching that followed. But, when he had got 
 thus far, which was some time before his return to 
 Millenbeck, a great change came upon him. He 
 began to feel a sort of acute disappointment. He 
 had loved and suffered much for that which he felt 
 would not have made him happy had he gained it. 
 All that love, grief, passion, had been vain ; here he 
 checked himself; the memory of his girl-wife was 
 sacred from even his own questionings; and so was 
 that later love, but the necessity for checking himself 
 told volumes. And then, by slow degrees, the image 
 of Judith Temple had stolen upon him. It was very 
 gradual, it was many months in coming, but, when at 
 last it dawned upon him, it was a sort of glorious 
 surprise. How stupid, how blind had he been! 
 Where were his doubts and questionings? Could 
 anybody doubt Judith Temple's sympathy and under 
 standing ? He remembered the quaint words of the 
 Jewish king, " The heart of her husband doth safely 
 trust." He had seen enough of the way these weaker 
 women had striven to bend him, but Judith had the 
 beautiful charm of bending herself. She could be 
 whate7er the man she loved desired her to be.
 
 294: THROCKMORTON. 
 
 Throckmorton at once felt that any man married to 
 Judith Temple would indeed be free, and how sweet 
 would it be to see that proud spirit that yielded but 
 seldom bend to his will ! That homage, so rare and 
 precious, was what women of her type paid to the 
 master-passion. Most women that he had ever seen 
 yielded to the predominant influence ; but women 
 like Judith Temple bent their heads and smiled and 
 played at humility, but yielded not one inch of their 
 soul's standing - ground until the moment came. 
 Throckmorton, who possessed true masculine cour 
 age, admired this kind of feminine bravery. He felt 
 that to conquer such a woman would be like captur 
 ing a Eoman standard. And how utterly those 
 proud women surrendered when they did surrender ! 
 He could fancy Judith's brave pretenses melting 
 away; how charming would be her sweet inexperi 
 ence ! How quickly she would persuade herself that 
 there was nothing so wise, true, just as love ! Throck 
 morton, although he had silenced his discernment, 
 had never strangled it, and he began to study and 
 know Judith. But there was no suspicion in his 
 mind that she cared anything for him ; and, when he 
 made up his mind to return to Millenbeck and see 
 her again, he was anything but sanguine. He felt 
 that if he failed it would make infinitely more dif 
 ference to him than anything that had ever happened 
 to him in life before. He was absolutely afraid, and
 
 THROCKMORTON. 295 
 
 fear, he knew, when it came to men like him, meant 
 something overmastering. Throckmorton sighed when 
 he realized his want of courage. He knew it would 
 be forthcoming in an emergency ; he had felt that in 
 battle, where his first tremors never made him doubt 
 for an instant that when the time came to use his 
 courage it would be there ; but it was a new thing to 
 fear his fate at the hands of a woman. But the 
 woman had become much more to him than any 
 other woman had ever been ; she was so much to 
 him that it rather appalled him. 
 
 Nevertheless, anxieties or no anxieties, he went 
 about winning Judith with the same coolness and de 
 liberation he did everything else. He had two months' 
 leave, and he determined to spend it all at Millenbeck. 
 Judith might break his heart, but she should not de 
 fraud him of those months in her society that he had 
 promised himself for a good while before. For a long 
 time past in his pleasant quarters at his post, in his 
 regular round of duty, in the part he took in social 
 life, he had comforted himself with the idea that, 
 whether he was destined to this greater happiness or 
 not, he would at least see this woman of all women ; he 
 would hear her soft voice, listen to her talk, seasoned 
 with a dainty, womanly wit. Nobody should deprive 
 him of that. He began to remember with a frown 
 Jack's turpitude about Judith's letters. As soon as 
 Jack found out that his father wanted to see those
 
 296 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 friendly, kindly letters, lie made great ado about show 
 ing them, playing the major very much as he would 
 a peculiarly game and warlike salmon. The cast in 
 Throckmorton's eye was apt to come out so savagely 
 at these times that he was, as Jack said, positively 
 cross-eyed. But after Jack had worked him up into 
 a silent rage, he would then produce the letters. 
 Throckmorton had always taken women's letters as 
 highly indicative, and Judith's were so refined, so 
 sparkling in spite of the narrow round in which she 
 lived, that Throckmorton's countenance immediately 
 cleared and the cast disappeared from his eye as soon 
 as he had got hold of one of these cherished epistles, 
 all of which had been by no means lost on Jack. 
 
 Throckmorton went and came between Barn Elms 
 and Millenbeck in the most natural and neighborly way 
 in the world. He brought books over to Judith, and 
 often read aloud at Barn Elms in the evenings. Gen 
 eral Temple, still hard at work on the History of Tem 
 ple's Brigade, which now approached its seventh vol 
 ume, found Throckmorton a mine of information. A 
 soldier from the crown of his head to the sole of his 
 foot, Throckmorton had a queer diffidence about speak 
 ing of his profession, in marked contrast to General 
 Temple, who declaimed the science of war with same 
 easy confidence with which Edmund Morford explained 
 the inscrutable mysteries of religion. As Throckmor 
 ton watched General Temple stalking up and down the
 
 THROCKMORTOX. 297 
 
 quaint old drawing-room, haranguing and expound 
 ing, the idea that this man had been intrusted with 
 the fate of battle perfectly staggered him. His sense 
 of humor was keen, and, between his professional hor 
 ror of General Temple's methods and the utter ab 
 surdity of the whole thing, he would be convulsed 
 with silent laughter. Judith, the picture of demure- 
 ness, would give him a glance that would almost 
 create an explosion. With much simplicity General 
 Temple would add : 
 
 " At that time, my dear Throckmorton, I was un 
 fortunately separated from my command. I conceive 
 it to be the duty of the commander of troops to set 
 them an example of personal courage, and so I occu 
 pied a slightly exposed position." 
 
 Throckmorton did not doubt it in the least. The 
 general's incapacity was only exceeded by his courage. 
 
 Throckmorton's native modesty, as well as the fact 
 that he knew a great deal about the war and his pro 
 fession, kept him comparatively silent; but finding 
 that, when he talked with General Temple about bat 
 tles and campaigns, Judith's face gradually grew scar 
 let with suppressed excitement, and that like most 
 women she was easily carried away by the recitals of 
 adventure, he artfully took up the thread of conversa 
 tion and surprised himself by his own eloquence. It 
 was not like the almost forgotten Freke's polished and 
 charming periods, but it was none the less eloquent
 
 298 THBOOKMORTOH, 
 
 for being rather brief and pointed ; and once or twice 
 when Judith paid him some little compliment, her 
 speaking eyes conveying more meaning than her 
 words, Throckmorton would be seized with a fit of 
 bashfulness, and clapping his rusty but still cherished 
 blue cap on his head would go home and never say 
 " war " for a week. 
 
 Their lives were so quiet, so shut out from even the 
 small world of a provincial neighborhood, that nothing 
 was known or talked of about them. Judith, who was 
 capable of revenge, felt a deep resentment against the 
 county people. She, who before Jacqueline's death 
 had been all sweetness and affability, showed a kind 
 of haughtiness to the people who were well enough 
 disposed to make amends to the Barn Elms family. 
 Throckmorton noticed, when she went out of church 
 behind General and Mrs. Temple, holding her boy by 
 the hand, that the father and mother stopped and 
 talked as neighbors in the country do, but Judith 
 made straight for the rickety carriage which Simon 
 Peter still drove. 
 
 The two months were nearly over. Throckmorton 
 and Judith had seen much of each other, but there 
 had been no exchange of intimate thoughts between 
 them but once. This was one afternoon when they 
 were alone at Barn Elms, that Throckmorton talked 
 openly of Jacqueline. 
 
 " It is not treason to her, poor child," he said, " but
 
 THROCKMORTON. 299 
 
 it was a mistake. I truly loved her. I had thought 
 that love was impossible to me after the loss I suffered 
 so many years ago. But it was a madness ; and, how 
 ever delicious the madness of youth may be, when a 
 man has reached my time of life he knows it to be 
 madness. I have never dared to think what would 
 the ultimate end have been had she lived and married 
 me. The certainty one has of happiness is the life of 
 love ; but that certainty I never had. I never knew 
 whether Jacqueline's love would be enough for me, 
 even had it been mine ; and I could never shake off a 
 horrible fear that mine would not be enough for her." 
 
 Judith, who had listened silently to this, suddenly 
 leaned forward and gazed at him involuntarily. The 
 thought in hej mind was, that no ordinary woman 
 would be enough for Throckmorton. lie could give 
 much, but he would ask for much. Like all men of 
 commanding sense and character, he was exacting. 
 
 Throckmorton could not follow her thought he 
 only saw her deep and expressive eyes, the pensive 
 droop of her mouth, all the refined beauty of her face. 
 He began to think how she would blossom out under 
 the influence of happiness ; what a happy, merry, de 
 lightful creature she would be if she loved ; and some 
 thing in his fixed and ardent gaze made Judith draw 
 back, and brought the slight flush to her face, that 
 meant much for her. She trembled a little, and Throck 
 morton saw it. When he returned to Millenbeck, he
 
 300 THROCKMORTOX. 
 
 sat up half the night smoking strong cigars the pro 
 saic way in which his agitations always worked them 
 selves off lost in a delicious reverie of what might be. 
 Here was a woman who appealed to his pride as much 
 as to his love. Throckmorton, who was practical as 
 well as romantic, thought it a very good thing for a 
 man to marry a woman he could be proud of. Yet, 
 when the last embers of the library fire had died out, 
 and the cigars had given out too, and he began to be 
 chill and stiff, sitting in his great arm-chair, he felt 
 discouraged, and said almost out aloud, " I don't be 
 lieve she will marry me." 
 
 It grew toward the last days of Throckmcrton'a 
 stay. He had gone to but few places in the county. 
 The temper of the people toward him had changed 
 since he first came there ; every year had brought its 
 crop of tolerance, but it had ceased to be of impor 
 tance to him. Indeed, but one thing mattered to him 
 then whether Judith would marry him. But he de 
 liberately put off the decisive moment until the very 
 afternoon before he was to leave. lie had in vain 
 tried to find out whether the friendly regret at his 
 going that she expressed concealed a deeper feeling, 
 but Judith was too clever for him. She had gone 
 through the whole range of feeling since she first 
 knew him, and now was better armed than she had 
 ever been before. 
 
 He walked over to Barn Elms on that last after-
 
 THROCKMORTON. 301 
 
 noon, feeling very much as he had done years be 
 fore, when, after long waiting, with the thunder of 
 cannon in his ears and the smoke of musketry before 
 his eyes, the order had come for him to move forward. 
 It was well enough to think and plan before but 
 now, it was time to act ; and, just as in that time of 
 battle, he became cool and confident as soon as he was 
 brought face to face with danger. 
 
 He timed his visit just when he knew Judith 
 would be taking her afternoon walk with little Bever- 
 ley. Sure enough, she was out. He stayed a little 
 while with General and Mrs. Temple. When he rose 
 to go, he said, quite boldly, to Mrs. Temple : 
 
 " I am going to find Judith." 
 
 He had never called her by her name before, and 
 did it unconsciously. Mrs. Temple, though, who was 
 acute as most women are about these things, looked at 
 him steadily. Throckmorton colored a little, but his 
 eye had never drooped before any woman's, not even 
 Mrs. Temple's. But she, after a little pause, laid her 
 hand on his shoulder he was not a tall man, like Gen 
 eral Temple, and she could easily reach it and said : 
 "I hope you will find Judith, George Throckmor 
 ton." 
 
 He went forth and struck out toward the belt 
 of fragrant pines, where he knew Judith oftenest 
 walked. It was spring again April, with the deli 
 cious smell of the newly plowed earth in the air, and
 
 302 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 the faint perfume of the coming leaves the putting- 
 forth time. The entrancing stillness that all people 
 born and nurtured in the country love so much was 
 upon the soul of Nature. The dreamy and solemn 
 murmur of the pines seemed only to make the greater 
 silence obvious. In a little while he saw Judith's grace 
 ful figure coming his way. She wore a pale-gray gown, 
 and a large black hat shaded her face. In her hand 
 she carried a branch of the pale-pink dogwood, that 
 does not grow by open roads and farm-fields, but in the 
 depths of the woods. Beverley, with another branch 
 of dogwood across his shoulder, like a gun, marched 
 sturdily ahead of her. Throckmorton, who had care 
 fully guarded his behavior since he had been home, 
 was quite reckless now. He meant to risk it, and since 
 all depended on the cast of a die, prudence was su 
 perfluous. He took Judith's hand and held it until 
 he saw the red blood steal into her face. He looked 
 at her so, that she could not lift her eyes from the 
 ground. Beverley, however, claimed his rights. He 
 and Throckmorton were great friends. 
 
 " How you is ? " he asked, offering his chubby 
 hand and looking up fearlessly into Throckmorton's 
 face. . The child had lost his mother's shy, appealing 
 glance. He was a little man, instead of a baby, as he 
 often told her proudly. " I'm going to be a soldier, I 
 am," was his next remark, " and I'm going to be a 
 brave soldier."
 
 THROCKMORTON. 303 
 
 " That's right," said Throckmorton, " and, as I'm 
 a soldier, too, perhaps I'll help you along." 
 
 " Will you make me a soldier ? " asked Beverley, 
 pushing his cap back off his curly head. 
 
 " Yes, if you will go immediately home all by 
 yourself. You see it isn't far just along the path and 
 through the gap, to the orchard, and then to the house." 
 
 Beverley looked meditatively at the distance. It 
 seemed a perilous way for a six-year old. Judith 
 stood, crimson and helpless. Throckmorton was a 
 masterful man, and, when he took things in his own 
 hands, he was apt to have his own way. She knew at 
 once what he meant, and it gave her a kind of shock 
 she seemed about to be transported to another 
 world. This sending away of her child was what no 
 body had ever done before. Throckmorton, smiling, 
 said to the boy, " A soldier shouldn't be afraid." 
 
 " I'm not afraid of nothin'," answered Beverley, 
 stoutly. Judith stooped toward him, and the child 
 threw his arms about her and kissed her a kiss she 
 passionately returned. She felt it to be her farewell 
 to him as the first object of her existence. She knew 
 that he was to be supplanted. The boy trotted off, 
 not looking behind once. 
 
 " See how brave he is, for a little fellow," she said, 
 still blushing : 
 
 " Yes, very brave. But you are a woman of great 
 courage. You gave some of it to that boy."
 
 304 THROCKMORTON. 
 
 Throckmorton was no laggard in love. He lost 
 not a moment. He, who was by nature reticent, be 
 came, under the influence of the master-passion, bold 
 and ready of speech. Judith, who was by nature of a 
 sweet and humorous talkativeness, became eloquently 
 silent her heart seemed to melt into an ineffable 
 softness and yielding. She said one thing, though, 
 as they turned to walk home through the delicious 
 purple twilight : 
 
 " I think men can love more than once ; but I 
 don't think women can love but once." 
 
 Throckmorton perfectly understood her. 
 
 When they walked together across the lawn, under 
 the gnarled locusts and poplars, they saw General and 
 Mrs. Temple standing on the steps of the old house, 
 with little Beverley between them. Throckmorton 
 watched Judith jealously to see if there was anything 
 like shame or apology in her look ; but she, who could 
 not look him in the face when they were alone in their 
 secret paradise, now held her head up proudly. No 
 body could have told, from Throckmorton's quiet self- 
 possession, that anything unusual had occurred ; but 
 never before had he known anything like the deep 
 delight that now enthralled him. 
 
 THE END.
 
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