H 
 
 ELIZABETH H-HANCJDCR
 
 THE BETRAYAL
 
 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 A Novel 
 
 BY 
 
 WALTER NEALE 
 
 AND 
 ELIZABETH H. HANCOCK 
 
 NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON 
 
 THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 1910
 
 COPYRIGHT, igio, BY 
 WALTER NEALE
 
 TO THOSE YEOMEN AND PEASANTS OF VIRGINIA, 
 LIVING AND DEAD, WHO HELPED VIRGINIAN 
 ARISTOCRATS TO ESTABLISH IN THE VIRGINIAN 
 NATION A GOVERNMENT MORE NEARLY PERFECT THAN 
 ANY OTHER THAT MAN HAS DEVISED, AND THE HIGHEST 
 CIVILISATION THAT HAS EXISTED ON EARTH, THIS BOOK 
 IS DEDICATED AS A SMALL TOKEN OF THE LOVE THAT 
 IS BORNE THEM BY 
 
 THE GRATEFUL AUTHORS. 
 
 2137587
 
 AN EXPLANATION 
 
 In the preparation of this book I helped 
 Mr. Neale to collect data, to search records, 
 and to develop several of the minor characters, 
 but the story is his conception, and is wholly 
 from his pen. 
 
 ELIZABETH H. HANCOCK. 
 
 Charlottesville, Virginia, 
 
 March 25, igio.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 VIRGINIA, aided by her allies, had fought 
 out the war between the American nations 
 parties to the treaty of 1788 and its 
 amendments, and had survived the ordeals of Recon 
 struction, when she faced a crisis that threatened 
 her civilisation. 
 
 The war had decided one question; apparently it 
 had decided only one: no country a party to 
 the compact of 1788 would be permitted to violate 
 any of the terms of that agreement, or to withdraw 
 any authority delegated to the federal government 
 under that compact. 
 
 A radical readjustment of the relations of the na 
 tions to one another in the event of the success of 
 those that fought to enforce the treaty was not ex 
 pected by statesmen of any of the countries, north 
 ern or southern; nor did the citizens of the defeated 
 nations, during the first few months after the Sur 
 render, suppose that those sovereignties would lose 
 their autonomy merely because .the arbitrament of 
 arms had denied them the right to withdraw from 
 the compact that defined their international relations 
 their relations to one another and to other na 
 tions. Indeed, those that demanded the enforce 
 ment of the treaty of 1788 fought for the perpetua 
 tion of all the terms of that compact, and did not 
 expect the defeat that they met in success the de 
 struction by them of the treaty that they defended. 
 
 Unwilling to jeopardise her sovereignty, Massa-
 
 io INTRODUCTION 
 
 chusetts had refused to become a party to the treaty 
 of 1788 unless that agreement should be amended in 
 this: "First, That it be explicitly declared that all 
 Powers not expressly delegated by the aforesaid 
 Constitution are reserved to the several States to be 
 by them exercised." 1 The " amendments & altera 
 tions " that were demanded by Massachusetts were 
 held to be necessary " to remove fears & quiet 
 apprehensions of many of the good people of this 
 Commonwealth & more effectually guard against an 
 undue administration of the Federal Government." 
 
 New York became a party to the compact after 
 she had made known her interpretation of the agree 
 ment in the following language: "That the Powers 
 of Government may be resumed by the People, 
 whensoever it shall be necessary to their Happiness; 
 that every Power, Jurisdiction and right, which is 
 not by the said Constitution clearly delegated to the 
 Congress of the United States, or the departments 
 of the Government thereof, remains to the People 
 of the several States, or to their respective State 
 Governments to whom they may have granted the 
 same; And that those clauses in the said Constitu 
 tion, which declare, that Congress shall not have or 
 exercise certain Powers, do not imply that Congress 
 is entitled to any Powers not given by the said Con 
 stitution; but such Clauses are to be construed either 
 as exceptions to certain specified Powers, or as in 
 serted merely for greater caution." 3 
 
 Rhode Island, one of the nations that refused to 
 enter into the compact, in time offered to enter into 
 
 1 Documentary History of the Constitution of the United States, 
 vol. ii, p. 94. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 93. 3 Ibid., p. 190.
 
 INTRODUCTION n 
 
 trade relations with her sister nations, and " at the 
 request and in behalf of the General Assembly " her 
 governor forwarded " To the President, the Senate, 
 and the House of Representatives of the eleven 
 United States of America " her " disposition to cul 
 tivate mutual harmony and friendly intercourse." 
 The papers were officially labelled " Rhode Island 
 desires to maintain friendly relations with the 
 United States," and bearing that label were laid be 
 fore the federal congress by Washington, September 
 26, 1789. Rhode Island continued to exercise her 
 sovereign rights unmolested until May 29, 1790, 
 when she became a party to the treaty between the 
 American nations, at her request, but not before 
 she had imposed the following conditions : That 
 the powers of government may be resumed by the 
 people whenever it shall become necessary to their 
 happiness: That the rights of the States respec 
 tively, to nominate and appoint all State Officers, 
 and every other power, jurisdiction and right, which 
 is not by the said constitution clearly delegated to 
 the Congress of the United States or to the depart 
 ments of government thereof, remain to the people 
 of the several states, or their respective State Gov 
 ernments to whom they may have granted the 
 same." 4 
 
 When assured that the treaty would be altered to 
 meet their requirements, the nations that had re 
 fused to enter the union became parties to the com 
 pact, which was later amended in language that was 
 not open to misinterpretation, as follows: The 
 powers not delegated to the United States by the 
 
 4 Documentary History of the Constitution of the United States, 
 vol. ii, p. 311.
 
 i2 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are 
 reserved to the States respectively, or to the peo 
 ple." 5 
 
 " That the several States forming the American 
 Union were, subsequent to the Treaty of Paris in 
 1783, and previous to the adoption of the present 
 Constitution in 1788, inherently sovereign and inde 
 pendent, there can be no doubt; that in forming the 
 general government they all acted, each in its sov 
 ereign capacity, can not be questioned; and that the 
 several States, under the Constitution, are still sov 
 ereign, except in those particular powers expressly 
 delegated to the federal government, is plainly im 
 plied in the Constitution itself, and has been reas 
 serted in turn by almost every State, or group of 
 States, in the Union." 6 
 
 Of the five men, says John Fiske, who moulded 
 the confederation of states, Washington, Jefferson, 
 and Madison held that the Constituton was a com 
 pact between the states, and that each state was an 
 independent sovereignty. 
 
 In a letter to Madison, dated August 3, 1788, 
 Washington used the following words: "Till the 
 States begin to act under the new compact." Madi 
 son described the new confederation as " a govern 
 ment of a federal nature, consisting of many co 
 equal sovereignties." That the sovereignty of no 
 state was affected by the federal union Jefferson fre 
 quently contended. 7 
 
 5 Amendments to the Constitution, Art. x. 
 
 Wayland s Political Opinions of Thomas Jefferson, p. 35. 
 7 See McKim s The Confederate Soldier and Ewing s Northern 
 Rebellion and Southern Secession, two publications that the authors 
 have used as valuable sources in the preparation of this intro 
 duction.
 
 INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 Another Virginian, Marshall, the father of the 
 American nation, before he had dreamed his dreams 
 of empire, held that the states were nations. Dur 
 ing the debate on the adoption of the Constitution 
 he used the following words: "Can they [Con 
 gress] go beyond the delegated powers? If they 
 were to make a law not warranted by any of the 
 powers enumerated, it would be considered by the 
 judges [of the Supreme Court] as an infringement 
 of the Constitution which they are to guard. . . . 
 They would declare it void." 8 
 
 As a union is a combination that consists of two 
 or more entities, either an American union or an 
 American nation was born when the Constitution 
 w r as adopted. 
 
 The word " union " appears twenty times in Lin 
 coln s first inaugural address, but not once was the 
 word "nation" used. In his Gettysburg oration 
 the word " union " is not mentioned, but the word 
 " nation " appears five times. In less than three 
 years either Lincoln s language or the Constitution 
 had expanded. 
 
 In his first inaugural address Lincoln said: "I 
 hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of 
 the Constitution, the Union of these States is per 
 petual. . . . Continue to execute all the express 
 provisions of our National Constitution, and the 
 Union will endure forever. . . ." In his Gettys 
 burg address he said: " Fourscore and seven years 
 ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, 
 a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to 
 the proposition that all men are created equal. 
 Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing 
 
 8 Magruder s Life of Marshall, p. 82.
 
 i 4 INTRODUCTION 
 
 whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and 
 so dedicated, can long endure. . . . It is rather 
 for us, the living, to be here dedicated to the great 
 task remaining before us ... that the nation 
 shall have a new birth of freedom, and that govern 
 ment of the people by the people for the people, 
 shall not perish from the earth." 
 
 Did Lincoln believe that a republican form of 
 government existed only on the North American 
 continent at that time? Did he believe that a re 
 publican form of government was tested for the first 
 time by the American states? Did he believe that 
 government of the people by the people for the 
 people was first tried by the united American states? 
 Evidently he did, for Lincoln was no demagogue, 
 but an honourable man, and a profound student of 
 statecraft so say his biographers. 
 
 As early as 1619 Virginia had her House of Bur 
 gesses. Her government, consisting of three depart 
 ments, legislative, executive, and judicial, had been 
 in operation for more than one hundred and fifty 
 years when she became a party to the treaty of 1788, 
 and during all that time she had been a nation, and 
 had exercised all the powers of sovereignty that she 
 had cared to assume. Although she had acknowl 
 edged allegiance to a foreign king, that king had 
 only the authority that she had delegated to him, 
 and hers was the power to withdraw that authority, 
 as she did when she denied his parliament the right 
 to make her laws. Virginia exercised the powers 
 of a nation when the treaty with Cromwell s commis 
 sioners was made, the articles being signed by the 
 Commissioners on behalf of England, and by the
 
 INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 Council on behalf of Virginia, " as equal treating 
 equal," and she exercised her sovereign powers when 
 her civil war, known as Bacon s Rebellion, was 
 fought in 1676. 
 
 No nation made known her interpretation of the 
 treaty of 1788 in clearer terms than did Virginia, 
 for she published to the world that the powers that 
 she intended to delegate to the federal government 
 might be taken back by her people "whenever the 
 same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression 
 and every power not granted remains with them at 
 their will." 9 The Constitution, she said, would have 
 to contain the following words, or words of similar 
 purport : " That each state in the Union shall, re 
 spectively, retain every power, jurisdiction and right 
 which is not by this Constitution delegated to the 
 Congress of the United States, or to the Depart 
 ments of the Federal Government." 
 
 The rise of sectionalism in Virginia, which began 
 soon after the first settlement was made along the 
 James river, was further evidence of sovereignty. 
 Again, west of the Blue Ridge Virginia s territory 
 was populated largely by foreigners, nearly all of 
 whom were peasants and yeomen. In 1840 western 
 Virginians were clamouring for more liberal repre 
 sentation in the Virginian House and Senate, and 
 by 1860 civil war between eastern and western Vir 
 ginia was threatened. 
 
 All functions of civil government that were sus 
 pended in Virginia during the four years of military 
 rule were resumed immediately after Appomattox 
 as though they had never been interrupted. Recon 
 struction was well advanced before Virginians fully 
 
 8 Pulliam s Constitutional Laws of Virginia, pp. 39-45.
 
 16 INTRODUCTION 
 
 realised that their sovereignty was in jeopardy. 
 Later William McKinley, drawing the last knife 
 that was necessary to assassinate the American na 
 tions, completed the destruction of the treaty that he 
 had fought to perpetuate. A vast American republic 
 was created, soon to evolve into an empire, with a 
 president for king. The new empire immediately 
 entered upon a colonial policy, and in a few months 
 her people were able to boast that the sun never set 
 upon her dominions. Cleveland tore down the flag 
 that had been planted in dishonour; McKinley re 
 placed that flag, while mobs, drunk with imperial 
 power, tasted for the first time, madly shouted that 
 the flag should " stay put." The peoples of sov 
 ereign states had become the American people. 
 
 The early settlers in Virginia, having no desire to 
 be rid of an aristocratic government, did not intend 
 to plant the germ of a republic. On the contrary, 
 they sought to fashion their nation after that of 
 England. Like the House of Lords, the King s 
 Council was composed of members of the aristoc 
 racy; and the House of Burgesses, as its name im 
 plies, was made after the House of Commons. The 
 planters were householders and freeholders, and 
 only freeholders were permitted to govern Virginia. 
 
 As in England, three classes made up the social 
 system, the aristocracy, the yeomanry, and the 
 peasantry, and since the common law of England 
 that defines and regulates the classes is still the law 
 of Virginia, gentleman, yeoman, and peasant each 
 holds his rank by virtue of that law now, and has 
 held his rank by virtue of that law since Virginia 
 was first settled.
 
 INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 The books of public records of the counties of 
 Virginia contain thousands of entries in which the 
 rank of each party named was entered. A few 
 copies of those records are as follows: 
 
 William and Mary Quarterly, ix., p. 12: "Pat 
 ents issued during Regal government to Will M. 
 Spencer, of James City, yeoman, etc., 1624." 
 
 Lower Norfolk County, Virginia, Antiquary, i., 
 p. 49: " On the 5th of Feb., 1728, Thomas Law- 
 son, Gent., sold to Nathaniel Hutchings, of the same 
 county, yeoman, etc., of Princess Anne Co." 
 
 Spottsylvama County Records, year 1769, p. 268: 
 " John Taliaferro of King Geo. Co., Gent., to 
 William Alsup." 
 
 That class distinctions were recognised in Vir 
 ginia as late as 1840 is shown by the publication in 
 Richmond during that year of a periodical entitled 
 The Yeoman. 
 
 The members of the aristocracy were descended 
 from the gentry and nobility of Europe, principally 
 from England; but many came from other nations. 
 The yeomanry was similar to England s. 
 
 The peasantry, mixed as it was, did not have its 
 counterpart in Europe. Many of the peasants were 
 of the bone and sinew of England s peasantry, others 
 were convicts that England had expelled; some were 
 redemptioners, others came from Asia Minor and 
 Italy, and a few were stragglers that were left in 
 the wake of the Revolutionary army. Indian and 
 negro slaves, never classified as peasants, were re 
 garded as chattels. 
 
 Numerically the peasants were stronger than the 
 yeomen, and the yeomen were stronger than the 
 aristocrats. Although the convicts in many instances
 
 i8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 were men of good birth, expelled from their native 
 land for treason or other political offences, only a 
 few succeeded in establishing themselves in the Vir 
 ginian aristocracy. 
 
 These peoples, when one people, required a 
 strong government. 
 
 The various classes assumed their proper rela 
 tions to one another immediately upon their arrival 
 in Virginia, the aristocracy maintaining its author 
 ity over the other two classes. There was no more 
 democracy within the boundaries of the present state 
 of Virginia from the time of the first settlement 
 until the beginning of Reconstruction than there was 
 in the mother country. Yeoman and peasant were 
 satisfied with the positions in life to which their 
 classes assigned them. Neither expected to be an 
 aristocrat, but each expected to hand down to his 
 sons and daughters their birthright. Nothing more 
 was desired. 
 
 The aristocracy was well equipped for leadership. 
 In the struggle for existence the gentleman became 
 more and more gracious toward those below him in 
 station. Contact with men of inferior birth and 
 breeding gave him a broader humanity; he learned 
 to command without arrogance, and to discharge 
 the obligations of his rank as duties rather than as 
 God-given privileges. The Virginian aristocrat was 
 as courteous to his servant as he was to his equal. 
 The peasant and yeoman loved him; the negro 
 looked upon him as the great white master in whom 
 there could be no wrong, and the Indian slave re 
 spected as well as hated him. Every man that was 
 a part of the social system of Virginia upheld the 
 dignity of his class.
 
 INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 Inevitable class distinctions were continued after 
 the Revolution, and government was vested in the 
 aristocracy, as it was before that war, notwithstand 
 ing the extension of suffrage to every white man of 
 twenty-one years and more, and although occasion- 
 ally a yeoman or a peasant of unusual ability would 
 be placed in office. Every aristocrat had his follow 
 ing of voters, and the numerical strength of that 
 following regulated his voice in the government, 
 and to some extent his position in the aristocracy. 
 No one sought an office for its emoluments. Official 
 work was regarded by the gentry as a necessary 
 hardship upon the aristocracy, a duty to be per 
 formed at much sacrifice of time and temper. As 
 the aristocracy, individually as well as a whole, was 
 directly responsible for the welfare of the people, 
 every gentleman had a part in the affairs of the 
 government, if merely in the home councils of office 
 holders. These conditions produced broad states 
 men, who were patriots, distinguished for their 
 ability and fidelity, to whom all, from the negro 
 slave to the cultured aristocrat, entrusted their po 
 litical welfare without question. 
 
 Virginians enjoyed a government more nearly per 
 fect than any other ever devised until Reconstruc 
 tion succeeded in pitting negro, peasant, and yeo 
 man against one another and against the few male 
 members of the aristocracy that had survived the 
 war. Then the peasant was taught to hate negroes 
 and yeomen as well as aristocrats, and the negro to 
 hate every member of the Caucasian race. The yeo 
 man learned to despise the peasant and negro and 
 to hate the aristocrat. Peasants and yeomen alike 
 envied the aristocrats, and determined to place
 
 20 INTRODUCTION 
 
 themselves in the class that they envied, and to de 
 grade their superiors. 
 
 In the course of her national advancement Vir 
 ginia borrowed large sums of money for internal 
 improvements during several decades previous to the 
 war of 1 86 1. She met her obligations at maturity 
 until her ports were blockaded by her invaders. 
 The first legislature that met after the war, com 
 posed largely of the aristocracy, promptly decided 
 that as soon as possible Virginia should pay her orig 
 inal debt, with accumulated interest, and thereby 
 prove that her honour had not been affected by war. 
 Then came Reconstruction, the soap and water that 
 the victorious nations applied to their unclean sisters, 
 and at the close of the scrubbing period Virginia, 
 having been washed clean, was again permitted to 
 associate with her sister sovereignties that were par 
 ties to the treaty of 1788 and its amendments. 
 
 The public debt was $31,187,999.32 on January 
 i, 1 86 1. On July I, 1871, it had increased to 
 $46,914,208.25, bearing interest at six per cent. 
 In 1 86 1, before Virginia had been devastated by 
 war, her taxable property was assessed at $585,- 
 099,322.77, which did not include slaves under 
 twelve years old and other valuable personal prop 
 erty. The total value was $709,807,711.65, or 
 more than $22 worth of property for each dollar 
 of debt. In 1873 the assessed value of Virginia s 
 property was $336,684,433.23, less than $8 worth 
 of property for each dollar of debt. 
 
 Governor Kemper appended to his last annual 
 message extracts from official documents that 
 showed that the burden upon the entire taxable prop-
 
 INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 erty of Virginia amounted to about five and one- 
 half per cent. Yet the bulk of that taxable property, 
 because of the chaos that had been brought about 
 by war, was unproductive; while Reconstruction had 
 so disorganised all the working classes that Vir 
 ginia s lands, her source of wealth at that time, were 
 unfilled. 
 
 General Timothy Murphy, as we shall call him, 
 saw his opportunity in these conditions. Organising 
 a party consisting of carpetbaggers, scalawags, ne 
 groes, and those that formerly had considered them 
 selves yeomen and peasants, he opposed the few 
 aristocrats that had survived the war. He believed 
 that he would be able to force Virginia to acknowl 
 edge him as her dictator. 
 
 The aristocrats formed themselves into a political 
 organisation in the hope that they would be able to 
 conserve Virginia s institutions and her honour. The 
 organisation, known as Debtpayers, consisted of the 
 members of the gentry that belonged to the great 
 political parties that were in Virginia for more than 
 fifty years immediately preceding the war of 1861-5. 
 
 Murphy, although a Confederate major-general, 
 known the world over as the hero of the Crater, 
 immediately after the Surrender had been com 
 pelled to return to the peasant class in which he was 
 born and reared. 
 
 The Democratic party, alias the Readjuster party, 
 alias the Repudiator party, alias the Eliminator 
 party, became the Murphy party, and in time the 
 Murphy party became the present Democratic party 
 of Virginia. The few among Murphy s followers 
 that were honest were so blind in their zeal to re-
 
 122 INTRODUCTION 
 
 lieve Virginia s sufferings as to fail to realise the 
 significance of the Murphy movement. They ad 
 mitted their mistake later when too late to rees 
 tablish their reputations as honest men. 
 
 No Readjuster, no matter by what alias he was 
 known, was ever forgiven by the gentry. 
 
 Virginia, then, was in her death-throes as a na 
 tion, with the ultimate destruction of her sover 
 eignty foreseen by some of her statesmen, when she 
 was confronted by a danger from within that 
 threatened to break down all responsible govern 
 ment and to alter the characteristics of her people.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 CHAPTER ONE 
 
 Candles burned in every room in Morven, the 
 ancestral home of the Braxtons, near the old town 
 of Warrenton, in Virginia, although the sun had 
 not quite disappeared behind the spurs of the dis 
 tant Blue Ridge. Servants moved about the lawn, 
 lighting Japanese lanterns, concealed in the flower 
 ing shrubbery, draped in graceful festoons from tree 
 to tree, and swung from lofty boughs. 
 
 Judge Ingram Mayo Braxton and Mrs. Braxton 
 had issued invitations to a ball, given in honour of 
 Lelia, their only child, to celebrate her twentieth 
 birthday. 
 
 Long ago, when Indians and wild beasts roamed 
 the forests around Warrenton, and it was danger 
 ous to travel by night, the Braxton guests had sought 
 the protection of the strong walls of Morven before 
 dark; now, no matter how formal the occasion, the 
 massive doors of the old mansion were flung open 
 at sundown. 
 
 The month was April, the year 1879. 
 
 The fragrance of the jessamine, the daffodil and 
 jonquil, the narcissus and the hyacinth was in the 
 air and so were the end of an era, the fall of a 
 dynasty, and the death of a people. 
 
 A nation is gayest in her hour of danger. We 
 dance with our sweethearts, and then go out to be 
 shot; our country is engaged in a desperate strug- 
 
 23
 
 24 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 gle for life, and we are all merriment; our defenders 
 need food and clothing, and we pay enough for a 
 single evening of pleasure to equip a regiment. 
 Never had Virginia been in danger so great, nor 
 her rulers so prodigal in their hospitality. 
 
 Young men and young women who held life 
 lightly were the guests of the Duchess of Richmond 
 at the ball that she gave on the eve of Waterloo, 
 eager for one mad revelry then death. Those in 
 vited to the Morven ball were great-grandparents 
 and their grandchildren, their children, and their 
 children s children the strength of Virginia. 
 
 The Morven ball was a call to arms. 
 
 At eight o clock John Randolph Harrison, a 
 young lawyer, the last of a distinguished family, 
 pulled up his horse at the great iron gates of Mor 
 ven, now wide open, and told his man Jake, the old 
 family coachman, to come back in time for supper. 
 He wished to see Lelia Braxton before other guests 
 would claim her attention. 
 
 Although he was not the first to reach Morven, 
 fortune favoured him, for he had taken but a few 
 strides up the long brick walk which extends from 
 the mansion to the gates when he saw Colonel Fran 
 cis Southall Daingerfield and Mrs. Daingerfield on 
 the lawn with the judge. They were measuring the 
 spread of an oak, planted by the first Morven 
 Braxton, Sir William, two hundred and fifty years 
 before. Notwithstanding the moonlight and the 
 brilliant illuminations, the young man succeeded in 
 entering the house without attracting their atten 
 tion. 
 
 William, the old butler, after greeting him with
 
 THE BETRAYAL 25 
 
 respectful cordiality, directed him to Miss Brax- 
 ton. 
 
 He found her in the hall just back of the great 
 stair. She had made the nook into a bower of 
 apple blossoms " For lovers," she had laughingly 
 told her father. 
 
 " Oh, John, how could you ! " 
 
 He kissed the extended hand. 
 
 " What have you done ! What have you done ! " 
 
 " Lelia, love, listen. Virginia has no money. 
 Her debts amount to more than forty-seven mil 
 lions. The Debtpayers say, Pay the debt ! but 
 offer words in payment, and nothing more. The 
 Readjusters say, Pay the debt ! too, and they have 
 a plan by which every cent of it can be paid in 
 time." 
 
 " John, you can not, you, a Virginian, you can 
 not mean to compromise with our creditors ! Not 
 that! Say that you do not mean that, John! " 
 
 " The debt shall be paid, Lelia, every dollar that 
 we owe. Not now, for the revenues of the state are 
 not sufficient to pay even the more important cur 
 rent expenses of the government, while our people 
 are already taxed beyond endurance; but General 
 Murphy proposes to effect an honourable settlement 
 with our creditors, and ultimately every one of them 
 shall be paid in full." 
 
 " The only way to settle a debt is to pay it when 
 it is due." 
 
 How could he make her understand, this noble 
 girl. Yet he must have her approval as well as her 
 faith and her love. 
 
 "A Debtpayer interrupted my speech this morn 
 ing, dear, with the same statement. I replied to
 
 26 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 him as I can not reply to you, and said, Give me 
 money, instead of mere words, and the debt shall 
 be paid before that sun goes down. 
 
 "Oh, John, did you say that?" 
 
 44 Yes; and his answer was not meant as a retort. 
 4 Your father was a gentleman, sir, was all that he 
 said." 
 
 " A Virginian gentleman will never consent to 
 postpone the payment of a debt. Never, never, 
 never! " 
 
 " But when there is no money? " 
 
 " Still a gentleman will always demand the right 
 to pay his debts." 
 
 "In words?" 
 
 That is not worthy of you. Honest men do 
 not readjust their debts." 
 
 For a while he said nothing more; then he spoke 
 in a voice that was clear, but low, and full of sor 
 row: 
 
 4 You, too, believe me to be dishonourable. * 
 
 "No, John; no, no, no! I honour you as much 
 as I love you. I must, oh, I must make you see 
 your mistake ! " 
 
 She took his hand in both hers. For the first 
 time in her life she kissed it. 
 
 4 You are a part of Virginia, John her noble 
 part; and and I love you." 
 
 " No, you do not love me." 
 
 He paused. Never before had she been so beau 
 tiful. Then, as she did not speak, he continued, 
 while she unconsciously looked at his hand, which 
 she gently stroked: 
 
 You think my course is dishonourable. A man 
 can not be noble while his conduct is ignoble."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 27 
 
 "Yes, he can, dear; yes, he can without realis 
 ing that he is wrong ! " 
 
 Nothing else was said for a while; then Lelia 
 Braxton rose and stood with averted face, toying 
 nervously with a spray of blossoms; and then, draw 
 ing herself up with just a suggestion of pride, she 
 looked steadily into the fine eyes of her lover. 
 
 " But, John, the man that I marry shall be hon 
 ourable in all that he does as well as noble in char 
 acter." 
 
 He had known that. 
 
 The orchestra, stationed in the conservatory, just 
 off the ballroom, reminded Lelia Braxton of her 
 duties as hostess. She took John Harrison s arm 
 soon after the first strains of the grand march from 
 Tannhauser reached them, and they walked down 
 the broad hall, her hand trembling as it barely 
 touched his arm. He spoke to her in a low, firm 
 voice. 
 
 " Lelia, I have decided for the honour of Vir 
 ginia yes, for her honour. Please let me see you 
 later please? I have more to say." 
 
 She did not reply; nor had she even looked at 
 him, he thought, when he bowed to her at the 
 drawing-room door as she left him to take her place 
 at the side of her mother. 
 
 Unobserved, John Harrison made his way into 
 the night. He felt that for a while he must be alone. 
 Later he would return to be formally announced, 
 and to face the cold civility of those that he had 
 known all his life. 
 
 That afternoon as he was returning to the home 
 of his ancestors, which he had inherited from his
 
 28 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 father, he had extended his hand with boyish glad 
 ness to the friend who had been the Harrison fam 
 ily physician for three generations. The old gen 
 tleman had looked him straight in the eyes, so 
 straight that he had not seen the outstretched 
 hand. 
 
 " John Harrison, John Randolph Harrison, 
 you have shamed Virginia. I thank God that your 
 father died before his son deserted his people to 
 join Tim Murphy s party of thieves. Stop, sir, 
 stop ! Not a word ! Your speech of to-day was the 
 most disgraceful utterance ever made in this land. 
 Leave my sight, sir ! " 
 
 Now those words rang in John Harrison s ears 
 as he leaned heavily against an old oak and drank 
 in the night air and its fragrance. He did not regret 
 the step that he had taken. He had known that his 
 motives would be misunderstood, that the best people 
 of Virginia, his friends and his father s friends, 
 would not tolerate his course. Within an hour from 
 the time that his speech was made in which he had 
 announced his allegiance to Murphy s Readjusters he 
 was forced to feel the burden of his new position. 
 He felt no self-pity. The Harrison men had all 
 been men. Now he must make Lelia understand 
 he must make thousands of Virginians see that their 
 honour could be saved only through a readjustment 
 of the debt under conditions that ultimately would 
 provide for its full payment. In his boyish way 
 he was twenty-nine, but young for his years he 
 thought that his life and happiness were poor things 
 to offer to the land of his fathers. 
 
 Lelia Braxton had barely reached the side of her
 
 THE BETRAYAL 29 
 
 mother when Captain Charles Churchill Lancaster, 
 of Charlottesville, was announced. 
 
 When a mere boy Captain Lancaster had mar 
 ried a peasant. A gentlewoman never entered a 
 lower class than her own when she married, nor did 
 the man below her in social rank that she married 
 ever become a part of the aristocracy; but her chil 
 dren were her husband s children, and, as his chil 
 dren, were always a part of his class. A gentleman 
 might marry a peasant, retain his social position, his 
 wife be tolerated by the aristocracy, and his chil 
 dren, despite the vulgarity learned from their 
 mother, be invited to formal social affairs; but his 
 grandchildren s position in society was determined 
 largely by their father s conduct. Such marriages 
 were rare. 
 
 A hero of four wars, Mexican, Crimean, Con 
 federate, and Reconstruction, Captain Lancaster 
 had not closely observed distinctions of caste. His 
 vulgar wife had sense enough to stay quietly at 
 home, where she nursed in secret her ambition 
 for her five daughters, and where she perfected 
 her scheme by which each daughter should take a 
 higher place in the world than could be reached by 
 marriage to a Virginian gentleman. She had suc 
 ceeded in marrying four of them into English fam 
 ilies of questionable standing and New York families 
 known for their ostentatious display of wealth, and 
 daily had the pleasure of seeing their names appear 
 in the Metropolitan press. Indeed, her daughters 
 had been able to create the impression in London 
 and New York that they were representative of 
 Virginian aristocracy. 
 
 "Ah, Captain," said Judge Braxton, "these are
 
 30 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 troublous times; but they are not without their com 
 pensations, for they bring to Morven friends that 
 have not been in my home since the war." 
 
 "But where is your daughter?" asked Mrs. 
 Braxton, who had expected Miss Lancaster to ac 
 company her father. 
 
 " Oh, I left Gladys at the Warren-Green, prink 
 ing. She says it s not fashionable to get to a ball 
 before half-past ten. Jim Temple will bring her 
 along some time before midnight." 
 
 " Virginian traditions, Captain, must not give way 
 to Yankee customs. Miss Lancaster will deny us a 
 great deal of pleasure if we are not to enjoy her 
 company before midnight." 
 
 When Mrs. Braxton spoke with formality her 
 language and manner were similar to those of her 
 distinguished husband, for twenty years an associate 
 justice of Virginia s highest court. The Richmond 
 home of the Braxtons was closed, and would not be 
 reopened until the court, now on vacation, would 
 convene in the fall. 
 
 Colonel Daingerfield, who represented Warrenton 
 in the Virginian Senate, was the centre of a group 
 that had gathered in the library. 
 
 To-night as I drove through these spacious 
 grounds, so beautifully illuminated, so like Aladdin s 
 fairy-land, I heard the songs of the night birds of 
 spring. Their music was the melancholy dirge that 
 is always sung by the birds of the air when they 
 give warning of impending calamity. The sad notes 
 of the whippoorwill plaintively called to Virginia s 
 sons to come to her rescue, to save her untarnished 
 escutcheon from dishonour."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 31 
 
 " To-night, Colonel," a merry young girl mocked 
 him; "why, sir, it was evening when you reached 
 Morven, was it not? " 
 
 " No, ma am, no ! These are sad days, as my 
 good brother-in-law, Judge Braxton, says, sad in 
 deed; but, thank God, night in Virginia still comes 
 with the stars. An hour of twilight, and Evening 
 goes forth to meet her lord the Night so beauti 
 fully expressed by McDonald Clarke in those im 
 mortal words that no Virginian can forget 
 
 " Now twilight lets her curtain down, 
 And pins it with a star. " 
 
 You still read Clarke, Colonel?" asked young 
 Tom Tazewell. 
 
 Yes, sir; I do. The lines are not so beautiful 
 as some of those by Landor, nor do they equal those 
 of the wizard Lanier, whose sweet songs made 
 Heaven stoop to kiss the face of Dawn; but, sir, I 
 take quite as much pleasure in reading Clarke and 
 Landor as I do the Yankee rhymster Whitman and 
 that excellent young person in New York who refers 
 to herself as a poetess of passion. 
 
 Whereupon Colonel Daingerfield offered his arm 
 to Mrs. Daingerfield, claiming her promise for the 
 mazurka as the riotous music of the Polish dance 
 came from the ballroom. 
 
 Miss Boiling turned to General Dabney: 
 " In our time all Virginian gentlemen wrote son 
 nets and roundelays to the ladies of their acquaint 
 
 ance." 
 
 " But, Aunt Polly," protested a young girl, " the 
 young men of to-day write them too beautiful, 
 beautiful poems."
 
 32 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 The old general bowed low, his right hand pressed 
 against his heart. 
 
 "To you, madam?" 
 
 The fair young girl blushed deeply, but archly 
 looked up into General Dabney s face. 
 
 "Oh, no, sir; but all my friends have many, 
 many, many; their Bibles are full of beautiful 
 poems." 
 
 " Madam, if the young men have neglected a 
 flower so fair, one so beautiful as yourself, I beg 
 leave now to compose a sonnet that shall be some 
 small token of the inspiration that surges within me 
 as I gaze upon your loveliness." 
 
 "Oh, oh!" 
 
 She buried her scarlet face in her hands, but rogu 
 ishly looked at the old general through her fingers 
 while he fervently declaimed his lines, his eyes 
 ablaze with youth and love. 
 
 " Array d in dewdrops, pearls of wanton Day, 
 The blushing rose awaits her noble liege, 
 While saucy streamlets pause along their way, 
 Her tender heart in whispers to besiege, 
 Then on ; the ardent lord, with shafts that burn, 
 In fury bursts from out the mystic blue : 
 Enthrall d, I mutely stand ; and then I turn 
 To that rare beauty that I find in you. 
 For never rose so fair as your soft cheek, 
 Nor heaven so deep as your unfathom d eyes; 
 Your tears the dewdrops that your roses seek, 
 The mirth of waters in your laughter lies. 
 
 And you are what sweet Morning ne er can be 
 A golden chain that binds my memory." 
 
 " Do you think that was spontaneous combus 
 tion?" young Tazewell whispered to Miss Boiling. 
 She laughed softly.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 33 
 
 " He does not remember that he recited those 
 same lines to me more than forty years ago." 
 
 Miss Betty Dabney, her face flushed from danc 
 ing, came out of the ballroom with Mr. Byrd Dan- 
 dridge, a youth of four and twenty, Warrenton s 
 hereditary magistrate, whose hand and heart she 
 had refused at least once a week for six months. 
 
 " No, Mr. Dandridge, I will not go to the con 
 servatory with you I just will not." 
 
 " Then we will go to the grotto." 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Come, Betty," said her brother, Gary Gordon 
 Dabney, as he came up to them, " we will finish this 
 dance." 
 
 He led her to the ballroom, leaving Mr. Dan 
 dridge to wonder at Miss Dabney s rapid recovery. 
 She had just told him that she was too tired to 
 dance another step. 
 
 General George Mason Dabney had lost five sons 
 in the war of 1861; another son had been killed 
 while fighting under Maximilian; one of his married 
 daughters lived in Norfolk, another near Lynch- 
 burg, and Betty, his only unmarried daughter, and 
 Gary, his only son that had not been killed in battle, 
 lived with him in the old Dabney home near War- 
 renton. Mrs. Dabney died while Betty was a little 
 girl. The old general had retired from the practice 
 of law, and already Gary, his worthy successor, al 
 though not quite thirty-two, was regarded as the 
 ablest lawyer in northern Virginia. Twice he had 
 refused a seat in Congress, saying that he could best 
 serve Virginia as a private citizen. He had recently 
 assumed the leadership of the Debtpayers of Fau-
 
 34 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 quier county, and even now was thought to be the 
 logical candidate of his party for governor. 
 
 Byrd Dandridge, his solemn face showing none of 
 the elation that he felt in watching Betty Dabney 
 dance with her brother instead of with one of his 
 many rivals, joined an animated group that had 
 gathered on the verandah. 
 
 Mr. Carter was the first to greet him. 
 
 Young man, you come in time to hear us de 
 nounce John Harrison, who prefers the society of 
 scalawags and negroes to that of gentlemen." 
 
 " Doctor Carter, pardon me, sir. I know that 
 John Harrison is an honourable man. He is a gen 
 tleman, sir. He is my friend." 
 
 " Doctor, sir doctor? How dare you, sir! God 
 bless me, what is the matter with the children ! " 
 
 The venerable physician was eighty-six years old. 
 He had practised for sixty-five years, and during 
 that time had not permitted any one to address him 
 by the title that he had earned as first in his class in 
 medicine. " Quacks, sir," he used to say, " are doc 
 tors; not gentlemen not Virginian gentlemen." 
 
 Mr. Carter s sobriquet during three generations 
 had been " Old Kill- em-or-cure- em," while Dr. 
 Ewell, his only medicaj rival, five years his junior, 
 had been called " Old Linger- em-er-long." These 
 nicknames arose from the noise made by the two 
 physicians in compounding drugs in their stone mor 
 tars with pestles made from the roots of the dog 
 wood. To the youthful fancies of the children that 
 used to gather around them it seemed that old 
 Mr. Carter pounded out in rapid jerks, " Kill- em- 
 or-cure- em, kill- em-or-cure- em, kill- em-or-cure- 
 em," while Dr. Ewell with ponderous move-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 35 
 
 ments slowly ground out, " Linger- em-er-long, 
 linger- em-er-long, linger- em-er-long." 
 
 The rival physicians had different methods of 
 practice. Mr. Carter always prescribed ten grains 
 of calomel and twenty-four grains of quinine, while 
 Dr. Ewell s practice was altogether in surgery. 
 He never prescribed medicine for adults, but relied 
 upon major operations, with his instrument the mus 
 tard plaster, applied to the feet of his adult patients. 
 Neither physician had lost a patient from any cause 
 other than old age. 
 
 There was a great deal of interest in Warrenton 
 in the ultimate decision as to the merits of the two 
 schools of medicine would Mr. Carter or Dr. 
 Ewell live the longer? The Reverend Doctor Nel 
 son was attending the annual convocation of the 
 Episcopal Church in Richmond when the time came 
 for Dr. Ewell to die, so the burial service was read 
 by Mr. Carter. Grief almost overwhelmed him 
 until he reached that part of the service which says, 
 " Man, that is born of a woman, hath but a short 
 time to live," when, Captain Temple said, the old 
 gentleman s eyes shone brightly as he thought that 
 his rival had been cut off in the bloom of his youth, 
 at eighty-one years, through his ignorant practice of 
 medicine. 
 
 " Sir," Mr. Carter continued, " Mr. Harrison 
 has shamed Virginia. Our country has little left to 
 her but honour. Tim Murphy and Parson Jones 
 and John Harrison shall not take that from her 
 while I live." 
 
 Lelia Braxton had joined the group unobserved 
 by the good old doctor. Now he saw her pale face 
 turn scarlet. He put his hand on her golden hair,
 
 36 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 and bending back her head looked into her eyes as 
 he said in tones too low to be heard by the others, 
 " There, child, there; John Harrison is a good boy." 
 But the hurt was deep. Her godfather had 
 merely put into words what all felt John Harri 
 son, her John, the man to whom she had given her 
 heart, had deserted his country in her hour of trial, 
 to join those that would take from Virginia all that 
 she had left her good name. 
 
 Lelia Braxton trembled with emotion that she 
 vainly endeavoured to suppress. John Harrison 
 had been announced. Would he be received with 
 cold, formal courtesy? Would her guests be able 
 to hide their indignation? Would he openly resent 
 the hostility that everywhere was evident? No; as 
 the manly figure of her lover advanced, she knew 
 that the dignity and force of his personality would 
 compel respect. Nevertheless, she observed a per 
 ceptible change in her father s manner. 
 
 Already the judge had decided that youth was the 
 only plea in extenuation that could be offered in 
 behalf of John Harrison. But he determined to 
 hear the young man s arguments, then endeavour to 
 point out his errors to him. Youth always had a 
 long day in the judge s court. 
 
 Lelia Braxton tried to read her father s ultimate 
 decision in his face; but never before had his fea 
 tures been so inscrutable. His decision, her deci 
 sion, Virginia s decision, would be determined by 
 John Harrison himself. 
 
 Judge Braxton and Mrs. Braxton received the 
 young man with all the cordiality that is required by 
 the laws of hospitality, yet with a restraint that they
 
 THE BETRAYAL 37 
 
 could not altogether control. Mrs. Daingerfield, 
 Mrs. Braxton s sister, greeted him affectionately. 
 She believed in him. 
 
 Mr. Harrison turned from Mrs. Daingerfield to 
 her husband. 
 
 "How do you do, Colonel?" 
 
 "How do you do, Mr. Harrison?" 
 
 Then the old gentleman became more florid than 
 usual. He realised that he had hesitated in taking 
 the outstretched hand, thus violating one of the laws 
 of hospitality. 
 
 Apparently John Harrison had not observed the 
 colonel s hesitation, but all others in the group 
 plainly showed their embarrassment. 
 
 " Miss Braxton, this is my dance," said Mr. Har 
 rison, offering his arm. As she took it she flashed 
 a look upon her uncle, and the meaning of her words 
 could not be mistaken : 
 
 " Colonel Daingerfield, I thank you for your kind 
 ness in assisting me to receive my guests." 
 
 " A sprightly girl," said the colonel, feigning in 
 difference. 
 
 " A loyal, lovable girl," replied Mrs. Dainger 
 field, as she looked straight into the eyes of her liege 
 lord. 
 
 Her sister then poured oil on the turbulent waters : 
 
 " How lovely you look to-night, Sue." 
 
 Judge Braxton placed his hand on the shoulder 
 of young Tom Tazewell, who had recently read law 
 under him for six months. 
 
 u Well, my boy, were you successful in your ex 
 amination? " 
 
 " Yes, sir. I appeared before Judge Jeffries, of
 
 38 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 King and Queen county, and he asked me four ques 
 tions." 
 
 "What were they, sir?" 
 
 " Well, Judge, I think that I can recall the whole 
 of the examination for you. 
 
 " Your father s name, sir? 
 
 " Thomas Waller Tazewell. 
 
 What, sir ! you are a son of my old friend 
 Tazewell ? 
 
 " Yes, sir. 
 Who was your mother? 
 
 " Margaret Hunter. 
 
 " Bless my soul ! I knew her well before she 
 was nearly as old as you. Your mother was a very 
 beautiful woman, Tom. You have her eyes, sir. 
 Who directed your law studies? 
 
 " Judge Ingram Mayo Braxton. 
 
 Bless my soul, bless my soul ! A good lawyer, 
 sir, although I did beat him badly, very badly, in 
 the last case in which I was opposed to him. 
 
 "Was that all?" 
 
 Then, sir, he handed me my certificate." 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! I wish my examinations had been 
 as easy as yours, Mr. Tazewell," laughed the merry 
 Miss Betty. 
 
 " Nevertheless, young lady," said Judge Braxton, 
 Judge Jeffries never gave a certificate to any man 
 that did not deserve one. All the information that 
 he requires as to the qualifications of an applicant is 
 the name of his parents and teacher. A lawyer that 
 is a gentleman is always a good lawyer." 
 
 The guests gathered here and there in groups. 
 Ladies as well as gentlemen anxiously discussed the
 
 THE BETRAYAL 39 
 
 dangers that confronted Virginia. Murphy, Jones, 
 Harrison those names were on everybody s lips. 
 
 " Mr. Carter," said Mrs. Daingerfield, who was 
 in a playful mood, " I understand that Dr. 
 Smythe, the young physician who recently settled in 
 Warrenton, uses many new methods in his practice." 
 
 " Madam, Dr. Smythe truly represents the un 
 fortunate conditions that threaten to overwhelm us. 
 Dr. Ewell affixed his medical title to his name, 
 and even accepted fees for his services to his neigh 
 bours; I have never been able to understand his 
 course; but he was a gentleman, notwithstanding his 
 mistaken attitude toward his noble calling." 
 
 The old gentleman s eyes flashed, and his tall, 
 spare figure stood full six feet as he continued to 
 expound the ethics of medical men. 
 
 " Madam, no man has the right to charge for 
 his deeds of kindness. No man should enter upon 
 the practice of medicine unless he is a gentleman, 
 and has means ample for his support while he de 
 votes his life to saving the lives of others. Clergy 
 men and physicians that live by their deeds of 
 humanity are not worthy to associate with their 
 fellowmen. There was a time in Virginia when 
 clergymen and physicians served God and their 
 neighbours without pay nay, no man dared to in 
 sult them by offering money for their good works. 
 That time is no more." 
 
 " But, Mr. Carter," said a boy of twelve ear 
 nestly, " the labourer is worthy of his hire. I 
 thought that a man could take money for serving 
 God and his neighbour, sir, if he took only just 
 enough for his support."
 
 40 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " No, sir, no. A layman, even a native of Ver 
 mont, would not charge for saving the life of a 
 drowning man; no Pennsylvanian, however humble 
 his station, would charge for kneeling down at the 
 bedside of a friend and offering a prayer to God. 
 Men that live by relieving the sufferings of their 
 neighbours are not worthy to take the hand of an 
 honest man." 
 
 Those that had gathered about Mr. Carter were 
 his children, he felt four generations of them. He 
 had been in attendance when most of them were 
 born, and was among their sponsors in baptism. 
 They listened to him with respectful attention. Was 
 he not the spirit of Virginia? 
 
 " My children, men like Dr. Smythe will come 
 among you and try to lead you into evil ways. They 
 will introduce many diseases to you, apply new rem 
 edies, invent instruments to dazzle you. The world 
 has not changed in fundamentals. You will have 
 no better health under their treatment when I am 
 gone, and you will live no longer." 
 
 " And we will be better off, Mr. Carter," said a 
 young man banteringly, " if we continue to take ten 
 grains of calomel and twenty-four grains of qui 
 nine?" 
 
 The old physician s eyes twinkled. He knew that 
 his remedies had been a joke among his affectionate 
 patients during three generations. 
 
 "A few days since I met Dr. Smythe, to whom 
 I recited a few of the beautiful lines of Horace. 
 Lord, Mr. Carter, he said, I don t know no 
 Latin; but did you ever see a fever thermometer? 
 It beats all the Latin in the world when you get 
 down to malaria. I took the toy and snapped it
 
 THE BETRAYAL 41 
 
 with my two hands as I would a straw. The im 
 pertinent young fellow actually thought that after 
 sixty-five years of practice I could not tell when a 
 patient had a fever." 
 
 Colonel Daingerfield joined the group. 
 
 " Mr. Carter, sir, your objections to Dr. 
 Smythe are well taken. Sir, I especially commend 
 your attitude toward your noble science. The good 
 physician is nearer kin to the great God above us 
 than any other man; and, sir, he shames the great 
 God when he turns the fair flower of his noble call 
 ing into the foul thistle of commercialism. As to 
 this fellow Smith who calls himself Smythe well, 
 sir, there are Smiths in Virginia that are gentlemen. 
 That their gentility may not be doubted a few of 
 them sound the name of some illustrious family 
 with the plebeian name of Smith. Mr. Francis H. 
 Smith, a Virginian who had the misfortune to be 
 born in Baltimore, and who was plain Frank Smith 
 when a boy, at the time that he became a Yankee 
 notified Yankeeland that he was not without good 
 blood when he became F. Hopkinson Smith. Sir, 
 he even named his boy Berkeley." 
 
 After pausing a moment for oratorical effect, for 
 all Virginians know the value of the oratorical pause, 
 the colonel continued: 
 
 " The Smiths go further, sir, much further. They 
 spell their name S-m-y-t-h, and S-m-y-t-h-e, and when 
 the daughter of one of my former overseers, named 
 after her mistress, Sue Daingerfield Jones, married a 
 Smith, she became Mrs. Daingerfield-Smythe. The 
 young man that recently came among us is Doctor 
 Buckner Custis Smythe, his father, Steve Smith, be 
 ing an overseer for my old friend Major Custis,
 
 42 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 while the woman he married was a servant on Gov 
 ernor Buckner s plantation, which adjoined the es 
 tate owned by Major Custis." 
 
 With great difficulty Colonel Daingerfield had 
 controlled himself when he referred to Mr. F. Hop- 
 kinson Smith. A Virginian gentleman could not 
 speak intemperately in the presence of ladies; a 
 Virginian gentleman was unable temperately to 
 refer to the able-bodied young Virginian men that 
 did not care to draw their swords in Virginia s de 
 fence. Father Time rewarded the Virginian gen 
 tlemen of expediency. Mr. F. Hopkinson Smith 
 is now seventy-two years old. For the last past 
 half a century his bones probably would have filled 
 an unmarked grave on a Virginian battlefield had 
 he fought for Virginia. But Mr. Smith lives in 
 Yankeeland, where he is accepted as a representative 
 Virginian gentleman, and where his stories of Vir 
 ginian life (a life in which he has had no part for 
 more than fifty years) are believed to be accurate 
 descriptions. This Virginian gentleman" now 
 despises the land of his adoption, where he continues 
 to accumulate money, some of which he delights to 
 pay out in tips. But he never " talks " for publi 
 cation. 
 
 In Yankeeland there are Virginians other than 
 those that left Virginia when the clouds of war 
 were lowering that Virginians do not love. They 
 are the men that surrendered Virginia to her rav- 
 ishers when they surrendered their swords to her 
 invaders, who preferred luxury in the land of those 
 that recently had been their enemies to poverty in 
 Virginia, who deserted the widows and orphans 
 that Virginia s enemies left in their wake. In Yan 
 keeland they posed as gentlemen, and long and loud
 
 THE BETRAYAL 43 
 
 did they talk about Virginia; but not a dollar did 
 they send to Virginian widows and orphans. Among 
 them were those that defamed the land of their 
 birth, who abroad fed upon Virginia s reputation 
 at the time that the carpetbagger at home fed upon 
 her vitals. 
 
 One Roger A. Pryor was born in Virginia eighty- 
 two years ago. Although he fought for his native 
 land as a brigadier-general, he left Virginia that he 
 might become a resident of New York City. This 
 he did in time to avoid the horrors of Reconstruc 
 tion and the struggle in which all Virginians that 
 were worthy of their country engaged that the mem 
 bers of their own families and their fallen brothers 
 families that had survived the war might live. Gen 
 eral Pryor was admitted to the New York bar in 
 1866. So popular was he with his former enemies, 
 so highly did they esteem him, that they made him a 
 justice of their supreme court. He retired from the 
 bench in 1899, and is now practising law in the land 
 of his adoption. " Ah ! " sigh his former enemies, 
 " there are not many Virginians like Roger A. 
 Pryor ! " 
 
 Captain James Spotswood Temple, another lawyer 
 of the town, about thirty-five years old, arrived with 
 Miss Gladys Lancaster while Mr. Harrison and 
 Miss Dabney and Mr. Dabney and Miss Braxton 
 were dancing in a set of lancers. The desire to 
 take part in the set was plainly written on the face 
 of the fair young girl as she looked on and beat 
 time to the light music with her fan. Her pink 
 gown was cut well off the shoulders, and a black 
 patch accentuated the bloom of her complexion. 
 
 " Lelia, look; there is Gladys Lancaster, of Char-
 
 44 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 lottesville ! " exclaimed Miss Dabney enthusiasti 
 cally. 
 
 Indeed, the most widely heralded beauty in Vir 
 ginia was even fairer than her reputation for beauty 
 led one to expect. Her peasant mother s face had 
 been her fortune. Miss Braxton went forward at 
 once, Mr. Dabney following her. 
 
 Extending her hand with masculine cordiality, in 
 response to Miss Braxton s introduction, Miss Lan 
 caster spoke in a ringing voice. She knew how to 
 blend boldness with femininity in a way that many 
 men found attractive. 
 
 " I m glad to meet you, Mr. Dabney, awfully 
 glad. I hear you made a bully speech to-day quel 
 eloquence! Congratulations. Shake." 
 
 Miss Lancaster s knowledge of French was con 
 fined to a small volume of quotations, which she 
 knew perfectly, and which she seldom used out of 
 their gender. Indeed, Miss Lancaster knew many 
 things that she had never had to learn. " I just feel 
 it," she would say when some one would express his 
 amazement that she seemed to know all things. 
 "Why do you study?" she once asked a girl during 
 the six months that she was at Mrs. Stuart s school. 
 " Nothing that one has to learn is worth knowing. 
 I know everything, but I never read a book through, 
 never except yellow-backs." 
 
 Miss Dabney observed the rapt look of adoration 
 expressed on her brother s face as he thanked Miss 
 Lancaster. 
 
 " Finish this set with Mr. Dabney. Oh, please! " 
 said Miss Braxton as she yielded her place in the 
 set. 
 
 Miss Dabney turned to Miss Lancaster as Cap-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 45 
 
 tain Temple and Miss Braxton left the ballroom 
 together. 
 
 " Let me present Mr. Harrison." 
 
 11 Then it was you who woke up Warrenton to 
 day ! I m always interested in people that are inde 
 pendent enough to do just as they please." 
 
 " I thank you." 
 
 Mr. Harrison smiled. He had just heard her 
 congratulate Mr. Dabney on a speech that he had 
 made to which Harrison had replied. Already Dab 
 ney was too much in love to feel surprise. 
 
 Captain Temple led Miss Braxton to a seat. He, 
 too, seemed more serious than usual. He had his 
 problems to work out, some of them within the next 
 few days, and not the least of which concerned the 
 offer of marriage that he proposed to make to the 
 girl by his side. A man of the world, his sense of 
 humour and the social eminence of his family caused 
 him to be tolerated in Warrenton society despite his 
 impertinence and coarseness. 
 
 " It is an opportune time for a ball, Miss Brax 
 ton. I hope it will relieve the tension at least 
 dancing makes one take a long breath." 
 
 " I hope so." 
 
 Miss Braxton answered aimlessly, and Captain 
 Temple observed that she was deeply troubled. 
 
 We are in the midst of the fiercest political 
 campaign ever fought in this state," he continued. 
 4 There are at least two sides to every question, you 
 know, and the Debtpayers had better realise without 
 the loss of another day that there is more than one 
 side to this particular question of Virginia s debt." 
 
 " I can see but one. There is the debt; it must 
 be paid."
 
 46 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " Nevertheless," said the captain, on whom none 
 of the deep unrest in her tones was lost, " it would 
 be well for all Debtpayers to listen to the enemy s 
 arguments. Murphy and the parson do not lack 
 brains." 
 
 He paused, then continued, looking steadily into 
 her eyes : 
 
 1 The speech Harrison made to-day was unan 
 swerable." 
 
 She returned his searching look. 
 
 Then you, too, are a Readjuster?" 
 
 She affected surprise. Captain Temple detected 
 contempt in her voice and manner. He could not 
 surprise her, as Harrison did, by joining Murphy s 
 party. 
 
 " No, I am not a Readjuster; but I left the court 
 house to-day before I could be called upon to make 
 a reply to that speech. I was not prepared to an 
 swer Harrison s arguments, for I lay claim to the 
 ability to think, and I did not believe, as other Debt- 
 payers do, that a sufficient answer was made by 
 shouting, Pay the debt, pay the debt ! 
 
 For a moment neither spoke; then, greatly to her 
 relief, she saw a young man coming toward them. 
 
 " There is Mr. Taliaferro, he is going to join 
 us," she said, and later wondered if her tones and 
 manner, intentionally glad, were a bit too joyous in 
 a hostess, even when a Temple was the guest. 
 
 Richard Tayloe Taliaferro, of Richmond, for 
 merly of Gloucester county, "Dick" Taliaferro 
 all of his friends called him, was the wealthiest 
 young man in Virginia. Miss Braxton met him for 
 the first time in Richmond, having gone to his studio 
 with her father, who greatly admired the young
 
 THE BETRAYAL 47 
 
 sculptor s work, and predicted a brilliant future for 
 him. This was Taliaferro s first visit to Warrenton. 
 He had come to see Miss Braxton rather than to 
 attend her ball. 
 
 " I have been looking for you for more than an 
 hour. You should be more considerate of one so 
 eager to see you." 
 
 Undoubtedly he had lost many years of his life 
 in the last past few minutes. 
 
 " You are a fraud to say that to me. You were 
 the last person to arrive. Why this sudden eager 
 ness? " 
 
 There was a playful light in her eyes. 
 
 " My train was late, otherwise I would have been 
 the first here." 
 
 " What an excuse late to my birthday ball ! " 
 
 Mr. Taliaferro s look and voice were not neces 
 sarily evidences of his devotion, for it is customary 
 for the Virginian to profess to love every woman 
 that he happens to be with, and it is not unusual for 
 him to address her while in the presence of others 
 in terms of rapture, only partly suppressed. But 
 Captain Temple as well as Miss Braxton knew that 
 Mr. Taliaferro had meant what he said. There 
 was a moment of silence, broken by Temple, who 
 had known Taliaferro slightly for several years. 
 
 " I suppose, Taliaferro, that political discussions 
 in Richmond are a bit heated, as they are in War 
 renton, with fur flying faster than the debt?" 
 
 * Yes, the capital is wide awake. Blood is at 
 fever heat. Murphy, I understand, is trying to win 
 over young men of the aristocracy in the hope that 
 he may add some colour of respectability to his ras 
 cality if white may be called colour."
 
 48 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 There is an opportunity for political distinction 
 for you," said Temple, who thought that Taliaferro 
 had intended to be personal; "fame finds one in 
 politics sooner than in art." 
 
 " I have no political aspirations. If I had, more 
 than Murphy s sophistries and the parson s siren 
 voice would be required to lead me from honour and 
 my people." 
 
 Lelia Braxton was sick at heart. Would her ball 
 never end? And then she thought that the cloud 
 had just begun to gather about John Harrison s life 
 and hers. 
 
 "Who s that with Miss Braxton?" asked the 
 Charlottesville beauty. 
 
 Mr. Harrison as well as Miss Lancaster waited 
 for Captain Temple s reply. He had been thinking, 
 with jealous misgivings, that it was unfortunate for 
 him that one of Mr. Taliaferro s striking person 
 ality, tall, and of knightly bearing, should meet Lelia 
 Braxton just at that time. 
 
 Captain Temple s answer was laconic; the excla 
 mation made by Miss Lancaster characteristic. 
 
 " What, Dick Taliaferro, the Richmond sculp 
 tor?" 
 
 " The same." 
 
 "The richest man in Virginia?" 
 
 " So it is said." 
 1 Then, cher ami, I must meet him." 
 
 This she said as coolly as one man might have 
 expressed a wish to meet another. 
 
 " Please introduce him to me right away." 
 
 There was none of the nai vete of an unsophisti 
 cated girl in the way Gladys Lancaster had sought
 
 THE BETRAYAL 49 
 
 this introduction. She did not seem bold not of 
 fensively so. Her manner suggested rather that all 
 men should pay homage to her. 
 
 Giving Miss Braxton and Mr. Taliaferro a part 
 ing glance, Mr. Harrison left the ballroom with 
 Miss Dabney. His waning confidence in himself as 
 a lover was not stimulated by pretty Miss Betty. 
 
 " I hear that you have gone over to Tim Murphy, 
 Mr. Harrison." 
 
 Some God-given quality in Betty Dabney s voice 
 made it possible for her to say a great deal more 
 than others without giving offence. 
 
 " I am indeed a Readjuster, Miss Dabney, and I 
 feel honoured that I am permitted to serve under 
 so great and gallant a soldier as General Murphy. 
 We propose to pay Virginia s debts in gold, if it 
 takes us one hundred years, and shall not use the 
 methods that Debtpayers adopt in meeting their 
 obligations payment in words." 
 
 " You must not say anything against Debtpayers 
 to me, Mr. Harrison." 
 
 " I did not mean to talk politics with you, Miss 
 Betty. I beg your pardon." 
 
 The frank look he gave her dismissed the sub 
 ject and reinstated him in her favour. 
 
 The speech that he had made had caused her 
 kind heart to grieve. She loved Leila Braxton, 
 while John Harrison had been her friend from child 
 hood. Now for the first time she studied his fea 
 tures. His broad forehead was evidence of his in 
 tellectuality; his fine blue eyes were honest; his firm 
 mouth indicated that he had the force to act in 
 accordance with his convictions, while his noble line 
 age was unmistakable in all his features. Though
 
 50 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 he was denounced as a renegade, she decided that his 
 face was one that any sensible person would like 
 and trust. 
 
 Byrd Dandridge soon came to look for Betty 
 Dabney. He put his hands on John Harrison s 
 shoulders in the old friendly way. 
 
 The fight is going to be long and bitter, John." 
 
 Towering above them, he spoke in his slow man 
 ner. Miss Dabney thought that every inch of his 
 six-feet-three made for manliness. She gave him a 
 grateful glance as he continued, the meaning of 
 which ultimately the next day he worked out. 
 
 "I do not agree with you politically, John; I 
 never can; but I am your friend; I will always be 
 your friend." 
 
 All the evening John Harrison had kept Lelia 
 Braxton in sight. He hastened toward her as he 
 saw that Mr. Taliaferro was about to leave her. 
 But Mr. Beverley, the eldest of nine brothers, 
 who were all at the ball, was the first to reach her 
 side. 
 
 " Here comes John Harrison. He ought to feel 
 ashamed of himself to be here to-night." 
 
 That said, Mr. Beverley went to look for his 
 partner. 
 
 Miss Braxton found it difficult to control her emo 
 tions now grief, now anger. Her eyes, eloquent 
 with love, looked into her lover s face with mute 
 sympathy as she greeted him, and he was even more 
 gentle than usual. They studiously avoided the sub 
 ject that weighed so heavily on their hearts; but 
 were constantly reminded that the difficulty had to 
 be met, their question answered. After a while, as
 
 THE BETRAYAL 51 
 
 they made their way toward the ballroom, they 
 passed Colonel Daingerfield and Captain Lancaster, 
 who looked searchingly at her lover. On the oppo 
 site side of the room she saw her father and Gen 
 eral Dabney speaking rapidly, but in low tones. 
 They could have but one opinion in regard to the 
 debt, she knew, so she felt sure that her lover was 
 the subject of their discussion. Others spoke to them 
 with unconscious reserve. Miss Charlotte Clarke, 
 the aunt of the Clarke girls, surveyed Harrison crit 
 ically over her glasses, then whispered behind her 
 fan to another maiden lady. Miss Clarke had 
 plans for Miss Braxton. These she had unfolded 
 to her nephew, Clarke Page. 
 
 Supper was announced at midnight. The guests 
 assembled in the large dining-room, lighted by hun 
 dreds of candles, which were reflected in the pol 
 ished panels of the mahogany walls. As Lelia 
 Braxton looked about to see if all were present it 
 occurred to her that Gladys Lancaster was the only 
 person in the room that was unaffected by the po 
 litical situation. That young lady devoted her at 
 tention tactfully between Captain Temple and Mr. 
 Dabney. Her earrings, a trifle longer than those 
 worn by anybody else, dangled coquettishly as she 
 tossed her head first to one side and then to the 
 other while speaking to her companions. Although 
 Mr. Dabney had taken Miss Boiling in to supper, 
 Miss Lancaster had appropriated him as well as her 
 own partner. Now she looked at Captain Temple 
 coyly, her pretty face, quite close to his, turned up 
 slightly, as if she expected a kiss. 
 
 " One would think that Murphy was the only
 
 52 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 man in Virginia Murphy the bete noire. For my 
 part, I still have a bit of interest in others." 
 
 She laughed significantly, dimpling her rosy 
 cheek roguishly the while. 
 
 " Taliaferro, for instance?" 
 
 " Yes, and Temple and Harrison and a few 
 others. Toujours avec plusicurs cordes a votre arc. 
 Just now I m particularly interested in you. I d like 
 to live in Warrenton." 
 
 Temple s suggestion had been made mischiev 
 ously. There was a wager between them, not alto 
 gether as a joke, that she would be unable to make 
 a conquest of Taliaferro that night. She always ac 
 cepted a challenge. For a moment she paused to 
 look intently at Harrison, for she had seen that every 
 few minutes he had gazed fixedly at Miss Braxton. 
 The captain claimed her attention. 
 
 "Then you could forgive his being a Readjuster? 
 I rather doubt if Miss Braxton will forgive him." 
 
 " Yes, he has my forgiveness. A girl takes no 
 part in politics, so why should she choose a husband 
 along party lines? " 
 
 Gary Dabney s malady had progressed so far that 
 he now thought Gladys Lancaster the most charm 
 ing young woman that he had ever met. 
 
 Later, as the ladies were about to withdraw, Talia 
 ferro was crossing the room toward Lelia Braxton 
 when Gladys Lancaster called to him, pitching her 
 voice a great deal too high. 
 
 " Come here a moment, Mr. Taliaferro, I ve 
 something to tell you." 
 
 " I am all attention," warned Temple in an under 
 tone. 
 
 " Shut up, he ll hear you."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 53 
 
 She held Taliaferro with her raillery for a few 
 minutes, then he went to Miss Braxton, who left the 
 room with him. Miss Lancaster drew a quick 
 breath of amused surprise, then observed Captain 
 Temple s cynical smile. 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " You did not catch him after all." 
 
 "You go to the devil I That s what I said 
 allez au diablef" 
 
 She laughed merrily as she passed out with Dab- 
 ney, nor was her merriment less when she saw the 
 astonishment that was written on the faces of Judge 
 Braxton and Mrs. Daingerfield, who had overheard 
 her last exclamation. 
 
 " Mr. Braxton," said Mrs. Daingerfield as she 
 perceptibly shuddered, " times have changed since 
 we were young." 
 
 " The child is not half so bad as she would have 
 you believe. However, I quite agree with you that 
 sad changes have occurred in recent years. I do not 
 see how Lancaster could have permitted Mrs. Lan 
 caster to name his daughter Gladys." 
 
 " Why, Mr. Braxton, daughters of overseers 
 marrying into the gentry have always named their 
 children after characters in romances Maybelle, 
 Genevieve, Reginald, Mortimer, and the like. As 
 to Gladys, no doubt she is a good girl ; but of course 
 her mother did not know how to guide her. I re 
 member that when she was a child, the only time 
 that I ever was in Captain Lancaster s home, her 
 mother reproved her. Stamping her little foot, she 
 retorted, How dare a Brown tell a Lancaster how 
 to behave ! Then, drawing herself up proudly, she
 
 54 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 walked from the room with grace that was almost 
 stately." 
 
 The gentlemen lingered in the dining-room to en 
 joy their tobacco and liqueurs after the ladies had 
 withdrawn. 
 
 Captain Lancaster precipitated the storm that for 
 some time had been lowering. 
 
 " What do you think of the political situation, 
 gentlemen? " 
 
 For a while no one spoke; then Judge Braxton 
 slowly replied, selecting his words with care: 
 
 " I think that the outlook is gloomy. The elec 
 tion next fall will be the gravest crisis in Virginia s 
 history. Then shall be decided whether the best 
 element shall continue to control affairs of state or 
 whether Virginia shall be delivered over to mobs of 
 ignorant and vicious creatures." 
 
 " I repeat the opinion that I publicly expressed 
 yesterday," said Colonel Daingerfield; "the spirit 
 that prompted the French Revolution is at the base 
 of this movement. The dangers that threatened 
 France threaten Virginia." 
 
 " Pardon me, gentlemen," John Harrison inter 
 posed; " your views are not borne out by facts. The 
 new party is the result of the incompetency of those 
 that now control our government. While I have 
 never met General Murphy, I am sure that he is 
 worthy of confidence, and I, for one, proudly serve 
 under him in this crisis." He paused; then, looking 
 at Colonel Daingerfield, he continued: "I am as 
 glad to serve under him now as you were when you 
 gave your services to Virginia and entered his com 
 mand when he was a brave Confederate general."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 55 
 
 The words brought the old warrior to his feet. 
 
 " Sir, a thief may be brave. Murphy s bravery as 
 a soldier can not be pleaded by his friends in extenu 
 ation of Murphy the rogue." 
 
 Then, drawing himself up, the colonel assumed 
 the attitude of the statesman of his school when 
 about to address the Senate, and spoke to all the 
 gentlemen present. 
 
 " There was a time in Virginia when every man 
 was an honest man, no matter what his class. Sirs, 
 that time passed with our late war. I shall not 
 enter upon a discussion of Murphy s bravery at this 
 time. Marat was a brave man, his conceptions gi 
 gantic; yet, sirs, always was that Frenchman con 
 sistent in his guilt. I proclaim to the world, aye, 
 in the forum I shall proclaim, Timothy Murphy, 
 the son of a washerwoman, was born a thief, and a 
 thief he will die." 
 
 John Harrison was on his feet before the colonel 
 had finished speaking. 
 
 "You are wrong, Colonel Daingerfield; you are 
 prejudiced against General Murphy I believe that 
 you are prejudiced against all Readjusters." 
 
 " They are a set of unprincipled scoundrels, sir! " 
 
 The colonel s eyes gleamed. He had not resumed 
 his seat. Harrison determined to govern his tem 
 per, which had been constantly taxed since noon. 
 
 " Colonel Daingerfield, I believe that the Read 
 justers are sincere in their wish to effect a settlement 
 of the debt under plans that will be fair, workable, 
 and wholly honourable to Virginia." 
 
 There is but one way to pay a debt pay it ! " 
 thundered the colonel, not attempting to conceal his 
 disgust.
 
 56 THE .BETRAYAL 
 
 The young leader of the Debtpayers now took 
 part in the discussion, but did not rise. His voice 
 was well modulated as he spoke to Harrison in the 
 affectionate tones of an elder brother. 
 
 The Readjusters are to be congratulated if they 
 succeed in drawing a Harrison into their camp 
 Judge John Randolph Harrison s son, bearing his 
 father s full name. They have set a trap for you. 
 Parson Jones did not hesitate to take half-truths for 
 use in his pamphlet Debts and Taxes, and he dis 
 torted those half-truths until he had built up a struc 
 ture that can never be tolerated by those that love 
 Virginia. Harrison, Parson Jones may be honest, as 
 far as he knows honesty, but Murphy is a dangerous 
 man. Already he is in control of the Readjusters, 
 and the parson will have little voice in the manage 
 ment of your party. A great leader, quite as great a 
 soldier in politics as in war, Murphy fooled you 
 when he led you to think that he intends to pay one 
 cent of Virginia s debt. If our country s honour is 
 not safe when entrusted to men like Judge Braxton, 
 Colonel Daingerfield, Captain Lancaster, Mr. Car 
 ter, my father, and the aristocracy that has conserved 
 her honour for nearly three hundred years, would 
 her honour be more secure if placed for safe keeping 
 with Parson Jones and Tim Murphy and the no 
 torious rascals that constitute the Readjuster 
 party?" 
 
 " Dabney, I believe that the Readjusters occupy a 
 position between those that recognise no moral obli 
 gation and the Debtpayers that are determined to 
 pay the last dollar of the debt at once in words, 
 mere words. Virginia is bankrupt. If she has to 
 reestablish her credit it must be through capable
 
 THE BETRAYAL 57 
 
 government honest, but capable. Murphy, a Re- 
 adjuster, and, I believe, an honest man as well, is 
 the only person whose honesty has gone so far as to 
 enable him to devise a feasible plan for the payment 
 of our creditors. When and how do you pro 
 pose to pay the debt?" 
 
 "Nonsense, I say; nonsense!" exclaimed Colonel 
 Daingerfield, not giving young Dabney time to an 
 swer. " Murphy s talk of readjustment is nothing 
 more than a trickster s name for repudiation ! " The 
 colonel brought his fist down on the table. 
 
 " If the aristocracy of Virginia does not stand 
 firmly together, my boy," said Judge Braxton, " we 
 will be ruined, irretrievably ruined. A country s 
 credit once lost can never be reestablished." 
 
 " Sir," said the young man, his voice not faltering, 
 as he looked at the father of the woman that he 
 loved, u as I have said, General Murphy and Mr. 
 Jones seem to have Virginia s honour in their keep 
 ing. The government of the aristocracy permitted 
 a debt of forty-seven million dollars to accumulate, 
 and the peasant Murphy and the yeoman Jones 
 come to the rescue, and offer to repay the money that 
 has been spent by the gentry." 
 
 " Why, you damned scoundrel, sir ! " 
 
 Again Colonel Daingerfield brought his fist down 
 on the table, glared at Harrison, and would so far 
 have forgotten the laws of hospitality as to strike 
 him had not the venerable physician, Mr. Car 
 ter, held up his hand authoritatively, commanding 
 peace. 
 
 " Daingerfield, Dabney, Braxton, Lancaster, 
 John, Cary all: I had passed my youth when the 
 oldest among you was a lad in school. John, never
 
 58 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 until this day has a young Virginian addressed his 
 elders as you have just spoken. Daingerfield, you 
 forget that mistakes are the penalties of youth. I 
 am indeed amazed. Virginians have been accus 
 tomed to discuss affairs of state as gentlemen, not 
 after the manner of the rabble." 
 
 A few minutes of silence, then young Dabney re 
 sumed. 
 
 " Murphy has the advantage of us in this, he ad 
 vocates a plan for a readjustment of the debt while 
 the Debtpayers, as you said this morning and have 
 repeated here, so far have offered nothing but words 
 in settlement; but those words, Harrison, were hon 
 est words, worthy of Virginia : The only way to 
 settle a debt is to pay it, not to pay it under an ar 
 rangement dictated by Virginia to her creditors, but 
 to pay it as fast as possible, giving all that we have 
 for that purpose." 
 
 " Good boy, good boy! " exclaimed Captain Lan 
 caster, and all except Temple joined in the applause 
 that followed. 
 
 "What, gentlemen, will be the outcome?" Gen 
 eral Dabney asked. 
 
 " By gad, sir," replied Captain Lancaster, " Mur 
 phy will win! Never mind, Gary, keep your seat; 
 you know that he will be successful. He is sure of 
 the negroes to a man, and can carry all the po whites 
 by promises of offices and by telling them that the 
 Debtpayers will cheat them out of their free 
 schools." 
 
 " His following numerically is much stronger than 
 ours, Lancaster, we all must admit," said Judge 
 Braxton; "but we will win, for Virginians, when 
 tested, will maintain Virginia s integrity or die.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 59 
 
 We should conduct an educational campaign. Do 
 you agree with me, our worthy young leader?" 
 
 " Judge," replied Dabney, " there is no other way. 
 Government can not be conducted by any other 
 class than the aristocracy, no matter what the coun 
 try, no matter what the period. Now and then the 
 misdirected voice of the people is heard, and govern 
 ment by the honest and the intelligent is exchanged 
 for that of the ignorant and the vicious. Many 
 hold that a movement like this can never be checked, 
 that it has to run its course, that every popular up 
 rising, no matter how mischievous, no matter how 
 absurd, always is successful, at least for a little 
 while. But I believe you are right, sir; Vir 
 ginians are not yet ready to desert Virginia. 
 After much thought, and after conferring with 
 my elders, you gentlemen among them, whose 
 judgment I trust more than I do my own, I feel 
 satisfied that our engines of war must be those of 
 peace. We must endeavour to restore tranquillity, 
 that deep contentment of the classes that existed for 
 so many generations, and then we shall go down to 
 defeat in glory, if defeated, while in time Murphy s 
 success will be turned into our victory." 
 
 No longer able to tolerate the situation in which 
 he had placed himself, John Harrison rose. 
 
 " Gentlemen, if you will excuse me, I will return 
 to the ladies. Your remarks may not be intended to 
 apply to me personally, but I am one of those that 
 you condemn. I shall continue to fight for Virginia s 
 honour in accordance with my convictions." 
 
 He left the room. After a while the colonel broke 
 the silence. 
 
 " If a man wants to be a damned fool, we will
 
 60 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 have to let him be one. Oh, ignorance of youth! 
 each rising star is its guide, each falling star the 
 object of its scorn! O Absalom, my son, my 
 son! " 
 
 " He is far from being a fool that s the pity of 
 it," said young Dabney, coming to his friend s de 
 fence. "If he were a fool his value to Murphy 
 would not be so great." 
 
 " Poor boy, poor boy! " sighed the judge. 
 
 Yet, he held his own in the controversy." 
 
 Captain Temple had thought aloud. 
 
 The colonel glared at him through his glasses, 
 then started as he searched his face. 
 
 Young man, all should be fairly warned that co 
 operation with Murphy means social ostracism. A 
 Virginian without honour shall never associate with 
 gentlemen." 
 
 The questions: Am I a Readjuster? Am I a 
 Debtpayer? were demanding an answer of Temple. 
 The colonel had approached unpleasantly close to 
 the captain s innermost thoughts. In foreseeing the 
 fall of a dynasty, the wreck of an aristocracy, Tem 
 ple also foresaw that he could be a leader in the new 
 regime. He was not sure that the gentry would 
 ever forgive him, so he had not yet decided the 
 questions that were ringing in his ears. Again, he 
 felt quite sure that he could never win Lelia Brax- 
 ton by mere fame; besides, his fame would be 
 infamy for a while, at least. 
 
 The unknown force that disseminates news with 
 out the aid of a word spoken or written caused the 
 political discussion that had been held over the cigars 
 to be felt throughout the house. Through the op-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 61 
 
 eration of the same law it was generally thought that 
 John Harrison would go on the hustings as an ad 
 vocate of the Readjuster party. 
 
 Never was a Virginian man or woman too old for 
 romance. 
 
 From the open windows of the conservatory, as 
 Mr. Carter and Miss Braxton strolled out to the 
 grotto after supper, came the lively national song of 
 Virginia : 
 
 " Den carry me back to old Virginny, 
 
 To old Virginny s shore, 
 Oh, carry me back to old Virginny, 
 To old Virginny s shore." 
 
 "Have you forgiven me, my child? My words 
 about John Harrison were most intemperate." 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Carter, I was not angry; but, oh, sir, 
 oh, John does not mean to be wrong! He thinks 
 that what he does is for the honour of Virginia, that 
 he is fighting for the right." 
 
 " He is young, my child." 
 
 "Yes, sir; but every Virginian should know the 
 path of honour. John does not see the right." 
 
 The old man gently stroked her hair. 
 
 "Let us talk about the moon, godpapa?" 
 
 " You are right, quite right, my dear; quite right. 
 And what a beautiful moon! As I look from your 
 eyes to her smiling, kindly face, I recall the words 
 of Horace as he described just such a night as this 
 
 " Solvitur acris hiemps grata vice veris et Favoni, 
 
 Trahuntque siccas machinae cerinas, 
 Ac neque iam stabulis gaudet pecus aut arator igni, 
 Nee prata canis albicant pruinis.
 
 62 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " lam Cytherea chores ducit Venus imminente luna, 
 
 lunctaeque Nymphis Gratis decentes 
 Alterno terrain quatiunt pede, durn graves Cyclopurn 
 Volcanus ardens urit officinas. " 
 
 " I claim my dance, Miss Lelia." 
 
 She took Tom Tazewell s arm. Mr. Carter said 
 that he would stay out a bit longer with his friend 
 the moon. 
 
 As Mr. Harrison danced the last waltz with Miss 
 Braxton he noticed how cold her hand was and how 
 it trembled in his. 
 
 She was the first to speak. 
 
 " I wish to see you." 
 
 "Now, or later?" 
 
 " Now." 
 
 Excitement shone in her eyes. The pride of gen 
 erations of Braxtons was in her face and bearing. 
 She had thought that the path of honour was broad 
 enough and plain enough to be seen by every man. 
 
 Harrison drew a wrap around her shoulders as 
 they went out into the moonlight. The whippoor- 
 wills were still calling to their mates, their plaintive 
 notes mingling with the sound of the running stream 
 in the grotto. 
 
 " There should be no misunderstanding between 
 us, Lelia. You are my dear, noble-hearted girl. I 
 love you more than I can say more than you can 
 ever know." 
 
 " I love you, John at least I did love you." 
 
 " Let me talk to you, Lelia, fully, freely, frankly, 
 as a man should talk to the woman that he loves, 
 who has promised to be his wife? " 
 
 " No; it would be useless."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 63 
 
 He was silent for a moment. 
 
 " If you love me if you ever loved me your 
 faith in me would be second only to your faith in 
 God. You would know that I am a man of honour." 
 
 " I had that faith in you . . . once . . . 
 now I do not know. ... I loved you once with 
 all the heart that a woman has to give. You knew 
 that it was yours my heart. But . . . Your 
 views are not those that should be held by a man of 
 honour." 
 
 You have not listened to me; yet you dare to 
 charge me with dishonour." 
 
 " I do not mean to charge you with dishonour. I 
 believe in your nobility. I can not doubt that you 
 follow the light as you see it. But I can not, I will 
 not no, / will not let the man that I love con 
 vince me that it is right to bring dishonour upon Vir 
 ginia, that it is right for him to take a position 
 unworthy of all the great good that is in him, that 
 is unworthy of his people and mine." 
 
 " But who is to decide this question of honour? 
 Who? Am I not entitled to my opinions as well as 
 the Debtpayers are to theirs? " 
 
 " I am to decide." 
 
 I have the right to expect you to weigh my opin 
 ions with those of others the opinions of the man 
 that you love or used to love." 
 
 " I will never marry you so long as you lead 
 where I can not follow." 
 
 " Then good-night." 
 
 "And good-bye."
 
 CHAPTER TWO 
 
 A FEW days after the Morven ball General 
 Timothy Murphy sat alone in his office 
 in the quaint old city of Petersburg, a 
 cynical smile on his repulsive face. The office, a 
 large room, was furnished with an immense desk, 
 the flat top of which was covered with green cloth; a 
 revolving desk-chair; a cheap split-bottom chair of 
 the kind that is used in Virginia kitchens to this day; 
 a spittoon, and nothing more. The brick walls, 
 which recently had been whitewashed, were bare, 
 with the exception of a highly-coloured chromo that 
 represented Bonaparte in Egypt gazing at the 
 Sphinx. This room, which took up the entire third 
 floor of a crumbling old building, had only one 
 door, which opened immediately at the head of the 
 last flight of rickety stairs. The first floor of the 
 ruin, which was paved with clay, was used as a 
 saloon, a disorderly place, and the second floor was 
 used by the proprietor as a storage room. The 
 keeper of the saloon was no worse than his neigh 
 bours, his distinguished tenant excepted. 
 
 One saw at a glance that General Murphy was a 
 cruel man, unscrupulous and cunning. On his face 
 was written indomitable will, tireless energy, and all 
 those forces that had enabled him to rise from er 
 rand boy in his immigrant father s cross-roads store 
 and groggery to distinguished and successful major- 
 general in the Confederate army. Not nearly so tall 
 as the man of average height, wiry, nervous, his in- 
 
 64
 
 THE BETRAYAL 65 
 
 significant features as small as those of a child, with 
 round grey eyes that were never still, he was in his 
 physical and mental prime, and, notwithstanding the 
 prematurely grey beard that swept to his waist, 
 not patriarchal in appearance, but the embodiment 
 of youth. He seemed to be a thing rather than a 
 human being, yet an intangible thing, said even those 
 that knew him best. Although his personality was 
 revoltingly offensive, he was magnetic to an extraor 
 dinary degree, and seldom failed to dominate those 
 that were brought within the sphere of his influence. 
 
 This man, who counted every human creature his 
 enemy, knowing that no detail of an undertaking is 
 ever, insignificant, not only never permitted his com 
 prehensive mind to relinquish its hold on any detail 
 of his own enterprises, but never allowed the details 
 of the affairs of others that might affect him to get 
 beyond his extraordinary mental grasp. That an 
 enemy never becomes a friend, that there is no such 
 thing as forgiveness, Murphy knew full well; hence 
 he always treated the man that should be his enemy 
 as an enemy, forced him to uncover, then 
 dealt him the first blow. He knew the great value 
 of initiative in civil as well as in military conflicts. 
 
 His few writings were unsigned letters for the 
 greater part, and those were brief, usually written 
 on scraps of paper, and so written that they were 
 returned to him, when that could be accomplished. 
 " Please write your reply on the back of this sheet," 
 was the usual postcript to his seemingly unimpor 
 tant notes. He would oblige one of his agents to 
 travel hundreds of miles sooner than write what 
 appeared to be unimportant instructions, for he knew 
 that self-revealment is in all writing. Operating his
 
 66 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 private and public affairs through others, and never 
 long through any one person, Murphy the man could 
 not be known even by his works. Yet his force was 
 felt throughout Virginia. Intangible, elusive, he 
 was like some dark spirit in the bowels of hell, no 
 where present, yet always a vital part of mortals, 
 mocking them while compelling them to do his bid 
 ding. He had no friends. His acquaintances never 
 tried to penetrate the ever-changing surface that en 
 cased him, but left his presence as soon as they 
 could. 
 
 The witticisms of others, particularly when di 
 rected against himself, he used as a sauce for his 
 own wit, but shared his ultimate triumph over his ad 
 versaries with no one. Although he was not vain 
 glorious, and his assumed humility seemed to be 
 modesty herself, his sole joy was the consciousness 
 of his own great mentality, and 
 
 Wait! There was one other pleasure. He took 
 great delight in every growing plant. No other 
 love did he have; no other mistress did he woo. 
 Although he had married, and was considered an 
 ideal husband and father by his neighbours, yet the 
 growing plant, from the tender blade of grass to a 
 full-blown rose, was his only love. No soft light 
 ever relieved the cruel glitter of his small round 
 eyes; yet his face would seem to be somewhat hu 
 man as he would look upon his love. Now as he 
 sat in his office every few minutes his eyes would 
 leave the Whig to seek the flowers that filled his 
 white china water pitcher the flowers that he had 
 gathered in his garden while they were still wet with 
 dew. 
 
 One could scarcely believe that Murphy ever
 
 THE BETRAYAL 67 
 
 really loved any human being or brute animal. 
 He certainly had no love for Murphy, but regarded 
 himself as a mere puppet on the stage of life, and 
 always kept before himself the fact that the curtain 
 would soon be let down. He liked the stage, but 
 the puppet was nothing more than a puppet. 
 
 Nevertheless this remarkable creature was made 
 up of two elements, hatred and ambition hatred 
 directed principally against the aristocracy, although 
 the yeomanry and the peasantry had a large share; 
 and ambition, which was for himself alone. The 
 stage would be a large one, no matter how short 
 the performance, and the puppet should be the king 
 of puppets. 
 
 His hatred of the aristocracy was tempered by 
 his admiration of the individuals that composed 
 that class as well as of the aristocracy as a whole; 
 for, always honest with himself, he knew that he 
 was jealous of the gentry, and also he knew that he 
 would have loved the chief object of his hatred had 
 he been admitted to the sacred hearth had he the 
 gift of love, which he doubted. He even admitted 
 to himself that he was not fit to enter the society that 
 he coveted, that a gentleman could not be made in 
 one generation. Then he would consider his 
 equipment as he would that of an army, actually go 
 ing so far as to ask himself the question, Were I to 
 enter the aristocracy would I not be merely an ass 
 masquerading in a lion s skin? 
 
 Although he despised yeomen and peasants as 
 much as he hated them, and was brave enough to 
 admit to himself that he was a peasant, he refused 
 to remain in the class in which he was born. Know 
 ing the values of his resourceful mind, he did not
 
 68 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 intend to hold a subordinate place in the affairs of 
 men. Like the great Corsican, who said that he 
 would be an ancestor, Murphy too would be the 
 founder of a family, a great family; not that he 
 cared for the posterity that would bear his name, 
 but in climbing the social ladder to the topmost rung 
 he would find the joy of living. Daily he would 
 gaze upon the slain bodies of his victims piled high 
 beneath his ladder. He would humble the pride of 
 those that were justly proud with the pride of 
 princes, the pride of real majesty, and in the place 
 of Virginia there would be a single man: a peasant 
 now, a gentleman then, a gentleman of his own 
 making, a king of his own creation one Timothy 
 Murphy. 
 
 As to the cattle that would help him to work out 
 his ambition, why, they were but cattle. None 
 save a fool could hold that government should be 
 administered by yeomen and peasants. There 
 must be an aristocracy; but why not the Murphy 
 aristocracy? Why not? Because he knew that 
 Murphy the aristocrat would indeed be Murphy the 
 ass. He had heard of the divinity that doth hedge 
 a king. That same divinity, he thought, raised an 
 inseparable barrier between men that were made of 
 different clay. 
 
 And he knew of the tide that is in the affairs of 
 men. Had he not already fully availed himself of 
 one great opportunity? Had he not reached the 
 flood tide of success? Had he not entered the mili 
 tary service of Virginia, and through sheer work and 
 genius, overcoming the handicap laid down by so 
 ciety, in less than four years caused the names Mur 
 phy and Crater to be sounded together throughout
 
 THE BETRAYAL 69 
 
 the civilised world? And then he had passed out 
 with the tide. Again he would succeed, and success 
 would spell Murphy. Sacred precincts of the aris 
 tocracy? Once more that voice. Bah! bah! bah! 
 Not only would he be an aristocracy, he would be a 
 whole people. 
 
 Now was the accepted time. The yeomanry and 
 the peasantry, fretful, trained by carpetbaggers for 
 fourteen years, were ready to rise against the aris 
 tocracy. They needed money. They should find it 
 in existing public offices and in the thousands of po 
 sitions that he would make for them in the public 
 service. They wished to be gentlemen. He would 
 found for them an aristocracy of their own, and 
 they would never be able to distinguish between 
 their gentry and that of the old regime. 
 
 Two hundred and eighty thousand votes could be 
 cast legally in the fall elections, including the negro 
 vote, one hundred and ten thousand strong. Murphy 
 saw that he could form a single party out of those 
 yeomen and peasants that wished to repudiate the 
 debt, and the negroes who would vote for any party 
 that would promise social equality, public office, or 
 money in payment of votes. He would amalgamate 
 the Republican and Readjuster parties, composed of 
 yeomen, peasants, and negroes, into a single polit 
 ical body, to be known in time as the Murphy 
 party. 
 
 Among General Murphy s many plans was one 
 by which he could purchase for himself a large part 
 of the bonds that represented the debt of forty-seven 
 millions at one-tenth their face value, later forcing 
 those bonds to par, all under the mantle of perfect 
 legality. He would reserve for himself an ample
 
 70 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 fortune. Then he would provide limitless sinews of 
 war for his party. 
 
 As Murphy sat at his desk that morning in April 
 the Readjuster party was barely two months old. 
 He was reading an editorial that he had ordered 
 written, which had been published in the Richmond 
 Whig, a newspaper that he owned, and the policy of 
 which he directed in his own interest, private and 
 political, when he heard the hesitating footsteps of 
 somebody coming up the creaking old stairs. 
 Then one of his henchmen slouched in, following a 
 feeble knock, which had failed to attract the gen 
 eral s attention. 
 
 " Mornin , Gen I." 
 
 Receiving no reply to the slovenly drawl, the visi 
 tor sat down in the split-bottom chair, which was at 
 least ten feet from Murphy, in its usual position. 
 
 In the presence of so much greatness Professor 
 Josiah Matthews Dodd was embarrassed. He nerv 
 ously brushed off some of the dandruff that lay thick 
 upon his shoulders, pulled down his waistcoat, 
 crossed his legs, uncrossed them, then crossed 
 them again. A type of the white pedagogue that 
 taught negro free schools for several years after the 
 passing of the carpetbagger, this excellent teacher of 
 Fluvanna county believed that the time had come 
 when his great mental and moral worth would re 
 ceive substantial recognition. The general appeared 
 to be absorbed in his newspaper; at least he gave no 
 attention to his visitor. 
 
 " I m lookin arter your intrusts in my county, 
 Gen I." 
 
 Unable to attract the leader s attention, the school-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 71 
 
 master s teeth began to chatter, for fear was added 
 to his embarrassment. However, he was obliged to 
 continue. 
 
 " I ve got all them as sends to free schools workin 
 for you, white an black. Every man s bein talked 
 to." 
 
 Wheeling in his chair, the general brought his fist 
 down on his desk with a resounding whack that con 
 vulsed the pedagogue. 
 
 "Are you clinching their votes? That is your 
 business! That is what I wish to know! " 
 
 " We re havin night meetin s in all the nigger 
 churches an schoolhouses, deed we is. I ain t leav- 
 in no stone onturned. Every man s beln brought 
 out even them as is old an sick." 
 
 " Are you making them understand that the 
 money that should be used to maintain free schools 
 is being applied to the payment of the debt? " 
 
 General Murphy s round eyes searched Professor 
 Dodd s dull face. 
 
 u I ve tole em so over agin an agin. They knows, 
 they does, an they ain t got no patience with them 
 Debtpayers." 
 
 Professor Dodd paused. His chieftain returned 
 to the Whig, having lost interest in the good people 
 of Fluvanna, as the educator supposed. After a 
 while the professor twirled his hat, now vigorously, 
 now slowly; blew his nose noisily, then carefully re 
 placed his bandana in his pocket so that its four 
 corners peeped out. Next his small dull eyes sought 
 his feet; then they glanced furtively at Murphy s 
 face. After a while something akin to peace en 
 tered the professor s soul; he gazed out of the win 
 dow dreamily, blinking in a kind of ecstatic way. His
 
 72 
 
 poetic temperament ,in a measure had taken the 
 place of his fear, and all his great worth stood 
 naked before him. 
 
 " Ain t I goin to git nothin ? " 
 
 Few leaders of men can use irony effectively; yet 
 that weapon is one of the most powerful of all 
 mental ordnance when directed by a master in deal 
 ing with his inferiors. General Murphy reserved 
 his irony for peasants, and for those yeomen that he 
 knew to be dishonest. 
 
 " Why, Professor Dodd, you will receive the re 
 ward of virtue." 
 
 " Me an my folks has enjoyed that reward long 
 enough. Ain t it time for us to be havin a little 
 suppen more to the p int as well as them that s had 
 office ever since I kin remember?" 
 
 Now the general s manner changed. Laying aside 
 his newspaper with a quick movement, he spoke in 
 tones that were sharp and incisive. 
 
 "So; you are beginning to wake up, are you? 
 Good ! But you are not awake yet. Go back to 
 your friends and tell them that when they are 
 finally aroused they will find the offices still in the 
 possession of the few elect that were sent by Al 
 mighty God to govern such men as you and I." 
 
 "All right, Gen l, I ll tell em. But we ain t 
 asleep. You ll find us wide awake next November, I 
 kin tell you." 
 
 " Keep up your night meetings." 
 
 The leader, finality in his manner, intending to 
 force Mr. Dodd to state the payment that he expected 
 for his services, took up the Whig. 
 
 You kin count on me, Gen l; deed you kin." 
 
 Professor Dodd wondered if he could count
 
 THE BETRAYAL 73 
 
 on General Murphy. A pause followed the educa 
 tor s last assurance. Again he fidgeted. Then the 
 general fell into his old habit of talking to him 
 self. 
 
 " There is the office of superintendent of public 
 schools of Fluvanna county . . . Yes, the office 
 of superintendent of schools of old Flu. ... A 
 man of Professor Dodd s erudition is peculiarly fitted 
 for that office peculiarly fitted indeed." 
 
 A rap on the door brought the interview to a 
 timely end. Professor Dodd was exhilarated. He 
 had not expected so great a reward. 
 
 Thousands of yeomen and peasants knew 
 Murphy personally, for he had travelled in 
 every county in the state, and many of them had 
 served in his command on fields of glory. As he 
 swept his little round eyes over the three persons that 
 appeared before him he already knew the measure 
 of each. They were from the same town, and for 
 reasons of their own had banded together in the 
 cause of readjusterism; hence it was safe to talk to 
 them in a body. Murphy s sense of generalship 
 told him the man to deal with first. 
 
 A negro, Mr. Buck Johnson, seated himself in the 
 one visitor s chair. His companions stood several 
 feet removed from their swarthy colleague. 
 
 " How are times in Salem, gentlemen? " 
 
 " Hard, mighty hard, Gen l." 
 
 There was pathos in the dolorous tones of Mr. 
 Thomas T. Fletcher, a farmer, as he replied to Mur 
 phy s question. All Virginians are orators. Even 
 the babbling infant has the oratorical instinct. His 
 tears flow in rounded periods.
 
 74 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 The farmer continued after a pause that he thought 
 was long enough for oratorical effect. 
 
 " Times is hard, mighty hard. Them taxes is so 
 heavy that by the time I ve paid mine nothin will be 
 left for my wife and children." 
 
 " Your fields are covered with wheat." 
 
 " Yes, sir, they is; but taxes will take every cent 
 I ll get for that wheat, and I ll have to put another 
 mortgage on the place before I ken pay all them 
 taxes. It s a mighty hard business, General, mighty 
 hard, I says, when a Confederate soldier like me, 
 that s lost a limb, has to see his owns a-growin up 
 to man ood and woman ood without no eddication." 
 
 Again Mr. Fletcher paused, that in an oratorical 
 sort of way he might cast a tearful glance at his 
 empty sleeve. 
 
 " It s a mighty hard business, I says, to see them 
 taxes as comes outen my wheat and mortgages used 
 to pay debts, when my owns is a-growin up without 
 no eddication." 
 
 True, Mr. Fletcher; only too true; only too 
 true! The conditions in this state are unbearable." 
 
 "When s we goin git relief?" 
 
 General Murphy left the answer to his visitors. 
 
 " Immediately after the election, if you persuade 
 property holders to vote for readjustment." 
 
 " We ll do our best. The sooner we git rid of 
 them debts the better." 
 
 " Now, now, Mr. Fletcher," said the general, half- 
 jocular, half-serious, "who said anything about re 
 pudiation? " 
 
 The devastating black scourge now broke out. 
 
 " We ain sayin nuttin bout no pudiatin , but I
 
 THE BETRAYAL 75 
 
 specs us cullud gemmen knows dyah s gwine be no 
 debt arter lection." 
 
 General Murphy had offended Mr. Jerry W. 
 Brown when he selected Mr. Fletcher as spokesman 
 for the party. Brown had enjoyed a local reputa 
 tion as an orator for many years, and now his chief 
 complaint was his inability to provide a place in the 
 aristocracy for himself and his family through his 
 oratory. The Readjuster movement seemed to him 
 to be the opportunity of a lifetime. As the holder 
 of an important office he would gain for himself 
 and his family the social prominence in his com 
 munity that he so greatly coveted. He now entered 
 the discussion in his characteristic manner. 
 
 " I m for the people, the plain people, the people 
 that were good enough for George Washington and 
 Thomas Jefferson ! I m the poor man s friend ! I 
 believe that government should be the means of giv 
 ing every man a chance, that every man may float 
 upon ethereal clouds of glory! " 
 
 " I ve put it mighty plain to Mr. Brown," said the 
 farmer, " that it s high time for him and other city 
 folks to see that the farmer gits some rights, I has, 
 General." 
 
 " I m a great believer in equal rights," interposed 
 Mr. Brown, whose chest swelled visibly despite his 
 oratorical instinct, which warned him that modesty 
 becometh the man of true greatness. 
 
 Again the black terror broke bounds. 
 
 " Quality e-qual-it-ty dat s what us cullud folks 
 wants, boss." 
 
 Then the dusky gentleman cowed before the frigid 
 scrutiny of his great commander.
 
 76 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Once more the elements of eloquence arose in Mr. 
 Brown s powerful chest. 
 
 " The plain people, sir, weary of this nonsense 
 about honour. Judge Black was right when he rose, 
 amid the plaudits of a mighty multitude, and de 
 clared that honour will not buy a beefsteak. The 
 people cry for bread; you give them honour 
 honour, sirs, honour; honour to men that are starv 
 ing! Mr. Fletcher, sir, I appeal to you: What 
 right I demand to know what right did the gov 
 ernor have to veto Parson Jones school bill ! That 
 bill, sir, was a wise measure, one that might have 
 been drawn by Solomon himself. Tax money should 
 be set aside to provide for free schools according to 
 our constitution. But what do the Debtpayers say? 
 Hark ye ! I would see a bonfire made out of every 
 schoolhouse in Virginia before I would vote for the 
 parson s school bill ! In the language of great 
 Patrick Henry, the friend of the plain people, I say, 
 Give me liberty, or give me death ! Aye, let me 
 repeat, in the language of the motto of our noble 
 state, Sic Semper Tyrannis! 
 
 Whereupon Mr. Brown stamped his foot vigor 
 ously and assumed the attitude of a gladiator stand 
 ing over the prostrate form of his victim. He felt 
 that his eloquence had fairly won the nomination 
 that he sought secretary of the commonwealth. 
 
 " I have heard of your speeches, Mr. Brown," 
 said the general. " Your fruitful work in spreading 
 the precepts of true democracy deserves substantial 
 reward." 
 
 u I do not pretend to say that I am without po 
 litical ambition an ambition that is honourable 
 among all men, and therefore is not by any to be
 
 THE BETRAYAL 77 
 
 entered into unadvisedly or lightly; but reverently, 
 discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of 
 God." Then Mr. Brown looked significantly at 
 General Murphy. " I, sir, am not without political 
 ambition." 
 
 "You would be of great service to our party, Mr. 
 Brown, if you would address the political gatherings 
 of your section during the campaign." 
 
 Then the orator, fully equal to the occasion, with 
 humility that was truly affecting, made use of his 
 choicest language. 
 
 " Sir, it is my pleasure, in which I am greatly hon 
 oured, to serve my state upon the hustings, that great 
 forum of the plain people, as well as in office. Sir, 
 I here dedicate my life to their service, without hope 
 of reward other than gratitude the gratitude, sir, 
 of the plain people, the plain people that are God s 
 anointed." 
 
 Again General Murphy thought aloud as he 
 gazed abstractedly out of the window. 
 
 " Secretary of the commonwealth. . . An ap 
 propriate office for an able man from the Salem sec 
 tion. . . . Yes, yes, secretary of the common 
 wealth for Mr. Brown." 
 
 Once more that black cloud of evil. 
 
 " I wants er office, an I jes tells you, Mr. Gen l, 
 ef I gits er office, you gits de vote ob de cullud 
 cit zens ob mah county." 
 
 The leader said nothing, but expressed his annoy 
 ance at Buck s aggressiveness by a heavy frown, and 
 by a cold stare from his cruel round eyes. But after 
 all, these interviews were not without their amusing 
 features, revolting as they were to him. 
 
 " What office would you like, Mr. Johnson? "
 
 78 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Nor was the African gentleman without oratorical 
 instinct. He got up; Mr. Fletcher sat down. 
 
 " I wants ter run fo county clerk. I d like ter set 
 in de shade an fan mahse f wid er pa mleaf fan in 
 de summer time. Mr. Smythe he done set on his 
 hawse wid er umbreller ober him, whilst I gits de 
 full benefit ob de sun, cradlin ob his wheat." 
 
 " Can you read and write? " 
 
 " Naw, suh; but den I done thought as how I d 
 git some cullud gemmen to hole down dat aspec ob 
 de job, whilst I draws de pay to recommence me fo 
 all de time an money I ll hatter spen ter git de 
 party lected." 
 
 " You are a shrewd politician, Mr. Johnson. Of 
 course you may have the office of county clerk if my 
 party be elected. I know of no man that is better 
 qualified than you to satisfy the requirements of that 
 high place." 
 
 " An say, boss, dem niggers ain gwine vote fo no 
 man widout er li P baccy money. Ain yo got none 
 ter give em? " 
 
 " Your expenses will be paid out of the campaign 
 fund, Mr. Johnson. A substantial sum will be placed 
 at your disposal." 
 
 As an element in politics the negro was regarded 
 as a necessity by all Repudiators, to be swallowed like 
 treacle by the body politic. 
 
 The farmer arose, intending to depart. He cared 
 neither for office nor society, but asked for relief 
 from taxation, nothing more. But no promise 
 had been made to Mr. Fletcher. Why? The bonds 
 would have to be debased and later be restored to 
 their face value. So Mr. Fletcher left without know 
 ing whether he would get any kind of relief, for
 
 THE BETRAYAL 79 
 
 General Murphy was unwilling, even under dire 
 necessity, to say to any man that he would repudiate 
 or would not repudiate all or a part of the public 
 debt. The Readjusters would constitute a party " in 
 being " until after the campaign had been fought and 
 won. There were regiments in the armies of the 
 enemy that would possibly desert. Now he would 
 satisfy every man from the aristocrat of scrupulous 
 honour to the vile black chicken-thief. Mr. Fletcher 
 was satisfied, for General Murphy was the friend of 
 the plain people. 
 
 Even Murphy s few honest callers were satisfied 
 when they left him. Had not Mr. John Randolph 
 Harrison said at the Morven ball that he did 
 not question Murphy s integrity? Had not the 
 general offered his life in battle to protect 
 Virginia? 
 
 The delegation from Salem barely had left the 
 Presence when another visitor entered the general s 
 office, Mr. Samuel A. Tanner, commonly called old 
 Sam Tanner, a native and a resident of the Eastern 
 Shore, and representative of the brand of Readjus 
 ters that infested the section of Virginia that might 
 have been used by God s angels as their garden. 
 
 A single case that was tried before a justice of the 
 peace had constituted Mr. Tanner s practice of the 
 law during the last past six months. In consequence 
 his trousers were trimmed with lace; or, as the 
 children sang out whenever they saw him 
 
 " Tanner wears fringe on his trousers 
 And fastens em up with a nail." 
 
 He wore no cuffs; his frayed collar, which was un 
 adorned by a necktie, was another evidence of his
 
 8o THE BETRAYAL 
 
 rigid economy, while his peaked, starved appearance 
 further witnessed his distress. 
 
 " Ah-h-h-h, Mr. Tanner; I am indeed glad to see 
 you!" 
 
 The two gentlemen shook hands cordially. 
 
 " Well, Gen l, everything is comin our way. 
 We ll sweep the state this fall same as a meteor 
 sweeps the heavens; which is a lit rary way of sayin 
 as how I suspicion an overwhelmin victory for us 
 Readjusters when the frost is on the sweet potato 
 vine 
 
 Then we are gaining strength in Northampton 
 and Accomack counties? " 
 
 " Gainin strength? Why, my dear Gen l, with 
 sufficient financial display I kin carry them two coun 
 ties in my pants pockets; yes, sir, an carry em ad 
 in-fin-e-tum to boot; I kin, I sw ar! " 
 
 "Good!" 
 
 " But them funds must be handled by the right 
 man, Gen l; yes, siree, by an honest man; an that s 
 bonefidely so for a fact. You know the old sayin , a 
 motto I wear next my heart, Honesty s the best 
 politics." 
 
 " You are the man to display the money. But no 
 party should expect a citizen of your ability to sacri 
 fice his large law practice and devote his time to the 
 public weal unless he be properly compensated." 
 
 " No man in them two counties knows better than 
 me where money displayed will act as a set-off to the 
 vicissitudes of voters; but as you 1 arnedly remarked, 
 no party oughter expect me to sacrifice my lucrative 
 practice unless T gits paid by my new clients, the peo 
 ple. The labourer, my dear Gen l, is worthy of his 
 hire in every field political as well as corn."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 81 
 
 Whereupon the worthy labourer emitted a stream 
 of liquid tobacco, which coursed down his once white 
 shirt front on its way to the spittoon, which it 
 missed. 
 
 " Thar, I didn t skeet that thar amber straight! " 
 
 He kicked the spittoon toward his chair the chair 
 with its stiff, upright back of integrity then 
 paused, thus allowing the ghost financial an oppor 
 tunity to stalk. 
 
 " Several of your strong friends have suggested 
 your peculiar fitness for the circuit judgeship of the 
 district that includes your two counties. The office 
 seeks the man. Your sense of duty to the party will 
 make you invaluable to the plain people of the entire 
 commonwealth. The state is indeed fortunate." 
 
 The offer was made with the dignity of the mili 
 tary commander who knows that every soldier is en 
 titled to a reward, and to a reward more substantial 
 than mere knowledge of duty faithfully performed. 
 The general s grand strategy included ample provi 
 sion for suitable payments to his civil followers, as 
 he had provided suitable rewards for the soldiers of 
 his military command. He never denied his troops 
 glory, the only wage that he could pay. Indeed, he 
 held honour to be the soldier s reward. 
 
 " Circuit judge? As the great jurist John Mar 
 shall used to say, To be, or not to be; that is the 
 question. I must consider. I m a busy man, Gen l; 
 the burdens of the whole peninsula rest on my shoul 
 ders a ready. Let me see? Like Atlas, I carry a 
 load." 
 
 And he did at times a very heavy load. 
 
 " If I work pro bon-no pub-lee-co, I ll have to give 
 up a fine practice. But my friends meant kindly
 
 82 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 what they done, when, sir-rat-em, they brought the 
 matter to your gifted attention." 
 
 The position is an honourable one, Mr. Tanner. 
 When the old Romans heard the call to duty sounded 
 they waived all personal consideration." 
 
 "And so will I, Gen l; pon my life I will. The 
 judicial ermine ain t goin to rest on no shoulders 
 more willin than mine. I ll sacrifice my law prac 
 tice like Abraham sacrificed his son to Moses. The 
 peaceful repose of my home will I lay upon the altar 
 of self-sacrifice. I ll show the world the world of 
 plain people that vox popular is vox Do- em-best, 
 for I ll uphold all the laws our new legislature will 
 make." 
 
 As the general seemed to be preoccupied, the self- 
 sacrificing patriot continued: 
 
 " Just as soon as I get back to Eastville I ll take 
 down my Blackiston and refresh my law memory, 
 for I don t want my decisions to have no im-press-io 
 false-eye." 
 
 No doubt Mr. Tanner meant that he would read 
 closely the laws that defined the limitations of judges 
 and provided punishments to fit their crimes. 
 
 "Really er ah Judge Tanner 1 " said the gen 
 eral, looking at his watch. 
 
 " I am obliged to leave you now, Gen l, for, as 
 we lawyers say, the tempest figits. Good-mornin , 
 Gen l Murphy." 
 
 " Good-morning, Judge Tanner. The campaign 
 funds will be forwarded to you in a few days. 
 Please spend the money in your discretion." 
 
 The Eastern Shore of Virginia, Tanner s wage! 
 Ah, what a maiden to be ravished!
 
 THE BETRAYAL 83 
 
 Are you a musician? There birds sing by night 
 as they sing by day, filling the air with melody that 
 no human master may successfully imitate. 
 
 Are you a maiden? There flowers are nearly as 
 fair as the maidens of that fairyland, flowers which 
 bloom every day in every year, flowers that are in 
 the air as they are in the garden, the garden that is 
 the Eastern Shore. 
 
 Are you a huntsman? There ducks, geese, quail, 
 and snipe make their home, and there the huntsman 
 neither is hungry nor surfeited, for he has only to 
 reach out his hand for diamond-back terrapin and 
 the best of oysters, food that no king other than an 
 Eastern Shoresman may eat, yet in eating never be 
 come satiated. 
 
 Are you a man? There breezes from the sea to 
 the east and from the bay to the west bring strength 
 to the strongest man; and as they caress his cheeks 
 he becomes as an army of men, as the kiss of a 
 woman makes an army of the man who leaves her 
 to go to war. 
 
 Are you a poet? There marshes challenged the 
 imagery of Lanier, whose hymns are sung by 
 angels 
 
 "But no: it is made: list! somewhere, mystery, where? 
 
 In the leaves? in the air? 
 In my heart? is a motion made; 
 
 T is a motion of dawn, like a flicker of shade on shade. 
 In the leaves, t is palpable: low multitudinous stirring 
 Upwinds through the woods; the little ones, softly conferring, 
 Have settled my lord s to be looked for; so; they are still; 
 But the air and my heart and the earth are a-thrill, 
 And look where the wild duck sails round the bend of the 
 
 river, 
 
 And look where a passionate shiver 
 Expectant is bending the blades
 
 84 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Of the marsh-grass in serial shimmers and shades, 
 And invisible wings, fast fleeting, fast fleeting, 
 
 Are beating 
 
 The dark overhead as my heart beats, and steady and free 
 Is the ebb-tide flowing from marsh to sea 
 
 (Run home, little streams, 
 With your lapfuls of stars and dreams), 
 And a sailor unseen is hoisting a-peak, 
 For list, down the inshore curve of the creek 
 
 How merrily flutters the sail, 
 And lo, in the East! Will the East unveil? 
 The East is unveiled, the East hath confessed 
 A flush; t is dead; t is alive; t is dead, ere the West 
 Was aware of it; nay, t is abiding, t is unwithdrawn: 
 Have a care, sweet Heaven! T is Dawn." 
 
 Left alone, General Murphy walked up and down 
 his room. 
 
 "Bah! ... The plain people ... Bah! 
 . . * The voice of the people is the voice of 
 God . . . Bah! . . . Colonel Daingerfield 
 says that the voice of the people is the voice of the 
 devil. . . He is wrong! . . . The voice of the 
 people is the voice of power the power of one 
 man. . . . Say, boss, bah; the filthy creature! 
 Bah! Bah!" 
 
 The general buried his face in the flowers. 
 
 The morning had been a busy one. But Murphy 
 was always on duty planning iniquities by night 
 and working them out by day, said his enemies. 
 Now he walked rapidly toward his home, for he was 
 late, and he had invited an important man to dine 
 with him, a personage no less than Captain James 
 Spotswood Temple. That gentleman wished to con 
 sult the general before finally answering the ques 
 tions, Am I a Readjuster? Am I a Debtpayer? He
 
 THE BETRAYAL 85 
 
 had almost reached the decision to disregard Col 
 onel Daingerfield s warning, for he thought that 
 the gentry and the plain people had reached 
 the parting of the ways, and was morally cer 
 tain that the doom of the aristocracy had been 
 sounded already, that the annihilation of the gentry 
 would be simply a matter of a few years, even if 
 the yeomanry and the peasantry should be defeated 
 in the fall elections. 
 
 Although a mere lad, Captain Temple had fought 
 bravely in the war, first as a cadet of the Virginia 
 Military Institute, receiving a serious wound at New 
 Market, and later as a private. After the war he 
 became captain of a company in the Virginian 
 militia. His father, the late Alexander Spotswood 
 Temple, of Accomack county, formerly governor of 
 Virginia, later brigadier-general in the Confederate 
 army, was one of the most eminent Virginians of 
 the nineteenth century. 
 
 Now when General Murphy invited Captain 
 Temple to dinner he had intended that the aristo 
 crat should see that the Murphys and their friends 
 could entertain formally quite as well as the Tem 
 ples; but he had not intended to relinquish his mas 
 tery of the political situation. Having come to 
 sound him, Temple would be treated in a way that 
 would indicate that his services would be accepted 
 with reluctance, if at all. Murphy knew the power 
 that he had over Temple in the appeal that he could 
 make to his ambition; Temple knew that for many 
 reasons the Readjusters had to have members of the 
 aristocracy in their party. 
 
 Temple had another powerful weapon with which 
 to fight Murphy and his kind. He was prepared
 
 66 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 to wield it unmercifully, and even to take delight in 
 thrusting its keen double edge through and through 
 his victims. He could treat Murphy and his associates, 
 women as well as men, as underlings; snub them, hu 
 miliate them again and again. Then he would smile, 
 and with that smile their poor souls would be carried 
 in wild flights upon the wings of ecstasy. He believed 
 in kicking the peasant dog. He knew that the poor 
 creature would fear him because of his cruelty, then 
 lick his hand; he knew that the peasant respects the 
 gentleman that treats him as an inferior, that 
 he despises the gentleman that treats him as an 
 equal. But was Murphy that kind of man? If so, 
 would he return to lick the hand of his social 
 master? Temple could not say. Murphy would 
 have known; but Temple did not know. Yet 
 Temple was shrewd, with many of the elements 
 of a great man. He knew many things, but he did 
 not know all things. If no law of hospitality re 
 strained Murphy, also it was true that no such law 
 had the least weight with Temple; besides, he knew 
 that social amenities would not in the least influence 
 his host. 
 
 As the members of Murphy s family were all 
 visiting in Norfolk, the general had asked Miss 
 Amanda Burgess, a white-haired yeoman maiden 
 lady, to preside at the formal midday dinner. She 
 brought with her two young yeoman girls. " Such 
 a chance, gyurls ! " she had said. 
 
 Promptly at half-past one Captain Temple ar 
 rived. He was cordially received by General Mur 
 phy, who introduced him to Miss Amanda. Already 
 she had two mint-juleps prepared. 
 
 " Now, gentlemen, walk right up to the sideboard.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 87 
 
 I know how men-folks love mint-juleps a-fore din 
 ner." 
 
 " Miss Amanda," said Captain Temple as he 
 summoned a look of joy to his eyes and held his 
 glass on high, " Miss Amanda, ma am, pray tell me, 
 who made this mint-julep? But need I ask? The 
 fame, ma am, of your juleps has extended through 
 out Virginia s broad land. General, just look at the 
 frost on my glass! On my life, it is half an inch 
 deep! Your health, ma am, and your beauty; for, 
 ma am, your beauty is no less now that frost adds 
 lustre to the roses of your cheeks than when those 
 lovely flowers bloomed beneath a golden canopy." 
 
 Whereupon the captain buried his face in the mint, 
 and drank long and deep, while roses did bloom in 
 Miss Amanda s faded cheeks for quite a while. 
 
 Dinner was announced by a pickaninny vigorously 
 ringing a bell. As soon as they had entered the 
 dining-room Miss Amanda proceeded to present the 
 two girls to the guest. 
 
 " Captain Temple, allow me to make you ac 
 quainted with Miss La Salle Saunders an Miss 
 Maiabelle Berry. You folks shake hands now and 
 be real friendly like." 
 
 " Pleased to know you, Captain Temple," said 
 Miss La Salle, her face scarlet. 
 
 Miss Maiabelle shook hands with this visitor from 
 an unknown world with composure, although her 
 face had flushed a deep and lasting red. At least 
 Miss Amanda might have presented the gentleman 
 to the ladies. Both girls were splendid types of the 
 Virginian bourgeoisie, healthy, and even beautiful. 
 Mr. Berry had named his daughter Mary, but after 
 his ambitious wife had read all the novels that Miss
 
 88 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Rosa Carey had kindly written for kitchen ladies, 
 she changed the name of the little girl to Maia, and 
 that name later gave place to Maiabelle, believed by 
 Mrs. Berry to be the more aristocratic name. Miss 
 La Salle was named Sally at the time of her birth; 
 but as soon as her mother heard that the daughter 
 of an ignorant old peasant that lived near Norfolk 
 had changed her name from Sally to La Salle when 
 she married a major-general of the Confederate 
 army, himself a peasant, whose fame rested on 
 a charge made by his men that he did not lead, she 
 thought that she could improve upon that course by 
 changing her daughter s name before she would be 
 of marriageable age. 
 
 u I did not have the pleasure of meeting you 
 young ladies at the ball last night. Fortunately I 
 reached Petersburg in time to dance several 
 waltzes." 
 
 " Father doesn t approve of round dancing, so 
 I ve never been to a ball," said Miss La Salle, the 
 flush on her pretty cheeks deepening. 
 
 " My brother, Dr. Burgess, never let none of 
 his gyurls round dance, and they all married splen 
 didly," said the maiden lady, a note of triumph in 
 her voice. 
 
 " I can plead no such excuse," Miss Maiabelle 
 said. " I stayed at home last night because I re 
 ceived no invitation." 
 
 " You should have been invited," said General 
 Murphy, betraying some of the bitterness that he 
 was unable to suppress entirely. Again the old 
 story. Worthy women as well as worthy men were 
 neglected socially and politically because their fore 
 fathers were not aristocrats. Verily the camel
 
 THE BETRAYAL 89 
 
 might stalk through the eye of a needle, but neither 
 gold nor public service could buy position in the 
 Virginian aristocracy. 
 
 " They might as well have saved their supper and 
 their manners too, for I wouldn t have gone if I d 
 been asked," said Miss La Salle; but everybody felt 
 that she was mistaken. 
 
 " It was a beautiful ball," the captain per 
 sisted. 
 
 Miss Maiabelle began to feel a sense of rising 
 anger, Miss La Salle bit her lip in vexation, while 
 Miss Amanda expressed her emotion in words. 
 
 " I never seen what pleasure folks got in leavin 
 out them as might have been asked without hurtin 
 themselves. Ain t we all made outen dust, and ain t 
 that what we re all a-comin to?" 
 
 " The first families of Virginia make peculiar dis 
 tinctions, Amanda Miss Burgess." Again that bit 
 terness. " The time has come, Captain Temple, 
 when merit alone should be the standard of social 
 fitness. The new party will make many wholesome 
 changes." 
 
 " Yes, if it be placed in power." 
 
 " We will elect our candidates next fall to the 
 man. Our success is certain. The people feel that 
 the life of the state is in jeopardy. The government 
 that was founded by the fathers has passed the ex 
 perimental stage, and Virginia must fall into line 
 with her sister states and establish a government of 
 the people, the whole people. The strength of Vir 
 ginia is in her masses. There is no real force in an 
 aristocracy; nor can a gentry of mere blood long en 
 dure. The so-called aristocracy of this state has 
 reached advanced old age. It is on its death-bed. A
 
 90 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 new and greater aristocracy is about to take its place, 
 an aristocracy of mind and merit. The reign of the 
 oligarchy is over." 
 
 A long speech for Murphy; yet neither the julep 
 nor Temple had intoxicated him. The captain un 
 derstood. 
 
 Now do have some termatters, Captain Tem 
 ple," Miss Amanda insisted. 
 
 Thank you, to-ma-toes make one of my favour 
 ite dishes. I assume that the change in their name 
 will not affect their taste in the least." 
 
 The discomfiture of the girls was increased. O 
 you old peasants, how you put to shame your young 
 men and young women ! 
 
 Still Temple could not tell from Murphy s man 
 ner just how far he could go along that path. No 
 danger signal had been hung out. To the credit of 
 the Misses Amanda, Maiabelle, and La Salle, be it 
 said, they kept their peace. But oh the shame in 
 Miss Amanda s good face, and how Miss Maiabelle 
 flashed a look of scorn ! Tears stood in Miss La 
 Salle s pretty eyes. But the general went on cut 
 ting bread and butter. Captain Temple enjoyed the 
 situation immensely. 
 
 " I shall be glad to take you young ladies to Miss 
 Bland s lawn party to-morrow evening. I hear that 
 the best people of the town will be there." 
 
 " There s more different sets in this here town 
 than anywheres else in all this world," said Miss La 
 Salle, a lone tear rolling down to a corner of her 
 cupid s bow. " Everybody thinks themselves better 
 than anybody else, and a few think themselves better 
 than Martha Washington herself." 
 
 " Will you take yourn with condiments, or with-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 91 
 
 out, Captain Temple?" Miss Amanda asked as she 
 poured out a cup of coffee for the guest. 
 
 "Just sugar, if you please; I take neither pepper 
 nor salt in my coffee." 
 
 Captain Temple had seen Miss Maiabelle look at 
 him scornfully, as if she had expected his reply, so 
 he had looked deliberately at her while he answered 
 Miss Amanda. Later Miss La Salle told Miss Maia 
 belle that she just thought that she would die. 
 
 The temperature went still further up by many 
 degrees. Danger signals were flying. Temple had 
 taken Murphy s measure. Now the captain would 
 bring on rapture for dessert; so he took a second 
 helping of ice cream, although It had been coloured 
 by an aniline dye; asked Miss Maiabelle if she had 
 read Swinburne s new poem, then agreed with her 
 that only ladies of literary accomplishments should 
 read a poet so indelicate; asked Miss La Salle for 
 her home address, and told General Murphy that 
 General Lee had said to General Temple that Mur 
 phy s charge at the Crater had never been paralleled 
 in justifiable daring in all the annals of war. Before 
 the dinner was at an end, Temple counted it as one 
 of his great political triumphs. Moreover, two 
 hearts were added to his heavy-laden string, to say 
 nothing of the lifelong friend that he had made in 
 good Miss Amanda. 
 
 When the two gentlemen withdrew to the library 
 for cigars, Benedictine, brandy, and to exchange po 
 litical values, they still had on their masks. 
 
 " I understand, Captain Temple, that you are 
 with us in various features of my party s plan to 
 establish the people as sovereign in this state, to
 
 92 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 give them an opportunity to recover from the ruin 
 that was one of the penalties of our war, to settle 
 the debt, and finally to govern Virginia as she should 
 be governed." 
 
 " I have given a great deal of thought to the 
 subject." 
 
 " I have watched your career with deep interest. 
 You are a young man, yet already your ability has 
 attracted attention throughout the state, and the 
 people are looking to you for assistance." 
 
 "I thank you, General; but I fear that you 
 overrate my ability, although you could not exag 
 gerate my desire to be of real benefit to the old 
 commonwealth in this crisis. During the past few 
 years I have spent a great deal of time in studying 
 financial conditions, and although I fear that 
 father would not countenance the conclusions that I 
 have reached, I feel strongly impelled to cast the 
 little influence that I have with the Readjusters, 
 under your wise leadership." 
 
 Your decision pleases me greatly. Your father 
 was one of my best friends; and were he alive I 
 believe that he would support us in this movement, 
 for he aided in the settlement of the great questions 
 of his day with signal ability. It is for you and the 
 young men of your generation to work out Vir 
 ginia s destiny when my generation has joined your 
 father s." 
 
 General Murphy had never met Governor Tem 
 ple. 
 
 " I agree with you that it is my duty to follow 
 my conscience." 
 
 He had not been told to be guided by his con 
 science, as he very well knew.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 93 
 
 The captain had reached Petersburg fully deter 
 mined to accept the nomination for the Lower 
 House of the General Assembly; but his ambition 
 having taken wings since dinner began, he deter 
 mined to hold out for the nomination to the Upper 
 House, and even touch upon the congressional situa 
 tion. All this was known to Murphy quite as well 
 as to his guest, as Temple thought; but Murphy was 
 a great leader, and never displayed generalship of 
 higher order than in awarding to his followers prizes 
 far beyond their expectations. He had measured 
 Temple. Never had Murphy been known to make 
 a mistake in his measurements. 
 
 " Our party needs a strong man for the governor 
 ship. You would be popular with all classes. Thou 
 sands would vote for you because of your honoured 
 father. You would carry more votes in the aristoc 
 racy than any possible candidate, while the plain 
 people would not object to any man that I would 
 suggest." 
 
 Temple was lost in admiration of Murphy s gen 
 eralship. But why, he thought, should I be selected 
 for the governorship while Parson Jones is avail 
 able? 
 
 The sound of a carriage drawing up at the door 
 caused the leader, alert always, to pause. Next he 
 heard the measured tread of a deliberate person 
 advancing along the hall, and then the soft though 
 not low voice of a man : 
 
 " Is General Murphy at home? " 
 
 An intellectual person seldom if ever is surprised. 
 General Murphy was not surprised, although he felt 
 sure that the voice and footsteps that he heard be 
 longed to the Reverend John Henry Jones, a man
 
 94 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 that he had never seen, and known as " Parson 
 Jones " throughout Virginia. 
 
 Although in his intellectual and physical prime, 
 Mr. Jones was well past the meridian of life. Tem 
 ple was introduced to him after he had shaken hands 
 with Murphy. The parson declined wines, liqueurs, 
 and cigars, explaining that he neither drank nor 
 smoked. After waiting long enough to understand 
 that conversation would be commonplace so long as 
 he should remain, Captain Temple reluctantly with 
 drew. Greek had met Greek, and he greatly desired 
 to hear the discussion that would take place between 
 "the Father of Readjustment" and the wiry little 
 man who had usurped the parson s authority as 
 leader of the new party. Besides, his political for 
 tunes were involved. Would Murphy be able to 
 add Jones to his following? Would the new party 
 split? Would a Murphy party and a Jones party 
 be formed out of the Readjuster party, then only 
 two months old? 
 
 The parson had gone into politics with a sincere 
 desire to release yeomen and peasants from what he 
 believed to be their chains of bondage. In the be 
 ginning he believed himself to be an honest man, 
 but he was soon seduced by political excitements and 
 glories. In political affairs he soon differed from 
 Murphy in method only. A strange man was Jones 
 part saint, part sinner, but always Parson Jones. 
 Now he fought with God as his ally, now with the 
 devil. Sometimes God and the parson and the devil 
 all fought together, so Temple came to believe. 
 
 The cruel grey eyes of the general looked into the 
 soft blue eyes that gazed at him through great gold- 
 rimmed spectacles. There was a man with whom
 
 THE BETRAYAL 95 
 
 Murphy had to reckon, a man whose thoughtful eyes 
 showed that no matter what his standard of honour, 
 whether limited to the welfare of his own ministe 
 rial charge or as broad as the whole wide world, he 
 was a patient man of great intellectual power, capa 
 ble of deep suffering and tender sympathy, yet will 
 ing to go to any length to exact reprisals. Those 
 were the eyes of a friend; they were the eyes of a 
 man who could turn from skilful fencing in debate 
 to mingle his tears with those of some heartbroken 
 mother at the bedside of her dying child; but they 
 were not weak eyes, nor was the parson weak when 
 he shed tears as he recited the trials of his Saviour 
 in Gethsemane. Yet he had no sense of the differ 
 ence that is between right and wrong. 
 
 Parson Jones had been schoolmaster, lawyer, 
 preacher, and member of the House of Delegates. 
 Later the Fates willed that he should hold office in 
 Virginia as senator, then as auditor of public ac 
 counts, then as lieutenant-governor, and finally as 
 superintendent of public instruction. In the far-off 
 years he was to be elected a member of the state 
 constitutional convention, to die before it would con 
 vene, well past four-score years, fighting to the last. 
 
 An advocate of local option and temperance, he 
 thought too much of the parson s political weal to 
 go so far as to advocate state-wide prohibition. A 
 great talker was Jones, and quite unscrupulous in 
 his public speeches. The only law of debate that he 
 upheld was the one which commanded the debater 
 to defeat his adversary. Major John W. Daniel 
 used to say that the parson knew the Bible by heart. 
 At least he preached his political sermons out of it. 
 He never took politics into the pulpit, he said, but
 
 96 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 he often preached that he took the pulpit into pol 
 itics. " That which is not too good for you on Sun 
 day, O my beloved, should not be too good for you 
 on Monday." 
 
 Thought Murphy, " Parson Jones is an army of 
 men in a single fort." 
 
 Thought Jones, " General Murphy is a great 
 genius, and as elusive as genius itself." 
 
 " Dr. Jones," said Murphy, " your pamphlet, 
 Debt and Taxes; or, the Resources and Obligations 
 of Virginia, first caused me to change my views in 
 regard to the debt. When I saw your plain state 
 ments of facts I entered your party, and ever since 
 I have done all in my power to popularise read- 
 justerism." 
 
 " Pardon me, General, I have never earned the 
 degree of doctor. My brochure was prepared care 
 fully. I showed plainly that during Governor Kem- 
 per s term the taxable values of this commonwealth 
 approximately were three hundred million dollars, 
 and taxes eighteen millions a burden of six per 
 cent. That great burden has increased annually. 
 The loose, careless manner in which public affairs 
 are administered, together with the iniquities of the 
 Funding Bill, and its successor, the McCulloch 
 Brokers Bill, will soon bankrupt this state." 
 
 " Already the state is bankrupt. Virginia s re 
 sources have been exhausted by her pretended 
 aristocracy, whose leaders, not satisfied with incur 
 ring a huge debt for their sole benefit, have man 
 aged to control affairs constantly since the first 
 settlements were made along the James. The bone 
 and sinew of the state, the plain people, have been
 
 THE BETRAYAL 97 
 
 robbed of opportunity as well as stimulation to ef 
 fort. Now they have to bear taxes greater than 
 their incomes that money insufficient even to pay 
 the interest upon the aristocratic debt may be raised. 
 It was to prevent these conditions that Thomas Jef 
 ferson fought for a democracy. He lost his fight." 
 
 " May God be merciful in meting out justice to 
 them." - 
 
 The parson had heard that General Murphy 
 never made long speeches. " You have not fooled 
 me," he thought; "there was no revealment there. 
 Yet possibly you really did lay bare your opin 
 ions, ca/ried away by hatred of the aristocracy. 
 Maybe that which I heard meant that you had 
 much to say, yet said nothing. Intangible, elusive ! " 
 
 "The mass of the people idolise you, Dr. Mr. 
 Jones, and would welcome a movement aided by 
 you to relieve the present precarious situation. The 
 plain farmers pay the taxes; those self-moulded 
 shapes of superior clay fill the offices the offices 
 that they will leave to their worthless sons." 
 
 " I was induced to enter the political arena and 
 temporarily to lay aside my ministerial duties by the 
 crying need of the toilers. My sympathy is with the 
 men that work. They must have relief. They shall 
 not be compelled to suffer because of financial con 
 ditions brought about by a government in which 
 they have had no part. Vice is the offspring of pov 
 erty. My duty to my God my life, General, is 
 dedicated to Him must begin in relieving bodily 
 distress, for that is the base of this spiritual and 
 physical unrest. I have been told, General Murphy, 
 that you seek to serve God by improving the social 
 condition of the working people, that you intend to
 
 98 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 improve their political condition by giving a real 
 voice in government to them, and by electing and 
 appointing them to public office. I am in sympathy 
 with your plans. But I shall serve God in a differ 
 ent way by providing for the spiritual welfare of 
 His people after their physical wants have been re 
 lieved. I shall insist upon the establishment of a 
 great public school system, that every boy and every 
 girl shall have the opportunity to receive a thorough 
 education." 
 
 " I am in sympathy with your plans wholly so 
 and I shall do all in my power to aid you in carrying 
 them into effect. One of the great crimes of the 
 aristocracy is denial of public education. The so- 
 called gentry will oppose you bitterly. But you will 
 win. Their threadbare argument that there is no 
 more obligation on the part of the government to 
 give an education to the people than to give them 
 food and clothes will not be respected in coming 
 elections. Paternalism? That is the cloak that 
 covers many political crimes. Our government is 
 monarchical. The king must not be paternal, yet his 
 subjects are his children only when their father is to 
 be supported. Affection is not known to this kingly 
 breast." 
 
 The parson was perplexed. Was this Tim Mur 
 phy? No, this was Murphy the master of men, 
 who was ever the reflection of the person that he 
 would dominate. And the parson knew that he felt 
 quite sure that Murphy s appeal to him had not been 
 in vain. Here was a man that he believed to be 
 unscrupulous, who would use truth to fight truth 
 as he would use that weapon to fight iniquity. 
 Was this man safe? Should he be placed in power?
 
 THE BETRAYAL 99 
 
 Now was the accepted time when Jones, a poor 
 preacher, could make or break Murphy, a military 
 hero. Could Jones break Murphy later? The 
 parson thought not. And there sat that wily old 
 dog reading every thought that passed through the 
 poor preacher s mind. Well, let him ! 
 
 " I thank you, Mr. Jones, for your confidence in 
 me. That I shall never abuse that confidence it is 
 unnecessary for me to add." 
 
 The parson let it go at that. 
 
 " Now that the Readjuster party is formally or 
 ganised, Mr. Jones, we should increase its strength 
 in every way possible. If we can induce some young 
 aristocrats to espouse our cause the opposition will 
 have been struck a fatal blow." 
 
 " So I have thought, General. We shall need 
 their oratory as well as their influence in the cam 
 paign." 
 
 " Captain Temple says that he intends openly to 
 advocate pur ticket." 
 
 "That is good news. I have in mind another 
 young man of splendid qualities, with whom I have 
 been corresponding. I sent him a copy of my Debts 
 and Taxes, which convinced him that a readjust 
 ment of the debt is necessary. In every way he is 
 Temple s superior." 
 
 " May I ask to whom you refer? " 
 
 John Randolph Harrison." 
 
 Murphy, of course, had heard of Harrison s War- 
 renton speech, and had laid his plans accordingly. 
 
 " Good ! A son of the late Judge John Ran 
 dolph Harrison?" 
 
 Yes; and judging from the young man s letters 
 he is a worthy successor to his honoured father."
 
 TOO THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " I shall ask him to call on me. * 
 
 " It would be better for the suggestion to come 
 from me, as already correspondence between us 
 has been established. I shall write to him immedi 
 ately." 
 
 The parson wished Murphy to understand that he 
 had added Harrison to the campaign stock. 
 
 The general made up his mind to use Jones and 
 Harrison for the time. Later he would arrange 
 to pit them against each other in the Readjuster 
 convention, which would be called to nominate a 
 candidate for governor, with the result that a pup 
 pet of his would receive the nomination. Thus 
 Jones and Harrison would be obliged to support 
 the Murphy candidate. 
 
 The parson looked at his watch when he had fin 
 ished the letter. 
 
 " I shall be glad to have you stay and take supper 
 and pass the night with me." 
 
 "I thank you, General; but I have promised to 
 take supper with Brother Roberts and to pass the 
 night with Brother Burgess." 
 
 The parson took his leave. 
 
 That a great general shall not despise his antag 
 onist was a military law that the enemy had taught 
 to Murphy when he was a soldier. He did not de 
 spise the parson, but he had no love for him. Now 
 his emotions were varied. 
 
 " Bah, the old hypocrite! So that is one of God s 
 angels a Baptist angel ! . . . All the social elect 
 are Episcopalians. Sometimes a Presbyterian does 
 shove his head through the window of the aristo 
 cratic temple; but the Episcopalian is a Simon pure
 
 THE BETRAYAL 101 
 
 gentleman. Pish! . . . But why should that old 
 rogue be a Baptist when he might be an Episco 
 palian? I know! A candidate for the Episcopalian 
 ministry must be a gentleman, and the son of a gen 
 tleman. An examining board first studies the appli 
 cant s family tree then looks into his heart. Bah! 
 . . . Bah!" 
 
 A few days after the interview between Parson 
 Jones and General Murphy John Harrison climbed 
 the rickety stairs that led to the general s office. 
 
 * This is a great pleasure, Mr. Harrison. Your 
 father has crossed the Great River, where I shall 
 soon meet him. My dear old friend ! My dear old 
 friend! But now I see him in you. We parents 
 find our greatest grief in having to close our lives 
 before we can see our sons and daughters fully de 
 veloped. I wish that he could have lived a few 
 more years." 
 
 Already prepared to like this brave former Con 
 federate soldier, John Harrison was strongly drawn 
 to him now that he knew that his beloved father 
 had been a friend of the hero of the Crater. 
 
 General Murphy had never met Judge Harri 
 son. 
 
 " I was glad to hear Parson Jones say that you 
 are considering the advisability of entering politics. 
 Your gift of oratory in itself is sufficient to make 
 your political career one of great usefulness. The 
 offices are in the hands of incompetents. Ability as 
 well as honesty, Mr. Harrison, is required in gov 
 ernment. Only a few men are dishonest. Cer 
 tainly no one class can claim a monopoly of the 
 virtues, nor can any one political party be accused of
 
 102 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 all that is evil. Readjusters do not seek office for 
 reward; but they are willing to serve their country 
 as a patriotic duty." 
 
 " Mr. Jones thinks that the only way to save the 
 commonwealth is to inform the people of actual 
 facts, and to publish figures broadcast." 
 
 " Undoubtedly he is right, and his plan to canvass 
 the state is excellent. Moreover, he declares that he 
 has no wish to go back to the Senate with a hopeless 
 minority. This campaign must be educational. Mr. 
 Jones agrees with me in that as in all other matters 
 that we discussed." 
 
 The general paused. Now was the time to award 
 the prize, although he knew that the young man 
 sought compensation in no form. Nevertheless, the 
 aristocrat would accept a suitable reward. 
 
 " I realise fully, Mr. Harrison, that you will be 
 severely criticised and perhaps even ostracised by 
 your friends when you advocate the readjustment 
 of the debt, but the time will soon come when your 
 critics will be forced to follow your true leadership. 
 I predict that in time you will win the hearts of all, 
 that you will be accepted as Virginia s foremost 
 citizen and her most constructive statesman. A 
 stern duty awaits you : a glorious achievement will 
 be your reward. The man who can do most to save 
 Virginia s honour is you yourself." 
 
 As Harrison was thoughtful the leader continued, 
 feeling his way carefully: 
 
 This may seem an exaggeration to you, Mr. 
 Harrison, as you are still a young man; but I see in 
 you those qualities of statesmanship that made your 
 honoured father so widely renowned. There is a 
 further reward always for a young man in work of
 
 THE BETRAYAL 103 
 
 this kind: political honours are within your reach * 
 the United States senatorship, for instance." 
 
 John Harrison drew back rather haughtily. 
 
 " No such motive could influence me." 
 
 " Of course I know that. I merely meant to indi 
 cate that the higher the office that a man administers 
 the greater his power for good." 
 
 " I do not mean that I am unwilling to serve Vir 
 ginia in any office that I am qualified to hold; but I 
 wish every man to know that I shall never accept one 
 cent of pay or reward in any form for any service 
 that I shall have the honour to render to Virginia in 
 private or in public life." 
 
 A dangerous man, thought Murphy; but he did 
 not pause. 
 
 " The first great need is to settle the debt under 
 some arrangement satisfactory to our creditors. I 
 have several plans, but I wish thoroughly to discuss 
 these with my advisers Mr. Jones, you, and others. 
 My Mozart Hall speech was made at a time when 
 my plans were embryonic." 
 
 " My confidence in you is complete, General Mur 
 phy. I believe that you will settle the debt to the 
 lasting honour of this country. I have a plan of my 
 own which I wish to submit to you this : we should 
 have our legislators meet representatives of the bond 
 holders, explain to them the actual conditions that 
 now exist in Virginia, then offer a settlement accept 
 able to them. I believe that the bondholders will 
 meet us half way, if not farther, if we convince them 
 that we propose to pay every dollar of the debt in 
 money, in instalments, with full interest. I suggest 
 that we make the following offer: Virginia to sus 
 pend payment on the debt principal and interest
 
 104 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 for ten years; the principal, and the interest that will 
 have accrued in the ten years, to be funded now; 
 bonds to be issued now for the entire debt as newly 
 funded; the bonds to bear interest at six per cent., 
 payable yearly; the bonds to be paid within fifty 
 years, at the rate of one-fiftieth part each year. Vir 
 ginia is dying of starvation. She is unable to pay a 
 cent of her debt now. She will pay it all under my 
 plan or some other proper settlement that will af 
 ford her both immediate and permanent relief." 
 
 For a while the leader seemed to be in deep 
 thought. 
 
 "Excellent; indeed excellent! Your plan is the 
 most workable one that has been suggested to me. 
 It is not necessary for you or for any one in our 
 party to formulate a definite course to be submitted 
 to the bondholders until after election. The final 
 settlement is a matter that will have to be discussed 
 with the utmost frankness, and such a discussion at 
 this time would jeopardise our chances of success and 
 possibly postpone an honourable adjustment of the 
 debt in a way that would relieve the people of ex 
 cessive taxation and still be honourable say a plan 
 to build up our resources. I believe success awaits 
 our movement." 
 
 " I am convinced that the plan is feasible, General, 
 and I shall say to the people of this country what I 
 have already said to you. From now until the 
 polls close I shall devote all my time to the Read- 
 juster party." 
 
 As John Harrison made his way to the train he 
 knew that his great fight would be with himself, and 
 not with his friends who were now his enemies. Not
 
 THE BETRAYAL 105 
 
 only had Virginia asked him to surrender Lelia 
 Braxton, but she had also asked him to bear the 
 intolerable thought that the girl that he loved, this 
 girl who held honour in higher esteem than any 
 other human element, possibly might believe her 
 lover, a Harrison, to be so base as to sell his birth 
 right and her love for a mess of political pottage.
 
 CHAPTER THREE 
 
 JOE MILLER, peasant, stage-driver and mail- 
 carrier, delivered a package to Colonel 
 Daingerfield, then stood before him, hat in 
 hand. 
 
 "What is it, Joe?" 
 
 " Cunnel, suh, I ve been a-thinkin as how Mary s 
 a mighty likely gyurl." 
 
 " What ! take Mrs. Daingerfield s semptress away 
 from her? Never will Mrs. Daingerfield give Mary 
 Scott away ! No, Joe ; we want Mary for ourselves." 
 
 Mary Scott s parents, peasants, died when she was 
 twelve years old. She had been taken into the Dain 
 gerfield household, for the Scotts had been Dainger 
 field tenants for more than two hundred years. Now 
 an expert sempstress, she loved her benefactors, and 
 in turn she was loved by them. 
 
 The young man waited respectfully, knowing that 
 the colonel was not done. 
 
 " The girl is not old enough to marry a mere 
 child, barely fifteen, I should say." 
 
 " Beggirv your pardin, suh, I lowed as how she 
 be runnin over eighteen last month gone by." 
 
 " Bless my soul, I believe that you are right, Joe ! 
 But you are a mere lad. You are not old enough 
 for Mary." 
 
 " Beggin your pardin, suh, I wus a man yist day, 
 free-white-an -twenty-one, an I low as I m a man, 
 beggin your pardin, suh, a six-foot man." 
 
 1 06
 
 THE BETRAYAL 107 
 
 " Joe, I am older than I thought. God bless me, 
 how time has flown ! " 
 
 " I done some mo lowin , beggin your pardin, 
 suh." 
 
 "Well, Joe?" 
 
 " I done lowed as how you knowed I wus 
 a-lookin at Mary when you done got me the mail- 
 carrin job. I hates to take Mary away; but, beggin 
 your pardin , suh, I ve worked for her mor n four 
 year, an now I lows as I ken take care of her 
 an anything as comes our way." 
 
 "Yes, yes, Joe; the Millers always were thrifty. 
 The Daingerfields never had better tenants than the 
 Millers. Virginia would not be brought to this pass 
 if there were more peasants like the Millers and 
 the Scotts and more yeomen like the Whites and the 
 Christians. But I hate to tell Mrs. Daingerfield 
 that you are going to take Mary away from her, 
 Joe." 
 
 Thankee, suh; thankee kindly." 
 
 The day after Joe Miller told Colonel Dainger 
 field his thoughts of Mary Scott, Hugh White, 
 yeoman, after his day s work was done, called on 
 Lucy Christian, daughter of a yeoman freeholder. 
 
 The Whites had been Braxton tenants in Eng- 
 
 ^ 
 
 land as well as in Virginia. When Hugh White s 
 father was killed at Malvern Hill his young wife 
 and little Hugh were left penniless. Federal sol 
 diers added to the young widow s distress by burn 
 ing her home and borrowing her cows and fowls, 
 which they failed to return. The judge went to 
 her rescue as soon as he heard of her husband s 
 death, rebuilt her home immediately after the war,
 
 io8 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 and supported her child and herself meanwhile. 
 After the Surrender Mrs. White would accept no 
 assistance other than rent, which the judge would 
 not permit her to pay. One day the manly little 
 Hugh went to him and said that he could support 
 his mother, for he was twelve years old. The mother 
 and son had supported themselves since that time. 
 
 Lucy Christian s father was prosperous and her 
 mother thrifty. The eldest of twelve children, yet 
 only seventeen, she went frequently to help dear Mrs. 
 White with her household duties, although the young 
 girl was her mother s right-hand in the care of her 
 large family. Yes, Mrs. White and Lucy became 
 fast friends, while Mr. Christian frequently said 
 that Hugh would make some girl a fine husband 
 some day. Lucy agreed with her father. 
 
 The time came when Hugh looked intently, then 
 timidly, into Lucy s face, Lucy his pretty playmate, 
 and then he did not go near her for two weeks. The 
 stars were out the next time that he saw her. He 
 had called on her formally for the first time in his 
 life. The parlour had not been used for ten years, 
 for the parlour in the Virginian yeoman s home is a 
 holy place, a shrine held sacred to some unknown 
 deity. Gentle reader, your narrators are unable to 
 tell you the origin of the Virginian yeoman parlour. 
 Hugh and Lucy sat in the parlour that night, speech 
 less almost, and unconscious of their musty surround 
 ings. In time Hugh was treated with less ceremony. 
 The kitchen was surrendered to him at nine o clock, 
 when the entire Christian family, except Lucy, went 
 to bed. 
 
 Hugh, now twenty years old, had been sitting in 
 the Christian kitchen six nights during each week
 
 THE BETRAYAL 109 
 
 for three years when he called to see Lucy, the day 
 after Joe Miller saw Colonel Daingerfield. The 
 young farmer would have called seven nights in each 
 week had he been permitted; but Virginian yeomen 
 had an unwritten law, which your narrators will 
 whisper to you, gentle reader: Saturday night with 
 them was wash-night, when no visitor was admitted 
 to the yeoman home. 
 
 " I saw Joe Miller this morning. Mary Scott is 
 going to marry him." 
 
 " I wouldn t marry any man. Mary isn t in my 
 class; Joe isn t in your class. I wouldn t marry any 
 man." 
 
 Many times had pretty Lucy said that she would 
 never marry any man, and each time that she had 
 so declared her purpose to the sturdy yeoman she 
 had effectually silenced him, for he did not have 
 enough courage to continue his love-making under 
 conditions so adverse. But Joe s news had fortified 
 him. Possibly Lucy was mistaken. 
 
 " Mother says that Judge Braxton says that you 
 and I ought to get married." 
 
 Strange to say, no word did Lucy speak, but she 
 sat with her soft cheek in her hand, looking at the 
 floor, trying to hide the light that was in her eyes. 
 However, Lucy had not received a proposal of mar 
 riage. The terms of proposal among yeomen were 
 clearly defined and exactly interpreted, as Hugh did 
 not know, and as Lucy knew full well. " I ask you 
 to marry me? Be my wife?" Those questions had 
 to be asked, or others quite as definite. It was not 
 enough to say " I love you," although the man was 
 committed when he spoke those words. A kiss was 
 not enough; yet the man was committed by a kiss.
 
 no THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " I ll be going now." 
 
 As the bold lover walked toward his home he felt 
 that he had made substantial progress in his suit. 
 Lucy thought so too. 
 
 Not until the knell-like gong of the old mahogany 
 cabinet clock that Sir William Braxton had erected 
 in the great hall of Morven had sounded the hour 
 of four did the guests at Lelia Braxton s ball take 
 their leave. As Virginians in the early days arrived 
 at a ball with the stars, also they went home by 
 daylight. 
 
 Lelia Braxton had gone to her room immediately 
 upon the departure of the last guest; but not to 
 sleep, for she knew that sleep for her was impossible. 
 "What have I done? What have I done? " The 
 words burned through her brain as only fire can burn 
 that is fed by fuel regret. 
 
 The light-hearted girl of yesterday was now a 
 woman. The unknowing love of an innocent maiden, 
 untried by sorrow, in a few hours had grown old. 
 Her blood surged wildly. She felt that her head as 
 well as her heart would break. What had she done, 
 in her unthinking, selfish way? Was her love so poor 
 a thing that she could desert her lover in his hour 
 of need? Was her love so selfish and so weak as to 
 be unable to bear the few burdens that had been put 
 upon it? Oh, what must John think of her! He 
 had been defamed. He had been treated in a way 
 that must have cut him deeply. Had she defended 
 him, with eyes blazing like those of some Fury? No. 
 no, no! Not only had she failed to slay his enemies 
 with devastating eyes, but her anger, her selfish 
 anger, had been poured out upon him. Had she
 
 THE BETRAYAL in 
 
 not been far more cruel than the harshest of his 
 critics? 
 
 She flung herself upon her bed; she got up and 
 walked the room ; then she sat by her window, which 
 she had raised, to let in the early morning air. After 
 a while she lit a candle. Its light fell on John Har 
 rison s photograph. She snatched it up. She kissed 
 it passionately. She had never kissed it before, she 
 had never kissed her lover except his hand that one 
 time. Now she kissed his eyes, his beautiful eyes, 
 that so tenderly gazed out of the picture into her 
 own. She kissed his lips; she rubbed his cheek, now 
 tenderly, now passionately, over her soft face. Cry? 
 She could not cry! She could never cry again. Her 
 fountain of tears had been for her youth, the youth 
 that stretched away back into the distance her youth 
 that had gone for ever. Oh, oh ! what must John 
 have thought of her? He must despise her. But 
 could he despise her more than she despised herself? 
 How she hated that self. She had been a living lie. 
 He could never have loved her had he seen her as 
 she really was. But now he saw her in all her awful 
 selfishness. A great dry sob made its way from her 
 throat. 
 
 But no, he had not seen her as she was. He had 
 tried to explain to her, and she would not listen. 
 Yes, he had seen through her miserable self. Had 
 he not said to her that her faith in him should be 
 second only to her faith in God? Had he not tried 
 to shield her that she might not be hurt by her own 
 cruel words and by the words and conduct of others? 
 
 Her passionate outburst spent itself through its 
 own violence. When the grey dawn began to glow 
 with the faint red of the rising sun she became
 
 ii2 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 calmer and began to see the situation in its true pro 
 portions. She smiled wanly as she thought of the 
 lines that she had read that morning no, yesterday 
 morning in the copy of Tennyson that John had 
 given to her for a birthday present 
 
 "Is it so true that second thoughts are best? 
 Not first, and third, which are a riper first?" 
 
 She had been right, not that her conduct had been 
 right, for how could she have been so cruel to 
 John? But in a large way she had been right. Her 
 first duty was to Virginia, not to her lover. Strong 
 as well as honourable, John Harrison had given up 
 his life-work in the practice of the law; even more, 
 he had abandoned his social position to become the 
 associate of thieves yes, even the associate of ne 
 groes. He had given his proud name to be the 
 scorn of decent people, to be bandied about by 
 thieves, who would laugh at him derisively all this 
 he had given to Virginia. He had been willing even 
 to give back to the woman he loved her troth and 
 to bear the full force of her condemnation. 
 
 A king loved her ! Would she prove unworthy 
 of his love? At least she would try not to be un 
 worthy. She too would give to Virginia all that she 
 possessed. Virginia had nothing but honour left to 
 her. That honour Lelia Braxton would cherish. In 
 time the truth would come to him. Then this guile 
 less man, who saw the beautiful and none of the 
 evil in all things, would see that good can not come 
 out of evil, that his country no more than himself 
 could be a bankrupt. Yes, she would pray to God to 
 give her the strength to take back the troth that she 
 had given to John Harrison, that she keep it for
 
 THE BETRAYAL 113 
 
 him until no wall of dishonour should separate them. 
 Thus she would be true to him as well as to Virginia. 
 But never again would she wound him. 
 
 Ah, how he loved her! Once he had said to her, 
 she had not understood him then, " Lelia, there 
 is one joy that I can never know. It is true that love 
 is made of two elements, pain and rapture. There 
 is suffering in love s rapture; there is ecstasy in love s 
 sorrow. Sometimes I think that in only one way did 
 Jesus have greater rapture in His love than I have 
 in mine He descended into hell, and there suffered 
 three days for those that He loved. Lelia, I wish 
 that I could suffer all the tortures of hell for your 
 sake." " Don t be sacrilegious," she had said, and 
 he had replied, " I did not mean to be sacrilegious." 
 
 Going to the window overlooking the garden she 
 saw Judge Braxton strolling among the flowers in 
 the early morning hour, as though he too had been 
 unable to sleep. He carried in his hand a copy of 
 his translation of Homer s poems, which had been 
 published many years before. For some time he had 
 been writing a commentary on that author, to be 
 prefaced by a critical study of the values of the great 
 singer, in which he would show the elements of unity 
 in the Homeric poems. He was deep in thought. 
 " Is he thinking of me or of his work?" thought 
 Lelia. " Is he trying to find some way to save 
 John?" Yes, he was thinking of her, for he fastened 
 a spray of her favourite flower, the lily-of-the-valley, 
 in the lapel of his coat. 
 
 In a few minutes she had placed her hand in his. 
 
 As he turned to her there was the great light of 
 fatherhood in his eyes. Many years later, when 
 Lelia Braxton gazed at Hofmann s painting of
 
 ii 4 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Christ at Gethsemane, she thought of her father as 
 he had stood in the Morven garden that early morn 
 ing, the love and suffering of Hofmann s Shepherd 
 on his face. 
 
 The father s love is greater than the mother s as 
 his strength is greater than hers. Christ, not Mary, 
 is the embodiment of parental love. 
 
 Father and daughter were silent for a while. 
 When Judge Braxton spoke his firm voice was un 
 usually tender. Now Lelia Braxton saw. She never 
 had seen before. Formerly she had accepted merely 
 the outward and visible signs of love; but now she 
 saw and felt the deep significance of its inward and 
 spiritual grace. There had been one great flash, 
 and her whole being had become illuminated. It 
 was as if God had said in the darkness of chaos, 
 " Let there be light." Whence came this change, 
 this great white light? Was it from God, was it 
 from John, or had it always burned within her, 
 hidden by the measure ego? She could not say. 
 She only knew that it flooded her whole being. Oh, 
 that he had not seen her real self! Not for the 
 treasure of limitless worlds would she bare her soul 
 to her lover. He might read all the mysteries that 
 he could fathom, but never should he know the one 
 great mystery, herself the creature I AM. 
 
 Lelia Braxton did not know that there is no such 
 thing as honest self-revealment. She did not know 
 that no man is willing to know himself, that no 
 woman is willing to know herself, that still less are 
 men and women willing for others to know them. 
 The one great mystery that we pass our lives in 
 trying to fathom is the unknowable human being. 
 
 " Daughter, I like John Harrison more than any
 
 THE BETRAYAL 115 
 
 young man that I know. Until yesterday I had 
 thought that I should like to see your life and his 
 joined in the holiest of human relations. There 
 may not be many years left to me. My child, I 
 am unwilling to say that a single error should sep 
 arate you from the man that you love. I am un 
 willing to say that you should marry a man that is 
 making so grievous a mistake as John Harrison. I 
 shall accept your decision, whatever it shall be, and 
 should you change your views, I shall still trust your 
 instinct. I shall uphold you always. Come to me 
 for sympathy when your burdens seem too hard for 
 you to bear. . . . But whatever your course, I 
 shall not condone his offences. There is a wall that 
 can not be scaled. It separates the acts of honour 
 from those of dishonour. A man can not be sepa 
 rated from his conduct. That law is inviolable. 
 
 " And, my little girl, a woman follows her hus 
 band. She becomes a part of him. True, they lose 
 their identity in each other; but the new being is 
 dominated by the force of the man, a force that 
 changes form, but which is never lost in amalgama 
 tion. Remember that always. 
 
 " Harrison is what he is, which is the sum of 
 what he has been, and of what his ancestors were. 
 This leads me to hope that the time will come when 
 the wound that is caused by this error will be healed. 
 The scar will never disappear. If the wound be not 
 fatal, and I warn you that it may never heal, I 
 shall be first to welcome John Harrison back to his 
 people. Even in convalescence I shall nurse him 
 tenderly until he is restored to health. But while 
 he is dishonourable I shall do no more than treat 
 him with civility."
 
 ii6 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Leila Braxton had stood with averted face, 
 tightly grasping the judge s hand. 
 
 " Father, my heart tells me that I ought to marry 
 John now; that I should be his comfort when he 
 needs me most. I would not have to agree with his 
 political views in order to be the partner of his bur 
 dens. My selfish self says that I just must go to 
 him, for how can I see my friends arrayed against 
 him, father, oh, how can I? And in a way I shall 
 be one of those that will bring sorrow and shame 
 upon him. Oh, father dear, help me ! Strengthen 
 my resolution never to be John s wife until to 
 gether we can say that this unholy thing has been 
 put out of our lives. . . . Yet I know that no 
 one could be more honourable than John. ... I 
 seem to be a pupil criticising the great master that 
 is patiently leading him toward his own great 
 heights." 
 
 Mrs. Braxton now joined them, basket in hand. 
 She had come into the garden to gather jonquils for 
 the breakfast table. The judge assisted her. To 
 gether they had culled flowers in the early morning 
 throughout their married life. The judge had first 
 seen Mrs. Braxton as she cut the Marechal Neil in 
 the garden of her father s ancestral home. He had 
 said to her, as all Virginian gentlemen of his period 
 said to all ladies that they met under similar cir 
 cumstances, " Ah-h-h 
 
 " Proserpine gathering flowers, 
 Herself a fairer flower. " 
 
 As soon as he got home from the ball John Har 
 rison wrote to Lelia Braxton, then waited patiently 
 for his man Jake, who would open up the house at
 
 THE BETRAYAL 117 
 
 sunrise, in accordance with Virginian custom. Har 
 rison too had turned the searching light of self- 
 analysis upon his soul, as he had often done before, 
 and had stood aghast when he realised that in the 
 supreme moment of his life he had acted like a 
 spoiled child, 
 
 He thought that Lelia Braxton must have been 
 shocked by his coarse temper. That he should have 
 been rude to this gentle girl! Had she ever been 
 so gentle as she had been that night? She had 
 treated him as a mother might have treated her 
 little child, tenderly, shieldingly, as if her soft arms 
 would protect him from some great unseen danger, 
 and he had been brutal ! How had that been pos 
 sible? Never had he been discourteous to a woman 
 before. 
 
 He wondered if she had cried after all the guests 
 had left. As he thought of her in tears, wounded 
 through and through by his unkindness, he tore up 
 the last of the long letters that he had written, and 
 wrote another. That, too, he tore into shreds. Then 
 he decided that he would write merely a brief note, 
 asking her to let him call that he might explain that 
 he had not meant all that he had said. 
 
 " Here, Jake, deliver this letter to Miss Braxton 
 just as soon as the family have left the breakfast- 
 table, then wait for an answer." 
 
 Mrs. Braxton was not so unwise as to attempt to 
 force her daughter s confidence. She knew that a 
 young girl does not seek her mother when in deep 
 distress. 
 
 In " Peter Pan " Mr. Barrie tells us that a child 
 in trouble goes to his mother.
 
 ii8 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 A young girl takes her grief to God. 
 
 Always there is formality between mother and 
 daughter, no matter how great their affection for 
 each other. A girl gives her surface confidences to 
 her companions of her own age ; she gives some 
 what more of her confidence to her father, or to 
 some uncle, or to some elderly or old man that she 
 has known long and well; she reveals more of her 
 self to her betrothed or to her husband; but a 
 daughter never makes a confidante of her mother, 
 although the mother may know better than any one 
 else, even better than the daughter herself, all those 
 emotions that ebb and flow in a young girl s soul like 
 the tides of the sea. Lelia Braxton loved her mother 
 devotedly. Mrs. Braxton asked of her daughter no 
 more than that love. 
 
 The family left the dining-room, Mrs. Braxton 
 hovering near her daughter, for a mother is ever 
 within call of her children that are in trouble. In 
 a few minutes Lelia Braxton said that she would go 
 to her room. Then the kiss, the long kiss upon the 
 cheek, the mother s arm around the daughter s waist 
 the kiss that the mother always gives the daughter 
 that is in distress; the kiss of sympathy, of love, of 
 confidence; the kiss that is meant to take the place 
 of those thoughts that need not be expressed in 
 words; the kiss that at first is hesitating, then half- 
 ashamed. A mother s affection for her daughter is 
 subtly expressed, not in endearing words, not in fre 
 quent physical- demonstrations, for she is more for 
 mal than her daughter s girlhood friends, but in 
 the silent way that a daughter understands. No girl 
 past fourteen ever puts her arms around her 
 mother s neck.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 119 
 
 A woman never puts her arms around the neck 
 of any woman. 
 
 Miss Braxton found William, the old footman, 
 waiting at her room door, Harrison s letter in his 
 hand. 
 
 WARRENTON, VIRGINIA. 
 Dearest 
 
 Forgive me! How could I have been so unkind to you! 
 O my love, my gentle Lelia, what would I not give to bear 
 the pain that I gave you! Please let me see you at once, if 
 only for a few moments. I wish to tell you that I was 
 angry with others, not with you, that I was childish, and 
 so base as to heap upon you, my love, the anger that I felt 
 for others my stupid, blind anger. 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 Thursday morning. 
 
 After reading the letter Lelia Braxton sat per 
 fectly still for several minutes. Then she took up 
 Harrison s photograph. Again she looked into his 
 eyes. Again and again she kissed his lips. Again 
 she laid the photograph caressingly against her 
 cheek. She read the letter through several times. 
 Her tears fell upon its pages tears that she had 
 felt that she could never shed again. She rose 
 with a start and went over to her desk. She knew 
 that her lover was waiting eagerly for her reply. 
 
 MORVEN. 
 Dear John: 
 
 Do you remember that you once said to me that love is 
 made of pain and rapture? Do you remember that day, 
 dear? You had just been reading aloud The Sonnets 
 from the Portuguese to me. Every word that you ut-
 
 120 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 tered burned into my heart. I shall remember those words 
 always: " Sometimes I think that in only one way did 
 Jesus have greater rapture in His love than I have in mine 
 He descended into hell, and there suffered three days for 
 those that He loved. Lelia," how softly you said Lelia, 
 dear, " I wish that I could suffer all the tortures of hell 
 for your sake." Your letter fills me with rapture and 
 pain. In shielding me, John, you did not notice my cruel 
 words. I am unworthy of your love. I know that I am. 
 
 Now I must hurt you again. I must ask you to give me 
 back my troth. For you are wrong, dear John you who 
 would die and suffer humiliation and shame for Virginia 
 you do not see that one may not stoop to dishonour to 
 attain some great and good end. But I know why you do 
 not see the way I know! Your great, noble heart pleads 
 for tens of thousands of widows that have struggled for four 
 teen years to keep themselves and their children from starva 
 tion. You see ruin everywhere. I know, John dear, I 
 see through your eyes I seem never to have seen your eyes, 
 John, until to-day. 
 
 You must give me back my troth. I shall wear your 
 ring always you will let me keep that, I know, but with 
 this letter our engagement is at an end. 
 
 And now I must pass out of your life. I can not see you 
 again. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 LELIA BRAXTON. 
 
 Thursday morning. 
 
 In less than a month from the time that Captain 
 Lancaster, at the age of nineteen, married a peas 
 ant, he entered the Virginian army. Despite his 
 youth he won the rank of captain in the Mexican 
 War. He was with the British forces throughout 
 the Crimean campaign, and when he heard Lord 
 Cardigan s order at Balaklava, " Forward, Light
 
 THE BETRAYAL 121 
 
 Brigade ! " he was one of the undismayed though 
 some one had blundered. In that campaign he won 
 the Victoria Cross. Among the first to enlist in the 
 Virginian army in 1861, he fought from the begin 
 ning to the end of the war between the states as 
 a captain. He could have been a corps commander, 
 but refused all promotions that were offered to him, 
 saying that he preferred to be in the thick of the 
 fight. Throughout Reconstruction he had spent his 
 time harassing carpetbaggers, playing cards, and 
 betting on his favourite horses. Now the captain, 
 tall, strong, of military bearing, a wit and a racon 
 teur, was regarded by every man that knew him as 
 a prince of good fellows. His face was a bit too 
 red and his manners a bit too rough to make him 
 altogether fit for the drawing-room; but, as one 
 excellent lady had charitably said to another excel 
 lent lady, "His home influences, you know, my 
 dear!" " 
 
 As Captain Lancaster was explaining to a few 
 gentlemen in front of the Warren-Green how he 
 had made five dollars just before the battle of 
 Buena Vista by betting that one of his men could 
 jump over the back of a mule in a long running 
 jump, Colonel Daingerfield drove up rapidly, and 
 with marked agitation beckoned to him. 
 
 " Captain Lancaster, sir, have you heard the news 
 the revolting news? That damned scoundrel Tim 
 Murphy has designated that low-bred rascal Jim 
 Rice to run for the Senate against me." 
 
 " Do you mean Mr. James P. Rice, our principal 
 merchant? " 
 
 " I do, sir." 
 
 "Well, Colonel, as he measures out sugar and
 
 122 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 lard honestly, maybe he will be no less honest in 
 weighing legislative bills." 
 
 You never know when to be jocular, Lancaster. 
 Take this seat, if you please; I wish you to go with 
 me to see Gary Dabney, our young leader. Think 
 of that fellow Rice s impertinence ! His father 
 used to be my father s overseer. Who would have 
 thought that a worse curse than those foreign carpet 
 baggers could be visited upon Virginia ! Tim Mur 
 phy and Jim Rice ! And I am without an overseer 
 to chastise them." 
 
 They found Mr. Dabney in his office. 
 
 You have heard the news, Colonel, I see." 
 " Gary Dabney, this is not a time for passion. I 
 never was cooler in my life. But I feel indigna 
 tion, sir, righteous wrath. For forty years the 
 four years of the war excepted ! have represented 
 this legislative district without opposition, and now 
 this clown, this ignoramus, this man that should be 
 my servant, would turn his master out of doors, 
 then sit in his arm-chair. The governors are to be 
 governed, hey? That is Murphy s purpose! A 
 shopkeeper in the legislature! What will he be 
 doing there, sir? What? Trading in Virginia s 
 good name." 
 
 The colonel had a contempt for bomb-proof sol 
 diers, as the war-time statesmen were called. He 
 had refused to shake hands with John Goode, who 
 was a member of the Confederate Congress, when 
 that gentleman had introduced himself to him as 
 "Colonel" Goode. 
 
 The old man, or the soldier with a single leg, 
 those are the gentlemen that served their country in 
 legislative halls during the war that have my re-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 123 
 
 spect, sirs; not the white-livered hulking creatures 
 that hung around Richmond, who gave themselves 
 military titles after the war." 
 
 Captain Lancaster came to the colonel s assist 
 ance. 
 
 " Now, Dabney, we all know that the colonel 
 doesn t take this matter to himself. Surely it s 
 personal to us as it is to him. Jim Rice and his 
 likes mustn t be allowed to take charge of our gov 
 ernment." 
 
 "Gentlemen," said Dabney, "the danger is very 
 great; yet we may be unduly alarmed. Virginians, 
 conservative always, have turned a deaf ear to the 
 appeals of demagogues. Peasants and yeomen are 
 just as much in favour of our traditions as are gen 
 tlemen. I am not one to despise my enemies; but I 
 believe that our danger is largely due to the apathy 
 of gentlemen in their unwillingness to go out 
 among yeomen and peasants and explain to them 
 that the election of Murphy and his followers will 
 mean that the little property that they have will be 
 taken from them. Good government has won in 
 the past. It should win now. 
 
 " In our educational campaign our candidates 
 should appeal to the people by comparisons too 
 plain to be misunderstood. Suppose, Colonel, in an 
 address, you would single out a man and say to him, 
 You, John Smith, do you think that your prop 
 erty would be safer or your income from it larger 
 if Mr. Rice be elected in my stead? Many of the 
 Readjuster candidates for the legislature are ne 
 groes; do you think that a negro is more virtuous 
 or more capable of governing you than a white 
 man a white man of moral and financial respon-
 
 124 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 sibility? Would you go to Judge Braxton to draw 
 a deed of conveyance, or would you get Sam Kelly 
 to draw it for you? Are you going to send legis 
 lators to Richmond that will elect Judge Braxton to 
 the Supreme Court of Appeals, or do you prefer 
 legislators that will elect Sam Kelly? Everybody is 
 promised office; are there enough offices for you all? 
 Is there any benefit that you could have under Read- 
 juster rule that you would not have under Demo 
 cratic government?" 
 
 Dabney paused; then, as both Colonel Dainger- 
 field and Captain Lancaster were silent, he con 
 tinued : 
 
 " Colonel, if you would go among the people in 
 this district and talk with them that way the oppo 
 sition would soon be without votes. If I receive 
 the nomination for governor I shall organise a cam 
 paign, with my agents in every county, instructed to 
 leave oratory alone, and to make no formal speeches. 
 They will be told to mingle with yeomen and peas 
 ants and to show them that their friends of three 
 hundred years are no less their friends to-day." 
 
 " What, boy ! you would have me, at my age, 
 after my public service of forty years, stoop to parley 
 with Murphyites, that gang of white criminals and 
 chicken-thieving negroes? No, sir; one does not 
 remonstrate with a thief; one sends him to prison. 
 I shall not undertake to make myself a schoolmaster 
 for niggers and overseers. It is for their masters to 
 govern them. Look here, Cary, you have not been 
 bitten by that modern snake, the People, have you? 
 The consent of the governed ! Pish ! When the 
 devil did the governed ever give their consent to 
 be governed? Did you ever hear of a boy giving
 
 THE BETRAYAL 125 
 
 his consent to be licked? Did you ever hear of a 
 thief giving his consent to be sent to prison?" 
 
 " But you are wrong, Colonel," said Captain Lan 
 caster. "You re in a frame of mind that every 
 soldier knows to be dangerous. I used to wear a 
 sword. So did you. But we both took up a musket 
 and shot straight and fast when the enemy pressed 
 us. You fight Murphy to win, I say." 
 
 "Zounds, man! I was a gentleman before I was 
 a soldier! Every soldier knows, and none better 
 than you, that death is one of the lesser evils. Vir 
 ginia may die, she is certain to die in time, but 
 I will be damned if I will see her die in dishonour. 
 If her integrity is to be preserved by an alliance be 
 tween gentlemen and thieves, I, for one, shall not 
 be a party to any such treaty; but I will draw my 
 sword again, and it will drip with blood ere I shall 
 witness any such act of infamy." 
 
 "You misunderstand me, Colonel," said the young 
 leader. " I see nothing inconsistent with Virginian 
 traditions in the plan that I proposed. Were I an 
 orator I would say that I love yeomen and peasants, 
 that I love all God s humanity not as Murphy 
 loves his plain people, but without shame. We are 
 all bound together by one great common tie neces 
 sity, a chain that can not be broken. There is an 
 other tie, Colonel, Almighty God. At least all 
 in Virginia recognise that bond. There are the 
 commands of the living God: Whatsoever ye do 
 unto the least of these, my my my people, ye 
 do unto me. I would say all this and more if I 
 were an orator. But you are an eloquent man, sir, 
 and can sway multitudes. Why not frequently ad 
 dress yeomen and peasants in that way, explaining
 
 i 2 6 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 all Murphy s tricks to them and telling them that 
 they are a part of Virginia, that we love them." 
 
 Dabney had touched the weak spot in the col 
 onel s armour. The old warrior s duty to God 
 was not so plain to him as was his duty to his 
 neighbour, although he felt that his first duty was 
 to his Maker. He feared that he knew very little 
 of his higher duty, but secretly took comfort in the 
 poem which says that Abou Ben Adhem s name led 
 all the rest. 
 
 A long pause followed Gary Dabney s advice. 
 Then Captain Lancaster suggested that the three 
 gentlemen drive over to Morven and consult Judge 
 Braxton. Only a few words were spoken during the 
 short drive, and those by Captain Lancaster and 
 Mr. Dabney. 
 
 " Good-morning, gentlemen ! This is indeed a 
 pleasure! Daingerfield, I hear that you are to re 
 tire to private life. You will be greatly relieved, I 
 know, to take off the harness of public service." 
 
 "So it seems, Judge, so it seems; and, sir, I bring 
 you pleasant news: Sam Kelly expects to interpret 
 the law in your place." 
 
 " I had not heard of Sam s aspirations." 
 
 " I know nothing of the qualifications that make 
 one eligible for the Supreme Court of Appeals, un 
 less a horse " 
 
 "You mean a mule, Lancaster; an ass, sir," said 
 Mr. Carter, his eyes twinkling. The venerable phy 
 sician had made his way into the library without at 
 tracting the attention of those that were assembled 
 there. "But why this unseemly levity, gentlemen? 
 Daingerfield, did I hear you intimate that the hab-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 127 
 
 Itat of the equine quadruped Equus asinus is the bench 
 of the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia?" 
 
 "Gentlemen, gentlemen!" said the young leader, 
 " must I remind you of the wisdom of sages? 
 
 " We hold these truths to be self-evident that 
 all men are created equal 
 
 " The voice of the people is the voice of God. 
 
 " Government of the people by the people for 
 the people y shall not perish from the earth 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! " loudly laughed the irrepressible 
 captain. "How is that for oratory, Colonel? If 
 words be ammunition, already Murphy has us 
 licked." 
 
 Ignoring Captain Lancaster s banter, Colonel 
 Daingerfield chose to take Dabney s remarks seri 
 ously. He drew himself up in his Mr.-President- 
 and-Gentlemen-of-the-Senate way, and his voice was 
 not so soft and low as when he spoke in the pres 
 ence of ladies. 
 
 " Cary Dabney, you are right, sir; the time has 
 come when Murphy s plain people must be taught 
 elemental morality. We must tell them, sir, about 
 the temple that was reared upon a foundation of 
 sand the hideous architectural perversion that hu 
 miliates every gentleman of the human race. You 
 are right, sir; we must hold up to public scorn the 
 ignorance of the architects of that vile obstruction 
 of the landscape." 
 
 "Hear, hear!" 
 
 "Yes, sirs, hear; hear about that experiment in 
 government, the failure that put to shame the peo 
 ples of the earth. Hear, sirs, about the men that 
 fashioned a government out of a rhetorical phrase. 
 May God grant peace to the poor author of those
 
 ia8 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 words, who never intended that they should be taken 
 seriously. The voice of the people is the voice of 
 God! Pish!" 
 
 The colonel s eyes flashed. His auditors listened 
 attentively. They believed him to be a profound 
 student of the science of politics. Underlying his 
 intemperance of speech they recognised the philos 
 ophy of statecraft that had given to Virginia a gov 
 ernment that was very nearly perfect. They ban 
 tered him; but this the colonel took good-naturedly, 
 laughing with them while he pretended to be angry. 
 He knew their purpose. 
 
 " Sirs, let us look closely at those men who pro 
 posed to overthrow a government founded on nat 
 ural laws, who were willing to disregard the stu 
 dents of statecraft throughout the life of the human 
 race, who were willing to throw aside government 
 that grew out of the experience of seven thousand 
 years. Let us look closely at those men, I say, and 
 hold on high a picture of the temple that they 
 erected, that every man among Murphy s plain peo 
 ple may see its hideous front." 
 
 " Not a temple, Colonel ; it looks like a gaming 
 house." 
 
 " See here, Lancaster, are you to hold up this 
 picture, or am I to do it, sir?" 
 
 The colonel resumed after an agitated oratorical 
 pause: 
 
 " George Washington : a yeoman who pretended 
 to be a gentleman. That man s life was spent in 
 the woods, away from his fellow-men. Uncouth, 
 the little education that he had was obtained by 
 reading books of his own selection, containing crude 
 ideas crudely expressed. An engineer, graduated
 
 THE BETRAYAL 129 
 
 under that great master, George Washington him 
 self, his most important engineering work a canal 
 which was to connect the Ohio and the Potomac 
 rivers could be built no further than Cumberland 
 because there was no water with which to feed it. 
 Millions of dollars were squandered on the part that 
 was made. The great engineer had failed properly 
 to survey the route of the canal, although he had 
 walked over that route many times. Its construc 
 tion was undertaken after the war with England had 
 given him the reputation of being a master in all 
 branches of human endearour. 
 
 "That man, sirs, George Washington, the subject 
 of song and story, was a soldier, the commanding 
 general in a war that lasted seven years; yet he 
 never won a battle: his only victory was a skirmish. 
 Sirs, at one time the public confidence in him was 
 so great that he commanded an army of nearly 
 three thousand men. True, one-fifth of the popu 
 lation of a country can be in the field all the time 
 without serious disturbance of economic conditions. 
 True, sirs, some other man could have maintained 
 permanently an army of more than half a million 
 men. The loss of his soldiers through wounds and 
 death was not so great as perceptibly to affect the 
 death-rate of the American peoples. During the war 
 of the Revolution twenty boys grew into manhood 
 for every man that was killed or wounded. From 
 an army that gathered about Boston in the few days 
 following Lexington, roughly estimated to be thirty 
 thousand men, the great soldier was soon leading a 
 band of three thousand ruffians through New Jersey. 
 He knew no more how to provision than how to or 
 ganise and fight an army. He let his men starve
 
 130 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 in the richest section of the world starve among 
 their friends while food in abundance surrounded 
 them. He let them freeze, although the furs of 
 wild animals that were everywhere about might have 
 kept those few soldiers warm. 
 
 " That man, sirs, that George Washington, that 
 stupendous failure, who could not write a gram 
 matical sentence, was called from his failures to 
 organise and to administer a government. At least 
 he must have been morally if not intellectually great. 
 He must have been a good man, kind to his neigh 
 bours, a loving husband and father, an upright, use 
 ful citizen, a man whose integrity was beyond sus 
 picion. Not so. He was a libertine, and all his 
 children were illegitimate. He was a gambler 
 playing cards, throwing dice, and betting on game 
 cocks. He drove hard bargains with his neighbours, 
 he lied under oath, and some of those that knew him 
 did not hesitate to offer bribes to the fellow while he 
 was the chief officer of the Federal government 
 bribes that amounted to fortunes. At the time of 
 his death he was the wealthiest man in North 
 America." 
 
 " I never advised you to hold any such mirror up 
 to the people," protested Mr. Dabney, intending to 
 check the colonel s violence. " This is not a time for 
 passion, sir. Class must not be arrayed against 
 class." 
 
 " Passion, sir! I never was more temperate in my 
 life! Class against class! The classes must under 
 stand one another, or suspicion will take the place of 
 confidence. Is your position so weak that you fear 
 to go to these misguided yeomen and peasants and 
 tell them the truth? Are you afraid to promulgate
 
 THE BETRAYAL 131 
 
 your theory of government? Are you afraid hon 
 estly to state your convictions?" 
 
 The colonel brought his cane down upon the li 
 brary table, and then paused to glare at his vic 
 tim. 
 
 " Thomas Jefferson : part yeoman, part peasant, 
 altogether a thief. Here is a passage from * Debts 
 and Taxes that I copied, which promulgates part 
 of the moral views of the Rogue and Reverend 
 John Henry Jones, one of Jefferson s imitators. 
 The quotation is from a letter written by Jefferson 
 to Madison, which Jones took this time, sirs, he 
 did not steal from The Writings of Thomas Jef 
 ferson, Volume III, pages 27 to 32, thus: 
 
 The question whether one generation of man has a right 
 to bind another seems never to have been started either on 
 this side or our side of the water, yet it is a question of such 
 consequence as not only to merit decision, but place also, 
 among the fundamental principles of every government. 
 . . . That no such obligation can be transmitted I think 
 very capable of proof. ... I suppose that the received 
 opinion that the public debts of one generation devolve on 
 the next, has been suggested by our seeing habitually in pri 
 vate life, that he who succeeds to lands is required to pay the 
 debts of his predecessor; without considering that this re 
 quirement is municipal only, not moral, flowing from the 
 will of the society which has found it convenient to appro 
 priate the lands of a descendant on condition of a payment of 
 his debt; but that between society and society, or generation 
 and generation, there is no municipal obligation, no umpire 
 but the law of nature. . . . The earth belongs always 
 to the living generation. The question, then, is, that 
 neither the representatives of a nation, nor the whole nation 
 itself assembled, can validly engage debts beyond what they 
 may pay in their own time.
 
 132 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "That letter proves that Jefferson was the orig 
 inal repudiator. Parson Jones, I believe, claims to 
 be the father of readjustment. In the face of this 
 quotation Tim Murphy can not claim to be the 
 father of repudiation. 
 
 ; Jefferson, an ignoramus as well as a thief, 
 ground out several theories of statecraft a day. 
 Some of them belonged to him others he stole. 
 But he used them all so far as he could in the Great 
 American Experiment. No greater curse was ever 
 visited upon a people than Thomas Jefferson upon 
 all Americans, and particularly upon the people of 
 this commonwealth. That ass, taking a deep 
 breath one day, brayed long and loud, We hold 
 these truths to be self -evident that all men are cre 
 ated equal. The lofty Jefferson intellect, with its 
 myriads of stupendous creations, threw aside the 
 government of philosophers, hallowed by the blood 
 of humanity that for seven thousand years had run 
 in rivers, then undertook to change the laws of 
 nature." 
 
 "Hold on, Daingerfield," said Judge Braxton; 
 " Gary was right. Moreover, Virginians have al 
 ways constituted one great family, affectionate, with 
 responsibilities properly divided among them, each 
 man owing a definite duty to the entire family. 
 We must not remind men of their failings in harsh 
 terms. Government must be conducted like a house 
 hold: the father must be firm, but gentle; he must 
 know how to punish, and how to forget." 
 
 " Sir, I say fiddlesticks ! Fiddlesticks, I say ! 
 Please hear me to the end." 
 
 Again the colonel paused. He glared at each 
 gentleman separately before he continued.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 133 
 
 "Benjamin Franklin: the peasant whose gross 
 immorality ran the gamut of human vice was self- 
 educated also,, and sowed his half-baked ideas broad 
 cast like the seed of tares blown by some evil wind 
 over a field of wheat. Sirs, I felt ashamed of the 
 human race when I read the autobiography of that 
 rogue. The saying, He even stole lightning and 
 bottled it, referred to that man, and originated 
 among his kind, who knew the fellow s reputation. 
 Having stolen everything on earth that he could 
 lay his hands on, he undertook to steal from 
 heaven." 
 
 The colonel did not live to read the autobiog 
 raphy of one Jack London. However, Benjamin 
 Franklin gloated over his crimes and vices almost 
 as much as did the chief parvenu of letters of our 
 time over his. 
 
 Captain Lancaster felt that some of these remarks 
 had been directed to him. Did the colonel mean to 
 say that a gentleman should not race his horses and 
 play cards? Only last Saturday night they had 
 played poker until quarter of twelve, when the game 
 had been discontinued out of respect to the Lord. 
 The damned old hypocrite ! 
 
 They acted after their day and generation." 
 
 The colonel turned his withering eyes upon the 
 captain. 
 
 "They did not, sir! The Ten Commandments 
 have guided human conduct since the days of Moses. 
 There has never been a period in civilised society 
 when the moral code permitted a man to lie and to 
 steal and to commit adultery. There never was a 
 period when men were expected to live indecent 
 lives. Socrates, St. Paul, Marcus Aurelius the
 
 134 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 great men in every period of the world s history 
 observed the elemental laws of morality. 
 
 " Some there are that defend Washington and 
 those like him when they are ridiculed because of 
 their ignorance of the tongue that their mothers 
 spoke. Before Washington s period many of the 
 great masters of English literature had lived, and 
 many important works on grammar and rhetoric had 
 been issued. The Virginian gentleman of that pe 
 riod correctly used several languages besides his 
 own. Ignorance is the only excuse that will lie that 
 can be pleaded for Washington and his contem 
 poraries by their misguided advocates. Yes, they 
 used English of their time and the nigger preacher, 
 Shad Berkeley, uses the English of his time and 
 kind. 
 
 " In another way, sirs, those heroes of the plain 
 people acted after their kind. The restraining 
 hands of their masters had no sooner been with 
 drawn than they gave themselves over to all the 
 gross sensuality of their brutal instincts. They be 
 came intoxicated with power, and the first use that 
 they made of their new force was to let loose their 
 vile passions. Tweed and his gang of Tammany- 
 ites recently held sway, and their methods are now 
 copied wherever a people rule." 
 
 Ah, Colonel, how your noble heart would have 
 been wrenched had you lived in this year of grace 
 1910, while the thefts of the people reach heights 
 of artistry heretofore unknown to man; in this year 
 of grace 1910, while the Board of Estimate and 
 Apportionment of the city of New York announces 
 that the Board will spend not less than one thou 
 sand million dollars during the next four years; in
 
 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 this year of grace 1910, while the expenditures of 
 the city of New York will be one-fourth as large as 
 the total expenditure of the United States govern 
 ment; in this year of grace 1910, while the plain 
 people of the city of New York steal alike from gen 
 tleman and peasant and their own posterity all that 
 they can steal ! Draw near, O ye shades of Washing 
 ton and Jefferson and Lincoln, and harken to your 
 words: "The voice of the people is the voice of 
 God." "We hold these truths to be self-evident 
 that all men are created equal." " Government of 
 the people by the people for the people, shall not 
 perish from the earth." 
 
 " I warn you, sirs," Colonel Daingerfield contin 
 ued, " if Tim Murphy Tweed fastens his clutches 
 upon this state chaos will take the place of order; 
 decency will make place for all that is vile, and this 
 proud commonwealth will stand out among the na 
 tions of the world as an example of shame. O Vir 
 ginians that love your country, buckle on your ar 
 mour! God has seen fit to let the devil loose from 
 hell. Buckle on your armour, I say; draw your 
 mighty sword, and let every son of this old com 
 monwealth be gathered to his fathers ere her shield 
 that he bears is stained by the blood of his own 
 dishonour." 
 
 "Cease, Francis, cease! Cease, I say!" the old 
 physician commanded. " My children, there is dan 
 ger in such violence. Murphy is telling these mis 
 guided creatures, his plain people and his negroes, 
 that they are not the equals of aristocrats before the 
 law. In all my eighty-six years I have never known 
 an instance of oppression under cloak of law in this 
 commonwealth. The gentry were first to declare that
 
 136 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 all men are equal while they stand before the bar 
 of justice. Francis, boy, if you go before the peo 
 ple with such violent expressions they will say that 
 Murphy is right. They will not understand. Are 
 they able to distinguish between natural equality and 
 equality before the law? And there is another issue 
 that you must meet, my son : Are all men made of 
 the same clay? Aye, you have even a larger ques 
 tion to answer: Is the ignorant labourer with the 
 sweat upon his brow per se more moral than the 
 educated gentleman the gentleman with scores of 
 generations of culture, the heritage of his ances 
 tors?" 
 
 " Mr. Carter, sir, far be it from me to argue with 
 you. Why should I, sir, when our views are har 
 monious? Why should I debate these matters with 
 any of you gentlemen, for you all agree with me? 
 You believe that it would be inexpedient to express 
 my views to the people as I have expressed them 
 to you. 
 
 " Sirs, you are wrong. Pardon me when I say 
 that my forty years of experience are worth quite 
 as much as your theories. Did you ever hear of a 
 sane man that was willing to be governed by his 
 inferiors? Did you ever hear of an inferior that 
 was willing to be governed by one of his own kind? 
 Do you think that Rice would vote for Stover the 
 smith, or that Stover would vote for Rice the shop 
 keeper? For forty years I have trusted the people 
 but in all that time they saw the whip that I held 
 in my good right hand. They will not tolerate that 
 low-born repudiator, Timothy Murphy, and his 
 kind. The people expect the whip of authority to 
 be applied vigorously to their bare backs; but, sirs,
 
 THE BETRAYAL 137 
 
 the time is not yet when the people wish to be 
 whipped by the people." 
 
 " I thought you said that you loved the people, 
 Colonel?" suggested Captain Lancaster. "Was 
 that merely a rhetorical period? You orators call it 
 a figure of speech, I believe. Anyhow, it has all of 
 the vigour of the business end of a mule." 
 
 " Lancaster, your jocularity is most unseemly. I 
 do love the people. Sir, metaphor finds no place 
 among my plain words. Like Marc Antony 
 
 " I am no orator, as Brutus is ; 
 
 But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man. 
 
 But here I am to speak what I do know. My love 
 for all Virginians, for all humanity, I may express 
 in my poor feeble words. I have passed the age, sir, 
 when I may be accused of demagogy, false pride, or 
 vain ambition." 
 
 "Hear, hear!" 
 
 Throughout his public service in war and in peace 
 Colonel Daingerfield had drawn no salary. 
 
 "And mark you, sirs, I governed the people. I 
 was their master, not their servant. A strange theory 
 that, promulgated to the world by the heroes to 
 whom I have referred: the servant is better fitted 
 than his master to make the laws that are necessary 
 to regulate society. Parson Jones tells us that the 
 uneducated are more moral than the educated and 
 better fitted for the responsibilities of government. 
 In the next breath he asks us to educate his plain 
 people." 
 
 " Government of the people by the people for 
 the people, shall not perish from the earth " the 
 captain quoted. " Do I understand, Colonel, that
 
 138 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 you agree with the views expressed by old Abe. I 
 haven t heard you comment on them, sir." 
 
 "Zounds, Lancaster! Is it necessary for me to 
 discourse on a proposition so preposterous? 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln: rail-splitter, shopkeeper, 
 farmer, jackleg lawyer, ne er-do-well. He first at 
 tracted the attention of a very plain western people 
 by his coarse witticisms or rather by the wit of 
 others, which he clothed in language more foul than 
 its creators had seen fit to use. This uncouth crea 
 ture did attract the attention of his kind after he 
 was well past middle life. He had failed in every 
 thing except coarseness. But, sirs, his coarseness was 
 a success among coarse peoples. 
 
 "This self-educated creature came into this 
 breathing world scarce half made up, and that so 
 lamely and unfashionable that dogs barked at him 
 as he halted by them. There are some that say 
 that he came into this world before his time, but I 
 am disposed to treat that as a myth. He was de 
 clared insane be it said greatly to the credit of 
 those very plain people. But he was good-hearted, 
 sirs; but not more so than my dog Bull Run. He 
 was as weak as he was good-hearted. Yes, I think 
 we may say that he was good-hearted and physically 
 brave. 
 
 " This Failure, having been selected out of twenty- 
 five million Yankees to conduct a great war, became 
 a murderer on a large scale. Every man that was 
 killed during the war after the first battle of Bull 
 Run was murdered by Lincoln and those who placed 
 him in power. He killed many Virginians he slaugh 
 tered half a million Federals; for this incompetent, 
 this associate of clowns, was unable to select proper
 
 THE BETRAYAL 139 
 
 officers to command his armies. Even the first bat 
 tle of Bull Run would not have been fought if a 
 peasant of ordinary intelligence had been president 
 of the confederation of our enemies. He permitted 
 a powerful government to be organised and power 
 ful armies to be formed and equipped while he tried 
 to learn the A B C of civil government and military 
 efficiency. While Mr. Davis selected the most com 
 petent among all Confederates to resist our invaders, 
 this man of the people appointed the commanders 
 of his armies by the eenie-meenie-miny-mo process. 
 
 " Sirs, Lincoln was a better rhetorician than Jef 
 ferson, but a greater fool. Even Jefferson knew 
 that there could be no such thing as government of 
 the people by the people for the people that men 
 do not govern themselves. I shall say little more 
 about honest old Abe. Not long ago he went to 
 join the angels. . . . Yes, yes; he was a kind- 
 hearted man. . . . Lancaster, some day you 
 ought to read the biographies of the men that 
 were called by the people to be their governors 
 rail-splitters, mule drivers, and cobblers. 
 
 " O ye misguided peoples, why will ye obey the 
 voice of demagogues ! Biut why reason with these 
 dumb driven cattle? The rod, sirs, was the sceptre 
 of God. It is for us to follow His example. He is 
 the Fountain of Wisdom. We learn from Him that 
 the master must rule and rule by force." 
 
 " Colonel," Dabney said, " I have listened to you 
 with close attention. I think that you are partly 
 right. However, you should not go before the 
 people now, for they are already inflamed by truth, 
 and you would repeat that truth bluntly, which 
 would be a great mistake. Yeomen and peasants
 
 140 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 who have loved you would tear you limb from limb 
 should you be so unwise as to address them as you 
 have just spoken to us. I went among them re 
 cently. As wild as fiends, all their unholy passions 
 let loose, they feel no restraint, and will tolerate 
 none. We must reason with them; for, as Judge 
 Braxton says, there are times when a father may not 
 whip his child. Sir, you must not punish these poor 
 children. You must treat them gently, soothing 
 them after the manner of a woman; then, after vic 
 tory is ours, w r e shall have four years in which to 
 reestablish the government of our fathers, and the 
 honour of Virginia will have been saved." 
 
 " I agree with Gary in these matters of policy," 
 Judge Braxton said. " Nevertheless, yeomen and 
 peasants must be forced to understand that Virginia 
 may not demand of her creditors that they shall 
 accept any terms that she may see fit to offer, other 
 wise that she will go into bankruptcy, then say like 
 all dishonest debtors, Give me time and I will pay. 
 Gentlemen, Virginia s debt must not be settled that 
 way. 
 
 " Nor must the payment of the debt fall unequally 
 upon the people. I advocate the principles of true 
 democracy, which place the burdens of government 
 upon those that are responsible to those that are 
 governed. Yeomen and peasants must be relieved 
 of taxation; and gentlemen, who hold the lands, 
 must ask no more of them than their faithful serv 
 ice in restoring the commonwealth to her for 
 mer productiveness. Gentlemen, we must pay the 
 debt." 
 
 After a while the conference ended. Colonel 
 Daingerfield, who would not recede an inch from
 
 THE BETRAYAL 141 
 
 his position, did not resist the temptation of deliver 
 ing himself of a paraphrase as a parting shot: 
 
 The people, may they ever be right; but when 
 they are wrong, chastise the people ! " 
 
 John Harrison had made a mistake. This he saw 
 as he again read Lelia Braxton s letter while return 
 ing to Warrenton early in the morning of the day 
 after he had seen General Murphy. How stupid he 
 had been ! He should have gone to her and told her 
 his plans in detail as soon as he had received her 
 letter. He would go to her late that afternoon, 
 immediately upon his arrival. 
 
 " Judge Braxton, I have called to see Miss Lelia." 
 
 " Well, John, you will find her in the garden in 
 the magnolia grove." 
 
 As John Harrison approached Lelia Braxton 
 arose and stood facing him, for she had heard his 
 footsteps. Her hand trembled, and her face was 
 pale as she clutched the wood of the old grapevine 
 swing. 
 
 "Good-morning, Mr. Harrison! I was reading 
 the book the book that you gave me. There is a 
 great deal in it that I do not understand, although 
 father says father says that that Tennyson s 
 thoughts are clothed in language so simple that a 
 child may understand them. I I 
 
 Her last words died away, for Harrison had taken 
 her hand. Never once had he withdrawn his gaze 
 from her eyes, the eyes that he thought so beautiful. 
 He did not seem to be aware that she was speaking; 
 she was never able to recall what she said. 
 
 " Lelia, twelve years ago it was in the spring-
 
 142 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 time, an April day I saw you through the mag 
 nolias as you sat in this old grapevine swing. You 
 were eight years old then and I was seventeen. I 
 had just returned from the Episcopal High School, 
 in Alexandria, for the holidays. You were the pret 
 tiest child that I had ever seen. You wore a white 
 dress and blue satin slippers; a blue sash was tied 
 about your waist; a bow of blue ribbon was in. your 
 hair. Mother likes me to wear blue, you said, 
 cause blue matches my beautiful eyes. . . . 
 Last spring, Lelia, just after your nineteenth birth 
 day, I saw you through the magnolias again you 
 were sitting in the old grapevine swing. The sun was 
 about to set, as now he is about to set in all his glory, 
 and some of his rays got tangled in your hair they 
 are there yet. Your hair always reminds me of sun 
 shine, Lelia, I never see the setting sun that I do not 
 think of your hair and see it as his last ray fell on 
 it that April day a year ago. . . . You were 
 dressed in white. Again you wore blue satin slip 
 pers and a blue belt, and a bow of blue ribbon was 
 fastened in some way a very pretty way in your 
 hair. I loved you. For a long time I had loved 
 you. I asked you to marry me as you sat there 
 in that old grapevine swing, marking the grass with 
 those blue satin slippers. Then you rose, Lelia, and 
 stood as you are standing now. Your face was pale 
 as it is now. Then the colour rushed to it in a 
 great crimson wave as it is rushing to it now. You 
 never answered me you never spoke a single word 
 but I knelt down at your feet as though you were 
 one of God s angels, and I kissed your trembling 
 hand I must have kissed it a hundred times and 
 and and then you were my affianced bride. . . .
 
 THE BETRAYAL 143 
 
 Springtime is here again, O my love; and as I came 
 I saw you through the magnolias, sitting in the old 
 grapevine swing, just as I have seen you every hour 
 since that evening a year ago when you entered my 
 life like the holy spirit of God. I am here again, 
 Lelia, here to claim the vows that you made to me 
 here to take you to be my wife." 
 
 John Harrison knelt down. There was that dig 
 nity in his posture which one sees in an old man as 
 he reverently kneels before his Maker. A single 
 tear fell on his strong hand as it tightly clasped 
 the soft hand of the woman that he loved. The 
 young man was thrilled. Were all the waters of 
 Jordan more sacred than that single tear? 
 
 "John I I I love you!" 
 
 "What is this thing, O my love, that comes be 
 tween your heart and mine? You say that I am 
 wrong; but you know that I think that I am right. 
 Dangers threaten Virginia s existence as a nation; 
 our civilisation is involved; our generation must 
 begin a desperate struggle for the very life of our 
 country. But the debt is a mere passing incident. 
 I believe that my plan provides a way for its settle 
 ment by which the creditors may receive all that 
 Virginia owes to them. By suspending payment for 
 ten years the people will be able to develop the nat 
 ural resources of our country, and the resulting in 
 crease in taxable properties will be great enough to 
 enable us to pay the creditors without seriously dis 
 turbing our financial condition. But my plan has a 
 broader purpose, broader than its humane features: 
 the people need rest. With rest will come restora 
 tion of government by the gentry. I believe that the 
 weapon that Virginia should use in her struggle to
 
 i 4 4 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 maintain her identity as a nation is a people such as 
 we have had for nearly three hundred years con 
 tented, each in his own sphere. These are affairs 
 of state, intricate, requiring the 1 closest attention of 
 students of economics and the united wisdom of all 
 that love Virginia, dear, not questions for a young 
 girl to answer. You would be the last to have me 
 debase myself to act contrary to my conscience. 
 My duty is to Virginia." 
 
 She listened intently while the young man ex 
 plained his plans in detail. Then, as she did not 
 speak when he paused, he continued: 
 
 " That evening a year ago when we plighted our 
 troth we became man and wife in our own hearts. 
 The marriage ceremony could not have made our 
 love more sacred nor our troth more binding than did 
 the vows that we made to each other. Suppose that 
 we had stood before God s altar and that you had 
 said to me, I, Lelia, take thee, John, to be my 
 wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day 
 forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, 
 in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to 
 obey, had you made those vows, Lelia, would you 
 now put asunder those whom God had joined to 
 gether? Would you permit any person or anything 
 to come between your love and mine? You might 
 have followed me to the door of some prison cell 
 and there have waited until I should be released, but 
 you would not have deserted me you would not 
 have deserted your husband. I ask you again, dear: 
 Had you made those vows, would you have been 
 more sacredly bound than you are by the promises 
 that you made to me during the year of our engage 
 ment? Are not the bonds that bind us as sacred in
 
 THE BETRAYAL 145 
 
 our eyes and God s as any vows that have been made 
 before His altar? Is the love-chain that binds us so 
 weak as to break under this strain? O my love, my 
 love, my love, that can not be I know, for I know 
 you, Lelia ! I know that you could not have made 
 those vows irreverently." 
 
 "Don t, John! Oh, don t, don t, don t!" 
 "Where lies your duty, O my heart? Is it here 
 with your husband your husband before God if not 
 before man; or is your duty to a rule of human con 
 duct a rule made by men, which must change to 
 meet the requirements of men? Laws were made 
 for mani, not man for laws. That nothing is wrong 
 in itself is elemental philosophy. A code of rules 
 that governs men in their relations to one another 
 has been evolved out of the experience of ages; but 
 those rules are not the laws of Medes and Persians. 
 They are not laws at all, but rules, which must vary 
 with changing conditions, and which must be adapted 
 to the needs of men." 
 
 "That may be elemental philosophy, John, I 
 don t know oh, I don t know ! I am not a philoso 
 pher. But I do know that it is wrong to steal. And I 
 know that God s commands are laws, not mere rules 
 of human conduct is that what you lawyers say, 
 John dear, rules of human conduct? I love you. 
 . . . I can never tell you how much I love you. . . . 
 I thought that I would always know the difference 
 between right and wrong. . . . But now I do not 
 know what to do. I wish to bear all your trials, 
 dear all, all, all ! and those that I am unable to 
 bear alone I want to share with you. . . . That is 
 my selfish wish. . . But there is something here, 
 John, deep, deep, down in my heart, which says No;
 
 146 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 which says that I must be true to something that 
 is even higher than you, John, to something that is 
 even higher than Virginia, which says that I must 
 be true to myself." 
 
 "But are you true to yourself, Lelia? Before 
 you answer, ask yourself if you would have kept 
 your marriage vows had you spoken them at the 
 altar." 
 
 " I have asked myself, John, oh, I have asked 
 myself that question every day, every hour, every 
 minute since you made that speech ten days ago 
 ten years ago ! Sometimes I think that I would 
 have returned to father and mother. Sometimes I 
 think that you never would have done this thing if 
 I had been your wife. Sometimes I think that I am 
 wrong oh, so wrong! . . . One night I went 
 down to father s room to ask him to send you a mes 
 sage. Then I crept back through the darkness, 
 back to my room." 
 
 " O my Lelia, my gentle Lelia ! And I may not 
 take this cup of sorrow from you ! " 
 
 And John Harrison knelt down and clasped the 
 hand of the woman that he loved, in a cruel grasp; 
 and this time Lelia Braxton knelt down too before 
 the God of her people. 
 
 " Almighty God, O Jesus O Christ, show me 
 the way!"
 
 CHAPTER FOUR 
 
 A THOUGH Captain James Spotswood 
 Temple had agreed to unite his fortunes 
 with those of the Readjusters, he had not 
 fully decided to do so at the end of his interview 
 with General Timothy Murphy. True, the lower 
 classes already had broken from the moorings that 
 for nearly three hundred years had bound them to 
 an inflexible social system, while the gentry as a 
 class had reached the last stage of senility, soon to 
 be followed by political and physical dissolution. 
 Before he went to Petersburg Temple had made up 
 his mind to leave the death-bed of the aristocracy. 
 
 But why a subordinate position in the new party? 
 Undoubtedly he could rapidly advance to its leader 
 ship, along the path of his native ability, winding 
 through a garden of unusual opportunity. But why 
 let others enjoy the benefits that should be reserved 
 for himself alone? His self-confidence, which had 
 never known bounds, was greatly strengthened by 
 the tonic good old Dr. Murphy had administered 
 to him. Yes, in the name of James Spotswood 
 Temple, he would seize the land of glory that was 
 stretched out before him. Many roads lead to 
 Rome. He would carefully select a road to the 
 realm of his fancy that he would not find too diffi 
 cult for him to travel. 
 
 His train reaching Richmond while he was in the 
 midst of these dreams, he decided to stay in that city 
 until he had definitely determined the course that he 
 
 147
 
 148 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 would take, then proceed to Warrenton and enter 
 enthusiastically into the thick of the fight. 
 
 Long were his thoughts and high his flights of 
 fancy. 
 
 " I could announce myself as an independent can 
 didate for the governship, build up a political or 
 ganisation of my own, the Progressive party, 1 
 oust Murphy the cur and Jones the hound, then 
 gather their sheep into my fold. At the same time I 
 could demand and would receive the support of Gary 
 Dabney and his Debtpayers, and the aid of that mis 
 guided youth, John Harrison, for the gentry would 
 trust the honour of Virginia to the safe-keeping of 
 General Temple s son. I could promise yeomen and 
 peasants relief from excessive taxation, education 
 for their children at the expense of the common 
 wealth, an opportunity to gain wealth, social posi 
 tion, and all things else their hearts desire; my 
 orators could go secretly among the negroes and tell 
 them that they would be rewarded with public office, 
 social equality, and free education for their children 
 by teachers of their own race. I would be elected 
 without much opposition." 
 
 A porter rapped, but Temple did not hear him. 
 
 "A high destiny controls the affairs of men. We 
 neither can bring about events nor prevent them 
 from happening. All things come about in logical 
 sequence; for while they appear to come haphazard, 
 they really reach us in emotional waves sometimes 
 after delay, the result of gradually accumulated 
 pent-up emotions. Lincoln did not free the slaves. 
 The ultimate fate of Bonaparte was written by 
 the gods in the sky. As circumstance is the great 
 est force that affects the destinies of men, no man
 
 THE BETRAYAL 149 
 
 can foresee the future. Even the Corsican could not 
 foresee his downfall. No man can predict with ac 
 curacy conditions that will exist a score of years 
 hence. One can not even tell the direction in which 
 a city will grow, unfortunately." 
 
 He could see no flaw in his plan; still, the situation 
 ought to be surveyed critically from every possible 
 angle. 
 
 " Yeomen and peasants prefer to be led by a 
 gentleman rather than by one of their kind, while 
 the contempt of negroes for po white trash is so 
 great that I would find it easy to kill any candidate 
 other than a gentleman that would be so unwise as to 
 bid for their votes. As Parson Jones claims that he 
 is the father of readjustment, naturally he hates Tim 
 Murphy for having stolen his baby; so I could 
 make those two old dogs fight each other. A split 
 in the Readjuster party would mean its annihilation. 
 Neither Murphy nor Jones would receive many 
 votes should each establish a party of his own, but 
 nearly all the Readjuster sheep would flock into my 
 barnyard. As between Murphy and Temple, Jones 
 would look to Temple for his reward; and as he 
 knows that he must render service before he receives 
 pay, he will deliver the Baptist cattle, who vote as a 
 unit, into the Temple pound. True, the general s 
 old soldiers must be considered; but no soldier ever 
 had any affection for Murphy, while they all loved 
 my sire. And I must not be so modest as to fail 
 to bear in mind my own military record, which was 
 good enough for a boy, for I fought like the devil, 
 and did not sheathe my sword until General Lee 
 had surrendered." 
 
 But his thoughts took higher flights. There were
 
 150 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 other countries that he could conquer. Besides, he 
 ought to be firmly established on his throne, for he 
 feared to enter his kingdom loaded down with the 
 sins of the heterogeneous mass that would constitute 
 his party. The empire was within his grasp. 
 
 " I shall keep the peace between the general and 
 the parson, then gain the friendship of the yeomen, 
 the peasants, and the negroes; bear the insults of the 
 gentry for a while; take my seat as governor; per 
 mit a bill to be introduced into the legislature to 
 repudiate the debt; secretly purchase the bonds 
 through my brokers in New York at ten cents on the 
 dollar while the bill is being debated; permit the 
 bill to pass; veto it; return it with a ringing message, 
 in which I shall say that the honour of Virginia must 
 be maintained; send a message to the legislature 
 advocating one of several of my plans, each of which 
 provides a settlement of the debt honourable to Vir 
 ginia and satisfactory to her creditors; and then 
 amid the applause of the whole people, including 
 leading Readjusters, who will have purchased bonds 
 at ten cents on the dollar I shall mount into the 
 national political heaven, wearing a halo of glory, 
 carefully fitted to my head. 
 
 " I shall be the most notable personage in Ameri 
 can political life. Then I shall have ample time in 
 which legally to disfranchise the negroes, and politi 
 cally kill Tim Murphy and Johnny Jones. I shall 
 use their dead selves as stepping-stones to higher 
 things while I am amalgamating all classes of white 
 voters into a- single unit. Then I shall go to the next 
 national Democratic convention with the solid south 
 united upon a single man Governor Temple. The 
 Democratic party will succeed in 1884. Wow-wow-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 151 
 
 wow, hurrah for President Temple I A clever plan 
 that by which I shall force Murphy, Jones, and all 
 other Repudiators to bear the odium of the sins com 
 mitted in the name of Readjusters. Another clever 
 idea that I shall use their dead selves as stepping- 
 stones to the presidency. Through those old rogues 
 I shall pass down into history as the most beloved 
 of all Virginia s governors and the most notable of 
 the presidents of the United States. I shall come 
 into the possession of great wealth, and last, but not 
 least, I shall wear a sparkling jewel Lelia Braxton, 
 my wife next to my heart." 
 
 He boarded a train for Warrentora. 
 
 "Lawd, Marse Jeemes! I sho am glad ter see 
 you back; but you done come in so sudden-like you 
 done skeered me." 
 
 "Any news, Bob?" 
 
 " I done hyah, Marse Jeemes, as how Mustah 
 Berkeley s gwine ter speechify bout lection roun 
 de Meth dis chu ch ter-morrow night. But Lawd, 
 Marse Jeemes, I s done tole you suppen I oughter 
 done kep ter mahse f. Fo de Lawd sake, don t tell; 
 cayse if you does, Mustah Berkeley done up an turn 
 me outen de chu ch." 
 
 " I shall not tell, Bob; but saddle my horse, for I 
 shall ride around to see Berkeley. I may be able to 
 render some assistance. You will attend the meet 
 ing, I suppose? " 
 
 " Fo de Lawd sake, Marse Jeemes, you ain 
 gwine speechify ter dem niggers, is you? I s jes 
 calkerlatin bout what ole marser d say." 
 
 Every atom a negro, Bob grinned with pleasure 
 as he administered this rebuke. In his master s
 
 152 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 familiarity with him and in his condescension to ad 
 dress a political meeting of negroes he saw the dawn 
 of the day of social equality. His words stung 
 Temple as though they were daggers thrust into 
 him. He realised that the fight already had begun, 
 with himself as his antagonist. 
 
 When he reached the parsonage, a mile distant 
 from the town, the voices that came from within 
 convinced him that a political conference was in 
 progress. A loud rap on the door brought forth 
 the Reverend Doctor Shadrach Meshech Abednego 
 Berkeley. 
 
 "Hit s Mistah Temple, am hit not?" 
 
 The reverend gentleman was somewhat alarmed. 
 He had expected to see a member of his fold. 
 
 "Come outside, Dr. Berkeley; I wish to confer 
 with you." 
 
 They withdrew to a tree near by, the man of God 
 bearing himself with great dignity the while. 
 
 " I have been told that you are to preside over an 
 important political meeting to-morrow night. You 
 probably have heard from General Murphy that I 
 am to take a leading part in this campaign, that I 
 have consented to be elected governor of Virginia, 
 and with his kind assistance and yours that I prob 
 ably shall be elected president of the United States. 
 You should introduce me to your audience to-mor 
 row night, whereupon I shall take great pleasure in 
 explaining to your people some plans for their wel 
 fare that were unfolded by General Murphy in my 
 recent interview with him. These I shall have the 
 honour to supplement with some views of my own 
 that relate to the social advancement of your gifted
 
 THE BETRAYAL 153 
 
 Equal to the occasion, Berkeley acknowledged 
 the graceful compliment in choice words. 
 
 " Deed, Mistah Temple, Fs corroborated to know 
 dat I ken pen upon er gemman ob yo quality ter 
 exuberate me in mah work. I wus discomfuddled 
 jes now ter see you at mah do ; but he sequence ob 
 de cays on mo dan jestifies de profusion I sper - 
 enced dat mebby you done obserbed de conbersation 
 dat wus under debilitation when you knocked on 
 mah do . Ef you ll do me de honour ter come in, I 
 shell tek pledger in mekin you quainted wid some 
 ob de mos perverted ob mah flock." 
 
 "I thank you, Doctor, I have not time now; but 
 with great pleasure I accept your kind invitation to 
 address the godly members of your church to-mor 
 row night." 
 
 " Dey ll be mos pow ful obliterated ter tek de 
 consequences ob bein out-lifted by de mighty power 
 ob sech er obtuse shep ud as yo se f. I ken capitu 
 late on yo bein in de pulpit, whar I s vited two 
 udder white politikers ter lection ter mah bred- 
 eren?" 
 
 " I shall be there, Doctor, I assure you. What 
 are the names of the two gentlemen to whom you 
 referred? " 
 
 " Mistah Roger Williams Stokes an* Mistah 
 Gawge Washin ton Laf ette Simpson. But, Mistah 
 Temple, I mus splain ter you dat some ob de ol est 
 brederen in mah suasion, dem dat used ter belong 
 ter de quality, don tek ter Mistah Stokes, but calls 
 him dat nasty tow-headed Yankee; an dey won 
 lis en ter Mistah Simpson neither, cayse dey low 
 as how he ain neber had no sperience wid quality. 
 Hit s hard ter mek statements outen dem highfer-
 
 154 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 lutin cullud pussons, who ain got no use fo spedi- 
 ency. Mah flock s quality, dey is. Dey jes sets dyah 
 an shakes dyah heads. But ef Guv ner Temple s 
 son d distraction em, dey d spicion nuttin , an set 
 up an say, A-man, O Lawd, A-man ! " 
 
 " I suggest that you extend an invitation to the 
 Reverend Doctor Williams, the Baptist clergyman, 
 and his flock, to attend our meeting." 
 
 " Dat s de way ter talk, Mistah Temple. De per- 
 gressive lines in de mixed semblage will be glad ter 
 culmonate yo quaintance an mitigate ter you outen 
 dyah feller-cit zenship in dyah homes an in de 
 chu ch; an don you fo git us when you s er-settin 
 up er-guv in ." 
 
 After shaking hands the two compatriots parted, 
 Temple riding rapidly home. 
 
 "The end justifies the means and none of my 
 old associates will know of these things," he said, 
 musingly. 
 
 Then he whipped his horse furiously, as though 
 he would fly from himself. 
 
 The next morning while on his way to his office, 
 Captain Temple stopped at the store of Mr. James 
 P. Rice, yeoman, ostensibly to purchase a pocket- 
 knife from the proprietor, that he might have the 
 benefit of that gentleman s knowledge of knives, but 
 really that he might discuss affairs political with the 
 merchant. Mr. Rice had stepped out; so Captain 
 Temple was about to continue his walk to his office 
 when he saw Miss Dorothea Annabel Rice, the 
 fourth and most beautiful of the Rice progeny, leav 
 ing her father s store. He hastened to help her to 
 mount her horse.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "When did you return, Miss Dorothea Anna 
 bel?" 
 
 That young lady recently had been graduated from 
 Mrs. Stuart s school, in Staunton, where she had 
 been a student for six years. She had not known 
 that Captain Temple was aware of her existence, 
 although doubtless he had seen her playing in the 
 streets of Warrenton when she was a child. 
 
 " I returned yesterday." 
 
 " Now that you are a young lady, please permit 
 me to call to see you. Your father, you know, was 
 my first client; and ever since the day that he first 
 entered my office my interest in the Rice family has 
 extended to every member of it. Now, may I add, 
 that interest is centred in your very beautiful self." 
 
 " Certainly, Captain Temple; I shall be very glad 
 to see you." 
 
 "This evening?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 How she trembled! Why? She never knew. 
 She did not resent Temple s words. He had been 
 sincere, she felt sure; besides, his society manners 
 were perfect, she could not doubt. 
 
 In thinking that Temple was sincere she was right 
 as well as wrong. 
 
 "A devilish beautiful creature, that young per 
 son," thought Temple, as he walked toward his 
 office. " Not like Lelia Braxton, yet as beautiful in 
 a way." 
 
 That he, a gentleman, would have any difficulty 
 in adding this young girl to his conquests he did not 
 for a moment doubt. He had merely to treat her 
 as an equal, compliment her unstintingly, and soon 
 she would be his slave.
 
 156 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "Well, all is fair in love and war; so, my pretty 
 little Dorothea Annabel, love me as much as you 
 please. With that sweet love I shall take into my 
 camp all the Rice relations that vote and all Jimmy s 
 other associates of the masculine gender. After all, 
 it is better to have loved and lost than never to have 
 loved at all. And so I shall explain, Dolly dear, in 
 the course of human events." 
 
 The Virginian merchant has always been ambi 
 tious to be a land owner. Mr. Rice was no excep 
 tion indeed, there has been no exception to " prove 
 the rule." He had been a clerk in Mr. Stott s store, 
 in Warrenton, from the time that he was thirteen 
 until he was twenty-four. Then he had purchased 
 the business of his employer for a small sum, mar 
 ried the daughter of Judge Braxton s overseer, and 
 had saved money and increased his business despite 
 the encumbrances that Mrs. Rice had yearly put 
 upon the establishment. She had presented him with 
 fourteen children in rapid succession. When Eu 
 genie Victoria Rice, his oldest daughter, had reached 
 the age of eighteen, a young lady, he gratified the 
 ambition that he and Mrs. Rice had cherished from 
 the day of their wedding and purchased a farm of 
 three hundred acres along the road between War 
 renton and the Fauquier White Sulphur Springs, 
 three miles beyond the Warrenton city limits. 
 
 That evening some of our gentle readers would 
 have said afternoon Captain Temple rode out to 
 the Rice plantation. The old mansion, which for 
 more than two hundred years had been the home of 
 a good old Virginian family, was painted white by 
 Mr. Rice after he had caused the moss to be scraped 
 from the brick walls, and now Captain Temple saw
 
 THE BETRAYAL 157 
 
 it gleaming through a vista of gigantic elms. He 
 observed that a roan horse was tied fast to the 
 Diana statue that Mr. Rice had placed as a hitching- 
 post at the right of the mansion, and that a white 
 horse was made fast to a statue of Mercury that 
 Mrs. Rice had placed at the left of the mansion as 
 a companion for his fair Diana. " Evidently the 
 Rice girls have other visitors," thought the captain. 
 
 He tied his horse to the limb of a tree; then 
 made his way to the front verandah. Flowers were 
 everywhere. Citronalis, in large pots, decorated the 
 ground, geraniums lined each side of the walk, the 
 wild rose climbed the trellis that partly enclosed 
 the verandah and everywhere Temple saw white 
 brick. He could not conceive that this was the place 
 where he had played and fought as a boy. 
 
 " Captain Temple Perfessor Simpson." 
 
 Thus Miss Phyllis Daphne Rice introduced the 
 two gentlemen after she had bowed awkwardly to 
 the latest visitor. As she had never met Captain 
 Temple, nor had he ever been to see any of the 
 ladies of the Rice family, she assumed that he had 
 called to see her father. 
 
 The captain s manner was cordial. Things were 
 coming his way indeed, he thought, for here was an 
 opportunity to observe one of the men that would 
 assist him in folding Shadrach s flock. 
 
 Professor Simpson arose to his great height, 
 nervously pulled at his heavy moustache, which 
 drooped under the burden of its own weight, and 
 stiffly bowed his head in response to the introduction, 
 his hands behind his back. 
 
 The uncomfortable Miss Phyllis Daphne was con 
 scious that Professor Simpson s clothes hung upon
 
 158 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 him ungracefully, and his general largeness seemed 
 unusually awkward to her. Heretofore she had re 
 garded him as a gentleman of exceptional grace and 
 culture a man among men, indeed, who towered 
 above the men of her acquaintance. 
 
 "Is Miss Dorothea Annabel at home?" 
 
 Captain Temple asked this question of Miss 
 Phyllis Daphne as though he had been accustomed 
 to call on her sister. 
 
 The fair Dorothea Annabel purposely had not 
 come down to welcome her guest. To do so she 
 thought would be unmaidenly; so she had watched 
 Captain Temple as he approached, then waited, 
 trembling the while, until she should hear the formal 
 announcement of his arrival. 
 
 Miss Phyllis Daphne went through the open door 
 that led from the verandah into the hall, proceeded 
 to the foot of the old mahogany stair, now painted 
 white, and raised her voice to a high pitch. 
 
 "Dorothea Annabel! Dorothea Annabel! 
 Dolly! O Dorothea Annabel!" 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " Company s come ! " 
 
 Miss Phyllis Daphne had not had the school ad 
 vantages of her younger sister. Unfortunately, her 
 rasping voice had carried farther than she had in 
 tended; and now the whole Rice tribe of males and 
 females under the age of fifteen came upon the ver 
 andah from every direction, their bare feet and legs 
 as well as their clothes stained with Fauquier county 
 soil. The children hurriedly arranged chairs in a 
 semi-circle facing the stranger, got into them, swung 
 their feet in pendulum movements, staring at him the 
 while, and merely winking their eyes as they would
 
 THE BETRAYAL 159 
 
 shut their mouths now and then with great gulps, 
 that they might relieve their tense muscles. They 
 did not speak to him. 
 
 While waiting for Miss Dorothea Annabel, who 
 did not appear for at least ten minutes after her sis 
 ter had called to her, Temple made use of his op 
 portunity and drew the professor out of the cold of 
 his reserve. 
 
 "I am glad to meet you, my dear Professor; 
 indeed, more so than I can say, for I have heard a 
 great deal about your excellent work as an educator. 
 The nigger parson, Shad, tells me that you and I 
 are running in the same political chase. I shall try 
 to help you tree a few coons to-night, when I shall 
 deliver an oration, which will be followed by your 
 voice thundering out the principles of democratic 
 government. Do you know, Professor, no sweeter 
 music falls upon the ears of a Virginian gentleman 
 than the voice of a dog that has just chased a coon 
 up a tree? " 
 
 Instantly the ice melted. The professor became 
 natural, even confidential. A great prize, he knew, 
 must have been offered Temple, or he would not 
 have entered the Readjuster party. 
 
 "What office will you run for, Captain?" 
 
 " I am not ambitious, Professor. Still, I have 
 promised Governor Murphy at a great sacrifice of 
 my personal interest to accept the nomination for 
 governor; and circumstances may oblige me for the 
 best interest of the party to represent Virginia in 
 the Senate, in Washington, while some of my friends 
 are urging me to go before the next national Demo 
 cratic convention as the choice of the solid south 
 for the presidency."
 
 160 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Captain Temple spoke in the tones of one confi 
 dent of his position, yet with the dignity of the gen 
 tleman that addresses his social equals, who has a 
 deep sense of the responsibility that they had obliged 
 him to assume. 
 
 Miss Dorothea Annabel appeared in time to hear 
 Captain Temple s modest words. 
 
 The captain bowed low over the hand of the 
 lovely Dorothea Annabel, who was dressed in her 
 prettiest gown a creation of her own. She was a 
 beautiful picture as she stood there in sweet con 
 fusion mingled with pride. Professor Simpson and 
 Miss Phyllis Daphne were not the only persons pres 
 ent that felt exultation. 
 
 "Shall we go for a walk about the grounds?" 
 
 Miss Dorothea accepted the captain s invitation. 
 
 " How lovely you are, Miss Dorothea Annabel ! 
 Is there any flower in this garden nearly so beautiful? 
 Are any of God s angels in heaven so fair, so grace 
 ful? Was ever a voice so musical as yours? now 
 soft as some organ whispering low tones of love, 
 now like the joyous laughter of the rippling brook, 
 now suggesting the music of the nymphs of the 
 forest. Your cheeks shame the wild rose that 
 nestles in your hair, and your white dress symbolises 
 your beautiful soul for it seems to be a part of 
 your own loveliness." 
 
 Never had Miss Dorothea Annabel heard such 
 words. Pausing by a rose-bush, in full bloom, 
 she had stood with her crimson face averted. Is 
 this a declaration of love, she asked herself, or do 
 all gentlemen speak in that way to ladies? That he 
 meant all that he had said she was sure. She would
 
 THE BETRAYAL 161 
 
 treat him playfully yes, that is what she should do. 
 So she broke off a rose and tossed it to him as she 
 led the way to one of the seats where they could be 
 concealed by heliotrope and citronalis. Temple 
 stuck the rose in the lapel of his coat, saying that 
 he would place it next to his heart. As he did so 
 loud laughter was heard coming through the parlour 
 window. 
 
 "Who besides Professor Simpson is here?" 
 
 There was a note of contempt in Miss Dorothea 
 Annabel s voice as she answered; but Temple invol 
 untarily looked pleased at least his pleasure seemed 
 to be involuntary. 
 
 "I just can not stand him! Eugenie Victoria 
 seems to like him, though." 
 
 She wished to be certain that Captain Temple 
 would not think that she took pleasure in the society 
 of men like Professor Simpson and Mr. Stokes. 
 
 As Captain Temple wished to take the full meas 
 ure of the two white men who in addition to himself 
 would address the negro voters that night, he re 
 luctantly suspended his flirtation. 
 
 " I should like to meet Mr. Stokes." 
 
 Miss Dorothea Annabel was surprised. 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " He has been a resident of Fauquier for many 
 years, and there are few men in this county that are 
 not known to me personally." 
 
 "Well, he is tall thin ugly uninteresting; 
 rolls his r s this way, r-r-r-r-r; says seen for saw 
 and is like all other Yankees." 
 
 " Colonel Daingerfield would have described him 
 as a naturalised carpet-bagger."
 
 162 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " He is naturalised at least he has bought the 
 little farm that used to belong to Mr. Sims. You 
 wouldn t care for him in the least, I m quite sure." 
 
 " But I do care for you," said Captain Temple, 
 resuming his flirtation. " I have lived but a few 
 hours, since ten this morning, to be exact, yet it 
 seems to me, Dorothea, that I have crowded the joy 
 of a long life into that short time. May I come to 
 see you, Dorothea, often?" 
 
 "As often as you please." 
 
 Miss Dorothea spoke banteringly, yet she was in 
 earnest. Yes, this gentleman knew the social way; 
 so she could follow his lead in polite usages. Be 
 sides, she was in love with him already. 
 
 "There is not a girl in all Virginia half so fair as 
 you, Dorothea, my beautiful little Dolly." 
 
 " Do you think that you ought to call me Doro 
 thea, Captain Temple?" 
 
 " I think of you as Dorothea. That is a very 
 beautiful name. Yes, I must call you Dorothea, 
 when we are alone, with Dolly for short, now and 
 then, even if that be just a wee bit naughty." 
 
 You society gentlemen always say such flattering 
 things. One never can tell just when to believe 
 you." 
 
 " I am in earnest deadly in earnest. But you are 
 something of a fraud, for you are not the unsophis 
 ticated country girl that you would have me believe. 
 Did you meet society men at Mrs. Stuart s? 
 
 "No, indeed I didn t! The teachers were very 
 strict everybody in Staunton knows how very, very 
 strict. But I ve visited my schoolmates in several 
 cities I have been out of Fauquier a time or 
 two."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 163 
 
 " Never shall Virginia permit her beautiful daugh 
 ters to leave her bosom to settle permanently else 
 where." 
 
 The blushes on Miss Dorothea s soft cheeks deep 
 ened. 
 
 " But she has so many beautiful daughters, Vir 
 ginia has; I think she can spare a few." 
 
 "Then you are engaged?" 
 
 " I didn t say so." 
 
 " But that is what you meant." 
 
 " No, I didn t honestly, Captain Temple. I 
 shall never be engaged." 
 
 Miss Eugenie Victoria Rice s voice now came 
 through the parlour window. 
 
 " Dorothea Annabel ! Dorothea Annabel! Ain t 
 you and your gent man friend comin in to get no 
 refreshments?" 
 
 "Come, Dolly; I am hungry." 
 
 When Miss Dorothea Annabel saw that the cap 
 tain had not been shocked by her sister s unconven 
 tional speech the reaction from shame made her 
 heart bound. 
 
 This was not the kind of girl whose feelings Cap 
 tain Temple would hurt, even for a moment. He 
 treated social blunders and errors in speech, when he 
 cared to do so, as though he had not noticed them, 
 or as permissible violations of a code foolishly 
 strict. 
 
 No sooner had Mrs. Rice heard that Captain 
 Temple had called to see her daughter than she 
 began preparations for afternoon tea. Her table 
 was soon loaded with fried chicken, cold ham, cold 
 mutton, chicken salad, sardines, beaten biscuits, but 
 ter in fancy individual prints, three kinds of cake,
 
 1 64 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 lemonade, and cherry bounce. No mean hostess 
 was Mrs. Rice. 
 
 Although the Rice dwelling was larger and more 
 expensively furnished than the home of any other 
 yeoman family in Fauquier county, it was no more 
 comfortable than the cabin of the humblest peasant 
 in Virginia nor nearly so comfortable; for the only 
 room in which any member of the family felt at 
 home was the kitchen. Mrs. Rice always shuddered 
 when she entered the parlour; but there she sat a 
 part of each day, a sacrifice laid on the altar of so 
 ciety the good martyr-mother that she was. Mrs. 
 Rice never knew why she shuddered; nor did she 
 know that she shuddered; nor do your narrators 
 know why she shuddered, for the parlour was full 
 of the Rice taste a new table was in the centre of 
 the room, a new huge family Bible was on the table, 
 and so was a new illustrated book written by a mis 
 sionary; a new square piano that no Rice could play 
 was in a corner of the room, and on one end of 
 the piano was a new vase filled with beautiful new 
 paper flowers, and on the other end was a new huge 
 leather-bound album full of family photographs; 
 gold tassels hung from the new green velvet lam 
 brequin that shrouded the mantel; new perfect wax 
 fruit under a new glass globe decorated one corner 
 of the mantel, and a new vase filled with golden 
 grass decorated the other end; a new crayon por 
 trait of Mr. James P. Rice, on a new oak easel, 
 draped with soft yellow silk, greeted every person 
 that entered the room, and never got done with 
 the hospitable greeting; ;* new couch and a great 
 many new chairs were upholstered in green plush 
 (a few new gold chairs were upholstered in red to
 
 THE BETRAYAL 165 
 
 add colour to the surroundings, chairs which were 
 not used for any other purpose) ; some of the many 
 new tidies were crocheted by Mrs. Rice herself, and 
 others were embroidered in colours by Miss Doro 
 thea Annabel a parlour that would have pleased 
 any Virginian yeoman. Yet Mrs. Rice unknowingly 
 shuddered whenever she entered the room, and, gen 
 tle reader, your narrators know not why. 
 
 Miss Dorothea Annabel and Captain Temple en 
 tered the parlour. There the captain was intro 
 duced to Miss Eugenie Victoria Rice and Mr. Roger 
 Williams Stokes. 
 
 Assuming an air of superiority, Mr. Stokes ac 
 knowledged the introduction by nodding his head, 
 for gentlemen of his type think that familiarity in 
 dicates gentle breeding. His face was the map of 
 New England. Like all Vermonters, his mouth 
 was the shape of a dollar mark. No Virginian has 
 ever observed the teeth of a New Englander man 
 or woman without wondering how long since those 
 teeth had tested the metal of some coin. Had he 
 lived in our time his voice, which had all the melody 
 of a nail in contact with a revolving saw, would have 
 been a symphony in the ears of Dr. er what-you- 
 may-call-him Dr. Freeman s wife, to whom the 
 Virginian s "drawl" is offensive. Mr. Stokes 
 was 
 
 Your pardon, gentle reader, for this interruption; 
 but the name of the leading " authoress " of New 
 England of our period, whenever mentioned, must 
 bring to your mind as it does to ours some of the 
 elements of the widely-advertised literature of her 
 geographical division of these states that are more 
 or less united.
 
 1 66 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Is chastity unknown in New England? No, say 
 Virginians, despite the writings of New England s 
 novelists and playwrights all New England s women 
 are not impure. Her books and plays are untrue 
 not her women. 
 
 Awake, ye sons and daughters of New England, 
 your literature is in danger! 
 
 Time was when your women were seduced by 
 men like the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and 
 the women that were seduced were of the Mistress 
 Hester Prynne kind. Now your women, seduced by 
 louts, behave like kitchen wenches. 
 
 Always chroniclers of illicit sexual dalliance, now 
 the New England novelist imitates Mrs. Freeman 
 instead of Hawthorne; and we are told that life in 
 New England is further reflected by " The Old 
 Homestead," "Way Down East," "Shore Acres," 
 and plays of that kind. 
 
 Your narrators, again thanking you for your in 
 dulgence, will return to Mr. Stokes. That shadow 
 of New England was short, thin, and red-headed; 
 his hair was cropped close, as though he wished to 
 suppress it; his face seemed to be tied into a knot, 
 the impression thus given doubtless arising from the 
 peculiar topography of New England; his collar had 
 immense dog-ears, and his cravat, store-made into 
 a bow, was a vivid green, blending beautifully with 
 the colour of his hair and face. Captain Temple 
 felt sure that Mr. Stokes was capable of all the 
 flexibility that the Readjustee party required of its 
 leaders, and marked him as a man to be cultivated. 
 
 Dr. Reginald Launcelot Rice, who recently had 
 returned from Princeton, where he had taken his 
 Ph. D., was now presented to the distinguished vis-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 167 
 
 itor. After shaking hands with the utmost hearti 
 ness and familiarity, the doctor placed his hand 
 affectionately on Temple s shoulder. The captain 
 observed that the young man s hair was carefully 
 parted in the middle, plastered down on each side, 
 and slightly pushed back from the forehead, the 
 style in which the gentlemen of Baltimore still wear 
 their hair. This indicated that Dr. Reginald 
 Launcelot to some extent had studied the Virginian 
 gentlemen, and Temple smiled as he thought of a 
 few remarks Colonel Daingerfield once made, and 
 wondered if by chance they had been repeated to 
 the young yeoman. The colonel had referred to 
 Dr. Smythe, Mr. Carter s rival. 
 
 "Zounds, man! " he had said, "that imitator does 
 not know enough to part his hair in the middle. The 
 balance of his body is parted that way; his face is 
 between his two ears; his nose is between his two 
 eyes; his body is located between his two arms; his 
 heart, if he has one, is on his left side, his gall, which 
 he has in abundance, is on his right side; but he must 
 part his hair just above his left ear, like all other 
 plebeians. Sirs, when our misguided country left her 
 dear old mother, our peasantry, to show their supe 
 riority to Englishmen and to all other peoples of 
 the earth, parted their hair on the side, and did 
 many other foolish things. No gentleman of any 
 land, except Yankeeland, parts his hair on the side." 
 
 Dr. Reginald Launcelot had ploughed the corn 
 fields of his father s new farm until five years be 
 fore, when he entered William and Mary, where 
 three years later he took his bachelor s degree. 
 Then he matriculated at the University of Virginia, 
 and at the end of one session was awarded the mas-
 
 1 68 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 ter s degree. He attended lectures at Princeton the 
 next scholastic year, then returned to Warrenton to 
 make his father s home his own, the degree of doc 
 tor of philosophy in his pocket. Dr. Reginald 
 Launcelot had taken five years to travel from the 
 corn-fields of Fauquier county all the way to Prince 
 ton, through the halls of that great institution, back 
 to his father s home. But he had taken refresh 
 ments along the road, had rested three months every 
 summer, had a month of holidays during each scho 
 lastic year, and had not laboured on Sundays. 
 
 Was Dr. Reginald Launcelot a youth of unusual 
 gifts that he should take three degrees, including the 
 highest degree that is awarded by Princeton, in five 
 years? No, gentle reader; other youths have sur 
 passed his record many times and oft in later years; 
 the voice of the people has been heard in the public 
 institutions of Virginia, and those of other nations 
 also, and the youths attending William and Mary, 
 the University of Virginia, and Princeton yearly are 
 becoming more and more scholarly. Your narrators 
 confidently expect the young man of the future to 
 take the degree of Ph. D. from Princeton, by way 
 of the nursery, by way of William and Mary, by 
 way of the University of Virginia, in a single scho 
 lastic year by proxy. Our expectations are based 
 on reason, as you may agree, when you examine the 
 record of one James S. Wilson, born November 12, 
 1880, in Surry county, Virginia. We will quote his 
 record as printed in the Bulletin of the College of 
 William and Mary, Vol. I, No. i, p. 13, as follows: 
 
 He [James S. Wilson] encered William and Mary Col 
 lege in 1901 and was graduated in 1904 with the degree of 
 Bachelor of Arts. In 1904 he attended the University of
 
 THE BETRAYAL 169 
 
 Virginia, and in one session was granted the Master s de 
 gree in the department [V] of History, English Language, 
 Literature and Philosophy. An equally remarkable record 
 was made the following session, 1905-06, at Princeton Uni 
 versity where he was granted his Ph.D., in the Department 
 [j/V] of English, Philosophy and History. The Board of 
 Visitors of William and Mary College, in June, 1906, 
 elected Dr. Wilson Assistant Professor in the department 
 of English and History. 
 
 Dr. Wilson, who is a young man of high char 
 acter, your narrators have been told, was educated 
 by " a young lady-teacher " until ten years of age, 
 when he went to the free school at Smithfield, in 
 the backwoods of Isle of Wight county. After de 
 ducting from each of the five years the summer va 
 cation of three months, Thanksgiving, Christmas, 
 Easter, and other holidays, amounting to a month, 
 and the Sundays of eight months, say thirty-two 
 Sundays, we find that Dr. Wilson travelled his royal 
 road in less than three years through William and 
 Mary, through the University of Virginia, through 
 Princeton. He is now a learned doctor of philos 
 ophy. 
 
 Dr. Reginald Launcelot Rice was drunk. He 
 had been drunk since the day that he was called 
 from the plough to take a high position in the new 
 aristocracy. A member of the Society of the Cin 
 cinnati, membership in which is the peasant s pat 
 ent to gentility, he had not yet decided upon a 
 career, but thought of the church, politics, or a col 
 lege professorship. He also thought of doing 
 nothing. 
 
 Having rung the dinner bell, Mrs. Rice, a peas 
 ant by birth, entered the parlour.
 
 170 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " I certainly feels highly honoured, Cap n Tem 
 ple, to make your distinguished acquaintance." 
 
 The honour, my dear Mrs. Rice, which is very 
 great, you have conferred upon me." 
 
 "Law, Cap n, but you du-u-u say sech beautiful 
 things ! Now you all come right into the dining- 
 room. There ain t much to eat, but maybe there ll 
 be enough to quench your hunger till supper- 
 time." 
 
 Professor George Washington Lafayette Simp 
 son awkwardly offered his arm to Mrs. Rice. They 
 led the way to the dining-room, followed by Mr. 
 Roger Williams Stokes and Miss Eugenie Victoria, 
 Dr. Reginald Launcelot and Miss Phyllis Daphne, 
 Captain James Spotswood Temple and Miss Doro 
 thea Annabel, and the ten younger Rices, who, hav 
 ing been drilled to the stair-step movement, entered 
 the dining-room in Indian file. Taking her place 
 at the head of the table, which was formally set, 
 Mrs. Rice looked inquiringly at Miss Dorothea 
 Annabel, then hesitatingly toward the guest of 
 honour. 
 
 " Cap n Temple, won t you be so kind an obligin 
 as to ask a blessin ?" 
 
 " O Lord er er O Lord er er we beseech 
 Thee make us truly thankful for what we are 
 about to receive in the name of Jesus Christ our 
 Lord, Amen ! " 
 
 Poor Miss Dorothea Annabel ! But the captain 
 had been equal to the occasion. His reverential 
 manner made her believe that it was customary in 
 fashionable society to thank the Lord for afternoon 
 teas. (Your narrators feel sure that they never 
 have been thankful for them.) She felt unworthy
 
 THE BETRAYAL 171 
 
 of this noble man, who evidently took God with 
 him in his daily life. 
 
 Captain Temple, who had dined quite heartily at 
 two, was prepared to make a politician s sacrifice. 
 He ate a piece of chicken; a slice of ham; a slice 
 of mutton; a large helping of chicken salad; passed 
 back for another piece of ham; ate three biscuits; 
 praised the butter; said that he had never tasted 
 pickles nearly so good, and refused the sardines 
 merely because they had not been prepared by Mrs. 
 Rice s own hands. 
 
 " Really, Mrs. Rice, are you in earnest when you 
 say that this is not Smithfield ham, but one of your 
 own curing? " 
 
 " Law, Cap n, Smithfield hams ain t nothin to 
 my hams. I never thought nothin of Smithfield 
 hams nohow." 
 
 " Indeed you are right, Mrs. Rice; at least I have 
 never tasted a Smithfield ham nearly so good as 
 yours. Now you will not mind if I take still an 
 other little piece, will you?" 
 
 No sacrifice had been too great for Mrs. Rice to 
 make for her children. She had become a member 
 of every patriotic society that Warrenton women 
 had organised since the war, in the hope of improv 
 ing the social standing of her sons and daughters 
 and herself. Indeed, did a Virginian woman evefr 
 enter a patriotic society who did not do so to reap 
 thereby social advantages for herself or her family? 
 This excellent lady like those that followed her, 
 who formed the association known as the Daughters 
 of the American Revolution did not know that she 
 announced her plebeian origin when she submitted 
 proof to show her qualifications to belong to a so-
 
 172 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 ciety composed of the descendants of those that 
 fought for the independence of the American col 
 onies. She did not know that the gentry of Vir 
 ginia, with a few exceptions, had been faithful to the 
 crown. She decorated her stationery with the em 
 blem of one of the societies of the daughters of 
 Virginian overseers, then wrote many letters to her 
 acquaintances and friends, thus parading her social 
 importance. 
 
 The patriotic societies that followed the period 
 in which Mrs. Rice lived were formed and main 
 tained solely for the purpose of publishing the so 
 cial aspirations of parvenus. But cattle are regis 
 tered, so why not register the men and women that 
 are descended from Revolutionary peasants? Many 
 of them now form what is known by a few Virgin 
 ians as the Revolutionary aristocracy those persons 
 who were not aristocrats before the first war with 
 Great Britain. Let them be registered. 
 
 " Maw, er mother, why in the devil do you 
 keep on havin cherry bounce an lemonade stead of 
 wine?" 
 
 " Now, son, you know I don t believe in no drink 
 able s except the kind ladies drink. You know, 
 Cap n, I goes around to social functions of patri 
 otic s cieties of afternoons, an I don t see nobody 
 takin nothin stronger than tea an lemonade an 
 the likes. Now, son, you stop your teasin . The 
 doctor never took a drink in all his life, Cap n, my 
 son never did; now did you, son?" 
 
 "Well, I should say so, maw er mother! You 
 don t think so of course not, certainly not! But 
 let me tell you, old lady, the first thing I learnt at 
 William an Mary was to carry a pint of corn a
 
 THE BETRAYAL 173 
 
 day, an I learnt how to double that dose at the 
 University. But when I got to Princeton I had to 
 forget the corn part of my eddication an learn 
 how to take up an put down five Manhattan cock 
 tails, one bottle of Krug, six Martinis, an three 
 glasses of Chartreuse every day, then put on a 
 nightcap made of brandy. No, indeed, I don t take 
 nothin ! " 
 
 "Why, you Reg nal La nc lot Rice! Ain t you 
 ashamed of yourself, standin up there an havin 
 Cap n Temple hear sech carryin -ons ! An he s a 
 doctor, too, if he ain t mended no bones an pulled 
 no teeth ! You knows you never took no glass in 
 all your life I " 
 
 " Now, now, Mrs. Rice, boys will be boys ! As 
 a young man I never took anything, nor do I touch 
 a drop now; but I can understand how all young 
 men like to taste a little innocent wickedness now 
 and then. The doctor is a boy after my own heart, 
 a fine young fellow, who will steady down. Some 
 fine day he will take his father s place in the Senate." 
 
 " Aw, cut out that pink punk, won t you now ! " 
 
 But the captain s kind words had relieved the 
 tension. Evidently this Virginian of the aristocracy 
 thought that Dr. Reginald Launcelot should be ex 
 cused for appearing drunk at his mother s im 
 promptu social function. 
 
 The afternoon din tea proceeded merrily, but 
 was soon interrupted by Mr. James P. Rice, who 
 had canvassed Fauquier in the interest of his can 
 didacy all the morning. Several persons had ad 
 dressed him as Senator Rice, pleasantly anticipating 
 his election, hence the self-nominated candidate was 
 unusually buoyant.
 
 174 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 He greeted his guests with great warmth. Like 
 all Virginians of his period, from the humblest to 
 the most exalted in station, he shook hands heartily 
 with each. One insulted the Virginian when he 
 did not take his or her hand when introduced. 
 
 The pleasure that Mr. Rice took in entertaining 
 was real. In this he was like all Virginians of 
 his time, for there was no affectation in the Vir 
 ginian s hospitality. Nor was that hospitality within 
 bounds. 
 
 " Pleased to see you all." Then, turning to Tem 
 ple, he asked: "Have you been here long? Have 
 I kept you waitin ? " 
 
 " I have been very pleasantly entertained, I assure 
 you, Senator. If I am ever so fortunate as to find 
 some girl willing to marry me, I hope that she will 
 take into my home all the grace and charm of the 
 lady who presides at your table, and will know how 
 to prepare such excellent dishes as these." 
 
 "How s farmin , Mr. Stokes?" inquired Mr. 
 Rice, not neglecting his other guests in his elation. 
 
 " Fine as silk. But I don t see why you people 
 daown her-r-re don t have better-r-r roads. I 
 never-r-r seen sich roads nowher-r-res ! " 
 
 u If you don t like our roads, Mr. Stokes, you d 
 better go back to where you come from," Miss Eu 
 genie Victoria said good-naturedly, although she 
 managed to convey to Mr. Stokes the idea that she 
 was tired of hearing his complaints. 
 
 " I low as I shell git to go back hum some time 
 or-r-r ruther." 
 
 This pleasantry was overlooked by Mr. Rice, 
 who now turned to Simpson. 
 
 "An* how are you, Perfessor?"
 
 THE BETRAYAL 175 
 
 " Pretty well, pretty well, thank you." 
 
 Whereupon the professor nervously gulped down 
 a glass of lemonade. He desired the friendship of 
 every member of the Rice family; for although his 
 addresses to Miss Phyllis Daphne had been long and 
 unsuccessful, still he hoped that the day would come 
 when he would call socially on Mr. Rice alone. 
 
 After tea everybody went on the verandah, except 
 Dr. Reginald Launcelot, who went to his room, 
 first having told his mother derisively that her 
 cherry bounce had made him sleepy. 
 
 Professor Simpson soon pulled from his pocket a 
 small album, then turned its pages slowly. He was 
 preoccupied, solving some intricate problem in 
 mathematics, no doubt. 
 
 "What s you got, Perfessor?" 
 
 "Why, Mrs. Rice; you startled me! This is an 
 album that contains a few portraits of scientific 
 men. Do you care to examine its contents?" 
 
 " Newton Darwin Herschel Huxley Simpson 
 why, Perfessor! what in the world is your like 
 ness doin in here? " 
 
 " Why, mummer," said Miss Phyllis Daphne, as 
 she covered her admirer s confusion, " Perfessor 
 Simpson s writin a book about the fourth de-men- 
 sion, an says as how them big bugs that s got their 
 names in there never knowed nothin about no fourth 
 
 While the album was passed about Miss Doro 
 thea Annabel spoke to Captain Temple in an under 
 tone. 
 
 The Professor says that he s a literary immortal 
 as well as a genius in mathematics. I never could see 
 what Phyllis Daphne found in him to admire. Oh,
 
 176 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 I m so tired of all this, Captain Temple, these dull 
 people, with their trying manners, their crude ideas, 
 and their awful vulgarity ! It seems so easy for a 
 man to be a gentleman and for a woman to be a 
 lady." 
 
 " I would not mind if I were you, Dorothea 
 Dorothea Annabel Dolly Dorothea. How beau 
 tiful is your beautiful name! My harsh voice is al 
 most musical when I say Dorothea Annabel Dor- 
 o-the-a Annabel." 
 
 "H-u-s-h!" 
 
 " Why don t you folks daown her-r-re pull that 
 ther-r-re vine often the side o the house?" asked 
 Mr. Roger Williams Stokes, who was not interested 
 in affairs literary and scientific. 
 
 " If company don t like the way things is fixed, 
 they can mighty easy find the big road it s plain 
 enough for anybody to see, the Lawd knows ! " 
 
 " Didn t mean no har-r-rm." 
 
 Miss Eugenie Victoria s voice was sharp and 
 clear enough to subdue her ardent admirer. 
 
 " Senator, what do you think of the political sit 
 uation?" 
 
 " Dunno, Cap n; dunno. I follow Parson Jones 
 without askin no questions, because he s a Baptist 
 preacher. Young Debtpayers like you don t know 
 what it is to have to dig taxes outen the ground." 
 
 Mr. Rice had not referred to his career as a 
 merchant since he had become a land owner. 
 
 "Why, dad," Miss Dorothea Annabel said, 
 " Captain Temple is not a Debtpayer he has 
 promised General Murphy to run for governor, and 
 he is likely to be the first Readjuster president of 
 the United States."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 177 
 
 " Yes, indeed, James P., Dorothea Annabel s 
 speakin the truth." 
 
 "You don t mean it, maw! Well, I do declare! 
 I certainly am glad, though, Cap n, I certainly am. 
 I voted for your father many a time, an I certainly 
 is goin to have a great deal of pleasure in votin 
 for you." 
 
 " I thank you. If I can serve the people with as 
 much ability as my father served them, I shall feel 
 justified in neglecting my law practice and entering 
 the public service of my fellow-countrymen. His 
 popularity has always been a source of deep grati 
 fication to me." 
 
 " Politics is a better-r-r payin business than law 
 leastwise it pays better-r-r in Vermont, wher-r-re 
 I comes from. But law comes in mighty handy 
 with politerkers, an that ain t no lie." 
 
 "I am mighty glad Mr. Harrison s with us too; 
 mighty glad, I can tell you," said Mr. Rice. " His 
 speech the other day made a heap of farmers see 
 what I ve been tellin them all along what s the 
 use of scufflin and scufflin jest to see the fruit of 
 your labour sent to pay off an old debt as is owed 
 to a lot of English as wouldn t help us in the war 
 an a lot of Yankees as fit an then robbed us. The 
 United States gov ment destroyed our property 
 now, I says, let the United States gov ment pay our 
 debts. Mr. Harrison s wrong when he says as how 
 the debt oughter to be paid when we re able to pay 
 it. I believe in this here thing called forc ble read 
 justment. I am mindin , though, as what he s sayin 
 about a satisfactory settlement with the creditors is 
 gettin a lot of them as stickles that folks oughter 
 pay their honest debts. I pays my own debts in
 
 178 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 time an that s all any man oughter be asked to 
 do." 
 
 " If he does that, he does better n most folks do 
 leastwise up to hum no man s layin wake o 
 nights worryin bout debts leastwise unless it s 
 the man that ain t able to git debts paid to 
 him." 
 
 " I shall probably see you again, Mr. Stokes 
 at nine to-night," said the captain, as he looked sig 
 nificantly at the New Englander. 
 
 " Al-r-r-right." 
 
 The conversation was not particularly interesting 
 to the young ladies; the ten little Rices were impa 
 tient; little Stonewall Jackson had just tickled little 
 Violet Rosemary s foot, and Turner Ashby fre 
 quently had requested his mother to make Timothy 
 Murphy be-have. 
 
 Seeing that the time for his departure kid come, 
 Captain Temple took his leave with elaborate grace. 
 He was so courteous and graceful, so long in taking 
 his leave, that all felt thrilled. 
 
 Mrs. Rice urged Temple to call again. 
 
 " Now dn-u-u, Cap n, now as you have found 
 your way out to our estate, come around real offen; 
 now du-u-u." 
 
 Mr. Rice added a few words to the invitation 
 that his spouse had extended. 
 
 " I certainly was mighty pleased, Cap n, when I 
 found you d come around to pay us a s ciety visit. 
 I hope you ll come just as offen as you can. Be 
 shore to now don t forget." 
 
 Miss Dorothea was the last to whom he said 
 good-bye, although the entire Rice tribe and the vis 
 itors accompanied him as far as the steps of the
 
 THE BETRAYAL 179 
 
 verandah. In parting he neither pressed her hand 
 nor showed by his eyes that he loved her. 
 
 At two o clock the next morning, as Dorothea 
 Annabel went over the events of the day for the 
 fiftieth time, she decided that she admired the cap 
 tain s self-restraint, as shown by his leave-taking, 
 more than any of his other qualities. She had never 
 known any other person that she had considered so 
 fine he was even more than fine, for was he not 
 a gentleman of extraordinary nobility? She had 
 never known any other person that she had consid 
 ered a gentleman, or even a man except her father, 
 who was a man if not a gentleman. She wondered 
 if the creatures with whom she had associated, who 
 had dressed in a way somewhat to resemble Captain 
 Temple, belonged to any sex. 
 
 " I ve allers told you, maw, as our gyurls would 
 do well if they d jest be perticular about their com 
 pany. Now, there s no nicer gent man nowheres 
 than Cap n Temple." 
 
 "An he did seem downright pleased with our 
 Dorothea Annabel too. I do wish them other 
 gyurls had Dorothea Annabel s style about them." 
 
 " I don t think much of their beaux. They ain t 
 much account when you sets em up alongside a man 
 like Cap n Temple." 
 
 Mr. Rice felt that he was on familiar terms with 
 the gentleman that he so greatly admired. The 
 acquaintance had soon ripened into a close friend 
 ship. 
 
 " I think Stokes is real pleasant now, James P. 
 His manners ain t so finished as Cap n Temple s, of 
 course. . . . You oughter be perticular, James
 
 180 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 P., about how you talk bcfo him. You warn t over 
 an above perlite." 
 
 " I don t think much of no Vermont Yankee, I 
 don t, even if he has bought a nice little place outen 
 his carpetbagger money. As to Simpson, I down 
 right draw the line there. Not an acre of land to 
 his name an he warn t nothin but an ord nary 
 dark in a store till he come fifteen year. Not an 
 acre of land to his name an him three months 
 outen each year without no work. Means he d 
 want to hang around here all summer. I ve told 
 them gyurls straight up an down as how they must 
 marry out when they marry. I can t have no mar- 
 ryin in." 
 
 " You du-ii-u make sech coarse speeches, James 
 P. There ain t no man as wants to set on you as 
 I knows of. You re enough to keep your gytirls 
 from marryin at all." 
 
 Mrs. Rice got into bed. 
 
 As Captain Temple went on his way his thoughts 
 were with him. 
 
 " A pretty girl, Dorothea, Dorothea Annabel, 
 as she seems to be called, and a very nice girl. 
 You will not marry, Dolly., Too good for the 
 Simpsons and the Stokeses, and not good enough 
 for me. You will never be able to swim the gulf 
 that separates the Rices and the Simpsons from the 
 Temples and the Braxtons. You should go abroad 
 to the north of us. Many of your class do, then 
 prate of F. F. V. s and then persuade northern 
 gemmen as how they are Virginny ladies. 
 
 "Love, love, love! A fool is the man that per 
 mits himself to love a woman before he is married
 
 THE BETRAYAL 181 
 
 to her, and then he should not love her so much as 
 to be unwilling to marry again when she dies. I 
 love you, Lelia Braxton, I think, I love you be 
 cause you are beautiful, proud, gentle, faithful to 
 your ideals and for a thousand other reasons. 
 You shall be Mrs. James Spotswood Temple. And 
 Dorothea Annabel? . . . Well, little Dolly, at 
 least I shall teach you love. Your life shall not 
 be utterly barren, dear. . . . And I shall love 
 you, Dolly, a great deal yes, a very great deal. 
 But I shall love Lelia at the same time and maybe 
 I shall love Lelia a great deal more." 
 
 Several miles beyond the Rice farm, along the 
 road between Warrenton and Fauquier White Sul 
 phur Springs, was located the shop of one Andy 
 Stover, a blacksmith, who was influential politically 
 in his neighbourhood. The shop was a favourite 
 rendezvous of all sorts and conditions of the Fau 
 quier country folk, and those good people used to 
 gather there to discuss their cabbages and kings. 
 Occasionally a gentleman would draw his horse up 
 near the door and while away half an hour with 
 the sturdy smith, but would never enter the shop. 
 
 After taking his leave of the Rice family Captain 
 Temple rode out to the smith s shop. Stover, in his 
 shirt sleeves and apron, having finished his day s 
 work, sat with his chair propped against the outer 
 wall of the small brick building, smoking his 
 pipe. 
 
 " Good evening, Andy." 
 
 " Evenin , Cap n. Fraid you re too late to git 
 yer work done ter-day, suh." 
 
 " I have no work for you this evening, Andy. I
 
 182 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 merely stopped to exchange a few words with my 
 old friend." 
 
 " Git right down an tek er cheer." 
 
 "No, I thank you; I can stay only a few minutes. 
 You country folk always keep better posted on pol 
 itics than those that live in cities. How are the 
 Readjusters out here thickening?" 
 
 "Dunno, Cap n; it s hard ter tell." 
 
 Mr. Stover, not having heard of the change in 
 Captain Temple s political faith, decided to be non 
 committal. 
 
 " I hope there is no danger that the payment of 
 the funds appropriated for free schools will be dis 
 continued." 
 
 Thar ain t no tellin what you Funders ll do wid 
 them funds. My nevvy, Gawge Simpson, Per- 
 fessor Gawge Washin ton Laf ette Simpson, out ter 
 Laurel Hill, yer knows, say ef you Debtpayers 
 ain t stopped thar ll be no schoolin fer po folks. 
 He says as how all the money goes ter keep up 
 the gov ment an ter them thar bon hol ers; an he 
 say as how them thar cw^-pons that ain t wuth er 
 cent is all the schools git." 
 
 " Andy, our children must not be brought up in 
 ignorance. They have little enough, God knows. 
 The state owes a high duty to every one of her 
 people a duty higher than that which she owes to 
 Yankees and English bondholders." 
 
 Captain Temple paused, then continued in an out 
 burst of confidence. 
 
 "/ am a Readjuster!" 
 
 " Praise God, Cap n ! Praise God ! I ain t never 
 hearn no sech good news befo I cert n y never 
 hev. Do yer mean it, suh? "
 
 THE BETRAYAL 183 
 
 "Yes, I mean to say that I am a Readjuster 
 with all my heart and soul a Readjuster. We must 
 act together, Andy, you and I, and see that a large 
 Readjuster vote is polled next fall. If the Debt- 
 payers succeed in this election, the free schools will 
 be abolished, taxes will be increased until even your 
 business will be taken from you, and I shall not be 
 surprised if the churches are closed, the salaries of 
 the preachers sent to the state treasury, and our 
 children look straight through the gates of hell. 
 Every man that travels this road that stops to talk 
 with you must be urged to vote for our party 
 every man that wishes to live to praise God and 
 to enjoy the benefits of His hands." 
 
 " I shore am doin all I ken. An lemme tell this 
 yer so nobody s goin ter hear: Gawge Simpson 
 Perfessor Gawge Washin ton Laf ette Simpson, am 
 what I means air workin hard makin speeches 
 night an day ter black an white. Gawge what 
 am ter say Perfessor Gawge Washin ton Laf ette 
 Simpson, that s ter Laurel Hill he s got me beat 
 like er anvil bout eddication, but I ken holler, an 
 I is er-hollerin , I jes ken tell yer. Every man 
 round yere, black an white, air up agin them Debt- 
 payers. Gawge what am the perfessor says as 
 how free schools hev already been shet down over 
 ter Laurel Hill, cayse school taxes wus paid in cue- 
 pons stedder money, an he lows, he do, as how 
 the farmers air bein taxed so 1 as they ain t got 
 nothin cept thar debts left." 
 
 The people should be informed thoroughly 
 informed as to the true state of affairs without 
 delay." 
 
 "They s bein tole right nough. We s gittin up
 
 1 84 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 er bar-be-cue now. Thar s no way ter git out votes 
 like er bar-be-cue. When evvybody s het up wid 
 liquor their feelin s ken be worked on by them as 
 has gifts o language. It d be heap o he p ef you d 
 jine us ter that thar bar-be-cue." 
 
 "How could I help, Andy?" 
 
 " By makin er speech one of them thar workin - 
 up speeches that ll make every man wonder why he s 
 sech er fool bout neglec in his intrus . Evvy cent 
 counts, Cap n, in gittin up er bar-be-cue. Them 
 things cost, too, cayse thar s bread an meat an 
 liquor an allers them comes high. Parson Jones, 
 he done sent us er scription, but said as how none 
 o his n wus ter go fer rum. Thar warn t nough fer 
 rum in that thar subscription nohow." 
 
 " Well, this is for whiskey, remember, and 
 should be enough to supply a quart to every man." 
 Thankee, Cap n; thankee kindly, suh. I ll see 
 as how evvy cent goes fer liquor. Parson Jones ll 
 be yere nex cote-day, an he ll bring out evvy Bap 
 tist in the county. Howsomever, bein a Meth dis , 
 I don t xactly like ter hear er preacher talkin pol 
 itics." 
 
 " He is a good talker, Andy. You should bring 
 the Methodists out to hear him. He will not argue 
 baptism this time. Andy, there is a duty that you 
 owe to your God and to your neighbour. That 
 duty is this: do all in your power to hasten the com 
 ing of God s kingdom on earth by electing our party 
 next fall." 
 
 Mr. Stover s sense of his importance in the com 
 munity, greatly increased because of his intimate 
 relations with the leaders of his party, now made
 
 THE BETRAYAL 185 
 
 him turn toward Captain Temple with an outburst 
 of confidence. 
 
 " Gen l Murphy am er hard man, Cap n; er hard 
 man, suh. I fit under him, I did. He am er hard 
 man, suh. His hard-headedness kilt us most as 
 much as it kilt the Yankees. Yer ought ter be the 
 man fer us to git out fer gov nor. Thar ain t no 
 man as warn t proud of ole Gen l Temple. He 
 war er great man, Cap n; er great man, suh. You re 
 the man, suh." 
 
 " I teks specious pledjer in pernouncerin ter you, 
 Miss Berkeley, dat Mistah James Spotswood Tem 
 ple will fill de cheer ob honour ter-night. Fs Vited 
 de mos sumptuous ob my quaintances ter de fes- 
 tibal ter celebrate de duplicity ob de party de 
 party dat s er-gwine ter gib ebry man rights dat s 
 his n, de party ob ^-qual-et-te." 
 
 " Nigger, why don you quit dem highferlutin 
 airs roun me. I knows you, Mister Berkeley, I 
 knows you. Jes shet dat black mouf ob yourn an 
 kep it shet, an talk words dat you an me knows 
 when you hangs roun dis hyar house. I s tired ob 
 yo foolishness; an ef you don quit, I s gwine try 
 de shevel as er weepon." 
 
 " Malindy, hit s jes sech niggers as you as keeps 
 de race down. Come from yo po -white-trash 
 raisin . An I could er-married Mistah Dainger- 
 field s Sary, dat was ole Miss Daingerfield s own 
 maid, an as fine er-lookin yaller gal as I eber 
 seen, stedder takin a pot-black nigger lek you. 
 Don know what mek me sech er fool." 
 
 Mrs. Berkeley took the shovel.
 
 1 86 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "Wish you had wish ter Gawd you had, you 
 nasty low-down, low-flung, turkey-buzzard, you ! " 
 
 The reverend doctor rapidly withdrew, his irate 
 spouse following him to the door, which received 
 the full force of the shovel that she aimed at the 
 vanishing form of her lord and master. 
 
 In the early morning the day after the Berkeley 
 festival, where words and social equality were food 
 and wine, all Fauquier county knew that the late 
 Governor Alexander Spotswood Temple s son had 
 addressed a meeting of negroes, that he had been 
 introduced to a negro audience by a negro, that he 
 had treated negroes as if they were socially his 
 equals, that he had called them brothers, and that 
 he had accepted an invitation to dine with Shad and 
 his wife. The ominous or joyous news seemed 
 to have been scattered broadcast by the soft breezes 
 that usher in May days in Virginia, so rapidly had 
 it travelled. 
 
 Not all the negroes were elated. Many of them 
 were shocked beyond measure among them Wil 
 liam, Judge Braxton s butler, and Jake, Mr. Harri 
 son s man, who met in front of the great gates of 
 Morven soon after sunrise. 
 
 " Don you pen on nuttin tall he say, Br er 
 Inglewood. I don set no sto by dese yere turn- 
 coaches nohow. Mistah Temple done tu n ergin 
 his own? What fo ? Fo suppen , shorely; an 
 tain fo nuttin done fo you dn me. Ef he gwine 
 et wid Shad, he ain gwine et wid Marse Ingram 
 not ef I s gwine wait de table." 
 
 " Dat s so, Br er Morven; now you is jes talkin . 
 I ain fo git nohow as how Mistah Jeemes done
 
 THE BETRAYAL 187 
 
 cheat Jinny outen de money he done git fo her HT 
 piece ob Ian . Ef white folks steal, dey mos gen al 
 calls it kleppin ; ef nigger steal, dey done call it 
 roguin ; but Mistah Temple he done mek er new 
 name Mistah Temple he done call it his law er s 
 fee." 
 
 The indignation of the gentry when they heard 
 of Temple s conduct could hardly be termed anger, 
 for the news was far too serious for mere wrath. 
 Now, as never before, they had a realising sense of 
 the great danger in which all Virginia s institutions 
 were placed. 
 
 Colonel Daingerfield heard the news at five 
 o clock. Immediately he called for his horse. 
 
 "Judge Braxton, I offer no excuse for this early 
 call." 
 
 " Yes, Daingerfield, William brought us the news 
 an hour ago. I dressed at once and came down to 
 the library." 
 
 " Judge, for three hundred years Virginians have 
 been a people apart from all other peoples of the 
 earth. Men have said, I am an Athenian, I am a 
 Roman, I am an Englishman; but when a Virgin 
 ian said, I am a Virginian, those that heard him 
 understood that his was the glory of Greece, his the 
 grandeur of Rome, his the splendour of England 
 and more, sir; that his was the honour of Virginia. 
 In honour our country during all her life has 
 been supreme among the nations of the world. 
 * Virginia honour. The terms are interchange 
 able. I do not speak in disparagement of any na 
 tion when I say that no people of recorded time 
 were so honourable as the people of Virginia. Why,
 
 i88 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 sir, to this day the words I am a Virginian * is the 
 bond of every man that gives them utterance. This 
 country, in spite of her unfortunate entanglements 
 with foreign nations, has always had a higher credit 
 than any other nation of the earth during the entire 
 period of her existence. No other country could bor 
 row among foreign peoples sums so large as could 
 Virginia. No man asked for more than her prom 
 ise to pay. Her honour was her security." 
 
 The old statesman trembled not with anger, but 
 as a strong man that has been told that his son has 
 been accused of some foul deed and he fears that 
 there may be truth in the charge. A philosopher 
 has said that man s ruling passion is his love for 
 his mate. That philosopher was not a Virginian, 
 unless Virginia was his mate; for the ruling passion 
 of the Virginian worthy of his country has always 
 been Virginia; nor did he love his mistress less be 
 cause he loved Virginia more. The colonel loved 
 no human being as he loved Virginia. 
 
 " Daingerfield," said Judge Braxton, his voice 
 shaking with emotion, " I hope that God in His 
 goodness will take my life sooner than He will per 
 mit me to live to see Virginia s honour taken from 
 her." He paused for a while that he might rees 
 tablish self-control. " People must be governed by 
 those that are educated in the science of statecraft. 
 Under our government Virginians for more than 
 two hundred and fifty years were a highly cultured 
 and moral people, as happy as they were virtuous. 
 Those engaged to be married never broke their 
 vows. The Virginian home was inviolable. Di 
 vorce was unknown. No white woman was accused 
 of being unchaste. Crime was confined to petty lar 
 ceny among negroes. The jails of some of our
 
 THE BETRAYAL 189 
 
 counties were without a single prisoner for sixty 
 consecutive years. Poverty was unknown. The man 
 that accumulated great wealth was dishonourable. 
 I believe that Virginia s system of government, an 
 absolute monarchy with all the strength of a re 
 public, a monarchy in which the aristocracy as a 
 unit was king, was superior to any government of 
 our time or of any other period. If virtue and fit 
 ness to govern do not reside in the aristocracy, in 
 the educated, in those that for centuries have been 
 accustomed to self-restraint, in those that know that 
 every moral transgression is bound to be visited by 
 adequate punishment, that all the virtues carry with 
 them their own reward: I say, Daingerfield, you 
 are right if government can not be conducted suc 
 cessfully by such persons, we may not expect that 
 successfully it can be conducted by the ignorant or 
 the vicious. The ignorant are the vicious when the 
 hand of authority no longer protects them against 
 themselves." 
 
 The venerable General Dabney and the aged Mr. 
 Carter had entered the library while Judge Brax- 
 ton was speaking, but had motioned him to con 
 tinue. 
 
 " Indeed is Virginia s sovereignty in jeopardy. 
 To overthrow our system of government at this 
 time, while the whole people are in a pitiable plight 
 the result of our long war, in which this country 
 was made the battlefield of thirty-six nations; now 
 that Reconstruction has left our lands devastated 
 and our personal property dissipated I say that to 
 change our whole social system at this time not only 
 would bankrupt Virginia morally and financially, 
 but would absolutely destroy her. She would cease 
 to exist as a nation."
 
 190 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Judge Braxton paused. Captain Lancaster had 
 entered the library. 
 
 " Our victors, intoxicated with success, are now 
 tearing up the treaty that they fought to preserve. 
 Out of the nations that entered the federal compact 
 they intend to create a republic, out of that republic 
 an empire, and even you and I may live to see that 
 empire rise and fall. Virginia will never be ab 
 sorbed by any foreign government so long as she is 
 faithful to herself and resists encroachments upon 
 her sovereign rights; but she can not long survive a 
 government of the people by the people for the 
 people. Such a government would soon deliver Vir 
 ginia, through ignorance or intent, into the hands 
 of our enemies. The flag of Virginia would cease 
 to float over the greatest people that the world has 
 ever known." 
 
 Colonel Daingerfield now spoke, not svith his 
 usual fire, but sadly. Levity would have been un 
 seemly in that gathering of sad old men. 
 
 "Liberty? The people have liberty under the 
 rule of the aristocracy; but when ruled by men of 
 their own selection licence takes their liberty from 
 them licence to break down all the elements in 
 civilisation that distinguish a cultured from a bar 
 barous people. O Liberty, how many crimes are 
 committed in thy name! Liberty? Has not Lib 
 erty always been synonymous with Licence in the 
 vernacular of the people?" 
 
 Depression and Captain Lancaster did not dwell 
 long together. 
 
 "Liberty? I ll tell you the meaning of Liberty. 
 Here is Liberty as she is known to the people: 
 Licence, Lust, and Lice."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 191 
 
 "Sir, leave my presence!" Mr. Carter com 
 manded. 
 
 The gentlemen had risen as one man, but resumed 
 their seats as soon as Mr. Carter had issued his 
 command. No one spoke for at least a minute, but 
 all sternly looked at the captain, who pretended to 
 be greatly abashed. He kept his seat, but averted 
 his face. 
 
 " Upon one occasion a lowly beast opened his 
 mouth and spake the truth ! " said Colonel Dainger- 
 field, still glaring at the captain. 
 
 " This is the most unkindest cut of all," Gen 
 eral Dabney said, " that sons of such men as John 
 Randolph Harrison and Alexander Spotswood 
 Temple should try to steal from Virginia her dear 
 est treasure. Now in her mantle muffling up her 
 face her proud face of honour she cries aloud, 
 Et tu, Harrison! et tu, Temple! then fall, Vir 
 ginia ! unless the Lord God of Hosts shall inter 
 vene to save His people from destruction." 
 
 These were the words of a man who would soon 
 be called before his Maker. Like all Virginian gen 
 tlemen of his period, his language was largely col 
 oured by the Bible, the works of Shakespeare, and 
 the writings of Macaulay and Carlyle whose words 
 they used as their own. But woe befall the man 
 who would misquote or otherwise misuse those au 
 thors. 
 
 "Sir," Colonel Daingerfield said, "you have 
 drawn on the great Bard of Avon to characterise 
 those misguided young men. I venture to say, sir, 
 that the language of our fathers will be heard in 
 Virginia no longer when her gentlemen make place 
 for Murphy and his thieves."
 
 192 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 The colonel paused again to look fixedly at the 
 captain, then continued: 
 
 " Where is the Virginian yeoman and the Vir 
 ginian peasant of yesterday? In all Fauquier 
 county there are only two families of yeomen and 
 two families of peasants that are true to them 
 selves and to Virginian traditions the yeomen 
 Whites and the yeomen Christians; and the peasant 
 Joe Miller is the only Miller left, and the peasant 
 Mary Scott is the only Scott left. There was a 
 time when all Virginian yeomen were like the 
 Whites and the Christians, and when all Virginian 
 peasants were like the Millers and the Scotts. The 
 Virginian peasant race must not die. So I thought 
 when Joe asked me to permit him to marry Mary. 
 The Virginian yeoman race must not die. You 
 must see to that, Judge. We must have more 
 Whites and more Millers." 
 
 " The time will come when Virginia will be 
 known for her niggers, mules, and yaller dogs in 
 stead of her great men and beautiful women," said 
 Captain Lancaster, who had recovered his usual in 
 dependence of thought and speech. " I am in fa 
 vour of fighting Murphy with a gun," he continued. 
 " Harrison says our campaign is one of words. 
 Words will not harm Timothy Murphy. I say let 
 me pick a quarrel with him. He is a brave man, 
 and will fight if I slap his face. I shall kill him 
 with the first shot." 
 
 "No, that would not do, Lancaster; not for a 
 minute," Judge Braxton sa*d, for he feared that 
 the impetuous captain possibly might fight Murphy 
 without advising further with his friends. " Duel 
 ling of that kind should never have existed in any
 
 THE BETRAYAL 193 
 
 civilised country, and such duels have never been 
 fought in Virginia. Besides, able men would take 
 Murphy s place if he should die. There are Har 
 rison, Temple, and Jones." 
 
 " So you mention Temple s name with the names 
 Murphy and Jones ! " exclaimed General Dabney. 
 " I recall how Governor Temple said to me a few 
 months before he died, Dabney, there are black 
 sheep in my flock, but I hope that I shall never see 
 the day that two of my sons will disgrace their 
 country s name. My old friend, I fear that they 
 are rascals. I thank God that Governor Temple 
 died before one of those sons had the opportunity 
 to slay him with last night s infamy." 
 
 General Dabney did not live to hear how Gover 
 nor Temple s other black sheep later gave a dinner 
 at his home in Williamsburg, to a mixed company of 
 white, black, and tan politicians, later being elected 
 by the negroes of his district as a member of the 
 Congress of the United States; nor did he live to see 
 the time when James Spotswood Temple was ejected 
 from the hall of the House of Representatives of 
 the United States for abusing the privileges of the 
 floor, which he had claimed as a former member of 
 Congress expelled by his own party for vicious 
 lobbying. 
 
 The party of gentlemen was interrupted by Andy 
 Stover, somewhat sobered, who rushed in unan 
 nounced, greatly excited, and addressed Mr. Car 
 ter: 
 
 " Missus say come come quick! Andy s dyinM" 
 
 "Leave my presence, sir! For sixty years I have 
 attended the Stovers, but the last time there was 
 a distemper in your family you summoned Dr.
 
 194 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Smythe, and you summoned him because he would 
 charge you, and therefore you thought that his ad 
 ministrations would be more effective than mine. 
 Leave my presence, sir ! Go to Dr. Smythe ! " 
 
 "Bin thar! He say: Go git that ole fogy 
 Carter. Let him kill yo chile. I ain t got no use 
 for no man as don t pay his doctor s bills. I ain t 
 goin ter ten yo folks no mo . 
 
 For several minutes the venerable physician was 
 speechless. v 
 
 14 I will go with you, Stover, immediately. To 
 what a pass has Virginia come! A physician, God s 
 elect, refuses to save a life because he does not re 
 ceive his wage! " 
 
 Whereupon Mr. Carter accompanied Mr. Stover 
 to his home, carrying with him calomel, quinine, and 
 a silver spoon, he always carried calomel, quinine, 
 and a silver spoon in his pockets, and lifrle Andy 
 soon passed out of the shadow of death, a shadow 
 cast by croup. 
 
 44 Tel-e-grum, suh ! " 
 
 The message was delivered to John Harrison 
 early in the morning, before he left his room in 
 the Exchange Hotel, in Fredericksburg, for break 
 fast. 
 
 Petersburg Va Wed A M 
 John Harrison Exchange Hotel, Fredericksburg Va 
 
 In your speech this afternoon do not refer to political 
 meeting held in Warrenton last night 
 
 MURPHY 
 
 The young man hurried to the foyer, where he 
 found groups of men anxiously discussing the events 
 of the night before, accounts of which had been
 
 THE BETRAYAL 195 
 
 telegraphed throughout the state. As he read the 
 message he thought that there was truth in the 
 common report: Murphy never slept. 
 
 Harrison was to speak in Fredericksburg in the 
 afternoon, then go to Ashland to attend a conference 
 of Readjuster leaders. The day after the conference 
 he was to make the last of a series of addresses in 
 Richmond, then return to Warrenton, where he 
 would stay for a few days before starting on a cam 
 paign in the east. 
 
 Many persons called to see him before the hour 
 set for his address, but all the while he thought of 
 Lelia Braxton, how she would be distressed beyond 
 measure; for she knew, he was sure, that he would 
 be obliged to share Temple s disgrace, that Temple s 
 shame would be his shame, and the shame of every 
 Murphyite in the state. 
 
 He thought of her as he had seen her last, kneel 
 ing in the magnolia grove in the Morven garden 
 that evening just after sunset. He had remained 
 on his knees for several minutes after her prayer was 
 said, although he had not prayed; then he had stood 
 up, and after he had walked a few steps toward 
 the house he had stopped, turned, and looked at her 
 tenderly for several minutes, as she knelt there, and 
 then he had gone silently away. He had not heard 
 from her since; nor had he called to see her, but the 
 next day he had gone on a campaigning tour of the 
 cities between Fredericksburg and Danville, and 
 since then he had delivered three speeches daily. 
 He would go to her that afternoon, after making 
 a brief speech, not to ask her if God had answered 
 her prayer, but to show her that Temple and his 
 kind did not represent General Murphy and other
 
 196 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 honourable leaders of the Readjuster party. But 
 had her prayer been answered? If so, his way had 
 not been God s way. 
 
 While jealousy is often a manifestation of ego 
 tism, it also frequently has its root in self-abase 
 ment, but seldom results from a lack of confidence 
 in its object. Not for a moment did John Har 
 rison doubt Lelia Braxton s constancy to her love, 
 or to her friends; but he feared that she would 
 cease to love him, and in time would love some man 
 more nearly in sympathy with her political views. 
 
 And why should he hold the love of this won 
 derful being? Had she ever loved the real John 
 Harrison? or had the seed of tares which she had 
 sown in her heart blossomed into flowers? There 
 was Dick Taliaferro, a man that he greatly ad 
 mired, a great sculptor; personally attractive, tall, 
 vigorous physically and mentally; a man liked by 
 men, strong, yet tender as a woman. Surely Lelia 
 Braxton would cease to love John Harrison when 
 she really knew Dick Taliaferro. 
 
 Then, he had heard how the best of women often 
 marry the worst of men. His heart was sick as he 
 thought of Temple, who was known as a popular 
 man among women, especially among young girls. 
 Through some trickery the fellow might win Lelia 
 Braxton s love; she might plant in her heart other 
 seed that would bloom into flowers. 
 
 Like all men, John Harrison felt that he was the 
 only man, although unworthy, how unworthy he 
 alone knew, that he was the only man that really 
 understood the character of the woman that he 
 loved, the only man that should marry her. His 
 life would be dedicated to her. His chief pleasure
 
 THE BETRAYAL 197 
 
 would be to work for her happiness. Although 
 Taliaferro would make an ideal husband for some 
 noble girl, he could never understand Lelia Braxton. 
 But Temple he would not continue his thoughts, 
 he would not permit himself to think the fate that 
 the fate that would be hers should she marry that 
 man. 
 
 He was unable to get Temple out of his thoughts. 
 His hideous image was ever before him until he 
 rang the Morven door-bell. 
 
 "Lelia, dear love, I am here." 
 " I thought that you would come." 
 " I was afraid that you would not see me." 
 " I shall never refuse to see you, John, so long as 
 I shall live I hope." 
 
 * That meeting last night that meeting I had 
 nothing to do with it. Lelia, General Murphy 
 never knew there was to be such a meeting. . . . 
 I am unjust. Captain Temple could never have 
 spoken the words that have been attributed to him 
 by negroes who wish social equality, who have mis 
 understood, who have deliberately misrepresented his 
 attitude and words. I have known Captain Temple 
 ever since I was a boy. He neither could have 
 treated negroes as his social equals nor led them to 
 believe that the Readjuster party intends to repudi 
 ate one cent of Virginia s debt. . . . Temple and 
 I are not friends; but no act of his that I can recall 
 ever justified any feeling of hostility that I may 
 have for him." 
 
 " I do not like him I do not trust him I be 
 lieve I even despise him. But I have never 
 heard him accused of any wrong until now. He has
 
 198 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 not been misrepresented, though; I feel sure of 
 that." 
 
 They were silent for several minutes. 
 
 "John, that meeting last night was planned by 
 General Murphy and Captain Temple. Oh, John 
 dear, can you not see? can you not see? I would 
 share disgrace with you; I would gladly bear all 
 your disgrace in my heart and oh the joy I 
 would have in the burden ! but, John dear, I can 
 not, I, a Virginian, I can not! my life and dis 
 honour must not be linked together. And Virginia 
 expects every Virginian woman to keep Virginia s 
 honour bright Virginia s honour." 
 
 " Do you realise what you are saying? You ac 
 cuse me of dishonour. You, the woman that I love, 
 charge me with an offence that is beyond pardon. 
 The charge would have been intolerable h?-d a man 
 made it and I would have killed him, or he would 
 have killed me. And the woman that I love brings 
 that charge against me ! " 
 
 "Oh, John! Oh, John, John, John! Oh, my 
 love!" 
 
 Neither spoke for a while. Then John stood up, 
 bowed gravely, and left the house. 
 
 After a while Lelia Braxton went to her room. 
 That night she lived several years for there are 
 days that are years in the lives of men. Life is not 
 spanned by three score years and ten. The span of 
 life is sorrow and joy. 
 
 A lurid light in the north, a dull glow in the east, 
 flames that were visible ir? the south, was what John 
 Harrison saw when he left Lelia Braxton and went 
 into the night.
 
 CHAPTER FIVE 
 
 A the dominating characteristic of the negro 
 throughout recorded time, if symptomatic, 
 has been vanity, never has there been a pe 
 riod when the mental or the moral level of the race 
 varied, nor when any member whose blood was un 
 alloyed greatly excelled the race as a whole. One 
 negro being as good as another, and none able to 
 rise above his fellows; his handmaid laziness, his 
 sole ambition to excel in personal adornment, he 
 lives from hour to hour in a condition of absolute 
 contentment and rest. 
 
 No other race is without a literature of its own, 
 if written only on trees and stones. For many years 
 the negro melody phantom danced before Lafcadio 
 Hearn s eyes, then surprise and chagrin negro 
 music and folk-lore were old French and Spanish 
 songs and stories. As a negro tribe follows the 
 chase, hunting in droves, and never not a lone man 
 attacking dangerous beasts unless numerically su 
 perior to its prey by a hundredfold; as no mighty 
 hunter has been a negro; as the negro is without a 
 great warrior; as there never has been a negro hero 
 of peace; as no negro man has ever given his life 
 for another; as there is no negro racial pride: the 
 aged of the tribes have had no achievements of 
 which to sing. But they have sung the songs of 
 their masters not their conquerors, for the negro 
 has never been conquered. They still sing the songs 
 that tell of their masters mighty deeds. No word 
 
 199
 
 200 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 of African origin does the American negro know. 
 He is without a literature; he is without a language; 
 he is without a memory. 
 
 No race properly may plead lack of opportunity 
 in extenuation of ignorance and vice. The negro 
 and the monkey probably have lived as long as man; 
 but neither the monkey nor the negro has changed 
 in any characteristic. 
 
 When the negro was carried into countries in 
 habited by other races he immediately became a 
 slave, continuing his life of vanity, imitation, and 
 contentment. He was neither mentally nor morally 
 improved by his new surroundings; he took his habi 
 tat with him; his masters controlled him, and they 
 forced him to obey a few moral and physical laws. 
 But no sooner was the hand of authority withdrawn 
 than the negro returned to his estate primeval, 
 never better, but worse for a while mentally, physi 
 cally, and morally than he was during his tribal life. 
 
 In slavery days the American negro imitated his 
 master in manners and in dress and in nothing 
 else. Now the American negro imitates the follies 
 of his former masters, but never their achievements 
 in mental and moral philosophies and arts and 
 sciences. What reward did he expect when he imi 
 tated the follies of his former masters? The grati 
 fication of his vanity. Nothing more. 
 
 The war between the states fatally affected the 
 American negro. The wage of sin is death. The 
 negro in America and in Africa is dying. 
 
 When told by the invaders of Virginia that all 
 men were born free and equal, that the black man 
 was as good as the white man, that the Proclama 
 tion of Emancipation had liberated their minds as
 
 THE BETRAYAL 201 
 
 well as their bodies, the freedman declared that he 
 was mentally and morally equal to his former mas 
 ter, and proceeded to gratify his ruling passion, 
 inordinate vanity, and proceeded to practise all the 
 loathsome vices of barbarism. Although his im 
 agination had not pictured the time when liberty 
 of licence would permit him to govern his former 
 masters, he became a governor, the black man gov 
 erning the white man. But no legislative nor execu 
 tive act of his was influenced by a desire to improve 
 the condition of man and to raise the standard of 
 civilisation. His career as governor was free from 
 burden, free from restraint, and even free from 
 primal obligations to society. 
 
 The people of Virginia, among them Temple and 
 Murphy and their followers, did not believe that 
 negro character had been changed by freedom. 
 They were right. Political and social equality in its 
 minor aspects would take the place of the barn dance, 
 where young bucks were dressed in their masters 
 worn-out evening clothes and young wenches in the 
 discarded finery of their mistresses. The negro 
 clamouring for equality meant merely that he de 
 manded equality in social intercourse, the licence to 
 gratify his vanity, not that he had conceived a con 
 dition of natural equality. His dominant passion 
 was intensified, nothing more. 
 
 As the negro was known to every white man in 
 Virginia, none save negroes believed that the Proc 
 lamation of Emancipation would work a miracle 
 that the negro would be freed from slavery. All 
 believed that an unwholesome upheaval in the rela 
 tions of the negro and his master would result, by 
 which both would be damaged, but held that slavery
 
 202 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 necessarily would exist in some form, for the negro 
 race could occupy no other relation to any of the 
 peoples of the earth. Again the people of Virginia 
 were right. If slavery be involuntary servitude, the 
 negro always has been and always will be a slave 
 when brought within the sphere of influence of any 
 other race. Still a slave in Virginia, the negro will 
 be nothing else so long as he is there or elsewhere. 
 
 No better form of slavery ever existed than the 
 Virginian negro slavery. It was a sad day for the 
 negro when Lincoln by a stroke of his pen made a 
 white man of him. 
 
 While the Readjusters had intimated to negroes 
 that they would enjoy social equality, they never ex 
 pected them to act like untamed savages, set fire to 
 residences, barns, hay-stacks, pillage corn-cribs, steal 
 fowls and domestic animals, and assault white wo 
 men; but the negro had resumed the enjoyment of his 
 primal instincts. Conditions soon, existed under 
 which he was not tolerated by any other class than 
 the gentry, which never took part in the lynching of 
 negroes, and which in time broke up the Ku Klux 
 Klan. Aristocrats never countenanced lawlessness 
 nor brutality in the government of the negro, yet they 
 had ruled him for nearly three hundred years with as 
 little trouble as they had controlled their domestic 
 animals. 
 
 Now Joe Miller had told Hugh White that he 
 and Mary Scott were " goin to get married"; and 
 so thought the confident Joe; but he took Hugh into 
 his confidence before he spoke to the gentle Mary 
 about the matter, who heard the news before the 
 proper courier was announced. Consequently she
 
 THE BETRAYAL 203 
 
 " shore had been a-layin an a-layin " for the young 
 stage-driver and mail-carrier all day, and to-night 
 she had kept him waiting in the kitchen fully ten 
 minutes before she appeared with eyes flashing and 
 cheeks ablaze. 
 
 "Oh! you here?" 
 
 " Be n here more n an hour." 
 
 " Well, you needn t set here no longer. I m sure 
 I never asked no man to hang round me, takin me 
 offen Miss Daingerfield s sewin ." 
 
 11 What ails you? I ain t never seen you so 
 riled." 
 
 " You ain t, ain t you ! Well, you go ask Hugh 
 White an Lucy Christian an every Tom-Dick-an - 
 Harry you meets on the highway that s what you 
 do." 
 
 "Ain t Miss Daingerfield spoke to you?" 
 
 "No, she ain t; an what s mo , there ain t no 
 body spoke to me; an what s mo , ef anybody had 
 spoke to me, anybody ain t got no business thinkin 
 as how I d jump at him, an goin roun sayin as 
 how me an anybody would be a-marryin them 
 selves." 
 
 " I lowed as you an me wus a settin -up as soon 
 as I spoke to the cunnel lowin as how Miss 
 Daingerfield tole you right away." 
 
 " All Miss Daingerfield say was how you wus a 
 thrifty man, an as how she didn t know what she d 
 do for sewin . I allus knowed you wus thrifty, an 
 I tole Miss Daingerfield as how I didn t know as 
 how I had a call to sew for nobody cep in her." 
 
 " Miss Daingerfield lowed as we d be marryin 
 ourselves." 
 
 "She didn t! She didn t! She didn t mean no
 
 204 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 sech ! Leastwise I didn t know as how she meant 
 that. I hate you! I just hate you, hate you, hate 
 you!" 
 
 " I loves you. I wants you to be my wife. You 
 is the most likely lookin gyurl I knows. I loves 
 you. Won t you marry me Mary?" 
 
 Then Mary cried, for all young peasant girls 
 cried when they were asked to marry; and then she 
 answered her suitor after the manner of peasant 
 girls. 
 
 "I ain t goin to marry no man! Oh, you is just 
 awful! No ! No ! No ! I won t marry no man ! " 
 
 And a little later Mrs. Daingerfield went into 
 the kitchen on a housewife errand. In some way 
 the mistress always knew when the " psychological 
 moment" (as New England "authoresses" say) 
 was at hand. She spoke to the young people after 
 the manner of the Virginian mistress. 
 
 "Well, Joe, we will miss Mary; but we are glad 
 that she is to marry a man like you the Scotts and 
 the Millers are a part of the Daingerfield house 
 hold. Be good to her, Joe, as I know you will be, 
 and you and Mary establish a family that will 
 be God-fearing and faithful to those that God has 
 placed above you in station." 
 
 " I ll allus sew for you, Miss Daingerfield, deed 
 I will!" 
 
 "An I ll do anything in the world fer you an 
 the cunnel, ma am! I ain t itchin fer s cy-et-ty, I 
 ain t, like all the little-house folks, lowin as how 
 they is great-house quality." 
 
 As Temple rode home in the early morning, after 
 he had addressed the negroes at the meeting held
 
 THE BETRAYAL 205 
 
 in Shadrach s church, he saw evidences of the pas 
 sion that he had aroused. Several negroes stopped 
 him as he rode home, addressed him with gross fa 
 miliarity, and throughout the day he received infor 
 mation that negroes were committing depredations, 
 beginning in a small way and gradually increasing 
 in gravity. A report reached him at five in the af 
 ternoon that several negroes had killed and carried 
 away one of Mr. Carter s blooded cows. 
 
 As Temple was about to join the throng that had 
 gone to the fire in Mr. Carter s barn he was greeted 
 by the Reverend Shad. 
 
 " Sholy, Brudder Temple, mah people am full ob 
 mo n de grace ob Gawd ter depredation dese heri- 
 ditaments in dis outlan ish an inconsequential se 
 quence." 
 
 " This night s work, Dr. Berkeley, following the 
 crimes that began before day, not only has rendered 
 the meeting in your church valueless, but actually 
 has done a great deal of harm to the cause that is 
 so dear to your heart and to mine." 
 
 " Dyah cert ny ain no scuse fo de way mah 
 flock s behavin dyahsel s, dyah sholy ain . I spects 
 Brudder Williams people am mos ly cuttin up dese 
 outlan ish imperfections." 
 
 " Please notify your people at once, Dr. Berkeley, 
 that this business has got to stop. I shall call a 
 meeting of the leaders of our party for to-morrow 
 morning at ten o clock, and I shall expect you to be 
 present. Moreover, I shall expect you to assure 
 those that will be present that no further outbreak 
 of your people shall occur." 
 
 Later, while standing in the shadow of an old
 
 206 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 maple, Temple saw Harrison. Whereupon he In 
 dulged in a few choice thoughts. 
 
 " Ha, ha, my fine fellow ! So the news of the day 
 brought you to the side of the lovely Leila ! No 
 doubt you told her of Harrison s superiority to 
 Temple; nor is deep discernment necessary to enable 
 one to see that the picture was not flattering to this 
 your friend. Some day when Lelia Braxton is the 
 first lady of the land I shall think of the look of 
 horror, mingled with contempt that is now on your 
 noble brow. Each emotion that sweeps your face 
 betrays a thought of Temple. How greatly su 
 perior you are to him ! . . . A weakling! Thank 
 God, I am a man! Like a man I shall fight and 
 win." 
 
 With these reflections and others, Temple took 
 his way toward the deep red glow that lit the hori 
 zon in the direction of Fairfax. 
 
 While John Harrison sat in his office reading the 
 letters that had accumulated during his absence, Bob 
 delivered a letter from Temple. 
 
 WARRENTON, VIRGINIA. 
 My dear Mr. Harrison: 
 
 I heard of your return late yesterday afternoon, and im 
 mediately despatched messengers in the hope of finding you. 
 In this I did not succeed, as you know. 
 
 I find that distorted reports of the meeting that was held 
 in Berkeley s church have been generally circulated for the 
 purpose of prejudicing the interests of our party, no doubt. 
 Here is the truth of the matter: 
 
 While riding toward Berkeley s church late Wednesday 
 night I saw that it was brilliantly lighted ; so I determined 
 to investigate, as it is unusual for that church or any other
 
 THE BETRAYAL 207 
 
 to be lighted at a late hour of a secular day. I found a 
 political meeting in progress; and hearing important ques 
 tions discussed unintelligibly, I spoke a few words of advice 
 and instruction, outlining the principles of our party in 
 very much the way that gentlemen have always addressed 
 audiences in which there were negroes. I am sure no gen 
 tleman of our acquaintance would have objected in the 
 least to anything that I said, unless this: I advised the 
 negroes to support our party; which advice, no doubt, the 
 Debtpayers would have found offensive. 
 
 The reports spread by the opposition misled the coloured 
 people, inflamed their passions, and resulted in the scenes of 
 violence that occurred yesterday and last night. All Read- 
 justers agree, I believe, that our success or failure depends 
 in a large measure upon the negro vote. I think that the 
 situation should be handled tactfully. We should deliver 
 the coloured vote ; at the same time the negro should be held 
 in check, for there must be no repetition of the lawlessness 
 of the last twenty-four hours. To this end I have invited 
 several Readjusters of Fauquier to meet in my office this 
 morning at ten o clock to confer; and I ask you, for the 
 good of the party, to attend the meeting. 
 
 I have been greatly wronged by the few persons that have 
 attributed unworthy motives and conduct to me. I wish to 
 establish the identity of the person that is responsible for 
 spreading those defamatory statements, that I may punish 
 him as severely as he deserves. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 JAMES SPOTSWOOD TEMPLE, 
 Formerly Captain C. S. A. 
 
 Friday morning. 
 
 While the door to Temple s office was open, Har 
 rison was unable to see the occupants of the room 
 until he stood in the doorway, a few minutes after 
 ten. Then he saw in the office several negroes, 
 among them the preachers Berkeley and Williams,
 
 208 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 and Professor Simpson, Captain Temple, the nat 
 uralised carpetbagger Stokes, the senatorial candi 
 date Rice, and the blacksmith Stover. Harrison 
 got no farther than the doorway. 
 
 "Captain Temple," he said, "your letter xftd 
 not intimate that I was expected to confer with 
 negroes. I decline to take part in this conference." 
 
 Leaving abruptly, Harrison made his way to the 
 office of the clerk of court, where he had to examine 
 files for a client, while Temple turned to his con 
 ferees. 
 
 " In my opinion, gentlemen, Harrison is too good 
 for human nature s daily food. I am ashamed of 
 his conduct. We all are made of the same clay; 
 no man is much better than his neighbours. Well, 
 well, he is young and inexperienced ! He has a 
 great deal to learn, and we should be charitable, 
 should we not? I am sure we all are superior to 
 this kind of thing, and can afford to tolerate him 
 for the good of the party." 
 
 " Wher-r-re I comes from one man s bout as 
 good as another. This her-r-re settin a man above 
 his neighbour I don t take no stock in. I ain t never-r 
 seen no man as I thought wus better-r n Roger Wil 
 liams Stokes. My folks comes from righteous peo 
 ple, an oughter be a good sight better-r n them as 
 comes from gamblers." 
 
 "An er white man ain nuttin cept a cullud 
 gemman dat s whitewashed, say de Good Word," 
 said the Reverend Doctor Berkeley. 
 
 When Harrison reached the clerk s office appar 
 ently no one was there. This did not surprise him, 
 for the clerk frequently left the door of his office
 
 THE BETRAYAL 209 
 
 open and went to a near-by store to play backgam 
 mon, as no one thought of molesting the public 
 records. The young man had been at work about 
 fifteen minutes when a slight sound came from a 
 corner of the room. He walked over to a tall desk, 
 and there behind it, as though he had tried to con 
 ceal himself, was General Timothy Murphy. 
 
 " Ah-h-h Mr. Harrison, this is indeed a great 
 pleasure ! I thought you were at the Ashland con 
 ference." 
 
 " I intended to be there, but a personal matter 
 here required my attention. I thought that I could 
 be spared, so here I am. But I shall leave early in 
 the morning, in time to meet my engagement to 
 speak in Staunton at noon to-morrow. I thought 
 that you were in Petersburg." 
 
 " I left Petersburg almost immediately after tele 
 graphing to you, that I might keep an engagement 
 in Washington. I came on to Warrenton to search 
 the records in this office for a document that I was 
 unable to find in Washington, which, I was told, 
 could be found here." 
 
 " Please make Inglewood your home while you 
 are in the city, General. I shall take great pleasure 
 in entertaining you." 
 
 Thank you, Mr. Harrison. I will take supper 
 with you this evening, and spend the night, leaving 
 early in the morning for home. I am very glad 
 indeed that you came to Warrenton, for recent 
 events here made a conference between us desirable. 
 I trust that I am not abusing my privilege as your 
 guest in asking you to invite Captain Temple to tea. 
 I think we three should discuss the political situa 
 tion among ourselves, and work out a plan to pre-
 
 210 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 vent outrages by the negroes yet treating them 
 kindly that we may not alienate them." 
 
 " Certainly, General, I shall ask Captain Temple 
 to take supper at Inglewood with us this evening; 
 and I shall be glad of the opportunity to show my 
 friends and the people generally that I do not be 
 lieve the reports affecting him that have been cir 
 culated. But I think that I should say to you that 
 my relations with Captain Temple, while not un 
 friendly, are not altogether pleasant." 
 
 " Well, Mr. Harrison, upon occasion I am 
 obliged to associate with men that are very distaste 
 ful to me; but I am obliged to subordinate my 
 private taste to the public good to the good of the 
 party, as I see that you have done. In great moral 
 movements a man must associate with uncongenial 
 persons, even with thieves and, I may say, even 
 with negroes. Necessarily one must do that. If 
 you will keep constantly in mind the great work 
 upon which you have entered the ordeal will be 
 bearable. Of course you will find, as I have found, 
 that your great difficulty will be to control yourself 
 when you come in contact with the persons that you 
 will meet in this campaign. 
 
 " I remember that my dear friend your father 
 and I once spoke about a similar matter, which came 
 up during the first year of the war. Judge, I said, 
 I am unable to control myself when I see some 
 hulking soldier throw down his musket and run, or 
 when I see some arrogant young officer sacrifice the 
 lives of his men to his ignorance, or when an of 
 ficer uses questionable methods to gain promotion 1 
 4 Timothy, he replied, I am many years older than 
 you. My long service in public life has taught me
 
 THE BETRAYAL 211 
 
 that all men are noble; yet all men do that which is 
 not right, for wrongdoing is the result of ignorance, 
 not deliberate viciousness. Those in authority must 
 bear with the frailties of those that they have in 
 charge, until gradually, by patient instruction, dark 
 ness makes place for light. Remember, too, that 
 conditions change rapidly, and that evils pass away 
 with the conditions out of which they grow. My 
 young friend, your dear father was right. 
 
 The man that is morally and mentally superior 
 to his brothers should show that superiority through 
 self-restraint and charity. He should not be afraid 
 to mix with men of every type. Why should he? 
 What is there to fear? Is his own character or his 
 own culture in jeopardy? For example, these ne 
 groes are mere children of the woods; brought here 
 against their will by our fathers; misguided by the 
 enemies of our state, and now are left largely to 
 their own resources by those that should direct them, 
 the white people of all classes for only our white 
 people know how the negro should be governed. 
 The Readjuster party does not intend to establish 
 social equality for blacks, nor is any white man in 
 this state willing to treat the negro as his social 
 equal; but common humanity demands that you and 
 Temple and every leader among white men go 
 among our poor ignorant black men, then grad 
 ually lead rather than drive them back to the re 
 lations that existed between them and their masters 
 before the war. The first step in this direction is 
 to get them to vote for our party. I am unable to 
 see that any white man lowers himself by going 
 among these children of the wilderness, in the 
 name of common humanity, thus obeying the com-
 
 212 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 mand of the Master that we spread His truth 
 among His lowly creatures." 
 
 " Our people have always guided the negroes, 
 General; and they have been governed as perfectly 
 as is possible in any human institution. In all time 
 no other barbarous people has had so many advan 
 tages; but, sir, our experience with negroes has 
 shown that they must be governed, not led. If the 
 course that you suggest that the leaders of our 
 party go among the blacks and induce them to 
 vote for us, by addressing their political gatherings, 
 by arguing with them, or by attempting to persuade 
 them to vote for our party in any other manner, if 
 that is done social equality in a way is effected. In 
 merely requesting them to vote our ticket we es 
 tablish social equality to some degree. As the 
 negro has no natural right to suffrage, I think 
 that he should be denied a voice in our govern 
 ment." 
 
 " I agree that we should eliminate the negro from 
 the political equation; but not until our party is 
 placed in power. Then we shall pass laws that will 
 provide an educational test before the right of suf 
 frage is conferred, a test that the blacks will be un 
 able to pass successfully; but until then, and in order 
 to reach a large success, a success that is so impor 
 tant to our country, we must treat with the negro, 
 and do all that we honourably may to gain his sup 
 port." 
 
 " If our cause is just, why should we need the ne 
 gro vote? If negroes form a party of their own 
 they will be unable to elect their ticket." 
 
 There, Mr. Harrison, you are wrong. The 
 negroes can poll one hundred and ten thousand
 
 THE BETRAYAL 213 
 
 votes, while the one hundred and seventy thousand 
 votes of the white people are distributed nearly 
 equally between the two parties. The negroes with 
 their majority of twenty-five thousand would elect 
 negroes to every office in this state, with conse 
 quences too awful to contemplate. That danger is 
 a menace too appalling for words to describe. That 
 the danger is real I shall show you." 
 
 Thus talking, General Murphy and Mr. Harri 
 son walked through the streets of Warrenton, at 
 tracting the attention of many persons, including 
 negroes. 
 
 The contrast between the two men was marked: 
 General Murphy, almost a dwarf, his grey beard 
 sweeping to his waist, his cruel round eyes furtively 
 glancing in every direction, his high-heel shoes add 
 ing but little to his stature; John Harrison, tall, of 
 knightly bearing, his dark blue eyes showing con 
 centration of thought, athletic in build, his noble 
 ancestry discernible in all his features, unaware of 
 the gossip of the curious persons they met, ab 
 sorbed in the matters of public interest that he was 
 discussing with the leader of his party. 
 
 General Murphy had taken the first north-bound 
 train out of Petersburg after he had received the 
 telegram that notified him of the negro meeting that 
 was held in Shadrach s church, and had arrived in 
 Warrenton shortly after nightfall. 
 
 Mingling with the negroes that were engaged in 
 groggery debauches, he had gathered full informa 
 tion with respect to the events of the day and the 
 night before. He had gone to the first fire, where 
 he had seen both Harrison and Temple; then he had 
 gone to see the burning of the barns and hay-stacks
 
 214 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 that had been fired, and at four o clock in the morn 
 ing he had fallen asleep under a tree. 
 
 He had rightly guessed that Temple would call 
 upon prominent Readjusters to meet in his office the 
 following morning to take measures to suppress the 
 outrages of the negroes, and later verified his guess 
 by passing Temple s office, where he had seen a card 
 tacked on the door, on which was written a notice 
 of the meeting that was to be held at ten o clock. 
 He had decided not to attend the conference. Later 
 he would be discovered in the clerk s office. For vari 
 ous reasons, political and otherwise, but mainly that 
 the good people of Warrenton might see them walk 
 ing together, he had suggested to Harrison that 
 they should walk through the town rather than go 
 to the young man s home or office. Saying that he 
 had to visit, out in the country, an old soldier, for 
 merly in his command, the general had declined Mr. 
 Harrison s invitation to dine with him at Inglewood 
 at two in the afternoon. As a matter of fact, Murphy 
 had determined to spend the afternoon in meeting 
 separately and secretly Rice, Stover, Berkeley, Wil 
 liams, Stokes, and other Readjusters, that he might 
 advise them in accordance with the various require 
 ments of his party. 
 
 The general had expected the negro outbreak. 
 He did not altogether object to negro rowdyism and 
 crime, which he thought would extend throughout 
 the state, provided they were not carried to ex 
 tremes or so far as to alienate the votes of his 
 plain white people. Such disturbances would give 
 him colourable excuse to disfranchise the negro im 
 mediately after the election, should he see fit to do 
 so. But he was inclined to reward the negroes,
 
 THE BETRAYAL 215 
 
 mould them into a unit, which he could hold in his 
 hand, and thus build up an impregnable party organi 
 sation that would be his, and his alone. 
 
 As Mr. Harrison parted from General Murphy, 
 after they had shaken hands, and after each gentle 
 man had removed his hat, the Morven family car 
 riage, which contained Judge and Mrs. Braxton 
 and Mr. Taliaferro and Miss Braxton, drove by. 
 All the occupants of the carriage bowed gravely, as 
 did Mr. Harrison, although he did not smile. The 
 general s face was wreathed in smirks as he nodded 
 familiarly. The Morven party had looked directly 
 at Mr. Harrison, but had not seen General Murphy. 
 
 Captain Temple saw the hand of his leader 
 in the invitation that was delivered to him by Mr. 
 Harrison s servant. 
 
 WARRENTON, VIRGINIA. 
 My dear Mr. Harrison: 
 
 I thank you for your kind invitation to meet General 
 Murphy at Inglewood at supper to-night, which I accept 
 with much pleasure. 
 
 Permit me to take this opportunity to explain the peculiar 
 situation in which you found me this morning. 
 
 Berkeley and a few of his friends had made their way 
 into my office just before you came, to say that the rioting 
 of yesterday and last night was the work of a few irrespon 
 sible persons, and that they would hold such culprits in 
 check in the future, even though it be necessary to turn 
 them out of the church. 
 
 They had not been invited to attend the conference, as 
 doubtless you thought. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 JAMES SPOTSWOOD TEMPLE. 
 
 Friday afternoon.
 
 216 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Mr. Harrison and General Murphy had been in 
 the drawing-room of Inglewood only a few mo 
 ments when Captain Temple was announced. The 
 old servant, Jake, tried to conceal his humiliation; 
 and, aside from an unnatural solemnity, succeeded 
 in concealing his disgust at being obliged to toler 
 ate the man who held negroes to be his master s 
 equals. Supper lasted from seven till eleven. 
 
 While Harrison was in the library, where he had 
 gone to search for an atlas, Murphy took advantage 
 of his absence to speak to Temple confidentially. 
 
 " Keep up the good work that you began last 
 night, Captain. I wholly approve your course, and 
 I trust your judgment as to the licence that should 
 be allowed to blacks. The rioting has done us no 
 harm. To the contrary, it will tend to arouse the 
 negroes and bring their entire vote into our party, 
 while their conduct will not lose us the vote of a 
 single white man. Publicly we shall disclaim, as 
 already you have disclaimed, all responsibility for 
 outbreaks of violence. As a matter of fact, the 
 negroes must be held within proper bounds. Your 
 sacrifice shall be rewarded: in the ultimate approval 
 of the whole people, who will show their apprecia 
 tion of your service by calling upon you to fill the 
 highest office in their gift, and when I need not 
 mention his name by his many blunders has proved 
 his unfitness for a political career. Inferiority 
 first manifests itself in the airs and graces of su 
 periority. The man that feels that he is better than 
 his neighbour should be in the pulpit. His place is 
 not the political arena, where he must give and re 
 ceive blows. Life for you will be rich in achieve 
 ment and in reward."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 217 
 
 Then Mr. Harrison returned with the atlas. The 
 conferees went over the routes of the various cam 
 paign orators, and made arrangements for Harrison 
 and Temple to speak in every part of the common 
 wealth. As Harrison would complete his present 
 itinerary the latter part of the following week, 
 Murphy told Temple to arrange with Gary Dabney 
 for a joint debate between Parson Jones and 
 Colonel Daingerfield, to be held in Warrenton, 
 Harrison to introduce Jones, and Dabney to intro 
 duce Daingerfield. In the meanwhile Captain Tem 
 ple and Messrs. Rice, Simpson, Stover, Stokes, 
 and other prominent white Readjusters, and the 
 preachers Berkeley and Williams, aided by their 
 followers, would round up the voting population of 
 Fauquier and adjacent counties. 
 
 Shortly before eleven o clock the general dis 
 missed all political matters with a characteristic ges 
 ture and began to relate reminiscences of the war. 
 He told many anecdotes in which he referred to the 
 military prowess of Captain Temple s father and 
 the generosity of Judge Harrison. The judge had 
 been too old to draw his sword, but had pur 
 chased Confederate bonds liberally, and had aided 
 Virginia s armies while he was at home more than 
 he could have done had he gone into battle. After 
 a while, half-jokingly, yet seriously, the General 
 addressed them. 
 
 " Gentlemen, fight if you will, after this war is 
 over, for young men will fight; cut each other s 
 throats, if you will, but wait until the honour of 
 Virginia shall have been saved. Boys, I would have 
 had you both shot had you been with me at the 
 Crater and there permitted personal differences to
 
 218 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 affect the fortunes of war. The fight ahead of us 
 will be bloodless; but that fight means more to Vir 
 ginia than did the Crater. It means even more than 
 did her recent war." 
 
 After Temple left Murphy spoke to Harrison 
 confidentially. 
 
 "A man like that should no more hold a respon 
 sible position in a government than in an army. 
 However, he should be permitted to fight in the 
 ranks so long as his work is satisfactory. Places 
 of trust and honour are for competent men." 
 
 When the general left the next morning he felt 
 entirely satisfied with the work that he had ac 
 complished in Warrenton. He had felt the temper 
 of his followers; he had seen the rioting; a breach 
 between Harrison and Temple had been prevented; 
 socially he had been recognised by two ge ntlemen; 
 he had made his party more respectable in Fauquier. 
 Soon the battle would be over and victory his. Then 
 he would politically assassinate Temple and Harri 
 son. He would tolerate no rival, however weak. 
 
 After the general had gone to his room Jake 
 handed to his master a note that William had 
 brought over from Morven. 
 
 MORVEN. 
 My dear Mr. Harrison: 
 
 I was cruel to you last night and I thought that I never 
 could be cruel to you again. Forgive me. I shall never 
 forgive myself but you forgive me please, please! I am 
 so sorry, so sorry! 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 LELIA CAPERTON BRAXTON. 
 Friday night.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 219 
 
 INGLE WOOD. 
 Dearest: 
 
 Forgive you? Has there been a minute since I left you 
 last night when the harsh words that I said to you have not 
 rung in my ears? This campaign seems to have altered my 
 whole character. 
 
 Yes, you have been cruel to me your letter was cruel. 
 That you should ask me to forgive you! 
 
 Oh, my dear, my dear, my dear, I love you! 
 
 My love made me speak as I did last night strange as 
 that may seem to you. Now all that I can say is I love 
 you. Yesterday I thought that I never could love you 
 more than I did then ; now I think that my love of yester 
 day was a little thing too poor to be called love. 
 
 I leave to-morrow morning, to resume my itinerary. I 
 shall not return to Warrenton until the latter part of next 
 week, when I shall call to see you for I shall never forget 
 what you said to me: "I shall never refuse to see you, 
 John." You did not call me " Mr. Harrison " last night. 
 
 I shall think of you by day and dream of you by night 
 until I return and may God be with you. 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 Friday night. 
 
 At the Warren-Green Miss Gladys Lancaster was 
 having her usual good time. As she liked to visit, 
 she never stayed in Charlottesville longer than nec 
 essary, and that was only when the captain per 
 emptorily commanded her to stay at home with her 
 mother. Ambitious for her children, Mrs. Lan 
 caster was quite willing to sacrifice herself; so her 
 daughters had spent nearly all their later days away 
 from home. Miss Lancaster was no exception. She 
 spent the greater part of her time in visiting her 
 married sisters, so that Mrs. Lancaster knew Miss 
 Lancaster only slightly.
 
 220 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " Gladys, don t you think that it s about time for 
 you to go home?" 
 
 " Why, father! How can you think of such a 
 thing, when the political situation makes it abso 
 lutely necessary for us to be in Warrenton? Be 
 sides, Mr. Taliaferro " 
 
 " Now, Gladys, that s not true. Mr. Taliaferro 
 has no eyes for anybody but Lelia Braxton, as you 
 very well know." 
 
 " Why, father! He calls to see me often! " 
 
 And he did; for the energetic Miss Lancaster 
 wrote to him at least twice a week. She never wrote 
 less than two letters a week to all the marriageable 
 gentlemen of her acquaintance. She had frequently 
 brought about situations that had required Mr. 
 Taliaferro, in common courtesy, to call to see 
 her. 
 
 There was one gentleman in Warrenton to whom 
 she did not write: Mr. Gary Gordon Dabney, whose 
 attentions she discouraged. She did not care to 
 have that gentleman monopolise her entire time; 
 moreover, she had to consider that Mr. Taliaferro 
 as well as a few other gentlemen of wealth scat 
 tered through the states were matrimonial possi 
 bilities. Again, she saw that she merely had to 
 stretch out her hand to gather Dabney in, and she 
 was not ready to do that. She liked him well 
 enough, better than any man she knew; but finan 
 cially he was unsatisfactory. 
 
 "Now run along, that s a dear old dad; for here 
 comes the next governor over the left! C est a 
 moi de faire le jeu I " 
 
 "As usual!" 
 
 And with that exclamation, delivered in the air
 
 THE BETRAYAL 221 
 
 of suit-yourself-my-child-your-face-is-your- fortune- 
 remember, the captain took his departure. 
 
 "Hello, Caryl I hear that you are going to be 
 our next governor. I just bet my bottom dollar 
 you ll win." 
 
 "I thank you, Miss Lancaster; I am inclined to 
 think that I shall receive the nomination; but I came 
 to see you, not to talk politics. I have had enough 
 of this campaign since last week with negroes 
 grown to be our social equals, nourished by the food 
 that has been fed to them by those excellent gentle 
 men, Captain Temple and Dr. Berkeley. Surely you 
 do not expect me to talk about such gross matters 
 with you. The things that I wish to say to you are 
 much nearer to my heart. There is a great deal that 
 I wish to say to you, Miss Gladys, if I may." 
 
 " And why shouldn t you talk politics with me, 
 pray! Do you mean to say I haven t sense enough 
 to understand? " 
 
 " But why should I talk politics when there 
 are many things more important that I wish to say 
 to you?" 
 
 "That s a Yankee s answer. A pity, isn t it, that 
 you were too young to be a soldier? I want to talk 
 politics and I just will ! You must tell me every- 
 thing that happened to-day." 
 
 "I certainly will not! Why should a beautiful, 
 gentle, lovable girl like you, fairer than the lily, 
 more beautiful than the rose, more more more 
 why should you know anything of the horrors of 
 this campaign? No; I shall keep you as far away 
 as I can from Tim Murphys and Jim Temples." 
 
 "Why, Caryl Aren t you ashamed of yourself!
 
 222 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 I just despise to hear a man abuse another man be 
 hind his back. I think Captain James Spotswood 
 Temple is just splendid; and I don t believe any of 
 the mean things that some people are saying about 
 him. // est tres comme il faut. There are negroes 
 in all political meetings. You talk to them when 
 you make speeches; and so does old Colonel Dain- 
 gerfield; and I just bet five dollars that you are sorry 
 when you don t have a thousand instead of a dozen 
 coons in your congregations when you orate." 
 
 You have given the reason why I am not will 
 ing to talk politics with you or with any woman. 
 A girl should be pretty and good and everything 
 nice. All that she ever learns about politics is how 
 to love the black sheep, no matter how much she 
 hears." 
 
 " Oh, the devil ! I do so hate the pretty little 
 peaches-and-cream girls that have nothing to do ex 
 cept to sit up and look innocent and go to church 
 and be goody-goody." 
 
 Observing the astonishment of her lover, she 
 continued, with mock apology. 
 
 " I should have said je ne sals quoi plague take 
 it; but I just forgot, and didn t behave like a per 
 fect little lady. Oh, I do so wish to be like the 
 pretty little innocents that say, Goodness me! and, 
 4 My gracious! and, Did you e-v-e-r! I do! oh, 
 I do! I do!" 
 
 " Nevertheless, Gladys 
 
 "Miss Lancaster, ;/ you please!" 
 
 " Nevertheless, Miss nevertheless, Gladys, all 
 that a girl should know about politics is this: she 
 should belong to her father s party, if he belongs to 
 the Democratic party; she should choose a husband
 
 THE BETRAYAL 223 
 
 of her father s political faith, and I say this al 
 though I once heard you say that a girl should not 
 choose her husband along party lines. Please trust 
 your father s estimate of Jim Temple. I will not 
 permit you to associate with the scalawag." 
 
 "And how long have you had the right to boss 
 me? Jim Temple indeed! I like him. C est unbon 
 diable. He is always well groomed ; he wears pretty 
 neckties; and then he does say such beautiful things 
 to me. I hope he ll call to-night. I think he will. 
 He was brave enough to join the Readjuster party 
 long before John Harrison pitched his tent on M ur- 
 phy s camping ground!" 
 
 " You are mistaken. Temple did not enter the 
 party until some time after John Harrison joined it, 
 as is well known." 
 
 " He did, I tell you ! He told me so himself ! He 
 had an interview with Murphy at least three days 
 before Lelia Braxton s beau went over to Peters- 
 burg." 
 
 " Then you really have been talking with Captain 
 Temple." 
 
 " You just bet I have certes early and late, 
 and in between times ! Why shouldn t I ? Isn t he 
 our social equal?" 
 
 " Gladys, if you are ever seen with that scoundrel 
 again, I will I will I will " 
 
 "Will what?" 
 
 "Never mind. Good-night!" 
 
 " Come back, Cary; oh, please do!" 
 
 " Not to-night, I thank you." 
 
 "You better had." 
 
 "No." 
 
 " But I ve a letter for you. See, here it is ! "
 
 224 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " I thank you." 
 
 He took the letter, and then turned to leave her 
 without another word. 
 
 She snatched it from his hand. 
 
 "No you don t, Gary; you must read the letter 
 now, then tell me what Jim had to say to you 
 that was so important that Bob had to bring the 
 letter to you here. I didn t know that you corre 
 sponded with Jim." 
 
 " I shall not open the letter until I get home." 
 
 "Then I ll open it." 
 
 "You may, indeed, since your interest is so great." 
 
 "And read it?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Truly, truly?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Tres bien then here goes." 
 
 " WARRENTON, VIRGINIA. 
 " Gary Gordon Dabney, Esq., 
 
 " Warrenton, Virginia. 
 "Dear Sir: 
 
 " As chairman of the Readjuster party for this county, I 
 have the honour to say to you that the Reverend and Hon 
 ourable John Henry Jones will be glad to meet Colonel 
 Francis Southall Daingerfield, or any other gentleman that 
 you may select, in joint debate, that the people of this county 
 may be informed of the merits of the political issues of the 
 campaign from your point of view as well as our own. 
 " With great respect, sir, I am 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 "JAMES SPOTSWOOD TEMPLE, 
 
 " Chairman Readjuster Party 
 
 for Fauquier county. 
 "May 10, 1879."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 225 
 
 "How are you going to answer, Governor?" 
 
 " He shall have my reply by his own messenger." 
 
 Miss Lancaster looked over Dabney s shoulder as 
 he wrote. 
 
 You are wrong to say yes, Gary. I know a 
 horse from a goat. I never lose my money. And I 
 say you are wrong." 
 
 " Please speak English. I never attend the races, 
 so I do not understand the language of the track." 
 
 " Well, this here am a race between two horses 
 Murphy, a black horse, and Dabney, a white 
 horse." 
 
 She paused, and Dabney knew that she was in ear 
 nest, and he knew that under that lightness of man 
 ner, that flippancy which he abhorred, yet which so 
 greatly charmed him, was a philosophy no less pro 
 found, a vision no less keen because her studies had 
 been men rather than books. 
 
 U A gentleman oughtn t to meet a lout on terms 
 of equality. The parson is a lout; and you ll not 
 help your party the least little bit by putting your 
 foot into Temple s trap. I just bet that trap was 
 built by Murphy. I m not going to bet on this race, 
 and neither is popper. You think you re going to 
 win; Murphy thinks he s going to canter in; I think 
 either you or Murphy may win in a walk. Are men 
 good? Are men bad? Will Murphy and his touts 
 tumble Virginia over into the mud? Will the peo 
 ple be faithful to the gents or to their owns? But I 
 win. I bet my bottom dollar on that proposition. 
 John- 
 
 " You mean Mr. Harrison." 
 
 "Yes, John John Harrison! He s certain to 
 be nominated, and you are certain to run against
 
 226 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 him. If John wins, I ll be Mrs. Governor of Vir 
 ginia; if you win, I ll be Mrs. Governor of Virginia. 
 I shall marry the man that wins." 
 
 "Has Mr. Harrison asked you to marry him?" 
 
 "Not yet; but he s no longer engaged to Lelia 
 Braxton and all the men I know that have been 
 jilted come to me for sympathy." 
 
 u Would you accept Miss Braxton s discarded 
 lover?" 
 
 " I certainly would. Because Lelia Braxton 
 doesn t know a good thing when she sees it is no rea 
 son why I should be a damn fool. Oh, pardonnez- 
 moi / Now you are mad with me again ! Oh, Oh ! 
 I m so sorry ! " 
 
 "No, you are not; but I am distressed. That the 
 woman I love so dearly should so forget herself as 
 to use language that is out of keeping with the 
 great beauty of her soul, out of keeping with all 
 the winsome grace of her glorious girlhood!" 
 
 "Then you do like me a little bit?" 
 
 He forced her into his arms despite her struggles 
 and passionately kissed her again and again. 
 
 " Gladys, I love you I love you love you love 
 you love you ! Great God, how I love you ! Will 
 you marry me? I ask you again I believe that I 
 have asked you a thousand times already will you 
 marry me now?" 
 
 "Never!" 
 
 "That is well for you and for me. I believe 
 that I hate you as much as I love you." 
 
 "Oh, no you don t! You just think I m not quite 
 proper. Take my advice: marry ole M.iss Polly 
 Boiling. She s the properest gyurl I know. You 
 would be oh so happy with her, oh so happy ! "
 
 THE BETRAYAL 227 
 
 He left her angrily. She went to the window to 
 peep out from behind the shades as he strode rap 
 idly toward his home. 
 
 " You dear old bear ! Of course I ll marry you 
 that is, if Dick Taliaferro or Lord Bow-legged 
 Thing-um-a-jig or somebody else richer or socially 
 better than you balks at the last hurdle." 
 
 " Why, father dear, I thought that you had gone 
 to hear Uncle Daingerfield and Mr. Jones speak." 
 
 " Lelia, I have waited until the last minute. I 
 feel humiliated. For the first time in my life I shall 
 be in an audience composed of negroes, carpet 
 baggers, and thieves; and in a way they will be my 
 equals, socially and politically. I may wrong my 
 country and myself when I become a part of that 
 assemblage, but Daingerfield shall have the moral 
 support of my presence, and that of every gentle 
 man in this county, although I fear that the end 
 does not justify the means. Your uncle was with 
 Murphy at the crater. Now that Murphy is 
 Virginia s enemy he is not afraid to meet him; nor 
 is he afraid to meet the scalawags that follow him. 
 He will teach all Readjusters, black and white, in 
 a few words teach them fundamental morality. 
 Why, Lelia, why? Because men of honour can 
 always meet and vanquish men that are dishonour 
 able always, whatever the numerical odds." 
 
 Judge Braxton s excitement subsided as he saw 
 his daughter s distressed face. The agony in her 
 blue eyes, the eyes that were her mother s as well 
 as her own, aroused all his fatherhood. This 
 man had seldom failed to control his emotions. A 
 long lifetime devoted to the study of the Greek
 
 228 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 poets, many years devoted to an important law 
 practice, and twenty years on the bench, had mel 
 lowed his judgments of men. He had believed that 
 the time was passed when he could be moved to 
 deep anger or resentment. Now his daughter s 
 eyes, so soft, yet so intelligent, her face so beautiful, 
 so like her mother s his daughter that so much re 
 sembled his three sons that had laid down their 
 lives for Virginia as they fought under her flag 
 his daughter reminded him of his duty to this his 
 only daughter. Never again would he speak harshly 
 of John Harrison. He stooped and kissed her, then 
 strode from the house and walked rapidly in the 
 direction of Warrenton. 
 
 As the judge approached the court-house he care 
 fully studied the large crowd that had gathered 
 there. The few gentlemen in the assemblage, very 
 young men, or very old men those that had been 
 too young to enter the army, or too old were un 
 usually serious. There was Captain Lancaster, now 
 gravely quiet, now angrily reprimanding some lout. 
 There was old General Dabney. What could he be 
 thinking as he looked upon the passing show? 
 There was the venerable physician, Mr. Carter. 
 There was Tom Tazewell, whose boyish spirits had 
 seemed to be inexhaustible, looking as if some great 
 calamity had bowed him into the quietude of the 
 aged, there a young man beastly drunk, there an 
 old man whose eyes shone with unnatural lustre, and 
 there a negro offensively forcing upon his white 
 associates a sense of his superiority to them. Sadly 
 the judge looked on. 
 
 In the faces of all those yeomen and peasants 
 were the unmistakable marks of irresponsibility,
 
 THE BETRAYAL 229 
 
 greed, covetousness, the excitement of the unexpected 
 Hugh White and Joe Miller excepted, who were 
 endeavouring to force yeomen and peasants to real 
 ise their degradation, or compelling them to be 
 orderly. 
 
 The judge went hither and thither in the crowd, 
 courteously bowing to those that he knew, the while 
 endeavouring to devise some plan whereby the de 
 luded people might be brought back to their former 
 condition of honour and contentment some plan 
 by which Virginia should be able to strengthen as 
 well as to hold her high position among the nations 
 of the world ; some way by which her dearest treas 
 ure might be conserved, the treasure that had been 
 a reflection of her national life for nearly three cen 
 turies honour ; honour like that of Caesar s wife 
 honour beyond question. 
 
 At one end of the platform that had been built 
 over the steps leading to the court-house door were 
 Mr. John Randolph Harrison and the Reverend 
 and Honourable John Henry Jones; at the other 
 end were Mr. Gary Gordon Dabney and Colonel 
 Francis Southall Daingerfield; in the centre was 
 Captain James Spotswood Temple, the chairman of 
 the meeting. Temple had told his followers that 
 no one would be allowed on the platform other 
 than the speakers. Neither Colonel Daingerfield 
 nor Mr. Harrison, Mr. Dabney, nor any other gen 
 tleman, would be present, he knew, if he permitted 
 his black, tan, and white friends to occupy seats on 
 the platform such negro men as the two preachers, 
 Berkeley and Williams, and such white men as 
 Stokes, Stover, Rice, and Simpson. Mr. Rice had 
 vigorously protested against the captain s decision;
 
 2 3 o THE BETRAYAL 
 
 but Temple had explained that the merchant could 
 work for the holy cause much more effectively by 
 mingling with the crowd. The senatorial candidate 
 could not afford to offend his prospective son-in-law, 
 the future governor of Virginia and one of the 
 leaders of his party, so he obeyed orders. 
 
 The fame of the parson as a stump speaker was 
 firmly established. He had the reputation among 
 his followers of being the wittiest and most effective 
 debater the state had produced, and he certainly 
 swayed audiences and achieved success through his 
 personality, if not by his oratory. He was success 
 ful to an amazing degree. 
 
 The ease and grace with which Harrison intro 
 duced Jones, as well as his striking presence, his per 
 fect composure and his mastery of the situation, 
 together with the peculiar faculty that he had of 
 speaking directly to every man in the audience as 
 though his words were addressed to him personally, 
 the rich timbre of his voice, the selection of euphoni 
 ous as well as powerful words, and his thorough 
 knowledge of his subject and his audience reminded 
 Judge Braxton of his old friend, the father of this 
 young man. What a splendid specimen of young 
 manhood! An orator born, as the young Greeks of 
 old, ready to meet the world in the greatest of all 
 arenas that devoted to debate. 
 
 Then the parson rose. He adjusted his large 
 gold-rimmed spectacles; carelessly acknowledged 
 the introduction by merely nodding in Harri 
 son s direction; deliberately looked at his audience; 
 stared first at one man and then at another, now to 
 the right and now to the left, and now directly in 
 front of him; then assumed his favourite pulpit ex-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 231 
 
 pression; then came back to earth; then smiled com 
 prehensively, an all-inclusive smile, and then turned 
 and bowed to the chairman. Next he looked fixedly 
 at Harrison. 
 
 " A fine young man that. His father was a dear 
 friend of mine ; and I don t believe that any man 
 ever lived who never received the benefits of bap 
 tism who was nearly so good as old Judge Har 
 rison. He was the salt of the earth." 
 
 The good parson knew thoroughly the political 
 game as it was played by his kind. After compli 
 menting Fauquier men, living and dead, always 
 modifying his compliments by anecdotes that made 
 the subjects of his remarks human, and after thor 
 oughly establishing himself in the hearts of his 
 hearers (for many were attracted to this man, in 
 whom were combined the innocence of a young girl 
 and the knavery of a criminal, a man who would 
 talk about honour in one breath and in the next 
 persuade the wife of a political opponent to betray 
 her husband by telling his secrets 1 ) he would proceed 
 with a speech of statistics, every now and then paus 
 ing to tell some coarse anecdote that the crowd found 
 extremely humorous and witty, but which was so 
 rugged as to be intolerable to -gentlemen. At night 
 he would write an account of the meeting for several 
 newspapers, in which he would praise himself, ridi 
 cule his opponents, colour the report for his own 
 benefit, and sign with a fictitious name. 
 
 After he had taken off and replaced on his nose 
 the great gold-rimmed spectacles several times, he 
 gazed through them as though he would read his 
 statistics in a way to indicate that his vision had been 
 
 1 Autobiography of John E. Massey, p. 212.
 
 232 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 impaired by his search for truth. His oratory was 
 new to Virginia the oratory of figures that were 
 not figures of speech. The Bible was his arithmetic; 
 the "plain" people his slate; the public debt his 
 problem. 
 
 With curiosity mingled with contempt, humili 
 ated and outraged, suffering in the shame of his 
 country, Judge Braxton listened to the sophistries 
 of Parson Jones. 
 
 The poor fellow is an honest man, though mis 
 led; an honest man blindly leading these blind crea 
 tures at least I ought to be charitable enough to 
 think so, for he is one of God s ministers. But oh, 
 the awful untruth that he is promulgating, the fire 
 brand that he is tossing among these poor creatures, 
 already writhing in agonies that they do not under 
 stand, suffering like dumb beasts, not knowing why 
 they suffer, not even knowing that they suffer, yet 
 tottering under burdens too great for them to bear! 
 And whom did Murphy and Jones and their kind, 
 and Stover and Rice and their like, have to teach 
 them honour? The mantle of charity indeed must 
 cover the enemies of my poor country! " 
 
 But bitter thoughts continued to dominate the 
 judge. There was his old friend Temple s son, a 
 scalawag; there was the son of the man that he had 
 respected above all other men, the man who had 
 been on the bench with him, his boy, the pride of 
 that old man s heart, his only son, a leader among 
 Virginia s enemies. This young man had asked for 
 the hand of his only daughter; and he had not 
 hesitated to trust her life to his keeping. 
 
 The parson, animated, but still maintaining his 
 conversational style of oratory, advanced to the
 
 THE BETRAYAL 233 
 
 front of the platform with easy grace, his confidence 
 in himself and in his figures fully as great as his 
 trust in the plain people. With the spirit of one 
 born to command, with the atmosphere of force 
 that marked him as a leader of men, the parson com 
 pelled the judge to suspend his bitter thoughts for 
 a while, for he became lost in admiration of the 
 oratory of the most persuasive speaker of the Read- 
 juster party. The fine legal mind of the judge was 
 aroused by the excellent literary style in which the 
 parson delivered his arguments. Sophistry, all soph 
 istry ! yet, Judge Braxton knew that the arguments 
 would have great weight with the assembled save 
 only those few that were gentlemen. He knew that 
 Parson Jones never hoped to influence the Virginian 
 gentlemen. And, marvel among marvels, his appeal 
 was to reason, not to the passions of those negroes, 
 peasants, and yeomen that were in his audience. He 
 called upon every Virginian worthy of the name to 
 save the honour of Virginia not to continue to 
 utter high-sounding promises, foolish under the cir 
 cumstances, but to support the party of action, com 
 posed of constructive statesmen, not the party of 
 empty words. 
 
 "The voice of John the Baptist crying In the 
 wilderness," was how Major John W. Daniel de 
 risively characterised this Baptist preacher. 
 
 Not once had Colonel Daingerfield raised his 
 head, which was bowed upon his breast. One might 
 have assumed that he was unconscious of his sur 
 roundings had it not been for the flush on his cheeks, 
 gradually increasing, until his face was a deep red. 
 When the parson ceased speaking the colonel did 
 not wait to be introduced, but immediately advanced
 
 234 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 to the place that Jones had left. The Repudiators 
 expected a violent outburst of anger, well knowing 
 the colonel s fierce temper. Instead they heard the 
 tones of a master commanding his inferiors and re 
 assuring his friends. 
 
 As he listened, John Harrison s face gradually 
 became as red as the colonel s, nor was James Tem 
 ple so lost to shame that he failed altogether to feel 
 his degradation. And Parson Jones the parson 
 felt that there was indeed an impassable gulf be 
 tween the Virginian gentleman and the Virginian of 
 lesser rank. Stover and his kind heard the colonel s 
 commands with a deepening resolve that the aris 
 tocracy should make way for them; nor did they 
 fail to foresee the keen delight that would be theirs 
 when word by word they would force those same 
 utterances down the throat of the gentry. The 
 grandeur of that commanding figure, the contempt 
 in his voice and manner, were those of the offended 
 God as he drove the money-changers from His tem 
 ple. His spare figure stood at its full height, his 
 nostrils were dilated, his eyes were all comprehen 
 sive as he thundered his reproof and uttered his com 
 mands. 
 
 " I address the gentlemen that are present. There 
 is Hut one way to get rid of the debt pay it. Gen 
 tlemen, you will pay your debts. You always ac 
 knowledge your obligations. The honour of Vir 
 ginia is safe with you. Gentlemen, my compliments; 
 I bid you good day." 
 
 His stature seemed to increase as he paused. 
 
 "But you, overseers, sons of redemptioners; you 
 negroes, brutes and barbarians; you scalawags and 
 carpetbaggers; you Repudiators that call yourselves
 
 THE BETRAYAL 235 
 
 Readjusters, you men that would sell the honour 
 of Virginia, honour, a virtue that none of you ever 
 had, go back to the fields where you belong! Go 
 back, I say! Never again do you dare to say to 
 Virginian gentlemen that they shall not pay their 
 debts and yours ! Go back to the fields ! Go ! " 
 
 As some monarch leaving his throne, Colonel 
 Daingerfield walked majestically across the plat 
 form, then went into the court-house. 
 
 The crowd dispersed. 
 
 As John Harrison was about to leave the platform 
 he saw a small man with a sweeping grey beard, 
 dressed as a farmer, in the rear of the audience. 
 
 "A singular likeness to General Murphy!" he 
 thought. " Perhaps he is the farmer that I saw at 
 Calverton yesterday, for General Murphy is in 
 Danville to-day." 
 
 That Colonel Daingerfield had made a serious 
 mistake Cary Dabney was certain. The speech, he 
 thought, would not gain a single vote for the Debt- 
 payers, and the parson had consolidated the vote of 
 the heterogeneous mass of yeomen, peasants, carpet 
 baggers, and negroes, and had delivered that vote 
 to Murphy. However, no gentleman in the assem 
 blage besides Captain Lancaster and Captain Tem 
 ple agreed with him. 
 
 No, thought all other aristocrats, could any gen 
 tleman have made a speech that could have favour 
 ably affected the vote of any negro, peasant, or yeo 
 man in that motley throng? The speech was worthy 
 of Virginia s best traditions: an aristocrat had com 
 manded his inferiors. The colonel s only alternative 
 had been to follow them in their ignorance and vice.
 
 236 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " A statesman," said Captain Temple to Miss Lan 
 caster, a few days later, " should follow when he can 
 not lead, and then become the leader of those that he 
 followed." 
 
 " Maybe so," she had lightly said; " but that kind 
 of man would be a gent, not a gentlemen. Besides, 
 the gentry would be dead and buried right away. I 
 don t mean you, though; deed I don t! " 
 
 The young leader of the Debtpayers was deeply 
 grieved that John Harrison, his lifelong friend, was 
 now the associate of thieves, and Virginia s enemy. 
 He believed Jones to be a scoundrel; nor could he 
 find an honest man in all the Readjuster party, save 
 John Harrison. How should he treat him? He 
 could see but one way: shake his honest hand so 
 long as it should be honest, and he did not believe 
 that the time would come when he would refuse to 
 take the hand of this his best friend, a man that he 
 knew as well as one man may know another. As 
 to Temple, having sunk beneath the waters of unre- 
 spectability, that creature had forfeited his right to 
 associate with gentlemen. 
 
 As Dabney walked toward his office he met Har 
 rison. They shook hands with friendliness, though 
 with some embarrassment. 
 
 " Well, Harrison, the word seems to be whispered 
 about that you and I are to oppose each other for 
 the governorship. I shall not like to run against 
 you, my friend; yet I take pleasure in the thought 
 that I shall oppose a gentleman. You will not per 
 mit Virginia to suffer so long as you have the power 
 to spare her a single pain." 
 
 "I am not sure, Dabney, that I shall accept the
 
 THE BETRAYAL 237 
 
 nomination if it be offered to me. There are men 
 in the Readjuster party that are experienced poli 
 ticians good men, too, whose ability and courage 
 have been frequently tested by Virginia and never 
 found wanting. But if I oppose you, I too shall feel 
 that my fight is with a worthy antagonist. Gary, 
 boy, these are days that try friendship ; but I believe 
 that I may say that our friendship will never be 
 tried." 
 
 The young men looked affectionately into each 
 other s eyes. They had not known that they had 
 complimented each other. Affection knows no com 
 pliment. 
 
 "Lelia!" 
 
 "John!" 
 
 " I am back, Lelia." 
 
 "Yes, John." 
 
 "The last time I saw you we quarrelled." 
 
 "Y-e-s, dear." 
 
 "We will not quarrel to-night." 
 
 " N-o-o." 
 
 He took her hand, hesitated, then reverently 
 kissed it. 
 
 " I would not have been surprised had your 
 father refused to let me see you after all that has 
 occurred during the last two weeks." 
 
 "What did he say?" 
 
 I am glad to see you, my boy. My, my, my ! 
 how much you resemble John Harrison ! Then he 
 went to finish a chapter of his commentary. I am 
 very fond of your father." 
 
 " He is fond of you, John. This evening he 
 heard you introduce Mr. Jones. When he returned
 
 238 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 home, he said : My child, some day John Harri 
 son will see the error that he now makes, and then 
 he will be of great value to this commonwealth, 
 fighting for Virginia instead of against her, a host 
 in himself. I remember every word that he said, 
 dear I shall never forget any word in your praise 
 that I have heard, or ever shall hear." 
 
 Your father was at that meeting?" 
 
 "Yes; in the crowd." 
 
 "And he spoke of me that way?" 
 
 "Yes; and he said a great deal more." 
 
 " But he did not suggest a plan by which the debt 
 may be paid. I am mistaken, but some day I will 
 see the error of my way. He passes his time 
 adversely criticising the constructive statesmanship 
 of others the plans advocated by those that wish 
 to save Virginia s honour and her sovereignty and 
 the lives of her people at the same time, the state 
 craft of those who love Virginia as your father loves 
 her but never once does he offer to pay the debt 
 in money. The Debtpayers have paid all that Vir 
 ginia owes in words many times." 
 
 " And have the Readjusters shown constructive 
 statesmanship, John dear? I do not know; but I 
 wish to know from you." 
 
 The plan is my own, so I should not say that 
 it is the creative work of a statesman. But I do 
 claim that it is a device by which Virginia s honour 
 may be saved, her resources developed, her children 
 educated, and the bodily necessities of tens of thou 
 sands of women and children relieved the widows 
 and orphans that were left to every man in Virginia 
 as a sacred trust. At least my plan is better than no 
 plan."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 239 
 
 " I thought that the Readjuster plan was to repu 
 diate the debt." 
 
 " I have heard of no Readjuster plan seriously 
 considered other than my own, which I have already 
 discussed with you." 
 
 " Suppose the creditors do not accept your offer? " 
 
 Then we shall force them to do so, for we intend 
 to outlaw all the old bonds that have not been ex 
 changed for the new issue within one year from the 
 time that the state offers to exchange the new bonds 
 for the old." 
 
 " Why, John ! that would not be honourable ! " 
 
 " Then your father or some other person in his 
 party should pay the debt in money." 
 
 " I would not accept your plan were I a bond 
 holder." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Because." 
 
 "Is that your reason?" 
 
 " I would never receive a cent." 
 
 "Is that your faith in Virginia s bonds?" 
 
 " That would be my faith in any bonds issued that 
 way." 
 
 " Would you be more confident of ever receiving 
 a cent if the commonwealth simply did not pay the 
 existing bonds, but let them mature, principal and 
 interest, without meeting them in any way?" 
 
 " Yes, I would. Surely it is useless to issue new 
 bonds, or to make new promises, until the old bonds 
 are paid. Now, I would say to the bondholders that 
 I would pay every cent received from now on until 
 the debt is paid." 
 
 "The first thing that you know you will be a 
 statesman yourself the best in all Virginia."
 
 240 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " Please do not be sarcastic, dear, or joke about 
 the debt." 
 
 " We were not to quarrel." 
 
 " No-o-o." 
 
 " We will not talk any more about politics now." 
 
 " What do you wish to talk about, John, if not 
 about the debt? Is there anything else that we can 
 talk about until the debt is paid? You know that I 
 love you; but I am no longer engaged to you; and 
 I shall not permit you to call to see me as my lover. 
 I shall not let you treat me as you did when we were 
 betrothed." 
 
 " I have never treated you with any more famil 
 iarity than I have any other woman that I know, 
 unless I have kissed your hands oftener than those 
 of other women that I revere, and have told you 
 that I love you. Do you wish me to stop coming 
 to see you? May I not say to you that I love you, 
 even if we are not engaged." 
 
 " Does the debt amount to very much more than 
 all the people in the state are worth?" 
 
 "Why, no; of course not. The value of the peo 
 ple s property as assessed, which is probably little 
 more than half its real value, is just about ten times 
 greater than the debt." 
 
 "Why, John! I thought that the people owed 
 ten times as much as they could pay?" 
 
 " No, nor has any country had a debt so large as 
 ours in proportion to her population and developed 
 resources, even in days of great prosperity." 
 
 " Well, John, the settlement of the debt is so easy 
 that I wonder that there is any debt to pay. Let 
 everybody give one-tenth of his property, the Bibli 
 cal tithe. Then we can say to the creditors, Here
 
 THE BETRAYAL 241 
 
 is your money, every cent, paid to you the day that 
 it is due. " 
 
 " You are the only Debtpayer that has offered to 
 pay the debt in money. You see you are a con 
 structive statesman. But your plan is not workable. 
 You and I might part with all our possessions, but 
 if others failed to follow our example our contribu 
 tions would be as a single grain of sand is to count 
 less thousands." 
 
 " Somebody has to start every movement. You 
 and I can start this one, and the payment of the 
 debt may be the result. Why, John, there is your 
 own fortune, and father s, and Uncle Daingerfield s, 
 and Captain Temple s, and Mr. Taliaferro s why, 
 even Mr. Jones, the preacher, has more than enough 
 to pay his share of the debt. We will all pay every 
 thing that we have into the state treasury all of 
 us that have wealth and let the poor and unfor 
 tunate keep their tenth. Here is the engagement 
 ring that you gave to me. Take it away with you 
 to-night, dear, and sell it and send the money that 
 you get for it to Richmond. I shall not consent to 
 own anything of value until the debt is paid." 
 
 As she handed the ring to her lover her voice fal 
 tered, but not her eyes the eyes that John Harri 
 son had never seen so beautiful. 
 
 He put the ring on her finger in a way that indi 
 cated that he meant it to stay there. 
 
 " Lelia, early to-morrow morning I shall arrange 
 for the sale of Inglewood, and I shall send to the 
 state treasurer every cent that I have; I shall imme 
 diately make preparations to sell all my personal 
 property, and I shall retain only the clothes that I 
 wear. All that I shall make I shall send to the
 
 242 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 state treasurer, except barely enough to pay my 
 modest living expenses." 
 
 Then Lelia Braxton raised John Harrison s hand 
 to her lips, and then they sat in silence for a while. 
 Neither looked at the other, nor spoke; nor did they 
 touch each other after that one kiss upon the young 
 man s hand. After a while John Harrison said: 
 You do not realise as I do the awful poverty 
 of our people. A few like your father can afford 
 to pay the present high tax rate, for they have 
 money well invested and can pay out a great deal 
 without serious inconvenience to them; but remem 
 ber, Lelia, the capacity of a nation to bear taxation 
 is in the ratio of the productiveness of her people. 
 Virginia s wealth is her natural resources, and of 
 these her lands only are developed her lands that 
 now are largely uncultivated, unproductive, dead 
 capital, recently laid waste by the armies of thirty- 
 six nations, which camped on her farms for four 
 years. The owners or tenants were killed in war 
 fare; the farms were seized by carpetbaggers and 
 sold for unpaid taxes, so now there is only a little 
 with which to pay the creditors, although the prop 
 erty is worth ten times the amount of the public 
 debt. Your plan can not succeed. But every Vir 
 ginian, man and woman, should deliver his or her 
 property to the creditors, as you will deliver yours." 
 
 Lelia Braxton had dealt her lover a severe blow. 
 He had come to tell her that he had made every 
 preparation for the sale of all his property. For 
 ten days he had looked forward to this night, after 
 which she could never believe him to be less than 
 honourable. And he had merely followed her lead. 
 But she should never know from him that her plan
 
 THE BETRAYAL 243 
 
 was similar to his own conception, matured ten days 
 before hers. He had not stopped to consider the 
 political effect of his course, except in this : the cred 
 itors should see and the world should know the 
 metal in which Virginians were cast. 
 
 As it is true that a man is what he is, not what 
 he says that he is, nor what he believes that he is, 
 also it is true that what he may say does not add 
 to the sum of the knowledge of the person to whom 
 he speaks as to what he really is. John Harrison 
 need have felt no anxiety nor regret. Lelia Braxton 
 would have thought no more of him had he reached 
 the pinnacle of glory; nor would she have thought 
 less of him had he committed some act of infamy. 
 Yes, a man is what he is; and Lelia Braxton knew 
 John Harrison and loved him. 
 
 But we all pretend to judge a man by what he 
 says and by what he does; and we all like to be 
 praised for what we do that we think is more than 
 usually creditable in us; and John Harrison was 
 young, and Lelia Braxton was young. And we all 
 are young so long as we live.
 
 CHAPTER SIX 
 
 THE morning after John Harrison told 
 Lelia Braxton that he would give all his 
 property to the creditors of Virginia 
 Judge Braxton was at work in the library. His 
 daughter entered the room, hesitated, then advanced 
 toward her father and gently placed her hand upon 
 his shoulder. He drew her head down to his, looked 
 into her troubled eyes, then kissed her. He treated 
 his daughter with more than usual tenderness these 
 days, and showed by many little services that he 
 knew, that he sympathised. 
 
 "Well, daughter?" 
 
 " Father dear, how much is my property worth? " 
 
 " Let me see. Your uncle Caperton left you seven 
 thousand dollars, which I invested in bank stock; I 
 invested your dividends in the same way; so your 
 stock-holdings are now worth fully fifteen thousand 
 dollars. Why do you ask, little girl?" 
 
 " Father, please sell all my stock this morning 
 and pay the public debt." 
 
 The judge smiled. 
 
 "Why, little daughter; do you think that you 
 can pay the public debt with fifteen thousand dol 
 lars?" 
 
 "No, father dear, I am not so silly as that; but 
 I wish to pay to the creditors all that I have my 
 stocks, my jewels, even the Braxton diamonds." 
 
 The judge looked at her fondly. Was she not 
 worthy of Virginia? Was she not a Caperton and 
 
 244
 
 THE BETRAYAL 245 
 
 a Braxton? Yes. And as she stood proudly there, 
 in all the glory of a Virginian maiden, her eyes 
 ablaze, her cheeks aglow, her father, old man that 
 he was, felt thrilled, as does the boy who listens to 
 the recital of some tale of heroism. 
 
 " My child, as trustee I can not permit you to 
 use your property during your minority; but this 
 morning I shall give to you fifteen thousand dollars 
 as an advancement on the estate that you are to in 
 herit from me; so really you will be using your own 
 money." 
 
 " Oh, thank you, father dear ! I am so glad, so 
 glad, so glad! And as soon as I am twenty-one I 
 shall sell my bonds, and all that they bring shall go 
 to the creditors. I am going to give my jewels now. 
 May I, father dear?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 Still she stood there. 
 
 "What else, little woman?" 
 
 u Father, please, father dear, sell Morven and 
 all your other property and give everything that you 
 have to the creditors." 
 
 " Now, now, Lelia ! " 
 
 " Well, father, Mr. Harrison told me last night 
 that he would sell Inglewood and all his other prop 
 erty and give every cent that he has and all that 
 he shall earn to the creditors except just enough 
 to pay his living expenses." 
 
 She was greatly excited. 
 
 " Father, if Mr. Harrison, a Readjuster, is will 
 ing to do that, surely every Debtpayer should be as 
 generous." 
 
 For more than a minute the judge was silent. His 
 daughter waited for his answer, her arms around his
 
 246 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 neck. He had expected her to offer her small for 
 tune and her jewels to the creditors; nor was her 
 request, even demand, that he give all his property 
 to Virginia unexpected; nor was he unwilling for her 
 to give the value of her bonds and jewels, for every 
 Virginian woman, in keeping with Virginian custom, 
 was expected to make sacrifices for her country. 
 But the questions involved in the surrender of the 
 property of the gentry to the creditors, questions 
 which already had been discussed quietly among 
 gentlemen, were important, and the judge believed 
 that the debt should not be paid in that way. 
 
 " That is important news, Lelia, and as important 
 as it is unexpected. John s course will have far- 
 reaching consequences. He is a noble young man, 
 my dear, and this thing that he has done is worthy 
 of the Harrisons. Indeed, so sure am I that John 
 Harrison is a man of high character, I am confident 
 that he will not remain long in the Readjuster party. 
 I like the enthusiasm of men like John Harrison. 
 Now he is using his enthusiasm wrongly; but the 
 time will come, and soon, when all his splendid 
 vitality and noble nature will be given to the 
 Virginia that he loves as you and I love her." 
 
 Yes, her father knew; he understood. 
 
 " But, father dear 
 
 " Now run along, little woman ; I must go to 
 town; and you well, you know that Virginian girls 
 do not reason why with their parents." 
 
 " I tell you, sir, he is a puppet the puppet of 
 that infamous scoundrel, Timothy ^lurphy. An act 
 of unselfish patriotism ! an example for us to fol 
 low ! Gary Dabney, your sense of humour is worthy
 
 THE BETRAYAL 247 
 
 of your ancestors. A brilliant governor you will 
 make, sir; an honour to this proud commonwealth! " 
 
 "Colonel Daingerfield, pardon me, sir; but Vir 
 ginians have always loved Virginia more than they 
 have loved themselves ! Surely, they love Virginia 
 more than they love mere dollars and lands ! Let 
 us assume that John Harrison did come to the aid 
 of his country, instead of imputing low motives to 
 him; could he, sir, have expressed himself more 
 modestly than he did in this announcement? Could 
 his language have been more that of a patriotic 
 gentleman offering himself and his fortune to his 
 country? I know John Harrison; I know that he is 
 not General Murphy s puppet; I know that he is an 
 honourable man." 
 
 " Sir, as the puppet of Timothy Murphy he would 
 have used those same words. I proclaimed to the 
 world that Harrison is a scoundrel the scoundrel 
 weakling of a scoundrel. I did not say that he was 
 unable to use the language of a gentleman." 
 
 " I bet my bottom dollar the colonel s right," Cap 
 tain Lancaster said. Timothy Murphy has 
 played John Harrison as his right bower." 
 
 The Debtpayers of Warrenton had assembled in 
 the lobby of the Warren-Green the morning after 
 John Harrison told Lelia Braxton that he would 
 give his property and his services to Virginia. 
 Not an hour had passed between the time that he 
 left Morven and when he posted on the court-house 
 door a notice which said that his real and personal 
 property would be sold at auction the next court-day, 
 the proceeds of the sale to be paid to Virginia s 
 creditors. 
 
 Never mind his motive for the time being,"
 
 248 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 said General Dabney, "but let us consider the po 
 litical effect of this extraordinary announcement. 
 With brazen effrontery the Readjusters declare that 
 they are the only constructive statesmen in this com 
 monwealth, that the honour of Virginia must be 
 saved through their party, if at all, and that ours is 
 a party of mere words. We know that they intend 
 to repudiate the public debt; but they strengthen 
 their position when they move to pay the debt by 
 a subscription to be taken up among themselves, 
 when one of their leaders conspicuously gives his 
 ancestral home, all his real and personal property, 
 all his personal effects, all his earnings beyond barely 
 enough to buy bread, and goes forth among the 
 people a poor man one who has given his property 
 to his country and dedicated his life tc her." 
 
 " Harrison s impertinence, sirs, is not the least of 
 his infamy," Colonel Daingerfield said. " He as 
 serts in effect that he is the only man that is willing 
 to give his property and his services to his country. 
 You are right, Gary Dabney; there has never been 
 a time when a Virginian gentleman placed his 
 wealth above himself, or placed himself and his 
 wealth above his country. Is there a man among us 
 who would not go forth naked into the world that 
 Virginia might be spared a single pang? I tell you, 
 sirs, I resent the insinuation, extravagant as it is, 
 that the Virginian gentleman is not first to come to 
 the rescue of his country. The puppet Harrison has 
 done that which no Virginian of intelligence believes 
 to be for the good of the commonwealth that, and 
 nothing more." 
 
 "Which reminds me, Colonel; this morning my 
 daughter Gladys asked me to invite every gentle-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 249 
 
 man of Fauquier to a meeting of the Ladies Aid 
 Society, formed to aid in the payment of the debt. 
 The meeting will be held this afternoon at Miss 
 Polly Boiling s home." 
 
 Then, sirs, already the fair daughters of Vir 
 ginia have come to their mother s rescue." 
 
 Yes, Colonel; my daughter Gladys told me 
 about the association yesterday afternoon, before 
 John Harrison had posted his property." 
 
 " We will resume the discussion of Murphy s 
 trick," the colonel said. "Judge Braxton, sir, will 
 you give us the benefit of your views of this con 
 spiracy." 
 
 " Daingerfield, I think that you and Dabney are 
 quite right when you say that every Virginian gen 
 tleman feels a deep sense of his personal responsi 
 bility for the payment of the debt. The honour of 
 Virginia has been the bulwark of our civilisation, 
 and has enabled us to be intellectually and morally 
 supreme among the nations of the world. Does any 
 gentleman in this commonwealth feel that he has the 
 right to enjoy wealth and lands while his creditors 
 are unpaid? There is no such man. 
 
 " But let us assume that gentlemen by giving all 
 their property could raise funds sufficient to dis 
 charge the public debt. They would be unwise to 
 sell their property and lands to foreigners and to 
 Repudiators, thus assuring success to Murphy and 
 his free-booters in the fall elections. Immediately 
 they would repudiate the public debt, the price of 
 our lands and personal property would be distrib 
 uted among demagogues, and Virginia would be 
 lost. A part of our lands would be in the posses 
 sion of foreigners, the rest in the possession of
 
 250 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 the marauders among our peasantry and yeomanry. 
 We would have sold our mother into slavery. 
 
 This nation would be at the mercy of adven 
 turers from abroad, and the ignorant among our 
 own people, the ignorant that are now the vicious. 
 The gentry of Virginia, denuded of their lands, their 
 personal property sold, themselves without resource 
 other than their brains and their hands, would be 
 obliged to seek their fortunes in foreign countries, 
 for with thieves as their masters they would be un 
 willing to labour. The debt must be paid, but prop 
 erly, in a manner that will serve the best interests of 
 the commonwealth; honestly paid, but not by the 
 delivery of Virginia to her enemies." 
 
 General Dabney spoke after a long pause that 
 followed Judge Braxton s remarks. 
 
 " Although our country has been devastated by 
 foreign armies, and by armies of her own sons, in 
 an effort to resist her invaders, the loss in prop 
 erty has been slight compared to the loss that 
 she sustained in her sons that were killed in battle. 
 Had the war not been thrust upon us, the men that 
 now lie in the graves of heroes would be here in 
 the prime of their manhood, fearless, governing with 
 the strong arm of hereditary authority; but those 
 who now would be our aged, helping us by their 
 wise counsel, lie in the trenches that were dug on 
 many a battlefield. Our young men who have 
 been without a father s guidance, but who have 
 had more than a father s responsibilites have not 
 had the advantages of schools." 
 
 "How do you propose to pay the debt?" asked 
 Captain Lancaster of Colonel Daingerfield. 
 
 " I am unable to see that any plan is more desir-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 251 
 
 able than the one that is offered by our worthy 
 leader. As the debt amounts to one-tenth of the 
 value of property as assessed for taxation, he pro 
 poses to pass a law as soon as we gain control of the 
 government by which we shall levy a tax equal to 
 one-tenth of the value of all property in the state, 
 then see to it that the tax-money is collected within 
 one year. The money derived from that tax, sirs, 
 shall be paid to the creditors as soon as it comes into 
 our possession. In that way the entire debt shall be 
 paid within a year from the day that our party again 
 controls the government." 
 
 " Well, Gary," Captain Lancaster said, " I should 
 say that the plan is one of your own! And you 
 really have one disciple! Do you mean to say that 
 the Debtpayers, going on the track with such a 
 mount, hope to win this race ? I ll bet my bottom 
 dollar you don t get one vote out of a hundred. 
 Now, as I was saying to my daughter Gladys this 
 morning, the Debtpayers have been on solid ground 
 their track free from mud, equal to a plank road. 
 They have been talking in generalities " 
 
 "And so have the Repudiators, for that matter, 
 Lancaster," the venerable physician reminded him. 
 
 " So they have, Mr. Carter. But the Debtpayers 
 openly say that they mean to pay the debt, but don t 
 say how they intend to pay it. Take my word for 
 it, Cary Dabney; never have a fixed plan. The best 
 of plans can be picked to pieces by any man. I 
 think I ll be your only voter and if my fortune 
 amounted to ten dollars you wouldn t get my 
 vote." 
 
 "Always you are jocular at the wrong time, Lan 
 caster; and always you are quite as wrong as you
 
 252 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 are jocular. Some day you may be right. If so, I 
 hope that you will not fail to send for me. Mr. 
 Carter, sir, so much levity in Captain Lancaster de 
 serves your reproof. 
 
 " Now, after forty years of public service and 
 experience in affairs of the state, I have found that 
 in every campaign the two parties that oppose each 
 other proceed in this way: one has a single plan 
 not necessarily developed in detail, but stating a defi 
 nite purpose, a single purpose, a purpose that all 
 that run may read; the other party has many 
 plans. You are bound to like one, yet all are vague. 
 The party that promises everything yet makes no 
 definite promise always fails. We come straight out 
 and say that the debt shall be paid not how, nor 
 when, nor out of what funds, for every man knows 
 that if our party be elected the debt will be paid, 
 how is a matter of statecraft, but the greatest 
 dunce " 
 
 Here the colonel paused to glare contemptuously 
 over his glasses at Captain Lancaster. 
 
 " But the greatest dunce, I repeat, knows that 
 the money that is to pay the debt must be contrib 
 uted by the people of this country. Sirs, that money 
 will not fall from heaven like manna. Mr. Dab- 
 ney is a man of discernment, a man of great gen 
 eralship, and he does not deem an explanation in 
 detail to the public of matters of statecraft neces 
 sary at this time. His brilliant plan meets with my 
 full approval. We shall win the election and every 
 man when he votes to pay the debt pledges his word 
 with that vote that the debt shall be paid by him 
 paid to the extent of his fortune. And only knaves 
 shall protest when they are called upon to satisfy
 
 THE BETRAYAL 253 
 
 their creditors by contributing so mean a sum as one- 
 tenth of their property." 
 
 "A David come to judgment; aye, a David!" 
 
 " Can it be possible that Captain Lancaster thinks 
 that he is quoting the speech of Shylock? Sirs, can 
 that be possible? " 
 
 "Most unseemly! Cease, gentlemen, cease; do 
 not treat matters of so much importance as these 
 with mere wrangling and levity." 
 
 The silence that followed the old physician s re 
 proof was interrupted after a while by Mr. Dab- 
 ney. 
 
 " I think that we should recognise John Harri 
 son s patriotism, gentlemen, and say to him : Your 
 course has been noble mistaken, if you please, but 
 worthy of a Virginian that loves his country. For 
 my part, while I recognise the force of all that you 
 gentlemen have said, I shall deliver all my property 
 to our creditors this very day." 
 
 Nor could the protestations of several gentlemen 
 shake Mr. Dabney in his purpose. 
 
 " Nevertheless, sirs," said the young leader, " I 
 owe forty-seven million dollars and so does every 
 Virginian ; and I shall not enjoy the comfort of 
 wealth, nor spend a cent beyond a bare living, until 
 I shall have discharged my debt. In this I do not 
 mean to reprove you. My position is yours in 
 theory, at least; but I can not hold my property 
 while my creditors are unpaid " 
 
 Captain Lancaster again interrupted. 
 
 " Lay on, Macduff, 
 
 And damn d be him that first cries, " Hold, enough ! " 
 
 " O mighty Bard of Avon, has it come to this,
 
 254 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 that you as well as Virginia are degraded! " Colonel 
 Daingerfield exclaimed, his eyes raised to heaven. 
 
 "Where is your property, Dabney?" asked the 
 captain. " I ve never heard that you had any." 
 
 " Well, I have four thousand dollars in bank and 
 a horse and buggy. I shall draw the money from 
 the bank in a few minutes, and right now I will 
 sell you my horse and buggy." 
 
 And he did. 
 
 While the gentlemen were discussing John Harri 
 son s announcement in the lobby of the Warren- 
 Green, Captain Temple drew up his horse in front 
 of Andy Stover s shop. 
 
 "What do John Harrison be a-meanin anyways, 
 Cap n?" 
 
 "How?" 
 
 "Why, ain you hearn the news?" 
 
 " No; what news? " 
 
 " My nevvy, Gawge Simpson, Perfessor Gawge 
 Washin ton Laf ette Simpson, out ter Laurel Hill, 
 yer knows, hev jes gone by here on his way ter 
 see that thar ol es Rice gal, an he tole me as how 
 he done read a card, stuck up on th co t-house do , 
 as tole how John Harrison s a-goin ter sell out all 
 he s got, even down ter Inglewood, an evvything 
 thar pictchews on the wall, spoons in the sidebo d, 
 even down ter the horse in the stable." 
 
 "What, man! Is John Harrison bankrupt?" 
 
 " That s what Gawge what am ter say, Perfes 
 sor Gawge Washin ton Laf ette Simpson, out ter 
 Laurel Hill war a-thinkin , so he axed bout it, an 
 read closter an Lawd, what yer sposin , Cap n?" 
 
 " Speak out, man! Speak out! "
 
 THE BETRAYAL 255 
 
 "He s a-goin ter sell out evvything as is hisn an 
 gin it ter the state ter pay her debts wid." 
 
 "That s a lie!" 
 
 "Naw, Cap n, tain t it s the truth; an he done 
 say as how he spec s evvy honest man in the state 
 ter do the same as him." 
 
 "He is a damned fool!" 
 
 "That s jest what I says." 
 
 Temple stuck his spurs deep into his horse s 
 flanks and rode furiously toward Warrenton. His 
 thoughts kept pace with his steed. 
 
 " Ha, ha, Lelia Braxton ! I see your finger in this 
 pie ! And what a fool ! The place will not bring 
 half its value. Inglewood is mine. Let me see, 
 Temple s soliloquy: Harrison, a member of the 
 legislature; Temple, governor of Virginia, later 
 president of the United States; Harrison, in a War 
 renton boarding-house; Temple, the owner of the 
 fine old Harrison estate, with winter residence the 
 Governor s Mansion, Richmond, later with winter 
 residence the White House, Washington. Come, 
 come, Lelia dear; you are young now, but with the 
 wisdom of a few more years I think I may predict 
 the name that you will bear." 
 
 Then he thought of Dorothea Annabel, as he 
 always did when he thought of Miss Braxton. 
 
 "The Temple star is rising. And what a polit 
 ical stroke ! A Readjuster leads the way to an hon 
 est settlement of the debt. How Tim Murphy s 
 eyes will glisten when he hears the news ! The elec 
 tion is ours." 
 
 He began to think of the details of the Inglewood 
 estate the great brick house set far back from the 
 street, in a grove of old oaks, the elegant colonial
 
 256 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 furniture, the magnificent silver, the priceless por 
 traits by Van Dyke, Reynolds, Stuart, and others 
 all these would be his, purchased at less than half 
 their value. 
 
 There never was a girl that money and position 
 and a fine old family estate could not buy and love 
 goes with the purchase, the only kind of love that 
 a woman knows. Women have always loved their 
 captors. Did not the proud Roman maid joyously 
 mate with her barbarian conqueror? Yes, Lelia, 
 you will love me when all these things come to pass. 
 Oh, Dolly, Dolly, my pretty little Dorothea Anna 
 bel ! Your heart is mine already. . . And she is 
 a wondrous jewel." 
 
 His mood changed. Again he wondered why 
 Harrison had determined to sell his place. Doubt 
 less Andy s version was not the true one. Harrison 
 was not a gambler; he had no extravagant habits; 
 he lived well within his means. Temple was unable 
 to solve the problem. 
 
 " Possibly Harrison is tired of social ostracism. 
 Well, so am I but I am a man, and can bide my 
 day." 
 
 But why should John Harrison sell Inglewood 
 and his other large properties? Not for his coun 
 try s sake? No; neither John Harrison nor any 
 other man would sell the lands of his fathers 
 through sheer patriotism. He recalled how Mr. 
 Roger Williams Stokes had said only yesterday, 
 while Temple was awaiting the appearance of Miss 
 Dorothea Annabel Rice: "All this her-r-re talk 
 bout honour-r-r is tommyr-r-rot. Who ever-r-r 
 hear-r-rn of a body s payin of a debt ef he didn t 
 hev to. People hadn t oughter-r-r talk sich non-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 257 
 
 sense." No, not patriotism, but possibly this: 
 Lelia Braxton had told John Harrison that she 
 would never marry him, and John Harrison had 
 known that she never would. 
 
 Then he thought of Murphy. "He will ask me 
 why I did not let a Debtpayer buy Inglewood why 
 I destroyed all the political value of Harrison s 
 great political stroke." And he thought, and again 
 he thought. "Why?" 
 
 Temple had not ridden out of sight before Mr. 
 Rice drew up in front of the smith s shop. The news 
 surprised Mr. Rice beyond measure. While he did 
 not believe that Harrison would give one cent to 
 the creditors, he did fear that his own political for 
 tunes in some way would be affected, that Harri 
 son and Murphy had conspired to ruin him. 
 
 Then he saw that Mr. Stover had something else 
 on his mind. Several times the smith had started to 
 unburden, he saw; but also he saw that the news 
 would not be pleasant, so he had not encouraged 
 Stover to unload. 
 
 "I ll be a-goin now, Andy; an you keep on 
 a-doin . Lay hold on every vote as comes down this 
 here road. Well, good-bye ! " 
 
 " Hold on a minute, Mr. Rice, I hev a word ter 
 say ter yer. I sho hev done a lot fer yer, I has. 
 I s done got evvy vote as come down this here road, 
 I has ; an evvy man says, * All right, Andy, I ll vote 
 fer Mr. Rice. " 
 
 "I m much obliged to you, Andy; I certainly is." 
 
 " Hold on a minute, Mr. Rice. I air in trouble, 
 I air, an I ax yo he p. This here shop s all I s 
 got, takin wid that li l house as me an my owns
 
 258 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 lives in ; an this here shop an that thar house they s 
 goin ter be tuk from me comin ter-morrow ef I 
 ain t ris the mortgage money. I wants eight hun 
 dred dollar, I do, an I wants yer ter len me the 
 money, I do." 
 
 " I ain t a-goin to do no sech thing. Your prop 
 erty ain t worth more n five hundred dollar, all 
 knows, an if I lent you eight hundred dollar I d 
 lose three hundred dollar cold; an I ain t a-goin 
 to lose no cent on you, Andy. You ve done spent 
 your substance in riotous livin , you has, for all your 
 Meth dist piety. I don t think nothin of the Meth - 
 dist religion nohow. You Meth dists shouts mighty 
 hard, but that s because you gets het up with liquor; 
 an then you come around to me an says to give 
 you some of my ile, like the foolish said to the wise. 
 I say to you right up an down, I ain t got no ile to 
 lend you. Good-bye, Andy; keep your eyes cut for 
 every voter as comes down this here road; an you 
 let rum alone." 
 
 Mr. Stover wept. Loud were his lamentations. 
 
 " Them s crocodile tears, them is. You stop 
 drinkin so much rum an your eyes ll stop runnin 
 so much water." 
 
 Mr. Rice was Mr. Rice s only vice. 
 
 He drove off, leaving Mr. Stover in despair, for 
 that poor man thought that he had exhausted his 
 last resource. He and his owns would be put out 
 into the public highway the following day, he clearly 
 foresaw. 
 
 As Colonel Daingerfield drove toward his home 
 after the discussion of events political at the Warren- 
 Green, two sons of his former overseer, dressed in
 
 THE BETRAYAL 259 
 
 attire that they thought elegant, insultingly drove 
 by, turned in their seats, looked back at him, and 
 smirked into his face without bowing or speaking. 
 
 "Halt!" 
 
 The young men drew up their horse. 
 
 " You impertinent young dogs ! Get out of that 
 buggy; pull those flaming rags off your bodies; 
 throw those cigarettes away; put on your working 
 clothes, and then go into my fields. I shall intro 
 duce a bill into the next legislature that shall pro 
 vide for a revival of the whipping-post. Then, 
 if your conduct be repeated, I shall have you 
 publicly chastised." 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! You d better set-to and work 
 your own fields, stead of working your mouth so 
 much, old gander ! " 
 
 That from one of the young men. The other 
 laughed boisterously as he yelled at the top of his 
 voice: 
 
 "Here, et my dust! " 
 
 The red in the colonel s face grew a few shades 
 deeper. He was angry, without doubt, very angry. 
 He was about to try to overtake them when Mr. 
 Stover drew up his " critter," and spoke to him re 
 spectfully. 
 
 " Gunnel, suh, I air in a heap o trouble, I air." 
 
 " I am not in the least surprised. A religious man 
 like you, Andy, who is seen drunk two or three times 
 a week, and who associates with Repudiators, is 
 likely to be in trouble. But what is the mat 
 ter?" 
 
 Andy poured forth his tale of woe. 
 
 " But the property is not worth more than four 
 hundred dollars."
 
 260 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "Jim Rice, suh, says as how it s wuth all o five 
 hundred dollar." 
 
 " Even so, I would lose three hundred dollars." 
 
 Mr. Stover wept. 
 
 "Stop that crying! a great hulking creature like 
 you weeping like some woman ! Stop ! " 
 
 " Gawd hev quit takin care o his own." 
 
 " If you had served the Lord half so faithfully 
 as you have served the devil you would not be 
 brought to this pass. You come to see me at two 
 o clock, when you shall have the eight hundred 
 dollars; but if I hear of one dollar of it going down 
 your throat I shall have you sold out. Then I shall 
 have you and your people put into the poorhouse." 
 
 "Thankee, suh; thankee kindly, suh I I allus 
 knowed you wus a big-hearted man ! " 
 
 Colonel Daingerfield drove back to town to get 
 the eight hundred dollars. Virginia needed the 
 money, but a Virginian peasant was in trouble; and 
 Colonel Daingerfield needed the money, for only a 
 few labourers had worked in his fields for several 
 years past, and the colonel was not a man of 
 means. 
 
 "An he never axed me ter vote fer him an git 
 him votes. An thar air Jim Rice, damn him oh, 
 Gawd, I never meant ter say that thar word agin ! 
 an thar air Jim Rice as says as how I ain 1 goin 
 ter git a dollar o his money I might starve first, 
 an put my owns in the road. But I got ter vote 
 fer the upliftin o my owns, I has. I don t believe 
 in nobody settin hisse f up ter be better n annudder, 
 I don t. I ll git even wid Jim Rice summers ef I 
 does vote fur him. The cunnel never axed fer my 
 vote, an he don t git it."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 261 
 
 When Temple reached his office he found it occu 
 pied by the Reverend Doctor Shadrach Meshech 
 Abednego Berkeley. The " statement " was seated 
 in the arm-chair, his feet on the top of the desk, 
 calmly and patiently waiting for his political guide; 
 and while he waited he read the Whig, the words of 
 which he carefully spelled aloud, repeating sev 
 eral rimes those that contained more than three syl 
 lables. 
 
 "Well, Dr. Berkeley, what is this that I hear 
 about our friend Harrison?" 
 
 " Hit am creatin no end ob commerce, Mistah 
 Temple, an mah whole volubility am stirred by de 
 consequence ob sech a promotional move specially 
 when de move s by er subsequential member ob mah 
 party." 
 
 Although he struggled to maintain his dignity and 
 was visibly disturbed, the reverend gentleman did 
 not neglect his diction. 
 
 " Mr. Harrison s strange course may well cause 
 us to think, my dear Doctor." 
 
 " What do hit mean ? When I sumed de 
 sponsibility of de Readjuster party on ter my shoul 
 ders as de leader ob mah people cryin in de wilder 
 ness ob confusion, Mistah Temple, I don hit wid 
 de suspicious detention of doin mah duty. But now 
 dat de party have arriv at de susplcional fork in de 
 road ob judiciary politics, suh, I ain sure which fork 
 hit s bout ter tek. Am de Readjusters sposin ter 
 follow dis hyah promotivement ob Harrison s?" 
 
 The humour of the situation appealed to the cap 
 tain. He could not refrain from amusing himself 
 at the expense of his ally. 
 
 " Why, of course, Dr. Berkeley. I am going to
 
 262 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 sell all that I have, and you are going to sell your 
 house and lot and your horse and buggy. The pro 
 ceeds will be paid to our creditors." 
 
 At this point the diction of the rhetorical expert 
 suffered a relapse. Indeed, the learned doctor even 
 forgot his dictionary. 
 
 "Good Gawd A mighty, Mistah Temple! Sell 
 mah house an mah lot an mah hoss an mah buggy? 
 Sholy you fo gits how me an Melindy done wuk 
 fo dat house an lot an dat hoss an buggy?" 
 
 " General Murphy has ordered the sale, my dear 
 sir; so we must pay the debt by readjustment, you 
 know. That is, we must pay it privately like gentle 
 men. We must answer the call to duty." 
 
 " Tain gwine call me from dat house an lot an 
 dat hawse an buggy, I ken jes tell you. Fs done 
 drive that hawse and buggy all ober Fauquier, ter 
 ebery meetin -house roun , an I ain gwine part wid 
 dat hawse and buggy an dat house an lot. De 
 Readjusters ken go ter hell! Now yo hyahs me! " 
 
 " But you are the leader of your people, Dr. 
 Berkeley. Your attitude is neither dignified nor be 
 coming." 
 
 " De leadership ob mah people ken be handed 
 ter some udder pusson. Dyah s er passel ob niggers 
 what ain got no house an lot ter part wid an what 
 ain got no hawse and buggy ter drive roun . Fs 
 gwine stick by mah prop ty, I is, party or no party." 
 
 " But General Murphy has promised equality to 
 your people as the reward of faithfulness." 
 
 As the reverend doctor ardently longed for equal 
 ity, he was silent a moment. 
 
 " Melindy, she don set no sto by quality. She 
 say ef Gawd A mighty tended niggers ter be good
 
 THE BETRAYAL 263 
 
 as white folks, He d a-made em white. Melindy 
 she ain got no ambition. She d jes natchelly kill 
 me fo cr fool ef I say I s gwine part wid mah house 
 an lot an mah hawse an buggy. Gen l Murphy ain 
 gwine ter git nary er cent outen me nary er cent, 
 quality or no quality." 
 
 "Now, now, Dr. Berkeley; I was just joking 
 with you. Of course we are not going to sell our 
 property. The Readjuster movement is to protect 
 us to reduce our taxation. There are men like 
 John Harrison in every party, who do things that 
 are unexpected and unnecessary. Mr. Harrison him 
 self is not a party necessity." 
 
 " Hi, Mistah Temple, am dat de way you show 
 yo preciality ob dem dat pretempts ter desuscitate 
 de party, dat am ter ax you ter be gov nor an den 
 pres dent?" 
 
 "All politicians love a joke, Dr. Berkeley. Jocu 
 larity is one of the elements of a statesman." 
 
 " Den I scuse you, Mistah Temple, cause er 
 statement am de gran est ob all de microbes on dis 
 hyah celestial earth ceptin de minister of de 
 Gospel, sech as me." 
 
 Whereupon Shadrach, perfectly satisfied, pom 
 pously departed. 
 
 When Mr. Carter, the first gentleman to reach 
 the old Boiling home, was announced to the mem 
 bers of the Ladies Aid Society, already the ladies 
 assembled in the drawing-room had effected an or 
 ganisation. Miss Polly Boiling had been unani 
 mously elected president, and had found official po 
 sitions for every member of the association. There 
 was the committee on counties, which was to organ-
 
 264 THE BETRAYAL; 
 
 ise a branch of the society in every county in the 
 commonwealth. Mrs. Braxton was elected chairman 
 of that committee, without a dissenting voice, hav 
 ing been nominated by Miss Gladys Lancaster be 
 cause " Mrs. Braxton s old enough to know a thing 
 or two." There was the committee on donations. 
 Mrs. Daingerfield was nominated as chairman of 
 that committee by Miss Lancaster, and unani 
 mously elected because " Mrs. Daingerfield knows 
 a good thing when she sees it." Miss Lancaster, hav 
 ing proposed a committee on personal solicitation, 
 nominated herself as chairman of that committee, 
 saying that she could squeeze blood out of a turnip, 
 and was elected by a silent vote, no one voting for 
 or against the formation of the committee, and no 
 one voting for or against Miss Lancaster as the 
 chairman. The membership was restricted to that 
 young lady hers-elf, for she was unable to find any 
 other person that was willing to admit that she was 
 qualified to make an effective member. On motion 
 made by Miss Lancaster, duly seconded by Miss 
 Dabney, the decision was reached to hold a bazaar 
 in the court-house the last Tuesday in August, hours 
 eleven in the morning to twelve at night. Mrs. 
 Braxton was elected chairman of the committee on 
 the bazaar by the voice of those assembled, having 
 been nominated by Miss Lancaster, who said that 
 " Mrs. Braxton knows enough not to let people put 
 off any old thing on her" meaning articles to be 
 sold. 
 
 Mr. Carter s name had been announced only a 
 few minutes when other gentlemen arrived. Soon 
 the drawing-rooms were filled with the Fauquier 
 aristocracy.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 265 
 
 When presented Mr. Carter bowed low over the 
 hand of Miss Boiling, which he kissed after the 
 manner of the gentlemen of his period, then quoted 
 his favourite author. 
 
 " Dianam tenerae dicite virgines; 
 Intonsum, pueri, dicite Cynthium; 
 
 Latonamque supremo 
 Dilectam penitus lovi. " 
 
 " How very appropriate, Mr. Carter." 
 
 " Mistress Boiling, the odes of Horace are always 
 appropriate. Here, madam, he sings of Latona and 
 her children; but his words are also appropriate to 
 Virginia and her offspring." 
 
 Judge Braxton had heard Mr. Carter recite the 
 four lines from Horace. He took the twinkle in 
 the aged physician s eyes as a challenge, which he 
 accepted. 
 
 "The Latin poet did his best, Miss Boiling, and 
 we honour him; but we turn to Homer for a more 
 poetical description of these beautiful surroundings, 
 as you shall see, if you will bear with me for a 
 moment 
 
 */}? Tore fjt>ev Trpoirav r}/J>ap 5 r)e\iov 
 Salvvvr*, ovSe n $17x05 eSevero Batrbs 
 ov f4V (fropfjuyyos 7rept,tca\\O$, rjv e^ 
 Movadcov $ , at aeiBov a^i^o^evai orrl tca\f). 
 
 Madam, Horace is undone. I could repeat verse 
 after verse of the Iliad, and thereby show you that 
 Homer was Horace s master, even as he was and is 
 the master of all other singers, I - " 
 
 Fortunately Captain Lancaster came to Miss Boi 
 ling s relief.
 
 266 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " Miss Bollin , ma am, Judge Braxton deserts his 
 own tongue for a barbarous lingo. So does Mr. 
 Carter. Colonel Daingerfield, I am glad to say, is 
 more faithful, for he repeats the songs of the Bard 
 of Avon, Bailey, Landor, Poe, and Lanier; and I, 
 ma am, uphold the traditions of Virginian gentle 
 men, for my favourite poem is one that all true sons 
 of Virginia have repeated 
 
 " Thanks ! said the Judge ; a sweeter draught 
 From a fairer hand was never quaffed. " 
 
 In those two lines is summed up all the beauties of 
 poesy, in my humble opinion. Miss Bollin , ma am, 
 you should have offered me a glass of water." 
 
 The venerable physician paused, then stood to his 
 full six feet. 
 
 " Ladies, my children, all praise to the noble 
 women of Virginia. Ever have they been first to 
 her rescue; ever have they been ready to lay down 
 their lives for her, even as the sons of our beloved 
 country have laid down their lives." 
 
 Colonel Daingerfield came forward. 
 
 " Madam, I deeply regret that you ladies did not 
 wait for the gentlemen before you organised your 
 selves into this association. I fear, ma am, that you 
 have made some grievous mistakes. Ladies are not 
 skilled in such matters. You should have had the 
 benefit of my advice." 
 
 "Why, Colonel Daingerfield," said Miss Lan 
 caster, "I think you are just horrid! The idea! 
 Women are just as smart as they re pretty. Now 
 don t you mind what he says, dear Miss Boiling, 
 I m sure you ve done just splendid. Oh, there s 
 Dick Taliaferro! Wait a minute, Dick! Wait a 
 minute! "
 
 THE BETRAYAL 267 
 
 / 
 
 "An animated young lady, ma am." 
 
 " Unlike the girls of my time, Mr. Daingerfield," 
 Miss Boiling said. 
 
 "Of your time, ma am! But yesterday, and you 
 and John Harrison stood neath yonder chandelier. 
 Mistletoe, the flower of Christmas, hung from its 
 sparkling glass trimmings; a spray of mistletoe was 
 fastened in your chestnut hair; your cheeks were lit 
 by the fires of your glorious eyes. But he would have 
 been a brave man, ma am, had he claimed the rights 
 that you dared him take. And a brave young man 
 was John Harrison. But he was not so brave as 
 to pick up the gauntlet that you threw down." 
 
 "Oh, prithee, Mr. Daingerfield! will you never 
 forsake your youth?" 
 
 " Never, ma am so long as the bloom of your 
 cheeks puts to shame the colour that mantles the face 
 of the new-blown rose." 
 
 " Daingerfield," said Judge Braxton, " did I hear 
 you mention the name of John Harrison?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, you did; John Harrison, the friend of 
 our youth the father, sir, of the poor young man 
 that Murphy has misled." 
 
 "Uncle Daingerfield," Miss Braxton said, "I 
 wish General Murphy would mislead other young 
 men. I wish he would mislead you into selling 
 Bannockburn and all your other property." 
 
 " Daughter, your uncle is no longer a young man." 
 
 " And it is well that all Virginian men are not 
 young, Ingram," said Mr. Carter, smiling signifi 
 cantly. 
 
 The gentlemen, with few exceptions, denounced 
 Murphy s political trick pointedly, though in guarded
 
 268 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 words. The ladies, without exception, made a hero 
 of the young man, and Miss Boiling, defending him 
 warmly, did not hesitate to say that the Readjusters, 
 in John Harrison, had set the Debtpayers an ex 
 ample that they should follow. Her tall figure, not 
 yet stooped by seventy years, was more erect than 
 usual, and her eyes had all the fire that was theirs 
 half a century before. 
 
 But John Harrison s father had looked into other 
 eyes than Miss Boiling s. He had looked into soft 
 blue eyes, that did not sparkle. He had not seen 
 Miss Boiling s eyes. And Miss Boiling was M iss 
 Boiling yet. 
 
 " Lelia, I do believe that Tom Tazewell is in love 
 with Miss Boiling. Just see how he looks at her." 
 "You should know, Betty." 
 
 " Mr. Taliaferro, did you bring your cheque-book 
 with you?" 
 
 "Why, yes, Miss Lancaster." 
 4 Then please write me out a big cheque a great 
 big juicy cheque. Oh, Miss Polly, Mr. Taliaferro 
 is writing out such a big cheque! But you are our 
 president, Miss Polly, so you must head the sub 
 scription list. The committee on personal solicita 
 tion expects every man to do his duty." 
 
 "Certainly, I shall start the list, certainly; I enter 
 my name for one thousand dollars." 
 
 "Oh, oh! If you didn t look so solemn I d give 
 you a kiss! Voila, Mr. President; a check for five 
 thousand dollars. But then you re the richest man 
 in the state, Mr. Taliaferro." 
 
 " Lelia, that was your contribution. I wish some
 
 THE BETRAYAL 269 
 
 young man loved me well enough to give five thou 
 sand dollars to our society." 
 
 " Hush, Betty, you will be overheard. Besides, 
 Mr. Dandridge would give his life for you." 
 
 " Well, well, well 1 Surely somebody else is going 
 to give something! Walk up, ladies and gentlemen 
 you all know how to write ! " 
 
 Miss Betty Dabney unfastened a handsome pin, 
 a cameo surrounded by pearls, which had belonged 
 to one of her Gordon grandmothers, and handed it 
 to Miss Boiling. Miss Clarke and her five nieces 
 walked forward, one after another, and laid on the 
 marble-top table, behind which the president was 
 seated, all the jewels that they wore. Their ex 
 ample was followed by all the other ladies except 
 Miss Braxton and Miss Lancaster. Unobserved, 
 Miss Braxton had slipped her jewel box on the 
 table and had handed a sealed envelope to the 
 presiding officer. Miss Lancaster had given noth 
 ing. 
 
 Each praised the others for their generosity, and 
 asked one another what they had given. 
 
 "What did you give, Miss Lancaster?" asked 
 Miss Boiling, who usually addressed the committee 
 on personal solicitation as Gladys; but this evening 
 no, she could not bring herself to say Gladys this 
 evening. 
 
 "My family jewellery is at home, Miss Boiling; 
 but I shall contribute my widow s mite. This dear 
 little ring was given to me by my first sweetheart 
 affaire de cceur now, Mr. Taliaferro, you needn t 
 look so solemn poor boy! He s married now; but 
 I ve always had some sentiment about this dear little
 
 270 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 garnet ring tout ou rien! Here, take it, Miss 
 Boiling." 
 
 The silence was oppressive. Mjss Boiling took 
 the ring. She knew that Miss Lancaster was not 
 making a sacrifice quite so great as the young lady s 
 words implied. She had seen the large horseshoe 
 pin of magnificent diamonds that Miss Lancaster 
 had neglected to take from beneath her dimpled 
 chin. One is likely to forget an ornament that is 
 out of sight. 
 
 " Come, step right up, gentlemen," Miss Lan 
 caster continued; "walk to the captain s office and 
 settle there. For shame, for shame ! is Mr. Talia- 
 ferro to be the only horse to run in this race?" 
 
 Young Tazewell came to the defence of the gen 
 tlemen. 
 
 "The ladies first, Miss Gladys." 
 
 "Amende honorable; but women have nothing to 
 give. Come, Tom, I haven t seen your handwriting 
 for a month of Sundays." 
 
 Mr. Tazewell put his name down for ten dollars, 
 the nine Beverleys names followed, and every other 
 gentleman, except Mr. Dabney, entered his name 
 for the same amount. 
 
 " I ve always heard that men follow one another 
 like sheep. Ten dollars ! ten dollars ! a miserable 
 little ten ! And not a lady here who didn t give 
 many times ten dollars worth of jewellery! Why, 
 Gary Gordon Dabney, you haven t put your name 
 down ! You walk right up here, sir, this very min 
 ute!" 
 
 Whereupon Mr. Dabney handed Miss Boiling a 
 check for four thousand dollars, and counted out 
 upon the marble-top table thirty pieces of gold.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 271 
 
 " Four thousand dollars two hundred and fifty 
 dollars why, you dear old bear ! Popper, popper ! 
 where are you, popper? Popper left after he paid 
 his ten dollars thought I was going to nail him 
 for ten more. I m going to look for him." 
 
 " Gladys, your delight seems to be genuine 
 which surprises me. My brilliant young daughter 
 has no place in her heart for Gary Dabney, I see. 
 Why, my dear child, he has given everything he has 
 on earth four thousand dollars he had in bank, and 
 his horse and buggy, which are now in the Warren- 
 Green stables. I shall sell the horse for fully two 
 hundred and fifty dollars, and expect to get one 
 hundred dollars for the buggy. My clear profit will 
 be one hundred dollars." 
 
 For once Miss Lancaster was quiet- very quiet. 
 But her father could hear her think. After a while 
 she spoke. 
 
 " I m going right away and ask Miss Boiling to 
 give that poor dear boy s money back to him. I 
 think it s a shame to rob young men that way. Now 
 ten dollars, that s all right; but why it s just out 
 of the question ! " 
 
 " Evidently you know very little about Gary Dab 
 ney. You would make a scene for nothing. Seems 
 to me you ve had enough to do with this business 
 already; so you be quiet for the rest of the evening. 
 There are several ladies here besides you. As I told 
 your mother, I d rather raise five boys than one girl; 
 but I ve had to fetch up five girls and three boys." 
 
 "A generous gift a very generous gift, Gary; 
 worthy of the Carys and the Gordons and the Dab- 
 neys."
 
 272 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " I thank you, Miss Boiling." 
 
 Ah, me ! then was the period when the Virginian 
 did not say, "I thank you very much;" then his 
 northern friends did not say, " Tha-an-nk y-o-u," 
 nor did his eastern neighbours say, " Thanks." 
 
 A group of gentlemen discussed Dabney s gift. 
 
 " I never tried to dissuade my son. I would do 
 the same were I a boy." 
 
 " And, General," said Judge Braxton, " I shall 
 say for the benefit of these young men about us 
 no young man makes a mistake when he gives all 
 that he has to his country. Harrison and your son 
 have set an example in patriotism that is not amiss 
 in these perilous days." 
 
 "Then, Judge, you think that Mr. Harrison is 
 not Murphy s puppet?" 
 
 " Tom Tazewell, no man here believes that John 
 Harrison would permit himself to be used in a po 
 litical trick. No man in Virginia is more surprised 
 than Timothy Murphy that John Harrison has done 
 this thing, I venture to say." 
 
 Lelia Braxton heard her father s words. Later, 
 as she told him good-night, she placed her arms 
 about his neck and kissed him more than once. 
 Judge Braxton knew why. 
 
 " Mr. Dandridge, do you not think that was just 
 splendid of Mr. Dabney?" 
 
 "No, Miss Lelia." 
 
 "You are joking, surely?" 
 
 "No; the debt can never be paid that way. I 
 think that he should have kept his money." 
 
 "Then I will not talk with you."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 273 
 
 But the young magistrate had pondered over the 
 advice of his party leaders, and he thought that his 
 friend had made a mistake. 
 
 "What did you give, Mr. Dandridge?" 
 "Ten dollars." 
 "Ten dollars?" 
 "Yes, Miss Betty." 
 
 "If / were a young man I would give all my 
 wealth to Virginia, as my brother did." 
 
 Half an hour later, as Miss B olling and Miss 
 Dabney together went over the list of subscribers, 
 they saw that Mr. Dandridge had marked out the 
 ten dollars that he had set opposite to his name and 
 had written in the words, "All that I have." 
 
 " I wish to read this letter aloud," said Miss 
 Polly Boiling, trembling as she rose from her seat 
 behind the table. 
 
 "To the Ladies Aid Society: 
 
 " I regret that I am unable to accept the invitation that 
 you orally extended to all the gentlemen of Fauquier, but an 
 important political engagement keeps me at my office. How 
 ever, I wish to say that I am heartily in sympathy with your 
 plans. I also wish to thank you for your help to Virginia in 
 these days of her need ; and also I wish to say that the Read- 
 juster party will be glad to co-operate with you. I enclose 
 my cheque for one hundred dollars, and if I can be of fur 
 ther assistance, please command me. 
 
 " Respectfully yours, 
 
 "JAMES SPOTSWOOD TEMPLE. 
 " The Warren-Green, 
 
 " Saturday afternoon."
 
 274 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "Zounds! Zounds! I say Zounds! That is all 
 that I can say in the presence of ladies! Zounds! 
 Zounds! Miss Boiling, ma am, please hand that 
 cheque to me. I shall return it immediately. Later, 
 ma am, I shall take occasion to resent this insult." 
 
 ; No, siree, Colonel," Miss Lancaster interposed; 
 "we re going to keep that cheque. You can bet your 
 bottom dollar on that. What, let Gary give every 
 cent he s got, and not take Jimmy Temple s little 
 hundred? No, sir; not if the court knows herself. 
 We ll get all out of the Readjusters that we can." 
 
 Miss Boiling handed the cheque to Colonel Dain- 
 gerfield. 
 
 " Ladies," said Judge Braxton, " I wish to advise 
 you. Do not pay out any money until after the 
 election. And I wish to add, the seeming parsimony 
 of the gentlemen is the result of a conference held 
 by the leaders of our party this morning, when the 
 decision was made that all gentlemen should hold 
 their property until after the election. You ladies, 
 who know your fathers and husbands and brothers, 
 will suspend judgment. We are in sympathy with 
 your society, and we thank you for the splendid aid 
 that you have given and that you will give to our 
 cause." 
 
 Mr. Carter called Colonel Daingerfield aside. 
 
 " Now, Francis, return that cheque without com 
 ment, and there let the matter end. No gentleman 
 can afford to enter upon a controversy with that 
 man." 
 
 " Sir, I shall send my overseer to chastise him." 
 
 "Where s your overseer, Colonel?" 
 
 " Lancaster, I had forgot." 
 
 " Francis, I shall not permit you to go any far-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 275 
 
 ther. I command you, sir, to return that cheque 
 and let the matter end." 
 
 Mrs. Daingerfield had heard Miss Betty Dabney 
 pointedly hint to Mr. Dandridge that he should 
 contribute his large fortune to the association s fund. 
 She determined to call the young girl aside later in 
 the evening and reprove her, for the Virginian ma 
 tron never hesitates to rebuke the young girls that 
 violate the proprieties in her presence. The moth 
 erhood of the Virginian matron is all-inclusive, and 
 no sensible Virginian girl is offended when she is 
 reprimanded by a woman that is a great deal older 
 than herself even if she is a stranger. But Miss 
 Betty, having found out that Mrs. Daingerfield had 
 overheard her broad hint, took good care not to go 
 near her during the rest of the evening. Miss 
 Betty was among the first to leave. 
 
 The meeting now adjourned. 
 
 In the early morning of the day that Inglewood 
 was sold John Harrison sent a trunk filled with his 
 clothes and a few trinkets of value to himself only 
 to the Warren-Green by his man Jake. Then he 
 left the home of his fathers, and made his way to 
 his new home, a single room in the old tavern. As 
 General Murphy had asked him to submit plans for 
 the settlement of the debt in writing by noon of the 
 next day, he wrote continuously until four o clock, 
 when he was interrupted by the auctioneer, who 
 handed the proceeds of the sale of all his real and 
 personal property to him. After depositing the 
 money, Harrison drew a cheque for the full amount 
 of his account, made payable to the order of Miss 
 Polly Boiling.
 
 276 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 After supper, while he sat in his new home, old 
 Jake entered the room, first having received per 
 mission, and with bowed head stood before his 
 young master. 
 
 "Well, Jake?" 
 
 " De place done gone, Marse John; de place done 
 gone, suh ! Mistah Temple he done pay nuttin fo 
 it, an when he done git it, Marse Taliaferro he 
 done driv up, an he say, I wants de place; I ll pay 
 heap more n dat. Mistah Temple, he say, De 
 place am mine, Mistah Taliaferro. 
 
 No word did John Harrison utter; but he listened 
 intently. The old negro continued, his eyes plainly 
 showing his anger. 
 
 " Marse Taliaferro he say, I done gib double 
 what you pay. Mistah Temple, he done say, I 
 don wan tek no Vantage ob you, Mistah Talia 
 ferro; I done paid mo n de place wuth, cayse de 
 state need de money; den I nebber buyed de place 
 fo speckerlatinV Den Marse Taliaferro done tu n 
 on he heel, he face done lit up red-lek, an he eyes 
 done look like Marse Daingerfield s when he done 
 tell dem peoples ter go home." 
 
 " Mr. Taliaferro knew the hour of the sale. Did 
 you find out why he was late?" 
 
 The old negro s eyes shone with fire, quite equal 
 to that which he had seen in the eyes of Colonel 
 Daingerfield and Mr. Taliaferro. 
 
 " Marse Taliaferro wan late, Marse Taliaferro 
 wan , suh. He done driv up an hour fo de time 
 sot fo de sale; but two hours fo Mistah Temple 
 he done say to de auction-man, Come, start de sale; 
 what you waitin fo ? De auction-man, he say, 
 * Tain t time yit. But Mistah Temple he done low
 
 THE BETRAYAL 277 
 
 dat de auction-man done made er stake in de hour. 
 He done tole him dat de ole home s fo sale fust, 
 den what s in it. Den Mistah Temple he say, Ef 
 you don sell de place now, I s gwine. I ain gwine 
 hang roun hyah waitin fo you. Ebbybody s here, 
 anyways. He done suaded de auction-man, he 
 done; an den he done bought de place fo nuttin , 
 cayse nobody s got nuttin , so de place done brought 
 no mo n half what you done say it oughter fotch." 
 
 The old negro clinched his fists tighter; then he 
 slowly relaxed; his form, which had stood erect in 
 his anger, now gradually bowed low, and his head 
 sank upon his breast. 
 
 " Ebbyt ing done gone dey sole yo hawse an 
 buggy, Marse John. Dey sole ole Marser s an ole 
 Missus s pictews right often de wall de folks f om 
 way back yonder eben down ter yo pictew, Marse 
 John, eben down ter de spoon yo ole aunt, Miss 
 Harrison, done gib you when er baby, s sole out wid 
 de t other silber. Mistah Temple done got tall." 
 
 The old man unpacked his master s trunk, laid 
 his evening clothes out for him, and then retired to 
 a corner of the room, where he stood motionless. 
 
 "Jake, you have no home?" 
 
 "No, suh." 
 
 "And I have no money. . . . Do you wish me 
 to find work for you?" 
 
 " Marse John, I nebber done no wuk in all mah 
 life. I s too ole ter wuk now. I don wan no 
 money, Marse John; I jes wants ter be er Ingle- 
 wood Harrison till I die. I ain nebber done had 
 no wage, ceptin er little baccer money now an 
 den. I ain got no need fo no money. I kin do 
 widout baccer money."
 
 278 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Your room is in the servant-quarters, Jake. 
 Never, so long as I live, shall you be other than 
 an Inglewood Harrison. Your old age shall be one 
 of peace and comfort." 
 
 An hour later John Harrison was in Miss Polly 
 Boiling s drawing-room. 
 
 "John Harrison, this is the first time that you 
 have been in my home since last March. I have 
 missed you, my son. I am an old woman now, and 
 I need my friends. As a little boy you were in and 
 out of the house every day; as a lad you brought 
 your joys and your troubles to me; as a young man 
 you made me your confidante. Do you remember, 
 John, that you told me of your love for Lelia Brax- 
 ton even before you told her, and asked me if I 
 thought that you had any chance to win her heart? 
 I told you, my boy, that you could win any woman s 
 heart, for you would never find a heart purer than 
 your own. And you, my John, have not been near 
 your old mother for nearly two months." 
 
 The young man knelt and kissed Miss Boiling s 
 hand. Then, like some queen-mother of old, she 
 raised him by the hand that held hers and kissed 
 first one and then the other of his blue eyes. 
 
 " Miss Polly, here is the cheque the cheque for 
 the Ladies Aid Society. I have one hundred dol 
 lars left." 
 
 "John Harrison, I have not wept for forty 
 years I have not wept. No, I shed tears once in 
 all that time. Now, John pardon the infirmities 
 of age. I shall be calm soon." 
 
 Again he knelt; again he kissed the withered 
 hand. Then he withdrew quietly, as a subject with 
 draws from the presence of his sovereign.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 279 
 
 Harrison went directly to Morven from the Boi 
 ling dwelling. He found the family in the drawing- 
 room. Judge and Mrs. Braxton were very grave, 
 and Miss Braxton s face was almost as white as her 
 dress as she stood by Taliaferro s sculpture of 
 Homer, aimlessly passing a red rose to and fro over 
 the white marble face. The young man had ad 
 vanced toward Mrs. Braxton to shake hands with 
 her, but she had not offered her hand to him; so he 
 had bowed low, and then he had bowed to Miss 
 Braxton. The judge addressed him. 
 
 " How do you do, Mr. Harrison? Inglewood was 
 purchased by Captain Temple, I have been told, the 
 purchase price being less than half its value." 
 
 Mr. Harrison vouchsafed no explanation; but he 
 again bowed low, then stood erect, his pride that 
 of generations of Harrisons. 
 
 " Mr. Braxton, I am now ready to assist you in 
 searching for references in the library," said Mrs. 
 Braxton. 
 
 For fully a minute after her father and mother 
 left the room Miss Braxton stood in silence by the 
 bust of Homer, still toying with the rose, as though 
 its perfume could quicken the cold marble. She was 
 the first to speak. 
 
 " You you now you are the noblest of all Vir 
 ginians. I I love I have lived in you all day. 
 I I " 
 
 In two strides John Harrison had reached her 
 side, he had seized her hand, and then John Har 
 rison forgot the precepts of his fathers. He caught 
 her in his arms; he pressed her to his heart; he 
 kissed her fiercely, and then his kisses became tender 
 and still more tender as he held her. She did not
 
 280 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 resist. She was exhausted. She was like some little 
 girl that lies motionless upon her father s bosom 
 after a storm of tears. All day long her heart had 
 sobbed. 
 
 Leading her to a huge upholstered chair, he bent 
 his knee as he took her hand. 
 
 " Lelia, I have done no more than a man s part 
 not so much as thousands of men have done for 
 Virginia, and not so much as I have done for her 
 since the evening, in the magnolia grove, that you 
 prayed to God to show you the way." 
 
 "I know, John; I know." 
 
 " I have given no more than you, for have you 
 not given all, even your heart, as I have given mine? 
 But Virginia does not expect us to give our love, 
 nor is she willing to take that love from us. Lelia, 
 our love is our own. You are bound to me, my 
 love, O my love, my Lelia, by bonds that can not 
 be broken even by death. They are bonds stronger 
 than our betrothal vows stronger than the vows of 
 marriage. We are bound by love, the bonds of 
 gold that were wrought by Almighty God, stronger 
 than all the chains forged by Vulcan, and stronger 
 than the will of man. Lelia, let us repeat our be 
 trothal vows before God s altar now, Lelia, now ! 
 Surely God has answered your prayer He has 
 shown you the way." 
 
 Her eyes fell; her cheeks were aglow; her bosom 
 heaved. John Harrison bent over her hand, that 
 she might have time. With her disengaged hand 
 timidly, caressingly, she touched his hair. Then she 
 let her hand rest on his head. 
 
 " Ever since that evening every night every 
 morning and all day long I have prayed as we
 
 THE BETRAYAL 281 
 
 prayed together. But God has not shown me the 
 way unless this way: we must live our lives apart 
 until until John, until you see Virginia s way." 
 And again Harrison went out into the night. 
 
 Miss Polly Boiling regained her composure soon 
 after Harrison had left her. She knew where he 
 had gone, and she knew that her boy would say 
 nothing about his gift; but Leila Braxton she 
 should know that very night. She loved the young 
 girl first, because John Harrison loved her, then 
 because Lelia Braxton was the most lovable girl 
 that she had ever known. A letter from Miss Boll- 
 ing to Mrs. Braxton, which really was meant for 
 Miss Braxton, was delivered a few minutes before 
 eleven that night. 
 
 Although Judge Braxton had been in bed for 
 more than an hour when Miss Boiling s letter was 
 delivered, he began to dress, and before midnight 
 had aroused John Harrison, who was sleeping 
 soundly in his Warren-Green room. 
 
 " John, forgive me ! I have known you since the 
 day that Mr. Carter and I stood as your sponsors 
 in baptism, when you, less than a month old, were 
 held in John Harrison s arms. I should have known 
 that you were incapable of any deliberate act of in 
 famy, i ask you to forgive me." 
 
 No word did John Harrison say, but he grasped 
 Judge Braxton s hand. Then, without another 
 word, the judge returned to Morven. 
 
 Captain Temple, believing that all women love 
 men when they love, had called at Morven half 
 an hour before John Harrison had been announced.
 
 282 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Temple believed that Lelia Braxton had never loved 
 Harrison, that she could never have loved a goody- 
 goody baby-boy type of man, always right, but al 
 ways wrong when right. Now he, Temple, would 
 compel her admiration, unknown even to herself, by 
 a bold, daring move. Insolence? Yes; but do not 
 all women really admire insolence in men? So 
 thought Temple. 
 
 Miss Braxton was in the conservatory when she 
 heard Temple s voice as he asked the old butler if 
 she were at home. 
 
 William ushered the captain into the drawing- 
 room, whence his young mistress was visible through 
 the doorway. The new owner of Inglewood could 
 overhear Miss Braxton and the servant, as they and 
 the captain knew. 
 
 " I declar , Marse Braxton sholy would say ef he 
 done saw you, wid all dem flowers hangin bout 
 you, what he allers done say ter Mistis 
 
 " Miss Braxton mongst de flowers, 
 
 Herse f er flower fairer dan de rose. " 
 
 " I always knew that you were a poet, William." 
 
 "How you done know dat, chile?" 
 
 " Because you love flowers, and everybody that 
 loves flowers is a poet by nature. You take care of 
 my flowers for me, William, like one who loves 
 flowers." 
 
 " Dat s cayse I loves you, liT Missus, an Sary 
 loves you an all loves you." 
 
 Then William went back into the drawing- 
 room. 
 
 "She say as how she ain home, suh."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 283 
 
 " Very well ; tell her I am sorry that I will call 
 again." 
 
 "Good-morning, Colonel Daingerfield!" 
 
 " Good-morning, Miss Lancaster." 
 
 This morning, sir, as I drove through these 
 spacious grounds, so beautifully garlanded, so like 
 some fairyland, I heard the robin, the bird of the 
 morning, sobbing forth his plaintive song of woe. 
 Sir, that song seemed to me to say, Awake, Vir 
 ginians; buckle on your armour; come to the rescue 
 of this your native land ! 
 
 " Madam, I I madam, I I " 
 
 " Cease, Francis, cease ! This is not a time for im 
 patience, but for thought. We must meet this issue 
 in a manner worthy of Virginia and her dead sons ! 
 Let not the mocking of a young girl arouse you to 
 anger, but remember that out of the mouth of babes 
 and sucklings cometh wisdom. Be calm, Francis ! 
 Becalm!" 
 
 " Madam, I shall announce your arrival to Mrs. 
 Daingerfield." 
 
 " Now please don t be mad, Colonel ; I did so want 
 to get you into a good humour. I hadn t the least 
 idea that you d take me seriously. I was just fool 
 ing honest to Gawd I wus! I ve come for suppen." 
 
 " Madam, I shall take great pleasure in serving 
 you." 
 
 " Sir, you fill me with joyful emotions. I take 
 great pleasure in permitting you to serve me. Sir, 
 I m the committee on personal solicitation, and 
 I ve the honour to request that you contribute gen 
 erously to the fund of the Ladies Aid Society a 
 fund, sir, that shall be used to save the honour of
 
 284 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Virginia. I ask that you sell Bannockburn and all 
 your hereditaments and personal belongings and that 
 you give the proceeds of the sale to me; that you here 
 and now hand a cheque to me for the full amount 
 of your bank balance, and thereby prove that the 
 Debtpayers, sir, the Debtpayers, mean to pay the 
 debt, that they do not mean to leave the payment 
 thereof to wicked Repudiators." 
 
 " Already, Miss Lancaster, you have been told 
 that your elders believe that the debt should not be 
 paid by the sale of Virginia to Murphyites and for 
 eigners. I shall announce your visit to Mrs. Dain- 
 gerfield now, if you will excuse me for a few min 
 utes." 
 
 "Hold, Francis, hold!" 
 
 "Madam!" 
 
 " Judge Braxton gave me a cheque for a lot of 
 money." 
 
 " Doubtless you refer to the ten dollars that he 
 subscribed while he was the guest of the Ladies Aid 
 Society. I have paid the ten dollars that I subscribed 
 at that time." 
 
 " No such thing I ve got his big cheque right in 
 this bag. Want to see it?" 
 
 " I will take your word for it, madam." 
 
 "Oh, please do give me something please; that s 
 a dear old Gunnel ! " 
 
 " I will write you a check for twenty-five dollars 
 that Mrs. Daingerfield no longer may be deprived 
 of the pleasure of your company." 
 
 "Pooh! No, you don t, Colonel! Hola! pas si 
 vitef Judge Braxton gave me one hundred dollars, 
 and he s not a professional politician." 
 
 " I am tempted to give you as much that Mrs.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 285 
 
 Daingerfield may be immediately apprised of your 
 call but I regret to say, madam, I am not a man 
 of wealth, so I am unable to give you more than 
 this modest cheque. Here is the twenty-five dol 
 lars." 
 
 "I suppose beggars mustn t be choosers; so I 
 thank you very much. But remember, sir, ours 
 ours, I say is a noble cause. We fight for Virginia 
 not for ourselves. Now, sir, I ll not trouble you to 
 call dear old Mrs. Daingerfield; but I shall go forth 
 through your spacious grounds, and the plaintive 
 songs of the robins will fall upon my ears like Vir 
 ginia s dirge. Mournfully will they sing: The 
 master gave but twenty-five dollars a mean little 
 cheque for twenty-five dollars. By-bye, Gunnel ! " 
 
 " Madam, good-morning 1 " 
 
 "Good-afternoon, Mr. Rice!" 
 
 " Good-evenin , Miss Lancaster. Come right in, 
 an wait a minute whilst I go an call down Eugenie 
 Victoria an Phyllis Daphne an Dorothea Annabel 
 an maw an Reg nal La nc lot, the doctor. I m 
 mighty glad to see you mighty glad. You know 
 you ain t been in my house befo in all the time 
 you ve been a-comin to Warrenton. I certainly is 
 mighty glad to see you I certainly is mighty glad." 
 
 " I ve tried time and again to come, Mr. Rice, 
 but something always happened to prevent. You 
 know, I was at Mrs. Stuart s with Dorothea Anna 
 bel part of a year, and I m very, very fond of her. 
 She was the most popular girl there and oh so 
 smart! I left after a year; but Dorothea that 
 girl just stayed six whole years. And she s as pretty 
 as she s smart."
 
 286 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "Eugenie Victoria an Phyllis Daphne is mighty 
 likely gyurls too, I can tell you." 
 
 "They certainly are, Mr. Rice. I ve heard that 
 Eugenie Victoria s one of the best housekeepers in 
 Fauquier; and everybody says Phyllis Daphne looks 
 just like her mother and nobody can say more 
 than that, for Mrs. Rice is just too lovely for any 
 thing." 
 
 1 You don t know the doctor, Reg nal La nc lot, 
 do you?" 
 
 "Not personally; but I ve seen him at church 
 St. James, you know." 
 
 " I ll go call him now! He may be hangin around 
 the house, an he ain t never set up to no gyurl. 
 He s a mighty likely boy, doctor Reg nal 
 La nc lot is. Time s comin when he s goin to get 
 a mighty fine house an some mighty broad acres." 
 
 " Mr. Rice, I ve come to ask your help. Please 
 sell all your vast estate and every bit of your prop 
 erty, for I want to give the money to the Ladies 
 Aid Society for the creditors. I ask you to give me 
 a cheque for all that you ve got in bank. I m au 
 thorised to receive the money." 
 
 Them s monstrous propositions of yoiirn, Miss 
 Lancaster. You shorely don t expect no sech thing 
 of a man as has worked hard to gather a little to 
 gether for his family specially for his son to 
 marry on. Now, Harrison an Dandridge an 
 Dabney, them young bloods has never made no 
 money well, it comes easy an it goes easy with 
 them. I sweated out all I got, an there s none o 
 that sweat goin to no creditors." 
 
 " But you ll give something, surely? I m trying 
 to raise more money than all the other ladies put
 
 THE BETRAYAL 287 
 
 together. Surely, Mr. Rice, you ll give me a little 
 something ? Surely ? " 
 
 " Well, bein s it s you, here s a dollar." 
 
 " I don t want a dollar. Good-afternoon, Mr. 
 Rice." 
 
 " Well, here s two dollar fifty cent, an I only 
 gives it because it s you as asks for it." 
 
 " I never asked for two dollars and fifty cents." 
 
 "Well, I didn t borrow no money; an I ain t had 
 no benefit from what was borrowed; an I ain t goin 
 to pay nobody else s debts, I ain t." 
 
 "Why, Senator Rice!" 
 
 " I am a Readjuster, I am as everybody knows." 
 
 " You re a Repudiator as everybody don t 
 know." 
 
 "Well, here s five dollars an you needn t say 
 nothin about pudiatin to nobody." 
 
 " I ll take your five dollars. C est magnifique! I 
 thank you very, very much. But I will say some 
 thing about * pudiatin . I don t take bribes." 
 
 " I ll go call them folks." 
 
 "No; I m too greatly agitated to interview them 
 now I wouldn t get a cent out of them if I did. 
 Good-afternoon." 
 
 " Good-evenin . Come again right soon. I know 
 maw an all the gyurls an the doctor, Reg nal 
 La nc lot, 11 be glad to see you." 
 
 " I ve come for the one hundred dollars." 
 
 " I thought that you would be around." 
 
 " Why, Captain Temple! How could you have 
 
 thought such a thing!" 
 
 " I thought that you would not forget, de falre 
 
 fleche tout bois! I had a few other thoughts as
 
 288 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 well. The cheque came back in an envelope with no 
 other enclosure, returned to me by Colonel Dainger- 
 field. Ah, thought I, not so would Gladys Lan 
 caster have conserved my interests. Then I had a 
 few other thoughts, not to mention a few pleasurable 
 emotions. I always like to see my clients of whom 
 you are the most honoured exercise their business 
 instincts. I could see you I could feel you as you 
 said, Hold on there, Colonel! no, you don t, sir! 
 Give me that cheque ! What, are we to spend our 
 money and then refuse to capture our enemy s stores 
 when they re raided? No, sir, you just hand me 
 back that cheque ! I feel certain, Miss Lancaster, 
 that you did not protect my property for me that 
 I have Colonel Daingerfield, not you, to thank for 
 the preservation of my bank balance." 
 
 "With me, Virginia first; then my friends." 
 
 "With me, my friends; for they are Virginia." 
 
 "Your friends, did you say?" 
 
 "Yes, my friends; you, for example, are the spirit 
 of new Virginia, the Virginia that will use her dead 
 self as a stepping-stone to higher things. I love the 
 beautiful young Virginia; nor do I love her mother 
 less because I love her daughter more." 
 
 " Please let me have the hundred now." 
 
 "Is that all?" 
 
 " No, the hundred belongs to my clients already. 
 I am the committee on personal solicitation, repre 
 senting the people of Virginia, and upon behalf of 
 my clients I demand that you sell all your property 
 and turn over the proceeds of the sale to me." 
 
 " Why, my dear sir, your claim is outlawed! Your 
 clients went into bankruptcy fourteen years ago!"
 
 THE BETRAYAL 289 
 
 " Virginia, sir, expects every man to do his duty. 
 She demands that her sons defend her honour." 
 
 " But, my dear sir; the state is insolvent; the war 
 left her devastated; Reconstructors fed upon her 
 flesh; carpetbaggers picked her bones; the " 
 
 " Inglewood is a lively corpse, Jim Temple. That 
 property should be sold again; and again the pro 
 ceeds of the sale should be paid to my clients." 
 
 " Here is the cheque." 
 
 " That s the same cheque I " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " But this business must be sub-rosa, because the 
 Ladies Aid Society wouldn t accept a penny from 
 you if they knew." 
 
 Then how would you account for the one hun 
 dred dollars?" 
 
 " Why, that was to be my pocket money. Poor 
 Gladys, she gave every cent of her pocket money ! 
 
 " Almost as clever as Gladys Lancaster herself." 
 
 " The end justifies the means." 
 The spirit of young Virginia ! " 
 
 " Please give me the money in cash." 
 
 He did.
 
 CHAPTER SEVEN 
 
 THE Readjuster convention would convene 
 the second day of June. General Murphy 
 believed that the rule which General For 
 rest promulgated, " Git dar fustis wid de mostis 
 men," applied to politics as well as to war. The 
 Democratic convention would not convene until the 
 fifth of August. Said the chairman of that party 
 for the commonwealth, " Politics and war differ ma 
 terially; in politics the last shall be first, and the 
 first shall be last." Even unto this day Democrats 
 hold their conventions after their opponents have 
 selected their candidates. 
 
 The latter part of May finds Timothy Murphy 
 in his headquarters in the Whig building in the cap 
 ital. The leader slept in a small room over a grog- 
 gery, when he did not sleep in a room in the Whig 
 building, a room with white walls, furnished with 
 a bed, a small mirror, a single split-bottom chair, a 
 papier-mache spittoon, and four hooks driven into 
 the door. No carpet was on the floor. Saloons boxed 
 the compass. Everywhere was the odour of sour 
 beer, causing the leader constantly to remember the 
 people for Mr. William R. Hearst was not the 
 first eminent statesman to hold that the voice of the 
 people is wafted to God over the foam of a stein of 
 beer. Possibly General Murphy and Mr. Hearst 
 mistook the breath for the voice and possibly they 
 made no mistake. 
 
 In and out of the Whig building poured Mur- 
 290
 
 THE BETRAYAL 291 
 
 phyites from early in the morning until late at night. 
 Every visitor on leaving the leader was satisfied. 
 Some went in like lions; but they always left like 
 lambs. Murphy read men as some men read books 
 he saw the cover, he had absorbed the book. 
 
 " I hev de distinguishment, Gen l, ter be de Rev - 
 ent Doctah Shadrak Meshuk Bednigger Berkeley, 
 ob Virginia; an I s had er call from Gawd A mighty 
 in er dream ter run fo de house ob delegation." 
 
 " Doctor, for many years your name has been a 
 byword in Virginia." 
 
 " De gift ob oratin wus born In me, Gen l. I 
 disinherited hit from all mah peoples; an now, 
 Gen l, I feels dat in de Readjuster party us cullud 
 brederen am bout ter be frustrated in de mos sub- 
 sequential an satisfactory way." 
 
 " I am deeply interested in your people, Dr. 
 Berkeley. I wish to help them in every way that is 
 in my power." 
 
 " I knows hit, Gen l, an I s obligated ter you. I 
 knows, too, dat cullud gemmen in de nex Desembly 
 will hev abrogated out ter dem all de dispositions 
 jes de same as am enj yed by de whitewashed cul 
 lud gemmen. I seen hit in mah dream; an de big 
 white angel dat stood at de head ob mah bed, a-flap- 
 pin ob her wings, she say, Doctah Berkeley, when 
 de dishonourable position am stowed up-on you, jes 
 you hold Gen l Murphy up fo yo guidance come 
 thick an thin; an in mah dream I say, Yea, 
 Lawd, I s calkerlatin ter follow him same as de 
 peoples followed Moses outen de Ian ob Canaan, 
 an I s gwine gib bediency ter him lek I does ter de 
 Good Word."
 
 292 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "You shall have my support." 
 
 As General Murphy shook hands with Dr. Berke 
 ley he left a double eagle in the clutch of the rev 
 erend gentleman s great paw. 
 
 " For foreign missions, Doctor." 
 
 "Yaas, suh; fo ferren missions." 
 
 "My dear Gen 1 !!" 
 
 "Judge Tanner! This is indeed a pleasure!" 
 " Gen l, my clients, the people, spake, vox popu 
 lar vox Do- em best, and I heard their voice : Judge 
 Tanner, sir, go up to Richmond and find out from 
 Gen l Murphy the meanin of young Harrison s 
 sellin out his prop ty. I tell you, Gen l, my clients 
 would a-left the party, sir ratim y if Temple, the old 
 governor s son, hadn t a-bought it in. A slick ar 
 ticle, that Temple boy; but I ll sw ar if old Judge 
 Harrison s son didn t git up befo day and subpoena 
 him." 
 
 " Both are bright young men, Judge; very bright." 
 "Deuced bright, I say, Gen l; and so say my 
 clients, the people vox popular vox Do-em best. 
 They are so deuced smart nobody knows the ins and 
 outs of their hocus-pocus. Waddy says he believes 
 no coin passed; so Harrison ll not have to buy the 
 place back with Temple s money; but Nottingham 
 one of them seventeen thousand gents o that name 
 as hangs around Eastville says the title passed, and 
 he says as how he lows Temple s too slick an article 
 ever to let that property git away from him unless 
 he salts down a heap o money and a heap more n 
 he paid for it. I keeps my tongue where it belongs; 
 but I don t mind sayin to you, Gen l, the obiter die-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 293 
 
 turn o this court is that no Fauquier youth can set 
 up with a Northampton b y. The east is superior 
 to the west. Them Cohoes ain t in it with us Tuck- 
 ahoes. Temple s got the land and the money, and 
 he s goin to keep em both. But another one of 
 my clients says as how this here debt is to be repu 
 diated, and that s why I m here. My clients want 
 to know. How? vox popular vox Do- em best." 
 
 " Boys will be boys, Judge. We were boys our 
 selves once hey?" 
 
 " Well, my dear Gen l, you must bear in mind 
 that my clients, the people, the very plain people, 
 says as how anybody that s got money to throw away 
 can pay that darn debt; and they want you to know, 
 and to keep steadily befo your eyesight, as how they 
 ain t got no money to fling away. And that s the 
 interlocutory decree o this here nisi pris cote." 
 
 "Now, now, Judge; I know the good people of 
 the Eastern Shore advocate Temple s nomination, 
 and I do not mind saying to you, in the strictest 
 confidence, that I really support his candidacy. Har 
 rison shows that he is a dangerous man by the prank 
 that disturbed your clients. Captain Temple and I 
 came to the rescue of the party, Temple purchasing 
 the property. We saw at a glance that Harrison s 
 gift would cost us more votes than we could hope to 
 gain by his extraordinary behaviour." 
 
 " My dear Gen l ! " 
 
 "Judge Tanner! Call again." 
 
 " I am glad to see you, Professor Simpson." 
 " General, I have called to advocate the nomina 
 tion of Mr. Jones. Education in this state should
 
 294 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 receive more attention, for teachers are not able to 
 make a living out of free schools. College pro 
 fessors are. not much better off." 
 
 " I shall consider your suggestion. Mr. Jones is 
 an able man; he has my warm support. I can assure 
 you, moreover, that our candidate for governor 
 shall advocate liberality in the management of the 
 public schools. I myself shall cause a bill to be 
 introduced that will provide for an increase in the 
 salaries of college professors." 
 
 The leader could feel that a burden rested upon 
 the fine mind of the Laurel Hill mathematician, but 
 he would ask that gentleman no leading question. 
 
 " I m pretty hard up." 
 
 "All men seem to be hard up, Professor, unless 
 Mr. Harrison and Captain Temple are exceptions. 
 Possibly Mr. Harrison would lend you some of the 
 money that was recently paid to him by Captain 
 Temple?" 
 
 " Some folks say one thing and some say another 
 about that transaction, General. But Mr. Harrison 
 seems to be without means, and nobody thinks that 
 he has any money, while there are those that say 
 that you are the only man who knows where the cash 
 has gone. I thought you might lend me fifty 
 dollars." 
 
 " I have nothing, Professor. Wait until after the 
 election, when, I think, our soldiers that are now in 
 the thick of the fight will find money quite plentiful. 
 Keep in the thick of the fight, Professor." 
 
 " There s another er er little matter er 
 er " 
 
 " Now, Professor Simpson, you have not given me 
 time in which to mention a matter that I have had
 
 THE BETRAYAL 295 
 
 in mind for some time. I read your monograph on 
 the fourth dimension with a great deal of pleasure. 
 As soon as I had read it I said, Here is the man 
 for the chair of mathematics in our great university. 
 If our party be elected, I assure you that the old uni 
 versity shall be no longer without a competent in 
 structor in that department." 
 
 The lank form of the professor left the Presence. 
 
 Time was when the professors and students of the 
 University of Virginia were gentlemen. 
 
 Time was when the professors and regents of the 
 University of Virginia were native Virginians. 
 
 In this year of our Lord 1910 a few of the pro 
 fessors and a few of the students of the University 
 of Virginia are gentlemen. 
 
 A few of the professors of the University of Vir 
 ginia are native Virginians in this year of our Lord 
 1910. 
 
 However, unlike Johns Hopkins University, an 
 institution that was established for the education of 
 southern young men, even now more than half the 
 teachers of the University of Virginia were born 
 south of Mason and Dixon s line. Johns Hopkins 
 University now has one teacher who was born south 
 of that line. 
 
 Moreover, the funds of the University of Vir 
 ginia have not been used to further private enter 
 prises, nor have they been taken as tonics by mori 
 bund railroads. 
 
 " Harmony, gentlemen, harmony ! Harmony is the 
 password to success; yet I find Salem divided. Mr. 
 Brown, you support Mr. Harrison; Mr. Fletcher,
 
 296 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 you advocate the nomination of Mr. Jones; Mr. 
 Johnson, you think " 
 
 " Boss, us cullud gemmen say ef de cullud vote is 
 gwine ter lect de gubbenor, he oughter be er cullud 
 gemman gubbenor." 
 
 No one seemed to have heard the statesman from 
 Salem. 
 
 "Mr. Harrison is my favourite, General. Why? 
 Because his oratory charms the ear; because his 
 words pour forth from his throat like the song of 
 a bird; because his reasoning is not surpassed by 
 that of John Marshall himself; because his mag 
 netism is like unto the north star. Sir, I am for 
 Harrison; I am for the man who is for the people; 
 I am for the man who knows how to talk. I am 
 for oratory and John Randolph Harrison!" 
 
 "An Fletcher s for the man as is the farmer s 
 friend. He s for the man as can pray when it rains 
 too hard, an as can pray when it don t rain hard 
 enough; he s for the man as can preach; he s for 
 the man as believes in lettin tax money alone till 
 the time comes to pay it out for free schools; he s 
 for the preacher as don t take money as don t be 
 long to him; he s for the Christian as the water of 
 baptism has washed clean. I m for John Henry 
 Jones!" 
 
 "An* say, boss, I done spoke once, an now I 
 wants you ter hyah, an now I wants you ter heed! 
 I say a cullud gemman fo gubbenor, an I spects 
 I knows whar de right kin ob cullud gemman kin 
 be found. You ain t got ter go fur." 
 
 " Buck Johnson, you may think that a black man 
 is as good as a white man. However that may be, 
 neither a white man nor a black man shall address
 
 THE BETRAYAL 297 
 
 me in that manner. Were you as white as the gar 
 ments of angels and intentionally made yourself 
 obnoxious to me, I would kick you through that 
 window." 
 
 " I ain meanin nuttin- tall, Gen l, by nuttin I 
 done say, dat I ain ." 
 
 " Then you be careful." 
 
 Silence occupied the Presence chamber for an 
 appreciable time; then Mr. Brown, a diplomat as 
 well as an orator, diverted the attention of the 
 enemy, firing from a vantage point. 
 
 " Harmony, the gift of Heaven, holds us en 
 thralled in at least one particular. We all agree, 
 sir, that John Randolph Harrison was a fool when 
 he sold his property all sorts and conditions of a 
 fool. There are we harmonious." 
 
 "Dat s so; dat s sholy so." 
 
 " He ain t no farmer nohow." 
 
 Then the general gave the gentlemen from Salem 
 further assurances of his political regard for them. 
 
 Mr. Buck Johnson received permission to array 
 himself in senatorial toga, as he deserved an enlarge 
 ment of his reward. He had talked to negroes 
 throughout the southwest, until now his oratory 
 bloomed in the garden where blossomed the flowers 
 of Dr. Berkeley s speech. 
 
 " Not only have I advocated your nomination, 
 Mr. Jones, but I have told Harrison and Temple 
 that you, of all men in Virginia, should be our next 
 governor. Are you not the Father of Readjust 
 ment? Virginia owes more to you than she does 
 to any other living man." 
 
 "Then I have been misinformed, General, and
 
 298 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 the reports that have reached me from the Eastern 
 Shore, to the effect that you advocate the nomination 
 of Temple, are as false as those that have come to 
 me from Warrenton that you support Harrison s 
 candidacy." 
 
 " Mr. Harrison is not even a candidate, while I 
 have other plans for Temple. Besides, the reck 
 lessness of those two young men in the sale by the 
 one and the purchase by the other of Harrison s 
 property has seriously impaired their standing with 
 the plain people." 
 
 "As to Harrison, General, you are mistaken; he 
 never was stronger than now. I am sure that the 
 plain people agree with me in believing that those 
 young men have played the game of politics accord 
 ing to the rules. Harrison s play was brilliant; but 
 Temple called checkmate when he bought the prop 
 erty." 
 
 " I shall do what I can for you, Dr. Jones, I can 
 assure you." 
 
 The parson was satisfied when he left the gen 
 eral, who had thrust his hand into the pocket of 
 the sacerdotal robe and picked out of it the leader 
 ship of the Readjuster movement. Rather the par 
 son was as well satisfied as a man can be when the 
 thief who has picked his pocket later treats the vic 
 tim with condescension. 
 
 "You never looked more like my old friend John 
 Harrison than you do now. I remember how he 
 came to me a few weeks after the Surrender. We 
 have nothing left, Timothy, but honour, he said. 
 Then he paused, and his eyes lit up as he continued, 
 No; I have John, the youngest of my sons. He
 
 THE BETRAYAL 299 
 
 had you and honour and the Inglewood lands 
 nothing more. Now he has gone where I must soon 
 go; but before I cross the River of Destiny, never 
 to return, I wish to see John Harrison s son gov 
 ernor of Virginia, and the honour of Virginia in his 
 keeping." 
 
 " General Murphy, I thank you. Your affection 
 for my father touches me deeply. Undoubtedly he 
 must have held you in high regard, although I never 
 heard him refer to the friendship that existed be 
 tween you and him. As to the governorship, I wish 
 to be neither nominated nor elected, for reasons 
 purely personal; but were I differently situated, still 
 I would say that you or Mr. Jones or one of a score 
 of others should receive the nomination. My serv 
 ice to the cause consists of one month of my time, 
 while you and Mr. Jones and many others have 
 borne the heat and burden of the battle for several 
 years, and many have passed their entire lives in 
 Virginia s service. You, for example, fought in her 
 armies for four years. You, sir, deserve the nomi 
 nation." 
 
 " Ah, Mr. Harrison, but you do not remember 
 your magnificent lesson in patriotism the sale of 
 Inglewood, your ancestral home, and the gift of all 
 your real and personal property to Virginia s cred 
 itors." 
 
 " General, you offered your life as well as your 
 fortune when you drew your sword in sixty- 
 one." 
 
 " I am too old, Mr. Harrison. Duty may call me 
 to Washington, as senator, and I shall go, if it does; 
 but I shall insist upon your nomination. Mr. Jones 
 is an excellent man, but he would not make a satis-
 
 300 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 factory governor; nor would Temple. If you are 
 nominated, you must accept for the honour of 
 Virginia." 
 
 The general s tones were those of a commander 
 who would not brook disobedience. He continued: 
 
 " Our funds are insufficient to conduct this cam 
 paign properly. Heaven only knows where we 
 shall get money, I was saying the other day; but 
 Heaven did know, for a few hours later I heard 
 that you had agreed to give your wealth to our 
 cause. The debt must be paid. But your mite will 
 not pay it. Yet it will greatly help to pay it, for 
 it will help to elect the Readjuster party, and that 
 party will pay the debt. Ah, Mr. Harrison, God is 
 with us in this campaign. Please let me have your 
 cheque at once." 
 
 " Why, General, I have already paid the money 
 to the Ladies Aid Society, of Warrenton." 
 
 " Then, Harrison, I shall write to the ladies im 
 mediately, asking them to use your money to start 
 a Readjuster fund, to be used by them, and I will 
 forward my cheque for as much as I can afford with 
 my letter. But I am a poor man. The years that 
 have passed since the war have been years of strug 
 gle, and beyond enough to support my family in a 
 modest way, I have nothing." 
 
 The general did not remember the twenty-five 
 thousand dollars a year that he drew as president 
 of a railroad controlled by Virginia, the Atlantic, 
 Mississippi and Ohio, a salary obtained by him 
 from a corrupt legislature. 
 
 " General Murphy, I am no fool. Here and now 
 I wish you to tell me in unmistakable words, do you
 
 THE BETRAYAL 301 
 
 support my candidacy, or do you advocate the nomi 
 nation of some other man?" 
 
 " I do not like the tone in which you address me. 
 I have told you, Captain Temple, emphatically 
 told you, more than once that you are my choice, 
 as I believe that you are the choice of the majority 
 of the people of this state. My word is accepted 
 in Virginia, wherever it is given. I should say no 
 more; but I will add that only this very day I said 
 to Mr. Tanner that you have had and shall continue 
 to have my support. You are the man for the place, 
 so I shall do all in my power to make you the next 
 governor of Virginia." 
 
 " I can ask no more, General Murphy, and I ask 
 no more; but why in the devil do the people of 
 Warrenton say that you support Harrison, and why 
 in the devil do the people in the southwest say that 
 you are for Jones?" 
 
 "When you are well seasoned in politics, Captain, 
 you will disregard the statements that are made by 
 the friends of competing candidates." 
 
 Neither said anything for a moment. General 
 Murphy was first to speak. 
 
 " I said to Mr. Tanner this morning, Yes, Judge, 
 Temple is a clever young man. Then I did not 
 know how clever how very clever. You came to 
 Richmond this morning. You should have come the 
 day that you bought Inglewood. Here you are with 
 a quarrel in your mouth, to put me on the defensive. 
 Good ! I defended the Crater. Now I ask you, Why 
 did you buy Inglewood? Why did you pay no more 
 than half the value of the place?" 
 
 " General Timothy Murphy, Hero of the Crater, 
 Father of Repudiation, Brother of Readjustment,
 
 302 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Creator of Elimination, I deny your right to ques 
 tion Jimmie Temple, the little school-boy. But no 
 man has asked me a question that I am unable to 
 answer. Can you say as much? I bought Ingle- 
 wood to offset the effect of Harrison s fool play. I 
 paid no more than half its value because I had no 
 more to pay. Now you answer this question, What 
 have you done with the money that I paid to John 
 Harrison? " 
 
 ; Your meaning is not plain." 
 
 " I never expected you to answer the question ! I 
 mean this: You had your hands on John Harri 
 son s money within twenty-four hours of the time 
 that I paid the auctioneer. The boy is a weakling." 
 You have explained your meaning; now I an 
 swer your question: all the money that I have re 
 ceived for campaign expenses shall be used to fur 
 ther your interests." 
 
 " General Murphy, I am glad that you see. I 
 shall be the next governor of Virginia. I am the 
 only man in our party that can be elected: you know 
 that to be true. Therefore I shall receive the nomi 
 nation, and I shall be elected, and after the election 
 I shall keep my promise Timothy Murphy and 
 James Temple jointly shall be governor of Virginia. 
 You shall make the laws I shall sign them." 
 
 Captain Temple took his leave. 
 
 " The next governor of Virginia ! Bah ! Not 
 while Timothy Murphy lives. But you are right in 
 this : you would be an excellent candidate were you 
 faithful to Murphy. Virginia is not large enough 
 to hold Timothy Murphy and James Temple not 
 by a great deal. I shall stay in Virginia."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 303 
 
 11 Virginia is not large enough to hold James Tem 
 ple and Timothy Murphy. Virginia, mine own, my 
 native land ! Here is where Captain Lancaster 
 would say, Jimmie, my boy, look out for the black 
 horse. Murphy has no dark horse for this race 
 except himself. Were I in his place I would have 
 some injerrubber baby bouncing on my Norfolk 
 knee. The Murphy eagle eye sleepeth. 
 
 " Governor Temple President Temple Mrs. 
 Temple. Ah, Temple, Temple, your Richmond 
 dream cometh true ! Soon, Lelia, my own little 
 Lelia, you will be at home when I call. Dorothea 
 Annabel always is at home, where she will stay. 
 Not good enough to be the wife of the President; 
 too damned good for the Simpsonses and the 
 Stokeses. But so I have said many times and 
 oft." 
 
 
 
 Pausing every few hundred yards to look about, 
 Judge Braxton approached Hugh White, who was 
 working in one of his fields near the highway. 
 
 " Well, Hugh, I have been inspecting your farm. 
 You are a model farmer, Hugh, but the Braxtons 
 never had better tenants than the Whites, who have 
 always treated the lands that they rented as though 
 they were their own. The crops are in excellent con 
 dition, particularly the corn, which is the best that I 
 have seen this season." 
 
 Thank you, sir; thank you kindly." 
 
 " How is your mother, Hugh? Ah, what a brave 
 little woman she was 1 White was in my command 
 when he was killed at Malvern Hill, and a braver 
 soldier never went down before an enemy down 
 before an enemy, but up to a throne on high. Your
 
 304 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 mother was as brave as your father. How is her 
 health?" 
 
 " She is well, sir. We talk about you every day, 
 sir. I was a little boy when father was killed, but 
 I know all about your kindness to mother and me. 
 I ll never forget, sir; no, sir, I ll never forget; and, 
 sir, mother will never forget." 
 
 "A mere nothing, a mere nothing; what I did 
 for your mother and you cost me very little time 
 or money. You both have repaid me over and over 
 again. Ah, here comes young Mr. Tom Tazewell, 
 who may have something to say to you, so I will 
 walk along. But before I go I wish to say that 
 Lucy Christian is a fine young woman." 
 
 " I think so, sir. I think she is the finest young 
 woman I have ever known, sir. There never was a 
 young woman so fine, sir, I think, and mother thinks 
 so too." 
 
 "Quite right; quite right. Your mother should 
 have some young woman to help her take care of 
 the place. She thinks a great deal of Lucy; she 
 told me so herself a motherly sort of girl, she 
 says." 
 
 Yes, sir; she is a motherly sort of girl, sir. She 
 is the finest motherly sort of girl I ever saw, sir." 
 
 During this interview White had stood erect, not 
 leaning on his hoe, and all the while his hat was in 
 his hand. 
 
 Yes, sir, Mr. Tazewell, these crops are growing, 
 as the judge says. He is a fine man, sir, the judge 
 is. Mother and I think that there never was but 
 one man that ever lived that was so fine as the judge 
 and He wasn t a man."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 305 
 
 "He is the salt of the earth, Hugh. ... Do 
 you think that Sam Kelly is going to be elected in 
 his stead?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, Mr. Tazewell, I do." 
 
 "And so do I, Hugh. My God, Hugh! what 
 does it all mean? Sam Kelly, who has been twice 
 indicted for crime, who knows no more about law 
 than he does about the Bible, who is the meanest 
 man in Warrenton, is to take the place of one of 
 the ablest jurists ever born in this commonwealth ! 
 What does it mean, what can it mean, Hugh?" 
 
 " Social equality, Mr. Tazewell, that s what it 
 means, sir. Sam Kelly and Andy Stover and Jim 
 Rice think that they are as good as anybody else. I 
 try to do my part, just as the judge tries to do his 
 part, and I don t see why any man wants a place in 
 life that doesn t belong to him. No, sir, I don t see 
 why a man should want a class that s not his any 
 more than he should want a pocketbook that s not 
 his." 
 
 " We will try to keep every man in his place, 
 Hugh." 
 
 " Yes, sir. I ll do my part or I ll try to, sir." 
 
 As the young aristocrat went on his way the young 
 yeoman bowed respectfully. The salutation was 
 properly acknowledged by the affectionate tone in 
 which the young aristocrat said the word good-bye, 
 followed by a bow which seemed to say, " I respect 
 you as much as you respect me." Not until Taze 
 well had left did the young yeoman put on his hat. 
 
 Judge Braxton had greatly encouraged Hugh 
 White. Indeed, the heart of the lover had been so 
 invigorated by the judge s words that the night of
 
 306 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 the day that they had been spoken wash-night he 
 went to see his lady-love. Lucy, greatly astonished, 
 received him. All her brothers and sisters were in 
 the kitchen, as usual, and so was a big cedar clothes- 
 tub, which was in the middle of the room, filled with 
 water. About that tub was a stack of towels, one 
 washrag, and a big cake of home-made soap. 
 
 Pretty Lucy, her face a-fire, led her admirer into 
 the musty parlour. All the little Christians below 
 her seventeen years followed them, then arranged 
 themselves about the man and maiden after the man 
 ner of the Rice children " which am ter say," after 
 the manner of the children of all yeomen and peas 
 ant families, and after the manner of the children 
 of some gentlefolk. Papa Christian stayed in the 
 kitchen, his back to the tub, reading the Richmond 
 Dispatch. 
 
 Promptly at half-past seven, soon after Hugh s 
 arrival, Mrs. Christian opened the parlour door 
 about a foot, stuck her head through the opening, 
 and uttered one word the name Lev. For several 
 minutes thereafter the sound of the one-year-old 
 baby s voice was heard crying, as his mother pulled 
 his ears and his hair and put soap into his eyes 
 all amid the sound of many waters. Eleven times 
 did Mrs. Christian open the parlour door and pro 
 nounce a single name, and eleven times was heard 
 the surging of waters, fainter and fainter, until the 
 sound almost died away, when sixteen-year-old Sally 
 went into the kitchen and her father went to bed. 
 The while Hugh was red and pretty Lucy was scar 
 let. Never had Lucy been so talkative. Never had 
 Hugh been so silent. 
 
 About ten o clock the ardent lover summoned all
 
 THE BETRAYAL 307 
 
 his courage the courage that had been stimulated 
 by Judge Braxton, and which now equalled that of 
 a convent girl. 
 
 " Judge Braxton says you are a very fine girl." 
 
 " Don t talk that way to me, Hugh." 
 
 " I think you are a very fine girl too." 
 
 "You hear me, now!" 
 
 " Mother thinks you are a fine girl she said so 
 to the judge and to me." 
 
 " I m nothing much." 
 
 " Lucy, you are you are." 
 
 Then Hugh found his tongue the tongue of the 
 Virginian lover, which knows no class. He knelt at 
 Lucy s feet; he took one of her hands in both his; 
 he looked into her eyes, and his eyes never left hers 
 from the time he first looked into them until he left 
 her. 
 
 "Honey child, liT Lucy love, honey; HT Lucy, 
 honey love, I love you won t you be my wife? I 
 love you. LiT Lucy love, liT honey love, I love 
 you." 
 
 She snatched away her hand. 
 
 " No, no, no ! Oh, my ! oh, my ! " 
 
 Then pretty Lucy buried her tear-strewn face in 
 the sofa pillow and cried some happy tears. At first 
 Hugh was alarmed; but he soon took her hand 
 again, which he gently stroked the hand which was 
 now left passively in his. We think Lucy did not 
 tire of the fond words that Hugh said over and 
 over again his love-making words. 
 
 "Honey liT child, I love you; liT Lucy, honey 
 love, I love you; liT Lucy, honey love, I love you, 
 HT child; I love you, liT Lucy, honey love." 
 
 There is no consonant in the Virginian language
 
 308 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 of love, which is as soft and purring as the breezes 
 of the night as they gently flutter the petals of the 
 rose. 
 
 
 
 " Shet up ! Shet up, I say ! Shet yo black moufs, 
 you ebony-skinned niggers! De boss Readjuster s 
 gwine ter hole down de platform. Shet up 1 " 
 
 Thus the sergeant-at-arms issued his commands 
 to the turbulent members of the Readjuster conven 
 tion. 
 
 Your narrators will now reproduce the exact lan 
 guage that the great leader himself spoke as he 
 addressed the convention: 
 
 "Gentlemen, you are here today to give effect to the broad 
 principles of equal rights, of a free ballot, and an honest 
 count ; you are here to give effect to your determination to 
 free the people all the people of this State, to turn your 
 faces toward the rising sun and keep step with the music of 
 the Union. I say it is your purpose to restore the old state 
 to friendly relations to all sections of this common country. 
 Allow me to beg of you to have harmony in your proceed 
 ings. I doubt not that there will be harmony. To whom 
 soever you shall place your banner, stand as one man to that 
 banner backing up your leader in the great fight which is 
 to make your freedom and the freedom of your posterity." 
 
 Major Volaski Vaiden, of New Kent county, now 
 rose. Your narrators use his words, merely substi 
 tuting the name of Parson Jones for the name of 
 the clergyman that the major placed in nomination. 
 
 " The common destiny and the common good demand that 
 we should stand together as a band of brothers. We should 
 choose that one who, by experience both in the council and 
 the field, has proven himself the hero in the fight that is
 
 THE BETRAYAL 309 
 
 upon us. Whilst I have all the tender regards for the 
 younger brother, still the reversion to the firstborn should 
 overweigh that consideration : Not that I love Caesar 
 less, but Rome more. And I would say to these younger 
 men in the cause of Readjustment, as Edward III said to 
 the Black Prince at the Battle of Crecy They must 
 win their spurs in the coming conflict. I name the Hon 
 ourable and the Reverend John Henry Jones." 
 
 Then, like a black cloud with a silvery lining, rose 
 the Parson s followers: 
 
 " Jones ! Jones ! Jones ! Jones ! " 
 
 " Seems to me I ve heard that name before," said 
 Captain Lancaster, who had gone to Richmond, and 
 who had succeeded in gaining admittance to the gal 
 lery in the old Richmond Theatre, where the con 
 vention was held. 
 
 The building was decorated inside and outside 
 with flags of all nations except Virginia. The 
 stars and stripes, the chief decoration, shrouded the 
 stage. Ominously the bunting fluttered in the 
 draught. 
 
 Colonel Joseph P. Minetree rose. Your narra 
 tors report his words as they were spoken, save for 
 the name of Harrison, and save for a reference to 
 the mayor of Warrenton that was made by Colonel 
 Minetree. 
 
 " Our governor should be no half-hearted man, who sniffs 
 the battle from afar. Let us see to it that no carpet warrior 
 is our champion. See to it that he is a man of courage and 
 ability, that iron nerve is combined with silvery tongue; that 
 possessing the esteem and confidence of our Readjuster hosts, 
 he commands the respect of our enemies. 
 
 " But, Gentlemen of the Convention, to me has fallen the 
 task combining high, pleasurable emotion with stern duty,
 
 310 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 to present to you the name of a distinguished citizen, who, 
 though young in years, has made his name a household word 
 from the mountain to the sea, whom Warrenton delights to 
 honour, and of whom the whole State delights to boast. I 
 wish I had the graces of a Webster, or the fiery utterances 
 of a Clay; then could I justly present him to you, and in fit 
 ting language exhibit my beau-ideal of a standard-bearer. 
 
 "His ready pen has made a name for him among all the 
 leaders of public opinion in the country, and his eloquent 
 utterances and superb diction have placed him in the front 
 ranks of his country s orators. His manly bearing has won 
 from friends and exacted from foes a hearty respect, and in 
 defiance of all combinations and despite all the forces his 
 enemies may bring against him, his banner will never trail 
 in dishonoured defeat. 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen of the Convention, I 
 have the honour to present the name of John Randolph 
 Harrison, of Warrenton, a gentleman of whom any party 
 might well be proud the distinguished writer, poet, orator, 
 and statesman, and I bespeak for his claims your generous 
 consideration." 
 
 The applause seemed to Captain Lancaster to 
 have been equally distributed between the two men 
 whose names had been placed in nomination. Tem 
 ple s name when offered to the convention did not 
 arouse nearly so much enthusiasm. 
 
 The Reverend Doctor Shadrach Meshech Abed- 
 nego Berkeley and the Reverend Joshua Williams 
 were members of the Fauquier delegation; Mr. Buck 
 Johnson was one of the delegates that represented 
 Roanoke county; Mr. George Washington (the 
 negro s real name) was a Charles City county rep 
 resentative. These statesmen attended the caucus 
 that was held by the negro delegates before the 
 convention convened. Twelve hundred separate
 
 THE BETRAYAL 311 
 
 breaths constituted the voice of the people as rep 
 resented by the Readjuster convention. Of these, 
 one hundred and fifty were negro fumes. 
 
 Mr. Johnson made known his views as he had 
 already expressed them to General Murphy. Har 
 mony did not prevail in the caucus, for while all 
 the one hundred and fifty statesmen who were some 
 what nearer their anthropoid ancestors of the simian 
 family tree than their degenerate brethren agreed 
 that the next governor of Virginia should be of the 
 blood nearest the blood, each member of the species 
 believed himself to be that creature. 
 
 Mr. Washington called attention to his name. 
 The day was to come when Mr. Samuel L. Clemens, 
 a notable traducer of the peoples of the southern 
 states, who has wisely concealed his name, using the 
 pseudonym of Mark Twain instead, was to intro 
 duce Mr. Booker T. Washington, his dear friend, 
 to a New York audience as the greatest of all south 
 ern men, excepting only the original Washington 
 the ancestor of parvenus, sometimes called the 
 Father of his Country. 
 
 Mr. Page advised moderation. What, said he, 
 is the use of this wrangling? No coloured gentleman 
 will receive the nomination. But Mr. Johnson con 
 tinued to demand that his name be offered to the 
 convention. That gentleman was a politician as 
 well as a statesman. He foresaw that General Mur 
 phy would consider the patriot that would be offered 
 to the convention by the negroes to be the negro 
 leader. 
 
 As no statesman in the caucus other than Mr. 
 Johnson was a politician, the decision was reached 
 that Dr. Berkeley should offer Mr. Johnson s name
 
 312 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 to the convention. Fortunately for Dr. Berkeley s 
 permanent reputation as an orator he had listened 
 intently to the nominating speeches of Major Vaiden 
 and Colonel Minetree. But was his normal oratory 
 inferior to theirs? 
 
 " Gemmen ob Colour an Dem as am Weather- 
 wise: De day have arriv when de cullud vote ll 
 substantiate dis state; an , as er member ob dat 
 colossal race, I rises ter place befo yo consideratum 
 er name dat none dat celerbrates de Ian ob liberty 
 will eber be able ter subrogate. De man dat byahs 
 de name dat I s erbout ter pronunciate am de ultimos 
 ob he race. He parences foreknowed he d be de 
 ultimos , an dey called him Buck, cayse er buck am 
 de swif est ob all creation. Agin, he subname am 
 Johnsin . All de Johnsonses in dis state will stuff 
 de ballot-boxes wid dyah ristercratic clognonimous 
 ter stationise one ob demselves in de Zectual Man- 
 chen, an already I deceive dat squisite name ob 
 Johnsin prescribed in de flowers ob de Good Book 
 ob gubermorial membrances. Harmony! says de 
 leader. Aman ! says me, an we ken all harmo 
 nise an fratricise on de name I s gwine ter capitu 
 late. I hab de honour ter place befo you gemmen 
 de name ob Mistah Buck Johnsin , ob Roanoke 
 county, an I ques fo him yo kindes detention 
 an yo prejudicial presdaments." 
 
 Mr. Johnson did not get the nomination, but he 
 did receive one hundred and fifty votes, and his im 
 portance, already great because of his senatorial can 
 didacy, was greatly increased. 
 
 Among the delegates to the convention were Mr. 
 Andy Stover, in his state of perpetual intoxication; 
 Dr. Reginald Launcelot Rice, ditto; Mr. Samuel A.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 313 
 
 Tanner, also ditto; Mr. James P. Rice, and Mr. 
 Fletcher. 
 
 No sooner had Dr. Berkeley taken his seat than 
 Dr. Reginald Launcelot was recognised by the chair. 
 The gentleman rose to place his own name in nomi 
 nation for president of the University of Virginia. 
 There was no such office then; but the time came 
 when such an office was established, and one Edwin 
 A. Alderman, no Virginian, but a typical present- 
 day Tar-heel, was made the first president of the 
 University of Virginia. That Dr. Alderman was 
 the proper man to be elected the first president of 
 that institution we can not doubt, for did not the 
 founder of that university say that all men are cre 
 ated equal? How the choice of the people would 
 have delighted Jefferson! 
 
 The nineteenth annual dinner of the New York 
 Southern Society was held in the Waldorf-Astoria, 
 December 14, 1904. Dr. Edwin A. Alderman, first 
 president of the University of Virginia, addressed 
 the society on " The Extreme Need of the South," 
 his address being published in full in the New York 
 Southern Society Year Book, 1904-1905. He said, 
 in part: 
 
 We have been told about a million times since 1870 that 
 this was a re-united country . . . yet it would be 
 a superficial and confused man that does not see that 
 there are sections in this country made so by the memories 
 of their civil story. You can tell a New Englander 
 when you hear him; you can tell a Southerner when you 
 hear him, and sometimes you can tell a good Westerner 
 when you see him, and yet the Nation is one Nation. 
 
 Having thus obtained some relief, the good doctor
 
 3H THE BETRAYAL 
 
 continued to purge himself, telling what " this Union 
 of ours symbolises" to his mind: 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, this Union of ours symbolises to 
 my mind the most hopeful thing to be seen in any land, 
 namely: Democracy trying to be right, and efficient and 
 powerful, at the same time just and free. That is the 
 extreme task of civilised man and the most dramatic and 
 heart-searching thing to be seen in this Union, to me, is 
 the effort of its Southern portion to recover the National 
 spirit, the liberalism of thought and the enthusiasm in trade 
 which distinguished it one hundred years ago, which it lost, 
 when it got caught in a misconception imposed upon it by 
 the moral callousness of past ages. [Great applause.] 
 
 We would tire you, gentle reader, were we to 
 quote a great deal of President Alderman s address. 
 Again, we are not always able to understand the 
 peculiar English ( ?) that he uses. However, you 
 may be interested in an example of the esteem in 
 which he holds the men who fought for the preser 
 vation of the sovereignty of the states, so we will 
 quote just a line more. We take the president of 
 the southern confederation as an example: 
 
 Jefferson Davis is not often quoted in great gatherings 
 in this country. He cannot be said to be a popular mem 
 ory. His name and his figure somehow loom up unpleas 
 antly in the midst of old passions, stern and unbending. 
 
 Mrs. Livingston R. Schuyler, now a resident of 
 New York City, chairman of a committee of the 
 United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the 
 ladies of her committee, appointed Dr. Edwin A.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 315 
 
 Alderman president of the University of Virginia; 
 Dr. C. Alphonso Smith, then professor of English 
 in the University of North Carolina, and Dr. John 
 H. Finley, president of the College of the City of 
 New York, as judges of the merits of essays to be 
 submitted in competition, the reward, a prize offered 
 by the Daughters; the occasion, the centenary of 
 General Robert E. Lee, 1907. The judges awarded 
 the prize to Miss Christine Boyson, who gave her 
 residence as Minnesota. Her paper was entitled, 
 Robert E. Lee A Present Estimate. Your nar 
 rators quote from her paper as follows: 
 
 Intellectually the South was practically dead. Most 
 of the people were densely ignorant. . . . To do 
 now what he [General Lee] did then would be treason, for 
 the Civil War has since taught what is right in this re 
 gard. . . . We shall have come to think of Lee as 
 the English did of Washington. . . . For, indeed, 
 he differed from the great Washington only in choosing 
 the wrong side. ... In a country where the mass 
 of the people accepted ready-made opinions, misconceptions 
 carried ideas forward and made false maxims seem work 
 ing principles, so that before 1860 the people in general 
 believed they had a right to secede. . . . Were he 
 [General Lee] merely a Southerner his conduct might be 
 defensible; but he was the son of a Revolutionary officer; 
 he held a position of honour in the Union army; through 
 his wife he was connected with the Washington family; 
 back of him stretched a long line of heroic souls, the pride 
 and boast of Virginia. 
 
 Gentle reader, Dr. Alderman and Dr. Smith, in 
 their defence, pleaded the literary values of this his 
 torical paper; yet the literary values were not so
 
 3i6 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 great as those contained in the average composition 
 of a child of ten. 
 
 Dr. Smith now conducts an important department 
 in the University of Virginia under the watchful eye 
 of his countryman, Dr. Alderman. 
 
 Virginians, to what a pass have you let Virginia 
 come! 
 
 After Dr. Reginald Launcelot had nominated 
 himself, Mr. Stover, very, very drunk, rose to sec 
 ond the nomination. 
 
 " Pudiate, I says; pudiate an liminate evvy 
 t ing!" 
 
 Doctor Berkeley touched him on the shoulder. 
 
 " Ebrything s be n liminated, A-nd-y, cep in 1 
 Liminators, an " 
 
 Whereupon Dr. Berkeley was himself eliminated, 
 and did not regain consciousness for several hours. 
 Mighty was the smith. 
 
 The Irish peasant, Timothy Murphy, did have an 
 india-rubber baby bouncing on his Norfolk knee. He 
 had an india-rubber baby bouncing on his Valley 
 knee also, but before the convention convened 
 neither Parson Jones nor Captain Temple knew 
 about the increase in the general s elastic family. 
 The time came when Mr. Jones thought his battle 
 won. 
 
 About the same time Captain Temple was frantic. 
 His name had been offered to the convention, but he 
 knew that the general had presented him to the 
 delegates as a green apple. Still he planned to cap 
 ture the nomination by assault. He would turn 
 upon his wily foe and deliver a blow upon the
 
 THE BETRAYAL 317 
 
 leader s jaw that would knock him out out of Vir 
 ginia. 
 
 Now, Timothy Murphy preferred Harrison to 
 Temple. He believed Harrison to be honest, hence 
 dangerous; but the young man, although honest, he 
 believed to be a fool, therefore he might be able to 
 lead him until he could kill him politically or cir 
 cumvent him. Neither Jones nor Temple should 
 receive the nomination. First the general would 
 nominate his Norfolk baby, then his Valley off 
 spring. If neither of those dark horses could win, 
 he would deliver their votes to Harrison, then offer 
 Timothy Murphy to the convention. Later his own 
 votes in addition to those of his children would be 
 delivered to Harrison, who would be nominated. 
 
 And he was. 
 
 Captain Temple entered the Presence. 
 
 Timothy Murphy, now the thief has his day! 
 Having gathered about you all the thieves that were 
 in Virginia, you made honest men thieves, and these 
 you have organised into a society the Murphy 
 association. No thief was too mean for you, as 
 your convention proved. In that assemblage was 
 the black thief, who had just robbed his master s 
 barnyard; there was the white thief, who had just 
 taken his hand out of his neighbour s pocket; there 
 was the great thief, who would repudiate the public 
 debt; there was the greatest thief, who would steal 
 for his own use the forty-seven million dollars that 
 belong to the creditors. Timothy Murphy, there is 
 one thief in Virginia who deservedly is the master 
 of all other thieves, for in him are the elements of 
 all the thieves of Thiefdom. That man is Timothy
 
 318 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Murphy. How do I know? I shall tell you frankly 
 I know because I am one of your thieves." 
 
 "James Temple, the vanquished man never sees 
 in his conqueror a force superior to his own. Unlike 
 other helpless babes, he does not sit down and weep 
 bitter tears, but attempts to justify himself, and to 
 excuse himself to the world, through vituperation 
 and false statements. He erects a structure of pre 
 tence, and in that mirror-house he sees himself re 
 flected, until his sense of proportion becomes as mean 
 as himself. 
 
 You say that you are a thief. I think that you 
 are an honourable gentleman, at present suffering 
 from a gentle lapse in breeding, caused by defeat. 
 Now, I was not in the least responsible for your fail 
 ure to receive the nomination; nor did I cause John 
 Harrison to be nominated. Jones had marshalled 
 his superior forces. The delegates were about to 
 stampede in his direction. Whereupon I brought 
 out my Norfolk man, and later my Valley man; for 
 I thought that their votes would go to you upon the 
 withdrawal of their names. James Temple was de 
 feated; but Timothy Murphy was routed. Harri 
 son will be elected. That much is certain. But in 
 his election you and I meet our real defeat. 
 
 " From the first you have known that I advocated 
 your nomination. A few days ago you went so far 
 as to say that you were necessary to me. I admitted 
 that you were. You are necessary to me now. See 
 here, Temple, Virginia is large enough for us both. 
 I have no desire to be governor of Virginia; but I 
 do wish to go to the United States Senate. You 
 are young; I am old. I shall not be in Virginia 
 more than a few years as a living man. I advise
 
 THE BETRAYAL 319 
 
 you to go to Congress, where you can make your 
 self conspicuous. I am willing to advocate your 
 election to the Senate, and even your nomination at 
 the next national Democratic convention. You have 
 a great future before you if you will dry your eyes. 
 In politics a man reaches success through defeat 
 when defeat is due to his steadfastness to principle. 
 Do you grasp my meaning? I repeat his stead 
 fastness to principle." 
 
 Captain Temple dried his eyes. 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Jones, my surprise was great. I be 
 lieved your nomination to be certain. But the voice 
 of the people was heard. We must abide by the 
 wisdom of that voice. As soon as your defeat be 
 came apparent, I brought out my Norfolk man, and 
 later I presented the name of my Valley man; but 
 their votes went to Harrison, greatly to my disap 
 pointment. Now, Mr. Jones, any one so treacher 
 ous as Harrison is dangerous, and I do not believe 
 that such a man can .hold your regard. Not only 
 is he perfidious, but he is a fool. The treacherous 
 man is dangerous but one may be vigilant. I fear 
 the fool." 
 
 " I could have had the nomination, General Mur 
 phy, by stretching out my hand for it; but I was 
 steadfast to my principles; I did not care to fight 
 with John Harrison s weapons. The office must 
 seek the man when I become governor of Virginia. 
 Mr. Harrison, who manipulated this convention 
 from Warrenton, fooled me all along. I am but a 
 poor preacher, who knows nothing of the cunning 
 of politicians." 
 
 "Your course was dignified throughout. To-day
 
 320 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 you are the most popular man in the state. The 
 hope of Virginia is in the election of a legislature 
 that will pass bills that will become laws despite 
 Harrison. We must have a majority of each House 
 bound to the leader by ties that are unbreakable 
 a majority large enough to pass laws over the gov 
 ernor s vetoes." 
 
 " I hope, General, that you do not intend to lead 
 where I can not follow." 
 
 " My plan is wholly justifiable. I propose that 
 every candidate that receives the support of the 
 Readjuster party shall bind himself in writing to 
 abide by the action of the party s caucus. Thus the 
 Readjuster delegates would vote as a single man, 
 for a majority of our delegates would constitute a 
 quorum when we would meet in caucus, and a ma 
 jority of the quorum would be the voice of our 
 party." 
 
 " That is, you propose that Timothy Murphy 
 shall be the Readjuster party rather, you propose 
 that Timothy Murphy shall be monarch of Virginia. 
 Did you suppose for a period of time so short as 
 one minute that I did not know all along that you 
 and John Harrison together engineered that young 
 man s nomination? Good-bye, General Murphy. 
 Bear constantly in mind that John Henry Jones is 
 still in Virginia. Remember, too, that John Henry 
 Jones is going to stay in Virginia so long as he 
 lives." 
 
 " Really, Mr. Daingerfield, your language is very 
 vigorous." 
 
 " Madam, I was never more completely in con 
 trol of myself. Wisdom, not violence, becometh all
 
 THE BETRAYAL 321 
 
 Virginians in this crisis. But the day will come, 
 and soon, when I shall draw this sword from its 
 scabbard when I shall plunge it to the hilt into 
 the foul bodies of Murphy and Harrison and their 
 kind. Vigorous language, did you say? No, madam, 
 no. I have chosen my words with the utmost care. 
 I never was more temperate. That infamous, 
 that " 
 
 " Mr. Daingerfield, please come in to breakfast." 
 
 They went into the house together. 
 
 " Lord, make us truly thankful for what we are 
 about to receive. Amen." 
 
 " Was the blessing quite appropriate, Mr. Dain 
 gerfield?" 
 
 "Madam!" 
 
 After they were seated the colonel continued: 
 
 " No, Mrs. Daingerfield, I never use improper 
 language in the presence of ladies." 
 
 " I hope that you never use improper language 
 in the presence of any one." 
 
 " Madam, I never do." 
 
 " How did you hear of John s nomination? " 
 
 "Harrison s nomination, madam; Harrison s nom 
 ination ! The news was brought to me by Lancas 
 ter, who left that gathering of infamous rogues as 
 soon as the young thief was nominated." 
 
 " Poor Lelia ! " 
 
 "Poor, indeed, if she ever marries that treach 
 erous young hound." 
 
 " You are much too violent, Mr. Daingerfield. 
 Really " 
 
 "I know, madam; I know all ladies sympathise 
 with that poor little Harrison fellow. They make 
 a hero of him women always make heroes of
 
 322 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 thieves and murderers. There are many men of his 
 type in this commonwealth. The time is coming 
 when they will bend their knees and sob out to gen 
 tlemen their prayers for pardon. But they will not 
 be forgiven, no, madam, no ! In time such men 
 may render valuable service to this country; but 
 nothing shall save them from ignominy. Their fate 
 is sealed with the wax of dishonour. Should Lelia 
 Braxton marry that that never mind what it 
 will be said to their children and their children s 
 children, You spring from the loins of John Har 
 rison, a Repudiator, a man who was once willing 
 to trade in the honour of Virginia. Even unto the 
 third generation shall the name of Harrison be a 
 byword among Virginians. Poor Lelia? Poor 
 Lelia indeed if her children are to bear the name 
 of Harrison." 
 
 " Surely, Mr. Daingerfield, you do forget your 
 self ! This awful news has upset you. Lelia Brax 
 ton is not married yet." 
 
 They went into the garden, where the colonel 
 gallantly cut a rose for his wife with his sword. 
 
 " Now do, Mr. Daingerfield, put up that sword. 
 I am so afraid you will cut yourself. Why did you 
 take it off the hook where it has hung for fourteen 
 years?" 
 
 At ten o clock Saturday morning, the day after 
 Harrison was nominated, the gentleman of Warren- 
 ton met their political leader, Mr. Dabney, in his 
 office. 
 
 Captain Lancaster took the floor. 
 
 You are right, Gary; Murphy went into that 
 convention expecting to secure the nomination of
 
 THE BETRAYAL 323 
 
 either his Norfolk tool or his Valley slave. The 
 battle was fought just as you predicted. Almost 
 equalled the Balaklava charge. Your generalship 
 never was better shown than when you declined to 
 interfere with the enemy s plans by manoeuvring on 
 his line of attack. First Murphy tried to nominate 
 his Norfolk minion by offering himself as a candi 
 date, then by withdrawing in that tool s favour. 
 Then he offered his Valley slave. That menial s 
 votes were later bet on the Norfolk henchman. Har 
 rison received the nomination; Murphy was forced 
 to deliver his support to him in order to defeat Jones, 
 or Temple, and thus save his own political neck." 
 
 "The chance was a desperate one," said young 
 Dabney, " and I was by no means certain that Mur 
 phy would not succeed in nominating his Norfolk 
 man, for I expected him to control the negro dele 
 gates. I thought that his own name would draw 
 votes from Harrison, Jones, and Temple." 
 
 " You made no mistake. He did draw votes from 
 them; but he was unable to deliver those votes to 
 his dark horses. He was compelled to choose Har 
 rison, for neither Jones nor Temple would allow 
 Murphy to stay in Virginia after the election should 
 the government be delivered to either." 
 
 " I do not follow you, gentlemen," said Judge 
 Braxton. 
 
 "Mere politics, Judge; nothing more," Colonel 
 Daingerfield explained. The young gentlemen of 
 our generation know nothing of statecraft. They 
 think that Murphy and his thieves must be fought 
 with their own weapons." 
 
 "Hold, Francis!" commanded Mr. Carter. "Ex 
 plain, Cary, if you please."
 
 324 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " Harrison is an honest man ; Murphy is a thief. 
 A thief never mistakes an honest man for a thief. 
 A rogue may fool a rogue; but a rogue always rec 
 ognises honesty. Murphy can not use Harrison, so 
 the Repudiators are defeated already, unless they 
 can control enough votes in the next legislature to 
 pass laws over the governor s veto." 
 
 "Sirs, I tell you again, John Harrison is Murphy s 
 puppet; a weakling, a scoundrel, a 
 
 "No, Daingerfield," said Judge Braxton; "John 
 Harrison is an honest man. The honour of Vir 
 ginia will be safe in his keeping." 
 
 "I agree with you, Braxton; and with you, my 
 son," said General Dabney. " We must not permit 
 the enemy to occupy a position from which he can 
 drive us despite the governor s veto. We must cap 
 ture the legislature." 
 
 Young Tazewell now entered the discussion. 
 
 " I think that we shall elect both the governor and 
 the legislature. Surely the people of this common 
 wealth will not tolerate Murphy and his party after 
 their shocking behaviour in their convention." 
 
 "My boy, in you is fructifying the statesman 
 germ," Colonel Daingerfield said. " Sirs, this young 
 man is right. Murphy s plain people will not re 
 ceive one vote in ten, our young statesman-politician 
 here will be our next governor, and I shall retain 
 my place in the Senate. Our country will bury 
 Murphy and Harrison and their Repudiators under 
 their own infamy." 
 
 " There you are wrong, Daingerfield," said Judge 
 Braxton. "The war has just begun. Virginia may 
 fall in the first battle, but I think that the genera-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 325 
 
 tion that will follow our own must solve the larger 
 questions that are involved in this campaign. The 
 next generation will determine whether or not an 
 empire shall be constructed out of the independent 
 nations that are now bound together by a treaty. 
 Pelatiah Webster, the author of the Constitution of 
 the United States, three years after the Articles of 
 Confederation went into effect, assured the people of 
 the American states that their sovereignty had not 
 been affected in the least by the treaty that they had 
 made between themselves. I shall read to you, Tom, 
 a few passages from some of the excellent books 
 that Cary has in his library. Hear the language in 
 which Pelatiah Webster interpreted the Constitu 
 tion that he wrote: 
 
 " The true end and design, of our confederation I take to 
 be this, viz. : To unite the strength of the separate states 
 under Congress as their general Head, and to delegate to 
 them the direction of the operations of our military and 
 naval forces, against the power of Great Britain. And this 
 I take was the general sense and understanding of the states 
 who adopted the articles of our federal union, and the whole 
 tenor of the articles themselves support this opinion. The 
 form of government planned by Congress, and adopted by 
 the states, is the only form we could adopt in our circum 
 stances: And the honour and dignity of Congress, as a 
 private citizen, I am determined to support, as much as the 
 sovereignty, freedom and independence of the states." x 
 
 " Chief Justice Chase hastened to assure our peo 
 ple that the disastrous ending of our war did not 
 
 1 Mabel Hill, Liberty Documents, p. 217, quoted in Ewing s 
 Northern Rebellion and Southern Secession, p. 14.
 
 326 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 take from us our rights as a nation. In one of his 
 greatest decisions, Texas versus White, he said: 
 
 The Constitution of the United States in all its pro 
 visions looks to an indestructible union of indestructible 
 states. " 
 
 Nevertheless, the traitor that completed the assas 
 sination of the American nations had in his cabinet 
 a man who later became secretary of state of the 
 United States in the cabinet of one whose vicious 
 assaults upon the American nations that had been 
 sovereignties were exceeded only by his successor 
 who publicly declared, in effect, while he held the 
 office of secretary of state, that the states should be 
 ware, or they should have taken from them the few 
 semblances of sovereignty that a gracious federal 
 power had been pleased to bestow upon them. 
 But, to return to the judge, who continued: 
 " President Monroe wrote that two propositions 
 were beyond dispute: 
 
 " The first is, that in wresting the power, or what is called 
 the sovereignty, from the crown, it passed directly to the 
 people. The second, that it passed directly to the people of 
 each colony, and not to the people of all the colonies in the 
 aggregate to thirteen distinct communities, and not to 
 2 
 
 one. 
 
 " I will now read to you from Article I of the 
 Treaty of Paris: 
 
 " His Britannic Majesty acknowledges that said United 
 States, viz: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode 
 Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, 
 
 - Niles s Register, vol. xxii, p. 366.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 327 
 
 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 
 North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to be Free, 
 Sovereign, and Independent States; that he treats with them 
 as such." 
 
 " Shall the federal power impose an income tax 
 upon the people of a sovereign country? Shall that 
 power be so expanded as to break down all the bar 
 riers that constitute Virginia s fortifications? Shall 
 our people lose their characteristics? Shall they be 
 come a part of the people of an empire made of all 
 the peoples of the world an empire without a peo 
 ple, without a people as an individuality? The ques 
 tion of the most vital importance to this nation is 
 this: Shall Virginia live? Murphy and his follow 
 ers may despoil her, then deliver her outraged body 
 not her spirit, not Virginia, but her outraged body 
 to the empire that all about us, north, south, and 
 west, is being constructed. Almighty God, save us 
 from such a fate ! " 
 
 " Why, Judge, is the South, a nation in herself, 
 willing to be made a part of her enemy s territory? " 
 
 " Tom Tazewell, I will explain to you that the 
 southern nations that formed a confederation to de 
 fend themselves against a common enemy, by their 
 compact did not create a single nation. Each nation 
 fought to preserve her individual sovereignty; hence 
 the southern confederation would have been dis 
 solved peacefully upon the successful termination of 
 the war, although later the nations parties to the 
 compact of confederation doubtless would have en 
 tered into a treaty with one another similar in vari 
 ous provisions to the compact of 1788 and its amend 
 ments. The new treaty would have defined the re-
 
 328 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 lations of the nations to one another, but that in 
 strument would not have affected the sovereignty of 
 any party to the agreement. 
 
 To show you, Tom, how jealously the parties to 
 the southern confederation guarded their rights, if 
 you will hand me that bundle of documents I will 
 read to you from the correspondence that took place 
 between the war governor of Georgia, Joseph E. 
 Brown, and the Confederate secretary of war, James 
 A. Seddon. Governor Brown, when his state was 
 invaded by General Sherman, raised an army to 
 resist the invaders. Whereupon Mr. Seddon, in 
 obedience to the instructions that he had received 
 from Mr. Davis, made requisition on the governor 
 for the entire Georgian army that was not then with 
 the Confederate forces. Now, I will read you ex 
 tracts from his letters that the governor wrote to 
 the secretary: 
 
 " I have an organisation of gallant, fearless men, ready 
 to defend the State against usurpations of power as well as 
 invasions by the enemy. . . . Her militia have been 
 organised and called into active service under her own laws 
 for her own defence, and I do not feel that I am authorised 
 to destroy her military organisation at the behest of the 
 President, or to surrender to him the command of the troops 
 organised and retained by her by virtue of her reserved power 
 for her own defence when greatly needed for that purpose, 
 and which are her only remaining protection against the en 
 croachments of centralised power. I therefore decline to 
 comply with or fill this extraordinary requisition. . . . 
 And if you will not consider the remark acrimonious, I will 
 add that the people of my State, not being dependent, and 
 never intending to be, upon that government for the privi 
 lege of exercising their natural and Constitutional rights,
 
 THE BETRAYAL 329 
 
 nor the Executive of the State for his official existence, I 
 shall on all occasions feel at liberty to exercise perfect inde 
 pendence in the discharge of my official obligations, with no 
 other restraints than those thrown around me by a sense of 
 duty, and the Constitution of my country, and the laws of 
 my State. " 3 
 
 " My boy, never spell the southern section of this 
 continent that consists of sovereign countries with an 
 initial capital letter. There never was a South in 
 America. The Confederate States of America, a 
 temporary association, was the result of an agree 
 ment between certain sovereignties, and the words 
 of that agreement were never intended to mean that 
 sovereign entities would be merged into a nation. 
 The countries of America delegated certain rights to 
 the federal power under the treaty of 1788 and its 
 amendments, and reserved to their sovereign selves 
 all the rights that they did not so definitely delegate. 
 States rights have not yet been submitted to the arbit 
 rament of arms but nearly all of the rights of the 
 states have been taken from them. Virginia did not 
 fight to establish a nation; but she fought to main 
 tain her sovereignty to preserve the nation Vir 
 ginia. She would have defeated the purpose of her 
 war had she terminated her existence as a nation 
 upon entering the confederation of southern states." 
 
 " I thank you, Judge." 
 
 "Shame on you, I say, young man!" Colonel 
 Daingerfield thundered. "Shame on you! Sirs, 
 indeed is Virginia sick unto death when a youth of 
 Tom Tazewell s education and parentage has to be 
 told such elemental truths." 
 
 3 Fieller s Life anl Times of Joseph E. Brown, pp. 313-335.
 
 330 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "Well, Colonel, had each state been sovereign 
 would they not soon have destroyed one another?" 
 Young man, Europe is divided into nations, 
 some of which have endured for many centuries. 
 The world is divided into nations, some of which 
 have endured for millenniums. The American na 
 tions would not have devoured one another, nor 
 would they have been devoured by other countries." 
 
 "And, Francis, my son," said Mr. Carter, "the 
 twaddle that we have heard all our lives to the effect 
 that a single nation would have to be constructed 
 out of the independent American states to save them 
 from themselves is wearisome in the extreme. That 
 great document, the federal treaty, was more nearly 
 perfect than any other instrument made by man; 
 but the time came when it ceased to be operative. 
 The compact provided for the perpetuation of the 
 sovereignty of each nation that was a party to it. 
 John Marshall, the first emperor of the American 
 empire, left but little of the Constitution of the 
 United States for others to destroy." 
 
 "Yet," Cary Dabney said, " I venture to say that 
 the federal treaty was not nearly a perfect instru 
 ment. The federal government should not have 
 been concerned as to how any state should raise her 
 part of the money necessary to defray the general 
 expense. The first blow was dealt to the sovereignty 
 of the states when the Constitution of the United 
 States permitted the federal power to levy any kind 
 of tax. There would have been no war between the 
 states, and the sovereignty of no one of the Amer 
 ican nations would have been jeopardised, had there 
 been free trade between the states, and between the 
 states and other nations. Neither the federal gov-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 331 
 
 ernment nor any state should have had the right to 
 obtain money by imposts." 
 
 " I said as much, Gary, before I went on the 
 bench," said Judge Braxton. " The expenses of the 
 federal authorities should have been very small. 
 We may say that fully three-fourths of the money 
 expended by the government at Washington for ad 
 ministrative purposes during the last past half cen 
 tury was so much waste of public moneys. Indeed, 
 no one supposed when the union was formed that 
 the expenses of the federal government would exceed 
 a very small sum. There were to be a few em 
 ployees of the general government only, for only a 
 few were necessary." 
 
 Had Judge Braxton lived in the year 1909, be 
 fore the census employees were engaged, he would 
 have found 370,065 persons on the federal pay 
 roll, as against 306,141, in 1907, an increase in 
 two years of about 64,000 persons, or about 20 per 
 cent. O you plain people, can you not see that you 
 are rapidly reaching the time when you will be em 
 ploying yourselves, and still be federal employees ! 
 
 Judge Braxton continued: 
 
 " Now many persons say that the federal gov 
 ernment should levy an income tax upon the peoples 
 of sovereign nations, that a federal law to regulate 
 divorce should apply to all the states ! Federal laws 
 have been enacted that were designed to regulate the 
 domestic relations of the people of a state to one 
 another. Yes, the next generation will have to de 
 cide whether there shall be left any vestige of the 
 compact that was made by these sovereignties a hun 
 dred years ago. The peoples no longer retain the 
 rights which they did not delegate to the federal
 
 332 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 government, but we now are told that they have no 
 rights save those that are granted to them by that 
 power. 
 
 " A federation of the nations of Europe that would 
 give place to a single nation of those forming the 
 federation would mean the passing of western civil 
 isation. California and Virginia may live in peace 
 when bound by a treaty that preserves to each her 
 sovereign rights; but those nations may not be amal 
 gamated, even if made into a monarchy, for the 
 peoples of the American nations can not be formed 
 into a single country that shall long endure. Tom 
 Tazewell, if the nations are to destroy one another, 
 if they are to lose their civilisation, those awful 
 calamities will be effected through coalescence, not 
 by the preservation of their sovereign entities. 
 Latin Americans are not comparable to the peoples 
 of these united states." 
 
 " You will find, sirs," Colonel Daingerfield said, 
 " that the people of Virginia will uphold the sov 
 ereignty of their country next fall." 
 
 "Do you mean Murphy s followers?" 
 
 " Lancaster, I do not." 
 Then you mean the gentry?" 
 
 " Sir, I referred to the people of Virginia." 
 
 Well, as my daughter Gladys would say, there 
 are just three kinds of people in Virginia coons, 
 cornstalkers, and old maids. If you expect our 
 candidates to be elected by the gentry, aided by the 
 yeomanry and the peasantry, you can count yourself 
 out of this game, just as you were counted out of 
 that jack-pot last Saturday night." 
 
 " Sirs," said the colonel, after he had withdrawn 
 his withering eyes from the captain, " I must now
 
 THE BETRAYAL 333 
 
 return to my home; but before I go I wish to re 
 peat that I give place to no man in my affection for 
 those Virginian yeomen and peasants that are worthy 
 of their country." 
 
 "Lelia, I was nominated yesterday." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " I have accepted the responsibility. This after 
 noon I go to Richmond, and I shall speak in every 
 county in the commonwealth before I return to War- 
 renton. You will not see me again before the mid 
 dle of August." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " I go to fight for Virginia." 
 
 " You go to fight Virginia." 
 
 " No, I go to fight for her honour and her sov 
 ereignty. Before I leave I promise you that if I 
 be elected I shall use every means in my power to 
 effect an honourable settlement of the debt; I prom 
 ise to defend Virginia s sovereignty; I promise to 
 defend her honour as I would my own. I promise 
 you to try to be worthy of Virginia." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " You will hear me charged with every kind of 
 iniquity. I shall find that hard to bear even for 
 Virginia s sake." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Has God answered your prayer?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "I shall not marry Murphy s candidate; I shall 
 not marry Murphy s governor; should you be de 
 feated, I shall not marry Murphy s defeated Repu- 
 diator."
 
 334 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " That from you, Lelia ! " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 John Harrison went out to his work. 
 
 Lelia Braxton went to the magnolia grove. A 
 star was visible before she left the old grapevine 
 swing, her Bible in her hand, and made her way to 
 her room. 
 
 "Wa-al, I come back ter-night, an I come right 
 frum the train ter see you jest the same as a love- 
 maker-r oughter." 
 
 " I ain t settin no store by your love-makin . I ve 
 had beaux an beaux in my time, but I never seen 
 sech an awkward piece as you in all my life." 
 
 " I m gittin mighty tired o them hard words. I 
 ain t hearn nuthin good outen you sence the first 
 time I come ter see you. You wus mighty perlite 
 that day, I kin tell you; but like a darn fool, the 
 next day I up an axed you. Then I thought I wus 
 shot, you jumped at me so sudden-like. Ever sence 
 I ain t hearn nuthin outen you ceptn sass, an I m 
 gittin mighty tired. I don t believe you ever had 
 no lover befo I come long 
 
 Unobserved, Mrs. Rice entered the room in time 
 to overhear Mr. Stokes last speech. 
 
 " Why, you Roger Williams Stokes, ain t you 
 ashamed of yourself to take Eugenie Victoria down a 
 button-hole lower like that! I never hearn sech talk 
 before come outen no man s mouth. Don t you have 
 nothin more to do with him to-night, Eugenie Vic 
 toria. Po chile, I don t wonder you cry! I jest 
 won t stay in the room with you no longer, Stokes, 
 till you know how to behave yourself like a gent man. 
 Why don t you jine some club an learn how gent - 
 men behave. Come along, Eugenie Victoria."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 335 
 
 Mrs. Rice and her daughter took their departure. 
 
 Dorothea Annabel entered the parlour a few min 
 utes later. She concealed her disappointment as she 
 lightly tapped the globe that covered the wax fruit 
 with one of the artificial flowers that she had taken 
 from a highly decorated Japanese vase, which Mrs. 
 Rice had bought from a travelling merchant, and 
 which was reduced in price from one dollar to 
 seventy-eight cents. She had heard that the visitor 
 was Captain Temple. 
 
 "What is the matter with you, Mr. Stokes? You 
 look as if you were In great distress." 
 
 " I m fected deep mighty deep." 
 
 "Why, how? what is the matter?" 
 
 " I m in love." 
 
 "You have been in love for a long time. Why 
 should love have such a peculiar effect on you now? 
 Have you quarrelled with Eugenie Victoria?" 
 
 " I ain t never loved Eugenie Victoria. My heart s 
 lovin o somebody else mighty powerful." 
 
 " I thought that you were engaged to my sister? " 
 
 " Land, no ! How could you hev tuck up with 
 sich a foolish notion?" 
 
 " You have been with her constantly for more 
 than a year." 
 
 " I ain t never axed her to do no marr in . I 
 reckon she done all the axin ." 
 
 "Why, Mr. Stokes!" 
 
 "Wa-al, it wan t done zactly that way; but it 
 mounted ter the same thing in the end, fer as I 
 could see. I happened ter be talkin bout that nice 
 little piece o prop ty o mine the day after I fust 
 seen Eugenie Victoria, an she says, says she: I 
 lows as you oughter hev a woman ter help you take 
 care o that nice little piece o prop ty ; an Eugenie
 
 336 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Victoria she says, says she : I hopes when you do 
 gits hold o a woman she ll know s much bout house- 
 keepin as me I knows a heap bout housekeepinV 
 * An I says, says I : I hope so too. An she says, 
 says she: Oh, Mr. Stokes; this is so sudden- 
 like! jest the same as I done read in Rosa Gary s 
 Wee Wifie come yesterday. An then she sat on 
 my knee the same as she didn t hev tall, sharp bones 
 the scrawny critter. Ain t hearn nuthin but sass 
 outen her-r sence. I ain t said nuthin bout marr in 
 no more cayse I m in love, I am." 
 
 "Why do you look at me like that, Mr. Stokes?" 
 
 " Cayse I m in love, I am." 
 
 "What on earth do you mean?" 
 
 " I mean I m in love, I am mighty powerful 
 deep in love." 
 
 "I think you re a dying calf. Please do not die 
 here in the parlour. Can I get you a drink of 
 water?" 
 
 You kin do more n that fer me you kin marry 
 me, you kin." 
 
 "Oh, you insolent creature! Oh, oh, oh! Leave 
 this house! Leave instantly, sir! Leave!" 
 
 Mr. Stokes left. 
 
 Ah, mothers that are peasants and yeomen, why 
 do you educate your daughters? You teach them 
 to despise you. You force them always to live celi 
 bate lives. 
 
 Miss Dorothea Annabel sat alone from the time 
 that Mr. Stokes left her until she heard Captain 
 Temple s voice an hour later. She had wept bit 
 terly during a part of that hour, tears that were now
 
 THE BETRAYAL 337 
 
 of anger, now of wounded pride. Would Captain 
 Temple ever ask her to marry him? He would call 
 to-night, she felt sure, for he had returned from 
 Richmond with the Fauquier delegates. She would 
 arouse his jealousy. Yes, she would make use of 
 Mr. Stokes and his proposal. She heard the cap 
 tain s voice, and then she heard her father, who 
 followed her admirer into the parlour. 
 
 " So you ain t goin to hang your hat up in the 
 Zecutive Mansion.?" 
 
 There was no note of hospitality in the Rice 
 voice. 
 
 " No, I had rather be steadfast to my principles 
 than to be governor of Virginia. The office, I hold, 
 should seek the man. Mr. Jones and Mr. Harrison 
 sought the office. Although General Murphy begged 
 me to accept the nomination, and while I would 
 have received two-thirds of the votes of the dele 
 gates had I not withdrawn my name early in the 
 balloting, I had other plans. I shall go to Congress. 
 Already General Murphy advocates my election to 
 the United States Senate. I shall be a candidate 
 for the next presidental nomination. I shall receive 
 the support of the solid south in the convention, 
 and I shall receive the nomination. I also shall be 
 elected." 
 
 The Rice climate changed from frigid to torrid. 
 
 "And, Cap n, you ll make a great president. I 
 allus told Dorothea Annabel as how you had mo in 
 you than any man I ever seen. I m goin to bed 
 now; but I hope you ll come here jest as often as 
 you can. You is always mighty welcome. Dorothea 
 Annabel, I seen some mighty purtty stars out in the 
 gardin as I come along jest now."
 
 338 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "Come, Miss Dorothea; your father s suggestion 
 is excellent." 
 
 They went into the garden. 
 
 " Do you know, Dorothea, my little Dorothea 
 Annabel, to me this garden is the most beautiful spot 
 in all God s creation. Every flower here reminds me 
 of you. Yonder wild rose I remember a time when 
 you and the wild rose were there, and I was by 
 your side. Dolly, this garden is full of you. I 
 never see a flower that I do not think of you." 
 
 "I like this garden too; but I may soon have to 
 leave it and make a friend of some other garden 
 my own garden." 
 
 "Why, Dolly! What do you mean?" 
 
 "Never mind." 
 
 " But I do mind." 
 
 "Are you sure?" 
 
 " I know that there is nothing that affects you 
 does not deeply concern me." 
 
 " You are not interested in my love affairs." 
 
 " You certainly surprise me." 
 
 " You thought that I was not pretty enough or 
 intellectual enough to have a lover?" 
 
 " You are the most beautiful, the most gifted, the 
 most adorable girl that I know." 
 
 " Captain Temple ! " 
 
 " I mean what I say." 
 
 " You society men flatter so one never knows when 
 to believe you." 
 
 " So you are going to marry. I have looked 
 into your eyes; I have kissed your eyes; I have kissed 
 your lips. And you are going to marry." 
 
 " I never said so." 
 
 "Then what do you mean?"
 
 THE BETRAYAL 339 
 
 " Mr. Stokes has proposed." 
 " Mr. Stokes is engaged to your sister." 
 " He says that he loves me, that he has never 
 loved Eugenie Victoria, that he is not engaged to 
 her. Oh, he does love me so much, Captain Tem 
 ple! No other man has ever loved me nearly so 
 much." 
 
 " I see that you love him, Dorothea Annabel. 
 Good-bye. I hope that you will be very happy, you 
 and Mr. Stokes. I shall congratulate him. 
 and I shall ask him to take good care of my little 
 Dorothea Annabel, my little Dolly." 
 
 For a long while Captain Temple did not with 
 draw his gaze from the young girl s face, although 
 he knew that her tears came from her heart as well 
 as from her eyes. Those great sobs that she tried 
 to suppress came from the heart of a woman for 
 a girl so young as Dorothea Annabel is a woman 
 with all the passion of centuries of women when 
 she loves. 
 
 Love, more variable than the stars of heaven, is 
 quite as uniform as those stars, no love differing 
 from another in any essential element. The love- 
 tears of Lelia Braxton were as sacred as all the 
 waters of Jordan. The love-tears of Dorothea 
 Annabel were no less holy. 
 
 The captain rode home in the starlight. 
 
 "Dorothea Annabel, I love you; I love you as 
 if I did not love Lelia Braxton. . . . Yes, 
 I love you but I shall marry Lelia Braxton. Even 
 though I do not love Lelia I shall marry her. Love? 
 There is no such thing as love. . . . But I love 
 you, Dorothea Annabel; with all my heart and soul
 
 340 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 I love you. . . . You thought to arouse my 
 jealousy; you thought to make me declare myself 
 you did not know that those sobs and tears nearly 
 made me ask you a question that forever shall be 
 left unasked. . . I wonder . . . That 
 you, my Dorothea Annabel, whose thoughts are as 
 dainty as the flowers, and as pure, that you should 
 use that Yankee vulgarian to stimulate the passion 
 of the man that you love. No, Dolly; for all your 
 gentle soul, for all your culture and natural lovable- 
 ness, you are a peasant, and many ways of the peas 
 ant are your ways ; nor all the powers of heaven nor 
 hell can make a lady of a peasant. I shall marry a 
 lady." 
 
 * * 
 
 Byrd Dandridge was the youngest of eleven chil 
 dren. He had kept bachelor s hall at Sedgemoor, 
 the Dandridge home, a few miles from Warrenton, 
 for about two years since his father s death. His 
 mother had been dead for fifteen years; his brothers 
 had been killed in the war, and his sisters, all of 
 whom were married, lived in other parts of the state. 
 He had succeeded his father as magistrate as a 
 matter of course, for the Warrenton magistrates had 
 always been Dandridges. Happy Warrenton ! Law 
 yers do not make good magistrates, but planters 
 do, and the Dandridges had been wealthy planters 
 since Sir Peter settled in Virginia, and they had 
 been of the best of English country gentry for centu 
 ries before that time. Everybody liked Byrd Dan 
 dridge, and he liked everybody. 
 
 "Byrd," his father had said one day, u you must 
 take your bachelor s degree at the University. I got 
 through college by two questions, and so did your
 
 THE BETRAYAL 341 
 
 grandfather. I ask you to do as well." He did; 
 but no better. Not a book had he opened since the 
 morning that he went up for his last examination 
 except the Book of Common Prayer, which he read 
 every Sunday morning while in the Dandridge pew. 
 Physically a giant, he spent his time in riding over 
 the Sedgemoor estate, which he managed success 
 fully; in hunting with his pack of perfectly trained 
 hounds, and in fishing the streams of his woodlands. 
 His mind was one that moved slowly; but he made 
 few mistakes other than those of his heart. 
 
 " Hold on there, Byrd! mornin . Why are you 
 going to sell the old Dandridge place and all your 
 other property? " 
 
 Captain Lancaster was walking toward Morven 
 as Mr. Dandridge, taking a last ride on his favour 
 ite mare, rode rapidly past him. Already the cap 
 tain had sold for three hundred and seventy-five 
 dollars the horse and buggy that he had purchased 
 from Mr. Dabney. 
 
 The young magistrate was silent. 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " I promised M-iss Boiling." 
 
 "You are in love; that s your trouble. But I 
 didn t know until now that Miss Boiling " 
 
 " I had rather not hear Miss Boiling s name 
 spoken lightly." 
 
 Mr. Dandridge blushed guiltily, for neither he 
 nor his face could lie; no, Mr. Dandridge would 
 not admit even to himself that love of Virginia had 
 prompted his gift. 
 
 "Well, this is certain; you ll not be able to marry 
 for many a long year to come." 
 
 So Mr. Dandridge had thought.
 
 342 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " Another thing, how are you going to earn a 
 living?" 
 
 Mr. Dandridge had asked himself that question 
 more than once during the last past three weeks. 
 
 The Dandridge ancestral home was purchased by 
 Mr. Rice that afternoon. He had drawn on his 
 bank for two thousand dollars, and the balance of 
 the purchase price he had borrowed at the legal 
 rate of interest, six per cent. The property had cost 
 him less than half its value. Rice had been the only 
 man who had bid for the property. Captain Tem 
 ple s resources were exhausted, and other men of 
 means in Fauquier had been unwilling to increase 
 their land holdings. They were unable to obtain 
 labour to cultivate one-fourth of the arable lands 
 that they already owned. 
 
 About eight o clock that night Mr. Dandridge 
 knocked at the door of the Rice dwelling. 
 
 "Law, if it ain t Mr. Dandridge! Du-u-u come 
 right in, Mr. Dandridge. I ll call the gyurls right 
 away." 
 
 " I have come to see Mr. Rice." 
 
 "James P. J-a-m-e-s P. J-a-a-m-e-s P.! The 
 Lawd knows where that man keeps himself. James 
 p._j_ a . m .e- s R_ 
 
 "Woman, what you want? There ain t no restin 
 when you s around. Your tongue s allers soundin 
 like a thrashin -machine." 
 
 Now, while the Virginian yeoman and peasant 
 these days speak only harsh words to one another 
 in the seclusion of their sacred homes, their attitude 
 is affectionate while they are in the presence of
 
 THE BETRAYAL 343 
 
 others; so Mr. Rice was crestfallen when he was told 
 by his good helpmate that Mr. Dandridge awaited 
 his pleasure. 
 
 "Ain t you satisfied about the sale, Squire?" 
 
 " I have not come here to complain, Mr. Rice, 
 but to offer to buy back a part of the property." 
 
 " Thought you d gin away all you had." 
 
 " I did. This afternoon I gave to Miss Boiling 
 every cent that I had, except five dollars and I 
 will give her five dollars more as soon as I have 
 earned so much." 
 
 "Then what s you goin to buy any of my prop 
 erty with?" 
 
 "Work." 
 
 " What kind of work can you do, I d like to 
 know? Goin a-clarkin ? I ll be mighty glad to 
 help a likely young man as you as far as I can, 
 Squire. I might find a place in my sto for you." 
 
 " Do you remember the tract of one hundred 
 acres along the Calverton road?" 
 
 "Yes; I certainly does. That land s standin o 
 timber trees as big round as the new dinin -room 
 table. I didn t know as no man wanted that piece 
 of land." 
 
 " I wish to buy it. As you think it is not worth 
 much, I hope that I can buy it to-night, on liberal 
 terms." 
 
 " I never said the land wan t worth nothin . It s 
 worth a heap sight more n I ll get for it. That 
 land ain t never been cleared, and it is good land, I 
 tell you primal land; and them trees is worth a 
 whole lot now, an they is goin to be worth mo 
 soon as somebody can be found as is willin to cut 
 them down and send them to New York. But you
 
 344 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 ain t got nothin to give for no land nohow, so 
 what s the use of talkin ." 
 
 "How much do you ask for the tract?" 
 Thirty dollar an acre but bein s it s you, I says 
 twenty dollar an acre." 
 
 This morning you paid less than half twenty 
 dollars an acre for the whole estate." 
 
 " Well, I shorely ain t buyin no land to sell at no 
 loss." 
 
 " I will give you twenty dollars an acre for the 
 tract if you will accept a mortgage of two thousand 
 dollars, interest payable yearly." 
 
 " How s you goin to pay intrust, let alone the two 
 thousand dollar? " 
 
 " I propose to clear the land with my own hands, 
 sell the trunks of the trees in New York, sell the 
 branches as scrap cord-wood here, then cultivate 
 the land. The improvements will double the value 
 of the property. So if I can not pay the two thou 
 sand dollars, you will not lose a cent." 
 
 " How much intrust is you proposin ? " 
 The legal rate six per cent." 
 
 " I ain t givin away my money to no man for 
 six per cent. Make it ten an I ll close the sale 
 right now two hundred dollar a year, one hundred 
 dollar the last day of June, and one hundred dollar 
 the last day of December." 
 
 The sale was made. 
 
 " I have three likely yoke of oxen that ll pull them 
 timbers outen that forest as I ll sell you, and I ll 
 fling in a wagon to haul the cord-wood an a carry-all 
 to haul the trees with to boot." 
 
 Mr. Dandridge bought the oxen and the convey 
 ances, then handed to Mr. Rice his promissory notes
 
 THE BETRAYAL 345 
 
 for double the value of the property, the notes bear 
 ing interest at ten per cent. 
 
 After they went to bed Mr. and Mrs. Rice dis 
 cussed the events of the day. 
 
 "An to think, James P., you sold him back a 
 hundred acres of land an made more n one thousand 
 dollar clear, besides what you made on them steers, 
 all in one day." 
 
 " More n that, maw; I sorter think that if there s 
 to be any marryin in, stead of marryin out, this 
 here Squire Dandridge is a long sight better n 
 Perfessor Simpson. He s got family, he has, an 
 them kind of young gent men like Squire Dandridge 
 ain t never kept down when they once gets to work." 
 
 "An you seen how he looked at Phyllis Daphne 
 when she done stuck her head accident-like in the 
 door? I certainly was sorry she forgot that she had 
 her hair done up in curl papers. Howsome er, he 
 certainly did look at her meanin -like." 
 
 " I allers told you, maw " 
 
 " Shet up, James P., shet up I You ain t never 
 got nothin pleasant to say." 
 
 Soon the husband and wife were at peace they 
 were asleep. 
 
 As Byrd Dandridge walked toward Warrenton, 
 where he would pass the night as Mr. Carter s 
 guest, he thought of his plans for the future. He 
 would begin his new life at dawn the next day; he 
 would go into his primeval forest, and there with 
 his own hands he would build a rude hut of logs; 
 he would cook his own food, and there he would 
 work like a man work from the first lights of day
 
 346 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 until the stars would come out at night. Yes, he 
 would work for Betty Dabney; and some day he 
 would go to her and say: Here is the home that I 
 built for you with my own hands, here are the lands 
 that I subdued, here are the fields of ripening wheat 
 that I sowed, here are the cattle that I raised. No, 
 he could see, Betty Dabney would be married to 
 some one else long before he could provide a home 
 for her. The beautiful, dainty, joyous Betty! But 
 he would ask her, he would never let an oppor 
 tunity pass that he would not ask for a long time 
 he had not let an opportunity pass whenever they 
 were alone together he would ask her to be his 
 wife. But now he would go into his forest with his 
 axe and his oxen. He would haul logs and cord- 
 wood to Calverton, the nearest railway depot, twenty 
 miles away. As he walked toward Warrenton his 
 whole manhood was aroused. He would work with 
 his hands the work of men before men became 
 gods. 
 
 There was no sleep for Betty Dabney that night. 
 Her heart was with Byrd Dandridge, her stalwart 
 lover, whose heart and soul were even bigger than 
 his big body. Yes, he was a man; and, she did not 
 doubt, he would do the work of a man. And she 
 would go to him if only he would ask her often 
 enough and earnestly enough to be his wife. This 
 night her heart was her lover s as it never had been 
 and Betty wondered why he was not more ardent 
 in his love-making.
 
 CHAPTER EIGHT 
 
 OOD-morning, Mr. Carter; good-morning, 
 Daingerfield; this beautiful June morning 
 has taken you for a walk beyond my gates, 
 which you should have entered, then gone your way 
 refreshed by the Morven hospitality." 
 
 " We did call to see you, Ingram, but were told 
 that the glory of this June day had also affected you 
 that you, too, had wandered abroad in search of 
 the pure Virginian air that we used to breathe, air 
 uncontaminated by Murphy and his minions." 
 
 " Always, sirs, the Virginian air that I breathe 
 shall be pure," Colonel Daingerfield said. " Never 
 shall it be corrupted by the Temples and the Mur- 
 phys and the Harrisons and their negro friends, not 
 the air that is within reach of my long sword." 
 
 "Cease, Francis, cease; a brief respite, if you 
 please; Murphy and his henchmen are not in har 
 mony with the peace and beauty of this day that 
 God has given us as a further evidence of His love 
 for this His people. Let us again commune with 
 Him through the glories with which He has sur 
 rounded us the azure above, the green below, the 
 fragrance and warmth that everywhere abound." 
 
 "And among all His blessings," said Judge Brax- 
 ton, " those that He has poured out upon Virginia 
 for three hundred years, none is greater than the 
 glorious climate that He has provided for every day 
 of our year. It has stimulated our aspirations, it has 
 enabled us to bring forth abundant fruit, it has made 
 us great among His peoples." 
 
 347
 
 348 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "Sir, you are right," the colonel said. "The 
 great God in His goodness gives more to Virginia 
 than to any other of the peoples of the earth, for 
 with a lavish hand He pours from on high the 
 beauties of all creation, aye, even the greatest among 
 His blessings, the Virginian climate. Sirs, let us 
 drink to Virginia: In March, leaping joyously 
 from her own virgin womb, Virginia is born again; 
 a burst of sunshine, and laying aside her robes of 
 white, she is clothed in the garments of infant 
 Spring. Now willows are arrayed in green and 
 gold; seas of marsh grass shimmer before fragrant 
 zephyrs, wafted from magnolia groves; we listen, 
 we stand mute, for we hear the carolling of the 
 birds, the birds that sing so joyously in Virginia. 
 Our hearts beat in accord with all the glad teeming 
 life of which we are a part. Then comes Summer, 
 Virginia s youth, in which she renews perennially the 
 youth that anticipates the joys of old age, when 
 happiness is unalloyed for life, not death, is the 
 reward of Virginia s years. Infant Spring has kept 
 her promise: the maiden Virginia, arrayed in the 
 vestments of Summer Summer in Virginia is a 
 bride. And what a bride! The skies are her blue 
 eyes; the showers are her gentle tears; the roses are 
 her pink cheeks. Behold Summer, the bride Vir 
 ginia ! Then comes Autumn. Spring and Summer 
 have fulfilled their destinies: Virginia is a mother. 
 Bountifully she nourishes her children, loading them 
 with untold thousands of rich gifts; barns are filled 
 with grain; apple trees are laden with red fruit; 
 the purple fox grape everywhere abounds; every 
 where is harmony, and everywhere is perfect beauty 
 the beauty of God, lavishly given by His holy
 
 THE BETRAYAL 349 
 
 hand, the beauty of Virginia Virginia the hand 
 maid of God. Now the leaves of her forests change 
 their hues as doth the rainbow, the grey mists of 
 morning envelop the land like an oriental veil of 
 finest texture. Then comes Virginia s old age, 
 Winter. Is any of the ages of Virginia more 
 beautiful than the age of her old age? Her snow, 
 fair as Virginia herself, stainless as her proud es 
 cutcheon, bewitching as her loveliest daughter, wraps 
 Virginia s pure soul in a mantle of purity a mantle, 
 mark you, not a shroud, a mantle that she will soon 
 put aside that she may again array herself in a floral 
 gown of equal beauty. An infant, yet a bride; a 
 mother, yet a grandmother, now her children and 
 her children s children are gathered about her fire 
 side. All is well without; all is happiness within. 
 Here the peace and the contentment that follow a 
 wholesome life one of achievement, which has ful 
 filled the purpose of Almighty God. Aye, Virginia ! 
 Gentlemen, the health of Virginia ! Drink long and 
 deep the nectar with which she has filled your cup 
 sirs, Virginian air. Gentlemen: Virginia!" 
 
 "And right heartily do we drink," said Judge 
 Braxton. " Indeed, Daingerfield, the Virginian 
 climate, never bitterly cold, never intensely hot, has 
 enabled Virginians to tower above their fellow-men. 
 Her orators, drawing their inspirations from her 
 air, have given voice to words that fell upon their 
 hearers like the music that is made by her whisper 
 ing pines when they are swept by her balmy 
 breezes; her statesmen, tempered by the moderation 
 of her climate, gave to the earth her greatest 
 government; her daughters, breathing that air, gath 
 ered from her gardens their buoyancy, their health,
 
 350 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 and their unmatchable loveliness. From her climate 
 her sons and daughters take their strength that is 
 her glory and their gentleness that is her pride. 
 Virginia, my sweetheart, my wife, my mother, long 
 and deep do I drink from your cup, the skies, the 
 wine of life your air." 
 
 " My children, the sentiments that you have so 
 nobly expressed are worthy of Virginia s best tra 
 ditions. Ingram, I am glad to see that your service 
 of twenty years as a justice has not impaired your 
 poetic temperament. Your language is still that of 
 the Virginian gentleman when you are surrounded 
 by the charms and graces of fair Nature. Francis, 
 the thieves that are abroad have not robbed your 
 soul. 
 
 " A day like this recalls the superb odes of Horace 
 Horace the greatest of the poets of antiquity. Ah, 
 Ingram, how he would have revelled in Virginian 
 days her days of spring and of summer, and her 
 days of autumn and of winter! True, the Roman cli 
 mate was beneficent; but Rome lacked the variety and 
 qualities of the Virginian nature and all those won 
 ders that you and Francis so poetically have de 
 scribed, the endless variety that would have delighted 
 that great poet beyond measure. His great soul er 
 er his great soul his great soul would have 
 been borne even higher into the Kingdom of 
 Glory." 
 
 " Ah, Mr. Carter, you hesitated," Judge Braxton 
 said; "you wished to say that our climate would 
 have carried Horace upon the wings of fancy until 
 he had disappeared into the azure heights of Vir 
 ginia s atmosphere. You hesitated, sir; and well 
 you did. Horace, like all Latin writers of verse,
 
 THE BETRAYAL 351 
 
 was a mere rhymester, the writer of prose that mas 
 queraded in the costume of verse good verse, very 
 good verse; but verse, not poetry. I am unable to 
 understand how a man of your deep learning can 
 read Horace and neglect the wealth of Homeric 
 poetry that is at your disposal." 
 
 "Homer, did you say, Judge? Why, sir, there 
 was no such man ! " Colonel Daingerfield interposed, 
 his eyes twinkling. "As Shelley says, Homer is not 
 himself until the latter part of the Iliad, hence the 
 earlier parts of that poem were by some other person 
 or persons. I go further than Shelley, sir ; I say that 
 Homer is not himself in any part of the poetry that 
 bears his name. He was a multitude, sir; not a 
 single person." 
 
 " I tell you, Colonel Daingerfield, as I have told 
 you before, there is evidence in abundance that con 
 clusively proves that Homer was one man sir, the 
 greatest man that ever lived. I would as soon be 
 lieve that the Pentateuch was not the work of Moses 
 as to believe that the Homeric poetry was not writ 
 ten by Homer the Divine every line, every word, 
 Homer s own. I shall expect you to read my com 
 mentary, The Elements of Unity in the Homeric 
 Poems, a copy of which I shall present to you." 
 
 " And, Mr. Carter, sir, are you preparing a com 
 mentary on the odes and epodes of Horace?" 
 
 "No, Francis, my son, no; such a commentary is 
 unnecessary. The odes and epodes of Horace ex 
 plain themselves. At least he was one man the 
 one great poet of all men." 
 
 The Homeric epics are too intricate for the or 
 dinary mind to understand," said Judge Braxton. 
 " The works of Homer need no commentary for
 
 352 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 those that are able to realise the full meaning of 
 that great master of the human race, but there are 
 minds deeply cultured that require instruction before 
 they are able to grasp the magnificence of Homer; 
 then, too, the depths of his wondrous philosophy 
 may not be understood by those that have not 
 thought deeply about men, but have acquired their 
 knowledge of the human race from books from the 
 verse of Horace. The separatists consider the tradi 
 tions of the world argument against rather than for 
 any belief that has been accepted. They diligently 
 seek to point out discrepancies that of necessity are 
 to be found in any work of richness and scope. As 
 they do not know the real character of poetry, many 
 of them, refuting the statements of one another, 
 prove that they are unable to read Homer in Greek 
 with appreciation. In their zeal to scrutinise words 
 and phrases they lose sight of the broad meaning of 
 the whole." 
 
 " Sirs, had I not passed the years when men are 
 surprised, I should be astonished to see two learned 
 men, Mr. Carter and Judge Braxton, wrangling over 
 the comparative merits of the great poets, Homer 
 and Horace. I read them both when I am unable 
 to obtain the works of the Bard of Avon. When I 
 am in the midst of the mysteries of the great Latin 
 poet I think that he looked straight into the heart of 
 a living man before he wrote; when I delve into the 
 philosophy of life that everywhere abounds in the 
 Homeric epics, I care not whether they were the work 
 of one man or of a nation of men. Why should 
 I, sirs, wheri those words were inspired by fair 
 Heaven herself? Homer, were he a man or an army 
 of men, is for us a single being, an immortal being,
 
 THE BETRAYAL 353 
 
 who looked into the hearts of men, and then held on 
 high one man, that all the world might see." 
 
 "Why, there come Gary Dabney and Gladys Lan 
 caster ! " Judge Braxton exclaimed. " Ah me, their 
 attitude recalls a morning in June more than forty 
 years ago, just such a morning as this, when Miss 
 Polly Boiling and I strolled down this road to 
 gether ! Indeed is Virginia young ! " 
 
 "Zounds, Judge! Do you mean Mary Caperton, 
 the girl who is now your wife?" 
 
 "Yes, Daingerfield, yes, yes you are quite right. 
 I was thinking of a June morning several years be 
 fore the time that you and I were daily callers at 
 General Caperton s home the time when I went 
 to see the beautiful Miss Mary. You went to see 
 Miss Susan the beautiful Miss Susan." 
 
 "Why, man, I myself heard you tell the beautiful 
 Miss Mary that you never loved any other woman 
 than herself." 
 
 " Ah, Francis, but he did not tell the lovely little 
 dame that he had never strolled with Mistress Polly 
 Boiling down this lane of love." 
 
 " I have heard, Mr. Carter, that you too used to 
 explore this same way with Miss Polly, more than 
 forty years ago." 
 
 "True, Francis, true; but those were in the days 
 of my middle-age, when Mistress Boiling was only 
 a slip of a girl " 
 
 "Hold, Mr. Carter! Hold, sir! You have no 
 right, believe me, sir, to tell Miss Boiling s age. 
 She is still a young and very beautiful woman." 
 
 "Well, well, young people," Judge Braxton said; 
 "so you too have accepted Virginia s invitation and 
 have walked abroad into her morning, amid her
 
 354 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 flowers, over her green fields, a-down her path of 
 glory." 
 
 " Why, Judge Braxton, how poetical you are this 
 morning and I do so love poetry. I just read it 
 and read it and read it all day long simpliment 
 pour passer le temps, you know." 
 
 "Well, little girl," said Mr. Carter, "in the days 
 when Virginia was young when I was young 
 young ladies were not put to the trouble to read 
 poetry never. There was always some young man 
 to read the odes of Horace to them, after a while 
 to lay aside the works of that great poet and, in 
 tones of adoration as sincere as they were fervent, to 
 pour into half-willing ears words that came from 
 his heart. And those words, as they came from his 
 heart, through his lips, blossomed into poetry, even 
 as this bud bloometh into a rose." 
 
 "Mr. Carter, pardon me, sir," Mr. Dabney said; 
 " but one of the frailties of the aged, and I concede 
 to no man a greater respect for old age than that 
 which I hold, one of the frailties of the aged, I 
 say, sir, is inability to realise the upward tendency 
 of mankind, the natural growth in the arts and in the 
 virtues of humanity. Each generation is in every 
 way superior to preceding generations. To deny the 
 truth of this would be to give no weight to the evi 
 dence that greets you at every turn, and would be 
 equivalent to saying that the purpose of the Master 
 had failed." 
 
 " Your impertinence, sir, is excusable only on the 
 ground of your excessive youth, a fault, sir, that 
 only Time will correct. But I shall overlook your 
 intemperance even so far as to explain that the world 
 does not improve from day to day. You are no
 
 THE BETRAYAL 355 
 
 better than your father; and your generation is one 
 of pygmies as compared with the generation that 
 produced giants like Horace." 
 
 " I think you re just right, Mr. Carter. I certainly 
 do love old men, and some day I m going to marry 
 the very oldest man I know." 
 
 "And, my child, a very charming wife you will 
 make me." 
 
 " Why, boy," said the colonel, " when I was your 
 age there was no young man in Virginia that did 
 not compose poems for all the young women of his 
 acquaintance." 
 
 " Poems out of his old stock, sir, no doubt." 
 
 " No, sir, no ! In those days women were so beau 
 tiful and men so chivalrous that forth from a manly 
 heart poems would force their way like the rush of 
 the waters of the sea, sweeping all maiden hearts 
 before them. In rhyme would burst the young man s 
 passion, shaming the ardour of the midday sun 
 emotional words, uttered without thought, as spon 
 taneous as the glances from his eyes, as beautiful 
 as the music of some symphony played by Nature 
 upon the harp of Heaven." 
 
 " I just bet my bottom dollar if popper were here 
 he d say, You mean the lyre, Colonel; that s the 
 kind of instrument the Virginny lover plays. 
 
 " I, sitting as a justice, amid all this wealth of 
 Nature primeval, shall settle this dispute at once," 
 Judge Braxton said. " You, Mr. Cary Gordon 
 Dabney, forthwith recite to Miss Gladys Lancaster 
 a poem that shall come from your heart, in a man 
 ner worthy of the days recalled by Mr. Carter and 
 Colonel Daingerfield days that have passed from 
 Virginia never to return, they contend."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Whereupon Mr. Dabney heroically recited four 
 stanzas, each consisting of two eight-syllable iambic 
 couplets. Gentle reader, your narrators will spare 
 you as well as this young Virginian lover. Mr. 
 Dabney was no poet. 
 
 "Oh, oh! You dear old bearl I just love you 
 love you love you love you! If I ve never loved 
 you before, I certainly do love you now ! " 
 
 " That poem excellent verse, I will .admit I 
 heard you recite to a young lady more than a year 
 ago; I did indeed, Judge," said the colonel. "Ours 
 the victory. Honest Gary has selected from his old 
 stock of writings the best of his poetical works; and, 
 sir, his words droppeth not as doth the gentle rain 
 from heaven upon the place beneath as did the 
 words of the young men of our day. I pause for a 
 reply." 
 
 " Wait a minute, Judge! Just you wait a minute ! 
 Captain Temple recites poetry of his own to me 
 oh, lovely poetry! and he s a young man." 
 
 " What, Gladys, my child ! can it be that you hold 
 converse with Temple? Can that be possible?" 
 
 " Why, Mr. Carter, girls don t let politics stand 
 in the way of their beaux. I ve known Captain 
 Temple, Governor James Spotswood Temple s son, 
 all my life, and he used to visit at our home in 
 Charlottesville when I was a teensy, tinesey little 
 girl. I m not going to shake him just because he 
 and popper don t agree politically just now. No, 
 indeed, I m not!" 
 
 "You are very wrong, madam, very wrong in 
 deed," the colonel said. " But I for one accept your 
 challenge. So, Judge, before you render a decision 
 in this matter, hear Miss Lancaster, if you please.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 357 
 
 I assume, madam, you remember the poetry that is 
 recited to you, as the ladies of your mother s er 
 er our time remembered the poetry that their ad 
 mirers made to them." 
 
 "No, indeed, I don t remember all the poetry I 
 hear; not by a lot! But Captain Temple s poetry 
 is so exquisite, so lovely, so perfectly beautiful, so 
 I just can t forget any of it. Here s one dear little 
 thing, Colonel, that does drop like the gentle rain 
 from heaven upon the place beneath. You just see 
 if it don t, Judge. 
 
 " On desperate seas long wont to roam, 
 Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, 
 Thy naiad airs have brought me home 
 
 To the glory that was Greece 
 And the grandeur that was Rome. " 
 
 "Zounds! what? Did that fellow recite those 
 lines to you? Zounds, I say! Zounds! Did he, 
 madam? did he, I demand did he recite those 
 lines to you?" 
 
 " Yes, Colonel. And they are just beautiful lines, 
 I say; and I read and I hear a great deal of poetry, 
 and / know. Aren t they beautiful lines, Judge?" 
 
 " They are indeed, Miss Lancaster. Mr. Carter, 
 I think we will agree in our estimate of poetry in 
 this instance, and together pronounce those lines 
 among the noblest of our time. * 
 
 " O temporal O mores!" exclaimed the old 
 physician. 
 
 " So there, Colonel Daingerfield, you see young 
 men my young men are just as good as mother s 
 were." 
 
 "At least the young gentlemen that arc my as-
 
 358 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 sociates are gentlemen, and they treat ladies with 
 consideration deference and courtesy." 
 
 "Not so warm, Gary; not so warm, boy!" said 
 Mr. Carter. " Your violence is not in keeping with 
 harmonious Nature who surrounds you. See the 
 beautiful day." 
 
 Young lady," the Judge said, "the young man 
 that you so greatly admire, who is arrayed against 
 all the decent people of Virginia, whose right hand 
 no gentleman would take has deceived you. Those 
 lines were written by our greatest poet, the great 
 poet that Virginia gave to the world, and those five 
 lines constitute the greatest stanza that he wrote. 
 During my experience as judge many depraved men 
 have been brought before me, assassins, thieves, 
 thieves that would steal pennies from a hungry little 
 child, yet I say that the most contemptible of all 
 men is he that steals the brains of another, who, 
 himself unable to write, claims the work of another 
 as his own. Let this be a lesson to you, young lady; 
 and never again do you permit Captain Temple to 
 address a word to you. Hereafter limit your ac 
 quaintance with men to those that are gentlemen 
 not a word, Cary; not a word, sir!" 
 
 "Oh, I m 50 sorry! That was not the poem 
 Captain Temple recited to me; of course not. How 
 could I have been so stupid? I believe I know every 
 word of the poetry that Mr. Mr. Mr. what- 
 you-may-call-um ever wrote. I read a great deal of 
 poetry, you know. And now I ve gone and mixed 
 up his verse with Captain Temple s. Both write 
 such beautiful poetry, I think." 
 
 " I shall speak to your father about the matter," 
 said the Judge.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 359 
 
 "Why, here comes Lancaster now!" the colonel 
 said. "But why his perturbation? He is highly 
 excited. A matter of great consequence undoubt 
 edly requires our attention." 
 
 " Mr. Carter, Judge, Colonel, Cary, mornin , 
 Gladys, Shadrach Shad Shadrach Mesheck Ab- 
 ednego Berkeley says he s going to the legislature ! " 
 
 "What? Zounds, man! Speak out! What did 
 you say, sir? Can this be possible?" 
 
 " My children, indeed have evil days befallen us," 
 said Mr. Carter. 
 
 " My poor unhappy land ! My poor unhappy 
 land!" exclaimed the Colonel. 
 
 "How did you hear?" asked Mr. Dabney. 
 
 " The black rascal tacked a notice on the court 
 house door. I tore it down as soon as I saw it. 
 Here read it, please ! " 
 
 notiS 
 
 o yas o yas o yas detenchen fellow ciTzenS de heaRT 
 ob ouR po lanS buSTin an eR buSTin an de good lawd he 
 done spressify me eR dReam an one ob hiS beauTiful 
 ladieS wid de SpReadin wingS done come To me an di 
 rection bRuddeR RevnT docTah ShadRach bedniggeR 
 beRkeley de loRd he Say riSen ouT ob yo bed an pick 
 up diS bleedin heaRT an make iT well yea loRd iSe eR 
 comin i Say So iSe heRe bRuddeRS whiTe an cullud 
 come To yo fRom de loRd and iSe queSSin all ob you To 
 help de loRd an me geT To de legiSlaTuRe an de loRdll 
 conveRleSS you an paSSify me an iSe gwine uplifT 
 ebeRyTing i ken lay my hanS on in de STaTe i IS 
 
 youRS in de loRd 
 ex RevenT docTah ShadRak meShuk bedniggeR beRkeley 
 
 "Be calm, Francis; this is not a time for impa-
 
 360 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 tience, but for thought. We must meet this issue in 
 a manner creditable to Virginia and to her dead 
 statesmen." 
 
 " Impatience, sir? I was never more temperate in 
 my life! Mr. Carter, sir, those dead statesmen, 
 were they now living, would have forty lashes ap 
 plied to this negro s bare back. And, sirs, they 
 would do right. Too long has the negro gone un 
 punished." 
 
 " That was Murphy s move." 
 Yes, Lancaster," the Colonel said; "this time 
 you are right, sir; and a right dangerous one. He 
 will alienate the vote of his plain people." 
 
 " Colonel, sir, I think you will find that Murphy 
 will disclaim responsibility for the candidacy of 
 negroes," said Mr. Dabney. " He will tell his plain 
 people that he is unable to control his negro follow 
 ers, and at the same time he will aid and abet them 
 in their efforts to obtain offices, especially their 
 election to the legislature. As they can neither read 
 nor write, and will be addressed by speakers with 
 hearts as black as their hearers skins, we must check 
 mate that move." 
 
 "How, Cary? what do you suggest?" 
 
 " Judge, for some time I have thought that Mur 
 phy would do this thing, so I have developed a plan 
 that I believe will enable us to turn his play to our 
 advantage." 
 
 "What is it, son?" asked Mr. Carter. 
 
 "Why, sir, it is this: that you, an old and highly 
 respected Virginian gentleman, shall oppose Shad- 
 rach; that a man highly respected and beloved shall 
 oppose every negro that is advanced by Murphy as a 
 candidate."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 361 
 
 " Sir, I am surprised ! I had thought never to be 
 surprised again; but now I am surprised indeed, as 
 I never was in all my youth. Sir, I am so surprised 
 that I am unable to answer you." 
 
 " Mr. Carter, sir, your surprise is no greater than 
 mine own," the Colonel said. " I am astounded. 
 Love or politics has dethroned this young man s 
 reason. You are mad, stark mad, sir! That you, 
 a Cary and a Gordon and a Dabney, should have 
 poured forth an insult so awful upon the head of 
 this venerable gentleman ! " 
 
 " Don t you mind, Cary; 7 think you ve done just 
 right." 
 
 Young lady, the time was, and not so long 
 ago, when you were quite wrong," the Judge said 
 quietly. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I have failed to make my meaning 
 plain to you. I know, as you all know, Mr. Carter 
 would be the last man in Virginia to put aside his 
 duty to his country. Mr. Carter, I venerate and 
 respect you, sir, and so does every man in Virginia, 
 black as well as white; and, sir, for that reason 
 every man in Fauquier county that has the right of 
 suffrage, save one, will vote for you if you are a 
 candidate not necessarily a candidate opposing 
 Shad, but a candidate for the legislature. Shad 
 would receive but one vote, which he himself would 
 
 cast." 
 
 Now, Cary, you are gaited like a horse that s 
 going to win." 
 
 " And I ll put up my money too, popper. Here s 
 my pocketbook on Cary." 
 
 " Indeed, Mr. Carter," said Judge Braxton, " our 
 young leader s plan seems to me to be excellent.
 
 362 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Let us have the benefit of your advice, Daingerfield, 
 in the light of Gary s explanation." 
 
 " I spoke hastily, I fear not intemperately, but 
 hastily," said the colonel. " Like the great Well 
 ington, who at Waterloo corrected his mistakes as 
 he made them, I have learned that it is the part of 
 a man to acknowledge his errors, and then to rectify 
 them. I agree with you, Judge; and with you, 
 Dabney; and with you, Lancaster, and with this fair 
 Portia, whose wisdom 
 
 "If you please, gentlemen, you will excuse Miss 
 Lancaster and me. We will continue our walk. But 
 first, Mr. Carter, have I your consent to announce 
 that you agree to represent Fauquier in the Lower 
 House?" 
 
 "Yes, yes, my children; every man owes all that 
 he has to Virginia. I thought that I would end my 
 days peacefully among those that I love, among 
 you, my children, who are as dear to me as though 
 you were children of my own, not that I would 
 have to spend my last moments in wrangling in the 
 legislative arena with politicians. But Gary is right. 
 I owe the strength that is left to me to my country. 
 She shall have that she would have more, had I 
 more to give." 
 
 " I thank you, sir; I thank you. Come, Miss Lan 
 caster ! " 
 
 " By-bye, all ! Please don t tell popper, Judge. 
 You won t now, will you? " 
 
 " Mornin , gent men Wo-o-o-h, Dorothea An 
 nabel ! Wo-o-o-h ! This here is a great pleasure, 
 Gunnel Daingerfield, to meet the gent man as is 
 a-racin me from Warrenton to Richmond. I jest 
 wants you to know as I ain t havin no hard feelin s
 
 THE BETRAYAL 363 
 
 agin you. I jest wants you to know as the front do 
 of my house on my estate is allers open for the dis 
 tinguished office-holder the people has seen fitten 
 to elect for years comin and a-goin ." 
 
 " Rice, how dare you ! Go back to your store ! 
 Do not presume too far; for while my overseer has 
 left me, and is now a clerk in your shop, have a 
 care, or I shall find means to mete out to you the 
 punishment that you so richly deserve. Go back to 
 your shop! Go back, I say!" 
 
 "The beautiful morning is over for us, boys," 
 said Mr. Carter. " Let us return to town." 
 
 " Lancaster," the judge said, " I understand that 
 Temple frequently calls at the Rice home to see the 
 youngest daughter; and, Daingerfield, this also ac 
 counts for the lofty ambitions of the gentleman that 
 is to oppose the distinguished office-holder the peo 
 ple has seen fitten to elect for years comin and 
 a-goinV " 
 
 " This here s what I calls a fine day for barbecuin ; 
 sorter warm-like the kind of weather that ll sweat 
 sentiments outen them speechifiers." 
 
 These words Mr. Rice addressed to the gentle 
 men that were assembled about the entrance of his 
 store in the early morning of the last Saturday in 
 June, the day that had been appointed for the barbe 
 cue, about which Stover had told Temple. Besides 
 Mr. Rice, there were present his gifted son, Dr. 
 Reginald Launcelot, and Messrs. Stokes and Simp 
 son, also Bob, Captain Temple s personal represen 
 tative. 
 
 " Lawd, Mustah Sen tor, now you sho am talkin . 
 I s done seen Mustah Rev nt Docker Berkeley an
 
 364 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Mustah Buck Johnsin all het up fo sun-up drivin 
 Mustah Willums white mule hooked side ob Mustah 
 Berkeley s red hawse, an pullin ob some outlan ish 
 ole pha ton, jest skidaddlin fo de barb cuin camp- 
 meetin . Fo de Lawd, dey sho wus het up, an 
 sweatin an a-sweatin out words." 
 
 " I don t see why you people daown her-r-re done 
 set Andy Stover to bossin this her-r-re barbecue. He 
 don t like coloured gent men nohow, an I hear-rn 
 he was talkin religion mighty power-r-ful-like last 
 night. I jest bet he s fuller en tick a-fore he started 
 barbecuin come daybreak. You folks daown her-r-re 
 don t know how to r-run things nohow. I oughter-r-r 
 had that ther-r-re barbecuin job." 
 
 " Well, I should say he was drunk. Religion on 
 the hill s so thick you can cut it with a knife. I 
 never seen anything at Princeton that could hold a 
 candle to the jag Andy s carryin about with 
 him." 
 
 " Look here, Reg nal La nc lot, what s you doin 
 knowin about Andy s bein drunk. Thought you 
 told me you wan t takin nothin an wan t goin to 
 take nothin no mo ." 
 
 " Now you see here, my old man, I just went on 
 top that hill to get some soft cider. Shorely you 
 don t think I went up there to take nothin ? Hell, 
 no; not so early in the day." 
 
 The young Princeton savant saw no reason why 
 he should explain to his sire that he really did not 
 consider daybreak an early hour of day, but a late 
 hour of night. Clearly the young Princeton doctor 
 was drunk. When he was in that condition his 
 words did not indicate quite all the culture with 
 which he had been crammed while he was a student
 
 THE BETRAYAL 365 
 
 at William and Mary, the University of Virginia, 
 and Princeton. Indeed, ordinarily one never would 
 have known that Dr. Reginald Launcelot was a doc 
 tor of philosophy, unless one would have recognised 
 in his use of words the doctor of philosophy of 
 Princeton, one of those pilgrims that had travelled in 
 five years the road that stretches from the kinder 
 garten to the back door of Princeton, on through 
 the front door of that mill on a-down the royal 
 road to achievement 
 
 " Will some gentleman be so kind as to explain 
 to me Mr. Buck Johnson s connection with this 
 affair. Again, permit me to ask, who Is Mr. Buck 
 Johnson?" 
 
 " Wa-al, Perfessor, Mr. Johnson comes from no- 
 wher-r-res; howsomer-r-r, he says he comes from Sa 
 lem. Now we uns whar I come from now an then gits 
 ter go ter Salem that is somewher-r-res. Wa-al, Mr. 
 Johnson, he was a-runnin fer treasurer, but he tuk 
 on so much political bigness speechifyin he done 
 give up runnin fer treasurer, an now he s runnin 
 for th legislature from Roanoke county, whar they 
 say Salem is. This her-r-re coloured gent is the 
 guest o the barbecue, an he spent last night with 
 Dr. Ber-r-rkley out ter the parsonage. The Baptist 
 coloured gent preacher, Mr. Williams, lows as them 
 two gents is drunk an wus drunk afor-r-re day." 
 
 Old William, Judge Braxton s butler, now ap 
 proached. He had been sent to the Rice store by 
 his master to purchase a small article. 
 
 " Mornin , Will um; how s you goin to vote?" 
 
 "I ain gwine vote, Mistah Rice; I ain nebber 
 vote, an I ain nebber gwine vote. I s a decent 
 cullured man, I is. I ain gwine have nothin do
 
 366 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 wid politics, I ain . Dat s fo Marse Brax on not 
 
 fo de lak ob me." 
 
 There ain t enough in it for a highferlutin 
 nigger like Mr. Will um Morven," said Dr. Reginald 
 Launcelot contemptuously. 
 
 Yo father sholy ain offen much fo my vote, 
 suh; no more n two-dollar-ten-cent; an I ain tuk 
 dat a-fo goin an axin Marse Brax on bout it. 
 I say: Ain er man s vote hisn, Marse Brax on? 
 He done say, Course. I done say, Mistah Rice, 
 he done say, " Willum, ef you done vote fo me 
 hyah s one dollar fo you." An den he done say, 
 " One-dollar-fifty-cent." Den he done say, " One- 
 dollar-seventy-five-cent." Den he done say, "Two- 
 dollar." Den he done say, "Two-dollar-ten-cent." 
 Den he done say, " You don git no mo outen me, 
 nigger. I say, Marse Brax on, would you sell 
 yo vote fo two-dollar-ten-cent? An Marse he 
 done look s prised-lak, an I done say, What s 
 his s hisns, ain it, an ef he done got er right ter 
 sell blackberries he s done pick, he ken sell he vote, 
 ain dat so, Marser? Den he look at me ca m-lek, 
 den he say, Hab you de right ter sell yo wife, 
 Will um? An I say, No, suh, not mos ly, Marse 
 Brax on; I specs not. She s mine, den ergin she 
 ain mine. I specs I ain got no right ter sell Sary 
 Frances. Den, Marse Brax on, I ain gwine sell my 
 vote nohow ter no man as calls me nigger. 
 
 " Fo de Lawd, Mistah Sen tor, you say, Tek 
 dis hyah dollar-fifteen-cent, Bob; dat s all yo gwine 
 t git outen me. Fo de Lawd, an you done offen 
 dis hyah Mistah Willum two-dollar-ten-cent, an he 
 ain done nuttin fo you, an I s been sweatin an 
 er-sweatin out words, I has."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 367 
 
 The white gentlemen were greatly perturbed. Mr. 
 Rice now recalled Captain Temple s advice: the 
 ordinary negro should receive for his vote two dol 
 lars, neither more nor less, while the negro leaders 
 should receive amounts varying in accordance with 
 their qualifications, enhanced by their demands. 
 
 " Wa-al, no man ain t never had the sass ter offer 
 me no mor-re n two-dollar-ten-cent fer my vote," said 
 the carpetbagger. " Ef he had, he d a-kept his two- 
 dollar-ten-cent, an I d a-kept my vote. I ain t never-r 
 sold my vote ter hum nor in Virginny fer no man s 
 two-dollar-ten-cent." 
 
 Barbecue day, the festal high-tide of the political 
 underworld in Virginia, yeoman, peasant, and negro 
 eat and drink without limitation, save their own 
 capacity. Beastly intoxication was followed by one 
 retributive punishment only that peculiar discom 
 fiture known as " the morning after." The ruddy 
 shepherds in charge of the Methodist and Baptist 
 white sheep, and the tinted shepherds in charge 
 of the Baptist and Methodist black sheep, always 
 took part in the barbecue festivities. Eminently was 
 it proper for them so to do. What shepherd would 
 desert his flock in danger? These good men would 
 take a " little suppen " also the wise shepherd is 
 always near his sheep, and a "little suppen" does 
 draw one close to one s fellows. Besides, pneumonia 
 stalketh around those that linger about camping- 
 grounds. 
 
 Timothy Murphy saw that he could use barbecue 
 day, always a day of rejoicing, to effect a blending 
 of the white and the black-and-tan elements of his 
 followers not social equality, but friendliness, a re-
 
 368 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 alisation of community of interests. Mr. Stover, who 
 had been placed in charge of the barbecue by Cap 
 tain Temple, had succeeded in corralling the better 
 part of the yeomanry, the peasantry, and the negro 
 male populations of Fauquier and adjacent counties 
 Loudoun, Prince William, Stafford, Culpeper, Rap- 
 pahannock, Warren, and Clarke. The chairman had 
 shown masterly craftsmanship in all the preliminaries 
 of the fray. All was in readiness when he and his 
 negro helpers reached the barbecue grounds two 
 hours before daybreak. They soon had more than 
 a score of fires blazing, six young bullocks killed and 
 ready for roasting, rum, gin, whiskey, and beer bar 
 rels tapped, and by sunrise Mr. Stover and his 
 helpers were drunk very drunk. Now, Mr. Stover 
 was a religious man, and never more so than when 
 spiritually occupied by corn. His spirituality was the 
 more ardent the more ardent the spirits that he con 
 sumed. He did not mean to be blasphemous; indeed, 
 the day after he was unable to recall the events of 
 the day before; so with the rising sun rose the re 
 ligious zeal of the mighty smith. Gentlemen did 
 not go a-barbecuing at least gentlemen were not 
 officially present. 
 
 By two o clock, the time for oratory to flow, 
 there was no sober man in all that great throng. 
 The good and reverend doctor, Berkeley, and his 
 religious rival, the godly Williams, were very drunk 
 but not so drunk as the smith. Mr. Rice was 
 drunk; Mr. Stokes had discontinued drinking cider 
 more than two hours since. Even Professor Simp 
 son had permitted the good cheer to sink deep into 
 his learned mind. 
 
 There were many varieties of the drunks that are
 
 THE BETRAYAL 369 
 
 positive, comparative, and superlative. There was the 
 drunk that was happiness, the drunk that was sorrow; 
 the drunk that was silence, the drunk that was bois 
 terous; the drunk that was peace, the drunk that was 
 sullen; the drunk that was amiable, the drunk that 
 was there were as many forms of drunkenness as 
 there were persons present, for each and every man 
 that drinks hath a particular drunk that is personal to 
 himself. Be it known, the difference in drunks is 
 racial, and there are even national elements in any 
 given drunk. There is the Irish drunk, the English 
 drunk, the Yankee drunk, the Virginian drunk, the 
 gentleman drunk and the last is the first in loath 
 someness of all drunks, the drunk known as the gen 
 tlemanly drunk. That kind of drunk is not alto 
 gether unknown in Virginia. 
 
 Candidates Johnson and Berkeley mounted the 
 rude platform, upon which was seated chairman 
 Stover. A whiskey barrel served as a table for the 
 chairman, upon which there was a pitcher more than 
 half full of gin the white liquor that looks like 
 water and a glass. But none of Nature s ale was 
 on top the barrel. Mr. Stokes, Professor Simpson, 
 Mr. Williams, Dr. Reginald Launcelot, who was to 
 make a speech, and candidate Rice also were seated 
 on the platform. Mr. Stokes went forward to 
 arouse Mr. Stover, whose head was prostrate in 
 grief upon the whiskey barrel. His deep concern for 
 his country s weal had bowed him in sorrow so deep 
 that melancholy dominated his lofty intellect. He 
 seemed to have lost the power that he had enjoyed 
 for many hours the ability to cry aloud in his 
 wrath in a voice that shook the hills. 
 
 " S-s-s-t-o-k-e-e, s-lutter; read read read it.
 
 370 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Dunno how ter ter ter read ; dunno dunno 
 how as-s-s how ter read-d " 
 
 " Her-r-re, Perfessor; you read this her-r-re let- 
 ter-r-r. Stover-r says as how he ain t over-r an 
 above well." 
 
 " CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA. 
 "To My Fellow Countrymen of Fauquier: 
 
 " It is with deep regret that I have to say that I shall be 
 unable to address your gathering Saturday afternoon. 
 Until the last moment yesterday like Banquo s ghost, I 
 thought that I should stalk amongst you; but illness detains 
 me here, so I send my best wishes to your meeting. How 
 ever, I shall be with you in mind, although not in body, and 
 I shall pray God to let His spirit permeate your meeting, 
 that you may work out His glory and hasten the coming of 
 His kingdom. 
 
 " Yours in the Lord, 
 
 "JOHN HENRY JONES. 
 
 " Tuesday morning." 
 
 "Glory ter Gawd ef a Baptist done say it! 
 Glory ter Gawd! Glory glory gl " 
 
 Then the gleam that had lit up the sorrowing 
 mind of Stover again left the chairman to the de 
 spair of melancholy. 
 
 No letter from great Timothy was read. General 
 Murphy did not write letters. 
 
 In and about Warrenton the reputation of the 
 gentleman from Salem as an orator was not well es 
 tablished; so the Reverend Doctor Berkeley, more 
 than usually inflated by pride and meat and drink 
 proceeded to introduce the visitor, the while Mr. 
 Williams, preacher, gnawed the shin of a bullock. 
 Notwithstanding the burdens that he had to bear, 
 the doctor succeeded in working out an introductory
 
 THE BETRAYAL 371 
 
 speech that he believed to be of unusual excellence. 
 The style and wording he had copied largely from 
 the oration that was made by Minetree when he nom 
 inated John Randolph Harrison in the Richmond 
 convention. He advanced toward the whiskey barrel, 
 took a sip of the fluid that looked like water, paused, 
 mopped his brow with a red cloth, with a great 
 sweeping movement of first one arm and then the 
 other. Little did he care for Mr. Johnson s repu 
 tation. He thought only of his own. 
 
 " Gemmen an Feller-cit zens : Hit hav fell ter 
 me de pledger ob presentin ter you ter-day .one ob 
 dem statements dat ken talk as well as write, an ken 
 write as well as talk. He name am known from de 
 mountain ter de sea ; from Dan ter Beersheba ; from 
 Warrenton ter Salem, whar he hail from he feller- 
 cit zens distrusts him wid de keys ter open de do 
 ter de legislater, an he state done brag bout de 
 defiance ob he character, an de platfo m ob he in 
 tentions. 
 
 " Dis extinguished gemman frum Ro noke county 
 will speechify ter you ter-day, an , Mistah Cheerman 
 an Gemman ob de Sembly, I has de honor ter 
 present ter you de name ob de name ob de name 
 
 " Nigger, tell me say hit quiet-lek, nigger, what 
 you say yo name is ? " 
 
 " Hon ble Buck Johnson." 
 
 " De statement what am wid us ter-day trabled 
 all las night ter injunction he presence hyah, an hit 
 gins me pledger, midst mah own feller-cit zens, ter 
 present er gemman dat hab got de sterility ter sub- 
 stidise he promise, an de name ob dat gemman am 
 Hon able Hon able "
 
 372 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Now was the good doctor indeed "sweatin and 
 a-sweatin out words." 
 
 " Fo Gawd s sake, nigger, say hit agin: What 
 am yo name? " 
 
 " Hon ble Buck Johnson." 
 
 " Dis hyah man say he name s Hon ble Buck 
 Johnson." 
 
 With that the reverend candidate sat down. 
 
 The Honourable Buck rose, made a dignified bow, 
 and proceeded with his oration. First he told how 
 General Murphy was the friend of the coloured 
 man ; how he had promised equal rights, a free ballot, 
 and social equality to all the coloured race; and then 
 he told them in his choicest language that it was 
 important for them to follow the man that really 
 meant to free the people the people now held in 
 bondage as they had not been bound before the 
 war. 
 
 " Hyah you s callin an er-callin yo sel s free 
 fer mighty nigh fifteen year, an how free is you? 
 Ef you votes for Readjusters, say now, boss, does 
 you hear me? I don believe you does; stop snorin 
 so loud, fo Gawd"s sake, ef yo votes fo Read 
 justers, it mean dat Gen l Murphy ll see dat you hab 
 de pribilege ob settin in de dress circul long wid 
 de big bugs ter de th atre an er-gittin inter all de 
 hotels, an er-mixin " 
 
 The crowd cheered wildly; indeed joyously when 
 we consider that a negro was cheered. 
 
 "Hurrah for Murphy! Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! 
 Hurrah for Johnson ! Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah ! " 
 
 "Hoop-la! Hurrah fer hell!" 
 
 Now the chairman was aroused. His red whiskers 
 stood out like the quills of a porcupine; he seized
 
 THE BETRAYAL 373 
 
 the pitcher of near-water and slung it against the 
 head of the gentleman from Salem. The near-water 
 flowed sluggishly off the platform, and trickled into 
 the mouth of a yellow youth. The pitcher was in 
 jured. 
 
 " Hurrah fer Johnson nothin ! hurrah fer no 
 nigger nothin ! hurrah fer Mr. Temple fer Con 
 gress, I says ! " 
 
 In time the smith was subdued he wept, and even 
 used words that your narrators may not repeat with 
 out being sacrilegious. Mr. Johnson wiped the near- 
 water from his face, retiring in favour of Professor 
 George Washington Lafayette Simpson, who ad 
 dressed the multitude. 
 
 The highways on barbecue night were made hid 
 eous by the drunken orgies and yells of those that 
 had taken part in the political events of the day. Of 
 all the elements, the one best loved by the negro is 
 fire. There was fire that night in every direction. 
 The time-honoured hatred of the low-grade white 
 for the one-grade black, and of the black for the 
 yeoman and the peasant, had been fanned into fury 
 by the self-assertiveness of the negro. Barns and 
 hay-stacks burned brilliantly. 
 
 Social equality is impossible between the white of 
 any class and the negro. But Murphy had not 
 tried the impossible. He had merely meant to es 
 tablish political unity, in which white and black 
 temporarily would lay aside their differences to vote 
 for a common reward, freedom freedom as they 
 saw it. 
 
 And how would those men vote the men that con 
 stituted the barbecue crowd? Was Murphy right, or
 
 374 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 was Daingerfield right? Would they be bound by 
 the habits and traditions of three centuries or would 
 they fall down and worship these strange new gods? 
 Was there a man in that day is there a man in our 
 time that confidently could or can foresee the re 
 sult of balloting? Was a party ever so weak that 
 it did not loom as large as the Great Pyramid before 
 its opponent party? 
 
 Under the rules of government by which these 
 states that are more or less united are controlled, the 
 longest period of time under which our destinies 
 reasonably may be foretold is four years. And 
 under these same rules these peoples every four 
 years to a discernible extent lose any national char 
 acteristic that they may possess. 
 
 The Dabneys had finished breakfast; family pray 
 ers were said ; the day was Sunday ; August the month 
 a summer Sunday morning in Virginia. Every 
 where was rest. Nature, who is never idle in Vir 
 ginia, lazily went about her duties; bees slothfully 
 gathered their honey from the white clover; hum 
 ming-birds thrust their long beaks into the hearts of 
 flowers with less than their wonted energy; the liquid 
 warmth of the sun flowed sluggishly along the white 
 board fence that enclosed the lawn, until the waves 
 of heat reached the massive iron posts of the great 
 gates of the manor, against which they leaped with 
 sudden fury, splashing high into the air; cock-robin, 
 with his red breast, his dignity despite his strut 
 greater than that of any other bird that sings, helped 
 his mate teach tbeir fledgelings to fly, while the mock 
 ing-bird, who sings by night as he sings by day, sang 
 for the robin family one of those noble songs that
 
 THE BETRAYAL 375 
 
 Tschaikowsky, for all his wild fantasies, was unable 
 to reproduce in the music of man ; boughs of the lofty 
 elms continuously made obeisance to the gentle 
 breezes. In a distant field cows were browsing; 
 sheep were about the lawn; old Tabby, her eyes 
 half-closed, watched the capers of her little ones; 
 Cicero s huge head rested drowsily upon his two 
 front paws. The chariot that for sixty years had 
 conveyed the Dabneys upon family occasions was in 
 front of the stables, polished, and ready for service. 
 Aunt Dinah, dressed in her best print, had laid 
 aside the red bandanna that usually covered her 
 head and had combed out the kinks of hair that for 
 a week had been wrapped tightly with black thread 
 and concealed by the handkerchief. Everywhere 
 was peace the peace of Sunday morning in Vir 
 ginia. 
 
 The family heir apparent, the only son, had been 
 nominated by his party for the governorship. This 
 Sunday morning finds him at home. He had re 
 turned the night before from Danville, where he 
 had delivered the last of the series of addresses of 
 his southwestern campaign. The old general was 
 in the library, reading over the lesson for the day. 
 The young man joined his sister, who was seated 
 under a vine of honeysuckle that partly enclosed the 
 verandah. 
 
 " Betty, Miss Gladys Lancaster is at the Warren- 
 Green again." 
 
 Miss Betty s eyes were mischievous. 
 
 " Now, Gary, we will not talk about Gladys Lan 
 caster not on Sunday." 
 
 " I am going driving with her this afternoon, and 
 I wish to bring her here to supper."
 
 376 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "Gary Dabney! are you crazy? Do you mean 
 to tell me that you are going driving with a girl 
 Sunday evening? What kind of girl is she to accept 
 your invitation to supper here? " 
 
 Mr. Dabney did not reply. For ten minutes he 
 brought his fine mind, so well trained in the law, 
 to bear on her questions, but was unable to work 
 out answers. 
 
 Miss Betty the while read The Form of Solemn 
 isation of Matrimony from the Book of Common 
 Prayer that she had brought out on the verandah. 
 Although she found the marriage service as inter 
 esting as a novel, every now and then she would 
 glance furtively at her brother. The tender-hearted 
 Betty was sorry. But she read the marriage service 
 to the end; for while every Virginian girl of her age 
 has read that service a score of times, each time 
 it is essentially new. After she had read the service 
 through she turned back to her favourite part: " Then 
 shall they give their troth to each other in this manner. 
 The Minister, receiving the Woman at her father s 
 or friend s hands, shall cause the Man with his right 
 hand to take the Woman by her right hand, and to 
 say after him as followeth." These words described 
 a scene that Miss Betty frequently had in mind 
 one that had been forced upon her fancy by Byrd 
 Dandridge time and again. 
 
 Her brother still sat there, his brow clouded, per 
 plexity in his every attitude. Finally she rose, went 
 behind his chair, put her arms around his neck, and 
 kissed his hair. Then she went around in front of 
 him, leaned against the trellis and the honeysuckle 
 a bit nonchalantly, her finger marking the place of
 
 THE BETRAYAL 377 
 
 the marriage service in the partly closed prayer-book 
 that she held in her left hand, and plucked the yellow 
 honeysuckle tubes with her right hand. Still her 
 brother was silent. 
 
 " Er er er, Gary, if you are in love with Gladys 
 Lancaster engaged to her I will go at once to 
 call on her, and then I will ask her to take supper 
 with us." 
 
 " If you will go to see her I shall be glad. But 
 I am not engaged to her. Several times she has re 
 fused to marry me." 
 
 " Maybe you have not asked her often enough 
 and earnestly enough." 
 
 " I have asked her a thousand times." 
 " One would have to ask me a great deal oftener." 
 He took the hand that was pulling the honey 
 suckle blooms and kissed it. And Betty well, the 
 sister that loves her brother has a load of sorrow 
 to bear the day that he tells her that he loves, how 
 ever beautiful and noble the girl. Miss Betty loved 
 her brother. 
 
 The Dabneys as they drove toward town were 
 overtaken by Mrs. Rice and her daughters, who also 
 were members of St. James Church. Dr. Reginald 
 Launcelot would join his mother and sisters just be 
 fore the sermon. Candidate Rice, still faithful to 
 his Baptist faith, had already driven over to his 
 church but not before his good spouse had again 
 tried to unify the religious atmosphere of the Rice 
 house on the Rice estate. 
 
 "James P., I du-u-u wish you d stop a-goin with 
 them vulgar Baptists, an jine with them as goes to
 
 378 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 St. James. I jest think you owes it to our gyurls 
 to leave off sociatin with them there Baptist vul- 
 gars." 
 
 " Now, maw, you knows I don t believe in no 
 religion that don t wash a sinner clean. Them Pis- 
 kelopians is still got the dirt of sin stickin to them 
 as they was born in. Parson Jones was out to our 
 church some eight Sundays agone, an he says, says 
 he: Brethren, "Wash, an be clean." I remember 
 them words, word for word, jest as he said them. 
 Brethren, "Wash, an be clean," an can all the 
 waters of the seven seas clean one garment that s 
 stained with sin? Nay, we must be born again 
 pure in heart, scoured clean by the blood of the 
 Lamb, them waters of Baptism. Sprinkling ain t 
 enough ; you have got to be baptised. Brethren, there 
 ain t no other way as I can see to salvation. Bap 
 tism by dippin is the only way the Good Word 
 says. Them was pow ful words; an I tell you, 
 maw, you an our gyurls is goin straight to perdi 
 tion if you don t let them Piskelopians alone. If 
 they s to be washed at all, they needs a bath, for 
 Gawd knows they s dirty enough. An you have 
 gone an took along Reg nal La nc lot with you 
 an that boy might have been a Baptist preacher." 
 
 " Land s sakes, James P., you oughter been a 
 preacher! " 
 
 " Mebbe so, maw; I allers thought as how I was 
 cut out for a Baptist parson one of them preachers 
 as ain t got no pretences, except jest bein good. I 
 ain t got no use for them Piskelopian cler-gy-mens, 
 as they calls theirselves uniformed angels is what 
 I done called them before you an the gyurls an 
 Reg nal La nc lot took up with that outlan ish
 
 THE BETRAYAL 379 
 
 Romish church, an that s how Baptists calls them 
 now, an allers will call them, uniformed angels." 
 
 " You shore oughter be ashamed of yourself, 
 James P., carryin on that fashion. Whoever hearn 
 of a Baptist or a Presbyterian or a Meth dist preacher 
 a-wearin business clothin when they goes about their 
 business in an out of the pulpit. They s hearse 
 drivers, all of them ; hearse drivers with funeral faces, 
 a-moanin for their suasions. I ain t got no mo use 
 for them liveried gents that s too good to dress like 
 other folks an not good enough to dress like Gawd s 
 saints." 
 
 Not until yeoman and peasant invaded the Episco 
 palian church as equals of aristocrats therein, shortly 
 before these matters were discussed in the Rice fam 
 ily, did church dissensions arise in Virginia. The 
 gentry respected all denominations, save Roman 
 Catholic, and believed Baptist and Methodist forms 
 of worship were well suited to yeoman and peasant 
 needs. Episcopalians and Presbyterians sometimes 
 clashed, in a gentle sort of way, largely due, said 
 the Episcopalians, to Presbyterian imitation of their 
 ways. "They raised an awful howl," said the in 
 heritors of the Church of England, "when we 
 placed organs in our churches, sang by note, organ 
 ised choirs, and decorated our edifices with cut 
 flowers and growing plants. They said that we 
 were children of the Pope. But their howls were 
 soon lost in imitation. In copying us they went 
 to extremes, introducing horns and other brass band 
 instruments into their meeting-houses." The late 
 Bishop Whipple would not consent to floral decora 
 tions in his diocese so long as he lived, and he 
 died only a few years ago. The innovations of
 
 380 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 recent years were made by ambitious yeomen and 
 peasants, who really were responsible for the divi 
 sion of the Virginia church into high churchmen and 
 low churchmen. They did what they could to make 
 a society church out of the Church of England as 
 inherited by Virginia and to turn the services into 
 " social functions." 
 
 When the Dabney chariot drew up to the St. 
 James door Miss Betty immediately entered the 
 church, knelt for one minute in silent prayer, then 
 went a-visiting from pew to pew, as did the other 
 ladies assembled. General Dabney and his son 
 joined the men that were gathered about the church 
 grounds. A few of the men only had gone into 
 the edifice. Soon Dr. Nelson would enter the chan 
 cel and kneel for one minute in silent prayer; the 
 organ would be played softly, and the men would 
 enter as the clergyman would begin to read, " The 
 Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep 
 silence before him." 
 
 But now the men were about the church grounds, 
 talking in well modulated tones, although not with 
 out animation. The crops always were discussed. 
 None would admit that his fields were in a normal 
 condition. No planter was ever satisfied. 
 
 Among those outside the church when General 
 Dabney and his son arrived were Judge Braxton, 
 Captain Lancaster, Mr. Carter, Colonel Dainger- 
 field, Mr. Tazewell, and Mr. Taliaferro. The young 
 sculptor had come over from Richmond for a few 
 days. 
 
 The soft music of the organ being heard, the men 
 entered the church. The old men knelt down for
 
 THE BETRAYAL 381 
 
 one minute of silent prayer; the young men that had 
 been confirmed bent over the backs of the seats in 
 front of them, and prayed silently for one minute; 
 the young men that had not been confirmed stood 
 until the last words of the exhortation, then some of 
 them bent forward during the prayer of the general 
 confession, some leaned their heads upon their right 
 hands, and some sat bolt upright. 
 
 Miss Lancaster, who had not come with her father, 
 arrived during the recital of the Venite. Her hat 
 was as conspicuous as it was beautiful; her dress 
 swept first one and then the other side of the aisle, 
 and when she reached the pew in which her father 
 was seated the captain gallantly helped her into it, 
 for she seemed to need his aid. On each cheek was 
 a small black patch, and one was on her dimpled 
 chin. 
 
 Colonel Daingerfield and Captain Lancaster had 
 sat up with a poker game until a quarter to twelve 
 the night before. The stakes had been rather high, 
 yet none too high for Virginian gentlemen. The 
 colonel, a vestryman of St. James, and the captain, 
 the treasurer of Christ Church, in Charlottesville, 
 brought forth their great prayer-books, of quarto 
 size; each adjusted his glasses on his nose, and then 
 each read the service with solemnity and reverence. 
 These gentlemen loved God, and each in his own way 
 served Him; but they saw no reason why they 
 should not play poker until a quarter of an hour 
 before Sunday. 
 
 There was no choir during summer. Dr. Nelson 
 would read the first verse of one of his favourite 
 hymns, then would usually lead the large congre 
 gation in singing. As he was hoarse to-day, he re-
 
 382 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 quested some one to lead the hymn for him. There 
 was no response for some time, but after a while 
 Miss Polly Boiling arose. Her voice was not so 
 young as it was forty years before, but she tried. 
 Then, receiving no assistance for the first two lines, 
 bowed low toward the chancel. 
 
 " Dr. Nelson, I can not; sir, I can not! " 
 
 Whereupon Dr. Nelson read through Cardinal 
 Newman s great sacred song. 
 
 During the offertory, played by Miss Betty Dab- 
 ney, Judge Braxton, Mr. Carter, Colonel Dainger- 
 field, and General Dabney passed around the old 
 silver plates, into which ladies put ten cents, young 
 men twenty-five cents, and old men one dollar. Miss 
 Gladys dumped in three cents. 
 
 The aristocrats of Fauquier were assembled. The 
 only members of a lower class present were the 
 Rice girls and their mother no, also there was Dr. 
 Reginald Launcelot Rice, seated near the middle of 
 the church, alone in a pew. His face was flushed, 
 and he read the service in thick, uncertain tones. 
 
 Captain Temple also sat alone. Apparently no 
 one saw him. 
 
 Mr. Harrison, who had been campaigning for 
 six weeks, occupied the Harrison family pew. He 
 too was alone. No again no; in spirit there was 
 with Captain Temple the lovely Dorothea Annabel; 
 in spirit the beautiful Lelia Braxton was with Mr. 
 Harrison. Captain Temple appeared to be indiffer 
 ent to his surroundings. Mr. Harrison sat with 
 his teeth clenched, and all might have seen, had they 
 looked in his direction, that the tall, proud young 
 man, every inch a Harrison, keenly felt that he was 
 not welcomed in assemblages of his father s friends
 
 THE BETRAYAL 383 
 
 and those that had been his friends. And now and 
 then John Harrison would see Lelia Braxton s pale 
 face, and also he would see the painful solemnity 
 of Judge Braxton, the man whose good opinion he 
 valued above that of all other men. 
 
 In a corner to the right of the chancel sat Byrd 
 Dandridge a good seat for that young giant, for 
 in looking toward the minister he could not help 
 seeing the fair young organist on the other side of 
 the chancel. But one doubts if Mr. Dandridge 
 would have seen Dr. Nelson had Miss Dabney sat 
 in any other part of the church. Yet, he could not 
 see her eyes, for she looked directly at the rector s 
 face. 
 
 Mr. Dabney joined Miss Lancaster as she left the 
 church. 
 
 " Well, Gary, I thought you came with papa and 
 little sister! Why don t you go back with them?" 
 
 " I intend to walk home with you." 
 
 "That certainly was a fine sermon Dr. Nelson 
 preached." 
 
 "What was it about?" 
 
 "Now, Gary, didn t you hear that sermon?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Then I shan t tell it to you. I m no preacher." 
 
 " But you have learned to say no." 
 
 " I ll learn to say yes by the time you re gov 
 ernor." 
 
 " I may never be governor." 
 
 "But I m learning to say yes, all the same; for 
 John will be elected if you re not, and Harrison is 
 a prettier name than Dabney. Now, now, poor 
 little boy ! Don t you mind ! I think Gary a much
 
 384 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 prettier name than John. John is so common, isn t 
 it?" 
 
 " Not more so than James." 
 
 " Oh, but Captain Temple s middle name and last 
 name are so beautiful ! If I were his wife (and they 
 say he ll be elected to Congress, and may go higher) 
 I d cut the Jim part often his name. I d call him 
 Spotty for short." 
 
 "Gladys, I I " 
 
 " I ll be out to tea this evening. Be sure you call 
 for me at just the right minute." 
 
 Whereupon Mr. Cary Gordon Dabney lapsed into 
 silence. 
 
 "Hold, Ned! Whoa, Monterey! Whoa, Buena 
 Vista. Mr. Dandridge, come; dine with us to-day." 
 
 Mr. Dandridge entered the Dabney chariot. He 
 had planned this encounter. His the victory. He 
 took the seat of the absent son. 
 
 "A beautiful day, Mr. Dandridge!" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Are you making material progress in clearing 
 your woodland farm?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 " You must find the work which I understand 
 that you do alone, with your own strong arms 
 very arduous." 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 " You have not taken dinner with us for a long 
 while, Mr. Dandridge. Sir, we miss your bright 
 face at our board." 
 
 "No, sir; I thank you, sir." 
 
 "Git up, Monterey! Git up, Buena Vista! 
 drive up, Ned; drive up!"
 
 THE BETRAYAL 385 
 
 "Do you work in gloves, Mr. Dandridge?" 
 
 "No, Miss Betty." 
 
 " I should think you would work in gloves." 
 
 " I found that they bothered me." 
 
 " Miss Polly Boiling says that you work from 
 daybreak until after dark. Why do you work so 
 hard, Mr. Dandridge? No one else works so hard, 
 and you have nobody to work for." 
 
 " I am working for I am I am " 
 
 " Now, Mr. Dandridge, you are just working for 
 yourself, to pile up more money than you will ever 
 be able to use ! And you are the only gentleman 
 that I know that works with his hands." 
 
 After dinner General Dabney, leaving his daugh 
 ter and Mr. Dandridge on the verandah, retired to 
 his study. The young man s siege of gentle Betty s 
 heart had been laid for a long time. All along his 
 strategy had included the tactics of assault. He 
 never lost an opportunity to storm the fortress; but 
 he had never succeeded in scaling the first wall, as 
 he thought. This afternoon he renewed the attack. 
 
 " Miss Betty, I want to marry you." 
 
 " That is not the way to talk on Sunday, Mr. 
 Dandridge. Besides, I have told you more than a 
 thouand times that I shall never marry you ; I shall 
 not marry; father needs me home. So does Gary." 
 
 " I need you." 
 
 "Why, the idea! That is so funny; a great big 
 man like you, who cuts down five big oak trees every 
 day, needs poor little me. That is childish of you." 
 
 "/ need you." 
 
 "Well, my duty is very plain; the claim of my 
 father and my brother certainly is greater than yours,
 
 386 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 and my duty is to them. Why, sometimes I feel 
 that I hardly know you although our acquaintance 
 does go back a long time." 
 
 This view had not occurred to Mr. Dandridge, 
 so he said no more for ten minutes. 
 
 Thou shalt leave thy father and thy mother 
 and cleave unto thy wife. 
 
 " I think that you should cleave unto your wife, 
 Mr. Dandridge, when you get one." 
 
 The attack was again suspended for ten minutes. 
 
 " One s highest duty is to one s love." 
 
 " I think so too, Mr. Dandridge." 
 
 "Then, Miss Betty, I ask you again: will you 
 marry me? now?" 
 
 "And I say again, Mr. Dandridge, no! " 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Because my plain duty is to my father and my 
 brother. Besides, this is Sunday afternoon, and it 
 is wicked to talk that way on Sunday." 
 
 "You are always right, Miss Betty, I know; but 
 I don t seem to see why it is wicked for me to love 
 you on Sunday. I love you all the time." 
 
 The silence lasted half an hour. 
 
 " Now, Mr. Dandridge, I must go to my room 
 and read my Bible, or father will be angry with me." 
 
 She always dismissed him, for he never had a 
 sense of time while he was with her. 
 
 "Good-evening, Mrs. Rice!" 
 
 " Law, if it ain t Cap n Temple. Du-u-u come 
 right in, Cap n, an rest your hat a while. There 
 ain t no company in the parlour exceptin Perfessor 
 Simpson an Mr. Stokes. I certainly is right glad to 
 see you again."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 387 
 
 11 1 saw you in church this morning, Mrs. Rice. 
 Since then I have been unable to curb my impatience, 
 so great has been my longing to enjoy the hospitality 
 of this beautiful home on these broad acres." 
 
 " Law, now, Cap n Temple, but you du-u-u say 
 sech lovely things. Now set right down in this here 
 arm-cheer an wait a minute. Dorothea Annabel! 
 Dorothea Annabel! Dor-o-th-ea An-na-bel!" 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 " Cap n Temple." 
 
 " As I wus sayin " 
 
 "You shore is always a-sayin , Mr. Stokes; 
 a-sayin , an a-sayin , an a-sayin , an that s Gawd s 
 truth." 
 
 Wa-al " 
 
 " Wa-al, wa-al, wa-al ! talk s cheap, but money 
 buys the Ian ! " 
 
 " Wa-al, your pa sa-ays as how I hev bought a 
 r-r-right nice little piece o prop ty up the road." 
 
 " Miss Eugenie Victoria, you are rather severe. 
 This morning, in church, your piety was one of the 
 pleasures of the service." 
 
 " This here man, Cap n Temple, would try the 
 patience of a saint, he would, an that s Gawd s 
 truth." 
 
 "When did you return, Captain?" 
 
 " Early this morning, Professor, just in time for 
 church; and, I can tell you, I was glad of the brief 
 surcease of labour, after continuously campaigning 
 for six weeks." 
 
 " Dorothea Annabel ! Dor-o-th-ea An-na-bel " 
 
 "Yes, mother?" 
 
 " Cap n Temple." 
 
 " I ll be down in a moment, mother dear."
 
 388 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Miss Dorothea Annabel had been dressed since 
 seven, with the exception of additional prinkings 
 every few minutes, and now the hour was eight. She 
 soon tripped lightly down the stairs, a creation in 
 pink; her silk dress, the material of which was bought 
 in Baltimore, was pink; she wore pink slippers; a 
 single pink rose was fastened in her corsage; a nar 
 row band of pink ribbon bound her hair as if she 
 were a Grecian maiden, and pink roses were in her 
 cheeks. 
 
 Captain Temple bowed low over the hand that 
 she extended to him the hand without a jewel, yet 
 the hand that was a jewel. 
 
 " Wa-al, I thought as how the nasty habit o kissin 
 hands had quit even in Virginny leastwise, nobody 
 never-r-r kisses no woman s hand wher-r-re I comes 
 frum." 
 
 But Miss Eugenie Victoria and Miss Phyllis 
 Daphne could not but wish that Mr. Stokes and Pro 
 fessor Simpson had manners quite so beautiful as 
 those of Captain Temple. 
 
 " Law now, Mr. Stokes, I remember how Miss 
 Mary Caperton, who s now Miss Braxton, the judge s 
 lady, used to have more n enough young men kissin 
 of her purtty hand a-kissin of it every time they 
 come around." 
 
 And then Mrs. Rice could have bitten off her 
 tongue. How could she have been so stupid as to 
 have referred to the days when she was Mrs. Brax- 
 ton s maid ! 
 
 The captain evidently had not heard; for with the 
 grace that so greatly pleased Mrs. Rice and her 
 daughters, he bowed low as Mrs. Rice was speaking 
 and offered his arm to Miss Dorothea Annabel.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 389 
 
 " Miss Dorothea, see yonder moon ! She comes 
 a-stealing from among the wild roses that are cling 
 ing to their cold lattice-lover, through the open win 
 dow, into this room, and calls upon us to go forth 
 into the night, to walk abroad along the wide lanes 
 of your flowering garden, o er which she has cast her 
 silvery sheen. See yonder roses! They bow before 
 your loveliness, as gently to and fro they are swayed 
 by the soft winds of the night. Come, haste to the 
 garden, that you may be one with the loveliness of 
 Night." 
 
 Nor did the stars that shone upon that garden seem 
 to Temple to sparkle as did the eyes of Dorothea 
 Annabel; nor is the lustre of the stars equal to the 
 light of love that is in a maiden s eyes. 
 
 " Dorothea Annabel, my little Dolly, now I see 
 you alone for the first time in six weeks six weeks 
 that to me have seemed six long years. But I have 
 carried your image in my heart, Dolly, every minute, 
 day and night, since the evening I kissed your fair 
 brow. Do you remember that night, Dolly, just 
 after nine? The moon was half over that big black 
 hill, and I kissed your hair as you stood behind this 
 old pomegranate bush, about to tell you good-bye; 
 then I kissed your brow, and then and then I kissed 
 your lips, your beautiful red lips. Dorothea Anna 
 bel, Dor-o-th-ea, my little Dolly!" 
 
 " And I I I have kept those kisses, Captain 
 Temple. I shall keep them always." 
 
 "What? Oh, Dolly, Dolly, Dolly! Those were 
 good-bye kisses not adieu, but good-bye ! You had 
 told me the night before, and my heart had cried 
 aloud to my brain, you had told me that you loved 
 another that Stokes man. But, Dolly, Dorothea
 
 390 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Annabel, my little Dolly, I just had to see you the 
 next night ; and to-night I had to see you once more. 
 Now, what can I say but good-bye." 
 
 "Why, Captain Temple, I don t love Mr. Stokes; 
 I only told you that he asked me to marry him. Oh! 
 how could you how could you think that I loved 
 that creature ! Oh! how could you ? " 
 
 "There was that in your eyes, in your voice! I 
 could not mistake " 
 
 Why would he not speak? Yet, she half-dreaded 
 to hear him say, " I love you, Dolly, will you be 
 my wife?" Still, had she not heard those words 
 every minute since that afternoon in May when she 
 first knew that she loved him, that she had always 
 loved him, that she would ever love him. Oh, but 
 why would he not say the words? 
 
 " Dor-o-th-ea An-na-bel, the dew s fallin mighty 
 heavy-like ! James P. says come in." 
 
 Mr. Rice had gone to bed before the visitor had 
 arrived. 
 
 At half-past ten Captain Temple made his way 
 toward his home, leaving Eugenie Victoria and the 
 domiciled carpetbagger " a-settin " in the shadow of 
 an old elm and the " Perfessor" and Phyllis Daphne 
 " a-settin in the garden, a rose bush between 
 them. 
 
 " Yet, Dorothea Annabel, my pretty little Dolly, I 
 would give my good right arm to see lights in Lelia 
 Braxton s eyes such as I saw in your eyes this night 1 
 I think so."
 
 CHAPTER NINE 
 
 MRS. BRAXTON entered the conservatory 
 from the dining-room. 
 " I met Mr. Taliaferro in town." 
 
 " Yes, mother dear." 
 
 " He came down from Richmond on the early 
 train. My, he did look so well, so handsome, so 
 distinguished, he took me back to the time when 
 many young men in Warrenton were gentlemen 
 Virginian gentlemen ! He asked me to say that he 
 would call to-night." 
 
 "Father will be glad to see him, I am sure; for 
 if the sculpture of the Poe bust is not finished, father 
 will wish to remind him again to keep Mr. Poe s 
 chin * well up well elevated, Richard. 
 
 " Your father thinks Mr. Taliaferro is a sculptor 
 of very great ability, whose name will live among 
 those of the great artists of the world. His exhibits 
 in Berlin and Paris attracted the attention of many 
 distinguished European critics. In a letter that Mr. 
 Braxton received only yesterday from Sir Henry 
 Tweedmouth, who saw the young Virginian sculptor, 
 Ezekiel, in Rome a few weeks ago, Sir Henry said 
 that Ezekiel spoke of Mr. Taliaferro s work in terms 
 of highest praise." 
 
 " I am no sculptor, mother dear. But I think Mr. 
 Taliaferro s pieces are very beautiful. He showed 
 me a photograph of his Fall of Man. I had not 
 known before I saw that beautiful group that marble 
 could be made to say so much."
 
 392 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " Mr. Taliaferro is the wealthiest young man in 
 Virginia." 
 
 " / should not like to be the wealthiest young man 
 in Virginia." 
 
 " But Mr. Taliaferro is unable to use the principal 
 of his great fortune. His estate is in England, en 
 tailed, and was inherited by him only six years ago 
 long after^the war. No doubt he would give his 
 fortune to the creditors if he could; but he can spend 
 only his income, and he spends that for Virginia. 
 You remember that he gave five thousand dollars to 
 Miss Boiling. I like Richard Taliaferro better than 
 any young man I know." 
 
 " He gives all his income to his country? " 
 
 Yes; and he does not let his left hand know what 
 his right hand does. I like that in Richard Talia 
 ferro. Some young men give their money to the 
 creditors, and we hear of nothing else for months 
 nothing but how noble, what a splendid young man! 
 Richard Taliaferro s high character, his delicate sense 
 of honour, his manliness ! I like Richard Taliaferro. 
 Indeed, your father and I have grown to love him 
 as though he were our own son." 
 
 " I like him, too, mother, almost as if he were 
 your own son." 
 
 The bazaar will be held Tuesday." 
 
 Yes, mother dear." 
 
 " We have made a great mistake. Persons of the 
 class to which Mrs. Rice, my former maid, belongs, 
 should never have been permitted to take charge of 
 booths, or to have anything to do with the manage 
 ment of the bazaar, for they certainly will exceed the 
 proprieties. They will think that we have let down 
 the social bars."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 393 
 
 u But, .mother, we need their influence; and we 
 should leave no stone unturned, as we agreed more 
 than two months ago." 
 
 u They will contribute only a very little money, 
 daughter; and we will pay dearly for those few dol 
 lars. We should leave no stone unturned, as we have 
 said; but I fear that the Rices and their friends will 
 prove millstones around our social necks. The social 
 advances of our inferiors must be checked as soon as 
 they are made, for the yeomanry and the peasantry 
 must be forced to keep their proper places. I hope 
 that you will be very careful." 
 
 "Marse Taliaferro!" 
 
 " I will tell him that you are in the conservatory, 
 and then I will go to your father, who is waiting for 
 me in the library." 
 
 "Father is in the library, Mr. Taliaferro; shall I 
 call him?" 
 
 " I have seen your father, Miss Braxton; and now 
 I have come to see you with his permission I have 
 come I have come to ask you to be my wife." 
 
 " I I I_oh I " 
 
 They stood beside a young crape-myrtle, the 
 flowers of which hung in clusters above their 
 heads. 
 
 " I love you, Miss Braxton. I loved you the time 
 that I first saw you the day that you called with 
 your father at my studio. I have loved you ever 
 since with a growing love until now now I have 
 not words with which to say, I love you." 
 
 "Oh, please, please, please! don t please!" 
 
 You and your father called at my studio in the 
 morning that night your face in profile a small 
 intaglio of purest marble, but white and cold was
 
 394 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 in my hand finished. Never before had I sculp 
 tured such a face. I once chiselled the head of Ga 
 briel, part angel, part woman, part man, but your 
 face the marble was not you. From then until now 
 I have tried to put your face into marble, but I can 
 not " 
 
 "Oh, please, please, please!" 
 
 He knelt on one knee; he took her hand, and be 
 fore she could withdraw it gently withdraw it he 
 had kissed it reverently the kiss of love in the 
 higher expression of passion. 
 
 " For a long time I have tried to tell you of my 
 love. But I could not, for love stood abashed before 
 you love, the God that is in man, the part of Him 
 that is a part of us that love could not speak, that 
 love could find no expression; I could not tell you 
 that I loved you and now I can not tell you how 
 much I love you. I love you. I 
 
 "Please; please I don t I I I do not love 
 you; I love I love John Harrison." 
 
 "Forgive me; I did not know I could not see 
 beyond my own love I could not feel beyond my 
 love for you ! John Harrison he is a man. I shall 
 congratulate him in time; some day. Forgive 
 me?" 
 
 "I shall not marry Mr. Harrison; but but oh, 
 Mr. Taliaferro, I am so sorry, so sorry ! " 
 
 "Why, Miss Braxton; I too am a man a bit dis 
 turbed now, but a man. Please do not grieve on my 
 account. . . . Now I shall withdraw, for I am sure 
 that you wish to be alone." 
 
 " Oh, my love, my love, my love ! " 
 
 But John Harrison did not hear that cry of love.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 395 
 
 "Why, daughter; you still here among your 
 flowers?" 
 
 " Father, Mr. Taliaferro has just asked me to be 
 his wife. I said no. I shall never marry, father." 
 
 11 Never, my daughter, until you marry the man 
 that you love." 
 
 He kissed her tenderly. Does a man know any 
 woman as he knows his daughter? Does a woman 
 love any man as she loves her father? Those were 
 the questions that Judge Braxton asked himself as 
 he went toward his room. And do the elements 
 of love differ essentially? 
 
 " Still, Mr. Braxton, I am unable to see how Lelia 
 could have chosen John Harrison instead of Richard 
 Taliaferro. A woman s fancy good night, Mr. 
 Braxton." 
 
 
 
 " I s quality, I is, an I s mixed wid white quality 
 all mah life. An I jes tells you, nigger, I s gwine 
 stay quality, an I s gwine port mahse f fo quality 
 lek er quality cullud pusson. I ain gwine no bazaar, 
 ceptin peek in de window." 
 
 " Melindy, you ain fitten fo elevation, you ain . 
 Critters lek you obscures de race, an er gemman as 
 is beard de heat an de burden ob civilisin , outen 
 de sun, a-wukin an a-wukin till he done tan his 
 skin, am more fitten fo de subsequences an de pre 
 dicaments ob humans den de pussons as sets in de 
 shade an keeps dyah faces pale. I s er s ciety man 
 now, I is, an er extinguished statement, er-gwine 
 er-legislatin , an er-makin de laws regulationin dem 
 white-face loafers; an I s axin you ter git outen de 
 kitchen, den tek yo place long side yo extinguish-
 
 396 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 ment man, stead ob stewin ober dem pots an pans, 
 er-keepin yo face black. You come long wid me, 
 Melindy, an tek yo place in s ciety long wid Hon - 
 ble Legislatin Doctah ob de Laws Shadrak Meshuk 
 Bednigger Berkeley, Hon ble Congressman Cap n 
 Temple, Hon ble Senator Mistah Rice an Missus 
 Rice, ter say nuttin ob dar lubly gals. An don you 
 hev nuttin ter do wid dem po -white Stovers an 
 sech ; but kep yo head flung high, Melindy, so s ter 
 step long side yo extinguishment man. In dese 
 days er pusson done tell er pusson by de company 
 dey migrates wid." 
 
 " What s gwine come yo flock, Shad, now you s 
 done quit preachin an gon er-statementin ? " 
 
 " Damn de flock, Melindy; dey s er onery lot, an 
 ain fitten ter sociate wid statements. I ain sot no 
 sto by ligion nohow, I ain . Dem lazy niggers ain 
 got no money; so how s er preacher gwine git what 
 dey ain t got? I s gwine turn em loose soon as I s 
 lected." 
 
 " I s done kep mah eye on you, I has. You s ben 
 er-swearin an er-swearin an er-cussin an er-drinkin 
 an er-loafin an er-stealin sence you run yo se f, 
 Shad, lek you done run crazy. Am you fell from 
 grace, Shad?" 
 
 " Melindy, when I wus er preacher I ack lek er 
 preacher; while I s er-runnin I ack lek er runner; 
 when I gits er law er I s gwine ack lek er law er. 
 I s er statement, I is, an I acks lek er statement. I 
 don swear an cuss an lie an drink an loaf an 
 steal no more n no udder law er an statement." 
 
 "Wa-al, Mistah Berkeley-- 
 
 " Doctah Berkeley; say de highest soundin ob 
 scure handle, Missus Berkeley. I "
 
 THE BETRAYAL 397 
 
 "You done say as how you done quit preacher." 
 
 " Melindy, you s hard ter instruction. I ain no 
 doctah ob preachin no mo I s er doctah ob lawinV 
 
 " Wa-al, Doctah Berkeley, I might s well git on 
 my bonnet an best dress an shawl same as de udder 
 cullud ladies ob quality. I spec s you s right, cayse 
 Mistah Temple he done say as how ebbybody used ter 
 be black, an as how white folks come by dyah faces 
 cayse dey loafs in de shade. I allus wanted be lek 
 white folks anyways, an yist day black Rose Miss 
 Johnsin , I means comes roun , an say, says she, 
 as how er liT box ob sab as comes one dollar tek 
 de kinks right outen de hyar de fust time, an grows 
 more n er foot ob hyar de nex time. De nex time, 
 when de sab s gone, dat stuff done mek de hyar 
 straight an three foot long an er-growin . I done 
 put it on one time, an Rose Miss Johnsin done 
 got mah dollar. She done say as how she s comin 
 back agin an sell me a liT box ob sab fer two-dollar- 
 ten-cent as turns er black face lighter an lighter till 
 it gits er fash nable tan. An she say as how she s 
 got anudder box as comes five-dollar-fifteen-cent as 
 meks er brunette outen er choc lat ." 
 
 "Here s de money, Melindy; I wants some ob dat 
 sab." 
 
 Dr. Berkeley and Mrs. Berkeley began to dress 
 for the bazaar. 
 
 " Gladys " 
 
 "Miss Lancaster, Gary, if you please." 
 " Gladys, I have come to ask you to take a walk 
 with me." 
 "Now?" 
 "Yes."
 
 398 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "Why, Gary! not a walk; you mean a buggy 
 ride. In these days and times the Virginian takes 
 his gyurl out for a buggy drive Sunday afternoons 
 when he wants to propose to her, and pops the ques 
 tion when they get about twelve miles from home. I 
 just know you re going to propose to me again, be 
 cause you always do when we re alone; and besides, 
 it s Sunday afternoon; and besides, you look like 
 you re going to propose. Now if I were going to 
 propose I wouldn t look so solemn. Seems to me it 
 would be a lot of fun. But if you must do it again, 
 get a buggy, I say. Besides it s only six o clock; 
 the sun s hot, and I don t want to burn my face just 
 before the bazaar. No, sir; you get a buggy." 
 
 "Is nothing sacred, Gladys?" 
 
 "Oh, yes, Gary; my photograph s sacred you 
 said so last night." 
 
 "I have no buggy; nor does a Virginian gentle 
 man ask a girl to marry him while driving along a 
 public highway. A Virginian gentleman is still a 
 Virginian gentleman, and he asks a girl to be his 
 wife while she is under the protection of her father s 
 roof." 
 
 " All right, Gary, I will go with you, because you 
 won t be able to propose to me, for I won t be under 
 the protection of popper s roof, and lovers lane s a 
 public highway. Come along." 
 
 "We have walked more than two miles, Gladys; 
 so let us sit on that old log over there, under that 
 great oak." 
 
 " No, Gary; the sun is about to set, and it wouldn t 
 be proper for me to leave the public highway with 
 you."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 399 
 
 "Come!" 
 
 She went. 
 
 " Gladys, you must tell me now, I shall not let 
 you play with me any longer, you must tell me now; 
 will you be my wife?" 
 
 " You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Gary; you, 
 a Virginian gentleman ! I m not under the protection 
 of popper s roof, and I m very near the public high 
 way. Besides, you ought to be thinking about the 
 election." 
 
 " Gladys, I shall give you just three minutes in 
 which to decide." 
 
 Mr. Dabney rose and took out his watch. Miss 
 Lancaster rose, stood facing him, her back against 
 the great oak, her face now averted, now lifted to 
 ward his own. She wrote on the ground with her 
 parasol the initial letters G. L. D., then the initials 
 G. L., and then she followed those letters by the 
 initials, one after another, of a dozen possible hus 
 bands. Next she thought aloud. 
 
 " Besides, I m not ready to answer Dabney un 
 less I say no, and I m not quite ready to say no. 
 There s Lord Bowlegged Thing-um-a-jig. My sis 
 ter says I can have him for the asking, if I ll go to 
 visit her in London next season." 
 
 "One minute." 
 
 Oh, but you are cruel! I didn t believe you 
 could be so cruel! The idea! . . . Then I m sure 
 Lelia has just flung away Dick Ta.liaferro. She 
 looks like she s just kicked him, and so does he. I 
 wrote to him this morning, asking him to call to see 
 me, and I m sure he ll call before half-past eight this 
 evening. . . . Then, Lelia will never marry John 
 Harrison. Either Dabney or Harrison will be gov-
 
 400 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 ernor; and if Harrison s elected Dabney won t have 
 a cent to marry on. . . . Besides " 
 
 Two minutes." 
 
 " Oh, oh ! How can you be so mean ! You don t 
 love me or you wouldn t treat me so! Oh, ohl 
 ... I can make a much better match. There s a 
 young fellow that my married sister in New York 
 has picked out the one whose father made millions 
 out of hides; and popper says he made such good 
 bargains for his other daughters four of em that 
 with all their rich high-flying friends I oughter do 
 better than any of em. He says I m good for ten 
 millions at the least, and hopes that I ll remember 
 him when I get it. L amour compte pour beaucoup, 
 ma is Vargent compte pour da vantage think of 
 Gladys spoutin French just to herself. . . . Be 
 sides, what time is it, Gary?" 
 
 "Two minutes and a half." 
 
 " Dabney s too honest to be rich, anyhow. He 
 would make me work, I guess, and then give all my 
 wages and all he d make to the creditors the 
 damned old creditors. Oh, oh, but you are cruel ! " 
 
 Three m " 
 
 " Oh, you dear old bear ! I love you, love you, 
 love you ! " 
 
 Gentle reader, we will let down the curtain, and 
 we ask that for a few minutes you leave the ardent 
 lovers to their feast of love. 
 
 " Why, Gary, I never loved any man 9 cept you. I 
 have loved you always since the time I met you at 
 the Morven ball, bout three or four months ago. 
 Surely, Gary, you didn t take a young girl s bash- 
 fulness seriously? Why, you poor boy! I just loved
 
 THE BETRAYAL 401 
 
 you so much I had to pretend I didn t love you at 
 all. I d marry you if I had to work to support you 
 keeping bo din -house I am marrying you when I 
 might marry millions. Don t mind a young girl s 
 banter, Gary dear. You know more about politics 
 than you do about girls. I m glad you do." 
 
 " Gladys, dearest, I love you. I have always 
 known that beneath your mirth there was a heart 
 a great heart, a great noble heart, the heart of a 
 noble woman. I knew that you loved me, Gladys; 
 I have always known that. There never has been 
 a girl so beautiful, so good so so so everything 
 as you." 
 
 
 
 Mr. Andy Stover, doorkeeper, was on duty the 
 night of the last Tuesday of August, when the peo 
 ple of Fauquier, peasant, yeoman, and gentleman, 
 entered and left the court-house, where the bazaar 
 was held, as they had done throughout the day. Mr. 
 Stover was sober, thanks to Mrs. Stover, who had 
 not permitted him to leave his post, except in her 
 company, for a single minute. Mrs. Stover had so 
 cial aspirations, which she did not propose to let her 
 husband place in jeopardy. 
 
 While Mr. Stover listened to the town clock as it 
 struck the hour of eight, his sense of social impor 
 tance at war with his sense of thirst, suddenly his 
 eyes bulged and his heart ceased to beat. Then the 
 blood rushed to his head, and he clenched his power 
 ful hands until they became the smith s mighty fists, 
 for the former reverend doctor of laws and his good 
 wife, arm in arm, were walking leisurely toward the 
 court-house. The dusky lady, tall, dignified, majes 
 tic, her distinguished "statement s" worthy consort,
 
 402 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 smiled as she bowed, now to the right and no~w to 
 the left, to the people the coloured people, the 
 " statement s " own people, whose voice would soon 
 be heard the people that for centuries had gathered 
 about the fete buildings of their masters. The doc 
 tor wore a silk hat of ancient lineage. 
 
 "Andy, how is you, mah good man, an 
 how s " 
 
 The good doctor suddenly was separated from his 
 lady. She tottered, indeed, then fell upon her knees, 
 so abruptly was her hand withdrawn from the 
 " statement s " arm. The form of the mighty 
 smith towered above her. 
 
 " Lawdy, Mistah Stover, suh! Lawdy! Lawdy! 
 I ain gwine do so no mo ! Lawdy, Mistah Stover, 
 suh! Oh, Lawdy!" 
 
 "Git home, Melindy, git home; I lowed you 
 knowed yo place. Git out de way an let me git 
 on to that black no- count, lazy, good-for-nothin man 
 o yourn." 
 
 Whereupon the doctor of laws picked himself up 
 from the ground, where he lay a few paces away; 
 and for several minutes thereafter the music of his 
 footfalls was a symphony in the ears of the worthy 
 blacksmith. 
 
 Mrs. Berkeley went home. 
 
 The old court-house, decorated for the bazaar with 
 the colours of Virginia, was crowded at nine o clock, 
 the night of the festival. Miss Braxton had deco 
 rated her booth with goldenrod; Miss Dabney s stall 
 was a bower of oak branches, the leaves of which, 
 all shades of green and brown, hung from the boughs 
 stiffly, as if the branches had been cut by some awk-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 403 
 
 ward arm sturdy, but awkward. Miss Lancaster 
 had selected fruit with which to decorate her 
 booth. 
 
 Everywhere was colour and everywhere was 
 gloom gloom blended with gaiety. Was Virginia 
 to live? Was Virginia to die? None could say. 
 In that old court-house were those who would go 
 with Virginia into her grave and in that old court 
 house were those who would go to Virginia s wake; 
 there were those who would eat and drink and make 
 merry over her dead self. Everywhere was sadness 
 everywhere was gaiety. 
 
 The Readjuster spent dimes at the booth where 
 the Debtpayer spent dollars. The peasant expected 
 to purchase gentility. The aristocrat hoped against 
 hope to save the honour of his country. 
 
 A group of gentlemen, now grave, now gay, were 
 discussing the animated scenes about them. 
 
 " Sirs, behold Virginia ! " Colonel Daingerfield ex 
 claimed. " See, Judge, your beautiful daughter, her 
 eyes sparkling like the stars of heaven, her young 
 face shaming the beauty of the moss rose, as she looks 
 out upon us through a frame of goldenrod; Dabney, 
 behold the queen of your home, now amid the beau 
 ties of the wilderness; Lancaster, your daughter is 
 er er more beautiful than the fruits of the earth 
 that surround her; and over there are the five lovely 
 daughters of our late friend Clarke, who went down 
 so bravely at Seven Pines; and yonder yonder be 
 hold the manly beauty of dead Beverley s nine 
 young sons ; and yonder 
 
 " Colonel, I wonder why those five Clarke girls 
 hang together like a spray of flowers? and I wonder 
 why those Beverley boys are a cluster of grapes?"
 
 404 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "Lancaster, your comments are usually in the best 
 of taste." 
 
 " Well, I wish five of those Beverley boys would 
 marry the five Clarke girls, and I shall have to ask 
 Gladys what to do with the other Beverleys." 
 
 "Cease wrangling, my children; cease! Hold! 
 can that be Dr. Smythe Dr. Smythe in this assem 
 blage?" 
 
 "Sir," said the colonel, "the herculean efforts of 
 the ladies to save the honour of Virginia have forced 
 Dr. Smythe into this building. He has bought arti 
 cles at various stalls that have cost him the great 
 sum of ten cents each. Mr. Carter, sir, have you 
 done so much? " 
 
 " Francis, you forget the dignity of my years." 
 
 " Who is that young man advancing toward us, his 
 hat still on his head?" asked Judge Braxton. 
 
 "That," Colonel Daingerfield replied, "is Mr. 
 Roger Williams Stokes, the domiciled carpetbag- 
 ger." 
 
 " Fine night, gents; an I kin tell you I m mighty 
 glad ther-r-re s suppen fine round her-r-re. We uns 
 up ter hum allers like to mix up a little business 
 long side o pleasure. That s how comes it we east 
 ern gents gits on better n you folks. I lowed as I d 
 come over-r-r her-r-re an ax your-r-r influence 
 towards my p intment." 
 
 "Sir! why, sir! how dare " 
 
 "Hold, Francis! hear this gentleman to the end. 
 Sir, to what appointment do you refer?" 
 
 " Wa-al, I lowed as how I d bring Debtpayers 
 an Readjusters together fer once, lowin as how I d 
 git em tergether on me fer sup intendent o free 
 schools of this her-r-re county."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 405 
 
 " Judge Braxton, please examine Mr. Stokes," 
 Mr. Carter suggested. " You may find that he is 
 properly equipped to direct the affairs of the public 
 schools of this county. Mr. Payne is superintendent 
 now; but Mr. Stokes may be more competent than 
 Mr. Payne. If so, Mr. Stokes should be the super 
 intendent" 
 
 " Ther-r-re ain t no place as I ain t fitten ter fill. 
 Them Readjusters has up an promised the mathe 
 matical cheer in the University to Perfessor Simp 
 son, an I lows as this her-r-re job oughter-r-r come 
 ter me a Daown-East man as is up in the educa 
 tional line." 
 
 " Mr. Stokes, please conjugate the verb to be." 
 
 " Wa-al, Judge, I didn t low as there d be no par 
 ticular questionin leastways, not now." 
 
 " At least, Mr. Stokes, out of the fullness of 
 your knowledge, you will tell Judge Braxton how 
 many verbs there are in the English language," said 
 Mr. Carter. 
 
 "I thank you, sir; no doubt Mr. Stokes will an 
 swer your question." 
 
 " Two verps an adverps. I mostly believes in 
 adverps; but sometimes I do use them verps." 
 
 " Mr. Stokes, we shall consider your application," 
 Judge Braxton said. 
 
 "Much obleeged, gents; now I can git on to Par 
 son Jones." 
 
 " One of Tim Murphy s plain people." 
 
 "Yes, General Dabney; one of Murphy s plain 
 people," replied Judge Braxton. 
 
 " In Mr. Stokes and his kind virtue doth reside," 
 said the colonel. 7 here virtue is domiciled. In 
 the palace is wickedness; in the hovel is goodness.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Did you hear that voice? That was the voice of 
 the people that was the voice of Almighty God. 
 That man, Lancaster, is your equal. So said Jeffer 
 son ; so says Murphy. Mr. Payne must give place 
 to Mr. Stokes. Virtue " 
 
 " Colonel, sir, Mr. Beecher once wanted to know 
 how a Virginny gentleman could boast of his virtue 
 while his slaves were about him." 
 
 " Lancaster, sirs gentlemen pardon my agita 
 tion; but when that infamous charge, brought by the 
 enemies of our country against the gentlemen of Vir 
 ginia, is repeated in my hearing, I lose my self- 
 control almost. Sirs, you know all Virginia 
 knows : The mulatto in Virginia before the war be 
 tween the states was the progeny of northern and 
 eastern commercial travellers. Now and then a few 
 of the outcasts of our people but there are depraved 
 persons among all peoples, and very few there were 
 in Virginia until these evil days befell us. Sirs, this 
 we all know : The mulatto in Virginia was almost 
 unknown before Reconstruction." 
 
 " My children, Francis speaketh truth." 
 
 "And, Mr. Carter, I am unable to see how our 
 enemies could have believed in the truth of their 
 infamous accusations," said the judge. " For two 
 hundred and fifty years the Virginian gentleman, 
 married by the time that he reached manhood, has 
 lived quietly within his home, his wife and children 
 about him; a man of culture, representing the highest 
 civilisation the world has known. How could that 
 man have been unfaithful to all that he held sacred? 
 Besides, the paternity of a child being always known, 
 the white parent of the illegitimate child in Virginia 
 has always been ostracised by society and by every
 
 THE BETRAYAL 407 
 
 person of good standing in his community. Before 
 the war there were few illegitimate children in Vir 
 ginia whose parents, either of them, were white; and 
 neither before nor after their unlawful parenthood 
 were those persons held in high esteem by Virgin 
 ians gentlemen, yeomen, or peasants, or even by 
 negroes." 
 
 " Now, sirs," the colonel said, " the fathers of 
 more than half the negro children are white men 
 carpetbaggers and the misguided people of Virginia, 
 peasant and yeoman, corrupted and taught lust and 
 all forms of violence and intemperance by the 
 scavengers of Reconstruction, the outcasts of society 
 to the north and east of us. Sirs, the fair name of 
 Virginia has been defamed, and Virginia s ravishers, 
 Tarquin-like, would heap their crimes upon the vir 
 gin that they have defiled. Sirs, with the utmost 
 difficulty I restrain my anger." 
 
 Ah, gentlemen, had you lived in this year of grace 
 1910, when the negro population of New York city 
 exceeds sixty thousand, and the negro population of 
 Philadelphia exceeds sixty-two thousand, and the 
 negro population of Boston exceeds eleven thousand, 
 and not a child among all those negroes of ten years 
 of age and less that is not a mulatto ah, gentle 
 men, had you lived in this year of grace and known 
 these awful facts, would you have held northern and 
 eastern gentlemen to be the fathers of those chil 
 dren? We trow not. 
 
 Mrs. Rice had written to Miss Amanda Burgess, 
 her sixth cousin, urging her to attend the bazaar, and 
 inviting her to bring her two friends, Miss Mai- 
 abelle Berry and Miss La Salle Saunders, with her.
 
 408 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 WARRENTON VIRGINNY 
 deaR mandy 
 
 now du cum mandy you and th gyuRLS feR they aint 
 ben no Sich hapninS neveR eugenic victoRia an phylliS 
 daphne is alReady got theiR mans an doRothea annabel 
 She haS herR hopeS but i aint Sayin nuttin bout doRo- 
 thea annabel yit sciety in waRRenton iS juSt awhiRlin 
 an theReS all soRts o sciety men bout whilSt theRe 
 aint nothin but ShopkeepeRS an poo whiteS feR them 
 guyRlS terR Sociate with Round peteRSbuRg caySe 
 they thinkS themSelveS mighty high Round peteRSbuRg 
 them as aint too low too be fitten too kep company with 
 Sech fin guyRIS aS maiabelly and la Sally i dont See why 
 theiR mawS didnt put middle woRdS intoo them guyRIS 
 names poetic nameS iS mighty tRactive too men theSe 
 days now you jeST fetch em along mandy and all off 
 you Stay with jameS p and me and the guyRIS i am 
 lookin mighty high feR Regnald lancelot theRe aint no 
 guyRl too good feR him he ceRtinly iS a fine young 
 man he dont Seem to be Settin up with no guyRl not 
 woRth mentionin ill take the guyRIS too the patRiotic 
 sciety meetin thuRSday night ef you gits em heRe in th 
 moRnin now du com 
 
 mRSF SentoR Rice aS IS goin ter bee 
 
 They did " git to go." 
 
 "James P.! James P.! Oh, James P.! You 
 come over here to our stand; me an Mandy an her 
 gyurls an Dorothea Annabel wants you to help us 
 wrap up some of these here things we re a-sellin ." 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Rice, do; because you is so used to 
 wrappin up bundles, you knows, an because you can 
 show us how to sell things. Now you just look at 
 our sto , Mr. Rice; ain t it just too pretty for any 
 thing a heap sight better n your shop used to be
 
 THE BETRAYAL 409 
 
 just after you quit clarkin an got to runnin a sto 
 for yourself." 
 
 Mrs. Rice drew Miss Burgess aside. 
 
 " Mandy, Mandy, for the land s sakes! That ain t 
 no way to act in s ciety. Jest s pose them patriotic 
 ladies as we met last night was to hear you, them 
 gyurls of yourn wouldn t have no bit of chance in 
 Warrenton no mo ." 
 
 " Now, I ain t goin to set myself up to be no 
 better n I was born. I m as good as anybody. We re 
 all of us dirt, an that s shore. I m quality, good, 
 honest, plain women-folks quality. You s so foolish, 
 just because your man s runnin for office, to set 
 yourself up to be too good to work. I didn t know 
 you was so foolish. Now you just get on your 
 apron an act natural-like, an these things here ll 
 just sell like hot cakes." 
 
 "Well! I do declare!" 
 
 The young ladies busied themselves over their 
 fancy articles. Mrs. Braxton had suggested that they 
 should sell preserves and pickles, but they refused, 
 and Mrs. Rice had intimated in a way that could 
 not to be mistaken that she " was too good to be 
 selling sech things." Therefore one of the Clarke 
 girls took preserves and another took pickles, and 
 very popular booths did they conduct. 
 
 " I ain t come to this here fair to wrap up no 
 bundles." 
 
 "If you didn t come to help, what did you come 
 for, James P.?" 
 
 " I come to make myself seen an felt, socially an 
 politically, like a man a-runnin oughter." 
 
 Whereupon Mr. Rice, smiling blandly as becometh 
 a " runner," moved among the people, frequently
 
 4 io THE BETRAYAL 
 
 pausing to shake hands with a voice, and now and 
 then stooping to kiss some urchin with a clean face 
 (clean for once) after the fashion of the Honourable 
 James Barbour, whose political manners he greatly 
 admired. 
 
 Drunk, for always Dr. Reginald Launcelot was 
 drunk, but as yet not very drunk; carrying a club 
 of ebony, the head of which was a golden young 
 lady, simply attired in her own loveliness; dressed 
 in the height of Princeton fashion, in which there 
 were only a few traces of the influence of William 
 and Mary and the University of Virginia that usually 
 were more largely discernible in his er er cos 
 tume, and leering his most attractive leer, Dr. Regi 
 nald Launcelot advanced upon the Rice-Burgess- 
 Berry-Saunders booth, in one corner of which was 
 seated the fair Mistress La Salle, bewitching as ever, 
 the point of a little red arrow quivering in her Cupid s 
 bow, about to fly in Dr. Reginald Launcelot s di 
 rection. 
 
 The heir to a mighty fine house on some very 
 broad acres had not intended to go near his house 
 hold booth; but just before the social fray Mrs. 
 Rice, after the manner of a true "s ciety" mother, 
 drew him aside. 
 
 " I never seen a purttier gyurl than La Salle, an 
 there ain t no better nowhere." 
 
 " I looks higher." 
 
 "Well, son, you ll have to be a-lookin mighty 
 high-like when you looks over La Salle s purtty head. 
 But whilst you re a-lookin high-like, don t forget to 
 look deep, an if you ll look deep down-like into 
 La. Salle s pocket, you ll find forty thousand dollar
 
 THE BETRAYAL 411 
 
 cash, same as her maw left her. Allers look deep 
 as well as high, son." 
 
 Having inherited the Rice commercial instinct, the 
 young savant determined to take his mother s advice : 
 he would look deep into Miss La Salle s pocket, thus 
 using his degree of doctor of philosophy in true 
 Princeton manner. 
 
 The vulture hovered over his prey. 
 
 " I never seen a more kissable mouth." 
 
 The arrow darted swiftly from the Cupid bow. 
 
 " I m not that kind of young lady." 
 
 "Then you think as how it ain t a kissable 
 mouth?" 
 
 The archer coyly drew her bow, the little red 
 arrow quivering the while. 
 
 " I don t think of such things." 
 
 " I m mighty glad you come down to this social 
 function. I ain t thought of nothin since you 
 
 come." 
 
 " Law, now, Dr. Reginald Launcelot, aren t you 
 ashamed of yourself to fib so awful. I thought you 
 were truthful and nice." 
 
 Whereupon Dr. Reginald Launcelot, the golden 
 lady s head in his mouth, adjusted a monocle to his 
 right eye, extended his stomach, balanced himself 
 unsteadily on his sprawling legs, tilted his head back 
 and to the left, and generally assumed that lacka 
 daisical posture so prevalent at William and Mary. 
 " A bold, bad man," thought Miss La Salle. " She 
 thinks as how I m a rake," thought Dr. Reginald 
 Launcelot; "a fine college rake, sporty, and nice 
 a s ciety swell." And she did. 
 
 " I d say suppen mighty pertic ler if so many 
 folks wan t around. Better talk about what s on
 
 4 i2 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 your mind, the psychological perfessor at Prince 
 ton says. But I ll talk about marryin anyhow." 
 
 Whereupon the Rice-Simpson wedding was dis 
 cussed in great detail, Miss La Salle losing her heart 
 the while. The wedding had been a great social 
 function, he told her. All the ladies of the patriotic 
 societies of Fauquier county had gathered in the 
 Episcopal church, had heard the marriage vows, and 
 had then gone to the Rice home for supper. There 
 were thirty-eight articles of food on the table, be 
 sides fruit punch and cider. Every gentleman that 
 was present was more or less drunk fruit punch 
 and cider are so " heady," you know. The bride was 
 dressed decolletee in white satin, the gown being 
 heavily veiled in yellow machine-made lace, an imi 
 tation of rose-point, and enough artificial orange 
 blossoms were on her head to give one the impression 
 that she was a millinery shop. The hour was late 
 when the bride and groom left for Winchester on 
 their wedding trip. 
 
 Leaving her booth in charge of a visitor, Miss 
 Lancaster went to visit Miss Dabney. 
 
 " Betty, I ve got a whisper to whisper." 
 
 " You have taken in more money than anybody 
 else?" 
 
 "No, not that; I have, of course, but that s not it. 
 I er I er- 
 
 " I never knew you to hesitate before when there 
 was a secret to be told." 
 
 " Gary says I m going to marry him." 
 
 "Are you?" 
 
 " I I I said I would." 
 
 "When?"
 
 THE BETRAYAL 413 
 
 "A few days before Lent on account of Christ 
 mas and New Year s presents, you know. He tried 
 mighty hard to get me to marry him during Christ 
 mas week, but I just would not consent." 
 
 " I am so glad, Gladys. I love Cary and his 
 wife shall be my sister." 
 
 Then Miss Dabney kissed Miss Lancaster on the 
 lips, Miss Lancaster returned to her stall, and Miss 
 Dabney went to visit Miss Braxton. 
 
 "Lelia, Lelia, Gladys is engaged to Cary!" 
 
 " Oh, Betty, how pleased you must be ! " 
 
 "Yes, indeed, Lelia; a girl is always glad in her 
 brother s happiness. Then Gladys is such a nice girl, 
 you know Cary says she is an angel, if ever there 
 was one, and he must know her very well." 
 
 " Evidently." 
 
 " Lelia I " 
 
 " You have no other secret, have you, Betty dear? " 
 
 "Why, what could have made you think of such 
 a thing?" 
 
 "Your oak decorations, dear; and just now I sold 
 the lace handkerchief to Mr. Dandridge the one 
 that I was two months in making." 
 
 " Lelia! Now I know you have a secret to tell 
 me." 
 
 " I have no secret." 
 
 "No, indeed, certainly not; for everybody here 
 saw your face when Mr. Harrison s name was men 
 tioned just now." 
 
 " Betty, what can be the matter with us? I know 
 that you love Byrd Dandridge, and you know that I 
 love John Harrison oh, Betty, what am I saying?" 
 
 " Lelia, dear Lelia, I did not mean to make light
 
 414 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 of your love nor mine. Maybe, dear, we just must 
 say something to some one to each other." 
 
 " Do you think that a man would talk to another 
 man about his love?" 
 
 "I wonder?" 
 
 " Oh, Lelia, look, look there comes that horrid 
 Rice boy! Oh, oh, just see his condition! Mrs. 
 Braxton ! Mrs. Braxton ! " 
 
 " I am coming, dear." 
 
 " Evenin , ladies. I seen you over here, an I 
 seen you was the purttiest gyurls about, so I done 
 come over to buy you out. How much do you want 
 for these here things? " 
 
 Again Dr. Reginald Launcelot s language was 
 drunk; Princeton was not herself was she? 
 
 Young man, your mother, while she was my 
 maid, knew her place, and was a very worthy girl. 
 Unless you behave yourself, and unless you leave the 
 ladies alone during the rest of the evening, I shall 
 report your conduct to Mr. Braxton." 
 
 "Didn t mean no harm, ma am, deed I didn t; 
 I m a gent, an I knows how to conduct myself as 
 sech." 
 
 Dr. Reginald Launcelot bowed low, with all the 
 dignity that he could command, then took his way 
 with uncertain steps to Miss Eugenie Victoria s 
 stall. 
 
 Virginian yeoman women and peasant women are 
 pincushions. They never sew on a button to replace 
 one that has been lost. To-night Eugenie Victoria 
 was full of pins, and as her affectionate brother 
 placed his hand caressingly, " gent -like," upon her
 
 THE BETRAYAL 415 
 
 shoulder, like a "gent" he exclaimed, "Damn it! 
 is you a pin, or is you a woman?" 
 
 " Reg nal La nc lot, why can t you behave your 
 self like Stokes an other gent men?" 
 
 " Stokes don t drink cider. He s too mean cider 
 costs five cents a glass. I ain t mean." 
 
 "No, you certainly ain t; for you s full all the 
 time, that s what you is." 
 
 The doctor sought a milder climate. 
 
 Mrs. Rice-Simpson Miss Phyllis Daphne newly 
 wedded drew near her sister s booth as her brother 
 took his departure. She was buttoned up, not hav 
 ing been married long. 
 
 "The perfessor an me was mighty glad to hear 
 as how you an Roger had made up. Maw says 
 you ll be Mrs. Rice-Stokes purtty soon, an me an 
 the perfessor is mighty glad, for we thinks lovers 
 quarrels is so unfortunate men is mighty hard to 
 get these days. An Roger s got a mighty nice little 
 piece of property, if he is little an loud." 
 
 " I don t want no patronisin from you, Phyllis 
 Daphne, I don t; so you needn t put on no airs be 
 cause you s married, an married to a bean pole as 
 is goin to be a university perfessor. Mr. Stokes 
 is got money, an that s more n Simpson s got; an 
 he s got family too, Puritan family. Your man 
 ain t nothin but Stover s nevvy Gawge what am 
 ter say, Perfessor Gawge Washin ton Laf ette Simp 
 son, as teaches over ter Laurel Hill. 
 
 Then Mrs. Professor sought a new position, one 
 overlooking Miss Braxton s booth, where unobserved 
 she could see the demeanour of real ladies. She 
 would enter Charlottesville society soon, and felt
 
 416 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 that she was a bit rusty concerning the customs of 
 the aristocracy her mother had not been a maid 
 for many years. 
 
 Gentle reader, your narrators will whisper to you 
 that Professor Simpson and Mrs. Rice-Simpson in 
 time became leaders in the society of Charlottesville, 
 where they still reside. 
 
 "How are your girls, Sue?" asked Mrs. Brax- 
 ton. 
 
 " They have taken in very little money, sister, but 
 they seem to be enjoying themselves. Your girls are 
 happy, if they are poor. I have just visited their 
 booths." 
 
 "The Repudiators did not bring their money with 
 them, and the Debtpayers, while they have contribu 
 ted generously well, Sue, there are not many Debt- 
 payers. Do you see that tall, thin, hungry-looking 
 man over there? He is wealthy, but he paid only 
 five cents for three apples that he bought at Jane 
 Clarke s booth, which he peeled with his penknife, 
 then slowly ate. Ugh, the people ! the people as 
 they are to-day." 
 
 " At least there are two peasants in Fauquier that 
 are not ashamed of their class Joe Miller and Mary 
 Scott." 
 
 "Oh, tell me about the wedding!" 
 
 " Well, Joe wanted to marry at once, but Mary 
 said wait a year, that she might have time to ac 
 custom herself to such an awful idea. I talked to her 
 for half an hour, saying that there is nothing to be 
 ashamed of in the fulfillment of the highest destiny 
 of woman, so Mary and Joe were married last 
 night at eight o clock by the Methodist minister.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 417 
 
 Law, it was a pretty sight, sister! I helped Mary 
 dress as if she were my own daughter; and, do 
 you know, she was so dainty and pretty I just had 
 to kiss her on the brow. Joe and the Methodist 
 minister came in together about eight o clock and 
 sat in the hall until Mary was ready. Then we all 
 stood in the doorway, between the drawing-room and 
 the library and then only one family of proper 
 peasants was left in Fauquier. The child looked so 
 pretty I lifted her veil and kissed her again on her 
 brow." 
 
 Mrs. Daingerfield did not say that she had gone to 
 her room after Joe and Mary left and cried. 
 
 " I hope they will have a large family, Sue." 
 
 " I hope so, sister. Several generations back there 
 were a good many sets of twins in both the Scott 
 and the Miller families. I hope the new family will 
 do well." 
 
 The Virginian peasant, when a domestic servant, 
 usually was married at her master s home, although 
 sometimes the young man and the young woman 
 went quietly to their place of worship, or to the 
 home of their minister, and there were married 
 about five o clock in the afternoon. Sometimes the 
 hour would be later; sometimes earlier. The wed 
 ding was always unostentatious, the master s family 
 never dressing for 1 the occasion, and rarely were 
 relatives of the bride and groom present. The wed 
 ding party, aside from the master s family, was sel 
 dom more than three or four persons. 
 
 " Cap n Temple, Cap n Temple, Cap n Temple, 
 Cap n Temple! Oh, Cap n Temple! DIMI-U come 
 over here an bring some s ciety gents along with
 
 420 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 room, where she would meet her sovereign, the aris 
 tocracy. 
 
 " Lawd s sakes, Cap n Temple, it du-u-u seem like 
 matrimony s in the air, don t it?" 
 
 " I heard of the engagement of Mr. Dabney and 
 Miss Lancaster to-night; but I know of no other 
 recent engagement." 
 
 " You ain t heard what I m thinkin about, 
 though you do know as how Eugenie Victoria an 
 Stokes is goin to get spliced; but you ain t heard 
 what I m thinkin about." 
 
 " No, Mrs. Rice, I am unable to hear your 
 thoughts." 
 
 "Well, there was a mighty fashionable weddin 
 up to Richmond, James P. says, come last week a 
 double-weddin , as set all Richmond s s ciety figurin . 
 I ve been thinkin a double-weddin in Warrenton 
 come this fall would be mighty fashionable. An 
 law, Cap n Temple, I jest must tell you a joke as 
 happened down to Fairfax. A young man down 
 there was a-settin up to a gyurl, an he just couldn t 
 pop; so the gyurl s maw she stuck a notice in the 
 Fairfax paper, sayin as how her gyurl an the young 
 man was goin to be wed. An sure enough they 
 was, for the day was all set out in the paper. The 
 gyurl went to her maw the day befo the weddin , 
 an says, says she, Maw, he ain t said nothin to 
 me yet. I du-u-u think her maw was rather previous, 
 because a gyurl does so like to have love talked into 
 her. If there ain t no sech talk befo they gets wed 
 ded, they ain t goin to be none." 
 
 " Mrs. Rice, if any mother, no matter how fair 
 her daughter, were to place me in a situation like 
 that, I never would speak to the daughter again,
 
 THE BETRAYAL 421 
 
 and I certainly would provide an adequate punish 
 ment for the mother." 
 
 After several minutes silence Mrs. Rice con 
 tinued: 
 
 " Simpson and Stokes oughter be mighty proud of 
 what they done, Cap n. Both of them have out- 
 married themselves by right considerable. James 
 P. an me talked about the thing, an we thought it 
 all for the best, but mighty unfortunate. Comes 
 outen the times, James P. says, for the bottom rail s 
 on top these days, an no family of gyurls can afford 
 to be too choosey. James P., he didn t take on to 
 the thing in no way at first, an Eugenie Victoria 
 du say as how he was downright imperlite to Stokes 
 when he up an asked for her; but I argued this way; 
 I says, says I : James P., give them two gents a 
 chance, an they ll polish up mighty. Jest look at 
 young Mr. Dandridge a-workin in his overhalls, his 
 hands gettin rough from work the best of us will 
 run down at the heels if you sets us up in the back 
 woods." 
 
 " There is no denying the truth of the saying that 
 isolation is the mother of barbarism." 
 
 " It certainly is so, Cap n. I never seen nothin 
 like the way Doc come up after he went in and out 
 of Princeton. Why, Cap n, William an Mary an 
 the University of Virginia didn t hardly teach that 
 boy how to put on his pants; but when he come back 
 from Princeton he dressed stylish-like, an he looked 
 stylish-like, an he talked stylish-like exceptin when 
 he took too much cider. Princeton certainly can pile 
 the style on to a boy." 
 
 " You have reason to be proud of Reginald Laun- 
 celot."
 
 420 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 room, where she would meet her sovereign, the aris 
 tocracy. 
 
 " Lawd s sakes, Cap n Temple, it du-u-u seem like 
 matrimony s in the air, don t it?" 
 
 " I heard of the engagement of Mr. Dabney and 
 Miss Lancaster to-night; but I know of no other 
 recent engagement." 
 
 "You ain t heard what I m thinkin about, 
 though you do know as how Eugenie Victoria an 
 Stokes is goin to get spliced; but you ain t heard 
 what I m thinkin about." 
 
 " No, Mrs. Rice, I am unable to hear your 
 thoughts." 
 
 "Well, there was a mighty fashionable weddin 
 up to Richmond, James P. says, come last week a 
 double-weddin , as set all Richmond s s ciety figurin . 
 I ve been thinkin a double-weddin in Warrenton 
 come this fall would be mighty fashionable. An* 
 law, Cap n Temple, I jest must tell you a joke as 
 happened down to Fairfax. A young man down 
 there was a-settin up to a gyurl, an he just couldn t 
 pop; so the gyurl s maw she stuck a notice in the 
 Fairfax paper, sayin as how her gyurl an the young 
 man was goin to be wed. An sure enough they 
 was, for the day was all set out in the paper. The 
 gyurl went to her maw the day befo the weddin , 
 an says, says she, Maw, he ain t said nothin to 
 me yet. I du-u-u think her maw was rather previous, 
 because a gyurl does so like to have love talked into 
 her. If there ain t no sech talk befo they gets wed 
 ded, they ain t goin to be none." 
 
 " Mrs. Rice, if any mother, no matter how fair 
 her daughter, were to place me in a situation like 
 that, I never would speak to the daughter again,
 
 THE BETRAYAL 421 
 
 and I certainly would provide an adequate punish 
 ment for the mother." 
 
 After several minutes silence Mrs. Rice con 
 tinued : 
 
 " Simpson and Stokes oughter be mighty proud of 
 what they done, Cap n. Both of them have out- 
 married themselves by right considerable. James 
 P. an me talked about the thing, an we thought it 
 all for the best, but mighty unfortunate. Comes 
 outen the times, James P. says, for the bottom rail s 
 on top these days, an no family of gyurls can afford 
 to be too choosey. James P., he didn t take on to 
 the thing in no way at first, an Eugenie Victoria 
 du say as how he was downright imperlite to Stokes 
 when he up an asked for her; but I argued this way; 
 I says, says I : James P., give them two gents a 
 chance, an they ll polish up mighty. Jest look at 
 young Mr. Dandridge a-workin in his overhalls, his 
 hands gettin rough from work the best of us will 
 run down at the heels if you sets us up in the back 
 woods." 
 
 " There is no denying the truth of the saying that 
 isolation is the mother of barbarism." 
 
 " It certainly is so, Cap n. I never seen nothin 
 like the way Doc come up after he went in and out 
 of Princeton. Why, Cap n, William an Mary an* 
 the University of Virginia didn t hardly teach that 
 boy how to put on his pants; but when he come back 
 from Princeton he dressed stylish-like, an he looked 
 stylish-like, an he talked stylish-like exceptin when 
 he took too much cider. Princeton certainly can pile 
 the style on to a boy." 
 
 " You have reason to be proud of Reginald Laun- 
 celot"
 
 422 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "Well, Cap n, I m proud to death of the doctor 
 an Dorothea Annabel too. Thems lovely children. 
 Comes from the good blood in their veins. Their 
 great-great-grandfather was a cor-po-re-al in the 
 Revolutionary army. That s how I got into the pa 
 triotic s ciety." 
 
 "A great distinction indeed." 
 There ain t nothin like a college eddication to 
 give a boy a finish, an there ain t nothin like a 
 bo din -school to finish off a gyurl with." 
 
 " Surely the home training of a mother so cul 
 tured as yourself is superior to the superficial edu 
 cation that a girl acquires at a boarding-school, where 
 girls are fed education in much the way one feeds 
 chickens in an incubator." 
 
 " Law, Cap n, you du-u-u say seen perlite language 
 an things. I d give anything if my other two son- 
 in-laws meanin Stokes an Simpson had some of 
 your pleasantry. Yes, Phyllis Daphne has been taken 
 from me, an soon I ll lose Eugenie Victoria; but 
 as I told Reg nal La nc lot, much as I hates old 
 maids, I despises old bachelors mo . They is so 
 grumpy. When a man gets to be risin thirty-five an 
 up it s his duty, I says, to wed some nice gyurl. Now, 
 jest look over at Dorothea Annabel; ain t she too 
 purtty for anything, blushin -like, jest because she 
 seen you over here with me. An you ain t taken me 
 to a single stand, but jest walked me around out 
 here in the back as where nobody s lookin . When 
 I has a handsome young gent like you scortin me 
 I likes people to see what a fine motherly-lookin 
 s ciety woman I is." 
 
 " And you, Mrs. Rice, have not told me the 
 secret."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 423 
 
 " Law, Cap n, you told me so many fine things the 
 secret s went clean outen my head." 
 
 They approached the Rice booth, and Mrs. Rice 
 continued, speaking in low tones. 
 
 " Now, Cap n, du-u-u take Dorothea Annabel for 
 a turn up an down! I knows Gladys Lancaster 
 would like to see her. They went to school together. 
 Now du-u-u" 
 
 "Presently, Mrs. Rice; but I must go ta Miss 
 Braxton s stall now, for she beckoned to me a minute 
 ago." 
 
 " No doubt you had expected to see me earlier in 
 the evening, Miss Braxton; but I have been shaking 
 my political dice an unforgivable offence with some; 
 yet I know that you will not permit political differ 
 ences to disrupt a long friendship." 
 
 " William, please take charge of my booth until 
 I return." 
 
 As Captain Temple strolled toward Miss Lan 
 caster s booth he could almost hear himself think. 
 
 " A nigger to wait on a nigger ; a very clever reply, 
 my beauteous one. Wit will reign supreme in my 
 home when you are Mrs. T. That sounds too much 
 like James P. No, you are not Gladys, but my own 
 gentle Lelia. You left the booth in charge of Wil 
 liam not because he is a coon, but to escape my 
 ardent adoration. I prefer Lelia Braxton to Gladys 
 Lancaster and maybe I love little Dolly very, very 
 much. Heigho! Gladys would have said, Here, 
 William, birds of a feather flock together; but I 
 don t mean to hurt your feelings, William, for you re 
 a very respectable coloured man. Now I will take 
 a glass of Gladys, my favourite drink."
 
 424 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Captain Temple imitated Mr. Carter s walk as 
 he went toward Miss Lancaster s booth. 
 
 " In a young woman that is about to be married, 
 madam, your conduct is most unseemly. Cease, 
 cease your flirtatious ways! Arouse not the pangs 
 of jealousy in the heart of your ardent lover. Be 
 good ! " 
 
 "Mr. Carter, sir, I won t do so no mo ; please, 
 sir, please, I won t do so no mo ! " 
 
 " And to think, Gladys Lancaster has thrown her 
 self away on Cary Dabney, the defeated candidate 
 for governor. How popper and mommer must be 
 shocked. But you just keep right on, and the first 
 thing you know you will have flirted yourself 
 right out of your engagement. See yonder Moor, 
 his dark face lowering on the horizon of jealousy. 
 He " 
 
 " You talk so much, Captain Temple, I just can t 
 follow you. I m not sure I ought to talk to you, 
 now that I m engaged; but I ll say just one teensy, 
 tinesy little word, cause I want to know how you 
 came to know I was engaged. I m not sure I am, 
 you know; but I want you to tell me how you found 
 out." 
 
 "The news comes through Gladys Lancaster, by 
 way of all here present. Gladys was unable to keep 
 a secret, so she told her friend; and her friend was 
 unable to keep a secret; so she told her friend; and 
 her friend was unable to keep a secret, so she 
 told " 
 
 " Shut up ! I only told Betty Dabney seven min 
 utes ago. My, that was fine the way Lelia Brax- 
 ton turned you down ! Poor boy, I d take you to 
 my heart right away, but Othello looketh not kindly
 
 THE BETRAYAL 425 
 
 o er here. . . If I were not such a good 
 
 soul I d ask you to go." 
 
 " And you would make a great mistake, for a little 
 jealousy but how can Jimmy Temple instruct 
 Gladys Lancaster in the devious paths of love." 
 
 " No ; I m not Dorothea Annabel. Now get along 
 with you, Jim ; I daresn t let you stay a minute longer 
 I don t want to jilt Gary Dabney before anybody 
 knows I m engaged to him." 
 
 "They all know, my dear; but I s a virtuous man, 
 I is ; so exit the discarded lover." 
 
 " Really, Colonel, I have absorbed some of the 
 information which you have spread broadcast ^with 
 great prodigality, as Mr. Carter would say; so I 
 dislike to tax your generosity further; but, sir, while 
 you have said (and I think that I have understood) 
 that the voice of the people is heard through our 
 noses, you have not explained to us, so that I could 
 understand, how the soft voice of the gentry is to be 
 heard above the bray of Murphy s plain people." 
 
 " A speech of extraordinary length to have been 
 spoken by you, Lancaster, and very well put together. 
 I am glad to observe that you have acquired some 
 knowledge of rhetoric that you have learned more 
 than mere political wisdom of me. So great has 
 been your improvement, sir, I feel justified in ex 
 plaining to you by a simple illustration, not beyond 
 your understanding, that the soft music of the 
 gentry s voice hath charms to soothe the people s 
 savage breast. An elephant, sir, is larger than 
 his trainer; yet, sir, that beast obeys his trainer s 
 will." 
 
 " Sometimes the trainer s killed."
 
 426 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " And sometimes the people, directed by a dema 
 gogue, through superior physical force, overthrow 
 the government of their masters. But, sir, they reign 
 only a little while, and their days are full of trouble. 
 Murphy s Sam Kelly superior to Braxton, sir? Mur 
 phy s nigger Shad superior to Mr. Carter? Lan 
 caster, your place is with the ladies." 
 
 " Dorothea Annabel, all the evening long I have 
 lingered about your booth, as Proserpine lingered 
 amid the flowers. In my dreams I have seen you, 
 my dear Dorothea Annabel, who is not Stokes 
 little Dolly yet, blushing like the rose that you are. 
 And now I see you, yet I see not the roses about you, 
 for you are the fairest of them all." 
 
 "And this is the first time that you have been 
 near me. Miss Braxton, Miss Lancaster, Miss Dab- 
 ney, you have been about their stalls but never once 
 near mine, until now." 
 
 Oh, why would he not understand that she did not 
 love Stokes? Oh, why had she been so unwise as 
 to tell him about the miserable little carpetbagger s 
 proposal? 
 
 " Not for a single minute have I been absent from 
 your booth, little Dolly, not for a single minute. 
 My eyes, my heart, my soul the best of me has 
 been with you in your booth, Dorothea. Always the 
 best of me lives in you and will die when Mr. 
 Stokes takes you to be his wife." 
 
 Was that a stifled dry sob that Captain Temple 
 heard as Dorothea Annabel turned to her guests? 
 
 "Why there is my dear old friend, Miss La Salle! 
 > and you, Miss Maiabelle! Miss Dorothea An 
 nabel, you did not tell me that you had visitors. A
 
 THE BETRAYAL 427 
 
 candidate has very little time to devote to 1 society, 
 but I would have called on your guests had I known 
 that they were here. I returned from a canvass of 
 every county in my district only this morning. How 
 is the General? I remember the excellent dinner 
 dear Miss Amanda Burgess. Did Miss Amanda 
 come with you?" 
 
 " Maiabelle has just returned from New York." 
 Then Miss Maiabelle talked and talked and talked 
 and talked; and Miss Maiabelle would talk and talk 
 and talk and talk so long as she would live. The 
 dead do not talk; the dead do not hear; blessed are 
 the dead of Virginia. Your narrators, gentle 
 reader, write of the period when very good Virgin 
 ian girls went to New York when they died. Now 
 they go to Europe when they die and their friends 
 die. 
 
 The former pincushion paused in front of the pin 
 cushion s stall. The pincushion was well-behaved 
 for a pincushion. 
 
 " Eugenie Victoria, I ain t quite satisfied, me an* 
 the Perfessor, with the way you is behavin yourself. 
 You ain t lookin exactly fashionable but then you 
 is tall, an ? I s pose you can t help that. But when 
 me an the Perfessor was over to Winchester on our 
 weddin tower we seen that the style was the Grecian 
 bend in the back an a drop to the front in the shoul 
 ders. So-fashion, Eugenie Victoria; so-fashion." 
 
 " Phyllis Daphne, I done told you I don t want 
 none your patronisin . You is younger than me; an 
 I don t see no sense in no gyurl chaperonin her older 
 sister nohow pertic ler when she ain t been married 
 but three week. Does three week make you so much
 
 428 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 smart n me? Funny thing, no gyurl s married more n 
 three days befo she s after chaperonin . You ain t 
 goin to chaperone me, Phyllis Daphne; so you an 
 your bean-pole can move on." 
 They did. 
 
 " I will sell you the scarf, Byrd, if you insist; but 
 you have already bought a very expensive handker 
 chief of me, and I think you should buy of Betty 
 if you intend to spend any more money." 
 
 " I had rather not buy from Miss Betty." 
 
 " Mr. Taliaferro, please take the rest of your 
 money over to Lelia s camp. I have had more than 
 my share of it, and I am not going to take another 
 cent from you. If I did not know that every gentle 
 man will raffle his purchases at midnight, I suppose 
 I would think that you intend to give all these things 
 to some girl; but as I know what I know, I am not 
 going to take any more of your money." 
 
 " Then I shall go the rounds of the five Clarke 
 booths." 
 
 "Do I" 
 
 " Gary, I congratulate you." 
 
 " I thank you, Byrd. And when I say that I 
 thank you, I give you all the thanks that belong to 
 the gentlemen here except Captain Lancaster, and 
 every letter in the words of congratulation that he 
 spoke was profane not literally, but I could hear 
 an oath in every word that he uttered: Well, 
 Cary; I congratulate you ten millions of dollars 
 for three words at least that s what I could have 
 got for Gladys. I thank you, Byrd."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 429 
 
 Judge Braxton knew that Miss Dabney was within 
 hearing, nor was his voice moderated because of her 
 proximity when he addressed young Mr. Tazewell. 
 
 " Byrd Dandridge was born a Virginian, and a 
 Virginian he has been since the day of his birth; but 
 he was a Greek and a Roman and an Englishman 
 and a Virginian when he gave his fortune and his 
 ancestral lands to Virginia, and went into her forests 
 to build for himself a home." 
 
 Mr. Carter took up the judge s last words. 
 
 "A home for himself and for his wife, I hope. 
 And proud will be the Virginian maid who goes 
 forth to meet such a lord the king of the wilder 
 ness. Proud will she be to share his hardships and 
 help him to build a home that shall be the pride 
 of all Virginia." 
 
 And Betty Dabney ah, she was so pretty, she 
 must have overheard. 
 
 "You leave that do , Andy; up an leave it right 
 away; there ain t nobody else comin in, an I want 
 you, I do; I wants everybody here to know as how 
 I m jest as good as anybody else, an I s goin to 
 show em, I is ! " 
 
 The smith feared no man; but he feared all 
 women, and of all women he feared Mrs. Stover 
 most. 
 
 " Maw, I believe in up-liftin our owns, I do; but 
 summers I don t low as you an me is fitten fer 
 s ciety. You let me stay by the do ef you won t 
 let me go an git a little suppen now. Maw, I feels 
 mighty thirsty; jest let me go out an git a little bit 
 o cider?" 
 
 " If one drop gits down yo throat this here night,
 
 430 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Andy Stover, soon s we gits home I ll break every 
 piece o furniture in the house cross yo wuthless 
 haid. Now you come an scort me roun ; fer I m 
 goin ter show them uppety females as how ladies is 
 ladies. There ain t no gals in Virginia, there ain t 
 no womens in Virginia all females is ladies; looks 
 er like, wears female clo es. An you come long, 
 too, little Andy. Wish I had er little sister fer you 
 to hang onto yo arm; but the Stovers all run to 
 boys." 
 
 Little Mrs. Stover took hold of the giant smith s 
 arm, which limply hung by his side. The youngest 
 Stover of them all, except four others, a lad of 
 nine, followed behind his father, tightly grasping one 
 of the tails of his sire s coat with one hand. They 
 advanced toward Miss Lancaster s booth, the little 
 lady holding her head high, switching herself, and 
 giving every one to understand by her manner that 
 not only was she as good as anybody there, but a 
 great deal better. 
 
 "Hello, Andy! Running with the hares and 
 hunting with the hounds?" 
 
 " Now, jest what does you mean by that, Miss 
 Lancaster; jest what does you mean? I ain t never 
 been introduced to you, but I knows who you is, an 
 I jest wants you to know as how my man ain t runnin 
 with no woman. I s his lawful wife, I is, an I ain t 
 no hare an I ain t no houn . I s as good as you is 
 any day, an no self-respectin woman as is no more n 
 er slip of er gal says sech things befo gent man, an 
 they don t even think sech things nohow." 
 
 " Why, Mrs. Stover, I m so glad to see you ! 
 Your husband and I are such old friends we 
 haven t been introduced yet, but I ve driven by his
 
 THE BETRAYAL 431 
 
 blacksmith shop often, and I ve seen the good hon 
 est perspiration just rolling down his face now 
 haven t I, Mr. Stover? I didn t mean what you 
 thought I meant; but you know, Mr. Blacksmith, 
 don t you?" 
 
 " Cat! that s what I said! You needn t look at 
 me that ways cat ! " 
 
 "Look, Mr. Dabney; oh, look, look! just look 
 at that Stover boy s mouth! isn t it the biggest 
 thing you ever saw?" 
 
 " Don ker ef tis big twill do to prez my Gawd 
 wid." 
 
 The boy was solemn, his voice was deep. And on 
 went the Stovers, on for further conquests on to 
 " better their owns." 
 
 " Gladys, do you love Temple, or do you love 
 me?" 
 
 " Why, Gary, you ought to be ashamed of your 
 self, you certainly ought. I ve had a horrid even 
 ing just because you have moped over there in the 
 corner ever since you came, scowling at every man 
 that came near me. If I were a man I would trust 
 the girl that / loved. I believe I m going to 
 cry." 
 
 " You have behaved outrageously. You have at 
 tracted the attention of everybody here. Captain 
 Temple, the associate of negroes, my enemy, the 
 most contemptible black man in this commonwealth, 
 has been singled out by you for your especial fa 
 vour. Three times he has been in earnest conversa 
 tion with you, hanging over your words as if they 
 meant his life s happiness. Gladys, is Captain Tem 
 ple your choice? now, while no one is here to
 
 432 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 interrupt us, tell me: is Captain Temple your 
 choice? " 
 
 Miss Lancaster averted her beautiful face, ar 
 ranged her position so that she would be unobserved 
 by all save Mr. Dabney, crushed her unusually pretty 
 lace handkerchief against her very beautiful eyes, 
 and wept, bitterly wept, but beautifully wept the 
 kind of tears that Mr. Rice derisively would have 
 termed crocodile, and altogether presented a picture 
 of charming outraged girlish innocence. 
 
 "Forgive me, Gladys; ah, forgive me! I was a 
 brute, a jealous brute! Not for all the world would 
 I hurt you. You know that, Gladys; you know that, 
 dear?" 
 
 " I I ll try oh, so hard ! to forget this time. 
 Oh oh!" 
 
 And before you could have said Jack Robinson 
 no trace of the Gladys storm was left, for Betty 
 Dabney Betty, who could not be deceived rapidly 
 approached. 
 
 " Let me kiss you, Gary, my dear brother who is 
 to be married. No one will see us except Gladys 
 and you will not be jealous, will you, Gladys?" 
 
 "No-o-o; I never could be jealous." 
 
 " Father wishes to see you, Gary; and I wish to 
 see Gladys all alone for a few minutes." 
 
 "What is it, Betty?" 
 
 " Dear Gladys, now that you are to be my sister, 
 please come to stay a long time with us." 
 
 "No, Betty dear, no; not until I enter the Dab 
 ney home as boss. I m no fool. If Gladys went in 
 as a sweetheart, she would never go in as a 
 wife." 
 
 " Suit yourself, Gladys. I am sorry that you are
 
 THE BETRAYAL 433 
 
 so uncertain of Gary s love; I should think that you 
 would wish to test it in every possible way." 
 
 "I guess I m wrong, Betty dear; but I know so 
 very little about men, you know." 
 
 "Them bureau things is worth two dollar even 
 money, Stokes. But I won t call up to you, Stokes, 
 that you ain t bought but seventeen cent worth from 
 me yet; an I dunno as what I m goin do with them 
 triflin things, if you means to give em to me. But 
 maybe you ve bought from them as is ladies as is a 
 little mightier in the world as they thinks than 
 the Rice gyurls." 
 
 " I ain t bought nothin cep from you, Eugenie 
 Victoria, as is soon to be Mrs. Rice-Stokes. What s 
 mo-r-re, I don t see as how you need them bureau 
 things. Now, wher-r-re I comes frum, up to hum, 
 them kind of fixin s is called wasteful sinful waste 
 ful. I lows as it s time as you an me wus savin . 
 Come October an we ll be married." 
 
 " You is a close-fisted Yankee, Stokes, that what 
 you is." 
 
 " I s careful, Eugenie Victoria; an that s mo-r-r-n 
 you folks daown her-r-re is." 
 
 " Maw says you is mighty careful. She says, says 
 she, James P., unbosom yourself, likes a charitable 
 man, an give po Eugenie Victoria a lot of weddin 
 clothin , because I low as that Yankee ain t goin to 
 cover her back when she s Rice-Stokes. An James 
 P. says, says he, Maw, I ain t s portin no other 
 man s family, I ain t. Bad enough to have a marry- 
 in -in, but I shorely ain t goin to s port no Yankee s 
 family for him. 
 
 "Well, I like that; as if I want takin up the
 
 434 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 s portin . But then I did low as I d git it all back 
 agin when old Rice leaves his broad acres as jines on 
 to my nice little piece o prop ty." 
 
 Mrs. Braxton and Mrs. Daingerfield sought Miss 
 Boiling as soon as they had told their husbands of 
 the Dabney-Lancaster engagement. 
 
 " Really, Mary, you and Sue are too severe. A 
 girl that I knew, quite as wild as Gladys, married 
 one of our clergymen, and after she had been mar 
 ried a month she was never known to smile. By the 
 time that her husband had become bishop of this 
 diocese many persons openly said that she was quite 
 as serious and godly as her husband, and that was 
 saying a great deal. Gladys is a good girl quite as 
 good as you should expect." 
 
 " But, my dear Miss Polly," Mrs. Braxton said, 
 " is Gary Dabney, a young man of splendid ability, 
 in every way worthy his noble name, to take to wife 
 a girl whose manners are scarcely superior to those 
 of an exceedingly impertinent kitchen maid?" 
 
 You are much too severe, Mary. Gladys is a 
 child, misled by her married sisters rich parvenu 
 friends, but her heart is in the right place. You 
 are much too severe." 
 
 " But, Miss Polly," protested Mrs. Braxton, " the 
 downfall of Virginia will soon take place if the chil 
 dren of such men as Gary Gordon Dabney are to be 
 reared by vulgar mothers. Yes, Captain Lancaster 
 married a peasant, and we have seen the fruits of 
 that marriage; and more than once we have seen 
 the children of the marriage of a gentleman to the 
 daughter of a gentleman and a peasant, and we 
 have seen the destruction of some of our best fam-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 435 
 
 ilies caused by marriages between aristocrats and 
 peasants. Captain Lancaster is what he is because 
 his wife was what she was and what she is. In 
 deed yes, Gladys is quite as good as one should 
 expect." 
 
 "And to think, Miss Polly," said Mrs. Dainger- 
 field, " this girl is to be the mistress of the home, 
 of the governor of Virginia; pert, coarse, mannish, 
 utterly impossible, tolerated by us barely tolerated 
 only because she is a Lancaster, her grandfather s 
 granddaughter." 
 
 "No more of this, Sue; you and Mary shall not 
 continue in this unchristian spirit. But how true it is 
 that no one can trace his gentle blood to its origin. 
 Although Napoleon said, I am an ancestor; you are 
 descendants, he was not an ancestor, for he founded 
 no family of gentle men and gentle women. No 
 man can leave any class below the grade of aristoc 
 racy and take a permanent place in any higher class. 
 And the spark of gentility is indestructible. It may 
 lie dormant for generations, then burst in a flood 
 of light, as it did in Napoleon; but its fire is un 
 quenchable. While it may seem to have burned out 
 with Bonaparte, it will flare up again in the genera 
 tions that are to come." 
 
 "So I tell Mr. Daingerfield, Miss Polly; and I 
 tell him also that when a great man seems to have 
 sprung from the people that one should search his 
 family tree; for no great man ever inherited his 
 greatness from the peasantry or the yeomanry." 
 
 " Right you are, Sue," said her sister. " Of course 
 Washington and Jefferson and Marshall were not 
 great, nor were Lincoln and Grant and the other 
 horrid Yankees; but those who think that they were
 
 436 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 should point out to us other Washingtons, Jeffer- 
 sons, Marshalls, Lincolns, and Grants that are great. 
 Their progeny died with them or returned to the 
 peasantry or the yeomanry from which they sprung." 
 
 " That reminds me of the yeoman Preston family, 
 girls," Miss Boiling said. " Mistress Lititia Floyd, 
 daughter of Colonel William Preston, granddaugh 
 ter of John Preston, she married Governor Floyd, 
 wrote an account of the Preston family, which I 
 read in 43. Colonel James Patton had four sisters, 
 said Dame Lititia, the youngest of whom, Eliza 
 beth, while crossing the Shannon river, had as a 
 fellow passenger a youth of striking appearance, who 
 proved to be a ship-carpenter named Preston. The 
 girl ran away with the young man, married him, and 
 thus placed herself out of the pale of her family. 
 In 1735 the young persons came to the Valley. 
 Mistress Floyd wrote that the Patton woman was a 
 haughty creature, and kept aloof from the Prestons. 
 My, girls, now how important are the Prestons to 
 Kentucky s aristocracy I " 
 
 " And the idea, Miss Polly, of a Patton holding 
 aloof from anybody!" Mrs. Daingerfield exclaimed. 
 " However, the little blue blood that the Pattons had 
 showed itself in some of the Prestons but not in 
 them all. Still, in all the Prestons you will find 
 Preston blood and yeoman ways." 
 
 Mrs. Braxton now returned to the Dabney-Lan- 
 caster affair. 
 
 " In this mesalliance I see a greater menace to Vir 
 ginia than I do in the uprising of the yeomanry and 
 peasantry that is being led by that awful Murphy. 
 I would object to the marriage under any circum 
 stances ; but now, while the lower classes threaten to
 
 THE BETRAYAL 437 
 
 overwhelm our civilisation, we can not afford to 
 have the gentry further depleted by such dreadful 
 marriages. The wedding must not take place." 
 
 " I did not mean," Miss Boiling said, " that this 
 alliance meets with my approval. I am unable to 
 agree with the fashionable writers of to-day who 
 say that a hardier race is born of the marriage of 
 the gentry with the peasantry. The tone of the aris 
 tocracy is lowered; the peasantry is not raised per 
 manently in the least. The son of a lady and a gen 
 tleman is a nobler man than the son of a gentleman 
 and a peasant. The highest in life is the product 
 of the highest. Still, you are much too severe. I 
 am willing to admit that Gladys is shocking at 
 times utterly shocking. But Gary will teach her how 
 to behave as a Lancaster should, not after a fashion 
 alike unbecoming the lady and her maid. Oh, dear ! 
 oh, dear!" 
 
 The day after the bazaar Lelia Braxton heard 
 Miss Boiling say that eight hundred and sixty-three 
 dollars and thirty-four cents would not pay the pub 
 lic debt. 
 
 
 
 Hugh White and Lucy Christian were quietly 
 married in the musty parlour of the Christian home 
 a few days after the bazaar was held, the Baptist 
 preacher officiating. As usual, the wedding-cake 
 had a thimble, a ring, and a coin in it; but where 
 were the guests to explore the mysteries of that cake 
 a sturdy young yeoman to find the coin, a charming 
 little yeoman girl to find the thimble, and a buxom 
 young woman to find the ring, the bride knowing 
 just where each prize was to be found, and seeing to
 
 438 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 it that her friends cut the cake in the right place? 
 Mrs. White was the only guest at the wedding. 
 Neither the Christians nor the Whites would toler 
 ate their former associates, yeomen like the Rices; 
 and such yeomen would not have gone to the wed 
 ding had they been invited. 
 
 The gentry never attended yeoman weddings, nor 
 yeoman .entertainments of any kind, and never en 
 tered a yeoman home save as superiors. 
 
 Colonel Daingerfield addressed Judge Braxton. 
 
 " Yesterday the voice of the people was heard. 
 That voice commanded Shadrach Berkeley and 
 James Rice to make the laws of Virginia; Page 
 Carter and Francis Daingerfield were ordered to 
 their homes. Samuel Kelly was told to interpret the 
 laws that Berkeley and Rice would enact, Ingram 
 Braxton was required to descend from the bench of 
 the highest tribunal of the land. John Harrison, 
 Murphy s tool, was charged with the execution of 
 the laws that Berkeley and Rice would make and 
 that Johnson would interpret; Cary Dabney was 
 told that he could not veto any bill that would re 
 pudiate the obligations of his country. Two men 
 ran for Congress, Temple and Jones; the greater 
 rogue, Temple, has been ordered to Washington. 
 The voice of the people has been heard."
 
 CHAPTER TEN 
 
 SEVERAL days after the election, when the 
 stars had come out, the oxen had been fed. 
 the corn cakes and bacon had been devoured, 
 the axe had been sharpened and stuck into a log near 
 the oak fire, Mr. Byrd Dandridge left the solitudes 
 of his forest primeval and sought the civilisation of 
 General Dabney s home. No fleet steed bore the 
 eager lover, as Aurora is swiftly borne on the wings 
 of morning; but the young giant walked twelve miles 
 in two hours; then slowly, hesitatingly, he appeared 
 before Her Majesty. 
 
 Miss Dabney took a chair at one side of the 
 hearth, before the hickory fire the first of the sea 
 son, which was snapping and crackling cheerily, mu 
 sically, as only hickory fires snap and crackle and 
 Mr. Dandridge took a chair at the other side of the 
 hearth. 
 
 The fire continued to talk. But no word did Mr. 
 Dandridge utter, and no word spoke Miss Dabney. 
 For a long, long time the garrulous fire selfishly mo 
 nopolised speech. 
 
 "Your father and brother will have Miss Lan 
 caster to look after them soon." 
 
 Mr. Dandridge never addressed Miss Dabney by 
 name. He never thought of her as Miss Dabney, 
 he could not think, he could not say, Miss Dabney. 
 Betty? He did not dare think Betty. Sometimes 
 he thought of her and she, and sometimes he ad 
 dressed her as you, and sometimes she became pos- 
 
 439
 
 440 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 sessive your; but her and she and you and your never 
 became Miss Dabney, Miss Betty Betty dear 
 
 you may fill in countless blanks, 
 
 gentle reader, if you have loved. 
 
 Mr. Dandridge and Miss Dabney intently gazed 
 at their loquacious companion, as if they drank in 
 every word that he uttered, until the tardy wood 
 man, interrupting the saucy fellow, renewed the 
 attack. 
 
 " Soon your duty will not be to your father and 
 your brother." 
 
 Finding his auditors to be uninteresting conversa 
 tionalists, the fire entertainingly discussed the weather 
 with his friend, the wind outside, while Mr. Dan 
 dridge and Miss Dabney listened eagerly. After a 
 while the lord of the wilderness uttered another sen 
 tence. 
 
 " And Miss Lancaster is such a nice girl." 
 
 The wind laughed the fire was so amusing. Im 
 patiently Miss Dabney tapped her pretty foot on the 
 fender. She said nothing. 
 
 " Now you can marry me." 
 
 " You have not asked me to marry you." 
 
 The wind laughed again, and the fire chortled, 
 entertained by his own wit. 
 
 " I have asked you a thousand times." 
 
 " And a thousand times I have answered. No one 
 has asked me to marry him since I gave you my 
 final answer." 
 
 " I love you I love you marry me now I 
 love you ! " 
 
 11 Mr. Dandridge! You have no home, you have 
 no money; all that you had you gave away; now you 
 ask me to marry you. Mr. Dandridge!"
 
 THE BETRAYAL 441 
 
 The wind and fire had stopped to listen. They 
 laughed quite heartily, then resumed their conversa 
 tion. After a while the forester interrupted them. 
 
 " I gave all my property and all my money to the 
 creditors to please you." 
 
 "Mr. Dandridge! I thought you were a patriot. 
 I thought that you gave your fortune to save the 
 honour of your country. Oh, I am so sorry; so 
 sorry; so sorry! You gave away your fortune to 
 please a young girl, not to save your country from 
 disgrace ! " 
 
 " I would do so again." 
 
 " You would? Yes, indeed you would! And then 
 you would ask me to marry you, knowing that you 
 had nothing, that you could not marry. A capri 
 cious girl, in a moment of excitement, while at a 
 meeting of a ladies aid society, asks you to give 
 your fortune away. You do. Then you ask the 
 girl to marry you knowing that you are without a 
 cent." 
 
 Long laughed the wind at the sallies of the fire; 
 nor could the fire resist an impulse to join in the 
 laughter. 
 
 Miss Dabney looked into the heart of the fire; 
 then she looked at her feet; then she looked timidly 
 at her lover, and all the while her face ah, she 
 was so pretty! Then she felt ashamed. That she 
 should treat him so! She looked at the fire; she 
 looked at her feet; she looked at her lover fur 
 tively looked at him. 
 
 Gradually, mingling with confusion and blushes and 
 shame, there came into Betty Dabney s face the love 
 that is seen but once in a maiden the love that is in 
 surrender. That love had heard the call of the
 
 442 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 sweetheart, the call of the wife, the call of the 
 mother. Unknowingly, Betty Dabney had heard 
 each call, and as each emotion swept to and fro over 
 her face, or lingered there, each vision became a part 
 of Byrd Dandridge as he gazed intently upon that 
 fair young face, a living part of him, that would live 
 in him so long as he should live. 
 
 The wind laughed softly; the fire burned low, 
 whispering to the lovers, as they sat before his wan 
 ing lights as they sat apart, silent, and afraid. 
 
 No touch of the hand should profane the divinity 
 of this young man s sovereign. 
 
 " I have only a log cabin in a forest." 
 
 " I would rather live in a log cabin than in a 
 palace." 
 
 " I gave my fortune to the creditors ! " 
 
 " And went into the forest to work for me." 
 
 " I have no money." 
 
 " One does not need money in a forest." 
 
 11 1 shall work all day." 
 
 "So shall I." 
 
 "You! you work? No." 
 
 " Yes, I shall work in the cabin as a house 
 wife as as your wife work for our home." 
 
 " I had not thought that you would work." 
 
 " You gave your home, your lands, your fortune 
 because you loved me. Because you loved me you 
 went into the forest, and there you have worked like 
 a man for the woman you love. I loved you be 
 fore you gave your fortune away; I loved you before 
 you went into the forest ; but now now now now 
 I love you." 
 
 " I deserve no praise. The old home is gone, the 
 lands are gone, the money is gone, I no longer show
 
 THE BETRAYAL 443 
 
 men how to work I work. I work for you. Now 
 I am a man. I deserve no praise." 
 
 " I knew you were a man. I have known that 
 since I was a little girl; but I longed to see you 
 work for me with your hands. I was a proud girl 
 when you gave away your fortune. My heart fol 
 lowed you into the forest. The music of your axe 
 reached my heart. . . . And I knew that you did 
 not know how to cook, and I was sure that you 
 would work too late. I longed to cook for you, and 
 to call you at sunset. . . . And I knew you could 
 not could not sew even a 1 a a button on." 
 
 " Marry met now." 
 
 "To-night?" 
 
 " To-morrow." 
 
 " I will marry you month after next." 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Next month?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 Three weeks from now give me three weeks, 
 please? please?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "How long will you give me?" 
 
 " Until next week Wednesday." 
 
 " No no no no no ! " 
 
 But the fire, dying in its embers, whispered to the 
 wind something about a woman s answer; and as 
 Byrd Dandridge went out amid the stars, to enter 
 upon his walk of twelve miles, the wind softly mur 
 mured to him: Yes, yes, yes; Wednesday s the 
 day, Wednesday s the day, Wednesday s the day; 
 Wednesday s the day, the day, the day; the day, 
 the day; the day, the day, the day, the day; yes, 
 Wednesday s the day, the day, the day."
 
 444 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " Gary, did you ever hear of such a thing in all 
 your life? One week; only one week, and no invi 
 tations, no presents, no nothing. I never heard of 
 such a thing! " 
 
 " I would like our wedding to be simple; no pres 
 ents, no one present except our relations and inti 
 mate friends. Why should our wedding be a circus, 
 held in a public place, the price of admittance pay 
 able in advance. I would like to be married in your 
 father s home." 
 
 "You are wrong, Gary; very wrong. Invitations 
 are issued to every one that s expected to give a 
 present, even where the chances are slim; and many, 
 many get into the church not a tent, Gary; but a 
 consecrated church that do not give even a teensy, 
 tinesy thin little sugar spoon. No presents indeed! 
 A home wedding! No, sir, Gary; I never expect to 
 be married but once, and I don t spec to have no 
 pretty clothes no mo . No, sir! No, siree!" 
 
 " Your pleasure, Gladys, is what I wish." 
 
 " No home, just a log hut, one room downstairs, 
 half a room upstairs. Dirt floor, a few oak leaves 
 scattered over it; no clay stuck between the logs, just 
 leaves; no furniture, not even a chair, just a bed 
 stead built into the wall out of saplings, a mattress 
 that s comfortable, unbleached cotton sheets, and a 
 cheap horse blanket that a horse would be ashamed 
 to wear. You see, I went out there while Byrd was 
 chopping down trees way away, I could just hear 
 his axe a-smitin and a-smitin , and I went all over 
 the hut all through it and I know, I do." 
 
 "You did wrong." 
 
 "You are so jealous, Gary. I didn t think you d
 
 THE BETRAYAL 445 
 
 be jealous of the man who s about to marry your 
 sister. You just make my life miserable." 
 " You do not understand." 
 
 " Not a horse, not a mule just steers. Chacun a 
 son gout. You know, Gary, if Byrd drives up to 
 Senlac in his ox-cart, ties his steers up to a tree, stalks 
 in, stalks out; helps Betty into the cart; unties them 
 steers, then drives them to his hut, twelve miles 
 away, I for one shall not be surprised. Ugh ! " 
 " I shall help Betty into the cart." 
 " And I shall sink through the floor." 
 " Gladys, were I a plain woodman instead of a 
 young lawyer with an increasing practice, would you 
 live with me in my forest home?" 
 "Why, Caryl of course I would! " 
 
 Indian summer and Wednesday went to the wed 
 ding together; Indian summer, warm, yet with her 
 brown garment of leaves fringed with frosts of win 
 ter; Indian summer, the blue of the sky and the 
 brown and the red and the gold and the green of the 
 earth all about; Indian summer, the time in Vir 
 ginia s life when her children are ready to marry. 
 
 As Morven had been a blaze of light an hour 
 before the setting of the sun the evening of Lelia 
 Braxton s birthday ball, so Senlac was a blaze of 
 light an hour before the sun set over the blue hills 
 to the west of Warrenton the day of Betty Dabney s 
 wedding. 
 
 The guests, all of whom had arrived, were assem 
 bled in groups on the verandah, in the drawing-room, 
 in the conservatory, and in the hall, and Mrs. Brax- 
 ton, Mrs. Daingerfield, Miss Braxton, and Miss
 
 446 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Lancaster were in the bride s room, when Mr. Byrd 
 Dandridge, the latter part of the hour between sun 
 set and starlight, passed in through the outer gates 
 of Senlac, driving the team of oxen, which were la 
 boriously hauling his cord-wood cart. 
 
 Miss Lancaster was watching for the tardy lover 
 through the blinds of the bride s window. She 
 nearly fainted, as she explained to Mr. Dabney later, 
 when she saw " them steers." All she could do was 
 to sink to the floor, bury her face in her hands, and 
 sway her body to and fro in the shame that over 
 came her. 
 
 Colonel Daingerfield, Mr. Carter, and Captain 
 Lancaster were on the verandah, talking in low 
 tones, when the colonel suddenly gave voice to his 
 great astonishment. 
 
 "Do my eyes deceive me! Mr. Carter, sir; Cap 
 tain Lancaster; do I see the heir of Sedgemoor com 
 ing after his bride in the ox-cart of a peasant?" 
 
 Captain Lancaster laughed; right heartily did he 
 laugh; he laughed and laughed and laughed. As 
 only a soldier of fortune can laugh did Captain Lan 
 caster laugh. His laughter brought all the guests 
 to the front. Then the good captain dried his eyes; 
 and then, in a hesitating voice, he explained the how 
 and the why the reasons as they seemed to him. 
 
 " I met Byrd and his steers and cart Saturday 
 while they were on their way to Warrenton. Hello, 
 Byrd, said I, where is your load? I am after 
 a load, said he. What are you after? said I. 
 Corn meal and bacon, said he. Going to feed 
 your wife corn meal and bacon? said I. No, said 
 he. What are you going to do with them? said 
 I. Feed them to the steers, said he. I never
 
 THE BETRAYAL 447 
 
 heard of steers eating bacon, said I. Nothing said 
 he." 
 
 "What has all that to do with this remarkable 
 vision, sir? How does that concern the laborious 
 apparition that approaches?" 
 
 "Hear me to the end, Colonel, as Shakespeare 
 said or as he might have said. * Byrd, said I, * are 
 you going on a wedding tour? Yes, said he, 
 Where are you goin ? said I. To my home in 
 the forest, said he. I will lend you my horse and 
 buggy, said I. * No, said he. Then he said, I 
 thank you ; no. * Byrd, said I, * maybe you intend 
 to take your bride to your forest home in your ox 
 cart. I do, said he. But I give you my word 
 he hadn t thought of doing so until I put the notion 
 into his head. Wait a minute, Colonel, wait a min 
 ute; I ll soon be there! Get in, said he. I got in 
 an ox-cart for the first time in my life. We hadn t 
 gone far along the road before we met General Dab- 
 ney and his daughter, who were walking toward the 
 sunset. Miss Betty, said I, Lord Lochinvar here 
 says he is goin after you Wednesday night with 
 these oxen and this cart. She laughed. * I hope 
 he will, she said. Do you mean that? said Byrd. 
 Then she looked at him such a look; but that is 
 not a part of my story. Yes, I mean that, said 
 she. I never thought Byrd would take the matter 
 seriously." 
 
 " My children," said Mr. Carter, " I never expected 
 to live to see the day when a Virginian gentleman, a 
 Dandridge, would take his bride to his home, a 
 cabin in the wilderness, in a cart drawn by a yoke 
 of oxen; but, my children, sad as I feel when I be 
 hold Virginia come to such a pass, I am filled with
 
 joy when I see one of Virginia s sons, a Dandridge, 
 give his wealth and his lands to his country, then go 
 into the forest and build a home for himself. Then, 
 almost I am overcome with emotion as I behold one 
 of Virginia s fairest daughters, a Dabney, put aside 
 the luxuries of civilisation, and hand in hand with 
 her forest lord go into the wilderness go forth with 
 him in an ox-cart. There the dignity of poverty; 
 there the wealth of the world." 
 
 Nor was there a guest among the friends and re 
 lations assembled that did not glory in the glory of 
 Byrd Dandridge and Betty Dabney; nor was there 
 a young man or a young girl there that did not wish 
 to start life in just that way for even Miss Lan 
 caster saw the romance of it all. 
 
 Mr. Dandridge, vigorously belabouring his steers, 
 shambled up to the entrance of the verandah before 
 he spoke one word or looked up at the assembled 
 guests. He gave his team into the safe-keeping of 
 a servant, then imperturbably shook hands with all. 
 No one reminded him that he was late, and no one 
 referred to his cart and steers; but no other bride 
 groom, it is safe to say, ever was the recipient of 
 a greeting more hearty. 
 
 Long before daybreak Mr. Dandridge had been 
 ready for the wedding; but he was afraid, this pow 
 erful young man, afraid of a young girl and afraid 
 of no other person in all the world. 
 
 Mr. Dandridge had left his cabin in the wilder 
 ness in ample time to reach Senlac before the sun 
 went down. But he had been obliged to water his 
 steers many times and oft on the journey of twelve 
 miles. Then, too, they had needed rest; for did 
 they not have to take her back?
 
 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 No hour was set for the wedding, but every one 
 supposed that Dr. Nelson, dressed in the robes of 
 his office, would appear in the doorway leading from 
 the drawing-room to the library at eight o clock. So 
 he did; and about the same time appeared Betty 
 Dabney, on the arm of her father, Lelia Braxton in 
 front of her. Then Mr. Dandridge, all a-tremble, 
 my, how the giant did tremble before the young 
 girl ! took his place by her side. Then the guests, 
 all of them friends or relations of the Dandridges 
 and the Dabneys, gathered about the bride and 
 groom. All were happy; all were sad; all loved 
 Byrd Dandridge; all loved Betty Dabney. 
 
 Where sadness is mingled with gladness both are 
 demonstrated in moderation. A wedding in Virginia 
 among the gentry was not made an occasion of riot 
 ous fun. 
 
 The bride, the bride, the bride ! Everybody talked 
 about the bride. The groom in Virginia is a neces 
 sary piece of furniture until after the wedding; 
 then he is placed in a corner, and none so poor to 
 do him reverence not even his mother. Mr. Dab 
 ney gave way before the cry: the bride, the bride, 
 the bride ! 
 
 At half-past nine all the rare old wine had been 
 opened, the bride s trunk had been put into the ox 
 cart, and the necks of the oxen had been fastened 
 to the tongue of the cart. All had kissed the bride; 
 all had shaken hands with the groom, and some had 
 kissed him. 
 
 The young giant had touched his bride but once, 
 when Dr. Nelson had commanded him to take her 
 hand. Then he had shivered. Now he took her 
 by one hand, while Gary Dabney took her by the
 
 450 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 other, and together they helped her into the ox 
 cart. 
 
 She sat on the trunk, which was in the middle of 
 the cart; he sat on the tongue behind the steers, a 
 cowhide whip in his hands, and together they made 
 their way the man and the girl and the oxen 
 along the road that led into the forest. No one 
 laughed as the steers hauled them off with unsteady 
 gait; but more than one cried tears that were of 
 joy as well as of sadness. 
 
 The bride was the first to speak. 
 
 " How far have we gone, Mr. Dandridge?" 
 
 " Three miles." 
 
 " I thought we had gone farther." 
 
 Along shambled the oxen, the even tenor of their 
 way unruffled by Mr. Dandridge s cowhide whip, 
 vigorously applied to their backs. But it takes more 
 than a cowhide whip wielded by a giant seriously to 
 affect the gait of a steer; and the speed of two steers 
 doth not equal that of one steer. 
 
 "How far have we gone, Mr. Dandridge?" 
 
 " Five miles." 
 
 The moon rose over the black low-lying hills to 
 the east. A pity, thought Mrs. Dandridge; she dims 
 the stars. 
 
 " Are you very uncomfortable, sitting there on 
 that pole?" 
 
 "No." 
 There is room for you on the trunk." 
 
 " I am not uncomfortable." 
 
 Never was there such a night, thought the bride; 
 but oh those steers do move so slowly. 
 
 "How far have we gone Mr. Dandridge?"
 
 THE BETRAYAL 451 
 
 "Nine miles." 
 
 "Is this your forest?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Is it all yours?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 Mrs. Dandridge looked at the moon; then she 
 counted sixty-four stars. 
 
 " Poor steers ! Are you not afraid that you will 
 really hurt them?" 
 
 " They are tough." 
 
 The trunk, as Mrs. Dandridge had discovered, 
 did not constitute all the comforts of home. 
 
 Mr. Dandridge stood up on the pole, lambasted 
 his beasts, then sat down. 
 
 " I wish we had a great deal farther to go." 
 
 "So do I." 
 
 "How far away is home?" 
 
 "Half-a-mile." 
 
 "Oh!" 
 
 Mrs. Dandridge had meant Senlac. 
 
 "Ah, what a dear little cabin, what a dear little 
 home you have built for me ! " 
 
 Then she ran in, and Byrd Dandridge went to 
 put his steers to bed. 
 
 The hickory fire was burning brightly, for it had 
 been left so that it would feed itself now Byrd 
 Dandridge would have no fire save one of hickory; 
 the window was open, and through that open win 
 dow she saw that he would not be done with his 
 steers for several minutes. Hastily she undressed 
 ah, so hastily! and soon she was seated before the 
 fire, in a wrapper Lelia Braxton had made for her, 
 and in slippers Gladys Lancaster had crocheted for
 
 452 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 her, her lingerie on one of the rude chairs, covered 
 by her dress. And there she sat for a long time. 
 Then she examined the furniture. Mr. Dandridge 
 had passed the day in making furniture for his 
 bride. Then she went over to the bed, partly pulled 
 down the horse blanket that never a horse would 
 wear and the unbleached sheet, and then she went 
 back to the fire. And there she sat. 
 
 Mr. Dandridge long ago had put his steers to 
 bed. In due course no, that is not exact writing, 
 gentle reader after a while he had approached his 
 cabin, and through the open window he saw her sit 
 ting before the fire, one of her pretty feet toying 
 with a smouldering log, and Mr. Dandridge went 
 back to his steers. Again he drew near. Again he 
 saw his bride, ah, she was so pretty ! her face 
 aglow, for she sat in front of the hickory fire, 
 and he went no farther, but leaned against an oak 
 tree; and there he stood, gazing through the win 
 dow, all a-tremble. And after a long while a face, 
 more scarlet than the fire, which now was low, and 
 which had left its flame in her cheeks, appeared in 
 that open window; and then a voice, low and tremu 
 lous, was heard by the man who stood leaning 
 against the oak tree. 
 
 " Come, Byrd." 
 
 Then he went into his cabin home.
 
 CHAPTER ELEVEN 
 
 JOHN HARRISON became governor of Vir 
 ginia the first day of January. The same day 
 the legislature convened, and now, the middle 
 of February, Richmond was crowded with visitors, as 
 she had been since the inauguration. Debtpayers 
 from every county in the state had gathered in the 
 capital, that by their presence and counsel they might 
 give aid and comfort to the gentlemen who had been 
 elected to the General Assembly, of whom there were 
 only a few. For every Debtpayer in the city there 
 were scores of Readjusters, a motley throng thieves 
 of every kind, thieves black and thieves white, all 
 eager for spoil. Many had come to steal office; many 
 had come to steal money; many had come to steal 
 social honours; all wanted they knew not what. All 
 expected wealth and fame, either or both, in some 
 form. 
 
 Everywhere there was gaiety. The gentleman 
 looked death in the face, smiling as he clutched his 
 sword; the gentlewoman saw death written on the 
 faces of her father, her brother, her lover, and gaily 
 smiled as she wiped away a tear. Virginia would 
 fall; but the gentleman and the gentlewoman would 
 fall with her, fighting for her honour, and dying as 
 Virginians should die. The base born the negro, 
 the peasant, the yeoman would murder Virginia, 
 rise on her prostrate body, then soar into the clouds. 
 The vultures among them would pick her bones; 
 those that were not quite so ravenous would found 
 a dynasty, they knew not what, they cared not 
 
 453
 
 454 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 what, hut a dynasty in which they would be lords, 
 in which there would be serfdom, since men could 
 not be lords until there were serfs. Yeoman and 
 peasant would acquire vast estates; their children 
 would be educated at the public expense; a royal 
 road would lead to culture; a short road would 
 lead to wealth. 
 
 And a royal road indeed was the road to wealth. 
 For seven thousand years the Chinese empire has 
 conserved her natural resources; Europe and the rest 
 of the civilised world has done likewise during all 
 recorded time. The American states, obeying the 
 voice of the people, stripped their lands, the most 
 fertile in the world, above ground and below, in 
 one hundred years of riotous living. In one hun 
 dred years the peoples of the American nations had 
 eaten their children s bread; they had burned their 
 children s fuel ; they never even left trees from which 
 paper might be made on which books could be 
 printed to enlighten their children s minds. All was 
 devoured, in one hundred years, in an attempt to 
 satisfy the insatiate appetite of the gluttonous peo 
 ples of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and their 
 kind. To what end? That yeomen and peasants 
 might become aristocrats. 
 
 Under a government " of the people by the people 
 for the people " the peoples of the American states, 
 unlike some other wild beasts, ravenously devour 
 their own young. Superintendent of Public Schools 
 of the City of New York Maxwell in 1910 reports 
 officially to the Board of Education of the City of- 
 New York as follows: Physicians employed by 
 the Board of Health examined physically 323,344 
 public school children during the year 1909, or
 
 THE BETRAYAL 455 
 
 about one-half of the total number of children 
 that attended the public schools of New York 
 City during that year, and found that more than 
 three-fourths of those examined were physically 
 defective. The percentage of defective public school 
 children that were not examined is assumed to be 
 the same. Of the 323,344 children examined the 
 physicians found that 242,048 were in need of 
 medical or surgical treatment, although probably 
 not more than one-tenth of those children were 
 defectives when they were born. Nearly one-half 
 of the pupils, 145,066, were lousy; 11,749 were 
 suffering from starvation; 56,620 had trachoma, a 
 communicable disease, and 3,850 were afflicted with 
 such contagious diseases as diphtheria, scarlet fever, 
 and measles. Evidently Captain Lancaster was right 
 when he declared that lice are domiciled in the 
 tresses of Liberty. Where went the food that should 
 have stayed the hunger of those starving pupils? 
 What became of the time of the parents of those 
 filthy children that should have been devoted to 
 keeping the poor little creatures clean? The "peo 
 ple " of the city of New York fatten on the bodies 
 of their young. 
 
 Virginia s people followed Murphy along the 
 royal road to wealth, squandering their children s 
 wealth as they went, and their own and their chil 
 dren s bodies and minds and morals. 
 
 The negro would be permitted to imitate the 
 new aristocracy. Virginia? Did the new people of 
 Virginia care for Virginia? "To hell with Vir 
 ginia; I am an American! " That was the cry heard 
 here, there, and everywhere. They would deliver 
 Virginia to America, first bartering with Washing-
 
 456 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 ton for spoils. America could have Virginia; but 
 her conquerors would have their price. 
 
 In commenting on colour effects, lights and shades, 
 in the legislative halls when the members thereof 
 were assembled, a gentleman who was a member of 
 the Senate looked upon his colleagues. Then, ad 
 dressing them, he said: " The negro members per 
 haps lend a darker shade to the opposition, and raise 
 this question: Could such a party have got a cer 
 tificate from any ante-bellum court that would have 
 shown that half of them were white men?" There 
 \vere fourteen negroes in the General Assembly, se 
 lected by men that were white and by men that were 
 black as their rulers, chosen by native Virginians as 
 masters of their destinies. 
 
 No, gentle reader; do not decide hastily that the 
 voice of the people was not the voice of God. Men 
 tally and intellectually those negroes were superior 
 to many of their Readjuster white colleagues at 
 least, they offered to pay more than twice as much 
 of the public debt as their white Repudiator brethren 
 were willing to pay. Ross Hamilton, a negro dele 
 gate from Mecklenberg, made a motion to substitute 
 for the Riddleberger measure (which provided for 
 the repudiation of the greater part of the public 
 debt) a bill that provided for the payment of the 
 entire principal of the obligations of the state, the 
 non-taxable bonds to have tax-receivable coupons for 
 the interest attached thereto, the interest to be three 
 per cent. The bondholders were to be obliged to 
 content themselves with only half the six per cent 
 interest to which they were entitled. They were to 
 be mistreated in no other way. 
 
 Soon after the legislature convened a coalition be-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 457 
 
 tween the negro and the white Repudiator members 
 thereof was effected. Immediately, those members, 
 acting as a body as well as individually, thrust their 
 knives into Virginia s bleeding side. Mutilated Con 
 federate soldiers that were in office were removed, 
 and Repudiators, black as well as white, were elected 
 in their stead. A miscegenation bill, which per 
 mitted marriages between whites and blacks, was 
 introduced. Every man that was a Repudiator was 
 told that he might do as he pleased. Everywhere 
 was heard the cry, " Down with the rich man, up 
 with the poor man 1 " None was to render an ac 
 counting to God, nor to Virginia, nor to himself. 
 
 Whatever name is given to crime, no matter how 
 inoffensive it is in the beginning, it soon becomes ob 
 noxious to the criminal that it describes. The name 
 Repudiator became offensive to Repudiators, so they 
 called themselves Readjusters; the name Readjuster 
 became offensive to Readjusters, so they called them 
 selves Eliminators; the name Eliminator became of 
 fensive to Eliminators, so in time they called them 
 selves Democrats. All the while honest men called 
 them thieves. 
 
 Bills were drawn by the Readjusters that provided 
 for the elimination of private and public debts of 
 every description. Virginia was exploited by Vir 
 ginians. Her name became the byword of thieves. 
 The regime of the carpetbagger was put to shame: 
 the native Virginian pupil had excelled his master in 
 all those infamies that were his master s virtues. 
 
 While the nomination of registrar of the land 
 offices was pending, John M. Brockenbrough, of 
 Essex, was nominated by Cannon, a Readjuster sen 
 ator. Colonel Randolph Harrison, who had lost a
 
 458 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 leg in the military service of Virginia, was nomi 
 nated for the same office by Senator Hart, a Demo 
 crat. In seconding the nomination of Brocken- 
 brough, Davis, a negro senator, made a speech which 
 your narrators will report in nearly the same lan 
 guage that he used. 
 
 I s hyard de Confed rate name spouted in dese halls 
 mighty of n since I s been settin hyar, connectin wid 
 nominations, an I s tired ob dat name. Dis Senate s 
 got a duty ter Confed rate soldiers, an dat duty, feller- 
 cit z s, is ter liminate em, cayse ter the victors b longs de 
 spiles. I s tired hearin bout sympathisin as we gemmen 
 ob de senate owes de Confed rate soldier. Tain no place 
 fer us Senate gemmen ter wipe way dyah tears. He ain 
 got but one leg! He ain got but one arm! When one- 
 legged an one-armed Confed rate soldiers sets up dis hyar 
 late day preyin an fastenin demseves on dese hyar vic 
 tors dats titled ter dey spiles, dyah ain no dictionary dat 
 kin tell my feelin s. 
 
 I s sayin I don want hyar no mo Confed rate talk in 
 dis hyar hall. Confed rate! Confed rate! Confed rate! 
 One-legged, one-armed, Confed rate! I ain got no sym 
 pathisin fer him. Laks my bredren ob colour, I spurns 
 him. De Funders say a lot ob talk bout er one-legged 
 man fer do -keeper, an I say he ain t got no mo right den 
 dis liminate him. Ef he hadn fit in de war he d hab 
 two arms an two legs dis hyar minute. He done los my 
 sympathisin when he went in de wrong party, an right 
 den an dyah he los all claim on de people ob de country. 
 Dey war wrong; so let dem go down in de world, whar 
 dey b longs. Liminate em, I says; liminate em! Limi 
 nate everything, I says ceptin Liminators. 
 
 The white Readjusters, to the man, concurred 
 in the sentiments expressed by their swarthy col-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 459 
 
 league. Brockenbrough received 76 votes. Har 
 rison received 54 votes. 
 
 When the election of chief door-keeper of the 
 House was in order, Mr. James A. Frazier, of Rock- 
 bridge, a white Readjuster, said that he took great 
 pleasure in granting the request of his coloured 
 friends, who had asked him to nominate a man of 
 their own colour for that position, saying that he 
 was only too glad to serve them. Whereupon he 
 nominated Cooke, a Norfolk negro. In Frazier s 
 nominating speech he said that if Cooke would only 
 do his duty to the House and he was sure that he 
 would as his people had done their duty to their 
 party, the House would have reason to accept con 
 gratulations. True, he said, Cooke had lost no leg 
 nor arm in the Confederate service; but no doubt 
 he had built breastworks. 
 
 The Debtpayers nominated Sullivan, who for ten 
 years had been the efficient door-keeper of the House, 
 and they appealed to the delegates not to turn out of 
 office this tried servant, a one-legged former Stone 
 wall Confederate soldier, and elect a strapping negro 
 in his place merely because the old man believed 
 that the commonwealth should try to pay her debt. 
 Their prayers were not heard. The young negro 
 buck, Cooke, was elected chief door-keeper. 
 
 The election of the second door-keeper came up 
 in the House the same day, after Cooke was elected. 
 The gallant Cottrell, a Democrat, whose empty 
 sleeve was a token of his devotion to Virginia, was 
 turned out of office, on motion of a negro delegate. 
 A negro took his place. 
 
 General William H. Payne, in a speech that he 
 made in Warrenton, in March, 1880, said, in part:
 
 460 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 No man was elected to a judgeship who was not ex 
 pected to use the patronage of his office to build up the 
 new party; and from such applicants for positions as were 
 doubtful on this point, they exacted pledges to that effect, 
 as is shown by the following extract from a letter of Janu 
 ary 13, 1880, from Mr. Farr, of Fairfax, to Judge Stew 
 art, of Alexandria: 
 
 " In the discharge of your functions as judge on all 
 questions you will, of course, be untrammelled; but in the 
 distribution of the patronage controlled by you, you will be 
 expected to bestow it on your Readjuster friends, and to 
 give them preference, unless it is shown that they are un 
 fit and unqualified for the place. These concessions are 
 now essential to your success; with them I think your 
 claims bright, without them slim." 
 
 Judge Stewart declined the judicial position coupled 
 with conditions, and was promptly superseded by A. W. 
 Chilton. The negro voted with the white Readjusters 
 upon all these nominations, and his reason for this course 
 will be found in an extract from the address of the four 
 teen negro legislators to men of their own race, published 
 in their particular organ, and re-published in the Whig, 
 the organ of white Readjusters, of the i8th inst., which 
 reads: 
 
 " When it is found out that by our action the whole 
 machinery of the State has been changed, officers of vari 
 ous departments, judges nearly by the hundreds, who 
 were placed in power particularly to trample upon and 
 beat out the rights of the negro ; when it is known that 
 these things have been done and men elected, pledged, and 
 in many instances have already shown that they intend to 
 give the negro a citizen s rights; when all this, with the 
 change of public opinion that is being accomplished, is 
 known by others as it is felt and appreciated by the col 
 oured people from one end of this State to the other, we 
 shall not fear the verdict." 
 
 Now what are the rights to which this address darkly
 
 THE BETRAYAL 461 
 
 hints? As disclosed by the resolution of a public meeting 
 of negro voters in Alexandria, and addressed to the new 
 and liberal party in the legislature, they are mixed mar 
 riages, mixed juries, the right to vote without paying a 
 head tax, and so forth. 
 
 The negro, discovering before the legislature con 
 vened that he had taken an adder to his bosom, 
 became virtuous. Instead of repudiating the debt 
 of forty-seven millions, he first advocated its pay 
 ment, then the payment of more than thirty-three 
 millions of it, while many of his white Eliminator 
 friends were in favour of repudiating the debt as a 
 whole. A few white Readjusters advocated the 
 payment of amounts that varied between a few 
 dollars and nearly twenty million dollars; but each 
 white Readjuster as he suggested the payment of 
 any part of the debt winked his eye, slowly, delib 
 erately. All knew that he had his reasons. 
 
 Treat us fairly, said the negroes, or you will not 
 get the debt repudiated. Its payment will not come 
 out of the negro anyway, remember. Treat us 
 fairly: give us white wives! 
 
 Mr. Dandridge, a Debtpayer, of Winchester, 
 when the miscegenation bill was under discussion, 
 said that it had been whispered about the Chamber 
 that the negroes were to have miscegenation in ex 
 change for their votes for repudiation. Undoubtedly 
 the Readjusters promised negroes marriage with 
 whites in exchange for negro support of bills that 
 had been offered, and that were to be offered, by 
 white Readjusters. But they never kept their prom 
 ise. The Riddleberger measure to repudiate more 
 than one-half the public debt was passed before a
 
 462 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 vote was taken on the miscegenation bill. The negro 
 had been used. 
 
 When the miscegenation bill did come up, Mr. 
 Moffet (Readjuster) moved its dismissal. A negro 
 (Paige, of Norfolk) spoke in opposition to the 
 motion, saying that he did not wish to be offensive 
 to his white colleagues, so he would merely say that 
 the prejudices of whites were too strong as yet to 
 favour intermarriage, that those prejudices ere long 
 would vanish, that he wished to assure his colleagues 
 that as yet none but weak negro men and weak and 
 depraved white women wished to marry those of 
 the opposite race. Paige, no doubt, regarded Fred 
 erick Douglass as a weak negro man, for Douglass 
 relieved the white man of one of his burdens. 
 
 The bill was dismissed by a vote of seventy-one 
 to ten. Every white man and two negroes voted 
 to dismiss the bill: ten negroes voted to sustain the 
 measure. 
 
 In due course a bill to repudiate more than one- 
 half of the public debt was introduced by H. H. 
 Riddleberger, a Readjuster, of Shenandoah, who was 
 later elected to the Senate of the United States. 
 The measure was entitled "A Bill to Reestablish 
 the Public Credit." The title of that bill was rep 
 resentative of Repudiator jocularity. Why pay any 
 part of the debt? is it not just as easy to refuse 
 to pay any of it as it is to eliminate merely a part? 
 Those were questions addressed to Riddleberger. 
 That statesman slowly winked his eye. 
 
 Said the Reverend and Honourable John E. Mas- 
 sey, in his Autobiography: 
 
 When Virginia was admitted into the Union on the
 
 THE BETRAYAL 463 
 
 26th day of January, 1870, she entered it as an entirely 
 new State. She was not the same in her territorial lim 
 its, her citizenship, nor her organic law as Virginia of 
 1 86 1. Under these circumstances I cannot believe she 
 was under any legal or moral obligation to pay the debt of 
 the old State, or ought ever to have assumed it. ... 
 How far the public debts of one generation bind the 
 lands or property of the succeeding generation, under any 
 circumstances, is a question worthy of serious considera 
 tion. 
 
 Parson Massey, who professed to be the father 
 of readjustment, denied that he was a repudiator, a 
 name that he found odious. But slowly he would 
 wink his eye. 
 
 The Riddleberger bill contained many preambles, 
 one of which was as follows: "Whereas. 
 The principal of the debt recognised by the act ap 
 proved March 30, 1871, computed to the first of 
 July following, and taken as the debt of the State 
 before the creation of West Virginia, was $47,718,- 
 112.23"; an d then the Repudiators proceeded to 
 eliminate, until a " whereas " was reached which 
 said: The equitable adjustment of the public 
 debt of the State as determined by the application 
 of the facts and principles aforesaid, fixed the aggre 
 gate thereof at $19,165,176." That bill, which 
 passed the legislature by a large majority, was sent 
 to the governor for his signature. He returned it 
 unsigned. 
 
 The next legislature passed the bill, the next gov 
 ernor signed it, and it became the law of the land. 
 
 The New York Tribune, soon after the bill was 
 returned, reported the Readjusters as saying: " You 
 refused to consent to repudiate a part of the debt;
 
 464 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 we will go to work now and wipe out the whole. 
 They say they will go to the people next year with 
 the issue of total repudiation, and will win it." 
 
 One of the Langhorne tribe, a white woman named 
 Orra Langhorne, petitioned the legislature to grant 
 women the right of suffrage. 
 
 Everybody knew that anything could be got from 
 the legislature for the price. But legislators were 
 unable to make fraudulent laws, and Eliminator 
 judges did not have the opportunity to construe 
 Repudiator enactments except those laws that were 
 passed over vetoes. The governor was honest. 
 
 The Readjusters had many opportunities to in 
 crease their personal fortunes. Bonds of the com 
 monwealth that amounted to nearly fifty million 
 dollars, with coupons aggregating nearly one hun 
 dred and twenty millions, receivable at and after 
 maturity in payment of all taxes, debts, dues, and 
 moneys payable to the commonwealth, were kept in 
 wooden boxes in the office of treasurer of the state, 
 in the Capitol building. They were negotiable. They 
 could be eliminated by any thief, but the thief could 
 not be caught by the aid of records in the archives 
 of the commonwealth. There were no records of 
 the bonds and the coupons by which they could be 
 identified. The plates from which those bonds and 
 coupons had been printed were still in the possession 
 of the printers, and more could have been printed, 
 and uttered. Maybe they were. A clerk was in 
 dicted, tried, convicted, and sent to the penitentiary 
 for stealing some of those bonds and coupons; but 
 no prominent Readjustee suffered like punishment; 
 yet Repudiators went into the treasurer s office every 
 day, and their pockets bulged as they came out.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 465 
 
 Those bonds and coupons were stolen by Eliminators 
 in lots of tens of thousands of dollars worth, as was 
 commonly reported throughout Virginia at the time. 
 
 Gentle reader, your narrators have told you that 
 in time Democrats, alias Readjusters, alias Repudi- 
 ators, alias Eliminators, again called themselves 
 Democrats. 
 
 Claude A. Swanson, while governor of Virginia, 
 made a speech during the political campaign of 
 the fall of 1909 in which he advocated the election 
 of the Democratic candidate for governor, a person 
 named Mann, the Mann that was elected judge by 
 the legislature that turned out of office Sullivan, the 
 one-legged former Confederate veteran door-keeper 
 of the House, and elected a strapping young negro 
 in his stead Mann, at present governor of Virginia. 
 
 The speech was printed and widely circulated as 
 a campaign document by the Democratic party, and 
 was printed in nearly all the important newspapers 
 in Virginia. Your narrators will quote from the 
 document, which bears the following title : " Re 
 viewing the Record of the Democratic Party of Vir 
 ginia : Speech of Governor Claude A. Swanson at 
 Surry Court House, September 19, 1909." 
 
 The Republican candidate for governor, in his opening 
 address, says that the Democratic party has been in control 
 of the affairs of Virginia for the last twenty-five years, 
 and he vaguely assails the record made within that time, 
 demanding a change for that reason. The Democratic 
 party gladly accepts the challenge thus made and is will 
 ing for the voters of this State to pass judgment upon it 
 by its achievements for the past twenty-five years. It 
 invites a most rigid comparison of this long record with
 
 466 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 that made by the Republican party during the few years 
 it had control of this State. 
 
 One is disposed to regret that Mr. Swanson had 
 so much to say in praise of his party, now named 
 Democratic, and so little to say against his old alias 
 Repudiator predecessor. 
 
 Let us measure the record of the Democratic party in 
 this State by this final test and see whether it is worthy 
 of the people s condemnation. During all these years 
 of power in Virginia, there has been but one small de 
 falcation and that was occasioned by the forgeries of a 
 clerk in the Auditor s office by the name of Shepherd, who, 
 when detected, was immediately arrested and sent to the 
 penitentiary. No effort was made to shield him or to 
 cover up the fraud. During these twenty-five years the 
 Democratic party has collected and distributed about 
 ninety millions of dollars of public money and this is the 
 only defalcation that the severest enemy of the party can 
 point to. The government of no city or State in this 
 Union can point to a record superior to this one, so free 
 from scandal, corruption and graft. 
 
 What a contrast do these long years of purity in ad 
 ministration present to the few years of Republican rule 
 in this State. During these few years -we saw public 
 officials shamelessly abusing their power and using their 
 offices for self-enrichment. We saw contracts legally en 
 tered into cancelled and awarded to others at greater 
 expense to the state, in order to pay for political campaign 
 contributors. We saw the State sustaining heavy losses 
 of public money by deposits made in insolvent banks, 
 which were extending pecuniary favours to those in power. 
 We saw all the public institutions of the State run either 
 for the pecuniary benefit or political advancement of those 
 in control. We witnessed the attempt at infamous legis 
 lation, which was only defeated by the rebellion of four
 
 THE BETRAYAL 467 
 
 State Senators, which, if enacted, would have created in 
 this State innumerable offices, not to be elected by the 
 people, but controlled by those in power, and which 
 would have practically put the entire transportation and 
 business interests under the will and caprices of political 
 partisans and plunderers. We saw an effort made, which 
 was only defeated in a similar manner, to vacate the 
 circuit judges of this State and put the entire judiciary 
 under partisan and political control. We witnessed offices 
 held and administered by inefficient and impertinent negroes. 
 We were even cursed with negro school officials. We saw 
 the finances of the State demoralised and disorganised for 
 political purposes. 
 
 And now, gentle reader, hold your breath and 
 listen, or you may not be able to tell the nature of 
 the beast that is covered by this Democratic ass s 
 skin. The Democratic ass of Virginia has grown 
 during the last past quarter of a century, but in 
 stature (as measured by the tape corruption) is not 
 yet quite so large as his Virginian Republican ele 
 phant messmate, who alone devours the federal office 
 part of the mess. 
 
 My fellow-citizens, while honesty and integrity are 
 indispensable, yet the possession of these alone do not 
 entitle either an individual or party to position of respon 
 sibility or power. These splendid traits must also be 
 accompanied by wisdom and ability. It is only a union of 
 these that will give us the best results of government. 
 Thus, though the Democratic party has a record of 
 twenty-five years of unstained honesty, yet if it has not 
 displayed in these long years of rule, ability and wisdom 
 in the administration of affairs, it is not entitled to a 
 continuance in power. 
 
 Let us first determine how it has managed the finances
 
 468 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 of this State. The Republican party had obtained power 
 under a promise to settle the State debt and extricate the 
 State from financial distress and disorder. This was sought 
 to be accomplished by the enactment of the Riddleberger 
 Bill, which proved a failure. The Democratic party 
 appointed a commission to confer with the creditors and 
 finally reached an amicable agreement with all the credi 
 tors of Virginia. This settlement made by the Democratic 
 party is far more favourable to the State than the Riddle 
 berger Act, which a large majority of the creditors refused 
 to accept. 
 
 The Second Auditor of this State has furnished me a 
 comparative statement between the Riddleberger Act and 
 the Democratic settlement. This statement shows that 
 if the $9,289,067.17 funded under the Riddleberger Bill 
 had been funded under the Democratic settlement, the 
 State would have saved $2,952,678.90. This statement 
 further shows that the State saved, by funding the residue 
 of the public debt under the Democratic settlement, in 
 stead of the Republican Riddleberger Bill, $7,339,095.00. 
 Thus the Democratic settlement was more favourable to 
 the State than the Riddleberger settlement by $10,291,- 
 773-QO. This furnishes a splendid testimonial to the 
 character and capacity of the Democratic party of Vir 
 ginia. It has kept its promises to the bondholders the 
 interest upon the public debt has been promptly paid. 
 Not only has the interest been paid, but the State has 
 purchased and either cancelled or has under control of 
 its Sinking Fund Commission, $4,838,065 of the principal 
 of this bonded indebtedness. 
 
 At least honest Virginians are glad to be told that 
 Repudiators now calling themselves Democrats, hav 
 ing eliminated more than ten million dollars more of 
 the debt than they were willing to eliminate while 
 they called themselves Readjusters or Repudiators
 
 THE BETRAYAL 469 
 
 Eliminators have paid the interest and a 
 part of the principal of a new bonded indebted 
 ness. And what a huge sum has been paid during 
 the twenty-five years of " honest " Democratic rule 
 nearly five million dollars I 
 
 This State s debt was settled with the concurrence of 
 the creditors, and thus Virginia has the proud distinction 
 of being saved from the stain of repudiation. The settle 
 ment has been so beneficial to the State that no one has 
 been bold enough to antagonise the settlement or challenge 
 the wisdom of the Democratic party in making it. 
 
 Virginians, is this man Swanson to be John W. 
 Daniel s successor in the United States Senate? 
 
 And Mann, governor of Virginia in this year of 
 our Lord, 1910, who says that he is a Democrat? 
 
 Your narrators will quote from two letters that 
 Mann wrote to General William Mahone, photo 
 graphs of which were printed in the Richmond 
 Evening Journal, July 12, 1909. Says that news 
 paper of that date: 
 
 The first letter shows that Judge Mann was consult 
 ing privately with the Republican boss of Nottoway 
 county, and with the negro, Archer Scott, Readjuster- 
 Republican member of the legislature from Nottoway, in 
 the interest of General Mahone; that through General 
 Stith Boiling, at present Republican postmaster of Peters 
 burg, Judge Mann knew the ambitious plans of Gen 
 eral Mahone, including a desire and purpose to go to the 
 United States Senate; and that Judge Mann cordially 
 supported this ambition and assured General Mahone that 
 he would gladly help to advance the cause. 
 
 That letter in full is as follows:
 
 470 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Nottoway C. H., Va., Nov. 28, 1879. 
 General William Mahone: 
 
 Dear Sir, I intended going to your house on Thursday 
 and again on Friday night, but on each occasion had com 
 pany and was so deprived of the pleasure of seeing you 
 during my short stay in the city. I did see and have a 
 talk with General Boiling, and know something of your 
 plans from him, and write now to say that while much 
 preferring that you should be our Governor, I shall never 
 theless rejoice in your election to the Senate of the United 
 States, to which position I have no doubt you will be 
 speedily chosen by the legislature about to assemble. 
 
 I talked with H. H. L. Dyson of this county, and Archer 
 Scott, our representative previous to the election, and 
 found them most favourably inclined to you personally. 
 And on Thursday morning last I again saw Dyson, who 
 is at the head and front of the Republican party in this 
 county, and who elected both Scott and Williams, and 
 he thought they would both support you. This, however, 
 is no news, because Dyson told me he had seen you. If 
 I can be of any service to you in this section it will be 
 cheerfully rendered. 
 
 Most respectfully and truly, 
 
 W. H. MANN. 
 
 The day that the Readjuster legislature elected 
 Mann the newly elected jurist effusively thanked 
 General Mahone for his efforts in his behalf. That 
 letter in part is as follows: 
 
 Nottoway Co. Ho., Jan. 20, 1880. 
 General William Mahone: 
 
 Dear Sir, Please accept my sincere thanks for your 
 kindness during the recent canvass for the judgeship of 
 this county. With no political claims to the position, I
 
 THE BETRAYAL 471 
 
 could only rely on your personal friendship. And on that 
 account I more highly appreciate and value my success. 
 
 * * * * # 
 
 With best wishes for your future happiness and success, 
 to which I shall be glad to contribute, I remain, 
 Most respectfully and truly yours, 
 
 W. H. MANN. 
 
 Candidate Mann defended his Democratic prin 
 ciples in a letter that he sent to the Virginian news 
 papers a few days after his letters to General Ma- 
 hone were published. After defending the Read- 
 juster moral code, he said: 
 
 General Mahone has been in his grave fourteen years. 
 When, after a stormy career in war and peace, he was 
 laid to rest on the banks of the Appomattox, the voice 
 of political controversy ceased, the aspersions of the past 
 were forgotten, and the generous people of Virginia re 
 membered only his valiant service to them on countless 
 fields of battle, and in the days of reconstruction, when 
 their civilisation was imperilled. 
 
 Now, at a distance of thirty years from the event, a 
 political candidate, hard pressed for means by which to 
 elevate himself to office, has seen fit to disturb his repose 
 and renew above his grave unseemly strife over questions 
 long since settled and forgotten. 
 
 # # * # # 
 
 The efforts of my adversaries simply proved the straits 
 in which they find themselves, and their frantic and 
 impotent efforts are in line with the other methods re 
 sorted to in the conduct of a campaign which should at 
 least be in accordance with the proprieties. 
 
 His explanation satisfied many more than half the 
 people of Virginia, who elected him governor.
 
 472 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Democrats offered Democrats their choice: a 
 fool, or a Mann. Again the voice of the people 
 was heard. Maybe that voice for once was right. 
 
 And you, England, from whose womb our mother 
 sprang, shall you too hear the voice of the people? 
 
 Aye, in this year of grace 1910 England hears 
 that voice. Is it too late, O my mother? Shall you 
 die? Is there yet time in which to save your life? 
 O my brothers, do not mistake the voice of the 
 people for the voice of God! Come to our mother s 
 rescue to the rescue of civilisation ! 
 
 Already your literature has been seized by your 
 peasants. 
 
 The London correspondent of The Argonaut, of 
 San Francisco, one of the few great magazines of 
 literary criticism published in North America, in 
 Vol. LXV, No. 1704, says: 
 
 Gwendolen therefore does her hour s piano practice, 
 perfunctorily dusts the drawing-room, and then sits at 
 the feet of the modern novelist and is convinced that the 
 marriage ceremony is really of no importance, that it has 
 no relation to virtue or its opposite, that passion is the 
 greatest fact in life, and that there is no reason why those 
 who have been guilty of the gravest irregularities should 
 not, after all, be " happy ever after." Gwendolen absorbs 
 it all readily enough. Having a fair amount of original 
 sin in her composition, she even likes it. She does not 
 know that the pillars of church and state are reeling as 
 she reads and that she is directly inviting that bugbear, 
 Socialism, to her chaste bosom. Such books are being 
 read by thousands all over England in sedate and conven 
 tional homes because from the literary point of view they 
 are almost the only novels that are worth reading.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 473 
 
 Four such books lie on the table before me, and their 
 juxtaposition is a matter of chance and not of design. 
 They arrived within a few days of each other, and al 
 though their style is as wide as the poles apart they all 
 seem to be written from very much the same text. Of 
 course H. G. Wells comes first, and as an author he is 
 irresistible. Every one reads him, rich and poor alike, 
 radical and conservative. In his Ann Veronica he 
 pictures for us the modern young girl, restless, inquisitive, 
 hating restraint and full of vague ideas of freedom and 
 sex equality. Why, she asks herself, has nature given 
 her the tendency to fall in love if that tendency is to be 
 thwarted or checkmated merely because the object of her 
 devotion has performed a certain ceremony in the presence 
 of a parson and with a woman who has now left him? 
 Whence does that ceremony derive its power to keep 
 lovers apart and what right has it to starve her love in 
 clinations or even those physical functions that have been 
 carefully unveiled in her science classes? Ann Veronica s 
 apprenticeship to the world is a perpetual and staring 
 Why? And no answer being forthcoming, the restraints 
 of convention having apparently nothing to say for them 
 selves, there being no audible voice from Sinai or pillars 
 of fire or of cloud to guide her steps, she acts as though 
 they did not exist. After a candid conversation with 
 her lover, physiological and otherwise and Mr. Wells 
 does admit that Ann Veronica blushed once, but only 
 once, she practically asks her lover if she may live with 
 him, and as she is a particularly pretty girl he graciously 
 says that she may. 
 
 So peasants tell us about peasants. The other 
 three books referred to are Anne Page, by Netta 
 Syrett; When a Woman Woos, by Charles Mar 
 riott, and Germaine, by H. G. Rowland. In the 
 closing paragraph the correspondent says : " We 
 may surely ask with apprehension what these things
 
 474 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 mean and if the conventional gods of morality have 
 really been cast to the ground in England as well 
 as the gods of property and vested interests." 
 
 In London, The Spectator, No. 4247, commenting 
 on Ann Veronica, says : 
 
 Again, we should not dream of denouncing a book as 
 likely to poison the minds of men and women merely 
 because it was coarse in language, or dealt plainly, or 
 even brutally, with the facts of human life. Between 
 such books and a book like Ann Veronica there is a gulf 
 deep and wide. Ann Veronica has not a coarse word in 
 it, nor are the " suggestive " passages open to any very severe 
 criticism. The loathing and indignation which the book 
 inspires in us are due to the effect it is likely to have in 
 undermining that sense of continence and self-control in 
 the individual which is essential to a sound and healthy 
 state. The book is based on the negation of woman s 
 purity and of man s good faith in the relations of sex. It 
 teaches, in effect, that there is no such thing as woman s 
 honour, or if there is, it is only to be a bulwark against a 
 weak temptation. When the temptation is strong enough 
 not only is the tempted person justified in yielding, but 
 such yielding becomes not merely inevitable but something 
 to be welcomed and glorified. If an animal yearning for 
 lust is only sufficiently absorbing, it is to be obeyed. Self- 
 sacrifice is a dream and self-restraint a delusion. Such 
 things have no place in the muddy world of Mr. Wells 
 imaginings. His is a community of scuffling stoats and 
 ferrets, unenlightened by a ray of duty or abnegation. 
 
 In this year of grace 1910 Maurice Hewlett 
 rushes to the rescue of his poor oppressed peasant 
 brothers. Your narrators quote from the London 
 correspondent of the New York Times, published in 
 the New York Times on January 4, 1910:
 
 THE BETRAYAL 475 
 
 Maurice Hewlett, the novelist, has entered the elec 
 tion fight with a two-column manifesto addressed to the 
 " Workingmen of England," in which, describing himself 
 as " one of yourselves, gaining my livelihood by the work 
 of my head and hands," he reminds the workers that they 
 form the overwhelming majority of the electorate and can 
 gain everything they want by two strokes of the pencil 
 in the polling booth. 
 
 Mr. Hewlett proceeds to declare that he belongs to 
 no party, but intends to vote for a Liberal or a Labourite, 
 because, " first, the House of Lords is a preposterous 
 assembly which has become dangerous to the State and 
 must be abolished in favour of an elected body; second, 
 because tariff reform is the hopeless policy of reaction, 
 whose advocacy by Conservatives is due to wishy washy 
 sentimentalism and vile self-interest in equal parts." 
 
 Here Mr. Hewlett declares that the monstrous expendi 
 ture for armaments has been maintained .solely in trie inter 
 est of the wealthy classes, " but for whom," he adds, " wars 
 would cease," and strongly denounces the attempt to stir 
 up strife with Germany. 
 
 When the books of a nation are written by peas 
 ants and read by gentlemen as well as by peasants 
 that nation is doomed. 
 
 O my mother, the people are tearing at your vitals 
 even now ! Look upon your bleeding daughter, 
 then take out your rod, the sceptre that God has 
 given to you, and chastise those peasants that He 
 has placed in your charge. Your responsibilities 
 may not be shirked. 
 
 What, Britons! will you see Britain die? Will 
 you see her institutions, one after another, fall into 
 the hands of those who would betray her? O my 
 brothers, this shall not be !
 
 CHAPTER TWELVE 
 
 " TAMES P., Senator Rice, I means, you turn 
 over an you keeps your eyes open till I gets 
 +9 through talkin . What did you sell your sto 
 for, I want to know? What did you run to the Sen 
 ate for, I want to know? What did you take this 
 mansion in Richmond for, right in fashionable East 
 Franklin Street, right among the big-bugs, I want to 
 know? Wake up, James P., Senator Rice, wake 
 up, an keep your eyes wide open! You done them 
 things because you an me an ourn is jest as good as 
 anybody else, an a good deal better n them frazzled 
 aristocrats as ain t got no mansions no mo , jest big- 
 soundin names." 
 
 " For Gawd s sake, woman, shet up ! I want to 
 go to sleep. Shet up ! I ain t hearn nothin outen 
 you since I got lected exceptin s ciety. I don t 
 make no heads or tails outen what you re after no 
 how." 
 
 " You know what I m after well enough, because 
 we re both chasin the same ignus factious, as Mrs. 
 Tanner s man says; an I seen as how you is chasin 
 after that thing as fast as me." 
 
 " Now, maw, you certainly is gettin s ciety 
 s ciety by the yard, s ciety by the hank, s ciety 
 by " 
 
 "James P., Senator Rice, drop the sto outen 
 your conversation. I don t want no sto ways about 
 you. They ain t becomin a senator." 
 
 "You had a stand at the bazaar; you was at 
 476
 
 THE BETRAYAL 477 
 
 the governor s reception come inauguration day, all 
 dressed out better n any woman there; you was at 
 the the-a-tre Friday gone, jeopardisin your mortal 
 soul. But you would go, spite of what I said, 
 lowin as you was a Piskelopian. If a Baptist goes 
 to the the-a-tre, he goes to hell; an seems to me 
 as how a Piskelopian is made outen the same dirt 
 as a Baptist ef they ain t as clean, washed by the 
 blood of the Lamb, by the waters of baptism. 
 You gets s ciety nuff, maw; so let me go to sleep." 
 " S ciety, indeed! Bazaarin , receptionin ,. the-a- 
 tre-in them ain t no s ciety. What we needs is to 
 give some mighty swell social functions, that s what 
 Mrs. Tanner calls them things, big receptions an 
 the likes. Then we ll get asked about by the big- 
 bugs sech folks as the Braxtons an the Talia- 
 ferros an the Beverleys an the Daingerfields. 
 You give me the money, James P., Senator Rice, I 
 means, an we ll catch that ignus factious thing." 
 
 The Rice " social function," which was held the 
 latter part of February, began at four o clock in 
 the afternoon and lasted until long after midnight. 
 Miss Amanda Burgess and Miss Maiabelle Berry 
 came over from Petersburg. General Murphy gal 
 lantly escorted them to the Rice mansion, which he 
 entered as an honoured guest. Dr. Reginald Laun- 
 celot (in mood now gay, now sad) brought with 
 him his bride, formerly Miss La Salle Saunders. 
 She seemed to be ten years older than she was the 
 day before her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Stover 
 were among the Eliminators in Richmond that craved 
 social advancement. No; Mr. Stover had sought 
 money, which he had found, and Mrs. Stover had
 
 478 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 entered Repudiator society. The smith and his am 
 bitious spouse reached the East Franklin Street 
 mansion promptly at four. 
 
 In the list of guests that was published in the Whig 
 the day after the social function were the following 
 names of real persons: Captain James Spotswood 
 Temple, Miss Gladys Lancaster, Professor George 
 Washington Lafayette Simpson and Mrs. Rice- 
 Simpson, Mr. Roger Williams Stokes and Mrs. 
 Rice-Stokes, Honourable Thomas T. Fletcher, Mrs. 
 Fletcher, the Misses Fletcher, Secretary of the Com 
 monwealth Jerry W. Brown and Mrs. Brown, Judge 
 Samuel A. Tanner, Mrs. Tanner, Mr. Samuel A. 
 Tanner, Junior; Professor Josiah Matthews Dodd, 
 and Mr. Justice-elect Samuel Kelly. The list, which 
 was long, contained the names of all the conspicuous 
 Repudiator statesmen in Richmond, in office and out, 
 their wives, their sons, and their daughters. Good 
 Mrs. Rice, assisted by the young doctor of philoso 
 phy, prepared the list for publication. Personally 
 she delivered the manuscript thereof to the society 
 editor of the Eliminator newspaper. 
 
 The list also contained many fictitious names, 
 cleverly combined by Mrs. Rice and the doctor, a 
 few of them being as follows: General Tazewell 
 Waller Crump, Mrs. Crump, Mr. Pelham Mason 
 Crump, Miss Genevieve Leonora Crump, Colonel 
 Berkeley Hunter Fitzhugh Moncure, Mrs. Mon- 
 cure, Miss Gwendoline Cholmondeley Moncure, Sir 
 Arthur Howard Peyson, Lady Peyson, Honourable 
 Patricia Peyson, of London, England friends of 
 Senator and Mrs. Rice, en route from New Orleans 
 to New York. 
 
 The fictitious names were scattered through the
 
 THE BETRAYAL 479 
 
 list about ten names apart. The names of real 
 persons began with that of the man believed by 
 Mrs. Rice to be of the greatest social importance, 
 Captain James Spotswood Temple, and ended with 
 that of the man that Mrs. Rice thought of the least 
 social consequence, Mr. Andy Stover. The other 
 names of real persons appeared in the sequence of 
 their social worth. Mrs. Rice did not wish to enter 
 the name Stover in the list; but Mr. Rice was in 
 sistent, saying that he liked Richmond well enough, 
 and proposed to return for another term. A states 
 man, he said, had to make social sacrifices. Mrs. 
 Rice repeated his words to her gossips in extenuation 
 of her outrageous social behaviour. 
 
 Captain Temple had not seen Miss Dorothea 
 Annabel since the night of the bazaar. She had 
 written to him since, and he could have read be 
 tween the lines had he not been singularly free 
 from guile and incapable of searching for a hidden 
 meaning that she did not love Mr. Stokes, that 
 she did love Temple. The letter was one that any 
 modest maiden might have written. Temple had 
 replied briefly. Ah, why could he not see ! But he 
 had not seen. In effect he had said good-bye. But 
 Stokes had married since then. Now Temple could 
 marry her. To-night he would ask her to marry 
 him, she felt sure. She sang off and on throughout 
 the day merry college songs. Night and Temple? 
 would they never come? 
 
 How should she reply to him? Again and again 
 she mentally rehearsed the scene that was to take 
 place between them. She would say, " Yes, James, 
 I love you." Then she would bury her face on his
 
 480 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 left shoulder; slowly her arm would steal about his 
 neck, and soon she would lift her face, gradually, 
 hesitatingly, until her eyes would meet his. Then 
 she would let her face sink slowly back upon his left 
 shoulder, and in passing his ear she would faintly 
 whisper, " I love you, James, I I I love you ! " 
 And what a wife she would be to this man! Every 
 minute of her life would be devoted to him; she 
 would be his handmaid as well as his wife; she 
 would live only for him so long as she should live. 
 
 Not until nine o clock did the scene between James 
 Temple and Dorothea Annabel take place. It might 
 have occurred earlier. 
 
 " Have you seen Eugenie Victoria and her hus 
 band, Captain Temple? Mr. Stokes seems to be 
 just too happy for anything; and Eugenie Victoria 
 never was there a bride so radiant! " 
 
 " That man has ruined my life." 
 
 "Ruined your life?" 
 
 " Yes, Dorothea Annabel, I suppose I should not 
 call you Dorothea Annabel any longer, but Miss 
 Rice, that man has wrecked my life." 
 
 " I do not understand! Wrecked your life?" 
 
 "Yes. I loved you; I love you now; I thought 
 you loved Mr. Stokes; I was sure that you loved 
 him. My heart was broken. I never would love 
 again. . . . But I owed a duty to society. 
 Then, too, for the remainder of my life I did not 
 care. . . . Then I gave my life to a woman. I 
 told her that I had no heart to give; but she told 
 me that she loved me; that she would take my heart 
 as it was; that she would try to bring happiness into 
 my life. And I I did not care. . . . Now you
 
 THE BETRAYAL 481 
 
 are free; now I am bound; now my heart is broken; 
 now my life is wrecked! " 
 
 Her bosom heaved; unconsciously she gasped; she 
 felt faint; she clutched the back of a chair for sup 
 port with her left hand; her nails were sunk deep 
 into the flesh of her right hand; for more than a 
 minute she was unable to speak. When she did find 
 her voice her tones did not seem to be her own. 
 
 " Lelia Braxton Lelia Miss Braxton is she 
 the woman? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 James Temple, his head bowed low in the grief of 
 despair, left Dorothea Annabel. Soon he left the 
 house. Dorothea Annabel stood like a statue for ten 
 minutes, then went to her room. 
 
 The tragedy of Dorothea Annabel was that of 
 the girl who is educated beyond her class. Thus 
 thousands of young girls yearly are educated in Vir 
 ginia to lead lives of celibacy. Dorothea Annabel 
 would not marry a Stokes; a Temple would not 
 marry a Dorothea Annabel. 
 
 Let us lift the veil of time, gentle reader. Doro 
 thea Annabel s fate was embroidered in countless 
 stitches in fancy work. Hers a lonely life in the 
 country; by a fireside in winter, out on the verandah 
 in summer. Hers a single joy; she embroidered 
 dainty clothes to adorn the inferior little bodies of 
 two generations of the progeny of the new houses 
 of Saunders-Rice, Rice-Simpson, and Rice-Stokes. 
 The time came when she had none of the education 
 that she had acquired at Mrs. Stuart s school, and 
 when her culture was no greater than that of Mrs. 
 Rice-Stokes, and not nearly so great as that of Mrs. 
 Rice-Simpson.
 
 Ah, Dorothea Annabel, that we must leave you 
 to such a fate! 
 
 And Temple? 
 
 He never married a gentlewoman. No Virginian 
 gentlewoman would marry him. But he did marry; 
 and ten thousand times ten thousand times did he 
 wish that he had married Dorothea Annabel, his 
 little Dolly. 
 
 He had called to see Lelia Braxton a few days 
 after the election. William had met him at the 
 door; and slowly, with the utmost deliberation, the 
 old butler had closed the door in his face. And 
 William had lied before he had closed the door, 
 for he had said, " By order ob de young Missus, 
 suh!" Captain Temple had believed that lie to be 
 truth, for William s dignity had been the embodi 
 ment of solemnity. 
 
 Captain Temple never became governor of Vir 
 ginia; but in time he was nominated for that office 
 by his Repudiator friends. He served one term in 
 Congress. He never became president of the United 
 States; but he took pride in saying that he was the 
 intimate friend of presidents one of whom denied 
 him thrice. After a while he left Virginia. 
 
 " For the land s sakes, James P., Senator Rice, 
 I means, mix them gent men up with the ladies, 
 no lady ain t had no gent man talkin to her since 
 the social function begun. They jest hangs around 
 the smokin -room like they was afraid the ladies 
 would bite them." 
 
 There were all sorts of rooms in the East Frank 
 lin Street mansion. Among them were the smoking-
 
 THE BETRAYAL 483 
 
 room, the music-room, my lady s dressing-room, the 
 statesman s den, Dorothea Annabel s boudoir, the 
 nursery. Mr. Rice went to the smoking-room, but 
 he was too wise a man to suggest that the gentle 
 men assembled there should join the ladies. He did 
 propose another round of drinks a proposal that 
 was accepted by every man that was present as soon 
 as it was made, except the senator-elect, whom Judge 
 Tanner addressed as he sipped his long old-fashioned 
 toddy. 
 
 " Murphy, what think you; will the governor veto 
 Riddleberger sbill?" 
 
 " I think not, Judge Tanner." 
 
 "Come, come, Murphy; you know better! Har- 
 rison ll have that bill jailed befo ten minutes is 
 gone from the time that he gets hold of it." 
 
 Mr. Justice-elect of the Supreme Court of Appeals 
 Sam Kelly replied to the Eastern Shore jurist. 
 
 " S posin he does, Tanner, Murphy ll get out a 
 writ of habeas corpus, an soon that bill will be a 
 law quicker n you kin say Jack Robinson." 
 
 You gents as is learned in the law ain t makin 
 yourselves plain to me," said Professor Dodd, speak 
 ing as if he knew the law as he knew everything 
 else on earth and in heaven. 
 
 Then, for the benefit of you lay gents," Mr. 
 Justice-elect Kelly said, " I ll say as how my 1 arned 
 friend here, Mr. Justice Tanner, meant as how 
 Harrison would veto the bill; and I meant as how 
 Murphy, our illustrious leader, would bring that bill 
 afo the legislature ag in, and as how he d make a 
 law outen it spite of our fool governor." 
 
 " I told you so, Murphy," said the Eastern Shore 
 jurist; "Temple s the man, Temple s the man, I
 
 484 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 said. And so said Timothy Murphy; but John Har 
 rison s got the job." 
 
 The orator from Salem, now secretary of the com 
 monwealth, Mr. Jerry W. Brown, then filed an 
 intervenor. 
 
 " Sirs, the governor will not veto that measure 
 an enactment most wise! Why? I ask you why? 
 Because never has there been a governor of Virginia 
 who did not expect to be a senator of the United 
 States. Treason ! That will be our cry when trea 
 son is committed in the name of morality 
 the John Harrison type of morality. Odious trea 
 son ! " 
 
 Mr. Stover raised his heavy head; his eyes were 
 wild; he gesticulated violently. 
 
 Treason treason treason treason! I ll cut 
 off the head o treason! Cut off his head, I says, an 
 then the left-tenant governor he ll sign laws er-comin 
 an er-goin , tell every honest man s got his fill ! I ll 
 cut off his head I ll cut off his head! Kill him! 
 I ll kill him kill him kill him kill him !" 
 
 When he had taken another drink, Mr. Stover 
 lapsed into the silence of sleep no; Mr. Stover s 
 sleep never was silent. 
 
 After a painful pause in the discussion, Mr. 
 Fletcher, who had read the mind of every gentleman 
 present who was not asleep, thought aloud. 
 
 " This here talk don t set well on my stomach. 
 I ve heard a lot about sas-sinatin the governor; 
 but I say there ain t no morals in passin laws that 
 way. He ain t vetoed the Riddleberger bill noways. 
 Give him a chance, says I." 
 
 "Kill him kill him kill him I ll kill him 
 I ll !
 
 THE BETRAYAL 485 
 
 Again Mr. Stover had raised his sleepy head. 
 Again he took a drink. 
 
 The last to arrive, Miss Lancaster, who came 
 alone, had not been expected. Mrs. Rice trembled 
 in her joy as she saw her. More than one of her 
 guests trembled. 
 
 "For the land s sakes, if it ain t Miss Lancaster! 
 I certainly is glad to see you! Miss Maiabelle 
 Berry, shake hands with Miss Gladys Lancaster." 
 
 "Why, Maiabelle!" 
 
 "Why, Gladys!" 
 
 Miss Berry had been at Mrs. Stuart s school while 
 Miss Lancaster was there. The two young ladies 
 had not met since, notwithstanding Miss Berry s 
 visit to Warrenton, although they had been 
 bosom friends. They had not even met at the 
 bazaar; yet they had seen each other and had not 
 seen each other. Arm in arm they retired to a corner 
 of the room, where they could talk a while without 
 interruption. 
 
 " Why, you dear old Maiabelle ! My, but you are 
 good for hungry eyes ! " 
 
 " And you, Gladys, you are to be married soon, 
 I hear!" 
 
 "Yes, indeed; to the handsomest man in all Vir 
 ginia. Everybody says he s the catch of the state." 
 
 " I thought Mr. Taliaferro was thought to be the 
 most desirable young man in the state?" 
 
 " I would be the last person in the world to say 
 one word against Dick Taliaferro, as everybody 
 knows; still, there s no denying that he has serious 
 faults. I chose Mr. Dabney. You may have Mr. 
 Taliaferro if you want him."
 
 486 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " I do not wish to marry yet." 
 
 Miss Maiabelle was a wise girl for one of her age. 
 She did not expect to marry soon or late. 
 
 " Maiabelle Berry, you must come around to the 
 Exchange and Ballard to see my trousseau. Every 
 thing s just too pretty for anything! And my pres 
 ents? I ve enough already to make the old Dabney 
 home look new inside. But where s Dorothea An 
 nabel?" 
 
 "She has a headache; so she went to her room 
 an hour ago." 
 
 " I m going to walk myself right up there and 
 comfort her. Poor dear Dorothea Annabel ! I feel 
 so sorry for her; so very, very sorry! " 
 
 "Why, what is the matter with her?" 
 
 " L amour et la fumee ne peuvent se cacher" 
 
 With that Miss Lancaster made her way to Miss 
 Rice s room. 
 
 * 
 
 As General Timothy Murphy walked toward his 
 home his room over the saloon, filled with the 
 voice of the people he thought of his strange 
 bedfellow, Destiny. As he thought he rendered 
 an accounting to himself. He knew that John 
 Harrison would veto the Riddleberger bill; and 
 also he knew that the law of chance, a statute that 
 he respected, provided that the legislature would 
 sustain the veto by several votes. He could count 
 exactly two-thirds of the members of the General 
 Assembly as his followers; but he knew that some 
 of them would not vote for the measure in the face 
 of the governor s opposition. No, said the statute 
 relating to chance, at least one man will be perverse. 
 
 " Suppose all my followers are faithful and ready
 
 THE BETRAYAL 487 
 
 to disobey the law of chance?" the general asked 
 himself. " Then I will tell one of my boys to vote 
 the governor s way." Murphy was not ready to 
 permit Virginia to repudiate her debt. He had 
 bought her bonds in batches so low as eight cents on 
 the dollar, as many Repudiators had done, and he 
 knew how to make those bonds salable at par, or 
 thereabout. Nor was he willing even to effect a set 
 tlement of the debt. That a debt which is never 
 settled is never paid is beyond dispute. The debt 
 and Murphy would die together and Murphy was 
 not ready to die. Harrison would die soon, and so 
 would Jones and Temple, and so would every man 
 that opposed Murphy. But he would live a while, 
 and while alive he would live. 
 
 The hero of the Crater believed in the rule of as 
 sassination Timothy Murphy the assassin. He 
 would hold the office of senator of the United States, 
 to which he had been elected. Already Virginia s 
 master, he would beget a child which would spring 
 from her virgin womb, a bastard, and then he would 
 kill the mother of his babe; but Murphy would be 
 young Virginia, and Murphy would live. Aye, al 
 ready the babe was born; already Murphy had cut 
 Virginia s throat. As he walked toward his room 
 he thought that he could almost hear the sound of 
 Virginia s blood as it trickled out of her body and 
 fell to the ground. 
 
 But where? asked Murphy of himself, where are 
 my thirty pieces of silver? The aristocracy? Now 
 he was the aristocracy. The people? He despised 
 the people. Yet, the voice of the people rang in his 
 ears, the voice of the people was in his nose. He 
 hated the people; he loathed the people; still, he
 
 488 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 could hear no other sound than their voice. Bah! 
 He knew, as he had known all along, that a man s 
 kingdom is himself. Had he ruled his kingdom? At 
 least he had killed his enemy; he had killed Vir 
 ginia he and his associates had killed Virginia, 
 the Virginia who had told him that he should not 
 invade her kingdom. 
 
 Conscience did not trouble Timothy Murphy. All 
 along he had known how the battle would end. 
 Great man that he was, knowing what other men 
 had tried to learn, and died without learning, he 
 knew Timothy Murphy; and again he thought that 
 he knew all men and all things. And he did know 
 all men and all things that came within the range 
 of his vision. Yes, he had known: Murphy the 
 peasant could not become Murphy the gentleman. 
 But he would fight, although he would lose; as 
 Daingerfield, the man that he personally admired 
 above all other men, would fight, so Murphy would 
 fight. He would stand by and watch the kingdom 
 of his fancy disintegrate as now he watched Vir 
 ginia s bleeding body with a smile on his face. 
 Thus he would die. 
 
 He could hear Daingerfield s trumpet sounding 
 above the voice of the people, calling to Virginia s 
 sons, Come to your mother s rescue, Virginians yet 
 unborn! I shall die; but you, men and women that 
 are to come after me, fight for Virginia ! She is not 
 dead, she sleepeth ! She will rise again ! You, men 
 and women that are yet unborn, fight for her! Fight 
 for your country! Again she will take her place 
 among the nations of the world, the fairest, the 
 purest of them all ! 
 
 Would Virginians yet unborn hear that cry?
 
 Would they come to her rescue? Murphy knew 
 that they would not. Virginia, the mother, he knew 
 was dead. Not even her spirit would return to bless 
 her posterity; but her progeny would rise in the soul 
 of a new country, the United States of America, 
 the vast republic that soon would be a monarchy. 
 Yet Daingerfield s voice was raised above the bedlam 
 of the people, the bedlam that was an incoherent 
 uproar, thundering out his commands, and pro 
 claiming to the world that the fight had just 
 begun. 
 
 But oh, that stench of the people ! It rang in his 
 
 nose. 
 
 
 
 A few days after the election the Braxtons went 
 to Richmond, that the judge might enter upon his 
 last term as associate justice of the Supreme Court 
 of Appeals, and opened their winter house in East 
 Grace Street. 
 
 Colonel Daingerfield and Mrs. Daingerfield were 
 in their Richmond home in East Franklin Street, a 
 few blocks from the Braxton dwelling, ten days be 
 fore Christmas. The old warrior would have no 
 official duties, for the interests of his former constit 
 uents were in the keeping of Mr. Rice, his successor 
 in the Senate; but he would fight, and the Debtpay- 
 ing legislators should have the benefit of his counsel. 
 Having decided to sell his Richmond home upon the 
 adjournment of the legislature, he and his wife 
 would live the rest of their days in Bannockburn, 
 his ancestral home. But he would fight for Virginia 
 so long as life was left to him. 
 
 Judge Braxton also would sell his Richmond home, 
 and he and Mrs. Braxton would live quietly at
 
 490 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Morven for the remainder of their lives. And the 
 judge would fight for Virginia until the end of his 
 days and study Homer. 
 
 The venerable physician, Mr. Carter, had taken 
 his medicine case filled with calomel and quinine, 
 and, would you believe it, a small box of mustard! 
 and had gone to Richmond with the Daingerfields. 
 He had a room in each house, Daingerfield s and 
 Braxton s, and never knew of a morning whether 
 he would sleep in East Franklin Street or in East 
 Grace Street that night. Gladys Lancaster used to 
 say that dear old Mr. Carter had a room in every 
 house in Virginia. She was wrong. Every house 
 in Virginia was Mr. Carter s home. 
 
 As General Dabney had been too feeble to leave 
 Warrenton, Mr. Dabney spent more than half his 
 time there, that he might take care of his father. 
 The rest of his time he spent in Richmond, for he 
 wished to be in the thick of the fight as well as to 
 be near Gladys Lancaster. That young lady was 
 staying at the Exchange and Ballard House with 
 her father. 
 
 Those were busy days for Miss Lancaster and 
 busier days for Richmond s dressmakers to the fash 
 ionable. 
 
 The good angel of the Governor s Mansion, Miss 
 Boiling, was as happy as she could be as the mistress 
 of the home of John Harrison s son which seldom 
 was visited by Readjusters or by Debtpayers. 
 
 Not since the election had John Harrison seen 
 Lelia Braxton; nor had he written to her since. In 
 a burst of light he had seen Virginia s way. At that 
 moment Timothy Murphy and John Jones and their 
 kind had stood naked before him. What could he
 
 THE BETRAYAL 491 
 
 do for Virginia? He would ask her creditors for 
 mercy; they should make their own terms; but he 
 would ask for the mercy of delay. The debt should 
 be paid in full, if he could bring about its payment; 
 but he would ask the creditors for a reasonable time 
 in which the industries of the state might be devel 
 oped. In any event, her minerals would be mined; 
 her negroes would be forced to work; peasants, yeo 
 men, every man of them, would be made to do his 
 duty. He would veto every bill that would threaten 
 Virginia s honour; and for four years, he thought, 
 no new measure shall become a law to Virginia s 
 injury. 
 
 He determined to cause bills to be introduced in 
 the legislature, which he hoped would become laws, 
 and which would induce foreign capitalists to invest 
 their money in Virginia; and if the laws that he 
 would propose should not be enacted, at least he 
 would save his country from further dishonour. 
 Then, having helped Virginia, having stood between 
 her and ruin, even death, he would go to Lelia 
 Braxton and say: I am not worthy; still I have 
 come to ask you to be my wife, for Virginia s way, 
 which is God s way, which is your way, is now my 
 way. 
 
 And Lelia Braxton had understood his silence. 
 She had known that John Harrison would find his 
 way, and she loved him. 
 
 One morning during the latter part of February 
 Colonel Daingerfield called at the Braxton home, 
 as he had done every morning since his arrival in 
 Richmond, and found Lelia Braxton alone in the 
 drawing-room.
 
 492 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 " Lelia, my child, Mrs. Daingerfield and I are 
 going to give you a ball next week." 
 
 " Oh, uncle, thank you, thank you, thank you ! I 
 will have a beautiful gown made for the occasion. 
 Good-bye; I am going to tell mother." 
 
 Soon all Richmond knew that the Daingerfield 
 ball was to be the most important entertainment of 
 the season. Virginia was in danger, as she had 
 never been; and this would be Virginia s danger 
 ball, which would be attended by the gentry of all 
 parts of the commonwealth. Judge Braxton had 
 told his brother-in-law, jokingly, that he was glad 
 the Morven ball had taken place first. 
 
 " Sir," the colonel had said, " a ball in Virginia 
 is not a ball unless it be held in the country. The 
 country is Virginia." 
 
 The colonel made preparations on a gigantic 
 scale. The capacity of the commodious East Frank 
 lin Street residence would be taxed. Each one of 
 his guests would be able to read his or her title to 
 gentility clear, no matter how long the list of an 
 cestral names. The colonel believed that those aris 
 tocrats that had sprung from the womb of the Revo 
 lution should be in his fields, not in his drawing- 
 room. You would think so, too, gentle reader, were 
 you to meet some of the members of that aristoc 
 racy, the Marshalls, the Prestons, they are as the 
 sands of an hourglass, and far too numerous to be 
 mentioned here. 
 
 The Riddleberger bill passed the House and Sen 
 ate, but was not delivered to the governor until half 
 an hour before midnight, the day that it was passed, 
 while he was at the ball, as presently we shall see.
 
 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Every one knew that the bill had passed, except 
 the governor; but no one knew what disposition had 
 been made of it. The governor will veto it! the 
 governor will sign it ! the governor will permit the 
 bill to become a law without his signature ! were 
 exclamations that were whispered by the guests to 
 one another; but nobody referred to the bill in the 
 governor s presence. He had taken his veto, the 
 noblest state paper ever penned by a governor of 
 Virginia, in his pocket with him. He had worn it 
 for more than a week. 
 
 "As we are to be married day after to-morrow, 
 Gladys, I think that you should not have come to the 
 ball." 
 
 " You are ashamed ashamed to marry me ! " 
 
 "No, dear, I love you; I love you even while I 
 am angry with you." 
 
 " You are angry with me all the time." 
 
 "I love you all the time; and for that reason I 
 do not wish you to be the subject of unkind remarks. 
 You know that a Virginian girl does not go out of 
 her home (and there sees only her closest friends) 
 during the week or ten days before her mar 
 riage." 
 
 " See here, Gary Gordon Dabney, old Virginia is 
 dead: Nous avons change tout qa; peace be to her 
 ashes; there s a young Virginia, who is going to be 
 a greater Virginia than her mother!" 
 
 Miss Lancaster imitated her lover as she con 
 tinued. 
 
 "A nation is like unto a man: born of the dust, 
 in barbarism, unto that dust she shall return through 
 barbarism through barbarism brought about by
 
 494 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 vice! Good, good, good! That s the way you d 
 say it, isn t it, Gary? Your very voice; your very 
 words; this foot that way, this arm that way; coat 
 buttoned up this way, hand tucked in that way!" 
 
 "Virginia is immortal; she can not die; but she 
 can suffer, and there are those that would betray 
 her. Vice in a nation is like dissipation in a man. 
 Old age, followed by death, is the sum of their 
 iniquities. Never shall Virginia be a part of the 
 American nation while I live." 
 
 There s no Virginia, Gary, except young Vir 
 ginia, Murphy s Virginia; and the young thing is 
 already a part of the American nation the coun 
 try that was founded by Marshall and nursed by 
 Lincoln, as you say." 
 
 She was serious. Gladys Lancaster knew how to 
 be serious, and never was there a time when Gary 
 Dabney did not trust her vision as he did not trust 
 his logic; for he knew that the philosophies are not 
 to be found in books, nor acquired through study of 
 men. The divine fire of genius is not transferable 
 from one mind to another. 
 
 " Now I m going over to ole Miss Boiling to talk 
 to her about my clothes. Won t she be just green- 
 eyed? She ll sigh fifty times; and fifty times she ll 
 look in John Harrison s direction. Ma fo i, how 
 she must have loved that old Harrison man ! " 
 
 She went, and she talked; and a bit later Miss 
 Boiling and Mrs. Braxton and Mrs. Daingerfield, 
 and scores of ladies besides, talked, as Miss Lan 
 caster had known they would talk. 
 
 Had Theodore Roosevelt been a girl, how like 
 Gladys Lancaster he would have been. Your par 
 don, Miss Gladys!
 
 THE BETRAYAL 495 
 
 After a while Miss Lancaster returned to her 
 lover. 
 
 " Here s a letter from Bishop Whittle, Gary. He 
 says all right. This makes one bishop and six plain 
 ministers that will be in the chancel ; the governor ll 
 be the best man ; a special correspondent of the New 
 York Herald says he ll be there, and all the news 
 paper men in Richmond are just dying about the 
 greatest wedding they ever had to report. I ve 
 helped em write descriptions of nine dresses already. 
 And jewellery? Gary, they think I m a walking 
 jewellery shop ! " 
 
 " I am sorry, Gladys." 
 
 " See here, Gary, why don t you marry ole Miss 
 Polly Boiling after all? You may, for all I care. 
 You treat me just too mean for anything. I believe 
 I d cry if nobody but you could see me. Your own 
 sister went home to a hut in a forest in an ox-cart. 
 / wouldn t do anything as conspicuous as that for 
 anything on earth ! Now don t you cry, please, and 
 I ll marry you day after to-morrow. Bye-bye, you 
 dear, dear old bear!" 
 
 As John Harrison was leaving the ballroom alone, 
 Mr. Tazewell having claimed the attention of his 
 partner, one of the Clarke girls, he was detained by 
 Mr. Carter, who drew him aside. 
 
 " The last time that I spoke to you, my son, your 
 conduct had aroused me to great indignation. What 
 I said to you then you richly deserved, and I take 
 back no word of my angry utterances, for mine was 
 righteous indignation; but now, my dear boy, all the 
 old pride that I felt in you has come back to me, 
 for now I behold in you a man worthy to be John
 
 496 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 Harrison s son. I thank God that He has permitted 
 me to live to see the day that John Harrison s boy 
 is the pride and glory of his country." 
 
 As he wrung the old physician s hand, the young 
 man s voice was thick with emotion. 
 
 The orchestra was playing " Den Carry Me Back 
 to Ole Virginny " as a gallop ; everywhere was 
 gaiety and suppressed tears. 
 
 Almost John Harrison felt overcome with shame 
 as he looked into the kindly eyes of his aged god 
 father. 
 
 " I made a mistake one that made me unworthy 
 of the name that I bear. My mistake was a crime 
 one that you have forgiven, sir, but which I shall 
 never forgive. Mr. Carter, the remainder of my 
 life shall be given to Virginia, in atonement; but my 
 crime will follow me to my grave, as it should. 
 Never for a minute shall I be free from remorse, 
 nor from shame punishments that I richly de 
 serve." 
 
 " My boy, another punishment awaits you, and 
 the wife that you are to take to your bosom, and 
 the children that are to be born to you the chil 
 dren of my John and my Lelia. You may give your 
 life to Virginia, and in giving your life you may save 
 hers; but always there will be doubt in the minds of 
 honest men, your friends as well as your enemies, as 
 to your honesty. Lelia Braxton will be the wife of 
 a man whose title to honour is not clear. The play 
 mates of a new generation of Harrisons will say to 
 your children, Your father was a Repudiator. 
 
 " The man that violates a moral law is punished 
 as surely as he that violates a physical law. The
 
 THE BETRAYAL 497 
 
 wage of sin is death. Is a mistake a sin? Is a man 
 always to know right from wrong? Is the man that 
 errs to be punished when his error was due to his 
 inability to know right? My answer to those ques 
 tions is this : mistakes are punished as sins ; and pun 
 ishment is inevitable. All men make mistakes, my 
 child; but no man should be overcome by remorse, 
 or shame, because of his sins. Rather he should use 
 them as guides, praying to Almighty God that He 
 in His mercy will enable him to avoid the errors 
 that he has made, that He will lead him to a higher 
 kingdom." 
 
 " I have no right to ask Lelia to be my wife. 
 She loves me, I know, but I should not permit her 
 to sacrifice her life." 
 
 " There you are wrong, my son. There is no sac 
 rifice in love. Lelia loves you. Her duty is to her 
 love. Together you must go hand in hand through 
 life, and in the love that you bear each other and 
 your children you will find all that life has to give 
 to any man or to any woman." 
 
 As the last strains of a waltz died away a group 
 consisting of Colonel Daingerfield, a few of the 
 Misses Clarke, Mr. Tazewell, and Captain Lan 
 caster gathered about a cluster of palms that deco 
 rated the broad hall. Captain Lancaster addressed 
 his host, asking the question that was on many lips. 
 
 " Do you think Harrison will veto the Riddle- 
 berger bill?" 
 
 "Sir, Mr. Harrison is my guest; that, sir, I be 
 lieve, answers your question. Miss Clarke, ma am, 
 the roses in your cheeks remind me of Bannock-
 
 498 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 burn in the springtime; also, ma am, they remind 
 me of another Clarke that sweet singer who made 
 fair Dawn blush in her shame." 
 
 Four of the Berkeley gentlemen were the accepted 
 lovers of four of the Clarke ladies, and the engage 
 ment of Mr. Tazewell to the fifth was in sight. 
 
 The irrepressible hero of Balaklava again ad 
 dressed the warrior of Bannockburn. 
 
 The governor vetoed the penitentiary bill yes 
 terday." 
 
 Yes, sir; he did; a bill that provided that the 
 management of the penitentiary should be turned 
 over to a gang that should be its inmates. The 
 grounds upon which he based his veto were unan 
 swerable; but, sir, I regret that he did not find it 
 within the range of his conception of duty to say 
 that he vetoed that measure because the penitentiary 
 was made to keep thieves, not thieves to keep the 
 penitentiary, as Mr. Royall says. I always knew 
 that John Harrison was a man of the highest sense 
 of honour." 
 
 " Why, Colonel, aren t you ashamed of your 
 self!" 
 
 Miss Lancaster had joined the group. The col 
 onel adjusted his glasses, then glared at her over 
 them. 
 
 " Madam, gentlemen in the heat of political dis 
 cussions frequently are borne to great heights upon 
 the wings of oratory. No one, madam, holds a 
 gentleman accountable for the passionate language 
 that he used in a campaign after the smoke of 
 battle has blown away. I repeat: always I have be 
 lieved John Harrison to be a man worthy of Vir 
 ginia s best tradition."
 
 THE BETRAYAL 499 
 
 The orchestra again played Virginia s national 
 anthem. As the stirring music was heard the young 
 people flocked into the ballroom, where they took 
 their places for the Virginia reel. None save Vir 
 ginian music was played that night, and no dance 
 other than a Virginian dance was danced that night. 
 
 " I need not ask you, Miss Braxton, I am sure." 
 
 "No, Mr. Taliaferro, you know the answer." 
 
 " He will veto the bill." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " And John Harrison will have done more for 
 Virginia than any other man of his period the day 
 that he retires to private life." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " But he will never sheathe his sword. He will 
 always fight for his country. Virginia will die; but 
 he will take care of her grave so long as he lives. 
 He has made a mistake, but Virginia would live if 
 there were many Virginians like John Harrison. 
 . . . Do you know, Miss Braxton, for several 
 months I have been working on a portrait bust of 
 him. I have tried to put into cold marble some of 
 his nobility that you and I and others see. Some 
 day I shall ask you and John Harrison to accept that 
 sculpture, the work of one who knows that John 
 Harrison is a man that is a man and that is the 
 only kind of man that I care to render into marble." 
 
 " I thank you." 
 
 With those words Lelia Braxton s form drooped 
 somewhat, as she stood under one of the palms, 
 which helped to make a den of a corner of the 
 drawing-room, her face averted, in which were min 
 gled pride and pain and a maiden s conscious shame.
 
 500 THE BETRAYAL 
 
 "A message for the governor! an urgent mes 
 sage for the governor ! " 
 
 A messenger from the Senate, who had been ad 
 mitted to the hall, shouted these words in typical 
 Readjuster dramatic way. He was conducted by a 
 servant to Mr. Harrison, who was talking with Miss 
 Boiling, in the conservatory. No one was with them 
 when the messenger delivered a paper to the gov 
 ernor. He glanced at the document, then wrote a 
 few words on the back of it; and then he drew a 
 paper from his pocket, which he signed. He handed 
 both to the messenger, saying nothing to Miss Boll- 
 ing, and Miss Boiling saying nothing to him, until 
 after the messenger left. 
 
 " I hear the music of the minuet, Miss Boiling, so 
 I must ask you to excuse me." 
 
 "Go along, John; I shall have to surrender you 
 to your partner, as much as I dote on you." 
 
 Not until an hour after supper, when some of the 
 guests had left for their homes, did John Harrison 
 and Lelia Braxton meet in a place where they would 
 be uninterrupted for a few minutes, in the conserva 
 tory. Neither spoke for more than a minute. 
 
 "That messenger brought the Riddleberger bill. 
 He took it back with your veto." 
 
 John Harrison made no reply. 
 
 "Now I am ready to be your wife." 
 
 . . 
 
 And Virginia? 
 
 VIRGINIA is DEAD.
 
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