arriage should take place in a week, and
that the ceremony should be performed in Richmond. (The colonel wished
him to say that he would immediately go to her house for the purpose,
but Mr Brandon would not consent to write this. He was afraid that the
widow would sit at her front door with a shot-gun and wait for him,
and that some damage might thereby come to an unwary neighbor.)
Each of them had many old friends in Richmond, and it would be very
pleasant to be married there. He intended to start for that city in a
day or two, and he would be rejoiced to meet her at eleven o'clock on
the morning of the fifth instant, in the corridor, or covered bridge,
connecting the Exchange and Ballard hotels, and there arrange all the
details for an immediate marriage. The letter closed with an earnest
hope that she would accede to this proposed plan, which would so soon
make them the happiest couple upon earth; and was signed "Your devoted
Robert."

"By which I mean," said Mr Brandon, "that I am devoted to her
destruction."

The letter was read over by Colonel Macon, and highly approved by him.
"If you had met that woman, sir, when she first came to you," he said
to Mr Brandon, "with the spirit that is shown in this letter, you
would have put a shiver through her, sir, that would have shaken the
bones out of her umbrella, and she would have cut and run, sir, before
you knew it."

The messenger from Howlett's was kept at Midbranch all night, and
the next morning he was sent back with Mr Brandon's note. Two days
afterward Colonel Macon and Mr Brandon started for Richmond, and in
the course of a few hours, they were comfortably sipping their "peach
and honey" at the Exchange and Ballard's.

The next day was most enjoyably spent with a number of old friends;
and in reminiscences of the past war, and in discussions of the coming
political campaign, Mr Brandon had thrown off every sign of the
annoyance and persecution to which he had lately been subjected.

"By George, sir!" said Colonel Macon to him the next morning, "do you
know that you are a most untrustworthy and perfidious man?"

"Sir!" exclaimed Mr Brandon, "what do you mean?"

"I mean," replied Colonel Pinckney Macon, with much dignity, "that
you promised at eleven o'clock to-day to meet a lady in the corridor
connecting these two hotels. It wants three minutes of that time now,
sir, and here you are reading the 'Dispatch' as if you never made a
promise in your life."