ll-leaved autumn woods.

"Well, that's the jury of view; and what do you think of them?" asked
Selwyn, watching too, but smilingly, the cavalcade.

"Some similar ter the cor'ner's jury. But _they_ hed suthin' ter look
tormented an' tribulated 'bout," said the girl, evidently disappointed
to find the jury of view not more cheerful of aspect. "But mebbe
conversin' a passel by the way with old Persimmon Sneed is powerful
depressin' ter the sperits."

Selwyn's face grew grave at the mention of the coroner's jury.

"I'm afraid that poor fellow missed something good," he said.

Still holding out her sunbonnet in wide distention, she slowly set
forth along the path, not even turning back, for sheer perversity, as
she saw Ben look anxiously over his shoulder to descry if she followed
in the distance.

"Thar ain't much good in life nohow. Things seem set contrariwise."
Then, after a moment, and turning her eyes upon him, for she had an
almost personal interest in the man whose tragic fate she had first of
all discovered, "What sorter good thing did he miss?" she asked, as
she settled her sunbonnet soberly on her head.

"Well"--Selwyn began; then he hesitated. He had spoken rather than
thought, for he thought little, and he was not used to keeping
secrets. Moreover, despite his courageous disbelief in his coming
fate, he must have had some yearnings for sympathy; the iron of his
exile surely entered his soul at times. The girl, so delicately
framed, so flower-like of face, seemed alien to her rude surroundings
and the burly, heavy, matter-of-fact folk about her. Her spirituelle
presence did away in a measure with the realization of her
limitations, her ignorance, and the uncouth surroundings. Even her
dress seemed to him hardly amiss, for there then reigned a fleeting
metropolitan fashion of straight full flowing skirts and short waists
and closely fitting sleeves,--a straining after picture-like effects
which Narcissa's attire accomplished without conscious effort, the
costume of the mountain women for a hundred years or more. The
sunbonnet itself was but the defensive appurtenance of many a Southern
city girl, when a-summering in the country, who esteems herself the
possessor of a remarkably beautiful complexion, and heroically
proposes to conserve it. Unlike the men, Narcissa's personality did
not suggest the distance between them in sophistication, in culture,
in refinement, in the small matters of external polish. Sh