y as elsewhere, the hours were all too
short for him. Both he and Grosvenor, who was also adaptable, seeing
good in everything, plunged deep into the festivities. He danced with
young women and with old, and Willet more than once gave him an
approving glance. It seemed that the hunter always wished him to fit
himself into any group with which he might be cast, and to make
himself popular, and to do so Robert's temperament needed little
encouragement.

The music and the dancing never ceased. When the black musicians grew
tired their places were taken by others as black and as zealous, and
on they went in a ceaseless alternation. Robert learned that the
guests would dance all night and far into the next day, and that
frequently at the great houses a ball continued two days and two
nights.

About three o'clock in the morning, after a long dance that left him
somewhat weary, he went upon one of the wide piazzas to rest and take
the fresh air. There, his attention was specially attracted by two
young men who were waging a controversy with energy, but without
acrimony.

"I tell you, James," said one, who was noticeable for his great shock
of fair hair and his blazing red face, "that at two miles Blenheim is
unbeatable."

"Unbeatable he may be, Walter," said the other, "but there is no horse
so good that there isn't a better. Blenheim, I grant you, is a
splendid three year old, but my Cressy is just about twenty yards
swifter in two miles. There is not another such colt in all Virginia,
and it gives me great pride to be his owner."

The other laughed, a soft drawling laugh, but it was touched with
incredulity.

"You're a vain man, James," he said, "not vain for yourself, but vain
for your sorrel colt."

"I admit my vanity, Walter, but it rests upon a just basis. Cressy, I
repeat, is the best three year old in Virginia, which of course means
the best in all the colonies, and I have a thousand weight of prime
tobacco to prove it."

"My plantation grows good tobacco too, James, and I also have a
thousand weight of prime leaf which talks back to your thousand
weight, and tells it that Cressy is the second best three year old in
Virginia, not the best."

"Done. Nothing is left but to arrange the time."

Both at this moment noticed Robert, who was sitting not far away, and
they hailed him with glad voices. He remembered meeting them earlier
in the evening. They were young men, Walter Stuart and James Cabell,
who had