s late," he announced, "and I
must be back at the store to-night. Have you any message for Saunderson?"

"None," answered Haward. "I go myself to Fair View to-morrow, and then I
shall ask you to drink with me again."

As he spoke he held out his hand. MacLean looked at it, sighed, then
touched it with his own. A gleam as of wintry laughter came into his blue
eyes. "I doubt that I shall have to get me a new foe," he said, with
regret in his voice.

When he had bowed to the lady and to her father, and had gone out of the
room and down the lilac-bordered path and through the gate, and when the
three at the window had watched him turn into Duke of Gloucester Street,
the master of Westover looked at the master of Fair View and burst out
laughing. "Ludwell hath for an overseer the scapegrace younger son of a
baronet; and there are three brothers of an excellent name under
indentures to Robert Carter. I have at Westover a gardener who annually
makes the motto of his house to spring in pease and asparagus. I have not
had him to drink with me yet, and t'other day I heard Ludwell give to the
baronet's son a hound's rating."

"I do not drink with the name," said Haward coolly. "I drink with the man.
The churl or coward may pass me by, but the gentleman, though his hands be
empty, I stop."

The other laughed again; then dismissed the question with a wave of his
hand, and pulled out a great gold watch with cornelian seals. "Carter
swears that Dr. Contesse hath a specific that is as sovereign for the gout
as is St. Andrew's cross for a rattlesnake bite. I've had twinges lately,
and the doctor lives hard by. Evelyn, will you rest here while I go
petition AEsculapius? Haward, when I have the recipe I will return, and
impart it to you against the time when you need it. No, no, child, stay
where you are! I will be back anon."

Having waved aside his daughter's faint protest, the Colonel departed,--a
gallant figure of a man, with a pretty wit and a heart that was
benevolently gay. As he went down the path he paused to gather a sprig of
lilac. "Westover--Fair View," he said to himself, and smiled, and smelled
the lilac; then--though his ills were somewhat apocryphal--walked off at a
gouty pace across the buttercup-sprinkled green toward the house of Dr.
Contesse.

Haward and Evelyn, left alone, kept silence for a time in the quiet room
that was filled with late sunshine and the fragrance of flowers. He stood
by the window, and she