see whether I had
made another mistake. I had not, her quiet smile told me, and I felt
bold enough to have thrown him over the fence.

"What we wish to know and what we ought to know are two different
matters," he said. "But I hold that we ought to know the truth, no
difference what the truth may be. I want facts; I don't want paint. I
don't want to believe that the gilt on the dome goes all the way
through."

"But," said I, "the gilt on the dome doesn't prove that the dome is
rotten; it may be strong with seasoned wood and ribs of iron."

"Yes," he drawled, "that's all very good, very well put, but it means
nothing. By the way, before we get into a discussion let me invite you
over to our house to-night. Quite a number of young people will drop in.
Not exactly the night, you know; but the old idea that white people
shouldn't go out of a Saturday night, the night reserved for negroes, is
all nonsense. So, I have asked them to come. Alf will come, I suppose,
and so will our little spring branch nymph."

"I didn't suppose that you believed in nymphs, now that you have gone
out and learned that everything is false," Guinea spoke up.

"I don't believe in painted ones," he replied, "but you are not
painted."

"I shall be pleased to come," I remarked, and then I asked him how long
he expected to remain at home.

"Oh, about a month, I should think. I am gradually getting along and I
don't want to go to school all my life. I want to begin practice next
year."

"In this neighborhood?" I asked, and he gave me a contemptuous look.
"Well, not if I have any sense left," he answered. "I might ride around
here a thousand years and not win anything of a name. Look at Dr.
Etheredge, fine physician, but what has he done? No, I'm going to a
city, north, I think."

He stayed to supper and this angered me, for I had set my heart on
walking to the General's house with Guinea. Alf had not returned and we
wondered whither he could have gone. And when the time came to go, that
impudent sprig of a doctor asked me if I would ride his horse around by
the road, said that he wanted to walk across the meadows with Guinea.
How I should have enjoyed knocking him on the head, but I thought that
Guinea supplemented his request with a look, and I consented.

There were many horses tied at the General's fence, and there was
laughter within, when I rode up, and I was reminded of the night when I
had stood with my hot hand melting the frost on t