d rendered the rafters just above my
head a work of lace, far away. And at these devotions I might have
remained for hours had not a sharp footfall smote upon my ear. I
hastened down stairs, and at the entrance of the passage stood Chyd
Lundsford, looking about, slowly lashing his leg with a switch.

"Helloa! Where are all the folks?"

"They are gone, sir," I answered, stiffly bowing to him.

"Gone? I don't know that I quite catch your meaning."

"If it be illusive you have made it so. I said that they were gone,
which means, of course, that they are not here."

"I understand that all right enough, but do you mean that they are not
in at present or that they have really left home?"

"They have no home, sir."

He gave himself a sharp cut with the switch. "It can't have been so very
long since they left, for the old man was over to see father this
morning. Which way did they go? I may overtake them."

"That would be greatly against their wish, sir."

"I am not asking for an opinion. I want to know which way they went."

"I am not at liberty to tell you that. They have gone out into a world
that is as strange to them as America was to Columbus."

"Rot. There isn't a smarter woman anywhere than Guinea. She has read
everything and she knows the world as well as I do. But why are you not
privileged to tell me which way they went? I have something to say that
concerns them closely. Did they go toward town?"

"Do you suppose that they would go away without first seeing their son?"

"Then you mean that they went to town. Why the devil can't you speak
out? Why should you stand as a stumbling block?"

"Why should I stand as a sign post?"

"Now here, you needn't show your selfishness in this matter. She
wouldn't wipe her feet on you."

"No, but she would wipe them on you."

"What!" He took a step forward, but he stepped back again and stood
there, lashing himself with the switch. "My father tells me that you are
a gentleman," he said.

"And you may safely accept your father's opinion of me," I answered.

"But you are not striving, sir, to make that opinion good."

"A good opinion needs no bolstering up."

"This bantering is all nonsense. I've got nothing against you; I have
simply asked you a civil question."

"And I hope to be as civil as you are, but out of regard for the
feelings of those old people and their daughter I cannot tell you which
way they went. You couldn't overtake them, any way."

"But I