o unite in
a robbery, house-burning, or to pass counterfeit money, or commit any
breach of morality, he should certainly hold himself at liberty to
disclose it, if he deemed it necessary. "If I am, in advance, asked to
regard a proposed communication as confidential, I should understand,
of course, that the proposer impliedly pledged that it should be of
a character that a man of honor could listen to and entertain; of
course, Mr. Greer, you can have no other to make to me, and you know I
would not listen to any other."

During this statement, made with the utmost courtesy, Bart looked
Greer steadily in the face, and received a calm, full, unwinking look
in return. Greer assured him that his notions of the ethics of honor,
while they were nice, were his own, and he was glad to act upon them;
that he was not on that day fully authorized to open up the matter,
but should doubtless receive full instructions in a day or two; and he
had called to-day more to keep his word with Bart than to enter upon
an actual business transaction. Nothing could be franker and more
open than his way and manner in saying this; and as he was trained to
keenness of observation, he may have detected the flitting smile that
just hovered on Bart's lips. After a little pleasant commonplace talk
of common things, the leisurely Greer took a cordial leave, and never
approached Bart but once again.

At the Whig nominating convention, for the county of Geanga, that
Fall, Major Ridgeley, who had, by a vote of the officers of his
regiment, become its Colonel, was a candidate for the office of
sheriff. He was popular, well-known, and his prospects fair. The
office was attractive, its emoluments good, and it was generally
sought after by the best class of ambitious men in the counties.

He was defeated in the convention through a defection of his supposed
friends, which he charged, justly or otherwise, upon Judge Markham.
The disappointment was bitter, and he was indignant, of course.
Like Bart, when he thought a mishap was without remedy, he neither
complained nor asked explanations. When he and the Judge next met,
it was with cool contempt on his side, and with surprise, and then
coldness, on the part of Markham. Their words were few and courteous,
but for the next eighteen months they avoided each other. Of course,
Bart sympathized with his brother Morris; although he did not suppose
the Judge was ever committed, still he felt that he and all his
fri