rk, no less than delightful play.
Half a dozen young people came to stay three days at the house; half a
score more drove or rode over in the afternoons, going home after ten by
moonlight or by starlight Their elders came with them, it was a business
of minuets and contra-dances, painstakingly performed and solicitously
watched A large old parlour gave its waxed floor, Mr Pincornet's violin
furnished the music, and Mr Pincornet himself, lately returned to
Albemarle from his season in Richmond, imparted instruction and directed
the dance. The house was full from garret to cellar, neighbours' horses
in the stables, neighbours' servants in the quarter. The long, low
brick office standing under the big oaks in the yard made, according to
custom, a barracks for the young men who, high of mettle, bold, and gay,
rode in from twenty miles around, ready to dance from dusk till dawn,
and then, in a bright garden and May weather, to pursue some bits of
muslin throughout a morning. Malplaquet was in a state of sober glee
when, inconveniently enough, the one Cary whose mourning had not
lightened chanced, in ignorance of the dancing class, to ride through
the gates and up the hill.

It was his intention, it appeared, to spend the night which was fast
falling, and to ride back to Charlottesville in the morning. The head of
the Malplaquet Carys met him with affection and apology. "Young people
will be young, Fair, and Molly and I thought it best to humour them in
this no great thing! It's a mere lesson they're having. But I'm sorry,
cousin--"

"You need not be, sir," said the other. "Ludwell would have been the
last man on earth to wish their spirit less, or their pleasure less.
It's time and the weather, sir,--Malplaquet feels it with all the world.
You must not be troubled, and you must not disturb my cousins. I might
ride on--"

"No, no, Fair! No, no!"

"Then I won't. Give me a room in the office--I see the house is
full--and let Remus bring me supper there. If you'll come over later,
sir, we'll talk Embargo, and I'll give you the up-county news. I'll to
bed early, I think."

"I wish I could come! By George, it would be a relief to get away from
all the bowing and scraping! You're sure you aren't hurt, Fair?"

"Quite sure," answered the other, with his old smile. "I'll go now to
the office, if I may. No need even to tell them I am here."

Not to tell them was a thing more easily said than done. Time was when
Fairfax Cary wo