at he should be driven home, and after faintly
protesting, the judge gracefully yielded the point, and a few moments
later rolled away from Belle Plain behind a pair of sleek-coated bays,
with a negro in livery on the box. He was conscious of a great sense of
exaltation. He felt that he should paralyze Mahaffy. He even temporarily
forgot the blow his hopes had sustained when Betty spoke of returning to
North Carolina. This was life--broad acres and niggers--principally
to trot after you toting liquor--and such liquor!--he lolled back
luxuriantly with half-closed eyes.

"Twenty years in the wood if an hour!" he muttered. "I'd like to have
just such a taste in my mouth when I come to die--and probably she has
barrels of it!" he sighed deeply, and searched his soul for words with
which adequately to describe that whisky to Mahaffy.

But why not do more than paralyze Solomon--that would be pleasant but
not especially profitable. The judge came back quickly to the vexed
problem of his future. He desired to make some striking display of Miss
Malroy's courtesy. He knew that his credit was experiencing the pangs of
an early mortality; he was not sensitive, yet for some days he had
been sensible of the fact that what he called the commercial class was
viewing him with open disfavor, but he must hang on in Raleigh a little
longer--for him it had become the abode of hope. The judge considered
the matter. At least he could let people see something of that decent
respect with which Miss Malroy treated him.

They were entering Raleigh now, and he ordered the coachman to pull his
horses down to a walk. He had decided to make use of the Belle Plain
turnout in creating an atmosphere of confidence and trust--especially
trust. To this end he spent the best part of an hour interviewing
his creditors. It amounted almost to a mass-meeting of the adult male
population, for he had no favorites. When he invaded virgin territory
he believed in starting the largest possible number of accounts without
delay. The advantage of his system, as he explained its workings to
Mahaffy, was that it bred a noble spirit of emulation. He let it be
known in a general way that things were looking up with him; just in
what quarter he did not specify, but there he was, seated in the Belle
Plain carriage and the inference was unavoidable that Miss Malroy was to
recognize his activities in a substantial manner.

Mahaffy, loafing away the afternoon in the county c