proved
his near proximity, and glanced angrily at Brice until he caught sight
of his wife's face. Then his anger changed to wonder.

"Read that again, young feller," she said exultingly.

Brice re-read the paragraph aloud for Mr. Tarbox's benefit.

"That 'ar 'Hiram Tarbox, Esquire,' means YOU, Hiram," she gasped, in
delighted explanation.

Hiram seized the paper, read the paragraph himself, spread out the whole
page, examined it carefully, and then a fatuous grin began slowly to
extend itself over his whole face, invading his eyes and ears, until
the heavy, harsh, dogged lines of his nostrils and jaws had utterly
disappeared.

"B'gosh!" he said, "that's square! Kin I keep it?"

"Certainly," said Brice. "I brought it for you."

"Is that all ye came for?" said Hiram, with sudden suspicion.

"No," said the young man frankly. Yet he hesitated a moment as he added,
"I would like to see Miss Flora."

His hesitation and heightened color were more disarming to suspicion
than the most elaborate and carefully prepared indifference. With their
knowledge and pride in their relative's fascinations they felt it could
have but one meaning! Hiram wiped his mouth with his hand, assumed a
demure expression, glanced at his wife, and answered:--

"She ain't here now."

Mr. Brice's face displayed his disappointment. But the true lover
holds a talisman potent with old and young. Mrs. Tarbox felt a sneaking
maternal pity for this suddenly stricken Strephon.

"She's gone home," she added more gently--"went at sun-up this mornin'."

"Home," repeated Brice. "Where's that?"

Mrs. Tarbox looked at her husband and hesitated. Then she said--a little
in her old manner--"Her uncle's."

"Can you direct me the way there?" asked Brice simply.

The astonishment in their faces presently darkened into suspicion again.
"Ef that's your little game," began Hiram, with a lowering brow--

"I have no little game but to see her and speak with her," said Brice
boldly. "I am alone and unarmed, as you see," he continued, pointing
to his empty belt and small dispatch bag slung on his shoulder, "and
certainly unable to do any one any harm. I am willing to take what risks
there are. And as no one knows of my intention, nor of my coming here,
whatever might happen to me, no one need know it. You would be safe from
questioning."

There was that hopeful determination in his manner that overrode their
resigned doggedness. "Ef we knew how to direct you