ime you'll be a rich man's servant."

Matt fled back to Miss Burford trembling with joy and excitement.

"Do ye think we is gwine t'rough, ma'am?" he said. "D'ye think we is?
Seems like we was the Isrilites a-crossin' the Red Sea, an' the fust of
us is jest steppin' on de sho'. Lordy, Miss Burford, ma'am, I don't know
how I'se gwine to stan' dat great day when we _is_ th'ough, shore enuff.
Wash'n'ton city ain't gwine be big enuff to hol' me."

"It will be a great day, Uncle Matthew," replied Miss Burford, with
elated decorum of manner. "The De Willoughby mansion restored to its
former elegance. Mr. Thomas De Willoughby the possessor of wealth, and
the two young people--" She bridled a little, gently, and touched her
eyes with her handkerchief with a slight cough.

"When Marse De Courcy an' Miss Delia Vanuxem was married, dar was people
from fo' counties at de infar," said Matt. "De fust woman what I was
married to, she done de cookin'."

Senator Milner was shaking hands with big Tom upstairs. He regarded him
with interest, remembering the morning he had evaded an interview with
him. The little room was interesting; the two beautiful young people
suggested the atmosphere of a fairy story.

"You are on the verge of huge good fortune, I think, Mr. De Willoughby,"
he said. "I felt that I should like to come with Rutherford to tell you
that all is going very well with your claim. Members favour it whose
expression of opinion is an enormous weight in the balance. Judge
Rutherford is going to speak for you--and so am I."

Judge Rutherford shook Tom's hand rather more vigorously than he had
shaken Matt's. "I wish to the Lord I was an orator, Tom," he said. "If I
can't make them listen to me this time I believe I shall blow my brains
out. But, what with Williams, Atkinson, and Baird, we've got things that
are pretty convincing, and somehow I swear the claim has begun to be
popular."

When the two men had gone the little room was for a few moments very
still. Each person in it was under the influence of curiously strong
emotion. Anxious waiting cannot find itself upon the brink of great
fortune and remain unmoved. Some papers with calculations worked out in
them lay upon the table, and big Tom sat looking at them silently. Sheba
stood a few feet away from him, her cheeks flushed, light breaths coming
quickly through her parted lips. Rupert looked at her as youth and love
must look at love and youth.

"Uncle Tom," he sai