tell you, but, the truth is, you
know my theory with regard to secrecy. I don't doubt but you can hold
your tongue, yet the whole affair is so dangerous, that I dare not, I
cannot, tell you yet. I can only say this, that there does exist some
obstacle to your marriage with my niece, and your engagement must be
regarded by myself in a tentative light. If the time ever comes when you
know all, and wish to withdraw, you can do so in my opinion with perfect
honor. In the meantime you had better say nothing to any one outside.
You had better not even tell Mrs. Ewing. I hope Clemency herself will
not. Perhaps when she has had a few hours in which to collect herself,
her face will not be quite so tell-tale."

"Nothing whatever can change me," said James, with almost anger.

Gordon shook his head. "I begin to think I may have done you a wrong
having you come here at all," he said. "I suppose I ought to have
thought of the possibility, but I have had so much on my mind."

"You have done me the greatest good I ever had done me in my whole
life," James said fervently.

Gordon rose and shook the young man's hand. "As far as Clemency and I
and Mrs. Ewing are concerned," he said, "nothing could have been better.
Well, we will hope for the best, my boy." He clapped James on the
shoulder and smiled, and James went to his room feeling dizzy with
happiness and mystery, and a trifle so with the doctor's punch.

CHAPTER VII

The next morning James was awakened by loud voices coming from the
vicinity of the stable. He had not slept very well, and now at dawn felt
drowsy, but the voices would not let him sleep. He rose, dressed, and
went out in the stable-yard. There he found Doctor Gordon, Aaron, and a
strange man, small, and red-haired, and thin-faced, with shifty eyes,
holding by the bridle a fine black horse.

"Don't want to buy a horse with a bridle on," Doctor Gordon was saying
as James appeared.

"Do you think I'm the man to bear insults?" inquired the little
red-haired man with fierceness.

"Insult nothing. It is business," said Gordon.

"That's so," Aaron said, chewing and eyeing the black horse and the
red-haired man thoughtfully.

"Well," said the little red-haired man with an air at once of injured
innocence and ferocity, "if you want to know why I object to selling
this horse without a bridle, come here, and I'll show you." Gordon and
Aaron and James approached. The red-haired man slipped the bridle, and
u