one
hitherto I cannot congratulate you,' and he stalked out of the room. He
was hard hit, but he went down the stairway as unconcernedly as if he had
not come to the end of a fortune, while the new owner said nothing as he
looked after him. That's about all, except that the Colonel goes back to
Carrington, and my worthy employer to Mexico. He told me he had word your
cousin was not well there. I wonder, Ralph, how this matter will affect
you. Your relations with Miss Carrington are of course not altogether a
secret."

I did not enlighten him. In fact, I hardly cared to ask myself the
question, for I could not see how the fact that he had lost a considerable
portion of his property could increase the Colonel's good-will toward me.
Nevertheless, if the difference in worldly possessions constituted one of
the main obstacles, as he had said it did, there had been a partial
leveling, and if we were favored with a bounteous harvest there might be a
further adjustment. I should not have chosen the former method; indeed, I
regretted it, but it was not my fault that he had quarreled with Martin
Lorimer, who had beaten him in a mining deal. The latter could be hard and
vindictive, but there was after all a depth of headstrong good-nature in
him which was signally wanting in the cold-blooded Colonel. I disliked him
bitterly, but now I almost pitied him.

"Do you think there is any ore worth milling in the Day Spring, Calvert?"
I asked presently.

"Frankly, I do. It will cost further money to bring it up, but now that I
have a free hand and unstinted material I am even sanguine. We start in
earnest in two months or so, and then we will see--what we shall see."

Calvert left us the next day, and it was a long time before I saw any more
of him. The next news that I had was that Grace and Miss Carrington had
returned to Carrington. I rode over to see them, and found a smaller
number of teams plowing than there should have been, while even Miss
Carrington, who received me without any token of displeasure, seemed
unusually grave, and several things confirmed the impression that there
was a shadow upon the Manor. I could ask no questions, and it was Grace
who explained matters as I stood under the veranda holding the bridle of
Ormond's hunter.

"It's a strange world, Ralph," she said in a tone of sadness. "Rupert, as
you will notice, knows me well, and I never thought that one time you
would ride him. Poor Geoffrey! I cannot forget