88
XXIII UNCLE JEFFERSON'S STORY 197
XXIV IN DEVIL-JOHN'S DAY 203
XXV JOHN VALIANT ASKS A QUESTION 219
XXVI THE CALL OF THE ROSES 223
XXVII BEYOND THE BOX-HEDGE 230
XXVIII NIGHT 238
XXIX AT THE DOME 244
XXX THE GARDENERS 255
XXXI TOURNAMENT DAY 267
XXXII A VIRGINIAN RUNNYMEDE 275
XXXIII THE KNIGHT OF THE CRIMSON ROSE 289
XXXIV KATHARINE DECIDES 300
XXXV "WHEN KNIGHTHOOD WAS IN FLOWER" 309
XXXVI BY THE SUN-DIAL 317
XXXVII THE DOCTOR SPEAKS 328
XXXVIII THE AMBUSH 334
XXXIX WHAT THE CAPE JESSAMINES KNEW 340
XL THE AWAKENING 346
XLI THE COMING OF GREEF KING 359
XLII IN THE RAIN 369
XLIII THE EVENING OF AN OLD SCORE 378
XLIV THE MAJOR BREAKS SILENCE 386
XLV RENUNCIATION 398
XLVI THE VOICE FROM THE PAST 408
XLVII WHEN THE CLOCK STRUCK 415
XLVIII THE SONG OF THE NIGHTINGALE 427

THE VALIANTS OF VIRGINIA

CHAPTER I

THE CRASH

"Failed!" ejaculated John Valiant blankly, and the hat he held dropped
to the claret-colored rug like a huge white splotch of sudden fright.
"The Corporation--failed!"

The young man was the glass of fashion, from the silken ribbon on the
spotless Panama to his pearl-gray gaiters, and well favored--a lithe
stalwart figure, with wide-set hazel eyes and strong brown hair waving
back from a candid forehead. The soft straw, however, had been wrung to
a wisp between clutching fingers and the face was glazed in a kind of
horrified and assiduous surprise, as if the rosy peach of life, bitten,
had suddenly revealed itself an unripe persimmon. The very words
themselves came with a galvanic twitch and a stagger that conveyed a
sense at once of shock and of protest. Even the white bulldog stretched
on the floor, nose between paws and one restless eye on his master in
a troubled wonder that any one should prefer to forsake the ecstatic
sunshine of the street, with its thousand f