ything--when you say shall," she retorted brokenly.

"God bless my soul," he sputtered. "I want you to understand that you'll
do anything whether I say shall or not, when I find you crying!"

"That sounds funny," she began to laugh, just a little. Then he began to
laugh.

She took his hand after this and led him across the hall into the "long
room," and when they emerged ten minutes later there were no signs of
tears.

"Never fear," he chuckled, "I'll tell him this very night."

"Oh, but you mustn't tell him," she said, aghast. "I only want him to
understand!"

"I see, I see," he pinched her cheek, "You only want him to understand.
Well, he shall understand this very night, then."

"And you'll thank him for sending me Mac?"

"Yes, yes, I'll thank him, never fear. Wait now, till I order my horse;
I'm going to ride home with you."

"It isn't dark yet, and I'm not afraid with Mac," she demurred.

"It is nearly dark, and I'm very much afraid," he bowed gallantly, "that
I'll too soon be forgot for this airedale gentleman if you go alone."

CHAPTER XXV

ALMOST A RESOLUTION

Shortly after breakfast next day the Colonel dispatched Uncle Zack and
his mule with a note to Jane. He might have telephoned this message,
which simply read: "He understands, with an amplitude of grace which ill
befits him. Come over this morning and straighten Lizzie out with her
preserving. I hear that she is skinning every negro on the place, and I
greatly fear for them, or her."

But, no; this must be on a written page and delivered by hand, for the
old Colonel averred that no gentleman should assume to shriek his voice
by mechanical device into the ear of a gentlewoman. In cases of illness,
accident or fire, or perhaps in pressing business needs, the telephone
had its uses; but a _faux pas_ of the first order was to employ it
socially.

So Zack's mule ambled down the pike and home again, bringing a reply
which sparkled with merriment between its lines: "You have the maternal
instinct of that lady who lived in a shoe! I'll be over to soothe Miss
Liz and her poor, flayed darkies."

Arriving some hours later, she and Mac went directly to the shed where
bright copper kettles were hanging in a row above the old fashioned,
stone oven fires. Several negro women were moving quickly and silently
about, frightened and getting into each other's way. But now, as she
drew near, there was a commotion, and she saw Miss Liz actually lay