y mother--that you know well and could make her sure of.
And, and--oh, confound it, Harry, little book wit have I in my head,
and she is so clever as never was, and all I have to win her notice
be in my hands and heels, for, Harry, you will remember the race
I ran with Tom Talbot that Mayday; think you she knows of that?
And--but she must know how I rode against Nick Barry last St.
Andrew's, and, and--oh, Lord, Harry, what am I that she should think
of me? But at all odds, whether it be me or you or any other man,
see to it that these goods be moved and she not be drawn into this
which is hatching, for it may be as big a blaze as Bacon started
before we be done with it; but shall I not help thee, Harry, and
when will you move them and where?"

"I want no help, lad," I said, and was indeed firmly set in my mind
that he should know nothing about the disposal of the goods lest
Mistress Mary come to grief through her love for him, and reasoning
that ignorance was his best safeguard and hers.

We went forth from Locust Creek, I having promised that I would do
all that I could to further his suit with Mary Cavendish, and when
we reached the bend of the road, he having walked beside me,
hitherto leading his horse, he was in his saddle and away, having
first acquainted me anxiously with the fact that he was to wear that
night to the governor's ball a suit of blue velvet with silver
buttons, and asking me if I considered that it would become him in
Mistress Mary's eyes. Then I went home to Drake Hill, passing along
such a wonderful aisle of bloom of locust and peach and mulberry and
honeysuckle and long trails of a purple vine of such a surprise of
beauty as to make one incredible that he saw aright--bushes
pluming white to the wind, and over all a medley of honey and almond
and spicy scents seeming to penetrate the very soul, that I was set
to reflecting in the midst of my sadness of renunciation of my love,
and my anxiety for her if, after all, such roads of blessing which
were set for our feet at every turn led not of a necessity to
blessed ends, and if our course tended not to happiness, whether we
knew it or not, and along whatever byways of sorrow.

XI

I have seen many beautiful things in my life, as happens to every
one living in a world which hath little fault as to its appearance,
if one can outlook the shadow which his own selfishness of sorrow
and disappointment may cast before him; but it seemed that ev