s plantation joining
ours. It is a lovely place; used to belong to the Masterson tracts,
and was part of the wedding dowery of that Miss Leo Masterson Uncle
Nelse told of--Gertrude's mother, you know. It is not grand or
imposing like Loringwood, but I heard the Judge say that place alone
was enough to make Gertrude a wealthy woman, and the loveliest thing
about it is that it joins our plantation--lovely for Gertrude and
Kenneth, I mean. Look here, Doctor Delaven, you roused my curiosity
wonderfully with that little remark you made about the beautiful
Marquise; tell me true--were they--did Ken, even for a little while,
fall in love with her?"

She looked so roguishly coaxing, so sure she had stumbled on some
fragment of an adventure, and so alluringly confident that Delaven
must tell her the rest, that there is no telling how much he might
have enlightened her if Miss Loring had not entered the room at that
moment through a door nearest the window where they stood.

Her face was serene and self possessed as ever. She smiled and
addressed some careless remark to them as she passed through, but
Delaven had an uncomfortable feeling that she had overheard that
question, and Evilena was too frightened to repeat it.

CHAPTER XVI.

The warm summer moon wheeled up that evening through the dusk, odorous
with the wild luxuriance of wood and swamp growths. A carriage rolled
along the highway between stretches of rice lands and avenues of
pines.

In the west red and yellow showed where the path of the sun had been
and against it was outlined the gables of an imposing structure, dark
against the sky.

"We are again close to the Salkahatchie," said Mrs. McVeigh, pointing
where the trees marked its course, "and across there--see that roof,
Marquise?--that is Loringwood. If the folks had got across from
Charleston we would stop there long enough to rest and have a bit of
supper. But the road winds so that the distance is longer than it
looks, and we are too near home to stop on such an uncertainty.
Gertrude's note from Charleston telling of their safe arrival could
say nothing definite of their home coming."

"That, no doubt, depends on the invalid relative," suggested her
guest; "the place looks very beautiful in this dim light; the cedars
along the road there are magnificent."

"I have heard they are nearly two hundred years old. Years ago it was
the great show place of the country, but two generations of very
extr