be sure I was quite
welcome to your presence."

"I am your mother's guest," and she met his gaze with cordial
frankness; "would that be so if--oh, yes, you may be very sure I am
pleased to see you home again, and especially pleased to see you
here."

"You are? Judithe, I beg pardon," as she raised her brows in slight
question. "I am not accountable this morning, Marquise; with a little
time to recover myself in, I may grow more rational. To find you here
is as much a surprise as though I had met you alone at sea in an open
boat."

"Alone--at sea--in an open boat," she repeated, with a curious
inflection; "but you perceive, Col. McVeigh, the situation is not at
all like that. I am under my own roof tree, and a very substantial one
it is," with a comprehensive glance about the imposing apartment; "and
you are the first guest I have welcomed here--I am much pleased that
it happened so." When he stared at this bit of information she
continued: "I have just made purchase of the estate from your friends,
the Lorings--this is my first visit to it, and you are my first
caller. You perceive I am really your neighbor, Monsieur."

His eyes were bent on her with mute question; it all seemed so
incredible that she should come there at all--to his country, to his
home. He had left France cursing her coquetry; he had, because of her,
gone straight to the frontier on his return to America, and lived the
life of camps ever since; he had fancied no woman would ever again
hold the sway over him she had held for that one brief season. Yet the
graciousness of her tone, the frank smile in her eyes, and the touch
of her hand--the beautiful hand!--

Delaven came in, and there were more explanations; then, to the regret
of Raquel and Betsey, they left for the Terrace without partaking of
the specially prepared coffee. Col. McVeigh had ridden from the coast
with a party of the state guard, who were going to the river
fortifications. Seeing his own saddle horse at the gate he had let
them go on to the Terrace without him, while he stopped, thinking to
find his mother or sister there.

The new mistress of Loringwood listened with an interested expression
to this little explanation, and no one would have thought there was
any special motive in leaving the horse tied there on the only road he
would be likely to come, or that his statement that he traveled with a
party of military friends conveyed a distinct message to her of work
to be done