ther will have no objection to give me a letter to Miss
Dows?"

CHAPTER II.

Nevertheless, as Colonel Courtland rode deliberately towards Dows'
Folly, as the new experiment was locally called, although he had not
abated his romantic enthusiasm in the least, he was not sorry that he
was able to visit it under a practical pretext. It was rather late now
to seek out Miss Sally Dows with the avowed intent of bringing her a
letter from an admirer who had been dead three years, and whose memory
she had probably buried. Neither was it tactful to recall a sentiment
which might have been a weakness of which she was ashamed. Yet,
clear-headed and logical as Courtland was in his ordinary affairs, he
was nevertheless not entirely free from that peculiar superstition which
surrounds every man's romance. He believed there was something more than
a mere coincidence in his unexpectedly finding himself in such favorable
conditions for making her acquaintance. For the rest--if there was any
rest--he would simply trust to fate. And so, believing himself a
cool, sagacious reasoner, but being actually, as far as Miss Dows was
concerned, as blind, fatuous, and unreasoning as any of her previous
admirers, he rode complacently forward until he reached the lane that
led to the Dows plantation.

Here a better kept roadway and fence, whose careful repair would
have delighted Drummond, seemed to augur well for the new enterprise.
Presently, even the old-fashioned local form of the fence, a slanting
zigzag, gave way to the more direct line of post and rail in the
Northern fashion. Beyond it presently appeared a long low frontage of
modern buildings which, to Courtland's surprise, were entirely new in
structure and design. There was no reminiscence of the usual Southern
porticoed gable or columned veranda. Yet it was not Northern either. The
factory-like outline of facade was partly hidden in Cherokee rose and
jessamine.

A long roofed gallery connected the buildings and became a veranda to
one. A broad, well-rolled gravel drive led from the open gate to the
newest building, which seemed to be the office; a smaller path diverged
from it to the corner house, which, despite its severe simplicity, had a
more residential appearance. Unlike Reed's house, there were no lounging
servants or field hands to be seen; they were evidently attending to
their respective duties. Dismounting, Courtland tied his horse to a post
at the office door and took t