anage the property alone; how the
estate had been devastated, the house destroyed, and how they had
barely time to remove a few valuables; how, although SHE had always been
opposed to secession and the war, she had not gone North, preferring to
stay with her people, and take with them the punishment of the folly she
had foreseen. How after the war and her father's death she and her aunt
had determined to "reconstruct THEMSELVES" after their own fashion on
this bit of property, which had survived their fortunes because it had
always been considered valueless and unprofitable for negro labor. How
at first they had undergone serious difficulty, through the incompetence
and ignorance of the freed laborer, and the equal apathy and prejudice
of their neighbors. How they had gradually succeeded with the adoption
of new methods and ideas that she herself had conceived, which she now
briefly and clearly stated. Courtland listened with a new, breathless,
and almost superstitious interest: they were HIS OWN THEORIES--perfected
and demonstrated!

"But you must have had capital for this?"

Ah, yes! that was where they were fortunate. There were some French
cousins with whom she had once stayed in Paris, who advanced enough to
stock the estate. There were some English friends of her father's, old
blockade runners, who had taken shares, provided them with more capital,
and imported some skilled laborers and a kind of steward or agent to
represent them. But they were getting on, and perhaps it was better for
their reputation with their neighbors that they had not been BEHOLDEN to
the "No'th." Seeing a cloud pass over Courtland's face, the young lady
added with an affected sigh, and the first touch of feminine coquetry
which had invaded their wholesome camaraderie:--

"Yo' ought to have found us out BEFORE, co'nnle."

For an impulsive moment Courtland felt like telling her then and there
the story of his romantic quest; but the reflection that they were
standing on a narrow ledge with no room for the emotions, and that Miss
Sally had just put a nail in her mouth and a start might be dangerous,
checked him. To this may be added a new jealousy of her previous
experiences, which he had not felt before. Nevertheless, he managed to
say with some effusion:--

"But I hope we are not too late NOW. I think my principals are quite
ready and able to buy up any English or French investor now or to come."

"Yo' might try yo' hand on that one,"