ing in
Champney's conviction of Miss Miranda's unimportance. To the freedmen
she still represented the old implacable task-mistress, and it was
evident that they superstitiously believed that she still retained a
vague power of overriding the Fourteenth Amendment at her pleasure,
and was only to be restrained by the mediation of the good-humored
and sensible Miss Sally. Courtland was quick to see the value of this
influence in the transition state of the freedmen, and pointed it out
to his principal. Drummond's previous doubts and skepticism, already
weakened by Miss Sally's fascinations, vanished entirely at this
prospect of beneficially utilizing these lingering evils of slavery. He
was convinced, he was even enthusiastic. The foreign investors were men
to be bought out; the estate improved and enlarged by the company,
and the fair owners retained in the management and control. Like most
prejudiced men, Drummond's conversion was sudden and extreme, and, being
a practical man, was at once acted upon. At a second and third interview
the preliminaries were arranged, and in three weeks from Courtland's
first visit, the Dows' plantation and part of Major Reed's were merged
in the "Drummond Syndicate," and placed beyond financial uncertainty.
Courtland remained to represent the company as superintendent at
Redlands, and with the transfer of the English investments Champney
retired, as he had suggested, to a smaller venture of his own, on a
plantation a few miles distant which the company had been unable to
secure.

During this interval Courtland had frequent interviews with Miss Sally,
and easy and unrestrained access to her presence. He had never again
erred on the side of romance or emotion; he had never again referred to
the infelix letter and photograph; and, without being obliged to confine
himself strictly to business affairs, he had maintained an even, quiet,
neighborly intercourse with her. Much of this was the result of his own
self-control and soldierly training, and gave little indication of the
deeper feeling that he was conscious lay beneath it. At times he caught
the young girl's eyes fixed upon him with a mischievous curiosity. A
strange thrill went through him; there are few situations so subtle and
dangerous as the accidental confidences and understandings of two young
people of opposite sex, even though the question of any sentimental
inclination be still in abeyance. Courtland knew that Miss Sally
rememb