eded
in slipping it from the glove which she left a prisoner in his eager
clasp. "There! Yo' can keep the glove, co'nnle," she said, breathing
quickly. "Sit down! This is not the place nor the weather for husking
frolics! Well!--yo' want to know WHY yo' mustn't speak to me in that
way. Be still, and I'll tell yo'."

She smoothed down the folds of her frock, sitting sideways on the bank,
one little foot touching the road. "Yo' mustn't speak that way to me,"
she went on slowly, "because it's as much as yo' company's wo'th, as
much as OUR property's wo'th, as much maybe as yo' life's wo'th! Don't
lift yo' comb, co'nnle; if you don't care for THAT, others may. Sit
still, I tell yo'! Well, yo' come here from the No'th to run this
property for money--that's square and fair business; THAT any fool here
can understand--it's No'th'n style; it don't interfere with these fools'
family affairs; it don't bring into their blood any No'th'n taint;
it don't divide their clannishness; it don't separate father and son,
sister and brother; and even if yo' got a foothold here and settled
down, they know they can always outvote yo' five to one! But let these
same fools know that yo' 're courtin' a So'th'n girl known to be 'Union'
during the wah, that girl who has laughed at their foolishness; let them
even THINK that he wants that girl to mix up the family and the race and
the property for him, and there ain't a young or old fool that believes
in So'th'n isolation as the price of So'th'n salvation that wouldn't
rise against yo'! There isn't one that wouldn't make shipwreck of yo'r
syndicate and yo'r capital and the prosperity of Redlands for the next
four years to come, and think they were doing right! They began to
suspect yo' from the first! They suspected yo' when yo' never went
anywhere, but stuck close to the fahm and me. That's why I wanted yo'
to show yourself among the girls; they wouldn't have minded yo' flirting
with them with the chance of yo' breaking yo' heart over Tave Reed or
Lympy Morris! They're fools enough to believe that a snub or a jilt
from a So'th'n girl would pay them back for a lost battle or a ruined
plantation!"

For the first time Miss Sally saw Courtland's calm blood fly to his
cheek and kindle in his eye. "You surely do not expect ME to tolerate
this blind and insolent interference!" he said, rising to his feet.

She lifted her ungloved hand in deprecation. "Sit still, co'nnle. Yo'
've been a soldier, and yo