went into the house. The stranger, who now drew up to the door,
proved to be a young man of about thirty years of age, tall and
well-proportioned, his figure displaying at once symmetrical beauty and
athletic strength. He was dressed after the fashion of the day, in a
handsome velvet doublet, trussed with gay-colored points at the waist to
the breeches, which reaching only to the knee, left the finely turned
leg well displayed in the closely-fitting white silk stockings. Around
his wrists and neck were revealed graceful ruffles of the finest
cambric. The heavy boots, which were usually worn by cavaliers, were in
this case supplied by shoes fastened with roses of ribands. A handsome
sword, with ornamented hilt, and richly chased scabbard, was secured
gracefully by his side in its fringed hanger. The felt hat, whose wide
brim was looped up and secured by a gold button in front, completed the
costume of the young stranger. The abominable fashion of periwigs, which
maintained its reign over the realm of fashion for nearly a century, was
just beginning to be introduced into the old country, and had not yet
been received as orthodox in the colony. The rich chestnut hair of the
stranger fell in abundance over his fine shoulders, and was parted
carefully in the middle to display to its full advantage his broad
intellectual forehead. But in compliance with custom, his hair was
dressed with the fashionable love-locks, plaited and adorned with
ribands, and falling foppishly over either ear.

But dress, at last, like "rank, is but the guinea's stamp, the man's the
gowd for a' that," and in outward appearance at least, the stranger was
of no alloyed metal. There was in his air that easy repose and
self-possession which is always perceptible in those whose life has been
passed in association with the refined and cultivated. But still there
was something about his whole manner, which seemed to betray the fact,
that this habitual self-possession, this frank and easy carriage was the
result of a studied and constant control over his actions, rather than
those of a free and ingenuous heart.

This idea, however, did not strike the simple minded Virginia, as with
natural, if not laudable curiosity, she surveyed the handsome young
stranger through the window of the hall. The kind greeting of the
hospitable old colonel having been given, the stranger dismounted, and
the fine bay that he rode was committed to the protecting care of a
grinnin