instead of buckskin, however hard it might be to come by, and silver
knee-buckles and well-knit hose on his still shapely calves, and a
peruke carefully powdered and tended. He had a keen, wrinkled, bloodless
face, discerning, clever, gray eyes, heavy, overhanging, grizzled
eyebrows, and a gentlemanly mouth of a diplomatic, well-bred,
conservative expression.

It was said at Blue Lick Station that he had fled from his own country,
the north of England, on account of an affair of honor,--a duel in early
life,--and that however distasteful the hardships and comparative
poverty of this new home, it was far safer for him than the land of his
birth. His worldly position there gave him sundry claims of superiority,
for all of which his hardy pioneer son had had scant sympathy; and Ralph
Emsden, in the difficult crisis of the disclosure of the state of his
affections, heaved many a sigh for this simple manly soul's untimely
fate.

The elder Mivane, with his head bent forward, his hand behind his ear,
sat in his arm-chair while he hearkened blandly to the sentimental
statements which Emsden was obliged to shout forth twice. Then Richard
Mivane cleared his throat with a sort of preliminary gentlemanly
embarrassment, and went fluently on with that suave low voice so common
to the very deaf. "Command me, sir, command me! It will give me much
pleasure to use my influence on your behalf to obtain an ensigncy. I
will myself write at the first opportunity, the first express, to
Lieutenant-Governor Bull, who is acquainted with my family connections
in England. It is very praiseworthy, very laudable indeed, that you
should aspire to a commission in the military service,--the provincial
forces. I honor you for your readiness to fight--although, to be sure,
being Irish, you can't help it. Still, it is to your credit that you are