"Why haven't you told me of this? How could you have seen him?" and
the old man, in his strong excitement, rose from his chair.

"My reception when I entered was not conducive to conversation. I
was merely sitting by the run and saw both parties gallop past."

"You should have come instantly to me."

"I'm sure I came in hastily," she replied, crimsoning in the
consciousness of her secret, "but I was met as if I had been guilty
of something awful."

"Well, if I had known," began her uncle, in some confusion,
mistaking her color for an expression of anger.

"I think," remarked her aunt, coldly, "that Louise should have
recognized that she had given you just cause for displeasure by her
tardiness, unless it were explained, and she should have explained
at once. I have no patience with the spirit she is displaying."

But Mr. Baron's mind had been diverted to more serious and alarming
considerations than what he characterized mentally as "a girl's
tantrum."

"It makes my blood boil," he said, "to think that this Northern scum
is actually in our neighborhood, and might be at our doors but for
my brave nephew. Thanks to him, they met a righteous reception on
this plantation; thanks to him, in all probability, we are not now
weltering in our blood, with the roof that shelters us blazing over
our heads. If those marauders had found us unprotected, young woman,