robed, she picked it up and held it for a moment. "I wonder
if she broke his heart?" she soliloquised. "I don't see how he
could help loving her; I know I should." Janice hesitated for
a moment, and then tucked the miniature into her bosom. "If
only Tibbie wasn't--if--we could talk about it," she sighed,
as she pinned on her little cap of lace above the hair dressed
high a la Pompadour. "Why did she have to be--just as so
many important things were to happen!" Miss Meredith
looked at her double in the mirror, and sighed again. "Mr.
Evatt must have been laughing at me," she said, "for she is so
much prettier. But I should like to know why Charles always
stares so at me."

In the meantime, Evatt, without so much as an allusion to the
bond-servant, had presented a letter from a New Yorker, introducing
him to the squire, and by the confidence thus established
he proceeded to question Mr. Meredith long and carefully, not
about farming lands and profits, but concerning the feeling of
the country toward the questions then at issue between Great
Britain and America. He made as they talked an occasional
note, and the interview ended only with Peg's announcement of
supper. Nor was this allowed to terminate the inquiry, for the
squire, as Mrs. Meredith had foreseen, insisted on Evatt's
spending the night, and Charles was accordingly ordered to ride
over to the inn for the traveller's saddlebags. After the ladies
had left the two men at the table, the questioning was resumed
over the spirits and pipes, and not till ten o'clock was passed
did Evatt finally rise. Clearly he must have pleased the squire
as well as he had the dames, for Mr. Meredith, with the
hospitality of the time, pressed him heartily to stay for more