"I thank you very much," Gregory began. "I suppose I do need rest. In
a few days, however, I can leave better--"

"No," interrupted Mr. Burnett, with hearty emphasis; "drop everything.
As soon as you finish that letter, be off. Don't show your face here
again till November."

"I thank you for your interest in me," said Gregory, rising. "Indeed,
I believe it would be good economy, for if I don't feel better soon I
shall be of no use here or anywhere else."

"That's it," said old Mr. Burnett, kindly. "Sick and blue, they go
together. Now be off to the woods, and send me some game. I won't
inquire too sharply whether you brought it down with lead or silver."

Gregory soon left the office, and made his arrangements to start on
his trip early the next morning. His purpose was to make a brief visit
to the home of his boyhood and then to go wherever a vagrant fancy
might lead.

The ancestral place was no longer in his family, though he was spared
the pain of seeing it in the hands of strangers. It had been purchased
a few years since by an old and very dear friend of his deceased
father--a gentleman named Walton. It had so happened that Gregory had
rarely met his father's friend, who had been engaged in business at
the West, and of his family he knew little more than that there were
two daughters--one who had married a Southern gentleman, and the
other, much younger, living with her father. Gregory had been much
abroad as the European agent of his house, and it was during such