The gentleman upstairs will take care of himself.

Bah!--Where is Ludwell Cary this afternoon ?" "He rode, I think, to Charlottesville." "You think! Don't you know ?--What woman was ever straightforward!" Major Churchill opened his book, looked at it, and tossed it aside; took The Virginia Federalist from the table, and for perhaps sixty seconds appeared absorbed in its contents, then with a loud "Pshaw!" threw it down, and rising walked to a bookcase.

"I am reading Swift," he said, and brought a calf-bound volume to the window.

"There was a man who knew hatred and the _risus sardonicus_! Listen to this, Jacqueline." Major Churchill read well, and it was his habit to read aloud to Jacqueline, whose habit it was to listen.

Now she sat before the window, in the old leather chair, her slender face and form in profile, and her eyes upon the sunset sky.