With the gallantry of their class the young men of the plantations round about, the young men of the fastidiously best, rode in to ask permission of Mary Ellen's father to pay court to his daughter.

One by one they came, and one by one they rode away again, but of them all not one remained other than Mary Ellen's loyal slave.

Her refusal seemed to have so much reason that each disappointed suitor felt his own defeat quite stingless.

Young Fairfax seemed so perfectly to represent the traditions of his family, and his future seemed so secure; and Mary Ellen herself, tall and slender, bound to be stately and of noble grace, seemed so eminently fit to be a Beauchamp beauty and a Fairfax bride.
For the young people themselves it may be doubted if there had yet awakened the passion of genuine, personal love.

They met, but, under the strict code of that land and time, they never met alone.