It is quiet as the graveyard, save for the murmur of the waters falling over the dam.

And I cannot tell whether it is fancy or whether it is real, but now and then there comes to me a faint hint of music,--it sounds almost like Watts' accordion, but of course it cannot be at this unholy hour, and the tune it makes me think of some way is 'Silver Threads among the Gold.' Isn't it odd that I should hear that song, and yet not hear it, and have it running through my mind ?" And thus the town heard Watts McHurdie's song of triumph--the chortle that every male creature of the human kind instinctively lets out when he has found favour in some woman's eyes, that men have let out since Lemech sang of victory over the young man to Adah and Zillah! And in all the town no one knew what it meant.

For the accordion is not essentially an instrument of passion.

So the episode ended, and another day came in.

And all that is left to mark for this world that night of triumph--and that mark soon will bleach into oblivion--are the verses entitled "Love at Sunset," of which Colonel Martin Culpepper, the poet's biographer, writes in that chapter "At Hymen's Altar," referred to before: "This poem was written October 14, 1874, on the occasion of the poet's engagement to Miss Nellie Logan, who afterward became his wife.