How at first they had undergone serious difficulty, through the incompetence and ignorance of the freed laborer, and the equal apathy and prejudice of their neighbors.

How they had gradually succeeded with the adoption of new methods and ideas that she herself had conceived, which she now briefly and clearly stated.

Courtland listened with a new, breathless, and almost superstitious interest: they were HIS OWN THEORIES--perfected and demonstrated! "But you must have had capital for this ?" Ah, yes! that was where they were fortunate.

There were some French cousins with whom she had once stayed in Paris, who advanced enough to stock the estate.

There were some English friends of her father's, old blockade runners, who had taken shares, provided them with more capital, and imported some skilled laborers and a kind of steward or agent to represent them.