The Miller Of Old Church

etween the white columns, and Abednego, the old butler, pushed aside t

dnego, I've bought a new

Nancy, and give Patsey t

erver would have discerned that she had surrendered all rights in order to grasp more effectively at all the privileges. She was

she asked, "I hoped

y down the steps and then slipping his arm about her. "You came a minute o

led the way into the house and placed

y has been too much for

dnego to bring yo

spoonful of sherry, dear, she kno

opted saintliness not from inclination, but from the force of a necessity against which rebellion has been in vain. Her plain, prominent features wore, from habit, a look of sullen martyrdom that belie

pestried furniture was all in soft rose, a little faded from age, and above the high white wainscoting on the plastered walls, this same delicate colour

eless mother," murmured Mrs. Gay, shielding her c

's worse even than I imagined! How the deuce have you managed to drag o

r uncle's account and that I am only following his wishes in making

aking the dawn hideous! I'd choose the qui

y noises yet, and I suppos

you walk? How do y

he lawn by herself. Once she got into quite a dreadful state about her liver and lack of exercise-(poor dear mother used to say that the difference between the liver of a lady and that of another person, was that one required no exercise and the other did)-but Kesiah, who is the best creature in the world, is very ecc

ed so much and complained so little!" he

iolets, drooped over him above the peac

e observed, "and I sometimes think she is

ings as you do, one can

ld to go at the time, but of course it was out of the question that a Virginia lady should go off by herself and paint perfectly nude people in a foreign city. There was a dreadful scene, I remember, and Kesiah even wrote to Uncle William Burwell and asked him to come down and win mother over. He came immediately, for he was the kindest soul, but, of course after he understood, he decided against it. Why on earth should a girl want to go streaking across the water to study art, he asked, when she had a home she c

sted in the history of his aunt, for he seldom exerted his imagination except under pre

t to me! Such consideration! Such generosity! Such delicacy! He and

stories about him? Was he-w

the twenty years that I knew him he never let fall

ut what about his relations

f his words had s

r uncle would never have

at the age of three, painted astride the back of an animal that d

uncertainty, his curiosity triumphed over his discretion and he put, in an apologetic tone, an equall

ng to him, "Oh, be careful, I am so sensitive. Remember that I am a poor frail creature, and do not hurt me. Let me remain still in my charmed circle where I have always lived, and wher

ied, and her tone added, "but what can I do about it?

in my uncles's will

chin appeared to harden with the resolve of the moment. Across his forehead, under the fine dark hair which

ll such things away from me out of consideration for my heart. But I've never doubted for an instant that your uncle did everything that was just and generous in the matt

wenty-one th

onathan, I reall

ah can tell me som

I had to ask her never to mention Brother Jonathan's name to me because

austed her, while the peacock firescreen slipped from

st," she said gently, yet with a veiled reproach. "The jour

, with several solicitous maids in attendance, they carried the fragile little lady up

ich was not associated with sex, was an affront to convention, that single gift of hers was doomed to wither away in the hot-house air that surrounded her. A man would have struck for freedom, and have made a career for himself in the open world, but her nature was rooted deep in the rich and heavy soil from which she had tried to detach it. Years after her first fight, on the day of her mother's death, she had suffered a brief revival of youth; and then she had pulled in vain at the obstinate tendrils that held her to the spot in which she had grown. She was no longer penniless, she was no longer needed, but she was crushed. The power of revolt was the gift of youth. Middle-age could put forth only a feeble and ineffectual resistance-words without passion, acts without abandonment. At times she still felt the old burning sense of injustice, the old resentment against life, but this passed quickly now, and she grew quiet as soon as her eyes fell on the flat, spare figure, a little bent in the ch

all en he sez he'd be moughty glad ef'n

dnego. I must tak

ushion on her bureau, and after throwing a knitted cape over her shoulders, went down the wide staircase to where Reuben

ooden leg, which was slightly in advance of his sound one. His fine bearded face might have been

that he had come at once to acknowledge the g

e stammered and grew confused while the anxious frown deepened between her eyebrows. A morb

am out of doors in bad weather," he replied,

ing more embarrassed, she added hastily

and keepin' her in the barn. Have you noticed the hogs? They're

been struck with the corn you've brou

e conversation or to let it trail off into silence. Then at the first laboured pause, Reuben repeated his me

embarrassment. "I've wanted to talk with you for two days, but I shan't detain you now for I happen to kno

e tone, while Gay followed Kesiah into the drawing-room, and put a qu

ben Merryweather on frien

at him with a nervous t

Jordans still lived here, and I am sure your uncle felt that it would be unjust to remove him.

owing his intense blue eyes which were so

he inquired, and added a little bitterly, "It's not fai

She was even sent off to a boarding-school in Applegate, but she ran away during the middle of the second se

tion of her in Unc

rather mysterious, but we only know that he owned considerable property in the far West, which he left away from us and in trust to his lawyer. I suppo

did my poor mother

ant, positively scowl

an would have married the girl's mother-Janet

You mean he feared

omise-he was quite distracted with remorse for he adored Angela-that he would never allude to it again while she was alive. We thought then tha

the girl-of Janet Me

net counted rather recklessly upon his keeping his word and marrying her as he had promised. When her trouble came she went quite out of her mind-perfectly harmless, I believe, and with lucid intervals in which

to have been too ready

here was a difference b

her and to his

that, even if it happens not to be true. Before the war one hardly ever heard of that class, mother used to say, it was so humble and unpre

prised and indignant that she should

lf a century produced him, but he's here to stay, of that I am positive. After all, why shouldn't he, when we get down to the question? He-or the stock he represents, of course-is already getting hold of the soi

perity, but in poverty that the qualities of race come to the surface, and this remarkable miller of yours would probably be crushed

r his breath, "but in that case how would you fix the racial