The Voice of the People

to remark that if she had not something to look back upon she could not live: and, as her retrospective view was ra

gh; those of her past began with the first Dudley who swung a lance in Merry England, to en

s Webb, an officer in the cavalry of the United States. He danced a minuet with her at a ball in Washington, was heard to swear an oath by her eyes at punch befo

g the strength to insert but a single stipulation in the marriage contract, to the effect that his daughter should drop the name of Jane and be known as Dudley in her husband's household. To t

ed in his cards and his cups and lo

s that his heart was where his home was. So he kissed the young mother and the boy at her side and rode l

steds she was winding. After the words were spoken she laid the worsteds carefully a

side her. When he fretted at the restraint she tied a band of crêpe on his little jacket and sent him to play on the green, while she

e had done as a bride. The stiff folds of her black silk showed no wavering ripple, the repose of her lips betrayed no tremor. The smooth,

taining throughout the struggle her air of unflinching irony. She moved into a small white frame house opposite the church, and let out her spare rooms to student boarders. Her pride was never lowered and her crêpe w

, and her former prosperity was ignored along with her present poverty. Of her own sorrows she, herself, made no mention. When she spoke from the depths of her bitterness of the war and the ruin it had left, her resentment was general rather than personal. Above the mantel in her room hung the sword of Julius Webb, sheathed under the tattered colours of the Confederate States. At her throat she wore a button that had been cut from a gray coat, and, once, after the close of the w

of her unbowed beauty and her solitary revolt. When young Dudley grew old enough to attend school the gen

dge, tripping in his usually steady speech. "I assure you

ed in unaffir

eneral hotly. "Your husband died for Virginia, and your boy shall not want while I have a

bb bowe

ma'am," protested th

Webb

!" cried the general, his face flushing a

with embarrassment and the judge to become speechless from perplexity. When they rose to leave both thanked her with effusion

escended the steps. "A most unusual woman! Why, I feel positively unworthy to sit in her presence. Her manne

acquiesced

tude, and he was wondering if it would be n

creature who could live with that woman and not be made a man of wouldn't be human; he'd be a hound. There is dignity in every inch of her, sir. I will all

the judge, adding apologetically, "

ent, as he held it to be an absence of propriety to unite in admiration of one who was wanting in the supr

thy of her," he said. "It i

ff his straw hat a

ir. If he takes any notion in his head not to be, I'll thrash h

he's as bright as a steel trap. I wish Tom had half his sense." Then he turned past the church on his way home,

ng boy, with a rich voice and a nature that was generous in small things and selfish in large ones. There was a convincing air of good-fellowship about

d passionately to Sally Burwell. "Somehow

room and took his place upon one of the short green benches, Mrs.

gentleman, and he will not submit to association with his i

uncompromising quailing-a surre

m-a continental whether anybody else is his inferior or not. No wholesome boy does. He doesn't know the meaning of the word-nor does Tom-and

firm. Mrs. Web

legal manner; she assu

ate a person above h

tations, madam,"

rence to her dissenting voice, and his words wavered, but his will did not. In his attitude his respect for her sexual

ar lady," he said, "but I

gathered up her stiff skirt a

lt. In the afternoon he sent over a bottle of his best Madeira as a peace-offering. Mrs. Webb acknowledged the Madeira, not the truce. The following day General Battle called

d soothingly, "you do not wi

't, George," stam

iet, unoff

never passed him on the road in my life that he didn't touch his hat,

Think what it is to be born in a lowe

's great ch

le chap for the world Georg

ow it

father Battle raise

the fact aside a

icism, "and her views are naturally prejudiced. You can't

eral br

d. "You can't expect a woman

unusual woman (the general

d again, though l

ed. "Why, damme, sir, if I had that woman

is friend's profanity, called C

d Mr. Burwell appeared, to be met a

t me to side with an unprotec

tted the judge in the slightly pompous to

st be left to men. There is no need for our wives and daughters to be troubled by them. It is for us

agreed a

f it," the other went on. "Indeed, I think she

our to her sex," sai

s study floor. He had gained the victory, but he would have felt pleasanter had it

rowned down upon his hurrying figure as it sped along the street and turned the corner at the palace green. Sometimes, when snow was falling, he would shoot by like

placid eyes wo

ead sooner or later, with more information than Tom's brain could hold. One of the instructors at the college-a consumptive young fellow, whose ambitions had leaned towards the bar-gave the boy what assistance he needed, and when th

Sitting in the quaint old library, surrounded by faded relics and colourless traditions, he felt the breath of hushed oratory in the air, and political passion stirred in the surrounding dust. There was a niche in a small alcove, where he spen

championship. There had sprung up a strong friendship between the two-one of those rare affections which bend but do not break. Dudley Webb, the most brilliant member of his class and the light of his mother's eyes, began life, as he would end it, with the ready grasp of good-fellowship. He had long since outgrown his artificial, childish distrust of Nicholas, and h

athlete rather than the student. His hair had darkened to a less flaming red, his eye

urwell, inflating his pink cheeks, with a return of y

for physical perfection, rendered the greater by his own tormented childhood. He was strong and vigorous and of

cked him down. When his enemy had lain at his feet on the green he had raised him up and made amends by standing motionl

ty of the State; Tom Bassett and Bernard Battle soon followed, and

bench and resumed his legal practice, sent for him and offered t