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TEE PASSER-BY
77
Around the bend of the way awaited further wooing — perfumed, florid of cheek, cold of eye. In her agitation Betty nearly ran into his arms.
"Oh! Master Kirby, how you startled me ! " She tried to draw away, but found herself powerless. The gallant bent over her, musk-reeking hair almost touching her face.
''Pretty Mistress Come-of-Age!" His tone was jocular and slightly thick. "Methinks a kiss is legal toll along this
Cupid's highway Nay,
my flower, you'll not go till I get it— Betty— Betty— "
"No, no!" she panted, beating her poor little feminine wings. "Coward —
how dare ^" Quick sobs
fluttered from her desecrated lips.
A hand tore at the shoulder above her — a dark face flashed between her and the sky. The Passer-by pointed sternly. Sneering, the gallant bowed low.
"I leave you," he said, with ill-hid sneer, "to the care of this — gentleman/'
The Passer-by gave his arm. But at the foot of the veranda he paused.
"You will not go without giving my father a chance to thank you?" hesitated the girl. He shook his head. "I am only — a passer-by," he said, bending the inscrutable mocking of his eyes upon her. She colored, as tho the slight were hers.
' ' But 'tis dusk, and the road yonder -but a poor one in stark daylight, ' ' she said finally. "I judge, sir, you will have to lodge at Meadowcroft whether you will or no. "
Morning. The Colonel, staid in his high, wound choker and ruffled waistcoat, stood by his doorway, bidding his casual guest a reluctant farewell. **Egad! my friend," said he, "I wish you could stay longer — 'pon my soul!
I do. Not a last stirrup-cup? No? "Well, our latch-string is out to you. ' '
Old Pompey, arriving at this juncture, dammed the rising flow of the Colonel's parting eloquence with a letter.
"Your pardon, sir," said the Colonel, breaking the seal. As he conned the contents, his face grew black. With tremulous flngers, he tore the paper into strips and lifted a
A VALENTINE BOWER FASHIONED FOR wooing"
veined fist above the terrified negro's head.
' ' Tell — the gentleman — to return tomorrow," he thundered. But as the negro darted away on agile, liveried legs, the old man wilted, seeming to shrivel and shrink. He passed a vague, frail hand across his forehead, bowed silently to his guest and strode into the house like a stricken old dog dragging^ his misery out of sight.
The Passer-by bent above the frag