The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1903-06-11

You give methe deepest pleasure
fairfax said, the strangeness of thc
8 tuation preventing a clear under.
81 anding of it.
"Your mother was a Burton" Mr..
Vernon went on. He dismounted and
took the young mans hand. Fine
old families, the Burtons and the Fair
fazes-fire old families. Glad to take
your hand, SIR"
Pauline stood by, looking on. Il
was picturesque group, and evidently
the young cir ,felt deeply the romance
of the occasion. Her feelings height
ened her beauty.
Mr.. Vernon pressed the young man
to go to Vernon Place, and the three
walked thither along the woodland
road, the horse following after them.
When they reached the house tho
two gentlemen were quite like old &C.
aaintances. Mrs. Vernon was glad
to see the son Of her husbands old
friend, and thus Fairfax found him
self the center Of charming attentions.
1t was like a leaf from some old 70.
nance, like being cast into O nook
where the poetry of life still survived
and where scarcely a ripple Of the new
order of things was ever heard.
Rich, fatherless. motherless, with
aut a tie to bind him to any spot, the
young man, after much travel and
many adventures, had come to New
Orleans, whence, in search Of what
ever was new or sketchable, he passed
on into the wilderness, and finally
found his way to the lonely shore of
Bay Saint Louis, where he was glad
to make his home for a time with a
queer little fellow, Vasseur by name,
in a rambling old backwoods house
overlooking the beautiful water.
Vasseur was IN enigma to the young
adventurer and as such very interest
ing. He was very dark, could speak
English, but brokenly, and in many
ways his actions suggested a past life
not above outlawry. All the furniture
and belongings of Vasseur's house
limited at plumber; all of the mans nc.
tions had about them al atmosphere
of furtiveness.
To pass suddenly from such sur
roundings into the charming circle of
the Vernon household was a change
which gave emphasis to the effect, and
it caught the young mans imagination
at once.
And how was it with Pauline?
A young girl under such circum-
stances does not analyze her feelings,
and who shall do it for her?
She sat in the spacious room, and
.instinctively her chair was drawn
close to her mother. Her heart was
full of vague happiness, and any
observer could have see that she was
quite unconscious of her beauty. Her
expression was all attention, for every
faculty of her nature had assumed a
receptive attitude; and while Mr.. YER
non and Burton Fairfax discussed the
ancient social relations of the Yer.
mons, the Fairfaxes and the Burtons,
she found a most satisfying pleasure
in the details, although it would have
been quite impossible for to explain
why.
Fairfax gladly accepted an invita-.
ton to take luncheon at Vernon Place;
indeed, it required q little heroism OH
his part to refuse Mr.. Vernon's urgent
request that he remain in the house
during the rest Of his s~ojourn on the
bay shore; especially hard was it to
hold out against tho hospitable insis-
tence of the ladies, who, in the good
old Southern style, joined in pressing
him to stay. As it was, he took his
departure late in the afternoon; hut
Vasseur's was not so far away that he
could not come back every day if he
saw fit.
If he saw fiji Did q Young mar
ever fail to see fit to go back under
such circumstances? Vernon Place
was better in every way than V~asseur's;
Mr.. Verson was a more interesting
man than Vasseur; Mrs. Vernon was
a charming woman; and Pauline
certainly Pauline was lovely, even If
she did not talk much.
The young man lett O very pleasant
impression in the household. So
pleasant, indeed, that it wiped out
for the time all memory of tie old
wanderer who 80 lately had occupied
almost their entire thought.
Pauline, after bidding good-by to
Fairfax, ran to her own DON and
watched him go away. He had put
on again his belt and pistols, his
pouch of drawing-materials and his
broad hat. The rife across his Shout
der cleaned bravely in the sunlight.
We could but laugh at such a dis
play of weapons in our day; but then
it was different. The wonder is that
a man could feel quite safe even when
thus apparently oyer-armed.
To Pauline there was no suggestion
of the bravado of mere outward pre-
tense in the appearance of Fairfax,
nor ought there to have been. The
times were tragic enough. War be-