The Detroit times., 1913-10-30
CHAPTER v.
The Letter,


The Letter.
He tore open the letters abstract
edly-the usual dinner-card or two,
a tailors spring announcement, q
chronic serial from an explanatory
marble-Quarrying company, a quar-
terly statement of a club house-com-
mittee. The last two missives bore
a nondescript look.
One was small, with the name OF q
legal firm In its corner. The other
was largish. corpulent and heavy. Of
stout Manila paper. and bore, down
one side. gaudy procession Of post
age stamps proclaiming that II had
been registered.
What's In that, wonder?" he said
TO himself, and then. with a smile at
the unmasculine speculation. opened
the smaller envelope.
Dear Sir began the letter, In the
most uncompromisingly conventional
of typewriting:
Dear Sir:
Enclosed please finG, with title
deed, memorandum opened in your
name by the late John Valiant some
years before his death. II was his
desire that the services indicated In
connection with this estate should
continue till this date. We hand you
herewith our check for $236.2O 1.-TWO
hundred and thirty-six dollars and
twenty cents). the balance in your
favor. for which please send receipt,
And oblige.
Yours very truly.
EMERSON AND BALL"
'(EnclOsure)."
He turned TO the memorandum. II
showed sigable initial deposit
against which was entered a series
Of annual tax payments with minor
disbursements credited to Inspection
and care" The tax receipts were
pinned to the account
The larger wrapper contained an
unsealed envelope. across which was
written In faded ink and in an unfa-
miliar dashing, slanting handwriting,
his own name. The envelope con.
tanned a creased yellow parchment
from between whose folds there
dumped and futtered down upon the
floor long fattish object wrapped in
a paper. newspaper clipping and a
letter.
Puzzledly he unfolded the cracking
thing in his hands. why" he said
half aloud, ''it's--it's a deed made
over to me- He overran 1t swiftly.
Part of an old Colony grant
plantation In Virginia, twelve hun
dred odd acres. given under the
hand of vice-regal governor in the
sixteenth century. I had no idea
titles In the United States went back
SO far as that" His eye fed to the
end. 1T was my fathers. What
could he have wanted of an estate in
virgis la? It must have come into
his hands in the course of business.
He fairly groaned. Eye gods, II
II were only Long Island. or even
Pike county. The sorriest out-at-Al.
bow. boulder-ridden. mosquito-stung
old rock-farm there would bring a
decent sum. But Virginia. The
place where the dialect stories grow.
The paradise Of the Jim-crow car and
the hook-worm. where land-poor. clay
colored colonies with Coates sit in
green wicker lawn-chairs and watch
their shadows go round the house.
WHlit tnCy SuLAIC anu tuSS
at lazy 'cullud pussons. Where
everybody Is an F. F. " and every
body's grandfather was a PATRON, or
whatever they call 'em, and had a
thousand slaves 'bofor de wah',
Who ever heard of Virginia now.
adays. except as place people came
from? The principal event in the
his DRY of the state since the Civil
war had been the discovery of New
York. It's men had moved upon the
latter en- masse, coming with the
halo about them OF old Southern
names and legends OF planter hospital
ity-and had married northern WON
en-. till the announcement in the mar
riage column that the fathers Of bride
and bridegroom had fought In oppos-
ing armies at the battle OF Manassas
had grown as hackneyed as the stere-
otyped Whittier are we drifting?'
editorial. But was Virginia herself
anything more, in this twentieth CEN
tury. than hot-blooded, high-handed,
prodigal legend, kept alive in the
north by the banquets of Southern
societies" and annual poems on THE
Lost Cause?"
He picked up the newspaper clip
ping. II was worn and broken in the
folds az II II had been carried for
months in pocketbook
1T will interest readers of this sec.
ton Of Virginia (the paragraph be.
gam to learn, from recent transfer
received for record at the County
Clerks office, that Damory Court has
passed to Mr.. John Valiant, minor
He turned the paper over and
found date; II had been printed in
the year OF the transfer to himself
when he was six years old--the year
his father died
John Valiant, minor. the son OF
the former owner.
There are few indeed who do not
recall the tragedy with which in the
public mind the estate is connected
The fact. moreover. that this old
homestead has been left in It's pres
ent state (for. as Is we'll known. the
house has remained with all It's con
tents and furnishings untouched) to
rest during so long term OF years
unoccupied. could not, OF course. fail
to be commented on. and this circum
stance alone has perhaps tended Ia
keep alive melancholy story which
may well be forgotten"
He read the elaborate. rather still.
ed phraseolasy in the twenty year.old
paper with a wondering interest. "An
old house." he unused. with bad
name. Probably he couldn't sell t.
and maybe nobody would ever live in
II. That would explain why II re-