The Madisonian. (Richmond, Ky.) 1913-1914, 1914-04-07

Valiant turned, with a gesture that
Included all IF you care to dismount
and rest" he said, 81 shall be honored,
though I'm afraid 1 can't offer you
such hospitality as I should wish"
The judge raised his broad soft hat.
THANK you, sir" he said, with a soft
accent that delightfully."- disdained the
letter 'r" But we mustn't intrude
any further. AS you know, of course,
the place has been uninhabited for
any number Of years, and we had no
idea it was to acquire tenant. You
will overlook our riding through, 1
hope. I'm afraid the neighborhood
has got used to considering this sort
of no-man's land. It's a pleasure to
know that the Court is to be re-
claimed, sir. Come along, Chilly" he
added Our fox has burrow under
the house, reckon-hang the cunning
little DEVIL"
He waved his hat at the porch and
turned his horse down the path, side
by side with the golden chestnut.
After them trooped the others, horses
walking YEARLY, riders talking in low
voices, the girls turning often to send
swift bird-like chances behind them
to where the straight masculine figure
still stood with the yellow sunshine on
his face. They did not7leap the wall
this time, but filed decorously through
the swinging gate to the Red Road.
Then, as they passed from view be-
hind the hedges, John Valiant heard
the younger voices break out together
like the sound of bomb thrown into
a poultry-yard.
John Valiant stood watching till the
last rider was out Of sight. There
was a warm flush of color in his face
At length he turned with a ghost
of a sigh, opened the hall door wide
and stalking hundred yards away,
sat down on the shady grass and be-
gan to whistle, with his eyes on the
door.
Presently he was rewarded. On a
sudden, around the edge of the sill
peered a sharp, suspicious little muz-
zle. Then, like flash of tawny light,
the fox broke sanctuary and shot for
the thicket.
.
The brown ivied house in the vii
Iage was big and square and faced the
sleepy street. A one-storied wing con-
tanned a small door with a doctors
brass plate on the clapboarding be-
side it. Doctor Southan was one Of
Mrs. Merryweather Masons paying
guests-for she would have deemed
the word boarder gratuitous insult,
no less to them than to her. Another
was the major, who for a decade had
occupied the big old-fashioned cor
ner-room on the second floor, COM
panioned by a monstrous gray cat and
waited on by an ancient negro named
Jereboam, who had been a slave Of
his fathers.
The doctor was a sallow taciturn
man with a saturnine face, eyebrows
like frosted thistles, a mouth as If
made with one quick knife-slash and
head nearly bald, set on neck that
would not have disqualified a year
ling OK
On this particular morning neither
the major nor the doctor was in evil
dence, the former having gone out
early, and the latter being at the mo-
ment in his Office, as the brassy buzz
of telephone from time to time an
nounced. Two Of the green wicker
rocking-chairs on the porch, however,
were in agitant commotion. Mrs. Ma
son was receiving caller in the per
son of Mrs. Napoleon Clifford
After all these years." the visitor
was saying in her customary italics.
(The broad "a" which lent a dulcet
softness to the speech of her hostess
was scorned by Mrs Poly, her own
"a's" being as narrow as the needle
through which the rich man reaches
heaven.) I'VE came here from Rich
mond when / was a bride-that's
twenty-one years ago-and Damory
Court was forsaken then. And think
what a condition the house must be in
now! Cared for by an agent who
comes every other season from New
York. Trust a man to do work like
that"
sPm glad Valiant is to occupy it,
remarked Mrs. Mason in her swee'
hute-like voice cit would be sad tt
see any one else there. For after all
the Va1iants were gentlemen"
Mrs. Clifford shifted. Would yot
have called Devil-John Valiant gen
tleman? Why, he earned the name
by the dreadful things he did. Ny
grandfather used to say that when hi
wife lay sick-he hated her, you know
-Ae would gallop his horse with al