, 1915-09-09
CHAPTER XIV.



:. Katharine left the field of Runny-
colored motor. She sat In the drivers
seat beside him, while the bulldog ca
pered. ecstatically barking, from side
to side of the rear cushions. Her
father had declined the honor, remark
ing that he considered a professional
chauffeur a sufficient risk of his valuar
BILE life and that the Chalmers grays
were good enough for him-a decision
which did not wholly displease Katha-
rine.
The car was not the smart Pan.
hard in which she had 80 often spun
down the venue Or along the she'll
roads OF the north shore. 1t lacked
those fin-de-siecle ap~purtenances which
marked the ne plus ultra of its kind.
as her observant y recognized; but
1t ran staunch and true. The powerful
hands that gripped the steering-wheel
we're brown with sun and wind, and
the handsome face above 1t had a look
of keenness and energy she had never
surprised before. They passed many
vehicles and there we're few whose oc-
cupants did not greet him. In fact,
as he presently remarked, 1t was a
saving of energy to keep his hat of;
and he tossed the Panama into the
rear seat. On the rim of the village
a group raised a cheer to which he
nodded laughingly, and further on Q
little old lady on a timid ~vine-colored
porch beside . church, waved Q black.
mirted hand to him with a sweet old
time gesture. Katharine noted that he
bowed to her with extra care.
That's Miss Matte Sue Mabry." he
said, the q~uaintest, dearest thing you
ever saw. She taught my father his
letters"
Where the Red Road stretched level
before them, he threw the throttle
open for a long rush through the
thymy-scented air. The light, late
afternoon breeze drew by them, sweep
ing back Katharine's graceful sinuous
veil and spraying them with odors Of
clover and sunny fruit. They passed
orchard clumps bending with young
apples, boundless aisles Of green.
young-tasseled corr and shadowy
groves that smellsd OF fern and sassa-
fras, opening out into more sunlishted
vistas overarched by the intense pene
trable of the June sky.
John Valiant had never seemed to
waving hair ruffling In their flight and
the westering sun shining redly ON his
face. Midway Of this squirt he looked
at her to say: did you % know q
more beautiful countryside? See how
the ptnk-and-yellow of those grain
fields fades into the purple of the hilla-
Very few painters have eve captured
a tint like that. It's hks raspberrtes
crushed in curdled milk
I've quite lost my heart to It an"
she said. her voice tolting with tho
speed Of their course. ITS q perfect
pastoral . SO different from
u terri1c city pace. OF
course It must be a trifie dun at times
seeing the same people al
ways . . and without the thea
ter and the opera and the whirl about
one-but . the kind of life
one reads about In the nov
els of the South. you know .
l suppose one doesn't realize that II
actually exists until one comes to q
Southern place like this. And the
negro servantsi How odd it must be
to have a white haired old darby In a
brass-buttoned swallow-tail for a but
ieri So ~picturesQue! At Judge Chal
mers' l have q feeling all the time that
I'm walking through q stage re-
hearsal."
The car slackened speed as It slid
by a white-waahed cabin at whose en-
trance sat a duslxy gray-bearded ng-
ure Valiant pointed. do you see
himr' he aaksd-