Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-02-02
Where the
Pluck Law
A Story of Old Virginia
By F. A. Mitchell

Ine romance PERIOD IN America Is
centered In old Virginia. Among the
various elements of that colony were
certain persons of rank who had been
granted privileges by the British SOW
ereign. There were younger son of
English families of ancient lineage
who, having no fortune in the old
world, had come to the new to find one.
In those days every man wore a
sword at his side, and when a father
sent his son out into the world his prin-
cipal instruction was that he should
protect his honor with it to the last
drop of his blood.
During the first half of the nineteenth
century the aristocratic classes of Vir-
ginia were in their prime, though the
wal between the states which was to
~impoverish them was impending. Men
had ceased to wear swords, the impulse
to use them having somewhat abated.
But the code duello was still consider
ed the proper tribunal for gentlemen
to settle their disputes.
One of the principal tobacco planters
in Virginia at the opening of the nine
teenth century was Major Rufus Har-
desty, whose military title-a brevet-
had been conferred upon him at the
siege of Yorktown, where as a young
subaltern he had distinguished himself.
In those days the state was considered
superior to the nation, and when Major
Hardesty went abroad he registered his
name at q London hotel as from Vir-
ginia.
The majors only child was a daugh-
ter, whom his loyalty to his state in
duced him to name Virginia. Miss Har-
desty was a typical girl of her period.
There was a disposition among south
ern girls in those days to consider them
selves as objects to be sought and con-
tended for by their s~uitors, n Vir-
ginia especially objected to giving her
self to any man who had not proved
his prowess in his efforts to obtain her
favor.
One reason for the pride in state
instead of nation in those days was
that there was little passing from n
state to another. Especially was this
true Of transitions between the north
and the south. In that region in which
Major H~ardesty's plantation was sit
uated there was but one resident from
the north, Henry Brainard, who, nav
ing served several years in the United
a Virginia. post, had
resigned to follow the Occupation of
most Virginia conference.-the raising
of tobacco.
Brainard was thirty-five years of age
when Virginia Hardesty was nineteen.
He was a reserved man, somewhat an
gular in his appearance, stiff in man
ner and movement. He was as old
fashioned as a flint ock musket would
be 1t tie present day of rapid fire
arms. What induced such a man to
fall in love with a fiirt like Virginia
Hardesty can only be accounted for
on the theory that Like loves unlike.
Virginia had known Brainard some
time before she was able to interpret
his treatment of her as being caused by
love. Brainard considered himself al
together too old fer such a chit, and
this greatly intensified his embarrass
ment toward her. When she made W
her mind that his strange treatment
of her meant love she was much
amused and foresaw much pleasure III
~torturing him. But Brainard was no
fool and, seeing that the eoquettc was
playing with him as a cat would play
with a mouse, ceased his visits to her
fathers plantation.
Virginia would have attempted to
bring him back to tantalize him fur
ther had she n6tsat the time been alb
sorbed in a new flame. Arthur Rim
gold. the son of a neighboring planter,
returned from a sojourn in England,
where he had been enrolled as a stu
dent at Oxford. He had acquired the
tastes and manner of an English
Iwell and by no means relished his
return to the primitive state of Vir-
ginia. He was somewhat consoled by
favorable notice from Miss Hardesty.
1t was not long before she had so
far blinded him to her faults as to Sc
cure a proposal from him. That a man
for whom there was nothing in Vir-
ginia good enough should have offered
himself to her lattered her, and she
was inclined to accept him; but, as has
been said, she would accept no man
who was not willing to take great risks
for her.
Just how Virginia made it apparent
to Ringold that he would have to fight
for her does not appear. 1t is proba-
BILE that she talked a great deal about
fighting and her admiration for BRAY
cry. At any rate, it was not long aft
er his proposal to her that he was In
for a settlement of a difficulty under
the code. at the coffee house in vii
liamsburg where gentlemen were wont
to meet to drink and smoke, not to
mention gambling, his disparagement
OF America in favor of England excited
the resentment of one T~hibadeaux, a
man Of French extraction. An alterca.
tion ensued, and Ringold challenged
Thibadeaux. 1t may be that the latter
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