"I hope she likes me."

66

She has been praising you ever since your visit to Independence. I never saw her talk so long to a young man in my life before. You must have hypnotised her."

"I hope so."

A strange happiness filled her heart. She was afraid to look it in the face; and yet she dared to play with the thought.

"Are you enjoying your triumph to-night? I've had war inside."

"I feel like I am the Emperor of the World and that the Evening Star is smiling on my court!"

She smiled, tossed her head, leaned against the tree and said,

"I wonder if you are in the habit of saying things like that to girls?"

"Upon my soul and honour, no."

"Then thanks. I'll dream about that, maybe."

They returned to the hotel and McLeod claimed her. They went back the same walk, and by a freak of fate he chose the same seat she had just vacated with Gaston.

Miss Sallie, you are of age now. You know that I have loved you passionately since you were a child. I have made my way in life, I am hungry for a home and your love to glorify it. Why will you keep me waiting?"

"Simply because I know now I do not love you, Allan, and I never will. Once and forever, here, to-night I give you my last answer, I will not be your wife."

"Then don't give the answer to-night. I can wait," he interrupted. "I am just on the threshold of a great career. Success is sure. I can offer you a dazzling position. Don't give me such an answer. Leave the old answer to wait.”

"No, I will not. I do not love you. If you were to

become the President, it would not change this fact, and it is everything."

"That is none of your business, sir. I have known you since childhood. I have had ample time to know my own mind."

"All right, we will say good-bye for the present. You have made me a laughing stock of young fools, but I can stand it. I'll not give you up, and if I can't have you, no other man shall."

"If you leave my will out of the calculation, you will make a fatal mistake."

"Women have been known to change their wills."

Before leaving her that night Gaston held her hand for an instant as he bade her good-bye and said, "Miss Sallie, I thank you with inexpressible gratitude for the honour you have done me."

"I've just been wondering what you have done to deserve it?"

66

Absolutely nothing,-that's why it is so sweet. This has been the happiest day I ever lived. I cannot see you again before you go. I leave to-morrow on urgent business. May I come to Independence to see you?”

"Yes, I'll be delighted to see you. Good-night." Gaston was the last to return to Hambright. He walked the two miles through the silent starlit woods. He took a short cut his bare feet had travelled as a boy, and with uncovered head walked slowly through the dim aisles of great trees. It was good, this cool silence and the soft mantle of the night about his soul! The stars whispered love. The wind sighed it through the leaves.

He had withdrawn from the church in his college days because he had grown to doubt everything-God, heaven, hell, and immortality. To-night as he walked slowly home he heard that wonderful sentence of the old Bible

ringing down the ages, wet with tears and winged with hope,

66 God is love!"

He said it now softly and reverently, and the tears came unbidden from his soul. He felt close to the heart of things. He knew he was close to the heart of nature. What if nature was only another name for God? And he whispered it again,

"God is love!"

"Ah! If I only knew it I would bow down and worship Him forever!" he cried.

When Sallie reached her mother's room that night, Mrs. Worth was seated by her window. "Why didn't you dance?"

"Didn't care to."

66

Sly Miss, you can't fool me.

cause Mr. Gaston couldn't.

loud way to talk to him.”

You didn't dance beThat was a dangerously

"How did you like him, Mama?"

"Come here, dear, and sit on the edge of my chair. I wish I knew when you were in earnest about a man. I like him more than I can tell you. He talked to me so beautifully about his mother, I wanted to kiss him. He is charming."

"Why, Mama!"

"I'd like him for a son. There's a wealth of deep tenderness and manly power in him.”

Mama, you're getting giddy!"

But she kissed her mother twice when she said good night.

M

CHAPTER X

THE HEART OF A VILLAIN

CLEOD had developed into a man of undoubted power. He was but thirty-two years old, and the dictator of his party in the state.

He had the fighting temperament which Southern people demand in their leaders. With this temperament he combined the skill of subtle diplomatic tact. He had no moral scruples of any kind. The problem of expediency alone interested him in ethics.

McLeod's pet aversion was a preacher, especially a Baptist or a Methodist. His choicest oaths he reserved for them. He made a study of their weaknesses, and could tell dozens of stories to their discredit, many of them true. He had an instinct for finding their weak spots and holding them up to ridicule. He bought every book of militant infidelity he could find and memorised the bitterest of it. He took special pride in scoffing at religion before the young converts of Durham's church.

He was endowed with a personal magnetism that fascinated the young as the hiss of a snake holds a bird. His serious work was politics and sensualism. In politics he was at his best. Here he was cunning, plausible, careful, brilliant and daring. He never lost his head in defeat or victory. He never forgot a friend, or forgave Of his foe he asked no quarter and gave

an enemy.

none.

His ambitions were purely selfish. He meant to climb to the top. As to the means, the end would justify them. He preferred to associate with white people. But when it was necessary to win a negro, he never hesitated to go any length. The centre of the universe to his mind was A. McLeod.

He was fond of saying to a crowd of youngsters whom he taught to play poker and drink whiskey,

66

Boys, I know the world. The great man is the man who gets there."

He was generous with his money, and the boys called him a jolly good fellow. He used to say in explanation of this careless habit,

"It won't do for an ordinary fool to throw away money as I do. I play for big stakes. I'm not a spendthrift. I'm simply sowing seed. I can wait for the harvest."

And when they would admire this overmuch he would warn them,

"As a rule my advice is, Get money. Get it fairly and squarely if you can, but whatever you do, get it. When you come right down to it, money's your first, last, best and only friend. Others promise well but when the scratch comes, they fail. Money never fails."

A boy of fifteen asked him one day when he was mellow with liquor,

"McLeod, which would you rather be, President of the United States or a big millionaire?"

"Boys," he replied, smacking his lips, and running his tongue around his cheeks inside and softly caressing them with one hand, while he half closed his eyes,

"They say old Simon Legree is worth fifty millions of dollars, and that his actual income is twenty per cent on that. They say he stole most of it, and that every dollar represents a broken life, and every cent of it could be painted red with the blood of his victims. Even so, I