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"Captain Butler," I said ether, ed low in the sunshine--so low that our hands on our hilts alone retained the blades in their scabbards, while our hats swept the short grass on the lawn; then, leisurely erect, once more we stood face to face, a yard of sod betwixt us, the sunshine etching our blue shadows motionless

"Mr Renault," he said, in that colorless voice he used at tiht to know you, but you are six years older Time's alchemy"--he hesitated, then with a perfect bow--"refines even the noblest metal I trust your health and fortune are all that you could desire Is madam, your mother, well, and your honorable father?"

"I thank you, Captain Butler"

He looked at esture wholly graceful: "It is poor reparation to say that I regret the error of as which committed your house to the flames"

"The fortune of war, Captain Butler I trust your home at Butlersbury still survives intact"

A dull color crept into his pallid cheeks

"The house at Butlersbury stands," he said, "as do Johnson Hall, Guy Park, and old Fort Johnson We hope erelong to open theain to our friends, Mr Renault"

"I have understood so," I said politely "When do you ain the dark color came into his face "Sir Frederick Haldi lips "Never a secret, never a plan, but he must bawl it aloud to all who care to listen, or sound it as he gads about from camp to city--aye, and chatters it to the forest trees for lack of audience, I suppose All New York is hu with it, is it not, Mr Renault?"

"And if it is, what harm?" I said pleasantly "Who ever heard of Thendara, save as a legend of a lost town somewhere in the wilderness? Who in New York knohere Thendara lies?"

He looked ateyes--the empty stare of a bird of prey

"You know, for one," he said; and his eyes suddenly beca

I sueness of my smile for acquiescence

Like the lu the fla them darkly drowned in melancholy He stepped nearer

"Let us sit under the trees for ayou, Mr Renault," he said in a low, pleasant voice I bowed We turned, walking shoulder to shoulder toward the shade of the cherry-trees, now in full foliage and heavily fruited With perfect courtesy he halted, inclining his head, a gesture for me to pass before him We seated ourselves at a rustic table beneath the trees; and I remember the ripe cherries which had dropped upon it from the clusters overhead, and how, as we talked, I picked the them one by one