I shall
send Cato down with, the carriage directly, and you may drive over after
Mrs. Cowles." She held out her hand to me. "At dinner to-night, then?"
I bowed, saying that we would be very happy, by which I meant that we
would be very miserable.
This, then, was all that had been determined by my visit. I was still an
engaged man. Evidently nothing otherwise had been discussed in the
Sheraton family councils, if any such had been held. If never suitor in
Old Virginia rode up in sorrier case than mine that morning, as I came
to call upon my fiancee, certainly did never one depart in more
uncertain frame of mind than mine at this very moment. I presume that
young Sheraton felt something of this, for he began awkwardly to speak
of matters related thereto.
"It's awfully hard," he began, "to see strangers there in your own
house--I know it must be hard. But I say, your father must have plunged
heavily on those lands over West in the mountains. I've heard they're
very rich in coal, and that all that was necessary was simply cash or
credit enough to tide the deal over till next year's crops."
"My father always said there was a great fortune in the lands," I
replied.
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