nothing to be desired. He was probably understanding the
impassable gulf that separated them--education, experience,
feeling, everything that made up the substance of life but
deepened and widened this gulf. He belonged to that shifting,
adventurous population which was far beneath the slave-holding
aristocracy, at least he more nearly belonged to this lower order
than to any other. She fixed his status relentlessly as
something to be remembered when they should meet again. At last,
with a little puckering of the brows and a firm contraction of
the lips, she dismissed the Kentuckian from her thoughts.


Betty complied with Tom's expressed wish, for she did not again
visit Thicket Point, but then she had not intended doing so.
However, the planter was greatly shocked by the discovery he
presently made that she was engaged in a vigorous correspondence
with Charley.

"I wish to blazes Murrell had told those fellows to kick the life
clean out of him while they were about it!" he commented
savagely, and fell to cursing impotently. Brute force was a
factor to be introduced with caution into the affairs of life,
but if you were going to use it, his belief was that you should
use it to the limit. You couldn't scare Norton, he was in love
with that pink-faced little fool. Keep away?--he'd never think
of it, he'd stuff his pockets full of pistols and the next man
who stopped him on the road would better look out! It made him
sick--the utter lack of sense manifested by Murrell, and his
talk, whenever they met, was still of the girl. He couldn't see
anything so damn uncommon about that red-and-white chit. She