In the course of a few days John Spotswood was able to sit up in his
chair, and receive the visits and congratulations of his friends. He seemed
to have lost all relish for the disgusting poison which had thus carried him to
the very brink of the grave, but the same settled despondence still brooded
over his young hopes. Kate was ever at his side, not only anticipating every
desire, but exerting her powers to the uttermost to entertain and enliven her
dejected brother. She read to him, she sang to him, she culled flowers to
amuse his solitary hours, and even affected a gaiety which she felt not, to
cheer him from his settled melancholy; but all to no purpose—to the books
he listened not, to her charming voice he turned a deaf ear, and her flowers he
would take in his hand and perhaps snuff their fragrance, and then let them
fall listlessly upon the carpet beside him. No subject, no book, no person
seemed to possess the least attraction for him, he hardly tolerated the society
of his own sister, delightful as that society was. His whole comfort now
consisted in his tobacco, which the old Doctor allowed him to whiff occasionally.
He would sit for hours with his pale emaciated face thrown up, his
head resting upon the back of his couch, and his eyes fastened upon the
ceiling, or following the rich volumes of smoke which issued from the fragrant
weed, and never utter a syllable.

Kate would steal away into another room and weep and sob as if her heart
would break, and then after removing all traces of her distress, glide back
again to her position at his side. Many times she was compelled to rush out

[figure description] Page 080.[end figure description]

of the room to hide her emotion, at some remark of her brother's, showing
his utter hopelessness and deep despondence; she was not always alone in
her duties at her brother's sick couch. Bernard Moore spent a great portion
of his time there, and by his lively conversation and playful humor, assisted
Kate in her endeavors to pluck the rooted sorrow from John's heart; but it is
very questionable, whether he was not much more successful in planting the
seeds of it in his own. It is a very dangerous thing for a young gentleman
to see a beautiful girl daily and hourly performing those hundred little offices
which minister to the wayward fancies of an invalid, especially if those sweet
charities are offered with a cheerful spirit and a temper always yielding, even
to the impositions of the unreasonable patient. It is not that man in his selfishness
is looking forward to the days of his own imbecility, when he may
perhaps need a nurse himself—it is not that or any thing like it, that so lays
open his heart on such occasions; there is very little in reference to self passing
through his mind; 'tis purely because it presents woman in her true
sphere; it is because it presents her in the attitude of a ministering angel.

How noiselessly she moves through the room—with what gentle and steady
hands she presents the cup to the parched sufferer—how nicely she balances
the pillow supporting the throbbing temples, and then lays it down again so
softly, that the slumbers of an infant would scarcely be disturbed. There is
no impatience—no drowsiness—no yawning—not even talking, when out of
place—they endure all things, suffer all things.

Kate was wholly absorbed with her brother's condition; she seemed entirely
unconscious that a very assiduous beau was as constant in his attentions to
her slightest wants, as she was to those of her brother. Not that she slighted
Moore in any degree, nor on the other hand, did she manifest that alarming politeness,
which to the discerning lover is the prelude to a dismissal. The most
keen-sighted and sagacious observer of the sex would have been sorely puzzled
to say, in what estimation she held the youth. The Virginia system, or
custom, has always required a long probation of the lover, and during all the
while, how admirable is the self-possession of the sly and demure damsel! Not
a look, or gesture, or word, or pressure of the fingers betrays the state of the
aflections. How this admirable result is brought about, we know not; we
speak of the performance of the ladies' part, as matter of history. The object is
sometimes effected by a playful railery, and affectation of indifference, in other
regions; but it is not so in the Old Dominion. The lady preserves a charming
degree of naturalness in the midst of the most interesting passages of life.
That nature is wholly suppressed, and that there are no little straws floating
upon the still stream, by which the current may be detected, we do not mean
to say. We only speak of the general habits and manners of the people.

Moore (as all other Virginia lovers do even at this day) doubtless weighed
these things, and certainly took encouragement from the examination, as his
perseverance evinced, but Carter did the same, and both could not be right.
Thus holding two admirers exactly equipoised, will our readers accuse her of
coquetry? There was not a particle of that feline propensity in her composition,
which plays with a victim and then destroys him. Nature has placed the
female sex in the defensive in this matter; they cannot woo, but must wait to
be woed; and man in his thousand intricacies of character, and seeming inconsistencies,
retreats as she advances; it is therefore the true philosophy of
the sex to be utterly non-committal, until the all-important hour arrives, when
these conventional barriers are broken down by the other. Then how charmingly
the frost work of that long probation melts before the assiduities of the
ardent and persevering lover! Before that day arrives, there are a thousand
little playful courtships on the part of the gentleman; he often assumes quite
a quixotic devotion, and hesitates not to profess his admiration, at which the
lady looks on quite smilingly and demurely, but these are the mere skirmishes

[figure description] Page 081.[end figure description]

of the outposts which precede the pitched battle. It was partly on this account
that Moore's position was so dangerous; all this skirmishing and quixotic
devotion to the sex was in a great measure dropped in the sick room,
and he flattered himself that he had caught sundry little nameless confiding
pieces of forgetfulness in Kate. He saw that she looked up to and relied
even upon his presence as a comfort in her present position. In other words,
the sick room breaks down a small portion of these conventional barriers.
They consulted quite confidentially about the varying state of the invalid's
health, and the state of his mind. Was he so selfish as to wish John's sickness
prolonged; we hope not; we know not; it would have been no inconsistent
phase of human nature if he had; but he was constant in his attentions,
and ever instant with his services. Those whispering conversations
which they held in the recess of the palace window, while the patient slept,
were exceedingly comfortable things to the doubting youth. How he drank
in the words that fell from her now all serious and confiding face, and how he
loved to see her eye rest upon him for consolation, after a prolonged gaze
upon her sleeping brother.

On the evening in question, as they thus sat, after a little playful bantering
of Moore's, and several ineffectual attempts to reinstate her in her usual
cheerfulness, she thus spoke to him:

“Will you be frank and sincere with me now, and say, if you know the
cause of this sad change in my brother?”

“Thus appealed to, most assuredly I will Kate; but it is a fruitless frankness
in this instance, for I am as ignorant as yourself. The day that you
sent me in your place to accompany him on the road, I endeavored to draw it
out, but he baffled me.”

“You know more of human nature, at all events, more of young men's
nature, than I do, what do you imagine could cause this dreadful despondence?
Place yourself in his situation as near as you can, what would depress you thus?”

“I know not, unless being crossed in love.” Kate turned her head slightly
from the speaker, and a warm and just perceptible color flashed over her
cheeks for an instant, leaving her face rather pale, and her ears very red. He
continued: “But I do not know that any such thing has happened to John?”

“No,” replied she—“there was a slight effort made by their friends to induce
my brother and Ellen to fancy each other, but they very soon discovered
that these are feelings which, in their origin at least, must be spontaneous.
Neither of them, I believe, were heart-broken by the effort; I can speak with
certainty of the lady.”

“And I, of the gentleman—of course, that cannot be the cause. Have
you never heard of any other attachment of his?”

Kate made no reply, but seemed busied with some mortifying recollection,
and then darted off to perform some little nameless duty about her brother's
sick couch. When she returned, she did not seem to think the question still
required an answer, and the subject was dropped.

That same night Moore was seated in his room at the Hotel, wrapped in
his dressing gown, his feet cased in slippers and thrown over a chair, while
volumes of smoke rose up in pyramids over his head, and broke in fanciful
festoons for many yards around. A large volume, with plates, was open
before him, and his table was strewed with flowers. He did not seem to be
studying very attentively, for every now and then he threw his eyes to the
ceiling, and was lost in a pleasing reverie. Presently a rap or two was heard
at the door, when who should enter but Carter, just from Temple Farm,
Moore sprang up and grasped his hand cordially, as he said:

“Oh, Carter, where the treasure is, there will the heart be also.”

“True, my fine fellow, how is Kate?”

“Well, I thank you, but I had supposed you would ask first about her
brother.”

[figure description] Page 082.[end figure description]

“You thank me! and who the devil gave you any right to thank me?
You speak as if you were already one of the family. Come, come, Moore,
fair play; there must be no stealing a march upon me. We are pledged to
a fair race, and that it shall not be terminated until we have crossed the
mountains.”

“Ha, ha, ha,” shouted Moore, “Gad, that would be a long track, sure
enough; the Governor to hold the stakes, I suppose?”

“Moore, what a fellow you are, for turning every thing into a joke.”

“Aye, Carter, true; but where my tongue tickles, your's stings.”

“But what do you mean by having these flowers upon your table, and that
huge book on medicine; are you going to study the art?”

“This is a book on botany, and these are specimens. Kate is giving me
lessons.”

“Ha, ha, ha,” said Carter, “love makes fools of us all. You know that
you have no more of the genuine passion than a savage. If she were to
order you upon a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, don't you think you would undertake
it?”

“By Heavens, Carter, we are both going on one little short of it; and if the
honest truth were told, it is more the daughter's influence than the father's
arguments that leds us over those mountains, as studiously as you may pore
over the old veteran's maps. Is it not so?”

“Right, Moore, right.”

“Well, what is the difference now between my courting the daughter with
botany, and your courting the old gentleman with geography?”

“None, except that I fear you have taken the shortest and pleasantest road;
but talking of mountains, I understand our expedition is to be no child's play
after all; there is terrible work with the Indians along our southern borders.
The North Carolinians have had quite a brush with them, and the infection is
extending even to some of our tributaries, and to the whole of the South
Western Indians. I do not like the idea of that fellow, Chunoluskee, being
our guide.”

“Nor I—did you ever hear such stuff as that which he palmed off upon
those three old gentlemen that morning. He is an arrant hypocrite.”

“As ever lived, and yet the Governor will not believe it; he will peril the
success of his expedition, if not the whole of our lives, if his eyes be not opened
before we set out.”

“It must be our business to see to that, but tell me, have you heard from
any more of the counties? Will the young men join us?”

“Yes; I saw the Governor to-night and he is in fine spirits. He says they
are pouring into the capital from every quarter.”

“What, the gentry, or their recruits?”

“Both; some have brought their men, and mules, and horses, and are now
actually ready; while others have been brought here by the proclamation, to
see and learn for themselves. I left at least twenty of the latter down stairs
as I came through; they are smoking and drinking over the discussion of the
subject, even now.”

“How talk they—for us or against us?”

“For us—I think most of them seem to have caught at that new idea of the
Tutors, about the immense rewards in lands. Gad, Moore, that's an extraordinary
fellow, a clever rogue; but the Governor says he's a soldier, every
inch of him.”

“Yes, you can see that in his very step; he never turns his head, but he
seems as if it were on a pivot.”

“But I forgot to tell you the news about him, since you left the Farm; he
is desperately smitten with the old Doctor's little nun.”

“Is it possible?—he is presumptuous.”

“Yes, it is a fact, and what is still more remarkable, the little prude is quite

[figure description] Page 083.[end figure description]

pleased with his attentions; she seems at last to have found one of our sex
whom she can tolerate, and a pretty selection she has made of it. Only to
think of her rejecting John Spotswood, and then accepting this desperate
adventurer with the seedy garments.”

“As to fortune, Carter, I grant you it would be rather a mesalliance, but in
every other respect he is a match for any man's daughter. I am very much
mistaken if he has not always moved in circles of the highest rank. But tell
me what induces you to think that there is any thing in the story?”

“Well, I'll tell you; since you left the Farm they have been inseparable.
The morning that Kate came away, they spent about half the day together,
over that strange vault at the foot of the garden, about which there is so much
gossip just now; after which she locked herself up for the remainder of the
day and night. Next morning she came out bright as a new guinea, and
again they wandered off together, along the bay shore, he talking poetry, and
she discoursing of heaven, no doubt. Well, they came into dinner, and there
she sat laughing and talking as loud as Dorothea herself. I asked the little
dairy maid in an under tone, if she did not think her friend was hysterical,
for which she slapped me in the face with her fan. It, however, proved to be
no hysterics after all, for she has been quite cheerful ever since, and sits out
the evening in the parlor, and has taken Kate's place at the organ every evening.
There is a great change in her, from some cause or other—others have
noticed it, and her bloom is already returning. If I had not engaged in this
everlasting race with you over the mountains for the prize of Kate's hand,
and if Ellen was not such an intolerable little blue-stocking, I could find it in my
heart to fall in love with her myself; she is a bewitching little fairy after all.”

“Well, how does the representative of all the Lees bear being choused by
a poor Tutor?”

“Oh, there's the sport—Dorothea, I fear, will die with the effort to suppress
her delight; she encourages the mutual attraction of the two quiet ones,
while Lee struts like a peacock.”

“But, Carter, how was it he played the magnanimous to the Tutor, about
the property left him, has he taken all that back?”

“Oh, he was in a patronizing mood then, and cannot very well retract, for
the Governor actually drew some of the proceeds of the estate out of him
before this business commenced. The adventurer carries it off boldly, I assure
you, for he treats Harry as if he were the debtor and Hall the creditor.”

“Such is the fact, Carter, if his story be true.”

“Poh, poh, Moore, will you never learn the world better; I tell you he is
some broken down gambler, or attorney, or perhaps a cashiered officer.”

“How could he have known all that family history which he detailed to Lee?”

“Learned it for the purpose of swindling, no doubt.”

“I cannot believe it; if Hall is an impostor, I'll never trust mankind again.”

“Well, we shall see, for depend upon it if he goes on putting his spoon into
Lee's dish, as he is doing now, that gentleman will soon bring him to the
proofs of his identity. Indeed, I heard him swear before I left the Farm, that
he had suffered himself to be imposed upon, and he wrote a long letter by me
to Attorney General Clayton, upon this very subject. You will be sure to
see a fox chase before the matter is ended. Clayton read the letter in my
presence, and questioned me very closely about the young man, He evidently
thinks with me, that he is an impostor. He says the question can be placed
beyond doubt, in a short time; that there is a man now living in the Colony
who came from the neighborhood of these Hall's in Scotland, and who knows
the young man Henry Hall to whom the estate was left. He is, moreover,
one of the witnesses to this very will, and was consulted, it seems, by the old
lady, about his character and habits, and all that; and her selection of him
from the rest of his family, was mainly through his instrumentality. His name

[figure description] Page 084.[end figure description]

is McDonald, and Clayton has written to him to be at the capital by the time
the Governor's family remove thither for the season. So you see we are
likely to have some sport.”

“Should this business terminate as you so confidently predict, it will be
another terrible blow to that little sensitive plant of the Doctor's; that is, if
she is really pleased with his attentions, as you say.”

“Tut, tut, Moore, if she can be inveigled from her seclusion by one man,
she can by another. She is no man-hater, take my word for it. It is only
your broken backed girls and old maids seared with the smallpox, that truly
hate the men, and then it is only because they discover the aversion in us
first. I never saw one of your man-haters who was a pretty girl, in my life. I
confess that Miss Evylin came near shaking my faith for a while, but since I
have observed her closely, as she conversed with this man Hall, I have become
more confirmed than ever in my belief. If ever I saw a girl's soul in
her eyes, it was in her's while conversing with that man.”

“You astonish me, Carter. Miss Evylin is the last person in the world
whom I would have supposed would be accessible to a stranger at all, but
that the affair has progressed to the length you describe, really astounds
me. As much as I confess myself taken with Mr. Hall, I would have
preferred a longer probation in the case of a lady.”

“Kate leads us a different sort of a dance, aye Moore? I rather suspect
you would not object to any precipitancy in that quarter.”

“No, Carter, no; you are a generous rival I must confess, and bear off
our mutual sufferings with a happy grace, but will you excuse me, if I
say that I do not think you are very deeply touched.”

“The devil you don't! wherefore do you think so? Is it because I can
still crack my jokes and be merry over my wine and tobacco?”

“Your jokes, Carter, as I said before, sometimes sting more than they
tickle.”

“Ha, ha, ha, they do, do they? I thought I had wrung your withers.
Forgive me, Moore, I have no right to rejoice over your greater sufferings,
but being a fellow sufferer, I have some right to laugh.”

At this time a slight knock was heard upon the door, with sundry scrapings
of the feet. Moore smiled as soon as heard them, and cried come
in. In glided old June, wringing his tarnished cocked hat with both hands,
as if he designed rending it in twain—bowing his head at every step as
he approached, and scraping back his right foot with a grating noise upon
the floor.

“Well June,” said Moore, “what brings you to the capital?”

“I come wid Moss Carter, to fetch back letter for Miss.”

“Ah, and you are going back to the Farm to-night. Well, what's your
will with me, June?”

“Glass rum for poor nigger—please God.”

Moore ordered the servant to bring it, which June having prefaced with
a long speech, by way of toast, drank off at a single breath, and then
smacked his mouth and wiped his lips, and stood as before, still rolling
or twisting his hat with his hands.

“Well, June, now you have got the rum, what next? Your tongue is
loosened; now for the news on the Farm. Have you seen any more ghosts,
since the night of the thunder storm?”

“No massa, ant seen spirit since, but June dreame last night.”

“Oh! well let us have your dream, what was it? About your Miss
Catherine and her beaux again?”

“No, Massa, not dis time. I dreame say, I bin der der trable, trable, trable,
ta-a-ah! clean wha neber been befo. De keep on trable, trable, so tay! at
las, I see high fence—look jis like big wall—he white, jis like chork, ony he

[figure description] Page 085.[end figure description]

bery shine. When I see dat, I walk all about, der try find who lib dere. I
walk, I walk—tay I see big gate dey tan wide open. I gin peep disway, and peep
dat way—las, I skin he eye open tight, and I see plenty ob people. Some dey
walk about—some dey lay down—some dey eat—some dey drink—some dey
sleep, ugh! dey look so happy. Tay, I look gin, and see some of my fellow
sarbents dey, aint hab noting 'tall for do. One call me—say, `broder June,
come in, come in, glad for see you, him de look for you long time—me too
glad for see you.' I gone in, ugh! de place pirty, for true—I'h! de corn—
de tatoe—ebery ting growin dey. All my fellow sarbents dey walk bout in
de sunshine. No hab no close 'tall—ebery ting comfort—no spade, no hoe,
no plough—nottin 'tall do, but eat and drink, and sleep in de warm sunshine.
I walk 'bout, and I eat and drink, and feel too happy. My Lor', feel too happy
last night—happy for true—so tay, I gwine haben to look hine de do, ugh!
wha you tink I see, mass Moore—wha you tink I see dey?—Lor', massa, see
big red cowskin hang up dey! Kerry, when June see dat, he trable, trable
back gin, till he bark shin ginst skillet, and wake up and find he no nigger
hebben arter all.”

The youngsters burst into a loud laugh, in the midst of which the banjo
player, with many quaint bows, departed, as he had done from his negro
heaven, and was soon riding at the rate of eight miles an hour in the direction
of Temple Farm; thereby verifying the old adage, that a spur in the
head is worth two in the heel.