I found only a bed covered with a quilt, an old table with small drawers, a wash-stand, two chairs, and a desk on three legs. The walls were bare except for a fly-stained map yellow with age. As I passed through the sitting-room, Rachel preceding me with my traps, I caught a glimpse of traces of better times. There was a plain wooden mantelpiece, a wide fireplace with big brass andirons, a sideboard with and without brass handles and a limited number of claw feet,--which if brought under the spell of the scraper and varnish-pot might once more regain its lost estate,--a corner-cupboard built into the wall, half full of fragments of old china, and, to do justice to the major's former statement, there was also a pair of dull old mahogany doors with glass knobs separating the room from some undiscovered unknown territory of bareness and emptiness beyond. These, no doubt, were the doors Anthony threw open for the bevies of beauties so picturesquely described by the major, but where were the Chippendale furniture, the George III. silver, the Italian marble mantels with carved lions' heads, the marquetry floors and cabinets? I determined to end my mental suspense. I would ask Rachel and get at the facts. The old woman was opening the windows, letting in the fresh breath of a honeysuckle, and framing a view of the sea beyond. "How long have you lived here, aunty?" "'Most fo'ty years, sah. Long 'fo' Massa John Talbot died." "Where's old Anthony?" I said. "What Anthony? De fust major's body-servant?" "Yes." "Go 'long, honey. He's daid dese twenty years. Daid two years 'fo' Massa Slocomb married Mis' Talbot." "And Anthony never waited at all on Major Slocomb?" "How could he wait on him, honey, when he daid 'fo' he see him?" I pondered for a moment over the picturesque quality of the major's mendacity. Was it, then, only another of the major's tributes to his wife,--this whole story of Anthony and the madeira of '39? How he must have loved this dear relict of his military predecessor! An hour later the major strolled into the sitting-room, his arm through Jack's. "Grand old place, is it not?" he said, turning to me. "Full of historic interest. Of co'se the damnable oligarchy has stripped us, but"-- Here Aunt Rachel flopped in--her slippers, I mean; the sound was distinctly audible. "Bre'kfus', major." "All right, Rachel. Come, gentlemen!" When we were all seated, the major leaned back in his chair, toyed with his knife a moment, and said with an air of great deliberation:-- "Gentlemen, when I was in New York I discovered that the fashionable dish of the day was a po'ter-house steak. So when I knew you were coming, I wired my agent in Baltimo' to go to Lexington market and to send me down on ice the best steak he could buy fo' money. It is now befo' you. "Jack, shall I cut you a piece of the tenderloin?" A KNIGHT OF THE LEGION OF HONOR