"Good! Good! It's an ideal place!" exclaimed the agent. "It's convenient to Baltimore; and Philadelphia, and New York, and Washington aren't very far away. Exactly what the city people who can afford it, are doing now,--making their homes in the country. Hampton's a town, but it's country to you, sir, when compared to Northumberland--open the shutters, Mose, so we can see.... This is the library, with the dining-room behind it, sir--and on the other side of the hall is the drawing-room. Open it, Mose, we will be over there presently. You see, sir, it is just as Colonel Duval left it. Your father gave instructions that nothing should be changed. He was a great friend of the Colonel, was he not, sir?" "I believe he was," said Croyden. "They met at the White Sulphur, where both spent their summers--many years before the Colonel died." "There, hangs the Colonel's sword--he carried it through the war, sir--and his pistols--and his silk-sash, and here, in the corner, is one of his regimental guidons--and here his portrait in uniform--handsome man, wasn't he? And as gallant and good as he was handsome. Maryland lost a brave son, when he died, sir." "He looks the soldier," Croyden remarked. "And he was one, sir--none better rode behind Jeb Stuart--and never far behind, sir, never far behind!" "He was in the cavalry?" "Yes, sir. Seventh Maryland Cavalry--he commanded it during the last two years of the war--went in a lieutenant and came out its colonel. A fine record, sir, a fine record! Pity it is, he had none to leave it to!--he was the last of his line, you know, the last of the line--not even a distant cousin to inherit." Croyden looked up at the tall, slender man in Confederate gray, with clean-cut aristocratic features, wavy hair, and long, drooping mustache. What a figure he must have been at the head of his command, or leading a charge across the level, while the guns of the Federals belched smoke, and flame and leaden death. "They offered him a brigade," the agent was saying, "but he declined it, preferring to remain with his regiment." "What did he do when the war was over?" Croyden asked. "Came home, sir, and resumed his law practice. Like his great leader, he accepted the decision as final. He didn't spend the balance of his life living in the past." "And why did he never marry? Surely, such a man" (with a wave of his hand toward the portrait) "could have picked almost where he chose!"