The next morning the skies had changed, and Rand and Jacqueline fared forward through a sodden, grey, and windy day. The rain had ceased to fall when at twilight they came into Richmond by the Broad Street Road. Lights gleamed from the wet houses; high overhead grey clouds were parting, and in the west was a line of red. The wind was high, and the sycamores with which the town abounded rocked their speckled arms. The river was swollen and rolled hoarsely over the rocks beneath the red west. Rand had taken a house on Shockoe Hill, not far from the Chief Justice's, and to this he and Jacqueline came through the wet and windy freshness of the night. Smiling in the doorway were the servants--Joab and Mammy Chloe and Hannah--who had set out from Albemarle the day before their master and mistress. Rand and Jacqueline, leaving the mud-splashed chaise, were welcomed with loquacity and ushered into a cheerful room where there was a crackling fire and a loaded table. "Mrs. Leigh's compliments, Miss Jacqueline, an' she done sont de rolls. Mrs. Fisher's best wishes, an' she moughty glad to hab a neighbour, an' she done sont de broiled chicken. An' Mr. Hay, he done sont de oysters wid he compliments--an' de two bottles Madeira Mr. Ritchie sont--an' Mr. Randolph lef' de birds, an' he gwine come roun' fust thing in de mawnin'--" "We shall have friends," said Rand. "I am glad for you, sweetheart. But I wish that one Federalist had had the grace to remember that Jacqueline Churchill came to town to-day." "Ah, once I would have cared," answered Jacqueline. "It does not matter now." "There's a tear on your hand--" Jacqueline laughed. "At least, it doesn't matter much.--Is that all, Joab?" "An' Marse Ludwell Cary, he ride erroun in de rain an' leave he compliments for Marse Lewis, an' he say will Miss Jacqueline 'cept dese yer flowers--" "One remembered," said Rand, and watched his wife put the flowers in water. CHAPTER XIV THE LAW OFFICE "If you were not so damned particular--" said the weasel disconsolately. "I'm not damned particular," answered Rand. "I've wanted wealth and I've wanted power ever since I went barefoot and suckered tobacco--as you know who know me better than almost any one else! But this"--he tapped the papers on the table before him--"this is cheating." "Oh, you!" complained the scamp. "You are of the elect. What you want you'll take by main force. You are a strong man! You've taken a deal since that day we went into the bookshop by the bridge. But I'm no Samson or David--I'm just Tom Mocket--and still, why shouldn't I have my pennyworth?"