After breakfast, Neville and Huntoon sat by the open door smoking their pipes in that social silence so dear to men, so difficult to women. "Neville," said his host at length, breaking the long quiet, "you look better to-day than at any time since you came to Romney." "Oh, I am well enough." "Your tone hath somewhat of discouragement in it." "I do feel a certain sadness of late, as if I were ever grasping for something I could not see, much less reach. It doth often seem to me that I and you and all of us here at Romney are shut out from the world by a wall of fog, not dark, because it is ofttimes flooded by sunlight, but heavy, dense, dull. It is like a thick curtain with vague distances in it, like the distances between the sun and the earth, and through these spaces float familiar scenes and faces, and all the while I feel that if I could grasp one word it would prove a clue to guide me through the spaces from one scene to another; but the word--a name, I think it is--will not come, and when I think on it too hard I seem to hear an echo murmuring 'Far away, far away.' Then the whole vision fades, and I come back to you and Mistress Huntoon and the rest; and yet it is as if only half of me came back, and half were still wandering through these vague, gray spaces of mist, following the name. Think you I shall ever find it?" Touched to the quick, Huntoon opened his lips to speak. "Is the name--" At that point his attention was caught by a stranger's voice outside the door saying, "I am surprised to see you abroad so early after last night's mighty merry dance, Mistress Huntoon." "I am honored that you found it so merry, Councillor," said Elizabeth. "Ay, all counted it the most brilliant festivity yet given in Virginia, and as for the young Maryland beauty, she has turned the heads of half the cavaliers in York County." "Some heads are set on pivots, and turn to each new face," answered Elizabeth, irritably conscious that Romney and Peggy were both within hearing. "Perhaps, but many of these heads will find some difficulty in turning another way. Captain Snow raved all the way home over her charms, and Colonel Payne swore her coming had gone far to do away with his grudge toward Maryland; and by the way, the name reminds me that I came to see your husband on a matter of somewhat urgent business. Is he within?" "I left him in the hall," Elizabeth replied, leading the way back to the house, and turning back after she had waved the new-comer to enter. "Good-morning, Master Huntoon!" "Ah, Claiborne, you look as though you had had even less sleep than I." "I do suspect 'tis true, for I have been in the saddle since dawn." "You must have pressing affairs on hand." "Most pressing, and it is concerning them that I am come to consult with you privately." A certain emphasis on the last word caused Huntoon to glance toward Neville, who was scrutinizing the inside of his pipe, and had scarcely noted the stranger's entrance.