"_Our_ Evilena?" and Mrs. McVeigh raised her brows inquiringly--"then you have proposed?" "Indeed, no! I have not had the courage until tonight; but when I see a lot of lads daft as myself over her, I just whispered in the ear of Delaven that he'd better speak quick. But I would not propose without asking your permission." "And if I refused it?" "You could not be so hard-hearted as that?" "But suppose I could--and should?" He caught the gleam of teasing light in her eyes, and smiled back at her: "I should propose just the same!" "Well," said Evilena's mother, with a combination of amusement and sympathy in her expression, "you may speak to her and let me know the result." "I'd get down on my knees to kiss the toe of your slipper, this minute," he whispered, gratefully, "but the Judge would scalp me if I dared; he is eyeing me with suspicion already. As to the result--well, if you hear a serenade in the wee small hours of the night, don't let it disturb you. I've got the guitar and the uniform all ready, and if I fail it will not be because I have overlooked any romantic adjuncts to successful wooing. I'll be under your daughter's window singing 'Sweet Evilena,' rigged out like a cavalier in a picture-book. I'm wishing I could borrow a feather for the hat." She laughed at the grotesque picture he suggested, but asked what he meant by the uniform, and laughed still more when he told her he was going to borrow one for the occasion from Kenneth, as Evilena had announced her scorn for all ununiformed men, and he did not mean to risk failure in a dress suit. Later he had an idea of applying for a uniform of his own as surgeon in the army. "If you could introduce _that_ into your serenade I have no fear my little girl would refuse you," said Mrs. McVeigh, encouragingly, "at least not more than two or three times." On leaving Mrs. McVeigh he stumbled against Masterson, who was in the shadow just outside the window within which Monroe was in interested converse with Matthew Loring and some other residents of the county. He had been deliberately, and, in his own opinion, justifiably, a listener to every sentence advanced by the suspected Northerner, whom he felt was imposing on the hospitality of the South only to betray it. Earnest as his convictions were he had not yet been able to discern the slightest trace of double intent in any of Monroe's remarks, which were, for the most part, of agricultural affairs, foreign affairs, even the possible future of the Seminoles in the Florida swamp; of everything, in fact, but the very vital question of the day surrounding them, which only tended to confirm his idea that the man was remarkably clever, and he despaired of securing sufficient evidence against him in the brief time at his disposal. He had just arrived at that conclusion when Delaven, high-hearted with hope, saw only the stars over his head as he paced the veranda, and turning the corner stumbled on Masterson.