The gentlemen had left their wine, and in parties of two and three were strolling about the shady yard, or out through the fields and orchards, to cool their heads, previous to joining the ladies at the tea-table. Archer Clifton, with his cousin, Major Charles Cabell, and Frank Fairfax, took the wooded path leading down the South side of the ridge to a fine spring in the hollow. They came to a log cabin, half hidden by surrounding and overhanging elms—and literally covered with climbing and creeping vines. Before the door sat a girl, spinning on a little wheel, who, at the first glimpse of strangers, instantly arose, and taking up her wheel, retired into the house. Captain Clifton left his companions, and going up to the door, called, saying— “Catherine, my good girl, bring me a gourd here.” Kate Kavanagh came, and with her eyes fixed upon the ground, and her face suffused with a deep blush, handed the required article, and instantly disappeared within. “By all the angels, what a fine face!” exclaimed Major Cabell, gazing after her. Archer Clifton shot a quick, piercing glance at the speaker, who, meeting it full as he turned, laughed, exclaiming, as if a new discovery had been made— “Oh! Ay! Soh! you are _there_, are you? So then, this is the mountain-beauty, the hidden treasure of Archer Clifton, that has set all the country ladies agog with scandal, and all the country gentlemen mad with envy?” The hot blood rushed to Clifton’s brow. “Oh! now, don’t be jealous! Don’t be alarmed! Your treasure is safe from me—though, by all the queens of chivalry, hers is a noble face—a face to bleed and die for! None of your pretty lily and rose baby beauties that may be seen by hundreds anywhere—but a noble girl, fit for a monarch’s love and counsellor!” In an instant Archer Clifton strode up and stood with bended brow and folded arms before him; and said, in a low, deep, stern tone of concentrated passion— “You are my relative, friend, guest! Your three-fold claim upon my forbearance should protect you from any resentment for words spoken against _my_ honor. But, I charge you, retract your words! And if you harbor one single suspicion against that young girl, you are a villain! S’death, sir! Has the world come to such a pass, and is the honor of Archer Clifton of so little worth, that he cannot protect a poor young maiden without injury to her? By Heaven! be warned! For if you do but breathe one breath to dim the lustre of that girl’s good name—by the good Lord that made us good, and the demon that turned us to evil! relative, friend and guest as you are, I will slay and drag you to her feet to die!” So sudden, so mighty—so appalling was this burst of passion, that for a moment after it was over, Cabell and Fairfax stood as if transfixed with astonishment. Then Cabell, in the frankest way in the world, held out his hand, exclaiming—