fingers on his cheek.
CHAPTER IV.
For once Susy had not exaggerated. Captain Pinckney WAS lingering, with
the deputy who had charge of him, on the trail near the casa. It had
already been pretty well understood by both captives and captors that
the arrest was simply a legal demonstration; that the sympathizing
Federal judge would undoubtedly order the discharge of the prisoners on
their own recognizances, and it was probable that the deputy saw no harm
in granting Pinckney's request--which was virtually only a delay in
his liberation. It was also possible that Pinckney had worked upon the
chivalrous sympathies of the man by professing his disinclination
to leave their devoted colleague, Mrs. Brant, at the mercy of her
antagonistic and cold-blooded husband at such a crisis, and it is to be
feared also that Clarence, as a reputed lukewarm partisan, excited no
personal sympathy, even from his own party. Howbeit, the deputy agreed
to delay Pinckney's journey for a parting interview with his fair
hostess.
How far this expressed the real sentiments of Captain Pinckney was never
known. Whether his political association with Mrs. Brant had developed
into a warmer solicitude, understood or ignored by her,--what were his
hopes and aspirations regarding her future,--were by the course of fate
never disclosed. A man of easy ethics, but rigid artificialities of
honor, flattered and pampered by class prejudice, a so-called "man of
the world," with no experience beyond his own limited circle, yet brave
and devoted to that, it were well perhaps to leave this last act of his
inefficient life as it was accepted by the deputy.
Dismounting he approached the house from the garden. He was already
familiar with the low arched doorway which led to the business room, and
from which he could gain admittance to the patio, but it so chanced that
he entered the dark passage at the moment that Clarence had thrust Susy
into the business room, and heard its door shut sharply. For an instant
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