The music and the dancing never ceased.  When the black musicians grew tired their places were taken by others as black and as zealous, and on they went in a ceaseless alternation.  Robert learned that the guests would dance all night and far into the next day, and that frequently at the great houses a ball continued two days and two nights.

About three o’clock in the morning, after a long dance that left him somewhat weary, he went upon one of the wide piazzas to rest and take the fresh air.  There, his attention was specially attracted by two young men who were waging a controversy with energy, but without acrimony.

“I tell you, James,” said one, who was noticeable for his great shock of fair hair and his blazing red face, “that at two miles Blenheim is unbeatable.”

“Unbeatable he may be, Walter,” said the other, “but there is no horse so good that there isn’t a better.  Blenheim, I grant you, is a splendid three year old, but my Cressy is just about twenty yards swifter in two miles.  There is not another such colt in all Virginia, and it gives me great pride to be his owner.”

The other laughed, a soft drawling laugh, but it was touched with incredulity.

“You’re a vain man, James,” he said, “not vain for yourself, but vain for your sorrel colt.”

“I admit my vanity, Walter, but it rests upon a just basis.  Cressy, I repeat, is the best three year old in Virginia, which of course means the best in all the colonies, and I have a thousand weight of prime tobacco to prove it.”

“My plantation grows good tobacco too, James, and I also have a thousand weight of prime leaf which talks back to your thousand weight, and tells it that Cressy is the second best three year old in Virginia, not the best.”

“Done.  Nothing is left but to arrange the time.”

Both at this moment noticed Robert, who was sitting not far away, and they hailed him with glad voices.  He remembered meeting them earlier in the evening.  They were young men, Walter Stuart and James Cabell, who had inherited great estates on the James and they shipped their tobacco in their own vessels to London, and detecting in Robert a somewhat kindred spirit they had received him with great friendliness.  Already they were old acquaintances in feeling, if not in time.

“Lennox, listen to this vain boaster!” exclaimed Cabell.  “He has a good horse, I admit, but his spirit has become unduly inflated about it.  You know, don’t you, Lennox, that my colt, Cressy, has all Virginia beaten in speed?”

“You know nothing of the kind, Lennox!” exclaimed Stuart, “but you do know that my three year old Blenheim is the swiftest horse ever bred in the colony.  Now, don’t you?”

“I can’t give an affirmative to either of you,” laughed Robert, “as I’ve never seen your horses, but this I do say, I shall be very glad to see the test and let the colts decide it for themselves.”