“Ay,” answered the other.  “It is your shortest road.”

“Then I will be going,” said Haward.  “It grows late, and I am not looked for before to-morrow.  Good-night.”

As he spoke he raised his hat and bowed to the gentleman from whom he was parting.  That rebel to King George gave a great start; then turned very red, and shot a piercing glance at the man on horseback.  The latter’s mien was composed as ever, and, with his hat held beneath his arm and his body slightly inclined, he was evidently awaiting a like ceremony of leave-taking on the storekeeper’s part.  MacLean drew a long breath, stepped back a pace or two, and bowed to his equal.  A second “Good-night,” and one gentleman rode off in the direction of the great house, while the other went thoughtfully back to the store, got a cloth and wiped the dust from the mirror.

It was pleasant riding by the river in the cool evening wind, with the colors of the sunset yet gay in sky and water.  Haward went slowly, glancing now at the great, bright stream, now at the wide, calm fields and the rim of woodland, dark and distant, bounding his possessions.  The smell of salt marshes, of ploughed ground, of leagues of flowering forests, was in his nostrils.  Behind him was the crescent moon; before him a terrace crowned with lofty trees.  Within the ring of foliage was the house; even as he looked a light sprang up in a high window, and shone like a star through the gathering dusk.  Below the hill the home landing ran its gaunt black length far out into the carmine of the river; upon the Golden Rose lights burned like lower stars; from a thicket to the left of the bridle path sounded the call of a whippoorwill.  A gust of wind blowing from the bay made to waver the lanterns of the Golden Rose, broke and darkened the coral peace of the river, and pushed rudely against the master of those parts.  Haward laid his hand upon his horse that he loved.  “This is better than the Ring, isn’t it, Mirza?” he asked genially, and the horse whinnied under his touch.

The land was quite gray, the river pearl-colored, and the fireflies beginning to sparkle, when he rode through the home gates.  In the dusk of the world, out of the deeper shadow of the surrounding trees, his house looked grimly upon him.  The light had been at the side; all the front was stark and black with shuttered windows.  He rode to the back of the house and hallooed to the slaves in the home quarter, where were lights and noisy laughter, and one deep voice singing in an unknown tongue.

It was but a stone’s throw to the nearest cabin, and Haward’s call made itself heard above the babel.  The noise suddenly lessened, and two or three negroes, starting up from the doorstep, hurried across the grass to horse and rider.  Quickly as they came, some one within the house was beforehand with them.  The door swung open; there was the flare of a lighted candle, and a voice cried out to know what was wanted.