matter up.  But to return to Zoe:  if her mother’s father wished to secure the mother against misfortune by bringing her north and marrying her to a white man (my father, as it turned out) why should not I, her half-brother, try to protect her against the future that her mother might have incurred?  I reason that I have taken the place of Zoe’s grandfather, and must do for her what he tried to do for Zoe’s mother.  This inheritance of duty comes to me as the land comes to me, without my will.  Zoe’s grandfather gave my father his start, gave him the $2500 bonus to marry Zoe’s mother.  I think, in considering what share of the estate Zoe should have, these things cannot be ignored.  Of course I don’t know exactly how much of the $2500 went into this land.  From things I have heard I think my father spent money freely; he went about a good deal and was not as temperate as he should have been for his own health and prosperity.  Something was evidently preying upon his mind.  Anyway, I have decided the matter, and I hope you will approve of me.  I went to father’s grave this morning, and it made me sad.  Afterwards Mr. Brooks, the lawyer, drove me to the farm and around most of it.  I am going to take hold of it at once.  This country is growing rapidly, and I mean to do what my father didn’t exactly.  I am going to be rich; that is my ambition.  And I must think and work.  I am well again, or nearly so, and full of hope and plans, though sometimes lonely for you and for England.  Some day I shall come back to see you.  My love to you, dear grandmama.  And do write me as often as you can.

“Affectionately, James.”

And that evening Douglas came.  He was of the smallest stature, but with a huge chest and enormous head.  His hair was abundant and flowing, tossed back from his full forehead like a cataract.  His eyes were blue and penetrating, but kindly.  His face rather square.  His voice deep and resonant.  His words were clearly spoken, and fell from his lips freely, as if he were loosening them into a channel worn by long thinking.  His ideas were clearly envisioned.  He had read books of which I had never heard.  But apart from books his sallies of wit, the aptness of his stories and allusions quite dazzled me.

Though he was but two years my senior, I felt like a boy in his presence.  His maturity and self-possession and intellectual mastery of the hour kept me silent.  He recalled what he had done to bring me to the comforts of Mrs. Spurgeon’s house when I arrived in Jacksonville, ill and helpless.  After that he did not exactly ignore me, but I seemed not to enter into the association of his ideas or their expression.  He talked of the country.  There was the matter of Texas, a territory half as large as central Europe.  But if Texas seceded from Mexico he wished the country absorbed into the domain of the United States.  Texas has a right to secede.  All governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed.