Inexplicably enough, Betty found that her thoughts had wandered to Carrington; which was very singular, as she had long since formed a resolution not to think of him at all.  Yet she remembered with satisfaction his manner that afternoon, it left nothing to be desired.  He was probably understanding the impassable gulf that separated them—­education, experience, feeling, everything that made up the substance of life but deepened and widened this gulf.  He belonged to that shifting, adventurous population which was far beneath the slave-holding aristocracy, at least he more nearly belonged to this lower order than to any other.  She fixed his status relentlessly as something to be remembered when they should meet again.  At last, with a little puckering of the brows and a firm contraction of the lips, she dismissed the Kentuckian from her thoughts.

Betty complied with Tom’s expressed wish, for she did not again visit Thicket Point, but then she had not intended doing so.  However, the planter was greatly shocked by the discovery he presently made that she was engaged in a vigorous correspondence with Charley.

“I wish to blazes Murrell had told those fellows to kick the life clean out of him while they were about it!” he commented savagely, and fell to cursing impotently.  Brute force was a factor to be introduced with caution into the affairs of life, but if you were going to use it, his belief was that you should use it to the limit.  You couldn’t scare Norton, he was in love with that pink-faced little fool.  Keep away?—­he’d never think of it, he’d stuff his pockets full of pistols and the next man who stopped him on the road would better look out!  It made him sick—­the utter lack of sense manifested by Murrell, and his talk, whenever they met, was still of the girl.  He couldn’t see anything so damn uncommon about that red-and-white chit.  She wasn’t worth running your neck into a halter for—­no woman that ever lived was worth that.

The correspondence, so far as Betty was responsible for it, bore just on one point.  She wanted Charley to promise that for a time, at least, he would not attempt to see her.  It seemed such a needless risk to take, couldn’t he be satisfied if he heard from her every day?

Charley was regretful, but firm.  Just as soon as he could mount his horse he would ride down to Belle Plain.  She was not to distress herself on his account; he had been surprised, but this should not happen again.

The calm manner in which he put aside her fears for his safety exasperated Betty beyond measure.  She scolded him vigorously.  Charley accepted the scolding with humility, but his resolution was unshaken; he did not propose to vacate the public roads at any man’s behest; that would be an unwise precedent to establish.

Betty replied that this was not a matter in which silly vanity should enter, even if his life was of no value to himself it did not follow that she held it lightly.  It required some eight closely written pages for Charley to explain why existence would be an unsupportable burden if he were denied the sight of her.