Page:Orange Grove.djvu/231

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from over the way and satisfy you as to the claims for I don't want any thing said about it. I will draw up a paper and he shall witness our signatures, so that it shall be binding to your satisfaction."

One of the characters in the preceding pages will be readily recognized as Mr. Carleton who had lost heavily in a gambling operation with a fellow rogue in broadcloth. Both of them had too much of the northern element of refinement in their natures to mingle promiscuously with southern society, and the Yankee born was not yet so lost to the early teachings of his childhood as to yield unscrupulously to the worst principles of southern depravity. The other, judged by his early education, was not any lower in the scale of morality. There is scarcely a man so depraved that he has not a redeeming trait somewhere, through which he feels instinctively a certain degree of reverence for a noble and virtuous woman. While one scrupled at the thought of violating what was left of his dim perceptions of honor, the other justified himself by indulging that spark of manly feeling which really glowed in his bosom at the thought that he might win the love of so pure a being, which ought to refute the charge his friend brought against his character, and which had really incensed him to persevere.

The result was his sudden exit, and his sudden appearance on the evening alluded to. After leaving home, when his anger had time to cool, and reason to return, so many doubts arose in his mind about being able to accomplish his purpose within the time specified, if at all, that he lost no spare moments in