" Briscoe bore him tenderly in his arms to the house,
and, after transferring him to his nurse, rejoined with Bayne the ladies
in the hall.
Here they found a change of sentiment prevailing. Although failing in no
observance of courtesy, Mrs. Briscoe had been a little less than
complaisant toward the departed guest. This had been vaguely perceptible
to Briscoe at the time, but now she gency constrained him."
"I don't see why you should have asked him to dine," she said to her
husband. "He was difficult to persuade, and only your urgency constrained
him."
Her face was uncharacteristically petulant and anxious as she stood on
the broad hearth at one side of the massive mantelpiece, one hand lifted
to the high shelf; her red cloth gown with the amber-tinted gleams of the
lines of otter fur showed richly in the blended light of fire and lamp.
Her eyes seemed to shrink from the window, at which nevertheless she
glanced ever and anon.
"I delight in the solitude here, and I have never felt afraid, but I
think that since this disastrous raid that revenue officer is in danger
in this region from the moonshiners, and that his presence at our house
will bring enmity on us.
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