Pardon that obsolete word, "high-bred," so insulting in
the present epoch! I am only jesting when I seem to intimate that I
considered the stately old judge better than the black servant who
waited upon me at supper!
Of Mohun and Will Davenant, I had said nothing, in conversing with the
smiling young ladies. But I think Miss Georgia, stately and imposing as
she was, looked at me with a peculiar smile, which said, "You are _his_
friend, and cannot be a mere ordinary acquaintance to _me_!"
And here I ought to inform the reader, that since that first visit of
mine to Five Forks, affairs had marched with the young lady and her
friend. Mohun and Miss Georgia were about to be married, and I was to
be the first groomsman. The woman-hating Benedict of the banks of the
Rappahannock had completely succumbed, and the satirical Beatrice had
also lost all her wit. It died away in sighs, and gave place to
reveries--those reveries which come to maidens when they are about to
embark on the untried seas of matrimony.
But I linger at Five Forks when great events are on the march. Bidding
my hospitable host and his charming daughters good morning, I mounted
my horse and set out over the White Oak road toward Petersburg. As I
approached the Rowanty, I saw that the new defenses erected by Lee,
were continuous and powerful.
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