Every fortnight or
two he would disappear, always over
Sunday. In three or four days he
would turn up again, black with brooding,
and then he was the last man to
leave the card-table or he kept away
from it altogether. Where he went nobody
knew; and he was not the man
anybody would question.
One night two of us Kentuckians
were sitting in the club, and from a
home paper I read aloud the rumored
engagement of a girl we both knew--
who was famous for beauty in the Bluegrass,
as was her mother before her and
the mother before her--to an unnamed
Virginian. Grayson sat near, smoking a
pipe; and when I read the girl's name
I saw him take the meerschaum from
his lips, and I felt his eyes on me. It
was a mystery how, but I knew at once
that Grayson was the man. He sought
me out after that and seemed to want
to make friends. I was willing, or, rather
he made me more than willing; for
he was irresistible to me, as I imagine
he would have been to anybody. We
got to walking together and riding
together at night, and we were soon rather
intimate; but for a long time he never
so much as spoke the girl's name.
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