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A STRANGE, SAD COMEDY
251

would have to come down here among you quaint Virginia people to find any girl who would n't take him. And the sinner is a deuced fine fellow—that I must admit."

"I did want the honor and glory of refusing him," Letty admitted, candidly, "but he never gave me the chance, more's the pity."

Farebrother burst into a ringing laugh. Letty's ideas on the subject of love and courtship had a unique and childish candor which delighted a man who knew as much about this ridiculous old planet as Farebrother.

Their love making was cut short by the Colonel's and Miss Jemima's entrance. Colonel Corbin at once engaged Farebrother in a red-hot political discussion. The Colonel was a believer in states' rights to the point of not believing in a central government at all, and Letty ably assisted him by ready references to the Constitution of the United States. But Farebrother was a match for them both, and argued that Washington, Hamilton, and a great many of the fathers wanted a central government a great deal stronger than their successors of to-day are prepared to accept. The Colonel, though, was rather disgusted to observe that Letty and Farebrother were half