And here Mrs. Jones, leaning forward, addressed herself to Culpepper down again on the curb. "Mr. Buxton I seem to remember that Mr. Tate is a friend of yours? Have _you_ heard about Amanthus?"
The chorus resumed itself, arising from Mrs. Sampson, Miss Lyle, and Mr. Haven behind Mrs. Jones.
"Amanthus," said Mrs. Jones, "was married at St. George's in London, yesterday, to Mr. Cyril Doe. A cable from Mrs. Harrison to her bank, which is Tuttle's bank, came to-day."
Amanthus had lived up to _her_ business in life!
The whip touched the leader, the coach wheeled, everybody waved, and Culpepper was left standing there.
Auntie called to him from the door. She had seen him from the window and come down. He went in to her there on the doorstep and put his arm around her and kissed her.
"Ole Miss, what do you suppose, I've just been given to cherish most of everything in the world?"
"Are you in earnest, Culpepper, or teasing? I never know. I'm a bit unstrung, and so's Lavinia, over this trouble, whatever it is, hanging over Robert. What is it that's been given to you to cherish?"
"Don't you worry, ole Miss, it's mine for cherishing, not yours. You're no worry. _You_ belong to another generation in daughters of Shiloh that did your dancing in your vineyard according to custom, and have nothing to reproach _your_ past with. The daughters of Shiloh to-day are declining to dance, ma'am, and are plucking the grapes in the vineyard instead. I need your coddling and your comforting. A daughter of Shiloh, among the dancers and the grapes, has handed me for my cherishing fruit of her gathering called a point of view."
"Whatever do you mean, Culpepper? I never know when you're in earnest, or not?"
"She thinks _she_ is, ole Miss, that fair young daughter of Shiloh. I don't know just what to think, myself!"
"Who else? Ole Miss, I love her so and I want her. Where'd she pick up this whim?"
-Obvious print and punctuation errors fixed.
-A Table of Contents was not in the original work; one has been produced and added by Transcriber.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Selina, by George Madden Martin