“Paul!  I am a prisoner.  Say nothing at present to Cloudy; permit him to assume that business takes me away, and go now quietly and order horses put to the carriage.”

“Dr. Douglass, we shall want your company also,” said the officer, serving Paul with a subpoena.

Paul ground his teeth together and rushed out of the door.

“Keep an eye on that young man,” said the policeman to his comrade, and the latter followed Paul into the yard and on to the stables.

The haste and passion of Paul’s manner had attracted Cloudy’s attention, and now he stood looking on with surprise and inquiry.

“Cloudy,” said Thurston, approaching him, “a most pressing affair demands my presence at C——­ this afternoon.  Paul must also attend me.  I may not return to-night.  Paul, however, certainly will.  In the meantime, Cloudy, my boy, make yourself as much at home and as happy as you possibly can.”

“Oh! don’t mind me!  Never make a stranger of me.  Go, by all means.  I wouldn’t detain you for the world; hope it is nothing of a painful nature that calls you from home, however.  Any parishioner ill, dying and wanting your ghostly consolations?”

“Oh, no,” said Thurston, smiling.

“Glad of it!  Go, by all means.  I will make myself jolly until you return,” said Cloudy, walking up and down the floor whistling a love ditty, and thinking of little Jacko.  He always thought of her with tenfold intensity whenever he returned home and came into her neighborhood.

“Mr. Jenkins, will you follow me to my library?” said Thurston.

The officer bowed assent and Mr. Willcoxen proceeded thither for the purpose of securing his valuable papers and locking his secretary and writing-desk.

After an absence of some fifteen minutes they returned to the parlor to find Paul and the constable awaiting them.

“Is the carriage ready?” asked Mr. Willcoxen.

“Yes, sir,” replied the constable.

“Then, I believe, we also are—­is it not so?”

The police officer bowed, and Mr. Willcoxen walked up to Cloudy and held out his hand.

“Good-by, Cloudy, for the present.  Paul will probably be home by nightfall, even if I should be detained.”

“Oh, don’t hurry yourself upon my account.  I shall do very well.  Jenny can take care of me,” said Cloudy, jovially, as he shook the offered hand of Thurston.

Paul could not trust himself to look Cloudy in the face and say “Good-by.”  He averted his head, and so followed Mr. Willcoxen and the officer into the yard.

Mr. Willcoxen, the senior officer and Paul Douglass entered the carriage, and the second constable attended on horseback, and so the party set out for Charlotte Hall.

Hour after hour passed.  Old Jenny came in and put the supper on the table, and stood presiding over the urn and tea-pot while Cloudy ate his supper.  Old Jenny’s tongue ran as if she felt obliged to make up in conversation for the absence of the rest of the family.