What's the use of my trying my hand at a business I don't know the first thing about ?" "I wouldn't be in too big a hurry to decide finally on that point," urged Norton.
"It has decided itself," said Carrington quietly.
But Norton was conscious of a subtle change in their relation.
Carrington seemed a shade less frank than had been habitual with him; all at once he had removed his private affairs from the field of discussion.

Afterward, when Norton considered the matter, he wondered if it were not that the Kentuckian felt himself superfluous in this new situation that had grown up.
Charley Norton's features recovered their accustomed hue, but he did not go near Belle Plain; with resolute fortitude he confined himself to his own acres.

He was tolerably familiar with certain engaging little peculiarities of Mr.Ware's; he knew, for instance, that the latter was a gentleman of excessively regular habits; once each fortnight, making an excuse of business, he spent a day in Memphis, neither more nor less.
Norton told himself with satisfaction that Tom was destined to return to the surprise of his life from the next of these trips.

This conviction was the one thing which sustained Charley for some ten days.

They were altogether the longest ten days he had ever known, and he had about reached the limit of his endurance when Betty's groom arrived with a letter which threw him into a state of ecstatic happiness.