You are an Italian, or Spanish, or French gentleman, perhaps ?" "I am not either." Giles did not fill the pause which ensued, and the gentleman, who seemed of an emotional nature, unable to resist friendship, at length answered the question.
"I am an Italianized American, a South Carolinian by birth," he said.
"I left my native country on the failure of the Southern cause, and have never returned to it since." He spoke no more about himself, and they came to the verge of the wood.
Here, striding over the fence out upon the upland sward, they could at once see the chimneys of the house in the gorge immediately beneath their position, silent, still, and pale.
"Can you tell me the time ?" the gentleman asked.

"My watch has stopped." "It is between twelve and one," said Giles.
His companion expressed his astonishment.

"I thought it between nine and ten at latest! Dear me--dear me!" He now begged Giles to return, and offered him a gold coin, which looked like a sovereign, for the assistance rendered.

Giles declined to accept anything, to the surprise of the stranger, who, on putting the money back into his pocket, said, awkwardly, "I offered it because I want you to utter no word about this meeting with me.

Will you promise ?" Winterborne promised readily.