It was a picture of refined domesticity which the homeless Clarence had never known except as a vague, half-painful, boyish remembrance; it was a realization of welcome that far exceeded his wildest boyish vision of the preceding night.

With that recollection came another,--a more uneasy one.

He remembered how that vision had been interrupted by the strange voices in the road, and their vague but ominous import to his host.

A feeling of self-reproach came over him.

The threats had impressed him as only mere braggadocio,--he knew the characteristic exaggeration of the race,--but perhaps he ought to privately tell Peyton of the incident at once.
The opportunity came later, when the ladies had retired, and Peyton, wrapped in a poncho in a rocking-chair, on the now chilly veranda, looked up from his reverie and a cigar.