Pine and palm Author:Moncure Daniel Conway Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE MEETING. secret of the proposed duel had been well 1 kept at Harvard. The two councils in which it was arranged had sworn secrecy; the who... more »le thing was too incredible to circulate swiftly. When Wentworth was soon after seen walking about as usual all might have blown over, but for the non-appearance of Stirling. When it was observed that the Virginian had not appeared at Miss Upham's boarding-house for several days, rumor took a bold flight ; it whispered that the Bostonian had left his man dead in the field. This rumor was presently confirmed by the .sudden flight—so it was construed—of Wentworth himself. He had remained in Cambridge two or three days after his return from the north, but after that did not appear at the law school, and knocks at his door were unanswered. Wentworth had returned to Cambridge fully expecting to find Stirling there. Having ascertained that he had not been seen since he started for Canada, the Boston " principal " became uneasy about the Virginian, and sent a dispatch to the landlord at White River Junction, the reply to which had caused his sudden departure. When Stirling, on the point of telling the burdenon his mind, rushed to the door, as we have seen, he found it locked, the sympathetic young hostess having quietly fortified that point. Turning round she saw Stirling fall. She called, but the noisy train drowned her voice. She saw that he had fainted, and bathed his forehead, but he did not at once recover and she ran for her father. Between the two—Emanuel and Emanuella Rhodes—a brief interchange of theories then occurred. " Father, it's a great trouble." " Child, it's starvation." " Father ! " " Don't tell me ! I've watched that young man like a hawk, ever since he lost his train ; he hasn't had as muc...« less