Shirley had played chess with her father until she had learned
to see around corners as he did, and she liked a problem, a test of wit,
a contest of powers. She knew how to wait and ponder in silence, and
therein lay the joy of the saddle, when she could ride alone with no
groom to bother her, and watch enchantments unfold on the hilltops.
Once free of the settlement she rode far and fast, until she was quite
beyond the usual routes of the Springs excursionists; then in mountain
byways she enjoyed the luxury of leisure and dismounted now and then to
delight in the green of the laurel and question the rhododendrons.
Jules Chauvenet had scoured the hills all day and explored many
mountain paths and inquired cautiously of the natives. The telegraph
operator at the Storm Springs inn was a woman, and the despatch and
receipt by Jules Chauvenet of long messages, many of them in cipher,
piqued her curiosity. No member of the Washington diplomatic circle who
came to the Springs,--not even the shrewd and secretive Russian
Ambassador,--received longer or more cryptic cables. With the social
diversions of the Springs and the necessity for making a show of having
some legitimate business in America, Jules Chauvenet was pretty well
occupied; and now the presence of John Armitage in Virginia added to his
burdens.
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