"How far must we drive before reaching Shirley?" he asked after awhile, as the carriage stopped for the opening of a gate.
"About four miles now," said his cousin. "It's five miles, or nearly that, from the Court House."
"The court house? Where is that?"
"O the village where we left the train! That's the Court House."
"Ah! you Virginians call a village a court house, do you?"
"Certainly, when it's the county-seat and a'n't much else. Now and then court houses put on airs and call themselves names, but they don't often make much of it. There's Powhatan Court House now, I believe it tried to get itself called 'Scottsville,' or something of that sort, but nobody knows it as anything but Powhatan Court House. Our county-seat has always been modest, and if it has any name I never heard of it."
"That's one interesting custom of the country, at any rate. Pray tell me, is it another of your customs to dispense wholly with public roads? I ask for information merely, and the question is suggested by the fact that we seem to have driven away from the Court House by the private road which we are still following."
"Why, this isn't a private road. It's one of the principal public roads of the county."
"How about these gates then?" asked Robert as the negro boy who rode behind the carriage jumped down to open another.
"Well, what about them?"