The other considered. "Do you believe that he is going West to join Burr?"
"I do. And yet this week he is defending a case in court, and there are others coming on. He is busy, too, at Roselands, and he has taken the Richmond house. I am, perhaps, a suspicious, envious, and vindictive fool."
"Roselands and the Richmond house might be a mask, He refused the nomination for Governor."
Ludwell Cary started violently. "I had forgotten that! You have it, Fair. He would do that—he would refuse the nomination. Lewis Rand, Lewis Rand!"
"Have you any proof that he is conspiring with Burr?"
"None that I could advance—none. I have an inward certainty, that is all. Nor can I—nor can I, Fair, even speak of such a suspicion. You see that?"
"Yes, I see that."
"I repented last winter of having written that letter signed 'Aurelius.' I knew nothing, and it seemed beneath me to have made that guesswork public. That he was my enemy should have made me careful, but I was under strong feeling, and I wrote. He has neither forgotten nor forgiven. Denounce him now as a conspirator against his party and his country? That is impossible. Impossible from lack of proof, and impossible to me were proofs as thick as blackberries! But if I can help it, he shall not leave Virginia."
"Is it your opinion that he would take her with him?"
"Yes, it is."