Senator Horton, however, was not satisfied with Langdon's sudden ascendency.
"How do we know that that letter is not a forgery, a trick?" he exclaimed.
"Go get Congressman Norton—if you can—and get his denial," responded
Langdon.
The junior Senator from Mississippi hurriedly pushed his way out of the Senate chamber. His day's work was done.
Down on a broad plantation along the Pearl River an old planter, who has borne his years well, as life goes nowadays, passes his days contentedly. He delights in the rompings of his grandchildren as they rouse the echoes of the mansion and prides himself on the achievements of their father, Randolph, who has improved the plantation to a point never reached before.
Sometimes he receives a letter from his daughter. Hope Georgia, now Mrs. Haines, telling him of her happy life, or perhaps it is a letter from Carolina, describing the good times she is having in London with the friends she is visiting.
And the old planter goes out on the broad veranda in the warm Southern twilight, and he thinks of the days that were. He remembers how the Third Mississippi won the day at Crawfordsville. He thinks of the days when he fought the good fight in Washington. His thoughts turn to the memory of her who went before these many years and whom he is soon to see again, and peace descends on the soul of the gentleman from Mississippi as the world drops to slumber around him.
THE END.
End of Project Gutenberg's A Gentleman from Mississippi, by Thomas A. Wise