But she saw nothing of the kind, for hers was not the poor
affection that stands ever ready to pick flaws. He did not know that she
was near him until the judge spoke to her; and then he sprang to his
feet at once. He was much too fine a gentleman to keep his seat while
any lady stood. Ruth smilingly motioned him back to his chair, and going
round the table, leant over the judge's shoulder. He had been examining
a packet of legal papers, and he laid a yellow document before her,
spreading it out on the table-cloth.
"You were asking the other day about the buffalo--when they were here,
and so on. Now, listen to this old note of hand, dated the fifteenth of
October, seventeen hundred and ninety-two, just nineteen years ago. Here
it is: 'For value Rec'd, I promise to pay Peter Wilson or his Agent,
twenty pounds worth of good market Buffalo Beef free from Boone, to be
delivered at Red Banks on the Ohio River, or at aney other place that he
or his shall salt beef on the banks of said river, and aney time in the
ensuing fawl before this fawl's hunting is over.
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