pleased, there were others who shook their heads in sorrow, feeling that a deep and lasting humiliation had been visited on the community. For if ever a human being was seized and possessed by pride of family and position, that person was Cousin Becky T. Her pride was rëenforced by a will as firm, and an individuality as strong, as ever woman had; and these characteristics were so marked that she was never known among her acquaintances as Mrs. Asbury, but always as Rebecca Tumlin or "Cousin Rebecca T." The colonel himself invariably referred to her, even in his most hilarious moments, as Rebecca Tumlin. Times were hard indeed when this gentlewoman could be induced to throw open to boarders the fine old mansion, with its massive white pillars standing out against a background of red brick.
The colonel had three plantations,—one near Rockville, one in the low country, and one in the Cherokee region; but in 1868 these possessions were a burden to him to the extent of the taxes he was compelled to pay. There was no market for agricultural lands. The value they might have had was swallowed up in the poverty and depression
