noon
First we have the casus belli , the cause of action ; then the various protocols and proclamations and general orders , by way of pleas , demurrers , and motions ; then the preliminary skirmishes at the trial table ; and then the final struggle , in which might is quite as likely to prevail as right , victory most often resting with the strongest battalions , and truth and justice not seldom overborne by the weight of odds upon the other side . The lawsuit which Warwick and Tryon had gone to try did not , however , reach this ultimate stage , but , after a three days ' engagement , resulted in a treaty of peace . The case was compromised and settled , and Tryon and Warwick set out on their homeward drive . They stopped at a farm-house at noon , and while at table saw the stage-coach from the town they had just left , bound for their own destination . In the mail-bag under the driver 's seat were Rena 's two letters ; they had been delivered at the town in the morning , and immediately remailed to Clarence , in accordance with orders left at the post-office the evening before . Tryon and Warwick drove leisurely homeward through the pines , all unconscious of the fateful squares of white paper moving along the road a few miles before them , which a mother 's yearning and a daughter 's love had thrown , like the apple of discord , into the narrow circle of their happiness . They reached Clarence at four o'clock .