trudged along by her side silently; I had no relish for an argument
in which I was sure to get the worst of it. In some matters a man is no
match for a woman: he cannot cope with her in a war of words. Nor will
silence discomfit them. At least, it had no such effect in this
instance, for the more I was silent, the louder and faster she talked,
and, apparently, the angrier she became.

"You will boast, no doubt," said she, "and tell your comrades how you
lorded it over a young fellow who turned out to be a woman--how you
compelled her to go with you to General Forrest's headquarters. But how
did you know me? How did you know who I was?"

I laughed aloud. "Why, I'd know you through a thousand disguises, as I
knew you here that first night."

"I don't believe it; you didn't know me that first night; you had never
seen me but once before, and you couldn't have known me. How did you
know me to-night? You won't answer, or if you do you'll say you knew me
by my swagger. Anything to insult a woman. I'd like to be a man for a
few hours just to see how they feel toward women--just how much more
contempt they feel than they show. I tell you, you didn't know me that
first night."

"Then why did I insist on going home with you?"

This rather stumped her. "Because--because you thought I was a slip of
a lad, and you knew you could impose on me. If you had known I was a
woman, you wouldn't have called me a little devil--Yes, you would!" she
quickly added. "You would have abused me worse than that if you had
known I was a woman. How did you know--if you knew?"

"By your eyes; the moment I looked into them fairly I said to myself,
'Here's Jane Ryder again; no one has eyes like hers!'"

She was silent for a little space, and then, "Did it never occur to you
that it would be politer to refer to me as _Miss_ Jane Ryder?" Now, I
had never thought of her as Miss Jane Ryder, and I told her so. "Are my
eyes so peculiar that you would know them anywhere? Are they positively
hideous, as the young women say?" I hesitated, and she went on, "But
why do I ask? No matter what you think, it can never, never make any
difference to me, after the way you have treated me to-night, and I
hope that when you bid me good-by, as you will have to do directly,
that I shall never see you again."

"That is the talk of a child, and you are supposed to be a grown
woman," I replied. "You know very well that I am obliged to carry out
the orders of my General,