ylor again sent his Lieutenant on a distant
duty--this time one of peculiar danger. He was ordered to Louisville and
Lexington on recruiting service. And the cholera was known to be
epidemic but a few miles from Lexington.

The good-by scene that night at the lovers' trysting place, the little
tent reception-room of the McCreas', was long and tender and solemn.

"Oh, I feel dreadful about this trip, dear," his sweetheart kept
repeating with pitiful despair that refused to be comforted.

"You must be brave, my own," he answered with a frown. "A soldier's
business is to die. I am a soldier. I go where duty calls--"

"To battle--yes--but this black pestilence that comes in the night--I'm
afraid--I just can't help it--I'm afraid. I've always had a horror of
such things. I've a presentiment that you'll die that way--"

"Presentiments and dreams go by opposites. I'll live to a ripe old
age--"

She looked up into his face with a tender smile:

"You think so?"

"Yes, why not?"

"Well--I've something to tell you--"

She paused and the man bent low.

"What?"

"I've made a vow to God--" the voice stopped with a sob--"that if He
will only send you safely back to me this time--I'll wait no longer on
my father's whim--I am yours--"

The lover clasped her trembling form to his heart.

"Good-by, dearest," he said at last. "I wish to go with that promise
ringing in my soul."

Ten days after he reached Lexington, the cholera broke out, and hundreds
fled. He stood by his men, watched their diet, nursed the sick, and
buried the dead. He helped the carpenter make the coffins and reverently
bore the victims to their graves. No fear was in his soul. Love was
chanting the anthem of Life.

A strange new light was burning in the eyes of the woman he loved on the
day he returned in safety.

She seized his hand and spoke with decision:

"Come with me."

Her father was standing at the gate. She faced him, holding defiantly
the hand of her lover.

The old man saw and understood. His jaw was set with sullen
determination and his face hardened.

"We have waited two long years," she began softly. "We have been patient
and hopeful, but you have given no sign. My lover's character is beyond
reproach, and I am proud of him. I am sorry to cross you, Father, but
I've made up my mind, I am going to marry him now."

The Colonel turned in silence and slowly walked into the house.

Captain McCrea engaged a stateroom for her on the