r?"

"Not by any means, Leonidas. We're not as young as Harry here, but
I know that you're a fine figure of a man, and you know that I am.
Moreover, our experience of the dangerous sex is so much greater than
that of mere boys like Harry and Arthur and Tom here, that we know how
to make ourselves much more welcome. You talk to them about frivolous
things, mere chit chat, while we explain grave and important matters to
them."

"Are you sure, sir," asked St. Clair, "that the ladies don't really
prefer chit chat?"

"I was not speaking of little girls. I was alluding to those ornaments
of their sex who have arrived at years of discretion. Ah, if Leonidas
and I were only a while in Richmond! It would be the next best thing to
being in Charleston."

"Maybe the Invincibles will be sent there for a while."

"Perhaps. I don't foresee any great activity here in the autumn.
How do they regard the Army of Northern Virginia in Richmond now, Harry?"

"With supreme confidence."

The talk soon drifted to the people whom Harry had met at the capital,
and then he told of his adventure with Shepard, the spy.

"He seems to be a most daring man," said Talbot; "not a mere ordinary spy,
but a man of a higher type. I think he's likely to do us great harm.
But the woman, Miss Carden, was surely kind to you. If she hadn't found
you wandering around in the rain you'd have doubtless dropped down and
died. God bless the ladies."

"And so say we all of us," said Harry.

He returned to Richmond in a few days, bearing more dispatches, and to
his great delight all that was left of the Invincibles arrived a week
later to recuperate and see a little of the world. St. Clair and Happy
Tom plunged at once and with all the ardor of youth into the gayeties of
social life, and the two colonels followed them at a more dignified but
none the less earnest pace. All four appeared in fine new uniforms,
for which they had saved their money, and they were conspicuous upon
every occasion.

Harry was again at the Curtis house, and although it was not a great
ball this time the assemblage was numerous, including all his friends.
The two colonels had become especial favorites everywhere, and they were
telling stories of the old South, which Harry had divined was passing;
passing whether the South won or not.

Although there had been much light talk through the evening and an
abundance of real gayety, nearly every member of the company,
neverthe