ncts
of the headquarters. Any one thus trespassing was to be brought before
him. The officer looked surprised, he even fancied disappointed. The
graces of the mulatto woman's figure had evidently not been thrown away
upon his subalterns.

An hour or two later, when he was mounting his horse for a round of
inspection, he was surprised to see Miss Faulkner, accompanied by the
mulatto woman, running hurriedly to the house. He had forgotten his late
order until he saw the latter halted by the sentries, but the young girl
came flying on, regardless of her companion. Her skirt was held in one
hand, her straw hat had fallen back in her flight, and was caught only
by a ribbon around her swelling throat, and her loosened hair lay in a
black rippled loop on one shoulder. For an instant Brant thought that
she was seeking him in indignation at his order, but a second look at
her set face, eager eyes, and parted scarlet lips, showed him that she
had not even noticed him in the concentration of her purpose. She swept
by him into the hall, he heard the swish of her skirt and rapid feet on
the stairs,--she was gone. What had happened, or was this another of her
moods?

But he was called to himself by the apparition of a corporal standing
before him, with the mulatto woman,--the first capture under his order.
She was tall, well-formed, but unmistakably showing the negro type, even
in her small features. Her black eyes were excited, but unintelligent;
her manner dogged, but with the obstinacy of half-conscious stupidity.
Brant felt not only disappointed, but had a singular impression that she
was not the same woman that he had first seen. Yet there was the tall,
graceful figure, the dark profile, and the turbaned head that he had
once followed down the passage by his room.

Her story was as stupidly simple. She had known "Missy" from a chile!
She had just traipsed over to see her that afternoon; they were walking
together when the sojers stopped her. She had never been stopped before,
even by "the patter rollers."* Her old massa (Manly) had gib leaf to go
see Miss Tilly, and hadn't said nuffin about no "orders."

* i. e., patrols,--a civic home-guard in the South that kept
surveillance of slaves.

More annoyed than he cared to confess, Brant briefly dismissed her with
a warning. As he cantered down the slope the view of the distant pickets
recalled the window in the wing, and he turned in his saddle to look at
it. There i