wn
leaders.

Mr. Brinsmade's own carriage was drawn up at his door; and that
gentleman himself standing on the threshold. He came down his steps
bareheaded in the wet to hand Virginia from her carriage.

Courteous and kind as ever, he asked for her father and her aunt as
he led her into the house. However such men may try to hide their own
trials under a cheerful mien, they do not succeed with spirits of a
kindred nature. With the others, who are less generous, it matters
not. Virginia was not so thoughtless nor so selfish that she could not
perceive that a trouble had come to this good man. Absorbed as she was
in her own affairs, she forgot some of them in his presence. The fire
left her tongue, and to him she could not have spoken harshly even of
an enemy. Such was her state of mind, when she was led into the
drawing-room. From the corner of it Anne arose and came forward to throw
her arms around her friend.

"Jinny, it was so good of you to come. You don't, hate me?"

"Hate you, Anne dear!"

"Because we are Union," said honest Anne, wishing to have no shadow of
doubt.

Virginia was touched. "Anne," she cried, "if you were German, I believe
I should love you."

"How good of you to come. I should not have dared go to your house,
because I know that you feel so deeply. You--you heard?"

"Heard what?" asked Virginia, alarmed.

"That Jack has run away--has gone South, we think. Perhaps," she cried,
"perhaps he may be dead." And tears came into the girl's eyes.

It was then that Virginia forgot Clarence. She drew Anne to the sofa and
kissed her.

"No, he is not dead," she said gently, but with a confidence in her
voice of rare quality. "He is not dead, Anne dear, or you would have
heard."

Had she glanced up, she would have seen Mr. Brinsmade's eye upon her. He
looked kindly at all people, but this expression he reserved for those
whom he honored. A life of service to others had made him guess that,
in the absence of her father, this girl had come to him for help of some
kind.

"Virginia is right, Anne," he said. "John has gone to fight for his
principles, as every gentleman who is free should; we must remember
that this is his home, and that we must not quarrel with him, because
we think differently." He paused, and came over to Virginia. "There is
something I can do for you, my dear?" said he.

She rose. "Oh, no, Mr. Brinsmade," she cried. And yet her honesty was as
great as Anne's. She would not have