n's line.

"Yes, they must be whipped!" echoed Mrs. Dinwiddie; and soon afterwards
came news of the capture of New Orleans, of Vicksburg, of Port Hudson,
and at last of Atlanta. "These horrid Yankees!" she shrieked. "Why don't
we do something, Dinwiddie? If one Southerner can whip five Yankees,
why, in the name of common sense, don't we do something? Speak, you
stupid, provoking man!"

"Yes, yes, what was it you asked?" meekly interrogated Dinwiddie, who
was calculating how much he had made in the recent rise of United States
five-twenties.

"What was it? Oh, go to your tobacco-casks, your coupons, and your
cotton, you soulless, huckstering old man! You can look on and see
Abolitionism getting rampant in this once proud city, and not lift a
voice or a finger to save us from ruin! You can see Maryland drifting
into the horrible abyss of Yankeeism and Anti-slavery, and keep on doing
business and minding the paltry affairs of your counting-room, as if all
that gives grace and dignity to this wretched State were not on the
verge of destruction! If you'd had the spirit of a hare, you'd have
been a brigadier-general in the Confederate army by this time."

Dinwiddie was not a man of words. He had a wholesome horror of
strong-minded women; and to that class he discovered, too late for his
peace, that his wife belonged. So he simply replied, slightly
stuttering, as was his wont, except when excited,--

"If I had joined the army, Madam, I should have--have--ve"----

"I should have what?"

"I should have been deprived of your--ahem--agreeable society; and then
you might have been a wid--wid--widow."

"I should have been proud. Sir, to have been your widow under such
circumstances."

"Thank you, Mrs. Dinwiddie; but being a mod--mod--modest man myself, I'd
rather not make my wife proud."

"There's no danger of your ever doing that, Sir," quoth Madam; "but I
thank Heaven we're not wholly disgraced. We have one representative of
our family in the Confederate army. My son Culpepper may live to make
amends for his sire's degeneracy."

Dinwiddie was beginning to get roused.

"My degeneracy, Madam? Confound it, Madam, where would you and yours
have been, if I hadn't saved you all from pau--pau--pauperism, Madam?"

It was rare that Dinwiddie made so long a speech, and the lady was
astounded.

"Sir," said she, "do you know it is a Culpepper of whom you speak?"

"Devilish well I know it," said the excited Daniel; "and what