you never be any
nearer!--Yes, Julius, that's all. Tell Easter's Jim to go right
away.--Now, Molly, this is the island, and here is Fort Moultrie and
here Fort Sumter. I used to know Charleston, when I was a girl. I can
see now the Battery, and the blue sky, and the roses,--and the roses."

She took up her knitting and made a few stitches mechanically, then laid
it down and applied herself to Fauquier Cary's letter. Molly, ensconced
in a window, was already busy with her own. Presently she spoke. "Miriam
Cleave says that Will passed his examination higher than any one."

"That is good!" said Miss Lucy. "They all have fine minds--the Cleaves.
What else does she say?"

"She says that Richard has given her a silk dress for her birthday, and
she's going to have it made with angel sleeves, and wear a hoop with it.
She's sixteen--just like me."

"Richard's a good brother."

"She says that Richard has gone to Richmond--something about arms for
his Company of Volunteers. Aunt Lucy--"

"Yes, dear."

"I think that Richard loves Judith."

"Molly, Molly, stop romancing!"

"I am not romancing. I don't believe in it. That week last summer he
used to watch her and Mr. Stafford--and there was a look in his eyes
like the knight's in the 'Arcadia'--"

"Molly! Molly!"

"And everybody knew that Mr. Stafford was a suitor. _I_ knew it--Easter
told me. And everybody thought that Judith was going to make him happy,
only she doesn't seem to have done so--at least, not yet. And there was
the big tournament, and Richard and Dundee took all the rings, though I
know that Mr. Stafford had expected to, and Judith let Richard crown her
queen, but she looked just as pale and still! and Richard had a line
between his brows, and I think he thought she would rather have had the
Maid of Honour's crown that Mr. Stafford won and gave to just a little
girl--"

"Molly, I am going to lock up every poetry book in the house--"

"And that was one day, and the next morning Richard looked stern and
fine, and rode away. He isn't really handsome--not like Edward, that
is--only he has a way of looking so. And Judith--"

"Molly, you're uncanny--"

"I'm not uncanny. I can't help seeing. And the night after the
tournament I slept in Judith's room, and I woke up three times, and each
time there was Judith still sitting in the window, in the moonlight, and
the roses Richard had crowned her with beside her in grandmother's
Lowestoft bowl. And each time I