if I
did go to the playhouse. I confessed that to the sewing circle, and Mrs.
Deacon Bannister ain't seemed the same toward me since, but I don't
care. I beat her on the election to first directress of the Soldiers'
Aid. She didn't run half as well as me. That chap you call Bob, is he
anything to you? Is he your beau?"

It was Bell's turn now to blush and then grow white, while Helen
lightly touching the superb diamond on her first finger, said: "That
indicates as much. When did it happen, Bell?"

Mrs. Cameron had said they were not a family to bruit their affairs
abroad, and if so, Bell was not like her family, for she answered
frankly: "Just before he went away. It's a splendid diamond, isn't it?"
and she held it up for Helen to inspect.

The basket was empty by this time, and as Aunt Betsy went to fill it
from the trees, Bell and Helen were left alone, the former continuing in
a low, sad tone: "I've been so sorry sometimes that I did not tell Bob I
loved him, when he wished me to so much."

"Not tell him you loved him! How then could you tell him yes, as it
appears you did?" Helen asked, and Bell answered: "I could not well help
that; it came so sudden and he begged so hard, saying my promise would
make him a better man, a better soldier and all that. It was the very
night before he went, and so I said that out of pity and patriotism I
would give the promise, and I did, but it seemed too much for a woman to
tell a man all at once that she loved him, and I wouldn't do it, but
I've been sorry since; oh, so sorry, during the two days when we heard
nothing from him after that dreadful battle at Bull Run. We knew he was
in it, and I thought I should die until his telegram came saying he was
safe. I did sit down then and commence a letter, confessing all I felt,
but I tore it up, and he don't know now just how I feel."

"And do you really love him?" Helen asked, puzzled by this strange girl,
who laughingly held up her soft, white hand, stained and blackened with
the juice of the fruit she had been paring, and said: "Do you suppose I
would spoil my hands like that and incur _ma chere-mamma's_ displeasure,
if Bob were not in the army and I did not care for him? And now that I
have confessed so much, allow me to catechise you. Did Mark Ray ever
propose and you refuse him?"

"Never!" and Helen's face grew crimson, while Bell continued: "That is
funny. Half our circle think so, though how the impression was first
given