t I am here at this moment because I was just returning
from another vain attempt to escape from the city--not for myself, I
tell you again, and not with any papers belonging to your Government,
but for the sake of another. Listen, there are soldiers passing."

It was the tread of a company going by and Prescott shrank still farther
back into the shadow. He felt for the moment a chill in his bones, and
he imagined what must be the dread of a traitor on the eve of detection.
What would his comrades say of him if they caught him here? As the woman
came close to him and put her hand upon his arm, he was conscious again
of the singular thrill that shot through him whenever she touched him.
She affected him as no other woman had ever done--nor did he know
whether it was like or dislike. There was an uncanny fascination about
her that attracted him, even though he endeavoured to shake it off.

The tread of the company grew louder, but the night was otherwise still.
The moon silvered the soldiers as they passed, and Prescott distinctly
saw their features as he hid there in the dark like a spy, fearing to be
seen. Then he grew angry with himself and he shook the woman's hand from
his arm; it had rested as lightly as dew.

"I think that you had better go back to Miss Charlotte Grayson, whoever
she may be," he said.

"But one cannot stay there forever."

"That does not concern me. Why should it? Am I to care for the safety of
those who are fighting me?"

"But do you stop to think what you are fighting for?" She put her hand
on his arm, and her eyes were glowing as she asked the question. "Do
you ever stop to think what you are fighting for, the wrong that you do
by fighting and the greater wrong that you will do if you succeed, which
a just God will not let happen?"

She spoke with such vehement energy that Prescott was startled. He was
well enough accustomed to controversy about the right or wrong of the
war, but not under such circumstances as these.

"Madam," he said, "we soldiers don't stop in the middle of a battle to
argue this question, and you can hardly expect me to do so now."

She did not reply, but the fire still lingered in her eyes. The company
passed, their tread echoed down the street, then died away.

"You are safe now," she said, with the old touch of irony in her voice;
"they will not find you here with me, so why do you linger?"

"It may be because you are a woman," replied Prescott, "that I overloo