rescott, as I am now well beyond the
Confederate lines encircling Richmond and can readily care for myself,"
said Miss Catherwood.

But he refused to do so, asserting with indignation that it was not his
habit to leave his tasks half finished, and he could not abandon her in
such a frozen waste as that lying around them. She protested no further,
and Prescott, cracking his whip over the horses, increased their speed,
but before long they settled into an easy walk. The city behind sank
down in the darkness, and before them curved the white world of hills
and forests, white even under its covering of a somber night.

CHAPTER XIII

LUCIA'S FAREWELL

Prescott has never forgotten that night, the long ride, the relief from
danger, the silent woman by his side; and there was in all a keen
enjoyment, of a kind deeper and more holy than he had ever known before.
He had saved a woman, a woman whom he could admire, from a great danger;
it was hers rather than his own that appealed to him, and he was
thankful. In her heart, too, was a devout gratitude and something more.

The worthy Elias Gardner, slumbering so peacefully under his crates, was
completely forgotten, and they two were alone with the universe. The
clouds by and by passed away and the heavens shone blue and cold; a good
moon came out, and the white hills and forests, touched by it, flashed
now and then with the gleam of silver. All the world was at peace; there
was no sign of war in the night nor in those snowy solitudes. Before
them stretched the road, indicated by a long line of wheel tracks in the
snow, and behind them was nothing. Prescott, by and by, let the lines
drop on the edge of the wagon-bed, and the horses chose their own way,
following with mere instinct the better path.

He began now to see himself as he was, to understand the impulse that
had driven him on. Here by his side, her warm breath almost on his face,
was the girl he had saved, but he took no advantage of time and place,
infringing in no degree upon the respect due to every woman. He had come
even this night believing her a spy, but now he held her as something
holy.

She spoke by and by of the gratitude she owed him, not in many words,
but strong ones, showing how deeply she felt all she said, and he did
not seek to silence her, knowing the relief it would give her to speak.

Presently she told him of herself. She came from that borderland between
North and South which is of bo