come forward
to meet her. Then he went back to the wagon and drove it into a side
path among some trees, where he exchanged outer clothing again with the
farmer, awakening the amazed man directly afterward from his slumbers.
Prescott offered no explanations, but soothed the honest man's natural
anger with a gold eagle, and, leaving him there, not three miles from
his home, went back on foot.

He slipped easily into Richmond the next night, and before morning was
sleeping soundly in his own bed.

CHAPTER XIV

PRESCOTT'S ORDEAL

Prescott was awakened from his sleep by his mother, who came to him in
suppressed anxiety, telling him that a soldier was in the outer room
with a message demanding his instant presence at headquarters. At once
there flitted through his mind a dream of that long night, now passed,
the flight together, the ride, the warm and luminous presence beside him
and the last sight of her as she passed over the hill to the fires that
burned in the Northern camp. A dream it was, vague and misty as the
darkness through which they had passed, but it left a delight, vague and
misty like itself, that refused to be dispelled by the belief that this
message was from Mr. Sefton, who intended to strike where his armour was
weakest.

With the power of repression inherited from his Puritan mother he hid
from her pleasure and apprehension alike, saying:

"Some garrison duty, mother. You know in such a time of war I can't
expect to live here forever in ease and luxury."

The letter handed to him by the messenger, an impassive Confederate
soldier in butternut gray, was from the commandant of the forces in
Richmond, ordering him to report to Mr. Sefton for instructions. Here
were all his apprehensions justified. The search had been made, the
soldiers had gone to the cottage of Miss Grayson, the girl was not
there, and the Secretary now turned to him, Robert Prescott, as if he
were her custodian, demanding her, or determined to know what he had
done with her. Well, his own position was uncertain, but she at least
was safe--far beyond the lines of Richmond, now with her own people,
and neither the hand of Sefton nor of any other could touch her. That
thought shed a pleasant glow, all the more grateful because it was he
who had helped her. But toward the Secretary he felt only defiance.

As he went forth to obey the summons the city was bright, all white and
silver and gold in its sheet of ice, with a wintr