eprivations I endure are those of the common
lot--and this community of ill makes them amusing rather than serious."

She rose and walked to a door leading into the garden.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I shall return in a few moments."

When she came back she brought with her a tall young woman with eyes of
dark blue and hair of brown shot with gold wherever the firelight fell
upon it. This girl showed a sinuous grace when she walked and she
seemed to Prescott singularly self-contained.

He sprang to his feet at once and took her hand in the usual Southern
fashion, making a compliment upon her appearance, also in the usual
Southern fashion. Then he realized that she had ceased to be a little
girl in all other respects as well as in the physical.

"I have heard that gallantry in the face of the ladies as well as of the
foe is part of a soldier's trade, Robert," she replied.

"And you do not know which requires the greater daring."

"But I know which your General ought to value the more."

After this she was serious. Neither of the younger people spoke much,
but left the thread of the talk to Mrs. Prescott, who had a great deal
to say. The elder woman, for all her gentleness and apparent timidity,
had a bold spirit that stood in no awe of the high and mighty. She was
full of curiosity about the war and plied her son with questions.

"We in Richmond know little that is definite of its progress," she said.
"The Government announces victories and no defeats. But tell me, Robert,
is it true, as I hear, that in the knapsacks of the slain Southern
soldiers they find playing-cards, and in those of the North, Bibles?"

"If the Northern soldiers have Bibles, they do not use them," said
Helen.

"And if the Southern soldiers have playing-cards, they do use them,"
said Mrs. Prescott.

Robert laughed.

"I daresay that both sides use their cards too much and their Bibles too
little," he said.

"Do not be alarmed, Robert," said his mother; "such encounters between
Helen and myself are of a daily occurrence."

"And have not yet resulted in bloodshed," added Miss Harley.

Prescott watched the girl while his mother talked, and he seemed to
detect in her a certain aloofness as far as he was concerned, although
he was not sure that the impression was not due to his absence so long
from the society of women. It gave him a feeling of shyness which he
found difficult to overcome, and which he contrasted in his own min