ourning while the men are at the front fighting so bravely."

Mrs. Markham chattered on; whatever might be the misfortunes of the
Confederacy they did not seem to impress her. She was so lively and
cheerful, and so deftly mingled compliments with her gaiety, that
Prescott did not wonder at Harley's obvious attraction, but he was not
sorry to see the frown deepen on the face of the Colonel's sister. The
sound of some soldiers singing a gay chorus reached their ears and he
asked Helen if she would come to the door of the house and see them. She
looked once doubtfully at the other woman, but rose and went with him,
the two who were left behind making no attempt to detain her.

"Too much watching is not good, Helen," said Prescott, reproachfully.
"You are looking quite pale. See how cheerful the camp is! Did you ever
before hear of such soldiers?"

She looked over the tattered army as far as she could see and her eyes
grew wet.

"War is a terrible thing," she replied, "and I think that no cause is
wholly right; but truly it makes one's heart tighten to see such
devotion by ragged and half-starved soldiers, hardly a man of whom is
free from wound or scar of one."

The rolling thunder of a cannon shot came from a point far to the left.

"What is that?" she asked.

"It means probably that the tacit truce is broken, but it is likely that
it is more in the nature of a range-finding shot than anything else. We
are strongly intrenched, and as wise a man as Grant will try to flank us
out of here, before making a general attack. I am sure there will be no
great battle for at least a week."

"And my brother may be well in that time," she said. "I am so anxious to
see him once more in the saddle, where he craves to be and where he
belongs."

There are women who prefer to see the men whom they love kept back by a
wound in order that they might escape a further danger, but not of such
was Helen. Prescott remembered, too, the single glance, like a solitary
signal shot, that had passed between her and Mrs. Markham.

"We are all anxious to see Colonel Harley back in the saddle," he
replied, "and for a good reason. His is one of our best sabers."

Then she asked him to tell her of the army, the nature of the position
it now occupied, the movements they expected, and he replied to her in
detail when he saw how unaffected was her interest. It pleased him that
she should be concerned about these things and should understand them as