enewed her freshness, her youth and her
liveliness.

"If I were General Markham," said Raymond cynically, "I'd detail a guard
of my most faithful soldiers to stand about my wife."

"Do you think she needs all that protection?" asked Winthrop.

"Well, no, _she_ doesn't need it, but it may save others," replied
Raymond with exceeding frankness.

Winthrop merely laughed and did not dispute the comment. The next
arrival of importance was that of Helen Harley and General Wood. Colonel
Harley frowned, but his sister's eyes did not meet his, and the look of
the mountaineer was so lofty and fearless that he was a bold man indeed
who would have challenged him even with a frown. Helen was all in white,
and to Prescott she seemed some summer flower, so pure, so snowy and so
gentle was she. But the General, acting upon Prescott's advice, had
evidently taken his courage in his hands and arrayed himself as one who
hoped to conquer. His gigantic figure was enclosed for the first time
since Prescott had known him in a well-fitting uniform, and his great
black mane of hair and beard had been trimmed by one who knew his
business. The effect was striking and picturesque. Prescott remembered
to have read long ago in a child's book of natural history that the
black-maned lion was the loftiest and boldest of his kind, and General
Wood seemed to him now to be the finest of the black-maned lions.

There was a shade of embarrassment in the manner of Helen Harley when
she greeted Prescott. She, too, had recollections; perhaps she had
fancied once, like Prescott, that she loved when she did not love. But
her hesitation was over in a moment and she held out her hand warmly.

"We heard of your return from the South," she said. "Why haven't you
been to see us?"

Prescott made some excuse about the pressure of duty, and then, bearing
his friend's interest in mind, spoke of General Wood, who was now in
conversation some distance away with the President himself.

"I believe that General Wood is to-night the most magnificent figure in
the South," he said. "It is well that Mr. Davis greets him warmly. He
ought to. No man under the rank of General Lee has done more for the
Confederacy."

His voice had all the accent of sincerity and Helen looked up at him,
thanking him silently with her eyes.

"Then you like General Wood," she said.

"I am proud to have him as a friend and I should dislike very much to
have him as an enemy."

Richmond in it