her when she came back to
Richmond; she could not turn me away. I played upon your foolish
jealousy--I fancy I did that cleverly. I brought her back here to draw
you away from Helen Harley and she drew me, too. She did not intend it,
nor did she wish it; but perhaps she felt her power ever since that
meeting in the Wilderness and knew that she was safe from any
disclosures of mine. But she loved you from the first, Captain Prescott,
and never anybody else. You see, I am frank with myself as I have tried
always to be in all respects. I have lost the field and I retire in
favour of the winner, yourself!"

The Secretary, bowing, walked away. Prescott watched him a minute or
two, but he could see no signs of haste or excitement in the compact,
erect figure. Then he hastened to his mother.

He found her in her parlour, prepared as if for the coming of some one.
There was fervent feeling in her look, but her manner was calm as she
embraced her son. Prescott knew her thoughts, and as he had never yet
found fault with them he could not now at such a time.

"I know everything, Robert," she said. "The Government is about to flee
from Richmond."

"Yes, mother," he replied, "and I brought the order for it to go. Is it
not singular that such a message should have been delivered by your son?
Your side wins, mother."

"I never doubted that it would, not even after that terrible day at Bull
Run and the greater defeats that came later. A cause is lost from the
beginning when it is against the progress of the human race."

There was mingled joy and sadness in her manner--joy that the cause
which she thought right had won; sadness that her friends, none the less
dear because for so many months they had taken another view, should
suffer misfortune.

"Mother," Prescott said presently, "I do not wish to leave you, but I
must go to the cottage of Miss Grayson and Miss Catherwood. There are
likely to be wild scenes in Richmond before the day is over, and they
should not be left alone."

The look that she bent upon her son then was singularly soft and
tender--smiling, too, as if something pleased her.

"They will be here, Robert," she said. "I expect them any minute."

"Here! in this house!" he exclaimed, starting.

"Yes, here in this house," she said triumphantly "It will not be the
first time that Lucia Catherwood has been sheltered behind these walls.
Do you not remember when they wished to arrest her, and Lieutenant
Talbot sea