ed at Sempland. "I mean everybody and everything that I love is
here." She stamped her foot impatiently. "You won't send me to the
Union fleet? I know my father is safe--but I love the South. I will
never do anything wrong again if you won't send me away!" she pleaded.

It was, indeed, a sweeping promise, one she could scarcely have kept.

"There are other ways by which Miss Fanny Glen might disappear," said
Beauregard, gravely.

"How, sir?"

"You might change your name--again!"

"Change my name?"

"Yes. You might become--Mrs. Rhett Sempland, let us say!"

"O-o-oh!" cried the girl, blushing furiously and drawing away from her
lover's side.

"Quite so," answered the general with deep gravity, too deep not to be
suspicious, while Sempland's heart leaped with happiness. This was the
meaning of the general's little play, then?

"Proceedings which would have to be instituted against Fanny Glen could
then be allowed to drop," continued Beauregard, enjoying the situation
immensely. "Is not that a solution, gentlemen?" he asked, throwing back
his head and laughing cheerfully at the pleasant ending of the little
comedy he had planned, which pleased the small audience hugely.

"That is the happiest of all solutions, sir," said Sempland, taking
Fanny Glen's hands.

"I won't be married simply to save my life," said the girl.

"Of course not," said the general. "Yet either you must be
court-martialled or Mr. Sempland will be."

"I--I might do it--to save--his life, sir," she said, blushing
furiously again.

"However it is done--" said Sempland, "however it may be brought about,
it satisfies me completely."

"'If 'twere done when 'tis done, 'twere well 'twere done quickly,'"
quoted the general with striking appositeness, greatly delighted at the
outcome of the affair.

"I agree with you entirely, sir," returned Sempland, smiling--it was
the part of wisdom for a captain to agree with a general always, and
the way of prudence was the path of pleasure in this instance.

"Captain Sempland," said Beauregard, "your orders need not be carried
out until to-morrow. There will be time enough before that time for a
wedding, in which, in the absence of her father, I promise myself the
pleasure of giving away the bride. Now, gentlemen, we will leave
the--ah--two culprits to talk it over for a few moments. Let me know
your decision, Miss Glen, as soon as may be, that I may decide whether
to assemble or dissolve the court. And