ld. I rushed after water, and Lydia after cologne.
Between us, it passed away; but for those few moments I thought it was
all over with him, and trembled for Miriam. Presently he laughed again
and said, "Helen, if I die, take all my negroes and money and prosecute
those two girls! Don't let them escape!" Then, seeing my long face, he
commenced teasing me. "Don't ever pretend you don't care for me again!
Here you have been unmerciful to me for months, hurting more than this
cut, never sparing me once, and the moment I get scratched, it's 'O Mr.
Carter!' and you fly around like wild and wait on me!" In vain I
represented that I would have done the same for his old lame dog, and
that I did not like him a bit better; he would not believe it, but
persisted that I was a humbug and that I liked him in spite of my
protestations. As long as he was in danger of bleeding to death, I let
him have his way; and, frightened out of teasing, spared him for the
rest of the evening.

Just at what would have been twilight but for the moonshine, when he
went home after the blood was stanched and the hand tightly bound, a
carriage drove up to the house, and Colonel Allen was announced. I
can't say I was ever more disappointed. I had fancied him tall,
handsome, and elegant; I had heard of him as a perfect fascinator, a
woman-killer. Lo! a wee little man is carried in, in the arms of two
others,--wounded in both legs at Baton Rouge, he has never yet been
able to stand.... He was accompanied by a Mr. Bradford, whose assiduous
attentions and boundless admiration for the Colonel struck me as
unusual.... I had not observed him otherwise, until the General
whispered, "Do you know that that is the brother of your old
sweetheart?" Though the appellation was by no means merited, I
recognized the one he meant. Brother to our Mr. Bradford of eighteen
months ago! My astonishment was unbounded, and I alluded to it
immediately. He said it was so; that his brother had often spoken to
him of us, and the pleasant evenings he had spent at home.

November 4th, 1862.

O what a glorious time we had yesterday! First, there were those two
gentlemen to be entertained all day, which was rather a stretch, I
confess, so I stole away for a while. Then I got the sweetest letter
from Miss Trenholm, enclosing Jimmy's photograph, and she praised him
so that I was in a damp state of happiness and flew around showing my
pic