e in case--

None of them had put into words to each other their thought as to
Matthew Loring's condition, but all understood the seriousness of it,
and Gertrude, of course, must not be left alone.

Dr. Delaven had meant only to accompany the invalid home, consult with
their local physician, and take his departure after a visit to Mrs.
McVeigh, and possibly a sight of their new battlefield beside Kenneth,
if his command was not too far away.

Kenneth McVeigh was Col. McVeigh now, to the great delight of the
sister, who loved men who could fight. On his return from Paris he
had, at his own request, and to the dismay of his family, been sent to
the frontier. At the secession of his state he was possessed of a
captaincy, which he resigned, returned home, and in six weeks tendered
a regiment, fully equipped at his own expense, to the Confederate
government. His offer had been accepted and himself made a colonel.
His regiment had already seen one year of hard service, were veterans,
with a colonel of twenty-five--a colonel who had been carried home
wounded unto death, the surgeons said, from the defeat of Fort
Donaldson. He had belied their prophecies of death, however, and while
not yet equal to the rigors of camp life, he had accepted a commission
abroad of decided importance to his government, and became one of the
committee to deal with certain English sympathizers who were fitting
out vessels for the Confederate navy.

Mrs. McVeigh had been called to Mobile by the serious illness of an
aged relative and had been detained by something much less dreary, the
marriage of her brother, who had command of a garrison at that point.

Thus barred from seeing either of his former Parisian friends, Delaven
would have gone back to Charleston, or else gone North or West to view
a new land in battle array.

But Mr. Loring's health, or Miss Loring's entreaties had interfered
with both those plans. He could not desert a young lady on an
isolated plantation with only the slaves about her, and a partial
paralytic to care for, especially when all the most capable
physicians were at military posts, and no one absolutely reliable
nearer than Charleston.

So he had promised to stay, and had advised Miss Loring to induce Mrs.
Nesbitt to remain until a few weeks' rest and the atmosphere of home
would, he hoped, have a beneficial influence on the invalid.

All his suggestions had been carried out. Aunt Sajane (who had not a
niece or ne