He admired their courage and daring.
It was late when Harry awoke, and the colonel was already up and dressed.

But the man waited quietly until the boy was dressed also, and they went down to breakfast together.

Despite the lateness of the hour the dining-room was still crowded, and the room buzzed with animated talk.

Harry knew very well that Charleston was the absorbing topic, just as it had been the one great thought in his own mind.
The people about him seemed to be wholly of Southern sympathies, and he knew very well that Tennessee, although she might take her own time about it, would follow South Carolina out of the Union.
They found two vacant seats at a table, where three men already sat.
One was a member of the Legislature, who talked somewhat loudly; the second was a country merchant of middle age, and the third was a young man of twenty-five, who had very little to say.

The legislator, whose name was Ramsay, soon learned Colonel Talbot's identity, and he would have proclaimed it to everybody about him, had not the colonel begged him not to do so.
"But you will at least permit me to shake your hand, Colonel Talbot," he said.