Jane Selden has a most erratic mind .-- Don't sympathize too much, Jacqueline, with that damned young Republican upstairs! He's an enemy." The Major walked to the window.

"It is Gilmer, sure enough, and--ah, it is Ludwell Cary with him, riding Prince Rupert.

Come look, Jacqueline!" Receiving no answer, he turned to find that his niece had vanished and he was alone in the library.

Presently he heard from the hail, through the half-open door, the doctor's voice and Ludwell Cary's expressions of concern, Jacqueline's low replies, a confusion of other voices, and finally, from the head of the stairs, Colonel Dick's hearty "Come up, Gilmer, come up! D'ye remember that damned place in the hill road where my mare Nelly threw me, coming home at dawn from Maria Erskine's wedding ?" Steps and voices died away.

The evening shadows lengthened, and filled the library where Uncle Edward sat, propping his lean old chin upon his lean old hand, and staring at a dim old clock in the corner, as if it could tell him more than the time of day.