There was nothing for him to say, and Virgie scorched him with another question: "What did you come after Daddy for ?" "Oh, not because I _wanted_ to, little girl," he burst out harshly.

"But you wouldn't understand." He had turned away, and was gazing through the open door, listening to the muttered wrath of the big black guns far down the river.

"It's war! One of the hateful, pitiful things of war! I came because I had my orders." "From your Gen'ral ?" He lowered his chin, regarding her in mild astonishment.
"Yes--my General." "An' do you love _him_--like _I_ love Gen'ral Lee ?" "Yes, dear," he answered earnestly; "of course." He wondered again to see her turn away in sober thought, tracing lines on the dusty floor with one small brown toe; for the child was wrestling with a problem.

If a soldier had orders from his general, as she herself might put it, "he was _bound_ to come"; but still it was hard to reconcile such duty with the capture of her father.

Therefore, she raised her tiny chin and resorted to tactics of a purely personal nature: "An' didn't you know, if you hurt my daddy, I'd tell Uncle Fitz Lee on you ?" "No," the Yankee smiled.