They then proceeded to the Bowman House and entered Alfred's room.
"My furlough is only for thirty days," Alfred remarked, while engaged in dressing himself, "and how I am to send in a letter to New Orleans and receive an answer before that time expires I cannot conjecture." "What do you wish to write to New Orleans for," asked Harry.
"Why, to wife," answered Alfred, "I think it is about time that she should hear from me." "My dear friend," replied Harry, "your wife is not in New Orleans, she is in the Confederate lines." "Where is she ?" he enquired, eagerly.
"I could not tell you that," Harry answered, "but of one thing you may be certain, she is not in New Orleans." "How do you know that ?" he asked.
"Dr.Humphries purchased a negro girl the day before I returned; she gave her name as Elsy, and said she was belonging to Mr.Alfred Wentworth, of New Orleans.

On being questioned why she had left the city, the girl said that her mistress with your two children had been forced to leave by Beast Butler, who would not allow her to go also, but that, being determined to follow your wife, she had ran the blockade and came into the Confederate lines.".
"And did my wife sell her to anybody else ?" enquired Alfred.
"Wait a moment, my dear friend, and I will tell you," answered Harry.
"The girl did not see her mistress at all, for she was arrested on her arrival in this city, and having no papers, as well as no owner, she was sold according to law, and was purchased by Dr.Humphries, at whose residence she is now.

I would have told you this when we first met, but it slipped my memory completely." "But where could my wife have gone to ?" remarked Alfred.

"I do not know of any person in the Confederate lines with whom she is acquainted, and where she can get the means to support herself and children I have not the least idea." "That she has been to Jackson I am certain," Harry replied, "for no sooner did I hear what the girl had informed Dr.Humphries, than I endeavored to find out where she resided.

I searched the register of both the hotels in this city and found that she had been staying at this hotel; but the clerk did not recollect anything about her, and could not tell me where she went to on her departure from this city.