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"Let me go, Anne!" he cried. "Do you think I can stay here while my people are shot down by a lot of damned Dutchman?" "John," said Mr. Brinsmade, sternly, "I cannot let you join a mob. I cannot let you shoot at men who carry the Union flag." "You cannot prevent me, sir," shouted the young man, in a frenzy. "When foreigners take our flag for them own, it is time for us to shoot them down."
Don't you go to the front yet a while, young man. We need the best we have in reserve." He glanced critically at Stephen. "You've had military training of some sort?" "He's a captain in the Halleck Guards, sir," said Mr. Brinsmade, generously, "and the best drillmaster we've had in this city. He's seen service, too, General."
His frontiersman's clothes, stained with blackened blood, hung limp over his wasted body. At Virginia's bidding the Colonel ran downstairs for a bucket of fresh water, and she washed the caked dust from his face and hands. It was Mr. Brinsmade who got the surgeon to dress the man's wound, and to prescribe some of the broth from Virginia's basket.
"First rate!" laughed the General, patting him. "First rate!" "Now in command at Camp Benton, Stephen," Mr. Brinsmade put in. "Won't you sit down, General?" "No," said the General, emphatically waving away the chair. "No, rather stand." Then his keen face suddenly lighted with amusement, and mischief, Stephen thought. "So you've heard of me since we met, sir?" "Yes, General." "Humph!
A high color was on the girl's face as she said: "Please excuse me, Mrs. Brinsmade, I must go and get ready." "But you've eaten nothing, my dear." Virginia did not reply. She was already on the stairs. "You ought not have read that, Pa," Mr. Jack remonstrated; "you know that she detests Yankees."
Down the vista of the street was a mass of blue uniforms, and a film of white smoke hanging about the columns of the old Presbyterian Church Mr. Brinsmade quietly drew her back into the carriage. The shots ceased, giving place to an angry roar that struck terror to her heart that wet and lowering afternoon. The powerful black horses galloped on.
You may remember that the Judge was a close friend of her father's before the war. And well, they quarrelled, sir. The Colonel went South, you know." "When when was the Judge taken ill, Mr. Brinsmade?" Stephen asked. The thought of Virginia and his mother caring for him together was strangely sweet. "Two days before I left, sir, Dr. Polk had warned him not to do so much.
With not indifferent elation these gentlemen watched the departure of brethren with whom they had labored for many years, save only when Mr. Brinsmade walked down the aisle never to return. So it is that war, like a devastating flood, creeps insistent into the most sacred places, and will not be denied. Mr.
"Anne Brinsmade!" she cried. "You may have your ball, and your Yankees, all of them you want. But I shan't come. How I wish I had never seen that horrid Stephen Brice! Then you would never have insulted me." Virginia rose and snatched her riding-whip. This was too much for Anne. She threw her arms around her friend without more ado. "Don't quarrel with me, Jinny," she said tearfully.
Brinsmade sanctions is not for me to question." She gave him yet another look, a fleeting one which he did not see. Then she softly opened the door and passed into the room of the dying man. Stephen followed her. As for Clarence, he stood for a space staring after them. Then he went noiselessly down the stairs into the street.
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