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Dismounting, my companion handed the reins of both horses to a trooper, and led the way in. A word to the sentinel, and we faced the group above. One, a sharp-featured man, with very dark complexion, rose to his feet. "What is it, Kent?" "This is Lieutenant Galesworth, of the Ninth Illinois Cavalry. The general will wish to see him at once."
My eyes took the words in a flash, and yet for the instant they were vague, meaningless. It was only as I read them a second time that I understood, and then I gazed helplessly into the faces about me, striving to grasp the full situation. "LIEUT. GALESWORTH: "We advanced our centre and left at daylight, and have driven the enemy from intrenchments.
From head to foot he was the gentleman and the soldier. By some chance our eyes met, and, with a quick glance back at the house, he stopped suddenly. "Galesworth," he said quietly, his glance searching my face, "I do not wish you to have any misunderstanding about my exact position in this affair. The war is not personal with me.
Lieutenant Galesworth probably understands that we are acquaintances, and enemies." She left the room, without so much as glancing at me, Hardy calling after her, "I'll come up as soon as I smoke a cigar with Bell." The door closed, and his eyes met mine. "What the devil is the trouble, my boy? That wasn't like Billie; I never knew her to harbor an unkind thought in her life.
Yet I thought you, at least, a friend." A deep flush swept into her cheeks, to vanish as quickly. "You had reason to think so, and I was," earnestly. "I was deceived in your character, and trusted you implicitly. It seems as though I am destined to be the constant victim of deceit. I can keep faith in no one. It is hard to understand you, Lieutenant Galesworth.
Then Major Hardy suddenly appeared, closing the door, and mopping his face with a handkerchief. His eyes met mine. "By Gad, Galesworth," he began, "woman is the hardest creature to comprehend on this foot-stool. I've been trying to understand them for fifty years, and am still in the primary class.
Place the dead against the wall, and," glancing through the doorway beside him, "carry the wounded into the parlor. Corporal, you and one man come with me." He stepped across carefully, picking a way between the bodies. "Galesworth, did you say? Then you were in command here?" I bowed, feeling as I did so that Billie had slipped her hand into mine. "Great fight you made," he went on warmly.
"I assume the right in accordance with a law as old as man." "What law?" "The law of love," I returned earnestly, "the love of a man for the one woman." I could see her slight form sway as the full significance of these words came to her; her cheeks flamed, but there was no shadowing of her eyes. "I am going in, Lieutenant Galesworth," she said finally, drawing back to the open window.
"You you don't suppose I sent her?" "Oh, no, you have been most honorable. There is no reason why I should hold you here; the others have gone, and you may be of assistance to Miss Willifred. It is bound to be lively enough for us in here presently without prisoners to look after." "But you have not accepted my hand, Lieutenant Galesworth. I wish to feel that we part friends."
"I have been waiting for you to return," she said very coldly, yet with a slight falter in the voice, "and when I spoke to the sergeant, he said you were up here." I bowed, hat in hand, and waited, unwilling to speak until I knew something of her purpose. "Lieutenant Galesworth, what is the meaning of all this? What do you propose doing with my father and Captain Le Gaire?"
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