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Never mind that. You said that Sempland had never done anything to distinguish himself. Well, he's going to do it to-night." "What is he going to do?" asked the girl, all the listlessness instantly going out of her manner. "He is going to take out the David." "Yes?" "And blow up the Wabash." Her hand went to her heart. Her face turned whiter than the frock she wore.
If we can blow up Admiral Vernon's flagship, perhaps we can raise the blockade. At any rate it's the only chance for the blockade-runners to get out." "Did the general order you to do this?" "Certainly not. I suggested it to him. They don't order any one to the David, you know." "I should say not," returned Sempland. "She's been down five times, hasn't she?"
Pleasant thing it was for her to hear, too, she could not but admit. Yet if Fanny Glen had not rejected him, neither had she accepted him. She had pleaded for time, she had hesitated, and would have been lost, had Sempland been as wise as he was brave.
"But where can I go, sir?" asked the girl, nervously. "All that I love " she observed a smile flickering upon the general's lips as she glanced at Sempland. "I mean everybody and everything that I love is here." She stamped her foot impatiently. "You won't send me to the Union fleet? I know my father is safe but I love the South.
She loved Lacy for the dangers he had passed, and Sempland because she could not help it; which marks the relative quality of her affections. Which one she loved the better until the moment at which the story opens she could not have told. Nobody knew anything about Fanny Glen. At least there were only two facts concerning her in possession of the general public. These, however, were sufficient.
The contrast between the two was amusing, or would have been had not the atmosphere been so surcharged with passionate feeling, for Rhett Sempland was six feet high if he was an inch, while Fanny Glen by a Procrustean extension of herself could just manage to cover the five-foot mark; yet such was the spirit permeating the smaller figure that there seemed to be no great disparity, from the standpoint of combatants, between them after all.
Ah, General Wylie," he said as that functionary presented himself, "will you make out an order assembling a court-martial to try Lieutenant Rhett Sempland, here, for disobedience of orders and neglect of duty in the presence of the enemy, and well, that will be enough, I think," he continued after a pause which was fraught with agony to Sempland at least, lest the general should mention cowardice or treason again.
You have had your chances, and improved them; give this to me." Lacy hesitated. "Sempland, you're a fool, as I said before. You're running away from the woman who loves you. You're risking your life." "Never mind about that," returned the other. "She doesn't love me, and I want to do it. For God's sake, old man, don't be selfish! Let me have an opportunity!"
"Meanwhile see that Mr. Sempland is carefully guarded here in the headquarters building." "Very good, sir," said the officer, saluting. "This way, Mr. Sempland." As the two men left the room the orderly entered it once more and announced to the general that a lady was below who asked the privilege of an interview with him. "Lady? What lady?" demanded Beauregard, impatiently.
"However it is done " said Sempland, "however it may be brought about, it satisfies me completely." "'If 'twere done when 'tis done, 'twere well 'twere done quickly," quoted the general with striking appositeness, greatly delighted at the outcome of the affair.
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