out.
“Trust me not to forget that, Mrs. Varney,” said the Lieutenant, as he disappeared on the porch.
Captain Thorne and Edith were left alone. The girl stepped over to a small table on which stood a vase of roses, and, with somewhat nervous hands, she busied herself arranging them. The young officer watched her in silence for a little while, the moments tense with emotion.
“Shall I see Mrs. Varney again?” he began at last.
“Oh, I suppose so, but not now. I heard her go upstairs to Howard.”
“How is he?”
“Desperately ill.”
“I am sorry.”
“Yes,” said the girl.
“I have a very little time to stay and – ”
“Oh – not long?” asked Edith.
“No, I am sorry to say.”
“Well, do you know,” she looked at him archly, “I believe you will have more time than you really think you have. It would be odd if it came out that way, wouldn’t it?” she continued, as she played with the flower in her hand.
“Yes, but it won’t come out that way,” said Thorne, as he stepped closer to her.
“You don’t know,” she faltered, as Thorne drew the flower from her and took her hand in his. They stood there quiet a moment, and she did not draw her hand away. “Well, it makes no difference how soon you are going away; you can sit down in the meantime if you want to.”
“It is hardly worth while,” he said; “my time is so short.”
“You would better,” interrupted the girl; “I have a great many things to say to you.”
“Have you?” he asked, sitting down on the little sofa by her side in compliance with her invitation.
“Yes.”
“But I have only one thing to say to you – Miss Varney and – that is” – Thorne took her other hand in both of his – “good-bye.”
Very different words had trembled on his lips, as he knew and as the girl knew.
“But I don’t really think you will have to say that, Captain Thorne,” said Edith slowly.
“I know I will.”
“Then,” said Edith more softly, “it will be because you want to say it.”
“No,” said Thorne, resolutely and of his own motion releasing her hands, which she had allowed him to hold without remonstrance; “it will be because I must.”
He rose to his feet and took up his hat from the table as if, the thing being settled, he had only to go. But the girl observed with secret joy that he made no other effort at departure.
“Oh, you think you must, do you, Captain Thorne?” said Edith, looking up at him mischievously. “You are a very wise person, but you don’t know all that I know.”
“I think that is more than likely, Miss Varney, but won’t you tell me some of the things that you know that I don’t, so that I can approach your knowledge in that respect?”
“I wouldn’t mind telling you one thing, and that is that it is very wrong for you to think of leaving Richmond now.”
“Oh, but you don’t know.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Well, what do you know?” asked Thorne curiously.
“Whatever you were going to say. Most likely it was that there’s something or other I don’t know about, but I do know this. You were sent here to recover, and you haven’t nearly had enough time for it yet.”
“I do look as if a high wind would blow me away, don’t I?” he laughed.
“No matter how you look, you ought not to go. You are just making fun of it, as you always do of everything. No matter, you can have all the fun you like, but the whole thing is settled; you are not going away at all, you are going to stay here,” she concluded with most decided but winning emphasis.
“Oh, I’m not going? Well, that is quite a change for me,” said Thorne composedly. He laid his hat back on the table and came closer to Edith. “Perhaps you wouldn’t mind telling me what I am going to do.”
“I don’t mind at all, and it is this. You see, I have been to see – I am almost afraid to tell you.”
“Don’t tell me,” said the man with sudden seriousness, laying aside all his pleasantry, “because it can’t be true. I have my orders, and I am leaving to-night.”
“Where – to Petersburg – to the front?”
“We can’t always tell where orders will take us,” he said evasively, again sitting down beside her on the lounge.
He could scarcely tear himself away from her, from the delicious yet painful emotion aroused by her presence. He ought to have gone long since, yet he was with her, as he supposed, for the last time. Surely he might indulge himself a little. He loved her so desperately, so hopelessly.
“But listen,” said the girl; “supposing there were other orders, orders from a higher authority, appointing you to duty here?”
“It would not make any difference.”
“You don’t mean you would go in spite of them!” cried the girl in sudden alarm.
Thorne looked at her gravely and nodded his head.
“But if it were proved that your first orders were a mistake – ”
She stretched out her hand toward him, which Thorne clasped closely again.
“But it wasn’t a mistake, and I must go,” he said slowly, rising to his feet once more, but still holding her hand.
“Is it something dangerous?” asked the girl apprehensively.
“Oh, well, enough to make it interesting.”
But Edith did not respond to his well simulated humour. She drew her hand away, and Thorne fancied with a leap of his heart that she did it with reluctance. She began softly:
“Don’t be angry with me if I ask you again about your orders. I must know.”
“But why?” asked Thorne curiously.
“No matter, tell me.”
“I can’t do that. I wish I could,” he answered with a slight sigh.
“You needn’t,” said the girl triumphantly; “I do know.”
The Captain started and, in spite of his control, a look of dismay and apprehension flitted across his face as the girl went on:
“They’re sending you on some mission where death is almost certain. They will sacrifice
