beloved protector
and relative. From the watch at my wrist I ascertained the hour to be
half after ten o'clock, and I knew that he was safely in cards at that
Club of Old Hickory, whose lists now bore the added one of another
Robert Carruthers, man of honor and descendant of its founders. Also
there was no light in the rear of the house in the apartment of that
kind Kizzie, in whose affections I had made a large place. A dim light
burned in the hall and I knew that there I would find my faithful
chocolate Bonbon sitting upon a chair by the great door in a deep
sleep. And in a very few minutes I so found him.

"It is hello there, good Bonbon," I greeted him.

"Howdy, Mr. Robert," he answered me by a very large smile with very
white teeth set in his face of extreme blackness. "The Gen'l said to
call him on the 'fome as soon as you come."

"That I will attend to from my apartment," I answered him and then
ascended the wide dark stairway with feet which were as a weight to my
ankles.

Very slowly I entered that apartment and turned on the bright light.
All was in readiness for me, and on the small table under the glass
case that contained that beflowered robe of state of the dead
Grandmamma Carruthers stood a vase of very fresh and innocent young
roses.

"I would that I could remain and fulfill the destiny of a woman of
your house, Madam Grandmamma," I whispered to her lovely and smiling
portrait on the wall opposite. "I am the last of the ladies Carruthers
but I have made a forfeit of that destiny and I must go out in the
night again in man's attire to a death that will tear asunder the
tender flesh that you have borne. Good-bye!"

Then I made a commencement of a very rapid packing, in one of those
bags which I had purchased from the kind gentleman in the City of New
York, of what raiment I knew would be suitable for a man in very
hurried traveling. I put into it the two suits of clothing for wear in
the daytime, but I discarded all of my clothing for the pursuits of
pleasure. The bag was at that moment full and I did not know that it
could be closed. Then I bethought me of that brown coat that had upon
it the blood which I had been allowed to shed for my beloved
Gouverneur Faulkner who was now lost to me.

"That I will take and discard the night raiment, to sleep 'as is' in
the manner spoken of by my friend, that Mr. G. Slade of Detroit," I
counseled myself as I laid aside the silken garments that I did so
like