ept! More than once she threw herself wearily upon
her couch, but the eyelids which she would have closed remained rigidly
open, and she surprised herself gazing with intense stare upon the
arabesques of the window shades or the flowered patterns of her bed
curtains, while all sorts of wild, incongruous fancies trooped through
her brain, causing her brow to ache. She would then spring with
impatience to her feet, stretch out her white arms, clasp her hands
behind her neck, roll up the coils of golden hair that had fallen on her
shoulders, and then walk up to the window, where she gazed vacantly out
upon the bleak prospect.

"If he would only come," she murmured, as she stood there. "But it is
impossible. There is no riding on horseback through such snow, or I
should have gone out myself."

At length the weary afternoon had worn away. Five o'clock rang through
the house from the old French clock at the head of the stair. Zulma had
just finished counting the strokes with a feeling of relief when the
tinkling of sleigh bells fell upon her ear. She rushed to the window,
shot a glance upon the court, uttered an exclamation of joy and ran out
of her room.

"No, it cannot be, my darling, and in such weather!"

But it was Pauline nevertheless. The two friends fell into each other's
arms, kissed each other over and over again, and repaired together to
Zulma's room, where, amid the work of unwrapping, and warming feet, and
sipping a glass of wine, the congratulations and expostulations went
briskly on. Pauline had come with Eugene Sarpy, as that young gentleman
himself testified when he entered the house in noisy boyish fashion,
after having put up the horse. It was a holiday at the Seminary where
the youth was immured, and he had the opportunity to drive out to the
old home once more. He had asked Pauline to accompany him, and she
declared herself only too glad of the occasion to see Zulma again.

"It may be our last chance, you know," she said, half laughing, but with
a slight shadow on her sweet face.

"And those horrid rebels," rejoined Zulma very merrily. "How did you
make up you mind to encounter them?"

"We did not encounter them."

Zulma's face suddenly turned white.

"What? Are they gone?"

The fear flashed upon her mind that perhaps the Americans had left the
neighborhood, which would account for the absence of Cary during the
day, but she was reassured by Pauline, who informed her that Eugene had
avoided t