axwell's speech.

"Now, it has occurred to me," continued Maxwell, "that _you_ could
manage her like a young lamb."

"I!" exclaimed Vernon.

"Certainly. You stand well with her, do you not?"

"Like a saint."

"You can get up a rescue, or something of that sort, you know."

"To be sure," replied Vernon, thoughtfully.

"Pretend that you are going to effect her escape."

"Capital!" said Vernon, suddenly; "I _will_ pretend to effect her
escape. But there is one difficulty--" and he suddenly checked his
apparent zeal, and assumed a thoughtful air.

"A difficulty?"

"Ay. I must be at Baton Rouge to-morrow night, or all my hopes up the
river are lost."

"And you will return--"

Vernon reflected, and then replied,

"In four days."

"That will do. Don't let it be more than four days."

"No."

"And, Vernon, you had better write to the military lover that the lady
is doing well--that Jaspar's health is improving, &c. They won't hurry
down, then."

"A good thought. I _will_ write to him."

CHAPTER XXIX.

"Here is my hand for my true constancy."

"There is a fair behavior in thee, captain;
I will believe thou hast a mind that suits
With this thy fair and outward character."
SHAKSPEARE.

"Villain!" muttered Vernon, as Maxwell left the coffee-room, "your work
of iniquity is nearly done. If from the depths of my seared heart can
come up one single good impulse to guide me, I will bring the guilty and
the innocent to their just desert."

He had told Maxwell that he should go to Baton Rouge, and prudence
required him to go. He had certain intelligence that a boat would leave
in an hour, and he hastily wrote the letter to Captain Carroll. This
letter was not exactly of the tenor Maxwell had bargained for, inasmuch
as the object of it was to request the immediate presence of his father
and Henry at Bellevue, which promised soon to be the theatre of war.
With this letter in his pocket, he made his way to the levee, and
departed for Baton Rouge.

It was with some compunction that he took this seemingly inconsistent
step. It was, for the time, turning his back upon the object to which he
had devoted himself. It was necessary for him to gain time, even at the
sacrifice of Emily's feelings, for a short season, so that his father
and Henry Carroll might reach Bellevue as soon as Emily. He had written
them all the details of the plan. His own purpose was to have Emily's
strongest