iness, dare not sit
there and lie calmly, filling these men with false information, and
permitting imagination to run rampant. Her eyes condemned that, and I
felt the slightest indiscretion on my part would result in betrayal.
Perhaps even then she regretted her hasty action, and sought some excuse
for blurting out the truth. Fortunately conversation drifted into safe
channels. Bell was full of reminiscences of Big Shanty, requiring on my
part but brief acquiescence, and, after a very few personal questions by
the others, sufficiently direct to demand reply, Beauregard asked me
about the disposition of Johnston's forces, to which I was fortunately
able to respond intelligently, giving him many details, sufficiently
interesting, although of no great value. To his desire for information
relative to Chambers' advance from the south, and the number of his
troops, I was obliged to guess rather vaguely, but finally got away with
a vivid description of Miss Hardy's night ride, which caused even the
girl herself to laugh, and chime in with a word or two. With the
officers the meal was nearly completed when I joined them, and it was
therefore not long until the general, noting the others had finished,
pushed back his own chair.

"We will adjourn to the parlor, gentlemen," he said genially, "I shall
have other orders to despatch presently. When you finish, Major, I shall
be glad to talk with you more at length; until then we leave you to the
care of Miss Hardy."

They passed out, and as the door closed behind the last straggler, she
came slowly across the room, and sat down in a chair opposite me,
resting her flushed cheek on one hand.

"What made you do it?" I asked, impelled by a curiosity which could no
longer be restrained.

"Oh, I don't know," and her lashes lifted, giving me one swift glimpse
into the depths of her eyes. "A mere impulse when I first realized the
danger of your position."

"Then it was for me?--because you cared?"

"Perhaps I would have done the same for any one--I am a woman."

"I can comprehend that, yes," I insisted, "but am not willing to believe
mere sympathy would carry you so far. Was there not, back of all, a
feeling almost of friendship?"

"I make no such acknowledgment. I spoke before I thought; before I even
realized what my words meant. And you?--how came you there?"

I told her briefly, answering her questions without reserve, rejoicing
in the interest she exhibited in my narrative, a