d, you need
not droop your head; he is worthy of your love; he is the only man I know
whom I would gladly see you marry. Irene, look up--tell me--did Leonard
know this? Conscious of your affection for Aubrey, did he doom you to your
lonely lot?"

"No. My father died in ignorance of what would have pained and mortified
him beyond measure. Knowing him as well as you do, can you suppose that I
would ever have allowed him to suspect the truth? I realized my duty and
fulfilled it; that is the only consolation I have left. It never caused him
one throb of regret, or furnished food for bitter reflection; and the debt
of respect I owe to his memory shall be as faithfully discharged. If
Colonel Aubrey lives to enjoy the independence for which he is fighting--if
he should be spared to become a useful, valued member of society--one of
the pure and able statesmen whom his country will require when these dark
days of strife are ended, I can be content, though separated from him, and
watching his brilliant career afar off. But if he must give his life for
that which he holds dearer still, I ask the privilege of seeing him again,
of being with him in his last moments. This consolation the brave spirit of
my father would not withhold from me, were communion allowed between living
and dead; this none can have the right to deny me."

"I promise that you shall know all as early as possible. If you receive no
tidings, believe that he is uninjured. As yet, his regiment has not moved
forward, but I know not how soon it may. Heaven preserve you! my precious
child."

He pressed a kiss on the drooped head, and left her to resume her watch in
the darkened room where Electra had been ill with typhoid-fever for nearly
three weeks. It was thought that she contracted the disease in the crowded
hospital; and when delirium ensued, Irene temporarily relinquished her ward
to other nurses, and remained at the boarding-house, in attendance on her
friend. It was a season of unexampled anxiety, yet all was singularly quiet
in the beleaguered city. Throughout the Confederacy hushed expectancy
reigned. Gallant Vicksburg's batteries barred the Mississippi; Beauregard
and Price, lion-hearted idols of the West, held the Federal army in Corinth
at bay; Stonewall Jackson--synonym of victory--after sweeping like a
whirlwind through the Valley, and scattering the columns that stealthily
crept southward, had arrived at Richmond at the appointed time. A greater
than