mistake!
The son was away at Harvard College,--or at least they _thought_ he was,
at the time of the luncheon. But Great-aunt Lucia says that the same
afternoon, as they were driving to the station, they met a splendid
young fellow with yellow hair and bright brown eyes, hurrying along the
road in the opposite direction. He took off his cap to them gaily, and
Mrs. Durand whispered that it was young Fairfax Collingwood, evidently
coming home unexpectedly. Great-aunt Lucia says she will never forget
his excited, happy look!

"Now, I'll go back to Mrs. Durand and Mrs. Collingwood. (And all that
follows, Mrs. Durand told Great-aunt Lucia long, long long afterward.)
Mrs. Collingwood came into the house, and her face looked set like a
stone, and she seemed twenty years older than when she was having the
luncheon. And Mrs. Durand cried:

"'Oh, my dear, you have lost some one? You are dressed in mourning!'

"'Yes,' said Mrs. Collingwood. 'I have lost my son! I am going away.'
And Mrs. Durand said:

"Oh, how--how sudden! He can't be _dead_! We saw him!' And Mrs.
Collingwood answered:

"'He is dead to me!' And for the longest time, Mrs. Durand couldn't get
another word from her, except that she had shut up the house and was
going home South, to live for good. Well, Mrs. Durand put her right to
bed,--she was fairly sick with nervousness and exhaustion. And late that
night, she broke down and cried and cried, and told Mrs. Durand
everything.

"And, oh, Cynthia! _What_ do you think it was? You'd never guess!-- You
know, the Civil War had just broken out,--Fort Sumter had surrendered
and Mrs. Collingwood was a South Carolina woman, and was heart and soul
with the Confederacy. She had married a Northern man, and had lived ever
since up here, but that didn't make any difference. And all the time war
had been threatening, she had been planning to raise a company in South
Carolina for her son Fairfax, and put him in command of it. They did
those things at that time. Her son didn't know about it, however. She
was keeping the news to surprise him.

"And then, that day at luncheon, she received a telegram from him saying
he had left college and enlisted--_in the Union army_--and was coming
home at once to bid her good-bye before going to the front! The shock of
it almost killed her! But later she thought that surely, when he came,
she could persuade him out of it.

"And he came that very afternoon. The ladies had met him walking u