dard bade Mrs. Bennett and her
husband a hasty good-bye, and resumed his interrupted stroll down the
Avenue. At the corner of John Marshall Place, he saw two ladies waiting
by the curb. As the younger turned toward him, he recognized Nancy, and
saw the inevitable Misery sitting close at her side. Quickening his
steps, he hastened across the street and joined her.

"This is better luck than I hoped for," he said, his eyes lightening
with pleasure. "I planned to call at your house on my return from the
Capitol, but now...."

"Aunt Metoaca," Nancy smiled demurely as she extricated her hand from
Goddard's eager clasp, "may I present Major Goddard? The major has most
kindly offered to escort me to Winchester, as I told you last night."

Miss Metoaca Newton inspected Goddard keenly as she returned his low
bow. First impressions counted with her. Goddard was also taking stock
of Miss Metoaca. He decided in his own mind he had never seen a more
angular frame, nor so large a nose as her physiognomy presented.

"I hope you have given your consent to Miss Newton's trip?" he asked
eagerly.

"Yes and no." Miss Metoaca's voice surprised him by its thin treble.
It did not seem possible that so little sound could come out of so big
a cavity. "I don't hold with so much gadding about. 'Twasn't so when I
was a girl, fifty-odd years ago. The way women run hither and yon after
Tom, Dick, and Harry is surprising. I declare I am the only virgin in
Washington these days." She stopped to search in her reticule for her
handkerchief. "So I have just decided, as long as Nancy has set her
heart on it, to go with her to Winchester. Besides which, I am anxious
to see Lindsay Page."

"That is splendid!" Goddard's face lighted with pleasure, then fell.
"How about your passes? Shall I ask Secretary Stanton for them?"

"Young man, when I want a thing, I go to headquarters for it; so I am
on my way to see President Lincoln now. I reckon he will give them to
me. Many thanks, all the same," she wound up, conscious she had been
abrupt in her refusal.

"May I walk up to the White House with you, then?"

"I will be glad of your company, but Nancy is not going with me." Her
eyes twinkled as she saw Goddard's disappointment. "Secondly, I am not
walking this morning. Nancy is just waiting to put me on that new
Yankee contraption, the horse car."

"Here comes one now." Nancy pointed to that slow-moving vehicle as it
toiled leisurely up the avenue.

"