t came and went so like flashes, that I could not always tell what
they meant. The tone of his voice, however, I knew expressed pleasure.

"How comes that?" he said. "You _are_ Southern?"

"Do I look it?" I asked.

"Pardon me--yes."

"How, Mr. Thorold?"

"You must excuse me. I cannot tell you. But you _are_ South?"

"Yes," I said. "At least, all my friends are Southern. I was born
there."

"You have _one_ Northern friend," said Mr. Thorold, as we rose up to
go on. He said it with meaning. I looked up and smiled. There was a
smile in his eyes, mixed with something more. I think our compact of
friendship was made and settled then and at once.

He stretched out his hand, as if for a further ratification. I put
mine in it, while he went on,--"How comes it, then, that you take such
a view of such a question?"

There had sprung up a new tone in our intercourse, of more
familiarity, and more intimate trust. It gave infinite content to me;
and I went on to answer, telling him about my Northern life. Drawn on,
from question to question, I detailed at length my Southern experience
also, and put my new friend in possession not only of my opinions, but
of the training under which they had been formed. My hand, I remember,
remained in his while I talked, as if he had been my brother; till he
suddenly put it down and plunged into the bushes for a bunch of wild
roses. A party of walkers came round an angle a moment after; and
waking up to a consciousness of our surroundings, we found, or _I_
did, that we were just at the end of the rocky walk, where we must
mount up and take to the plain.

The evening was falling very fair over plain and hill when we got to
the upper level. Mr. Thorold proposed that I should go and see the
camp, which I liked very much to do. So he took me all through it, and
showed and explained all sorts of things about the tents and the
manner of life they lived in them. He said he should like it very
much, if he only had more room; but three or four in one little tent
nine feet by nine, gave hardly, as he said, "a chance to a fellow."
The tents and the camp alleys were full of cadets, loitering about, or
talking, or busy with their accoutrements; here and there I saw an
officer. Captain Percival bowed, Captain Lascelles spoke. I looked for
Preston, but I could see him nowhere. Then Mr. Thorold brought me
into his own tent, introduced one or two cadets who were loitering
there, and who immediately took