fast. You are warm."

"And you do not look as if it was warm at all."

"I! This is nothing to me," he said. "But perhaps it will warm me and
cool you if we get into a talk. I want explanations."

"About what, Mr. Thorold?"

"Well--if you will excuse me--about you," he said, with a very
pleasant look, frank and soft at once.

"I am quite ready to explain myself. But I am afraid, when I have done
it, that you will not understand me, Mr. Thorold."

"Think I cannot?" said he.

"I am afraid not--without knowing what I know."

"Let us see," said Thorold. "I want to know why you judge so
differently from other people about the right and the wrong of hops
and such things. Somebody is mistaken--that is clear."

"But the difficulty is, I cannot give you my point of view."

"Please try," said Thorold, contentedly.

"Mr. Thorold, I told you, I am a soldier."

"Yes," he said, looking up at me, and little sparkles of light seeming
to come out of his hazel eyes.

"I showed you my orders."

"But I did not understand them to be what you said."

"Suppose you were in an enemy's country," I said; "a rebel country;
and your orders were, to do nothing which could be construed into
encouraging the rebels, or which could help them to think that your
king would hold friendship with them, or that there was not a perfect
gulf of division between you and them."

"But this is not such a case?" said Thorold.

"That is only part," I said. "Suppose your orders were to keep
constant watch and hold yourself at every minute ready for duty, and
to go nowhere and do nothing that would unfit you for instant service,
or put you off your watch?"

"But, Miss Randolph!" said Thorold, a little impatiently, "do these
little dances unfit you for duty?"

"Yes," I said. "And put me off my watch."

"Your watch against what? Oh, pardon me, and _please_ enlighten me. I
do not mean to be impertinent."

"I mean my watch for orders--my watch against evil."

"Won't you explain?" said Thorold, gently and impatiently at once.
"What sort of evil can _you_ possibly fear, in connection with such an
innocent recreation? What 'orders' are you expecting?"

I hesitated. Should I tell him; would he believe; was it best to
unveil the working of my own heart to that degree? And how could I
evade or shirk the question?

"I should not like to tell you," I said at length, "the thoughts and
feelings I found stirring in myself, after the last time I went to t