hurrying. "Ef I des'
tuhn my haid, sumpin' bound ter happen, 'n' happen dat minute! Dar now!
You ain' hut er mite, honey, 'n' you's still got de goober fer de
squirl. Come mek yo' manners to de gineral!"

Released, the two went on. "Have you seen Edward?"

"Yes. Three days ago--pagan, insouciant, and happy! The men adore him.
Fauquier is here to-day."

"Oh!--I have not seen him for so long--"

"He will be at the President's to-night. I think you had best go with
me--"

"If you think so, father--"

"I know, dear child!--That poor brave boy in his cadet grey and
white.--But Richard is a brave man--and their mother is heroic. It is of
the living we must think, and this cause of ours. We are on the eve of
something terrible, Judith. When Jackson comes General Lee will have
eighty-five thousand men. Without reinforcements, with McDowell still
away, McClellan must number an hundred and ten thousand. North and
South, we are going to grapple, in swamp, and poisoned field, and dark
forest. We are gladiators stripped, and which will conquer the gods
alone can tell! But we ourselves can tell that we are determined--that
each side is determined--and that the grapple will be of giants. Well!
to-night, I think the officers who chance to be in town will go to the
President's House with these thoughts in mind. To-morrow we return to
the lines; and a great battle chant will be written before we tread
these streets again. For us it may be a paean or it may be a dirge, and
only the gods know which! We salute our flag to-night--the government
that may last as lasted Greece or Rome, or the government which may
perish, not two years old! I think that General Lee will be there for a
short time. It is something like a recognition of the moment--a
libation; and whether to life or to death, to an oak that shall live a
thousand years or to a dead child among nations, there is not one living
soul that knows!"

"I will go, father, of course. Will you come for me?"

"I or Fauquier. I am going to leave you here, at the gates. There is
something I wish to see the governor about, at the mansion."

He kissed her and let her go; stood watching her out of the square and
across the street, then with a sigh turned away to the mansion. Judith,
now on the pavement by St. Paul's, hesitated a moment. There was an
afternoon service. Women whom she knew, and women whom she did not know,
were going in, silent, or speaking each to each in subdued voices.