sooner or later."

His cold, keen eyes rested upon Prescott, but they were without
expression. Nevertheless, a chill struck the young Captain to the
marrow. Did the Secretary know, or were his words mere chance? He
recognized with startling force that he was face to face with a man of
craft and guile, one who regarded him as a rival in a matter that lay
very close to the heart's desire, and therefore as a probable enemy.

But cold and keen as was the look of the Secretary, Prescott could read
nothing in his face, and whether a challenge was intended or not he
resolved to pick up the glove. There was something stubborn lying at the
bottom of his nature, and confronted thus by formidable obstacles he
resolved to protect Lucia Catherwood if it lay within his power.

General Wood, a look of discontent on his face, entered the room at this
moment. An electrical current of antagonism seemed to pass between him
and the Secretary, which Mrs. Markham, perhaps from an impulse of
mischief and perhaps from a natural love of sport, fostered, permitting
Prescott, to his relief, to retire into the background.

The Secretary's manner was smooth, silky and smiling; he never raised
his voice above its natural pitch nor betrayed otherwise the slightest
temper. He now led the talk upon the army, and gently insinuated that
whatever misfortunes had befallen the Confederacy were due to its
military arm; perhaps to a lack of concord among the generals, perhaps
to hasty and imperfect judgment on the field, or perhaps to a failure to
carry out the complete wishes of the Executive Department.

He did not say any of these things plainly, merely hinting them in the
mildest manner. Prescott, though a representative of the army, did not
take any of it to himself, knowing well that it was intended for the
General, and he watched curiously to see how the latter would reply.

The General surprised him, developing a tact and self-command, a
knowledge of finesse that he would not have believed possible in a rough
and uneducated mountaineer. But the same quality, the wonderful
perception, or rather intuition, that had made Wood a military genius,
was serving him here, and though he perceived at once the drift of the
Secretary's remarks and their intention, he preserved his coolness and
contented himself for awhile with apparent ignorance. This, however, did
not check the attack, and by and by Wood, too, began to deal in veiled
allusions and to talk of