seminary, when blooming girls, in the full efflorescence of
hot-house culture, make a brief but brilliant display before
retiring to the domestic sphere--Oh, yes--

'Miss Dumars, were you not at the ---- Institute last year?'

'Yes.'

'Then you know my cousin,--Jennie Gregory?'

'Yes, indeed:--and you are her cousin. How stupid in me not to
recollect it.'

And she told him how that 'Jennie' was her dearest friend, and
how in their intimacy of confidence she had told her all about
him, and shown her his picture, and--in short, Hugh and Annie
began to feel much better acquainted.

It was a few days after this that Hugh sat by the open window,
listening to Annie reading from the virtuous and veracious
_Richmond Enquirer_. Distressed by what he heard, not knowing
whether it was true or not, he begged her to cease torturing him.
She laid aside the paper with an emphatic 'I don't believe it!'
that could not but attract his attention, and he looked up in
surprise.

'I must tell you, Mr. Gregory--I have been tortured long enough by
this forced secrecy--_I am a rebel!_'

'That is the name we know you by,' he replied, smiling.

'But I am a _rebellious_ rebel. Yes,' she added, rising, 'I detest
with all my heart this wicked, causeless rebellion. I detest the
very names of the leaders of it. And yet I am compelled to go
about with lies upon my lips, and to act lies, till I detest
myself more than all else! I have consoled myself somewhat by
making a flag and worshiping it in secret. I will get it and show
it to you.'

'This,' she continued, returning with a miniature specimen of the
dear old flag, 'a _real_ flag, the emblem of a real living nation,
must be kept hidden, its glorious lustre fading away in the dark,
while that,' pointing to where the 'stars and bars' were
fluttering in the breeze, 'that miserable abortion is insolently
flaunted before our eyes, nothing about it original or
suggestive--except its stolen colors, reminding us of the
financial operations of Floyd! Oh, if hope could be prophecy--if a
life that is an unceasing prayer for the success of the federal
arms could avail, it would not be long before this bright banner
would wave in triumph over all the land, its starry folds gleaming
with a purer, more glorious light than ever!'

And