then--not knowing which of your neighbors at dinner had a cup or
dagger for you."

"The daggers were only figurative," said the Judge, "but they were
none the less dangerous, and the shame of it! each innocent loyal
Southerner convinced that a traitor had been made as one of
themselves--trusted as is the nature of Southerners when dealing with
friends, just as if, in this Eden-like abode, Mistress McVeigh should
be entertaining in any one of us, supposed to be loyal Southerners, a
traitor to his country."

"How dreadful to imagine!" said Judithe, with a little gesture of
horror, "and what do they do with them--those dangerous serpents of
Eden?"

"It isn't nice at all to hear about, Madame Caron," spoke Aunt Sajane,
who was, as usual, occupied with the unlovely knitting. "It gave me
chills to hear Phil Masterson say how that spy would be treated when
found--not even given time for prayers!"

"Captain Masterson is most loyal and zealous, but given to slight
extravagancies in such matters," amended the Judge. "No woman has ever
suffered the extreme penalty of military law for spy work, in this
country, and especially would it be impossible in the South.
Imprisonment indefinitely and the probable confiscation of all
property would no doubt be the sentence if, as in this suspected case,
the traitoress were a Southern woman of means. But that seems scarcely
credible. I have heard of the affair mentioned, but I refuse to
believe any daughter of the South would so employ herself."

"Thank you, Judge," said Gertrude, very prettily; "any daughter of the
South would die of shame from the very suspicion against her."

"Who is to die?" asked Mrs. McVeigh, coming in; "all of you, and of
hunger, perhaps, if I delay tea any longer. Come right on into the
dining room, please, and let me hear this discussion of Southern
daughters, for I chance to be a daughter of the South myself."

Captain Philip Masterson, from an adjoining plantation, arrived after
they were seated at the table, and was taken at once into the dining
room, where Judithe regarded with interest this extremist who would
not allow a secret agent of the North time for prayers. He did not
look very ferocious, though his manner had a bluntness not usual in
the Southern men she had met--a soldier above and beyond everything
else, intelligent, but not broad, good looking with the good looks of
dark, curly hair, a high color, heavy mustache, which he had a
weakness for