sures--men were such fools!

Evilena had flitted away again to look up a dress for the party, and
did not return, so she was left alone. She heard considerable walking
about and talking in the rooms below and on the veranda. No one came
along her corridor, however, so she could ask no questions as to the
latest arrivals. For reasons of her own she had dispensed with a
personal attendant after the departure of Louise; there was no maid to
make inquiries of.

An hour passed in this feverish suspense, when she went to the mirror
with an air of decision, arranged her hair becomingly, added a coral
brooch to the lace at her throat, slipped some glimmering rings on her
white fingers, and added those little exquisite touches to the toilet
which certain women would naturally linger over though it be the last
hour on earth.

Then she opened the door and descended the stairs, a picture of beauty
and serenity--a trifle of extra color in the cheeks, perhaps, but it
would be a captious critic who would object to the added lustre.

Captain Monroe certainly did not, as he halted in the library at sight
of her, and waited to see if she passed out on the veranda, or--

She looked out on the veranda; no one was there; with an impatient
sigh she turned, pushed the partly opened door of the library back,
and was inside the room before she perceived him. Involuntarily she
shut the door back of her.

"Oh--h!" and she held out her hand with a quick, pretty gesture of
surprise and pleasure--"well met, Captain Jack!"

He took the hand she offered and looked at her with a certain
questioning directness.

"I hope so, Madame Caron," and the gaze was so steady, his grasp so
firm, that she drew her hand away with a little laugh that was a
trifle nervous.

"Your voice and face reassure me! I dare breathe again!" she said,
with a mock sigh of relief; "my first glimpse of your uniform made me
fear a descent of the enemy."

"Have you need to fear any special enemy here?" he asked, bluntly. She
put her hand out with a little gesture of protest as she sank back
into the chair he offered.

"Why should you be so curious on a first meeting?" she asked, with a
quizzical smile. "But I will tell you, Monsieur, for all that; I am,
of course, very much afraid of the Northern armies. I left Orleans
rather than live under the Federal government, if you please! I have
bought a very handsome estate a few miles from here which, of course,
binds my inter