could give me some new
facts concerning the spy--Monroe?"

"Yes, I really think I could," she said, amiably, "as there happen to
be several things you have not been well informed upon."

"I know it!" he said, tapping the arm of the chair, impatiently, "they
never tell me half what is going on, now!--as if I was a child! and
when I ask the cursed niggers, they lie so. Well, well, go on; tell me
the latest news about this Yankee--Monroe."

"The very latest?" and she smiled again in that strange mocking way.
"Well, the latest is that he is entirely innocent; had nothing
whatever to do with the taking of the papers."

"Madame Caron!"

"Yes, I am quite serious. I was just about to tell Colonel McVeigh,
but we can chat about it until he comes;" and she pretended not to
notice the wonder in his face, and went serenely on, "in fact, it was
not a man who took the papers at all, but a woman; yes, a woman," she
said, nodding her head, as a frown of quick suspicion touched his
forehead and his eyes gleamed darkly on her, "in fact a confidential
agent, whom Captain Masterson designated yesterday as most dangerous
to the Confederate cause. I am about to inform Colonel McVeigh of her
identity. But I do not fancy that will interest you nearly so much as
another story I have for you personally."

She paused and drew back a little, to better observe every expression
of his countenance. He was glaring at her and his breath was coming in
broken gasps.

"There are really two of those secret Federal agents in this especial
territory," she continued, "two women who have worked faithfully for
the Union. I fancied you might be especially interested in the story
of one of them, as she belongs to the Loring family."

"To our family? That is some cursed Yankee lie!" he burst out
fiercely, "every Loring is loyal to the South! To _our_ family? Let
them try to prove that statement! It can't be done!"

"You are quite right, Monsieur Loring," she agreed, quietly, "it
_would_ be difficult to prove, even if you wished to do it." He fairly
glared at the possibility that he should want to prove it. "But it may
have an interest to you for all that, since the girl in question was
your brother's daughter."

"My brother's--!" He seemed choking, and he gazed at her with a
horrible expression. The door opened and Mrs. McVeigh entered rather
hastily, looking for something in the desk. Loring had sunk back in
the chair, and she did not see his face, b