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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5393.txt b/5393.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed74466 --- /dev/null +++ b/5393.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3178 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Crisis, Volume 6, by Winston Churchill + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Crisis, Volume 6 + +Author: Winston Churchill + +Release Date: October 19, 2004 [EBook #5393] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRISIS, VOLUME 6 *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE CRISIS + +By Winston Churchill + +BOOK III + + +Volume 6. + + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCING A CAPITALIST + +A cordon of blue regiments surrounded the city at first from Carondelet +to North St. Louis, like an open fan. The crowds liked best to go to +Compton Heights, where the tents of the German citizen-soldiers were +spread out like so many slices of white cake on the green beside the +city's reservoir. Thence the eye stretched across the town, catching the +dome of the Court House and the spire of St. John's. Away to the west, on +the line of the Pacific railroad that led halfway across the state, was +another camp. Then another, and another, on the circle of the fan, until +the river was reached to the northward, far above the bend. Within was a +peace that passed understanding,--the peace of martial law. + +Without the city, in the great state beyond, an irate governor had +gathered his forces from the east and from the west. Letters came and +went between Jefferson City and Jefferson Davis, their purport being that +the Governor was to work out his own salvation, for a while at least. +Young men of St. Louis, struck in a night by the fever of militarism, +arose and went to Glencoe. Prying sergeants and commissioned officers, +mostly of hated German extraction, thundered at the door of Colonel +Carvel's house, and other houses, there--for Glencoe was a border town. +They searched the place more than once from garret to cellar, muttered +guttural oaths, and smelled of beer and sauerkraut, The haughty +appearance of Miss Carvel did not awe them--they were blind to all manly +sensations. The Colonel's house, alas, was one of many in Glencoe written +down in red ink in a book at headquarters as a place toward which the +feet of the young men strayed. Good evidence was handed in time and time +again that the young men had come and gone, and red-faced commanding +officers cursed indignant subalterns, and implied that Beauty had had a +hand in it. Councils of war were held over the advisability of seizing +Mr. Carvel's house at Glencoe, but proof was lacking until one rainy +night in June a captain and ten men spurred up the drive and swung into a +big circle around the house. The Captain took off his cavalry gauntlet +and knocked at the door, more gently than usual. Miss Virginia was home +so Jackson said. The Captain was given an audience more formal than one +with the queen of Prussia could have been, Miss Carvel was infinitely +more haughty than her Majesty. Was not the Captain hired to do a +degrading service? Indeed, he thought so as he followed her about the +house and he felt like the lowest of criminals as he opened a closet door +or looked under a bed. He was a beast of the field, of the mire. How +Virginia shrank from him if he had occasion to pass her! Her gown would +have been defiled by his touch. And yet the Captain did not smell of +beer, nor of sauerkraut; nor did he swear in any language. He did his +duty apologetically, but he did it. He pulled a man (aged seventeen) out +from under a great hoop skirt in a little closet, and the man had a +pistol that refused its duty when snapped in the Captain's face. This was +little Spencer Catherwood, just home from a military academy. + +Spencer was taken through the rain by the chagrined Captain to the +headquarters, where he caused a little embarrassment. No damning evidence +was discovered on his person, for the pistol had long since ceased to be +a firearm. And so after a stiff lecture from the Colonel he was finally +given back into the custody of his father. Despite the pickets, the young +men filtered through daily,--or rather nightly. Presently some of them +began to come back, gaunt and worn and tattered, among the grim cargoes +that were landed by the thousands and tens of thousands on the levee. And +they took them (oh, the pity of it!) they took them to Mr. Lynch's slave +pen, turned into a Union prison of detention, where their fathers and +grandfathers had been wont to send their disorderly and insubordinate +niggers. They were packed away, as the miserable slaves had been, to +taste something of the bitterness of the negro's lot. So came Bert +Russell to welter in a low room whose walls gave out the stench of years. +How you cooked for them, and schemed for them, and cried for them, you +devoted women of the South! You spent the long hot summer in town, and +every day you went with your baskets to Gratiot Street, where the +infected old house stands, until--until one morning a lady walked out +past the guard, and down the street. She was civilly detained at the +corner, because she wore army boots. After that permits were issued. If +you were a young lady of the proper principles in those days, you climbed +a steep pair of stairs in the heat, and stood in line until it became +your turn to be catechised by an indifferent young officer in blue who +sat behind a table and smoked a horrid cigar. He had little time to be +courteous. He was not to be dazzled by a bright gown or a pretty face; he +was indifferent to a smile which would have won a savage. His duty was to +look down into your heart, and extract therefrom the nefarious scheme you +had made to set free the man you loved ere he could be sent north to +Alton or Columbus. My dear, you wish to rescue him, to disguise him, send +him south by way of Colonel Carvel's house at Glencoe. Then he will be +killed. At least, he will have died for the South. + +First politics, and then war, and then more politics, in this our +country. Your masterful politician obtains a regiment, and goes to war, +sword in hand. He fights well, but he is still the politician. It was not +a case merely of fighting for the Union, but first of getting permission +to fight. Camp Jackson taken, and the prisoners exchanged south, Captain +Lyon; who moved like a whirlwind, who loved the Union beyond his own +life, was thrust down again. A mutual agreement was entered into between +the Governor and the old Indian fighter in command of the Western +Department, to respect each other. A trick for the Rebels. How Lyon +chafed, and paced the Arsenal walks while he might have saved the state. +Then two gentlemen went to Washington, and the next thing that happened +was Brigadier General Lyon, Commander of the Department of the West. + +Would General Lyon confer with the Governor of Missouri? Yes, the General +would give the Governor a safe-conduct into St. Louis, but his Excellency +must come to the General. His Excellency came, and the General deigned to +go with the Union leader to the Planters House. Conference, five hours; +result, a safe-conduct for the Governor back. And this is how General +Lyon ended the talk. His words, generously preserved by a Confederate +colonel who accompanied his Excellency, deserve to be writ in gold on the +National Annals. + +"Rather than concede to the state of Missouri the right to demand that my +Government shall not enlist troops within her limits, or bring troops +into the state whenever it pleases; or move its troops at its own will +into, out of, or through, the state; rather than concede to the state of +Missouri for one single instant the right to dictate to my Government in +any matter, however unimportant, I would" (rising and pointing in turn to +every one in the room) "see you, and you, and you, and you, and every +man, woman, and child in this state, dead and buried." Then, turning to +the Governor, he continued, "This means war. In an hour one of my +officers will call for you and conduct you out of my lines." + +And thus, without another word, without an inclination of the head, he +turned upon his heel and strode out of the room, rattling his spurs and +clanking his sabre. + +It did mean war. In less than two months that indomitable leader was +lying dead beside Wilson's Creek, among the oaks on Bloody Hill. What he +would have been to this Union, had God spared him, we shall never know. +He saved Missouri, and won respect and love from the brave men who fought +against him. + +Those first fierce battles in the state! What prayers rose to heaven, and +curses sank to hell, when the news of them came to the city by the river! +Flags were made by loving fingers, and shirts and bandages. Trembling +young ladies of Union sympathies presented colors to regiments on the +Arsenal Green, or at Jefferson Barracks, or at Camp Benton to the +northwest near the Fair Grounds. And then the regiments marched through +the streets with bands playing that march to which the words of the +Battle Hymn were set, and those bright ensigns snapping at the front; +bright now, and new, and crimson. But soon to be stained a darker red, +and rent into tatters, and finally brought back and talked over and cried +over, and tenderly laid above an inscription in a glass case, to be +revered by generations of Americans to confer What can stir the soul more +than the sight of those old flags, standing in ranks like the veterans +they are, whose duty has been nobly done? The blood of the color-sergeant +is there, black now with age. But where are the tears of the sad women +who stitched the red and the white and the blue together? + +The regiments marched through the streets and aboard the boats, and +pushed off before a levee of waving handkerchiefs and nags. Then +heart-breaking suspense. Later--much later, black headlines, and grim +lists three columns long,--three columns of a blanket sheet! "The City of +Alton has arrived with the following Union dead and wounded, and the +following Confederate wounded (prisoners)." Why does the type run +together? + +In a never-ceasing procession they steamed up the river; those calm boats +which had been wont to carry the white cargoes of Commerce now bearing +the red cargoes of war. And they bore away to new battlefields thousands +of fresh-faced boys from Wisconsin and Michigan and Minnesota, gathered +at Camp Benton. Some came back with their color gone and their red cheeks +sallow and bearded and sunken. Others came not back at all. + +Stephen Brice, with a pain over his heart and a lump in his throat, +walked on the pavement beside his old company, but his look avoided their +faces. He wrung Richter's hand on the landing-stage. Richter was now a +captain. The good German's eyes were filled as he said good-by. + +"You will come, too, my friend, when the country needs you," he said. +"Now" (and he shrugged his shoulders), "now have we many with no cares to +go. I have not even a father--" And he turned to Judge Whipple, who was +standing by, holding out a bony hand. + +"God bless you, Carl," said the Judge And Carl could scarce believe his +ears. He got aboard the boat, her decks already blue with troops, and as +she backed out with her whistle screaming, the last objects he saw were +the gaunt old man and the broad-shouldered young man side by side on the +edge of the landing. + +Stephen's chest heaved, and as he walked back to the office with the +Judge, he could not trust himself to speak. Back to the silent office +where the shelves mocked them. The Judge closed the ground-glass door +behind him, and Stephen sat until five o'clock over a book. No, it was +not Whittlesey, but Hardee's "Tactics." He shut it with a slam, and went +to Verandah Hall to drill recruits on a dusty floor,--narrow-chested +citizens in suspenders, who knew not the first motion in right about +face. For Stephen was an adjutant in the Home Guards--what was left of +them. + +One we know of regarded the going of the troops and the coming of the +wounded with an equanimity truly philosophical. When the regiments passed +Carvel & Company on their way riverward to embark, Mr. Hopper did not +often take the trouble to rise from his chair, nor was he ever known to +go to the door to bid them Godspeed. This was all very well, because they +were Union regiments. But Mr. Hopper did not contribute a horse, nor even +a saddle-blanket, to the young men who went away secretly in the night, +without fathers or mothers or sisters to wave at them. Mr. Hopper had +better use for his money. + +One scorching afternoon in July Colonel Carvel came into the office, too +hurried to remark the pain in honest Ephum's face as he watched his +master. The sure signs of a harassed man were on the Colonel. Since May +he had neglected his business affairs for others which he deemed public, +and which were so mysterious that even Mr. Hopper could not get wind of +them. These matters had taken the Colonel out of town. But now the +necessity of a pass made that awkward, and he went no farther than +Glencoe, where he spent an occasional Sunday. Today Mr. Hopper rose from +his chair when Mr. Carvel entered,--a most unprecedented action. The +Colonel cleared his throat. Sitting down at his desk, he drummed upon it +uneasily. + +"Mr. Hopper!" he said at length. + +Eliphalet crossed the room quickly, and something that was very near a +smile was on his face. He sat down close to Mr. Carvel's chair with a +semi-confidential air,--one wholly new, had the Colonel given it a +thought. He did not, but began to finger some printed slips of paper +which had indorsements on their backs. His fine lips were tightly closed, +as if in pain. + +"Mr. Hopper," he said, "these Eastern notes are due this week, are they +not?" + +"Yes, sir." + +The Colonel glanced up swiftly. + +"There is no use mincing matters, Hopper. You know as well as I that +there is no money to pay them," said he, with a certain pompous attempt +at severity which characterized his kind nature. "You have served me +well. You have brought this business up to a modern footing, and made it +as prosperous as any in the town. I am sorry, sir, that those +contemptible Yankees should have forced us to the use of arms, and cut +short many promising business careers such as yours, sir. But we have to +face the music. We have to suffer for our principles. + +"These notes cannot be met, Mr. Hopper." And the good gentleman looked +out of the window. He was thinking of a day, before the Mexican War, when +his young wife had sat in the very chair filled by Mr. Hopper now. "These +notes cannot be met," he repeated, and his voice was near to breaking. + +The flies droning in the hot office made the only sound. Outside the +partition, among the bales, was silence. + +"Colonel," said Mr. Hopper, with a remarkable ease, "I cal'late these +notes can be met." + +The Colonel jumped as if he had heard a shot, and one of the notes fell +to the floor. Eliphalet picked it up tenderly, and held it. + +"What do you mean, sir?" Mr. Carvel cried. "There isn't a bank in town +that will lend me money. I--I haven't a friend--a friend I may ask who +can spare it, sir." + +Mr. Hopper lifted up his hand. It was a fat hand. Suavity was come upon +it like a new glove and changed the man. He was no longer cringing. Now +he had poise, such poise as we in these days are accustomed to see in +leather and mahogany offices. The Colonel glared at him uncomfortably. + +"I will take up those notes myself, sir." + +"You!" cried the Colonel, incredulously, "You?" + +We must do Eliphalet justice. There was not a deal of hypocrisy in his +nature, and now he did not attempt the part of Samaritan. He did not beam +upon the Colonel and remind him of the day on which, homeless and +friendless, he had been frightened into his store by a drove of mules. +No. But his day,--the day toward which he had striven unknown and +unnoticed for so many years--the day when he would laugh at the pride of +those who had ignored and insulted him, was dawning at last. When we are +thoughtless of our words, we do not reckon with that spark in little +bosoms that may burst into flame and burn us. Not that Colonel Carvel had +ever been aught but courteous and kind to all. His station in life had +been his offence to Eliphalet, who strove now to hide an exultation that +made him tremble. + +"What do you mean, sir?" demanded the Colonel, again. + +"I cal'late that I can gather together enough to meet the notes, Colonel. +Just a little friendly transaction." Here followed an interval of sheer +astonishment to Mr. Carvel. + +"You have this money?" he said at length. Mr. Hopper nodded. + +"And you will take my note for the amount?" + +"Yes, sir." + +The Colonel pulled his goatee, and sat back in his chair, trying to face +the new light in which he saw his manager. He knew well enough that the +man was not doing this out of charity, or even gratitude. He reviewed his +whole career, from that first morning when he had carried bales to the +shipping room, to his replacement of Mr. Hood, and there was nothing with +which to accuse him. He remembered the warnings of Captain Lige and +Virginia. He could not in honor ask a cent from the Captain now. He would +not ask his sister-in-law, Mrs. Colfax, to let him touch the money he had +so ably invested for her; that little which Virginia's mother had left +the girl was sacred. + +Night after night Mr. Carvel had lain awake with the agony of those +Eastern debts. Not to pay was to tarnish the name of a Southern +gentleman. He could not sell the business. His house would bring nothing +in these times. He rose and began to pace the floor, tugging at his chin. +Twice he paused to stare at Mr. Hopper, who sat calmly on, and the third +time stopped abruptly before him. + +"See here," he cried. "Where the devil did you get this money, sir?" + +Mr. Hopper did not rise. + +"I haven't been extravagant, Colonel, since I've worked for you," he +said. "It don't cost me much to live. I've been fortunate in +investments." + +The furrows in the Colonel's brow deepened. + +"You offer to lend me five times more than I have ever paid you, Mr. +Hopper. Tell me how you have made this money before I accept it." + +Eliphalet had never been able to meet that eye since he had known it. He +did not meet it now. But he went to his desk, and drew a long sheet of +paper from a pigeonhole. + +"These be some of my investments," he answered, with just a tinge of +surliness. "I cal'late they'll stand inspection. I ain't forcing you to +take the money, sir," he flared up, all at once. "I'd like to save the +business." + +Mr. Carvel was disarmed. He went unsteadily to his desk, and none save +God knew the shock that his pride received that day. To rescue a name +which had stood untarnished since he had brought it into the world, he +drew forth some blank notes, and filled them out. But before he signed +them he spoke: + +"You are a business man, Mr. Hopper," said he, "And as a business man you +must know that these notes will not legally hold. It is martial law. The +courts are abolished, and all transactions here in St. Louis are +invalid." + +Eliphalet was about to speak. + +"One moment, sir," cried the Colonel, standing up and towering to his +full height. "Law or no law, you shall have the money and interest, or +your security, which is this business. I need not tell you, sir, that my +word is sacred, and binding forever upon me and mine." + +"I'm not afraid, Colonel," answered Mr. Hopper, with a feeble attempt at +geniality. He was, in truth, awed at last. + +"You need not be, sir!" said the Colonel, with equal force. "If you were +--this instant you should leave this place." He sat down, and continued +more calmly: "It will not be long before a Southern Army marches into St. +Louis, and the Yankee Government submits." He leaned forward. "Do you +reckon we can hold the business together until then, Mr. Hopper?" + +God forbid that we should smile at the Colonel's simple faith. And if +Eliphalet Hopper had done so, his history would have ended here. + +"Leave that to me, Colonel," he said soberly. + +Then came the reaction. The good Colonel sighed as he signed, away that +business which had been an honor to the, city where it was founded, I +thank heaven that we are not concerned with the details of their talk +that day. Why should we wish to know the rate of interest on those notes, +or the time? It was war-time. + +Mr. Hopper filled out his check, and presently departed. It was the +signal for the little force which remained to leave. Outside, in the +store; Ephum paced uneasily, wondering why his master did not come out. +Presently he crept to the door of the office, pushed it open, and beheld +Mr. Carvel with his head bowed, down in his hands. + +"Marse Comyn!" he cried, "Marse Comyn!" + +The Colonel looked up. His face was haggard. + +"Marse Comyn, you know what I done promise young MISS long time ago, +befo'--befo' she done left us?" + +"Yes, Ephum." + +He saw the faithful old negro but dimly. Faintly he heard the pleading +voice. + +"Marse Comyn, won' you give Ephum a pass down, river, ter fotch Cap'n +Lige?" + +"Ephum," said the Colonel, sadly, "I had a letter from the Captain +yesterday. He is at Cairo. His boat is a Federal transport, and he is in +Yankee pay." + +Ephum took a step forward, appealingly, "But de Cap'n's yo' friend, Marse +Comyn. He ain't never fo'get what you done fo' him, Marse Comyn. He ain't +in de army, suh." + +"And I am the Captain's friend, Ephum," answered the Colonel, quietly. +"But I will not ask aid from any man employed by the Yankee Government. +No--not from my own brother, who is in a Pennsylvania regiments." + +Ephum shuffled out, and his heart was lead as he closed the store that +night. + +Mr. Hopper has boarded a Fifth Street car, which jangles on with many +halts until it comes to Bremen, a German settlement in the north of the +city. At Bremen great droves of mules fill the street, and crowd the +entrances of the sale stables there. Whips are cracking like pistol +shots, Gentlemen with the yellow cavalry stripe of the United States Army +are pushing to and fro among the drivers and the owners, and fingering +the frightened animals. A herd breaks from the confusion and is driven +like a whirlwind down the street, dividing at the Market House. They are +going to board the Government transport--to die on the battlefields of +Kentucky and Missouri. + +Mr. Hopper alights from the car with complacency. He stands for a while +on a corner, against the hot building, surveying the busy scene, +unnoticed. Mules! Was it not a prophecy,--that drove which sent him into +Mr. Carvel's store? + +Presently a man with a gnawed yellow mustache and a shifty eye walks out +of one of the offices, and perceives our friend. + +"Howdy, Mr. Hopper?" says he. + +Eliphalet extends a hand to be squeezed and returned. "Got them +vouchers?" he asks. He is less careful of his English here. + +"Wal, I jest reckon," is the answer: The fellow was interrupted by the +appearance of a smart young man in a smart uniform, who wore an air of +genteel importance. He could not have been more than two and twenty, and +his face and manners were those of a clerk. The tan of field service was +lacking on his cheek, and he was black under the eyes. + +"Hullo, Ford," he said, jocularly. + +"Howdy, Cap," retorted the other. "Wal, suh, that last lot was an extry, +fo' sure. As clean a lot as ever I seed. Not a lump on 'em. Gov'ment +ain't cheated much on them there at one-eighty a head, I reckon." + +Mr. Ford said this with such an air of conviction and such a sober face +that the Captain smiled. And at the same time he glanced down nervously +at the new line of buttons on his chest. + +"I guess I know a mule from a Newfoundland dog by this time," said he. + +"Wal, I jest reckon," asserted Mr. Ford, with a loud laugh. "Cap'n +Wentworth, allow me to make you acquainted with Mr. Hopper. Mr. Hopper, +Cap'n Wentworth." + +The Captain squeezed Mr. Hoppers hand with fervor. "You interested in +mules, Mr. Hopper?" asked the military man. + +"I don't cal'late to be," said. Mr. Hopper. Let us hope that our worthy +has not been presented as being wholly without a sense of humor. He +grinned as he looked upon this lamb in the uniform of Mars, and added, +"I'm just naturally patriotic, I guess. Cap'n, 'll you have a drink?" + +"And a segar," added Mr. Ford. + +"Just one," says the Captain. "It's d--d tiresome lookin' at mules all +day in the sun." + +Well for Mr. Davitt that his mission work does not extend to Bremen, that +the good man's charity keeps him at the improvised hospital down town. +Mr. Hopper has resigned the superintendency of his Sunday School, it is +true, but he is still a pillar of the church. + +The young officer leans against the bar, and listens to stories by Mr. +Ford, which it behooves no church members to hear. He smokes Mr. Hopper's +cigar and drinks his whiskey. And Eliphalet understands that the good +Lord put some fools into the world in order to give the smart people a +chance to practise their talents. Mr. Hopper neither drinks nor smokes, +but he uses the spittoon with more freedom in this atmosphere. + +When at length the Captain has marched out, with a conscious but manly +air, Mr. Hopper turns to Ford-- "Don't lose no time in presenting them +vouchers at headquarters," says he. "Money is worth something now. And +there's grumbling about this Department in the Eastern papers, If we have +an investigation, we'll whistle. How much to-day?" + +"Three thousand," says Mr. Ford. He tosses off a pony of Bourbon, but his +face is not a delight to look upon, "Hopper, you'll be a d--d rich man +some day." + +"I cal'late to." + +"I do the dirty work. And because I ain't got no capital, I only get four +per cent." + +"Don't one-twenty a day suit you?" + +"You get blasted near a thousand. And you've got horse contracts, and +blanket contracts besides. I know you. What's to prevent my goin' south +when the vouchers is cashed?" he cried. "Ain't it possible?" + +"I presume likely," said Mr. Hopper, quietly. "Then your mother'll have +to move out of her little place." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +NEWS FROM CLARENCE + +The epithet aristocrat may become odious and fatal on the banks of the +Mississippi as it was on the banks of the Seine. Let no man deceive +himself! These are fearful times. Thousands of our population, by the +sudden stoppage of business, are thrown out of employment. When gaunt +famine intrudes upon their household, it is but natural that they should +inquire the cause. Hunger began the French Revolution. + +Virginia did not read this editorial, because it appeared in that +abhorred organ of the Mudsills, the 'Missouri Democrat.' The wheels of +fortune were turning rapidly that first hot summer of the war time. Let +us be thankful that our flesh and blood are incapable of the fury of the +guillotine. But when we think calmly of those days, can we escape without +a little pity for the aristocrats? Do you think that many of them did not +know hunger and want long before that cruel war was over? + +How bravely they met the grim spectre which crept so insidiously into +their homes! + +"Virginia, child." said Mrs. Colfax, peevishly, one morning as they sat +at breakfast, "why do you persist it wearing that old gown? It has gotten +on my nerves, my dear. You really must have something new made, even if +there are no men here to dress for." + +"Aunt Lillian, you must not say such things. I do not think that I ever +dressed to please men." + +"Tut, tut; my dear, we all do. I did, even after married your uncle. It +is natural. We must not go shabby in such times as these, or be out of +fashion, Did you know that Prince Napoleon was actually coming here for a +visit this autumn? We must be ready for him. I am having a fitting at +Miss Elder's to-day." + +Virginia was learning patience. She did not reply as she poured out her +aunt's coffee. + +"Jinny," said that lady, "come with me to Elder's, and I will give you +some gowns. If Comyn had been as careful of his own money as of mine, you +could dress decently." + +"I think I do dress decently, Aunt Lillian," answered the girl. "I do not +need the gowns. Give me the money you intend to pay for them, and I can +use it for a better purpose." + +Mrs. Colfax arranged her lace pettishly. + +"I am sick and tired of this superiority, Jinny." And in the same breath. +"What would you do with it?" + +Virginia lowered her voice. "Hodges goes through the lines to-morrow +night. I should send it to Clarence." "But you have no idea where +Clarence is." + +"Hodges can find him." + +"Pshaw!" exclaimed her aunt, "I would not trust him. How do you know that +he will get through the Dutch pickets to Price's army? Wasn't Souther +captured last week, and that rash letter of Puss Russell's to Jack +Brinsmade published in the Democrat?" She laughed at the recollection, +and Virginia was fain to laugh too. "Puss hasn't been around much since. +I hope that will cure her of saying what she thinks of people." + +"It won't," said Virginia. + +"I'll save my money until Price drives the Yankees from the state, and +Clarence marches into the city at the head of a regiment," Mrs. Colfax +went on, "It won't be long now." + +Virginia's eyes flashed. + +"Oh, you can't have read the papers. And don't you remember the letter +Maude had from George? They need the bare necessities of life, Aunt +Lillian. And half of Price's men have no arms at all." + +"Jackson," said Mrs. Colfax, "bring me a newspaper. Is there any news +to-day?" + +"No," answered Virginia, quickly. "All we know is that Lyon has left +Springfield to meet our troops, and that a great battle is coming, +Perhaps--perhaps it is being fought to-day." + +Mrs. Colfax burst into tears, "Oh, Jinny," she cried, "how can you be so +cruel!" + +That very evening a man, tall and lean, but with the shrewd and kindly +eye of a scout, came into the sitting-room with the Colonel and handed a +letter to Mrs. Colfax. In the hall he slipped into Virginia's hand +another, in a "Jefferson Davis" envelope, and she thrust it in her gown +--the girl was on fire as he whispered in her ear that he had seen +Clarence, and that he was well. In two days an answer might be left at +Mr. Russell's house. But she must be careful what she wrote, as the +Yankee scouts were active. + +Clarence, indeed, had proven himself a man. Glory and uniform became him +well, but danger and deprivation better. The words he had written, +careless and frank and boyish, made Virginia's heart leap with pride. +Mrs. Colfax's letter began with the adventure below the Arsenal, when the +frail skiff had sunk near the island, He told how he had heard the +captain of his escort sing out to him in the darkness, and how he had +floated down the current instead, until, chilled and weary, he had +contrived to seize the branches of a huge tree floating by. And how by a +miracle the moon had risen. When the great Memphis packet bore down upon +him, he had, been seen from her guards, and rescued and made much of; and +set ashore at the next landing, for fear her captain would get into +trouble. In the morning he had walked into the country, first providing +himself with butternuts and rawhide boots and a bowie-knife. Virginia +would never have recognized her dashing captain of dragoons in this +guise. + +The letter was long for Clarence, and written under great difficulties +from date to date. For nearly a month he had tramped over mountains and +across river bottoms, waiting for news of an organized force of +resistance in Missouri. Begging his way from cabin to cabin, and living +on greasy bacon and corn pone, at length he crossed the swift Gasconade +(so named by the French settlers because of its brawling ways) where the +bridge of the Pacific railroad had been blown up by the Governor's +orders. Then he learned that the untiring Lyon had steamed up the +Missouri and had taken possession of Jefferson City without a blow, and +that the ragged rebel force had fought and lost at Booneville. Footsore, +but undaunted, he pushed on to join the army, which he heard was +retreating southward along the western tier of counties of the state. + +On the banks of the Osage he fell in with two other young amen in as bad +a plight as himself. They travelled together, until one day some rough +farmers with shotguns leaped out of a bunch of willows on the borders of +a creek and arrested all three for Union spies. And they laughed when Mr. +Clarence tried to explain that he had not long since been the dapper +captain of the State Dragoons. + +His Excellency, the Governor of Missouri (so acknowledged by all good +Southerners), likewise laughed when Mr. Colfax and the two others were +brought before him. His Excellency sat in a cabin surrounded by a camp +which had caused the dogs of war to howl for very shame. + +"Colfax!" cried the Governor. "A Colfax of St. Louis in butternuts and +rawhide boots?" + +"Give me a razor," demanded Clarence, with indignation, "a razor and a +suit of clothes, and I will prove it." The Governor laughed once more. + +"A razor, young man! A suit of clothes You know not what you ask." + +"Are there any gentlemen from St. Louis here?" George Catherwood was +brought in,--or rather what had once been George. Now he was a big +frontiersman with a huge blond beard, and a bowie, knife stuck into his +trousers in place of a sword. He recognized his young captain of dragoons +the Governor apologized, and Clarence slept that night in the cabin. The +next day he was given a horse, and a bright new rifle which the +Governor's soldiers had taken from the Dutch at Cole Camp on the way +south, And presently they made a junction with three thousand more who +were their images. This was Price's army, but Price had gone ahead into +Kansas to beg the great McCulloch and his Confederates to come to their +aid and save the state. + + "Dear mother, I wish that you and Jinny and Uncle Comyn could have + seen this country rabble. How you would have laughed, and cried, + because we are just like them. In the combined army two thousand + have only bowie-knives or clubs. Some have long rifles of Daniel + Boone's time, not fired for thirty years. And the impedimenta are a + sight. Open wagons and conestogas and carryalls and buggies, and + even barouches, weighted down with frying-pans and chairs and + feather beds. But we've got spirit, and we can whip Lyon's Dutchmen + and Yankees just as we are. Spirit is what counts, and the Yankees + haven't got it, I was made to-day a Captain of Cavalry under + Colonel Rives. I ride a great, raw-boned horse like an elephant. + He jolts me until I am sore,--not quite as easy as my thoroughbred, + Jefferson. Tell Jinny to care for him, and have him ready when we + march into St. Louis." + + "COWSKIN PRAIRIE, 9th July. + + "We have whipped Sigel on the prairie by Coon Creek and killed--we + don't know how many. Tell Maude that George distinguished himself + in the fight. We cavalry did not get a chance. + + "We have at last met McCulloch and his real soldiers. We cheered + until we cried when we saw their ranks of gray, with the gold + buttons and the gold braid and the gold stars. General McCulloch + has taken me on his staff, and promised me a uniform. But how to + clothe and feed and arm our men! We have only a few poor cattle, + and no money. But our men don't complain. We shall whip the + Yankees before we starve." + +For many days Mrs. Colfax did not cease to bewail the hardship which her +dear boy was forced to endure. He, who was used to linen sheets and eider +down, was without rough blanket or shelter; who was used to the best +table in the state, was reduced to husks. + +"But, Aunt Lillian," cried Virginia, "he is fighting for the South. If he +were fed and clothed like the Yankees, we should not be half so proud of +him." + +Why set down for colder gaze the burning words that Clarence wrote to +Virginia. How she pored over that letter, and folded it so that even the +candle-droppings would not be creased and fall away! He was happy, though +wretched because he could not see her. It was the life he had longed for. +At last (and most pathetic!) he was proving his usefulness in this world. +He was no longer the mere idler whom she had chidden. + + "Jinny, do you remember saying so many years ago that our ruin would + come of our not being able to work? How I wish you could see us + felling trees to make bullet-moulds, and forging slugs for canister, + and making cartridges at night with our bayonets as candlesticks. + Jinny dear, I know that you will keep up your courage. I can see + you sewing for us, I can hear you praying for us." + +It was, in truth, how Virginia learned to sew. She had always detested +it. Her fingers were pricked and sore weeks after she began. Sad to +relate, her bandages, shirts, and havelocks never reached the front, +--those havelocks, to withstand the heat of the tropic sun, which were made +in thousands by devoted Union women that first summer of the war, to be +ridiculed as nightcaps by the soldiers. + +"Why should not our soldiers have them, too?" said Virginia to the +Russell girls. They were never so happy as when sewing on them against +the arrival of the Army of Liberation, which never came. + +The long, long days of heat dragged slowly, with little to cheer those +families separated from their dear ones by a great army. Clarence might +die, and a month--perhaps a year--pass without news, unless he were +brought a prisoner to St. Louis. How Virginia envied Maude because the +Union lists of dead and wounded would give her tidings of her brother +Tom, at least! How she coveted the many Union families, whose sons and +brothers were at the front, this privilege! + +We were speaking of the French Revolution, when, as Balzac remarked, to +be a spy was to be a patriot. Heads are not so cheap in our Anglo-Saxon +countries; passions not so fierce and uncontrollable. Compare, with a +prominent historian, our Boston Massacre and St. Bartholomew. + +They are both massacres. Compare Camp Jackson, or Baltimore, where a few +people were shot, with some Paris street scenes after the Bastille. +Feelings in each instance never ran higher. Our own provost marshal was +hissed in the street, and called "Robespierre," and yet he did not fear +the assassin's knife. Our own Southern aristocrats were hemmed in in a +Union city (their own city). No women were thrown into prison, it is +true. Yet one was not permitted to shout for Jeff Davis on the street +corner before the provost's guard. Once in a while a detachment of the +Home Guards, commanded by a lieutenant; would march swiftly into a street +and stop before a house, whose occupants would run to the rear, only to +encounter another detachment in the alley. + +One day, in great excitement, Eugenie Renault rang the bell of the Carvel +house, and ran past the astounded Jackson up the stairs to Virginia's +room, the door of which she burst open. + +"Oh, Jinny!" she cried, "Puss Russell's house is surrounded by Yankees, +and Puss and Emily and all the family are prisoners!" + +"Prisoners! What for?" said Virginia, dropping in her excitement her last +year's bonnet, which she was trimming with red, white, and red. + +"Because," said Eugenie, sputtering with indignation "because they waved +at some of our poor fellows who were being taken to the slave pen. They +were being marched past Mr. Russell's house under guard--Puss had a +small--" + +"Confederate flag," put in Virginia, smiling in spite of herself. + +"And she waved it between the shutters," Eugenie continued. And some one +told, the provost marshal. He has had the house surrounded, and the +family have to stay there." + +"But if the food gives out?" + +"Then," said Miss Renault, in a voice of awe, "then each one of the +family is to have just a common army ration. They are to be treated as +prisoners." + +"Oh, those Yankees are detestable!" exclaimed Virginia. "But they shall +pay for it. As soon as our army is organized and equipped, they shall pay +for it ten times over." She tried on the bonnet, conspicuous with its red +and white ribbons, before the glass. Then she ran to the closet and drew +forth the white gown with its red trimmings. "Wait for me, Genie," she +said, "and we'll go down to Puss's house together. It may cheer her to +see us." + +"But not in that dress," said Eugenie, aghast. "They will arrest you." +"Oh, how I wish they would!" cried Virginia. And her eyes flashed so that +Eugenie was frightened. "How I wish they would!" + +Miss Renault regarded her friend with something of adoration from beneath +her black lashes. It was about five in the afternoon when they started +out together under Virginia's white parasol, Eugenie's slimmer courage +upheld by her friend's bearing. We must remember that Virginia was young, +and that her feelings were akin to those our great-grandmothers +experienced when the British held New York. It was as if she had been +born to wear the red and white of the South. Elderly gentlemen of +Northern persuasion paused in their homeward walk to smile in admiration, +--some sadly, as Mr. Brinsmade. Young gentlemen found an excuse to +retrace their steps a block or two. But Virginia walked on air, and saw +nothing. She was between fierce anger and exaltation. She did not deign +to drop her eyes as low as the citizen sergeant and guard in front of +Puss Russell's house (these men were only human, after all); she did not +so much as glance at the curious people standing on the corner, who could +not resist a murmur of delight. The citizen sergeant only smiled, and +made no move to arrest the young lady in red and white. Nor did Puss +fling open the blinds and wave at her. + +"I suppose its because Mr. Russell won't let her," said Virginia, +disconsolately, "Genie, let's go to headquarters, and show this Yankee +General Fremont that we are not afraid of him." + +Eugenie's breath was taken away by the very boldness of this +proposition.. She looked up timidly into Virginia's face, and +hero-worship got the better of prudence. + +The house which General Fremont appropriated for his use when he came +back from Europe to assume command in the West was not a modest one. It +still stands, a large mansion of brick with a stone front, very tall and +very wide, with an elaborate cornice and plate-glass windows, both tall +and broad, and a high basement. Two stately stone porches capped by +elaborate iron railings adorn it in front and on the side. The chimneys +are generous and proportional. In short, the house is of that type built +by many wealthy gentlemen in the middle of the century, which has best +stood the test of time,--the only type which, if repeated to-day, would +not clash with the architectural education which we are receiving. A +spacious yard well above the pavement surrounds it, sustained by a wall +of dressed stones, capped by an iron fence. The whole expressed wealth, +security, solidity, conservatism. Alas, that the coal deposits under the +black mud of our Western states should, at length, have driven the owners +of these houses out of them! They are now blackened, almost buried in +soot; empty, or half-tenanted by boarders, Descendants of the old +families pass them on their way to business or to the theatre with a +sigh. The sons of those who owned them have built westward, and west-ward +again, until now they are six miles from the river. + +On that summer evening forty years ago, when Virginia and Eugenie came in +sight of the house, a scene of great animation was before them. Talk was +rife over the commanding general's pomp and circumstance. He had just +returned from Europe, where pomp and circumstance and the military were +wedded. Foreign officers should come to America to teach our army dress +and manners. A dashing Hungarian commanded the general's body-guard, +which honorable corps was even then drawn up in the street before the +house, surrounded at a respectable distance by a crowd that feared to +jest. They felt like it save when they caught the stern military eye of +the Hungarian captain. Virginia gazed at the glittering uniforms, +resplendent in the sun, and at the sleek and well-fed horses, and +scalding tears came as she thought of the half-starved rabble of Southern +patriots on the burning prairies. Just then a sharp command escaped in +broken English from the Hungarian. The people in the yard of the mansion +parted, and the General himself walked proudly out of the gate to the +curb, where his charger was pawing the gutter. As he put foot to the +stirrup, the eye of the great man (once candidate, and again to be, for +President) caught the glint of red and white on the corner. For an +instant he stood transfixed to the spot, with one leg in the air. Then he +took it down again and spoke to a young officer of his staff, who smiled +and began to walk toward them. Little Eugenie's knees trembled. She +seized Virginia's arm, and whispered in agony. + +"Oh, Jinny, you are to be arrested, after all. Oh, I wish you hadn't been +so bold!" + +"Hush," said Virginia, as she prepared to slay the young officer with a +look. She felt like flying at his throat, and choking him for the +insolence of that smile. How dare he march undaunted to within six paces +of those eyes? The crowd drew back, But did Miss Carvel retreat? Not a +step. "Oh, I hope he will arrest me," she said passionately, to Eugenie. +"He will start a conflagration beyond the power of any Yankee to quell." + +But hush! he was speaking. "You are my prisoners"? No, those were not the +words, surely. The lieutenant had taken off his cap. He bowed very low +and said: + +"Ladies, the General's compliments, and he begs that this much of the +sidewalk may be kept clear for a few moments." + +What was left for them, after that, save a retreat? But he was not +precipitate. Miss Virginia crossed the street with a dignity and bearing +which drew even the eyes of the body-guard to one side. And there she +stood haughtily until the guard and the General had thundered away. A +crowd of black-coated civilians, and quartermasters and other officers in +uniform, poured out of the basement of the house into the yards. One +civilian, a youngish man a little inclined to stoutness, stopped at the +gate, stared, then thrust some papers in his pocket and hurried down the +side street. Three blocks thence he appeared abreast of Miss Carvel. More +remarkable still, he lifted his hat clear of his head. Virginia drew +back. Mr. Hopper, with his newly acquired equanimity and poise, startled +her. + +"May I have the pleasure," said that gentleman, "of accompanying you +home?" + +Eugenie giggled, Virginia was more annoyed than she showed. + +"You must not come out of your way," she said. Then she added. "I am sure +you must go back to the store. It is only six o'clock." + +Had Virginia but known, this occasional tartness in her speech gave +Eliphalet an infinite delight, even while it hurt him. His was a nature +which liked to gloat over a goal on the horizon He cared not a whit for +sweet girls; they cloyed. But a real lady was something to attain. He had +revised his vocabulary for just such an occasion, and thrown out some of +the vernacular. + +"Business is not so pressing nowadays, Miss Carvel," he answered, with a +shade of meaning. + +"Then existence must be rather heavy for you," she said. She made no +attempt to introduce him to Eugenie. "If we should have any more +victories like Bull Run, prosperity will come back with a rush," said the +son of Massachusetts. "Southern Confederacy, with Missouri one of its +stars an industrial development of the South--fortunes in cotton" + +Virginia turned quickly, "Oh, how dare you?" she cried. "How dare you +speak flippantly of such things?" His suavity was far from overthrown. + +"Flippantly Miss Carvel?" said he. "I assure you that I want to see the +South win." What he did not know was that words seldom convince women. +But he added something which reduced her incredulity for the time. "Do +you cal'late," said he,--that I could work for your father, and wish ruin +to his country?" + +"But you are a Yankee born," she exclaimed. + +"There be a few sane Yankees," replied Mr. Hopper, dryly. A remark which +made Eugenie laugh outright, and Virginia could not refrain from a smile. + +But much against her will he walked home with her. She was indignant by +the time she reached Locust Street. He had never dared do such a thing +before, What had got into the man? Was it because he had become a +manager, and governed the business during her father's frequent absences? +No matter what Mr. Hopper's politics, he would always be to her a +low-born Yankee, a person wholly unworthy of notice. + +At the corner of Olive Street, a young man walking with long strides +almost bumped into them. He paused looked back, and bowed as if uncertain +of an acknowledgment. Virginia barely returned his bow. He had been very +close to her, and she had had time to notice that his coat was +threadbare. When she looked again, he had covered half the block. Why +should she care if Stephen Brice had seen her in company with Mr, Hopper? +Eliphalet, too, had seen Stephen, and this had added zest to his +enjoyment. It was part of the fruits of his reward. He wished in that +short walk that he might meet Mr. Cluyme and Belle, and every man and +woman and child in the city whom he knew. From time to time he glanced at +the severe profile of the aristocrat beside him (he had to look up a bit, +likewise), and that look set him down among the beasts of prey. For she +was his rightful prey, and he meant not to lose one tittle of enjoyment +in the progress of the game. Many and many a night in the bare little +back room at Miss Crane's, Eliphalet had gloated over the very event +which was now come to pass. Not a step of the way but what he had lived +through before. + +The future is laid open to such men as he. Since he had first seen the +black cloud of war rolling up from the South, a hundred times had he +rehearsed the scene with Colonel Carvel which had actually taken place a +week before. A hundred times had he prepared his speech and manner for +this first appearance in public with Virginia after he had forced the +right to walk in her company. The words he had prepared--commonplace, to +be sure, but carefully chosen--flowed from his lips in a continual nasal +stream. The girl answered absently, her feminine instinct groping after a +reason for it all. She brightened when she saw her father at the doors +and, saying good by to Eugenie, tripped up the steps, bowing to Eliphalet +coldly. + +"Why, bless us, Jinny," said the Colonel, "you haven't been parading the +town in that costume! You'll have us in Lynch's slave pen by to-morrow +night. My land!" laughed he, patting her under the chin, "there's no +doubt about your sentiments, anyhow." + +"I've been over to Puss Russell's house," said she, breathless. "They've +closed it up, you know--" (He nodded.) "And then we went--Eugenie and I, +to headquarters, just to see what the Yankees would do." + +The Colonel's smile faded. He looked grave. "You must take care, honey," +he said, lowering his voice. "They suspect me now of communicating with +the Governor and McCulloch. Jinny, it's all very well to be brave, and to +stand by your colors. But this sort of thing," said he, stroking the +gown, "this sort of thing doesn't help the South, my dear, and only sets +spies upon us. Ned tells me that there was a man in plain clothes +standing in the alley last night for three hours." + +"Pa," cried the girl, "I'm so sorry." Suddenly searching his face with a +swift instinct, she perceived that these months had made it yellow and +lined. "Pa, dear, you must come to Glencoe to-morrow and rest You must +not go off on any more trips." + +The Colonel shook his head sadly. + +"It isn't the trips, Jinny There are duties, my dear, pleasant duties +--Jinny--" + +"Yes?" + +The Colonel's eye had suddenly fallen on Mr, Hopper, who was still +standing at the bottom of the steps. He checked himself abruptly as +Eliphalet pulled off his hat, + +"Howdy, Colonel?" he said. + +Virginia was motionless, with her back to the intruder, She was frozen by +a presentiment. As she saw her father start down the steps, she yearned +to throw herself in front of him--to warn him of something; she knew not +what. Then she heard the Colonel's voice, courteous and kindly as ever. +And yet it broke a little as he greeted his visitor. + +"Won't--won't you come in, Mr. Hopper?" + +Virginia started + +"I don't know but what I will, thank you, Colonel," he answered; easily. +"I took the liberty of walking home with your daughter." + +Virginia fairly flew into the house and up the stairs. Gaining her room, +she shut the door and turned the key, as though he might pursue her +there. The man's face had all at once become a terror. She threw herself +on the lounge and buried her face in her hands, and she saw it still +leering at her with a new confidence. Presently she grew calmer; rising, +she put on the plainest of her scanty wardrobe, and went down the stairs, +all in a strange trepidation new to her. She had never been in fear of a +man before. She hearkened over the banisters for his voice, heard it, and +summoned all her courage. How cowardly she had been to leave her father +alone with him. + +Eliphalet stayed to tea. It mattered little to him that Mrs. Colfax +ignored him as completely as if his chair had been vacant He glanced at +that lady once, and smiled, for he was tasting the sweets of victory. It +was Virginia who entertained him, and even the Colonel never guessed what +it cost her. Eliphalet himself marvelled at her change of manner, and +gloated over that likewise. Not a turn or a quiver of the victim's pain +is missed by your beast of prey. The Colonel was gravely polite, but +preoccupied. Had he wished it, he could not have been rude to a guest. He +offered Mr. Hopper a cigar with the same air that he would have given it +to a governor. + +"Thank'ee, Colonel, I don't smoke," he said, waving the bog away. + +Mrs. Colfax flung herself out of the room. + +It was ten o'clock when Eliphalet reached Miss Crane's, and picked his +way up the front steps where the boarders were gathered. + +"The war doesn't seem to make any difference in your business, Mr. +Hopper," his landlady remarked, "where have you been so late?" + +"I happened round at Colonel Carvel's this afternoon, and stayed for tea +with 'em," he answered, striving to speak casually. + +Miss Crane lingered in Mrs. Abner Reed's room later than usual that +night. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE SCOURGE OF WAR + +"Virginia," said Mrs. Colfax, the next morning on coming downstairs, "I +am going back to Bellegarde today. I really cannot put up with such a +person as Comyn had here to tea last night." + +"Very well, Aunt Lillian. At what time shall I order the carriage?" + +The lady was surprised. It is safe to say that she had never accurately +gauged the force which Virginia's respect for her elders, and affection +for her aunt through Clarence, held in check. Only a moment since Mrs. +Colfax had beheld her niece. Now there had arisen in front of her a tall +person of authority, before whom she deferred instinctively. It was not +what Virginia said, for she would not stoop to tirade. Mrs. Colfax sank +into a chair, seeing only the blurred lines of a newspaper the girl had +thrust into her hand. + +"What--what is it?" she gasped. "I cannot read." + +"There has been a battle at Wilson's Creek," said Virginia, in an +emotionless voice. "General Lyon is killed, for which I suppose we should +be thankful. More than seven hundred of the wounded are on their way +here. They are bringing them one hundred and twenty miles, from +Springfield to Rollo, in rough army wagons, with scarcely anything to eat +or drink." + +"And--Clarence?" + +"His name is not there." + +"Thank God!" exclaimed Mrs. Colfax. "Are the Yankees beaten?" + +"Yes," said Virginia, coldly. "At what time shall I order the carriage to +take you to Bellegarde?" + +Mrs. Colfax leaned forward and caught the hem of her niece's gown. "Oh, +let me stay," she cried, "let me stay. Clarence may be with them." + +Virginia looked down at her without pity. + +"As you please, Aunt Lillian," she answered. "You know that you may +always stay here. I only beg of you one thing, that when you have +anything to complain of, you will bring it to me, and not mention it +before Pa. He has enough to worry him." + +"Oh, Jinny," sobbed the lady, in tears again, "how can you be so cruel at +such a time, when my nerves are all in pieces?" + +But she did not lift her voice at dinner, which was very poor indeed for +Colonel Carvel's house. All day long Virginia, assisted by Uncle Ben and +Aunt Easter, toiled in the stifling kitchen, preparing dainties which she +had long denied herself. At evening she went to the station at Fourteenth +Street with her father, and stood amongst the people, pressed back by the +soldiers, until the trains came in. Alas, the heavy basket which the +Colonel carried on his arm was brought home again. The first hundred to +arrive, ten hours in a hot car without food or water, were laid groaning +on the bottom of great furniture vans, and carted to the new House of +Refuge Hospital, two miles to the south of the city. + +The next day many good women went there, Rebel and Union alike, to have +their hearts wrung. The new and cheap building standing in the hot sun +reeked with white wash and paint. The miserable men lay on the hard +floor, still in the matted clothes they had worn in battle. Those were +the first days of the war, when the wages of our passions first came to +appal us. Many of the wounds had not been tended since they were dressed +on the field weeks before. + +Mrs. Colfax went too, with the Colonel and her niece, although she +declared repeatedly that she could not go through with such an ordeal. +She spoke the truth, for Mr. Carvel had to assist her to the +waiting-room. Then he went back to the improvised wards to find Virginia +busy over a gaunt Arkansan of Price's army, whose pitiful, fever-glazed +eyes were following her every motion. His frontiersman's clothes, stained +with blackened blood, hung limp over his wasted body. At Virginia's +bidding the Colonel ran downstairs for a bucket of fresh water, and she +washed the caked dust from his face and hands. It was Mr. Brinsmade who +got the surgeon to dress the man's wound, and to prescribe some of the +broth from Virginia's basket. For the first time since the war began +something of happiness entered her breast. + +It was Mr. Brinsmade who was everywhere that day, answering the questions +of distracted mothers and fathers and sisters who thronged the place; +consulting with the surgeons; helping the few who knew how to work in +placing mattresses under the worst cases; or again he might have been +seen seated on the bare floor with a pad on his knee, taking down the +names of dear ones in distant states,--that he might spend his night +writing to them. + +They put a mattress under the Arkansan. Virginia did not leave him until +he had fallen asleep, and a smile of peace was come upon his sunken face. +Dismayed at the fearful sights about her, awed by the groans that rose on +every side, she was choosing her way swiftly down the room to join her +father and aunt in the carriage below. + +The panic of flight had seized her. She felt that another little while in +this heated, horrible place would drive her mad. She was almost at the +door when she came suddenly upon a sight that made her pause. + +An elderly lady in widow's black was kneeling beside a man groaning in +mortal agony, fanning away the flies already gathering about his face. He +wore the uniform of a Union sergeant,--dusty and splotched and torn. A +small Testament was clasped convulsively in the fingers of his right +band. The left sleeve was empty. Virginia lingered, whelmed in pity, +thrilled by a wonderful womanliness of her who knelt there. Her face the +girl had not even seen, for it was bent over the man. The sweetness of +her voice held Virginia as in a spell, and the sergeant stopped groaning +that he might listen: + +"You have a wife?" + +"Yes, ma'am." + +"And a child?" + +The answer came so painfully. + +"A boy, ma'am--born the week--before I came--away." + +"I shall write to your wife," said the lady, so gently that Virginia +could scarce hear, "and tell her that you are cared for. Where does she +live?" + +He gave the address faintly--some little town in Minnesota. Then he +added, "God bless you, lady." + +Just then the chief surgeon came and stood over them. The lady turned her +face up to him, and tears sparkled in her eyes. Virginia felt them wet in +her own. Her worship was not given to many. Nobility, character, +efficiency,-all were written on that face. Nobility spoke in the large +features, in the generous mouth, in the calm, gray eyes. Virginia had +seen her often before, but not until now was the woman revealed to her. + +"Doctor, could this man's life be saved if I took him to my home?" + +The surgeon got down beside her and took the man's pulse. The eyes +closed. For a while the doctor knelt there, shaking his head. "He has +fainted," he said. + +"Do you think he can be saved?" asked the lady again. The surgeon +smiled,--such a smile as a good man gives after eighteen hours of +amputating, of bandaging, of advising,--work which requires a firm hand, +a clear eye and brain, and a good heart. + +"My dear Mrs. Brice," he said, "I shall be glad to get you permission to +take him, but we must first make him worth the taking. Another hour would +have been too late." He glanced hurriedly about the busy room, and then +added, "We must have one more to help us." + +Just then some one touched Virginia's arm. It was her father. + +"I am afraid we must go, dear," he said, "your aunt is getting +impatient." + +"Won't you please go without me, Pa?" she asked. "Perhaps I can be of +some use." + +The Colonel cast a wondering glance at the limp uniform, and went away. +The surgeon, who knew the Carvel family, gave Virginia a look of +astonishment. It was Mrs. Brice's searching gaze that brought the color +to the girl's, face. + +"Thank you, my dear," she said simply. + +As soon as he could get his sister-in-law off to Locust Street in the +carriage, Colonel Carvel came back. For two reeking hours he stood +against the newly plastered wall. Even he was surprised at the fortitude +and skill Virginia showed from the very first, when she had deftly cut +away the stiffened blue cloth, and helped to take off the rough bandages. +At length the fearful operation was finished, and the weary surgeon, +gathering up his box, expressed with all the energy left to him, his +thanks to the two ladies. + +Virginia stood up, faint and dizzy. The work of her hands had sustained +her while it lasted, but now the ordeal was come. She went down the +stairs on her father's arm, and out into the air. All at once she knew +that Mrs. Brice was beside her, and had taken her by the hand. + +"My dear?" she was saying, "God will reward you for this act. You have +taught many of us to-day a lesson we should have learned in our Bibles." + +Virginia trembled with many emotions, but she answered nothing. The mere +presence of this woman had a strange effect upon the girl,--she was +filled with a longing unutterable. It was not because Margaret Brice was +the mother of him whose life had been so strangely blended with hers +--whom she saw in her dreams. And yet now some of Stephen's traits seemed +to come to her understanding, as by a revelation. Virginia had labored +through the heat of the day by Margaret Brice's side doing His work, +which levels all feuds and makes all women sisters. One brief second had +been needful for the spell. + +The Colonel bowed with that courtesy and respect which distinguished him, +and Mrs. Brice left them to go back into the room of torment, and watch +by the sergeant's pallet. Virginia's eyes followed her up the stairs, and +then she and her father walked slowly to the carriage. With her foot on +the step Virginia paused. + +"Pa," she said, "do you think it would be possible to get them to let us +take that Arkansan into our house?" + +"Why, honey, I'll ask Brinsmade if you like," said the Colonel. "Here he +comes now, and Anne." + +It was Virginia who put the question to him. + +"My dear," replied that gentleman, patting her, "I would do anything in +the world for you. I'll see General Fremont this very afternoon. +Virginia," he added, soberly, "it is such acts as yours to-day that give +us courage to live in these times." + +Anne kissed her friend. + +"Oh, Jinny, I saw what you were doing for one of our men. What am I +saying?" she cried. "They are your men, too. This horrible war cannot +last. It cannot last. It was well that Virginia did not see the smile on +the face of the commanding general when Mr. Brinsmade at length got to +him with her request. This was before the days when the wounded arrived +by the thousands, when the zeal of the Southern ladies threatened to +throw out of gear the workings of a great system. But the General, had +had his eye on Mr. Carvel from the first. Therefore he smiled. + +"Colonel Carvel," said Mr. Brinsmade, with dignity, "is a gentleman. When +he gives his word, it is sacred, sir." + +"Even to an enemy," the General put in, "By George, Brinsmade, unless I +knew you, I should think that you were half rebel yourself. Well, well, +he may have his Arkansan." + +Mr. Brinsmade, when he conveyed the news to the Carvel house, did not say +that he had wasted a precious afternoon in the attempt to interview his +Excellency, the Commander in-chief. It was like obtaining an audience +with the Sultan or the Czar. Citizens who had been prominent in affairs +for twenty years, philanthropists and patriotic-spirited men like Mr. +Brinsmade, the mayor, and all the ex-mayors mopped their brows in one of +the general's anterooms of the big mansion, and wrangled with beardless +youths in bright uniforms who were part of the chain. The General might +have been a Richelieu, a Marlborough. His European notions of uniformed +inaccessibility he carried out to the letter. He was a royal personage, +seldom seen, who went abroad in the midst of a glittering guard. It did +not seem to weigh with his Excellency that these simple and democratic +gentlemen would not put up with this sort of thing. That they who had +saved the city to the Union were more or less in communication with a +simple and democratic President; that in all their lives they had never +been in the habit of sitting idly for two hours to mop their brows. + +On the other hand, once you got beyond the gold lace and the etiquette, +you discovered a good man and a patriot. It was far from being the +General's fault that Mr. Hopper and others made money in mules and +worthless army blankets. Such things always have been, and always will be +unavoidable when this great country of ours rises from the deep sleep of +security into which her sons have lulled her, to demand her sword. We +shall never be able to realize that the maintenance of a standing army of +comfortable size will save millions in the end. So much for Democracy +when it becomes a catchword. + +The General was a good man, had he done nothing else than encourage the +Western Sanitary Commission, that glorious army of drilled men and women +who gave up all to relieve the suffering which the war was causing. Would +that a novel--a great novel--might be written setting forth with truth +its doings. The hero of it could be Calvin Brinsmade, and a nobler hero +than he was never under a man's hand. For the glory of generals fades +beside his glory. + +It was Mr. Brinsmade's carriage that brought Mrs. Brice home from her +trying day in the hospital. Stephen, just returned from drill at Verandah +hall, met her at the door. She would not listen to his entreaties to +rest, but in the evening, as usual, took her sewing to the porch behind +the house, where there was a little breeze. + +"Such a singular thing happened to-day, Stephen," she said. "It was while +we were trying to save the life of a poor sergeant who had lost his arm. +I hope we shall be allowed to have him here. He is suffering horribly." + +"What happened, mother?" he asked. + +"It was soon after I had come upon this poor fellow," she said. "I saw +the--the flies around him. And as I got down beside him to fan them away +I had such a queer sensation. I knew that some one was standing behind +me, looking at me. Then Dr. Allerdyce came, and I asked him about the +man, and he said there was a chance of saving him if we could only get +help. Then some one spoke up,--such a sweet voice. It was that Miss +Carvel my dear, with whom you had such a strange experience when you +bought Hester, and to whose party you once went. Do you remember that +they offered us their house in Glencoe when the Judge was so ill?" + +"Yes," said Stephen. + +"She is a wonderful creature," his mother continued. "Such personality, +such life! And wasn't it a remarkable offer for a Southern woman to make? +They feel so bitterly, and--and I do not blame them." The good lady put +down on her lap the night-shirt she was making. "I saw how it happened. +The girl was carried away by her pity. And, my dear, her capability +astonished me. One might have thought that she had always been a nurse. +The experience was a dreadful one for me--what must it have been for her. +After the operation was over, I followed her downstairs to where she was +standing with her father in front of the building, waiting for their +carriage. I felt that I must say something to her, for in all my life I +have never seen a nobler thing done. When I saw her there, I scarcely +knew what to say. Words seemed so inadequate. It was then three o'clock, +and she had been working steadily in that place since morning. I am sure +she could not have borne it much longer. Sheer courage carried her +through it, I know, for her hand trembled so when I took it, and she was +very pale. She usually has color, I believe. Her father, the Colonel, was +with her, and he bowed to me with such politeness. He had stood against +the wall all the while we had worked, and he brought a mattress for us. I +have heard that his house is watched, and that they have him under +suspicion for communicating with the Confederate leaders." Mrs. Brice +sighed. He seems such a fine character. I hope they will not get into any +trouble." + +"I hope not, mother," said Stephen. + +It was two mornings later that Judge Whipple and Stephen drove to the +Iron Mountain depot, where they found a German company of Home Guards +drawn up. On the long wooden platform under the sheds Stephen caught +sight of Herr Korner and Herr Hauptmann amid a group of their countrymen. +Little Korner came forward to clasp his hands. The tears ran on his +cheeks, and he could not speak for emotion. Judge Whipple, grim and +silent, stood apart. But he uncovered his head with the others when the +train rolled in. Reverently they entered a car where the pine boxes were +piled one on another, and they bore out the earthly remains of Captain +Carl Richter. + +Far from the land of his birth, among those same oaks on Bloody Hill +where brave Lyon fell, he had gladly given up his life for the new +country and the new cause he had made his own. + +That afternoon in the cemetery, as the smoke of the last salute to a hero +hung in the flickering light and drifted upward through the great trees, +as the still air was yet quivering with the notes of the bugle-call which +is the soldiers requiem, a tall figure, gaunt and bent, stepped out from +behind the blue line of the troops. It was that of Judge Whipple. He +carried in his hand a wreath of white roses--the first of many to be laid +on Richter's grave. + +Poor Richter! How sad his life had been! And yet he had not filled it +with sadness. For many a month, and many a year, Stephen could not look +upon his empty place without a pang. He missed the cheery songs and the +earnest presence even more than he had thought. Carl Richter,--as his +father before him,--had lived for others. Both had sacrificed their +bodies for a cause. One of them might be pictured as he trudged with +Father Jahn from door to door through the Rhine country, or shouldering +at sixteen a heavy musket in the Landwehr's ranks to drive the tyrant +Napoleon from the beloved Fatherland Later, aged before his time, his +wife dead of misery, decrepit and prison-worn in the service of a +thankless country, his hopes lived again in Carl, the swordsman of Jena. +Then came the pitiful Revolution, the sundering of all ties, the elder +man left to drag out his few weary days before a shattered altar. In Carl +a new aspiration had sprung up, a new patriotism stirred. His, too, had +been the sacrifice. Happy in death, for he had helped perpetuate that +great Union which should be for all time the refuge of the oppressed. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LIST OF SIXTY + +One chilling day in November, when an icy rain was falling on the black +mud of the streets, Virginia looked out of the window. Her eye was caught +by two horses which were just skeletons with the skin stretched over +them. One had a bad sore on his flank, and was lame. They were pulling a +rattle-trap farm wagon with a buckled wheel. On the seat a man, pallid +and bent and scantily clad, was holding the reins in his feeble hands, +while beside him cowered a child of ten wrapped in a ragged blanket. In +the body of the wagon, lying on a mattress pressed down in the midst of +broken, cheap furniture and filthy kitchen ware, lay a gaunt woman in the +rain. Her eyes were closed, and a hump on the surface of the dirty quilt +beside her showed that a child must be there. From such a picture the +girl fled in tears. But the sight of it, and of others like it, haunted +her for weeks. Through those last dreary days of November, wretched +families, which a year since had been in health and prosperity, came to +the city, beggars, with the wrecks of their homes. The history of that +hideous pilgrimage across a state has never been written. Still they came +by the hundred, those families. Some brought little corpses to be buried. +The father of one, hale and strong when they started, died of pneumonia +in the public lodging-house. The walls of that house could tell many +tales to wring the heart. So could Mr. Brinsmade, did he choose to speak +of his own charities. He found time, between his labors at the big +hospital newly founded, and his correspondence, and his journeys of +love,--between early morning and midnight,--to give some hours a day to +the refugees. + +Throughout December they poured in on the afflicted city, already +overtaxed. All the way to Springfield the road was lined with remains of +articles once dear--a child's doll, a little rocking-chair, a colored +print that has hung in the best room, a Bible text. + +Anne Brinsmade, driven by Nicodemus, went from house to house to solicit +old clothes, and take them to the crowded place of detention. Christmas +was drawing near--a sorry Christmas, in truth. And many of the wanderers +were unclothed and unfed. + +More battles had been fought; factions had arisen among Union men. +Another general had come to St. Louis to take charge of the Department, +and the other with his wondrous body-guard was gone. + +The most serious problem confronting the new general--was how to care for +the refugees. A council of citizens was called at headquarters, and the +verdict went forth in the never-to-be-forgotten Orders No. 24. + +"Inasmuch," said the General, "as the Secession army had driven these +people from their homes, Secession sympathizers should be made to support +them." He added that the city was unquestionably full of these. + +Indignation was rife the day that order was published. Sixty prominent +"disloyalists" were to be chosen and assessed to make up a sum of ten +thousand dollars. + +"They may sell my house over my head before I will pay a cent," cried Mr. +Russell. And he meant it. This was the way the others felt. Who were to +be on this mysterious list of "Sixty"? That was the all-absorbing +question of the town. It was an easy matter to pick the conspicuous ones. +Colonel Carvel was sure to be there, and Mr. Catherwood and Mr. Russell +and Mr. James, and Mr. Worington the lawyer. Mrs. Addison Colfax lived +for days in a fermented state of excitement which she declared would +break her down; and which, despite her many cares and worries, gave her +niece not a little amusement. For Virginia was human, and one morning she +went to her aunt's room to read this editorial from the newspaper:-- "For +the relief of many palpitating hearts it may be well to state that we +understand only two ladies are on the ten thousand dollar list." + +"Jinny," she cried, "how can you be so cruel as to read me that, when you +know that I am in a state of frenzy now? How does that relieve me? It +makes it an absolute certainty that Madame Jules and I will have to pay. +We are the only women of importance in the city." + +That afternoon she made good her much-uttered threat, and drove to +Bellegarde. Only the Colonel and Virginia and Mammy Easter and Ned were +left in the big house. Rosetta and Uncle Ben and Jackson had been hired +out, and the horses sold,--all save old Dick, who was running, +long-haired, in the fields at Glencoe. + +Christmas eve was a steel-gray day, and the sleet froze as it fell. Since +morning Colonel Carvel had sat poking the sitting-room fire, or pacing +the floor restlessly. His occupation was gone. He was observed night and +day by Federal detectives. Virginia strove to amuse him, to conceal her +anxiety as she watched him. Well she knew that but for her he would long +since have fled southward, and often in the bitterness of the night-time +she blamed herself for not telling him to go. Ten years had seemed to +pass over him since the war had begun. + +All day long she had been striving to put away from her the memory of +Christmas eves past and gone of her father's early home-coming from the +store, a mysterious smile on his face; of Captain Lige stamping noisily +into the house, exchanging uproarious jests with Ned and Jackson. The +Captain had always carried under his arm a shapeless bundle which he +would confide to Ned with a knowing wink. And then the house would be +lighted from top to bottom, and Mr. Russell and Mr. Catherwood and Mr. +Brinsmade came in for a long evening with Mr. Carvel over great bowls of +apple toddy and egg-nog. And Virginia would have her own friends in the +big parlor. That parlor was shut up now, and icy cold. + +Then there was Judge Whipple, the joyous event of whose year was his +Christmas dinner at Colonel Carvel's house. Virginia pictured him this +year at Mrs. Brice's little table, and wondered whether he would miss +them as much as they missed him. War may break friendships, but it cannot +take away the sacredness of memories. + +The sombre daylight was drawing to an early close as the two stood +looking out of the sitting-room window. A man's figure muffled in a +greatcoat slanting carefully across the street caught their eyes. +Virginia started. It was the same United States deputy marshal she had +seen the day before at Mr. Russell's house. + +"Pa," she cried, "do you think he is coming here?" + +"I reckon so, honey." + +"The brute! Are you going to pay?" + +"No, Jinny." + +"Then they will take away the furniture." + +"I reckon they will." + +"Pa, you must promise me to take down the mahogany bed in your room. It +--it was mother's. I could not bear to see them take that. Let me put it in +the garret." + +The Colonel was distressed, but he spoke without a tremor. + +"No, Jinny. We must leave this house just as it is." Then he added, +strangely enough for him, "God's will be done." + +The bell rang sharply. And Ned, who was cook and housemaid, came in with +his apron on. + +"Does you want to see folks, Marse Comyn?" + +The Colonel rose, and went to the door himself. He was an imposing figure +as he stood in the windy vestibule, confronting the deputy. Virginia's +first impulse was to shrink under the stairs. Then she came out and stood +beside her father. + +"Are you Colonel Carvel?" + +"I reckon I am. Will you come in?" + +The officer took off his cap. He was a young man with a smooth face, and +a frank brown eye which paid its tribute to Virginia. He did not appear +to relish the duty thrust upon him. He fumbled in his coat and drew from +his inner pocket a paper. + +"Colonel Carvel," said he, "by order of Major General Halleck, I serve +you with this notice to pay the sum of three hundred and fifty dollars +for the benefit of the destitute families which the Rebels have driven +from their homes. In default of payment within a reasonable time such +personal articles will be seized and sold at public auction as will +satisfy the demand against you." + +The Colonel took the paper. "Very well, sir," he said. "You may tell the +General that the articles may be seized. That I will not, while in my +right mind, be forced to support persons who have no claim upon me." + +It was said in the tone in which he might have refused an invitation to +dinner. The deputy marvelled. He had gone into many houses that week; had +seen indignation, hysterics, frenzy. He had even heard men and women +whose sons and brothers were in the army of secession proclaim their +loyalty to the Union. But this dignity, and the quiet scorn of the girl +who had stood silent beside them, were new. He bowed, and casting his +eyes to the vestibule, was glad to escape from the house. + +The Colonel shut the door. Then he turned toward Virginia, thoughtfully +pulled his goatee, and laughed gently. "Lordy, we haven't got three +hundred and fifty dollars to our names," said he. + +The climate of St. Louis is capricious. That fierce valley of the +Missouri, which belches fitful blizzards from December to March, is +sometimes quiet. Then the hot winds come up from the Gulf, and sleet +melts, and windows are opened. In those days the streets will be fetlock +deep in soft mud. It is neither summer, nor winter, nor spring, nor +anything. + +It was such a languorous afternoon in January that a furniture van, +accompanied by certain nondescript persons known as United States Police, +pulled up at the curb in front of Mr. Carvel's house. Eugenie, watching +at the window across the street, ran to tell her father, who came out on +his steps and reviled the van with all the fluency of his French +ancestors. + +Mammy Easter opened the door, and then stood with her arms akimbo, amply +filling its place. Her lips protruded, and an expression of defiance hard +to describe sat on her honest black face. + +"Is this Colonel Carvel's house?" + +"Yassir. I 'low you knows dat jes as well as me." An embarrassed silence, +and then from Mammy, "Whaffor you laffin at?" + +"Is the Colonel at home?" + +"Now I reckon you knows dat he ain't. Ef he was, you ain't come here +'quirin' in dat honey voice." (Raising her own voice.) "You tink I dunno +whaffor you come? You done come heah to rifle, an' to loot, an' to steal, +an' to seize what ain't your'n. You come heah when young Marse ain't to +home ter rob him." (Still louder.) "Ned, whaffor you hidin' yonder? Ef +yo' ain't man to protect Marse Comyn's prop-ty, jes han' over Marse +Comyn's gun." + +The marshal and his men had stood, half amused, more than half baffled by +this unexpected resistance. Mammy Easter looked so dangerous that it was +evident she was not to be passed without extreme bodily discomfort. + +"Is your mistress here?" + +This question was unfortunate in the extreme. + +"You--you white trash!" cried Mammy, bursting with indignation. "Who is +you to come heah 'quiring fo' her! I ain't agwine--" + +"Mammy!" + +"Yas'm! Yas, Miss Jinny." Mammy backed out of the door and clutched at +her bandanna. + +"Mammy, what is all this noise about?" The torrent was loosed once more. + +"These heah men, Miss Jinny, was gwine f'r t' carry away all yo' pa's +blongin's. I jes' tol' 'em dey ain't comin' in ovah dis heah body." + +The deputy had his foot on the threshold. He caught sight of the face of +Miss Carvel within, and stopped abruptly. + +"I have a warrant here from the Provost Marshal, ma'am, to seize personal +property to satisfy a claim against Colonel Carvel." + +Virginia took the order, read it, and handed it back. "I do not see how I +am to prevent you," she said. The deputy was plainly abashed. + +"I'm sorry, Miss. I--I can't tell you how sorry I am. But it's got to be +done." + +Virginia nodded coldly. And still the man hesitated. "What are you +waiting for?" she said. + +The deputy wiped his muddy feet. He made his men do likewise. Then he +entered the chill drawing-room, threw open the blinds and glanced around +him. + +"I expect all that we want is right here," he said. And at the sight of +the great chandelier, with its cut-glass crystals, he whistled. Then he +walked over to the big English Rothfield piano and lifted the lid. + +The man was a musician. Involuntarily he rested himself on the mahogany +stool, and ran his fingers over the keys. They seemed to Virginia, +standing motionless in the ball, to give out the very chords of agony. + +The piano, too, had been her mother's. It had once stood in the brick +house of her grandfather Colfax at Halcyondale. The songs of Beatrice lay +on the bottom shelf of the what-not near by. No more, of an evening when +they were alone, would Virginia quietly take them out and play them over +to the Colonel, as he sat dreaming in the window with his cigar, +--dreaming of a field on the borders of a wood, of a young girl who held +his hand, and sang them softly to herself as she walked by his side. And, +when they reached the house in the October twilight, she had played them +for him on this piano. Often he had told Virginia of those days, and +walked with her over those paths. + +The deputy closed the lid, and sent out to the van for a truck. Virginia +stirred. For the first time she heard the words of Mammy Easter. + +"Come along upstairs wid yo' Mammy, honey. Dis ain't no place for us, I +reckon." Her words were the essence of endearment. And yet, while she +pronounced them, she glared unceasingly at the intruders. "Oh, de good +Lawd'll burn de wicked!" + +The men were removing the carved legs. Virginia went back into the room +and stood before the deputy. + +"Isn't there something else you could take? Some jewellery?" She flushed. +"I have a necklace--" + +"No, miss. This warrant's on your father. And there ain't nothing quite +so salable as pianos." + +She watched them, dry-eyed, as they carried it away. It seemed like a +coffin. Only Mammy Easter guessed at the pain in Virginia's breast, and +that was because there was a pain in her own. They took the rosewood +what-not, but Virginia snatched the songs before the men could touch +them, and held them in her arms. They seized the mahogany velvet-bottomed +chairs, her uncle's wedding present to her mother; and, last of all, they +ruthlessly tore up the Brussels carpet, beginning near the spot where +Clarence had spilled ice-cream at one of her children's parties. + +She could not bear to look into the dismantled room when they had gone. +It was the embodied wreck of her happiness. Ned closed the blinds once +more, and she herself turned the key in the lock, and went slowly up the +stairs. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE AUCTION + +"Stephen," said the Judge, in his abrupt way, "there isn't a great deal +doing. Let's go over to the Secesh property sales." + +Stephen looked up in surprise. The seizures and intended sale of +secession property had stirred up immense bitterness and indignation in +the city. There were Unionists (lukewarm) who denounced the measure as +unjust and brutal. The feelings of Southerners, avowed and secret, may +only be surmised. Rigid ostracism was to be the price of bidding on any +goods displayed, and men who bought in handsome furniture on that day +because it was cheap have still, after forty years, cause to remember it. + +It was not that Stephen feared ostracism. Anne Brinsmade was almost the +only girl left to him from among his former circle of acquaintances. Miss +Carvel's conduct is known. The Misses Russell showed him very plainly +that they disapproved of his politics. The hospitable days at that house +were over. Miss Catherwood, when they met on the street, pretended not to +see him, and Eugenie Renault gave him but a timid nod. The loyal families +to whose houses he now went were mostly Southerners, in sentiment against +forced auctions. + +However, he put on his coat, and sallied forth into the sharp air, the +Judge leaning on his arm. They walked for some distance in silence. + +"Stephen," said he, presently, "I guess I'll do a little bidding." + +Stephen did not reply. But he was astonished. He wondered what Mr. +Whipple wanted with fine furniture. And, if he really wished to bid, +Stephen knew likewise that no consideration would stop him. + +"You don't approve of this proceeding, sir, I suppose," said the Judge. + +"Yes, sir, on large grounds. War makes many harsh things necessary." + +"Then," said the Judge, tartly, "by bidding, we help to support starving +Union families. You should not be afraid to bid, sir." + +Stephen bit his lip. Sometimes Mr. Whipple made him very angry. + +"I am not afraid to bid, Judge Whipple." He did not see the smile on the +Judge's face. + +"Then you will bid in certain things for me," said Mr. Whipple. Here he +hesitated, and shook free the rest of the sentence with a wrench. +"Colonel Carvel always had a lot of stuff I wanted. Now I've got the +chance to buy it cheap." + +There was silence again, for the space of a whole block. Finally, Stephen +managed to say:-- "You'll have to excuse me, sir. I do not care to do +that." + +"What?" cried the Judge, stopping in the middle of a cross-street, so +that a wagon nearly ran over his toes. + +"I was once a guest in Colonel Carvel's house, sir. And--" + +"And what?" + +Neither the young man nor the old knew all it was costing the other to +say these things. The Judge took a grim pleasure in eating his heart. And +as for Stephen, he often went to his office through Locust Street, which +was out of his way, in the hope that he might catch a glimpse of +Virginia. He had guessed much of the privations she had gone through. He +knew that the Colonel had hired out most of his slaves, and he had +actually seen the United States Police drive across Eleventh Street with +the piano that she had played on. + +The Judge was laughing quietly,--not a pleasant laugh to hear,--as they +came to Morgan's great warerooms. A crowd blocked the pavement, and +hustled and shoved at the doors,--roughs, and soldiers off duty, and +ladies and gentlemen whom the Judge and Stephen knew, and some of whom +they spoke to. All of these were come out of curiosity, that they might +see for themselves any who had the temerity to bid on a neighbor's +household goods. The long hall, which ran from street to street, was +packed, the people surging backward and forward, and falling roughly +against the mahogany pieces; and apologizing, and scolding, and swearing +all in a breath. The Judge, holding tightly to Stephen, pushed his way +fiercely to the stand, vowing over and over that the commotion was a +secession trick to spoil the furniture and stampede the sale. In truth, +it was at the Judge's suggestion that a blue provost's guard was called +in later to protect the seized property. + +How many of those mahogany pieces, so ruthlessly tumbled about before the +public eye, meant a heartache! Wedding presents of long ago, dear to many +a bride with silvered hair, had been torn from the corner where the +children had played--children who now, alas, were grown and gone to war. +Yes, that was the Brussels rug that had lain before the fire, and which +the little feet had worn in the corner. Those were the chairs the little +hands had harnessed, four in a row, and fallen on its side was the +armchair--the stage coach itself. There were the books, held up to common +gaze, that a beloved parent had thumbed with affection. Yes, and here in +another part of the hall were the family horses and the family carriage +that had gone so often back and forth from church with the happy brood of +children, now scattered and gone to war. + +As Stephen reached his place beside the Judge, Mr. James's effects were +being cried. And, if glances could have killed, many a bidder would have +dropped dead. The heavy dining-room table which meant so much to the +family went for a song to a young man recently come from Yankeeland, +whose open boast it was--like Eliphalet's secret one--that he would one +day grow rich enough to snap his fingers in the face of the Southern +aristocrats. Mr. James was not there. But Mr. Catherwood, his face +haggard and drawn, watched the sideboard he had given his wife on her +silver wedding being sold to a pawnbroker. + +Stephen looked in vain for Colonel Carvel--for Virginia. He did not want +to see them there. He knew by heart the list of things which had been +taken from their house. He understood the feeling which had sent the +Judge here to bid them in. And Stephen honored him the more. + +When the auctioneer came to the Carvel list, and the well-known name was +shouted out, the crowd responded with a stir and pressed closer to the +stand. And murmurs were plainly heard in more than one direction. + +"Now, gentlemen, and ladies," said the seller, "this here is a genuine +English Rothfield piano once belonging to Colonel Carvel, and the +celebrated Judge Colfax of Kaintucky." He lingered fondly over the names, +that the impression might have time to sink deep. "This here magnificent +instrument's worth at the very least" (another pause) "twelve hundred +dollars. What am I bid?" + +He struck a base note of the keys, then a treble, and they vibrated in +the heated air of the big hall. Had he hit the little C of the top +octave, the tinkle of that also might have been heard. + +"Gentlemen and ladies, we have to begin somewheres. What am I bid?" + +A menacing murmur gave place to the accusing silence. Some there were who +gazed at the Rothfield with longing eyes, but who had no intention of +committing social suicide. Suddenly a voice, the rasp of which penetrated +to St. Charles Street, came out with a bid. The owner was a seedy man +with a straw-colored, drunkard's mustache. He was leaning against the +body of Mrs. Russell's barouche (seized for sale), and those about him +shrank away as from smallpox. His hundred-dollar offer was followed by a +hiss. What followed next Stephen will always remember. When Judge Whipple +drew himself up to his full six feet, that was a warning to those that +knew him. As he doubled the bid, the words came out with the aggressive +distinctness of a man who through a long life has been used to +opposition. He with the gnawed yellow mustache pushed himself clear of +the barouche, his smouldering cigar butt dropping to the floor. But there +were no hisses now. + +And this is how Judge Whipple braved public opinion once more. As he +stood there, defiant, many were the conjectures as to what he could wish +to do with the piano of his old friend. Those who knew the Judge (and +there were few who did not) pictured to themselves the dingy little +apartment where he lived, and smiled. Whatever his detractors might have +said of him, no one was ever heard to avow that he had bought or sold +anything for gain. + +A tremor ran through the people. Could it have been of admiration for the +fine old man who towered there glaring defiance at those about him? "Give +me a strong and consistent enemy," some great personage has said, "rather +than a lukewarm friend." Three score and five years the Judge had lived, +and now some were beginning to suspect that he had a heart. Verily he had +guarded his secret well. But it was let out to many more that day, and +they went home praising him who had once pronounced his name with +bitterness. + +This is what happened. Before he of the yellow mustache could pick up his +cigar from the floor and make another bid, the Judge had cried out a sum +which was the total of Colonel Carvel's assessment. Many recall to this +day how fiercely he frowned when the applause broke forth of itself; and +when he turned to go they made a path for him, in admiration, the length +of the hall, down which he stalked, looking neither to the right nor +left. Stephen followed him, thankful for the day which had brought him +into the service of such a man. + +And so it came about that the other articles were returned to Colonel +Carvel with the marshal's compliments, and put back into the cold parlor +where they had stood for many years. The men who brought them offered to +put down the carpet, but by Virginia's orders the rolls were stood up in +the corner, and the floor left bare. And days passed into weeks, and no +sign or message came from Judge Whipple in regard to the piano he had +bought. Virginia did not dare mention it to the Colonel. + +Where was it? It had been carried by six sweating negroes up the narrow +stairs into the Judge's office. Stephen and Shadrach had by Mr. Whipple's +orders cleared a corner of his inner office and bedroom of papers and +books and rubbish, and there the bulky instrument was finally set up. It +occupied one-third of the space. The Judge watched the proceeding grimly, +choking now and again from the dust that was raised, yet uttering never a +word. He locked the lid when the van man handed him the key, and thrust +that in his pocket. + +Stephen had of late found enough to do in St. Louis. He was the kind of +man to whom promotions came unsought, and without noise. In the autumn he +had been made a captain in the Halleck Guards of the State Militia, as a +reward for his indefatigable work in the armories and his knowledge of +tactics. Twice his company had been called out at night, and once they +made a campaign as far as the Merimec and captured a party of recruits +who were destined for Jefferson Davis. Some weeks passed before Mr. +Brinsmade heard of his promotion and this exploit, and yet scarcely a day +went by that he did not see the young man at the big hospital. For +Stephen helped in the work of the Sanitary Commission too, and so strove +to make up in zeal for the service in the field which he longed to give. + +After Christmas Mr. and Mrs. Brinsmade moved out to their place on the +Bellefontaine Road. This was to force Anne to take a rest. For the girl +was worn out with watching at the hospitals, and with tending the +destitute mothers and children from the ranks of the refugees. The +Brinsmade place was not far from the Fair Grounds,--now a receiving camp +for the crude but eager regiments of the Northern states. To Mr. +Brinsmade's, when the day's duty was done, the young Union officers used +to ride, and often there would be half a dozen of them to tea. That +house, and other great houses on the Bellefontaine Road with which this +history has no occasion to deal, were as homes to many a poor fellow who +would never see home again. Sometimes Anne would gather together such +young ladies of her acquaintance from the neighbor hood and the city as +their interests and sympathies permitted to waltz with a Union officer, +and there would be a little dance. To these dances Stephen Brice was +usually invited. + +One such occasion occurred on a Friday in January, and Mr. Brinsmade +himself called in his buggy and drove Stephen to the country early in the +afternoon. He and Anne went for a walk along the river, the surface of +which was broken by lumps of yellow ice. Gray clouds hung low in the sky +as they picked their way over the frozen furrows of the ploughed fields. +The grass was all a yellow-brown, but the north wind which swayed the +bare trees brought a touch of color to Anne's cheeks. Before they +realized where they were, they had nearly crossed the Bellegarde estate, +and the house itself was come into view, standing high on the slope above +the withered garden. They halted. + +"The shutters are up," said Stephen. "I understood that Mrs. Colfax had +come out here not long a--" + +"She came out for a day just before Christina," said Anne, smiling, "and +then she ran off to Kentucky. I think she was afraid that she was one of +the two women on the list of Sixty." + +"It must have been a blow to her pride when she found that she was not," +said Stephen, who had a keen remembrance of her conduct upon a certain +Sunday not a year gone. + +Impelled by the same inclination, they walked in silence to the house and +sat down on the edge of the porch. The only motion in the view was the +smoke from the slave quarters twisting in the wind, and the hurrying ice +in the stream. + +"Poor Jinny!" said Anne, with a sigh, "how she loved to romp! What good +times we used to have here together!" + +"Do you think that she is unhappy?" Stephen demanded, involuntarily. + +"Oh, yes," said Anne. "How can you ask? But you could not make her show +it. The other morning when she came out to our house I found her sitting +at the piano. I am sure there were tears in her eyes, but she would not +let me see them. She made some joke about Spencer Catherwood running +away. What do you think the Judge will do with that piano, Stephen?" + +He shook his head. + +"The day after they put it in his room he came in with a great black +cloth, which he spread over it. You cannot even see the feet." + +There was a silence. And Anne, turning to him timidly, gave him a long, +searching look. + +"It is growing late," she said. "I think that we ought to go back." + +They went out by the long entrance road, through the naked woods. Stephen +said little. Only a little while before he had had one of those vivid +dreams of Virginia which left their impression, but not their substance, +to haunt him. On those rare days following the dreams her spirit had its +mastery over his. He pictured her then with a glow on her face which was +neither sadness nor mirth,--a glow that ministered to him alone. And yet, +he did not dare to think that he might have won her, even if politics and +war had not divided them. + +When the merriment of the dance was at its height that evening, Stephen +stood at the door of the long room, meditatively watching the bright +gowns and the flash of gold on the uniforms as they flitted past. +Presently the opposite door opened, and he heard Mr. Brinsmade's voice +mingling with another, the excitable energy of which recalled some +familiar episode. Almost--so it seemed--at one motion, the owner of the +voice had come out of the door and had seized Stephen's hand in a warm +grasp,--a tall and spare figure in the dress of a senior officer. The +military frock, which fitted the man's character rather than the man, was +carelessly open, laying bare a gold-buttoned white waistcoat and an +expanse of shirt bosom which ended in a black stock tie. The ends of the +collar were apart the width of the red clipped beard, and the mustache +was cropped straight along the line of the upper lip. The forehead rose +high, and was brushed carelessly free of the hair. The nose was almost +straight, but combative. A fire fairly burned in the eyes. + +"The boy doesn't remember me," said the gentleman, in quick tones, +smiling at Mr. Brinsmade. + +"Yes, sir, I do," Stephen made haste to answer. He glanced at the star on +the shoulder strap, and said. "You are General Sherman." + +"First rate!" laughed the General, patting him. "First rate!" + +"Now in command at Camp Benton, Stephen," Mr. Brinsmade put in. "Won't +you sit down, General?" + +"No," said the General, emphatically waving away the chair. "No, rather +stand." Then his keen face suddenly lighted with amusement,--and +mischief, Stephen thought. "So you've heard of me since we met, sir?" +"Yes, General." + +"Humph! Guess you heard I was crazy," said the General, in his downright +way. + +Stephen was struck dumb. + +"He's been reading the lies in the newspapers too, Brinsmade," the +General went on rapidly. "I'll make 'em eat their newspapers for saying I +was crazy. That's the Secretary of War's doings. Ever tell you what +Cameron did, Brinsmade? He and his party were in Louisville last fall, +when I was serving in Kentucky, and came to my room in the Galt House. +Well, we locked the door, and Miller sent us up a good lunch and wine, +After lunch, the Secretary lay on my bed, and we talked things over. He +asked me what I thought about things in Kentucky. I told him. I got a +map. I said, 'Now, Mr. Secretary, here is the whole Union line from the +Potomac to Kansas. Here's McClellan in the East with one hundred miles of +front. Here's Fremont in the West with one hundred miles. Here we are in +Kentucky, in the centre, with three hundred miles to defend. McClellan +has a hundred thousand men, Fremont has sixty thousand. You give us +fellows with over three hundred miles only eighteen thousand.' 'How many +do you want?' says Cameron, still on the bed. 'Two hundred thousand +before we get through,' said I. Cameron pitched up his hands in the air. +'Great God?' says he, 'where are they to come from?' 'The northwest is +chuck full of regiments you fellows at Washington won't accept,' said I. +'Mark my words, Mr. Secretary, you'll need 'em all and more before we get +done with this Rebellion.' Well, sir, he was very friendly before we +finished, and I thought the thing was all thrashed out. No, sir! he goes +back to Washington and gives it out that I'm crazy, and want two hundred +thousand men in Kentucky. Then I am ordered to report to Halleck in +Missouri here, and he calls me back from Sedalia because he believes the +lies." + +Stephen, who had in truth read the stories in question a month or two +before, could not conceal his embarrassment He looked at the man in front +of him,--alert, masterful intelligent, frank to any stranger who took his +fancy,--and wondered how any one who had talked to him could believe +them. + +Mr. Brinsmade smiled. "They have to print something, General," he said. + +"I'll give 'em something to print later on," answered the General, +grimly. Then his expression changed. "Brinsmade, you fellows did have a +session with Fremont, didn't you? Anderson sent me over here last +September, and the first man I ran across at the Planters' House was +Appleton. '--What are you in town for?' says he. 'To see Fremont,' I +said. You ought to have heard Appleton laugh. 'You don't think Fremont'll +see you, do you?' says he. 'Why not?' 'Well,' says Tom, 'go 'round to his +palace at six to-morrow morning and bribe that Hungarian prince who runs +his body-guard to get you a good place in the line of senators and +governors and first citizens, and before nightfall you may get a sight of +him, since you come from Anderson. Not one man in a hundred,' says +Appleton, I not one man in a hundred, reaches his chief-of-staff.' Next +morning," the General continued in a staccato which was often his habit, +"had breakfast before daybreak and went 'round there. Place just swarming +with Californians--army contracts." (The General sniffed.) Saw Fremont. +Went back to hotel. More Californians, and by gad--old Baron Steinberger +with his nose hanging over the register." + +"Fremont was a little difficult to get at, General," said Mr. Brinsmade. +"Things were confused and discouraged when those first contracts were +awarded. Fremont was a good man, and it wasn't his fault that the +inexperience of his quartermasters permitted some of those men to get +rich." + +"No," said the General. "His fault! Certainly not. Good man! To be sure +he was--didn't get along with Blair. These court-martials you're having +here now have stirred up the whole country. I guess we'll hear now how +those fortunes were made. To listen to those witnesses lie about each +other on the stand is better than the theatre." + +Stephen laughed at the comical and vivid manner in which the General set +this matter forth. He himself had been present one day of the sittings of +the court-martial when one of the witnesses on the prices of mules was +that same seedy man with the straw-colored mustache who had bid for +Virginia's piano against the Judge. + +"Come, Stephen," said the General, abruptly, "run and snatch one of those +pretty girls from my officers. They're having more than their share." + +"They deserve more, sir," answered Stephen. Whereupon the General laid +his hand impulsively on the young man's shoulder, divining what Stephen +did not say. + +"Nonsense!" said be; "you are doing the work in this war, not we. We do +the damage--you repair it. If it were not for Mr. Brinsmade and you +gentlemen who help him, where would our Western armies be? Don't you go +to the front yet a while, young man. We need the best we have in +reserve." He glanced critically at Stephen. "You've had military training +of some sort?" + +"He's a captain in the Halleck Guards, sir," said Mr. Brinsmade, +generously, "and the best drillmaster we've had in this city. He's seen +service, too, General." + +Stephen reddened furiously and started to protest, when the General +cried:-- "It's more than I have in this war. Come, come, I knew he was a +soldier. Let's see what kind of a strategist he'll make. Brinsmade, have +you got such a thing as a map?" Mr. Brinsmade had, and led the way back +into the library. The General shut the door, lighted a cigar with a +single vigorous stroke of a match, and began to smoke with quick puffs. +Stephen was puzzled how to receive the confidences the General was giving +out with such freedom. + +When the map was laid on the table, the General drew a pencil from his +pocket and pointed to the state of Kentucky. Then he drew a line from +Columbus to Bowling Green, through Forts Donelson and Henry. + +"Now, Stephen," said he, "there's the Rebel line. Show me the proper +place to break it." + +Stephen hesitated a while, and then pointed at the centre. + +"Good!" said the General. "Very good!" He drew a heavy line across the +first, and it ran almost in the bed of the Tennessee River. He swung on +Mr. Brinsmade. "Very question Halleck asked me the other day, and that's +how I answered it. Now, gentlemen, there's a man named Grant down in that +part of the country. Keep your eyes on him. Ever heard of him, Brinsmade? +He used to live here once, and a year ago he was less than I was. Now +he's a general." + +The recollection of the scene in the street by the Arsenal that May +morning not a year gone came to Stephen with a shock. + +"I saw him," he cried; "he was Captain Grant that lived on the Gravois +Road. But surely this can't be the same man who seized Paducah and was in +that affair at Belmont." + +"By gum!" said the General, laughing. "Don't wonder you're surprised. +Grant has stuff in him. They kicked him around Springfield awhile, after +the war broke out, for a military carpet-bagger. Then they gave him for a +regiment the worst lot of ruffians you ever laid eyes on. He fixed 'em. +He made 'em walk the plank. He made 'em march halfway across the state +instead of taking the cars the Governor offered. Belmont! I guess he is +the man that chased the Rebs out of Belmont. Then his boys broke loose +when they got into the town. That wasn't Grant's fault. The Rebs came +back and chased 'em out into their boats on the river. Brinsmade, you +remember hearing about that. + +"Grant did the coolest thing you ever saw. He sat on his horse at the top +of the bluff while the boys fell over each other trying to get on the +boat. Yes, sir, he sat there, disgusted, on his horse, smoking a cigar, +with the Rebs raising pandemonium all around him. And then, sir," cried +the General, excitedly, "what do you think he did? Hanged if he didn't +force his horse right on to his haunches, slide down the whole length of +the bank and ride him across a teetering plank on to the steamer. And the +Rebs just stood on the bank and stared. They were so astonished they +didn't even shoot the man. You watch Grant," said the General. "And now, +Stephen," he added, "just you run off and take hold of the prettiest girl +you can find. If any of my boys object, say I sent you." + +The next Monday Stephen had a caller. It was little Tiefel, now a first +lieutenant with a bristly beard and tanned face, come to town on a few +days' furlough. He had been with Lyon at Wilson's Creek, and he had a sad +story to tell of how he found poor Richter, lying stark on that bloody +field, with a smile of peace upon his face. Strange that he should at +length have been killed by a sabre! + +It was a sad meeting for those two, since each reminded the other of a +dear friend they would see no more on earth. They went out to sup +together in the German style; and gradually, over his beer, Tiefel forgot +his sorrow. Stephen listened with an ache to the little man's tales of +the campaigns he had been through. So that presently Tiefel cried out: + +"Why, my friend, you are melancholy as an owl. I will tell you a funny +story. Did you ever hear of one General Sherman? He that they say is +crazy?" + +"He is no more crazy than I am," said Stephen, warmly-- + +"Is he not?" answered Tiefel, "then I will show you a mistake. You recall +last November he was out to Sedalia to inspect the camp there, and he +sleeps in a little country store where I am quartered. Now up gets your +General Sherman in the middle of the night,--midnight,--and marches up +and down between the counters, and waves his arms. So, says he, 'land +so,' says he, 'Sterling Price will be here, and Steele here, and this +column will take that road, and so-and-so's a damned fool. Is not that +crazy? So he walks up and down for three eternal hours. Says he, 'Pope +has no business to be at Osterville, and Steele here at Sedalia with his +regiments all over the place. They must both go into camp at La Mine +River, and form brigades and divisions, that the troops may be handled.'" + +"If that's insanity," cried Stephen so strongly as to surprise the little +man; "then I wish we had more insane generals. It just shows how a +malicious rumor will spread. What Sherman said about Pope's and Steele's +forces is true as Gospel, and if you ever took the trouble to look into +that situation, Tiefel, you would see it." And Stephen brought down his +mug on the table with a crash that made the bystanders jump. + +"Himmel!" exclaimed little Tiefel. But he spoke in admiration. + +It was not a month after that that Sherman's prophecy of the quiet +general who had slid down the bluff at Belmont came true. The whole +country bummed with Grant's praises. Moving with great swiftness and +secrecy up the Tennessee, in company with the gunboats of Commodore +Foote, he had pierced the Confederate line at the very point Sherman had +indicated. Fort Henry had fallen, and Grant was even then moving to +besiege Donelson. + +Mr. Brinsmade prepared to leave at once for the battlefield, taking with +him too Paducah physicians and nurses. All day long the boat was loading +with sanitary stores and boxes of dainties for the wounded. It was muggy +and wet--characteristic of that winter--as Stephen pushed through the +drays on the slippery levee to the landing. + +He had with him a basket his mother had put up. He also bore a message to +Mr. Brinsmade from the Judge It was while he was picking his way along +the crowded decks that he ran into General Sherman. The General seized +him unceremoniously by the shoulder. + +"Good-by, Stephen," he said. + +"Good-by, General," said Stephen, shifting his basket to shake hands. +"Are you going away?" + +"Ordered to Paducah," said the General. He pulled Stephen off the guards +into an empty cabin. "Brice," said he, earnestly, "I haven't forgotten +how you saved young Brinsmade at Camp Jackson. They tell me that you are +useful here. I say, don't go in unless you have to. I don't mean force, +you understand. But when you feel that you can go in, come to me or write +me a letter. That is," he added, seemingly inspecting Stephen's white +teeth with approbation, "if you're not afraid to serve under a crazy +man." + +It has been said that the General liked the lack of effusiveness of +Stephen's reply. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ELIPHALET PLAYS HIS TRUMPS + +Summer was come again. Through interminable days, the sun beat down upon +the city; and at night the tortured bricks flung back angrily the heat +with which he had filled them. Great battles had been fought, and vast +armies were drawing breath for greater ones to come. + +"Jinny," said the Colonel one day, "as we don't seem to be much use in +town, I reckon we may as well go to Glencoe." + +Virginia, threw her arms around her father's neck. For many months she +had seen what the Colonel himself was slow to comprehend--that his +usefulness was gone. The days melted into weeks, and Sterling Price and +his army of liberation failed to come. The vigilant Union general and his +aides had long since closed all avenues to the South. For, one fine +morning toward the end of the previous summer, when the Colonel was +contemplating a journey, he had read that none might leave the city +without a pass, whereupon he went hurriedly to the office of the Provost +Marshal. There he had found a number of gentlemen in the same plight, +each waving a pass made out by the Provost Marshal's clerks, and waiting +for that officer's signature. The Colonel also procured one of these, and +fell into line. The Marshal gazed at the crowd, pulled off his coat, and +readily put his name to the passes of several gentlemen going east. Next +came Mr. Bub Ballington, whom the Colonel knew, but pretended not to. + +"Going to Springfield?" asked the Marshal, genially. + +"Yes," said Bub. + +"Not very profitable to be a minute-man, eh?" in the same tone. + +The Marshal signs his name, Mr, Ballington trying not to look indignant +as he makes for the door. A small silver bell rings on the Marshal's +desk, the one word: "Spot!" breaks the intense silence, which is one way +of saying that Mr. Ballington is detained, and will probably be lodged +that night at Government expense. + +"Well, Colonel Carvel, what can I do for you this morning?" asked the +Marshal, genially. + +The Colonel pushed back his hat and wiped his brow. "I reckon I'll wait +till next week, Captain," said Mr. Carvel. "It's pretty hot to travel +just now." + +The Provost Marshal smiled sweetly. There were many in the office who +would have liked to laugh, but it did not pay to laugh at some people. +Colonel Carvel was one of them. + +In the proclamation of martial law was much to make life less endurable +than ever. All who were convicted by a court-martial of being rebels were +to have property confiscated, and slaves set free. Then there was a +certain oath to be taken by all citizens who did not wish to have +guardians appointed over their actions. There were many who swallowed +this oath and never felt any ill effects. Mr. Jacob Cluyme was one, and +came away feeling very virtuous. It was not unusual for Mr. Cluyme to +feel virtuous. Mr. Hopper did not have indigestion after taking it, but +Colonel Carvel would sooner have eaten, gooseberry pie, which he had +never tasted but once. + +That summer had worn away, like a monster which turns and gives hot gasps +when you think it has expired. It took the Arkansan just a month, under +Virginia's care, to become well enough to be sent to a Northern prison He +was not precisely a Southern gentleman, and he went to sleep over the +"Idylls of the King." But he was admiring, and grateful, and wept when he +went off to the boat with the provost's guard, destined for a Northern +prison. Virginia wept too. He had taken her away from her aunt (who would +have nothing to do with him), and had given her occupation. She nor her +father never tired of hearing his rough tales of Price's rough army. + +His departure was about the time when suspicions were growing set. The +favor had caused comment and trouble, hence there was no hope of giving +another sufferer the same comfort. The cordon was drawn tighter. One of +the mysterious gentlemen who had been seen in the vicinity of Colonel +Carvel's house was arrested on the ferry, but he had contrived to be rid +of the carpet-sack in which certain precious letters were carried. + +Throughout the winter, Mr. Hopper's visits to Locust Street had continued +at intervals of painful regularity. It is not necessary to dwell upon his +brilliant powers of conversation, nor to repeat the platitudes which he +repeated, for there was no significance in Mr. Hopper's tales, not a +particle. The Colonel had found that out, and was thankful. His manners +were better; his English decidedly better. + +It was for her father's sake, of course, that Virginia bore with him. +Such is the appointed lot of women. She tried to be just, and it occurred +to her that she had never before been just. Again and again she repeated +to herself that Eliphalet's devotion to the Colonel at this low ebb of +his fortunes had something in it of which she did not suspect him. She +had a class contempt for Mr. Hopper as an uneducated Yankee and a person +of commercial ideals. But now he was showing virtues,--if virtues they +were,--and she tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. With his great +shrewdness and business ability, why did he not take advantage of the +many opportunities the war gave to make a fortune? For Virginia had of +late been going to the store with the Colonel,--who spent his mornings +turning over piles of dusty papers, and Mr. Hopper had always been at his +desk. + +After this, Virginia even strove to be kind to him, but it was uphill +work. The front door never closed after one of his visits that suspicion +was not left behind. Antipathy would assert itself. Could it be that +there was a motive under all this plotting? He struck her inevitably as +the kind who would be content to mine underground to attain an end. The +worst she could think of him was that he wished to ingratiate himself +now, in the hope that, when the war was ended, he might become a partner +in Mr. Carvel's business. She had put even this away as unworthy of her. + +Once she had felt compelled to speak to her father on the subject. + +"I believe I did him an injustice, Pa," she said. "Not that I like him +any better now. I must be honest about that. I simply can't like him. But +I do think that if he had been as unscrupulous as I thought, he would +have deserted you long ago for something more profitable. He would not be +sitting in the office day after day making plans for the business when +the war is over." + +She remembered how sadly he had smiled at her over the top of his paper. + +"You are a good girl, Jinny," he said. + +Toward the end of July of that second summer riots broke out in the city, +and simultaneously a bright spot appeared on Virginia's horizon. This +took the form, for Northerners, of a guerilla scare, and an order was +promptly issued for the enrollment of all the able-bodied men in the ten +wards as militia, subject to service in the state, to exterminate the +roving bands. Whereupon her Britannic Majesty became extremely popular, +--even with some who claimed for a birthplace the Emerald Isle. Hundreds +who heretofore had valued but lightly their British citizenship made +haste to renew their allegiance; and many sought the office of the +English Consul whose claims on her Majesty's protection were vague, to +say the least. Broken heads and scandal followed. For the first time, +when Virginia walked to the store with her father, Eliphalet was not +there. It was strange indeed that Virginia defended him. + +"I don't blame him for not wanting to fight for the Yankees," she said. + +The Colonel could not resist a retort. + +"Then why doesn't he fight for the South he asked" + +"Fight for the South!" cried the young lady, scornfully. "Mr. Hopper +fight? I reckon the South wouldn't have him." + +"I reckon not, too," said the Colonel, dryly. + +For the following week curiosity prompted Virginia to take that walk with +the Colonel. Mr. Hopper being still absent, she helped him to sort the +papers--those grimy reminders of a more prosperous time gone by. Often +Mr. Carvel would run across one which seemed to bring some incident to +his mind; for he would drop it absently on his desk, his hand seeking his +chin, and remain for half an hour lost in thought. Virginia would not +disturb him. + +Meanwhile there had been inquiries for Mr. Hopper. The Colonel answered +them all truthfully--generally with that dangerous suavity for which he +was noted. Twice a seedy man with a gnawed yellow mustache had come in to +ask Eliphalet's whereabouts. On the second occasion this individual +became importunate. + +"You don't know nothin' about him, you say?" he demanded. + +"No," said the Colonel. + +The man took a shuffle forward. + +"My name's Ford," he said. "I 'low I kin 'lighten you a little." + +"Good day, sir," said the Colonel. + +"I guess you'll like to hear what I've got to say." + +"Ephum," said Mr. Carvel in his natural voice, "show this man out." + +Mr. Ford slunk out without Ephum's assistance. But he half turned at the +door, and shot back a look that frightened Virginia. + +"Oh, Pa," she cried, in alarm, "what did he mean?" + +"I couldn't tell you, Jinny," he answered. But she noticed that he was +very thoughtful as they walked home. The next morning Eliphalet had not +returned, but a corporal and guard were waiting to search the store for +him. The Colonel read the order, and invited them in with hospitality. He +even showed them the way upstairs, and presently Virginia heard them all +tramping overhead among the bales. Her eye fell upon the paper they had +brought, which lay unfolded on her father's desk. It was signed Stephen +A. Brice, Enrolling Officer. + +That very afternoon they moved to Glencoe, and Ephum was left in sole +charge of the store. At Glencoe, far from the hot city and the cruel war, +began a routine of peace. Virginia was a child again, romping in the +woods and fields beside her father. The color came back to her cheeks +once more, and the laughter into her voice. The two of them, and Ned and +Mammy, spent a rollicking hour in the pasture the freedom of which Dick +had known so long, before the old horse was caught and brought back into +bondage. After that Virginia took long drives with her father, and coming +home, they would sit in the summer house high above the Merimec, +listening to the crickets' chirp, and watching the day fade upon the +water. The Colonel, who had always detested pipes, learned to smoke a +corncob. He would sit by the hour, with his feet on the rail of the porch +and his hat tilted back, while Virginia read to him. Poe and Wordsworth +and Scott he liked, but Tennyson was his favorite. Such happiness could +not last. + +One afternoon when Virginia was sitting in the summer house alone, her +thoughts wandering back, as they sometimes did, to another afternoon she +had spent there,--it seemed so long ago,--when she saw Mammy Easter +coming toward her. + +"Honey, dey's comp'ny up to de house. Mister Hopper's done arrived. He's +on de porch, talkin' to your Pa. Lawsey, look wha he come!" + +In truth, the solid figure of Eliphalet himself was on the path some +twenty yards behind her. His hat was in his hand; his hair was plastered +down more neatly than ever, and his coat was a faultless and sober +creation of a Franklin Avenue tailor. He carried a cane, which was +unheard of. Virginia sat upright, and patted her skirts with a gesture of +annoyance--what she felt was anger, resentment. Suddenly she rose, swept +past Mammy, and met him ten paces from the summer house. + +"How-dy-do, Miss Virginia," he cried pleasantly. "Your father had a +notion you might be here." He said fayther. + +Virginia gave him her hand limply. Her greeting would have frozen a man +of ardent temperament. But it was not precisely ardor that Eliphalet +showed. The girl paused and examined him swiftly. There was something in +the man's air to-day. + +"So you were not caught?" she said. + +Her words seemed to relieve some tension in him. He laughed noiselessly. + +"I just guess I wahn't." + +"How did you escape?" she asked, looking at him curiously. + +"Well, I did, first of all. You're considerable smart, Miss Jinny, but +I'll bet you can't tell me where I was, now." + +"I do not care to know. The place might save you again." + +He showed his disappointment. "I cal'lated it might interest you to know +how I dodged the Sovereign State of Missouri. General Halleck made an +order that released a man from enrolling on payment of ten dollars. I +paid. Then I was drafted into the Abe Lincoln Volunteers; I paid a +substitute. And so here I be, exercising life, and liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness." + +"So you bought yourself free?" said Virginia. "If your substitute gets +killed, I suppose you will have cause for congratulation." + +Eliphalet laughed, and pulled down his cuffs. "That's his lookout, I +cal'late," said he. He glanced at the girl in a way that made her vaguely +uneasy. She turned from him, back toward the summer house. Eliphalet's +eyes smouldered as they rested upon her figure. He took a step forward. + +"Miss Jinny?" he said. + +"Yes?" + +"I've heard considerable about the beauties of this place. Would you mind +showing me 'round a bit?" Virginia started. It was his tone now. Not +since that first evening in Locust Street had it taken on such assurance, +And yet she could not be impolite to a guest. + +"Certainly not," she replied, but without looking up. Eliphalet led the +way. He came to the summer house, glanced around it with apparent +satisfaction, and put his foot on the moss-grown step. Virginia did a +surprising thing. She leaped quickly into the doorway before him, and +stood facing him, framed in the climbing roses. + +"Oh, Mr. Hopper!" she cried. "Please, not in here." He drew back, staring +in astonishment at the crimson in her face. + +"Why not?" he asked suspiciously--almost brutally. She had been groping +wildly for excuses, and found none. + +"Because," she said, "because I ask you not to." With dignity: "That +should be sufficient." + +"Well," replied Eliphalet, with an abortive laugh, "that's funny, now. +Womenkind get queer notions, which I cal'late we've got to respect and +put up with all our lives--eh?" + +Her anger flared at his leer and at his broad way of gratifying her whim. +And she was more incensed than ever at his air of being at home--it was +nothing less. + +The man's whole manner was an insult. She strove still to hide her +resentment. + +"There is a walk along the bluff," she said, coldly, "where the view is +just as good." + +But she purposely drew him into the right-hand path, which led, after a +little, back to the house. Despite her pace he pressed forward to her +side. + +"Miss Jinny," said he, precipitately, "did I ever strike you as a +marrying man?" + +Virginia stopped, and put her handkerchief to her face, the impulse +strong upon her to laugh. Eliphalet was suddenly transformed again into +the common commercial Yankee. He was in love, and had come to ask her +advice. She might have known it. + +"I never thought of you as of the marrying kind, Mr. Hopper," she +answered, her voice quivering. + +Indeed, he was irresistibly funny as he stood hot and ill at ease. The +Sunday coat bore witness to his increasing portliness by creasing across +from the buttons; his face, fleshy and perspiring, showed purple veins, +and the little eyes receded comically, like a pig's. + +"Well, I've been thinking serious of late about getting married," he +continued, slashing the rose bushes with his stick. "I don't cal'late to +be a sentimental critter. I'm not much on high-sounding phrases, and such +things, but I'd give you my word I'd make a good husband." + +"Please be careful of those roses, Mr. Hopper." + +"Beg pardon," said Eliphalet. He began to lose track of his tenses--that +was the only sign he gave of perturbation. "When I come to St. Louis +without a cent, Miss Jinny, I made up my mind I'd be a rich man before I +left it. If I was to die now, I'd have kept that promise. I'm not +thirty-four, and I cal'late I've got as much money in a safe place as a +good many men you call rich. I'm not saying what I've got, mind you. All +in proper time. + +"I'm a pretty steady kind. I've stopped chewing--there was a time when I +done that. And I don't drink nor smoke." + +"That is all very commendable, Mr. Hopper," Virginia said, stifling a +rebellious titter. "But,--but why did you give up chewing?" + +"I am informed that the ladies are against it," said Eliphalet,--"dead +against it. You wouldn't like it in a husband, now, would you?" + +This time the laugh was not to be put down. "I confess I shouldn't," she +said. + +"Thought so," he replied, as one versed. His tones took on a nasal twang. +"Well, as I was saying, I've about got ready to settle down, and I've had +my eye on the lady this seven years." + +"Marvel of constancy!" said Virginia. "And the lady?" + +"The lady," said Eliphalet, bluntly, "is you." He glanced at her +bewildered face and went on rapidly: "You pleased me the first day I set +eyes on you in the store I said to myself, 'Hopper, there's the one for +you to marry.' I'm plain, but my folks was good people. I set to work +right then to make a fortune for you, Miss Jinny. You've just what I +need. I'm a plain business man with no frills. You'll do the frills. +You're the kind that was raised in the lap of luxury. You'll need a man +with a fortune, and a big one; you're the sort to show it off. I've got +the foundations of that fortune, and the proof of it right here. And I +tell you,"--his jaw was set,--"I tell you that some day Eliphalet Hopper +will be one of the richest men in the West." + +He had stopped, facing her in the middle of the way, his voice strong, +his confidence supreme. At first she had stared at him in dumb wonder. +Then, as she began to grasp the meaning of his harangue, astonishment was +still dominant,--sheer astonishment. She scarcely listened. But, as he +finished, the thatch of the summer house caught her eye. A vision arose +of a man beside whom Eliphalet was not worthy to crawl. She thought of +Stephen as he had stood that evening in the sunset, and this proposal +seemed a degradation. This brute dared to tempt her with money. Scalding +words rose to her lips. But she caught the look on Eliphalet's face, and +she knew that he would not understand. This was one who rose and fell, +who lived and loved and hated and died and was buried by--money. + +For a second she looked into his face as one who escapes a pit gazes over +the precipice, and shuddered. As for Eliphalet, let it not be thought +that he had no passion. This was the moment for which he had lived since +the day he had first seen her and been scorned in the store. That type of +face, that air,--these were the priceless things he would buy with his +money. Crazed with the very violence of his long-pent desire, he seized +her hand. She wrung it free again. + +"How--how dare you!" she cried. + +He staggered back, and stood for a moment motionless, as though stunned. +Then, slowly, a light crept into his little eyes which haunted her for +many a day. + +"You--won't--marry me?" he said. + +"Oh, how dare you ask me!" exclaimed Virginia, her face burning with the +shame of it. She was standing with her hands behind her, her back against +a great walnut trunk, the crusted branches of which hung over the bluff. +Even as he looked at her, Eliphalet lost his head, and indiscretion +entered his soul. + +"You must!" he said hoarsely. "You must! You've got no notion of my +money, I say." + +"Oh!" she cried, "can't you understand? If you owned the whole of +California, I would not marry you." Suddenly he became very cool. He +slipped his hand into a pocket, as one used to such a motion, and drew +out some papers. + +"I cal'late you ain't got much idea of the situation, Miss Carvel," he +said; "the wheels have been a-turning lately. You're poor, but I guess +you don't know how poor you are,--eh? The Colonel's a man of honor, ain't +he?" + +For her life she could not have answered,--nor did she even know why she +stayed to listen. + +"Well," he said, "after all, there ain't much use in your lookin' over +them papers. A woman wouldn't know. I'll tell you what they say: they say +that if I choose, I am Carvel & Company." + +The little eyes receded, and he waited a moment, seemingly to prolong a +physical delight in the excitement and suffering of a splendid creature. +The girl was breathing fast and deep. + +"I cal'late you despise me, don't you?" he went on, as if that, too, gave +him pleasure. "But I tell you the Colonel's a beggar but for me. Go and +ask him if I'm lying. All you've got to do is to say you'll be my wife, +and I tear these notes in two. They go over the bluff." (He made the +motion with his hands.) "Carvel & Company's an old firm,--a respected +firm. You wouldn't care to see it go out of the family, I cal'late." + +He paused again, triumphant. But she did none of the things he expected. +She said, simply:--"Will you please follow me, Mr. Hopper." + +And he followed her,--his shrewdness gone, for once. + +Save for the rise and fall of her shoulders she seemed calm. The path +wound through a jungle of waving sunflowers and led into the shade in +front of the house. There was the Colonel sitting on the porch. His pipe +lay with its scattered ashes on the boards, and his head was bent +forward, as though listening. When he saw the two, he rose expectantly, +and went forward to meet them. Virginia stopped before him. + +"Pa," she said, "is it true that you have borrowed money from this man?" + +Eliphalet had seen Mr. Carvel angry once, and his soul had quivered. +Terror, abject terror, seized him now, so that his knees smote together. +As well stare into the sun as into the Colonel's face. In one stride he +had a hand in the collar of Eliphalet's new coat, the other pointing down +the path. + +"It takes just a minute to walk to that fence, sir," he said sternly. "If +you are any longer about it, I reckon you'll never get past it. You're a +cowardly hound, sir!" Mr. Hopper's gait down the flagstones was an +invention of his own. It was neither a walk, nor a trot, nor a run, but a +sort of sliding amble, such as is executed in nightmares. Singing in his +head was the famous example of the eviction of Babcock from the store, +--the only time that the Colonel's bullet had gone wide. And down in the +small of his back Eliphalet listened for the crack of a pistol, and +feared that a clean hole might be bored there any minute. Once outside, +he took to the white road, leaving a trail of dust behind him that a +wagon might have raised. Fear lent him wings, but neglected to lift his +feet. + +The Colonel passed his arm around his daughter, and pulled his goatee +thoughtfully. And Virginia, glancing shyly upward, saw a smile in the +creases about his mouth: She smiled, too, and then the tears hid him from +her. + +Strange that the face which in anger withered cowards and made men look +grave, was capable of such infinite tenderness,--tenderness and sorrow. +The Colonel took Virginia in his arms, and she sobbed against his +shoulder, as of old. + +"Jinny, did he--?" + +"Yes--" + +"Lige was right, and--and you, Jinny--I should never have trusted him. +The sneak!" + +Virginia raised her head. The sun was slanting in yellow bars through the +branches of the great trees, and a robin's note rose above the bass +chorus of the frogs. In the pauses, as she listened, it seemed as if she +could hear the silver sound of the river over the pebbles far below. + +"Honey," said the Colonel,--"I reckon we're just as poor as white trash." + +Virginia smiled through her tears. + +"Honey," he said again, after a pause, "I must keep my word and let him +have the business." + +She did not reproach him. + +"There is a little left, a very little," he continued slowly, painfully. +"I thank God that it is yours. It was left you by Becky--by your mother. +It is in a railroad company in New York, and safe, Jinny." + +"Oh, Pa, you know that I do not care," she cried. "It shall be yours and +mine together. And we shall live out here and be happy." + +But she glanced anxiously at him nevertheless. He was in his familiar +posture of thought, his legs slightly apart, his felt hat pushed back, +stroking his goatee. But his clear gray eyes were troubled as they sought +hers, and she put her hand to her breast. + +"Virginia," he said, "I fought for my country once, and I reckon I'm some +use yet awhile. It isn't right that I should idle here, while the South +needs me, Your Uncle Daniel is fifty-eight, and Colonel of a Pennsylvania +regiment.--Jinny, I have to go." + +Virginia said nothing. It was in her blood as well as his. The Colonel +had left his young wife, to fight in Mexico; he had come home to lay +flowers on her grave. She knew that he thought of this; and, too, that +his heart was rent at leaving her. She put her hands on his shoulders, +and he stooped to kiss her trembling lips. + +They walked out together to the summer-house, and stood watching the +glory of the light on the western hills. "Jinn," said the Colonel, "I +reckon you will have to go to your Aunt Lillian. It--it will be hard. But +I know that my girl can take care of herself. In case--in case I do not +come back, or occasion should arise, find Lige. Let him take you to your +Uncle Daniel. He is fond of you, and will be all alone in Calvert House +when the war is over. And I reckon that is all I have to say. I won't pry +into your heart, honey. If you love Clarence, marry him. I like the boy, +and I believe he will quiet down into a good man." + +Virginia did not answer, but reached out for her father's hand and held +its fingers locked tight in her own. From the kitchen the sound of Ned's +voice rose in the still evening air. + + "Sposin' I was to go to N' Orleans an' take sick and die, + Laik a bird into de country ma spirit would fly." + +And after a while down the path the red and yellow of Mammy Easter's +bandanna was seen. + +"Supper, Miss Jinny. Laws, if I ain't ramshacked de premises fo' you bof. +De co'n bread's gittin' cold." + +That evening the Colonel and Virginia thrust a few things into her little +leather bag they had chosen together in London. Virginia had found a +cigar, which she hid until they went down to the porch, and there she +gave it to him; when he lighted the match she saw that his hand shook. + +Half an hour later he held her in his arms at the gate, and she heard his +firm tread die in the dust of the road. The South had claimed him at +last. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Crisis, Volume 6, by Winston Churchill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRISIS, VOLUME 6 *** + +***** This file should be named 5393.txt or 5393.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/9/5393/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Crisis, Volume 6. + +Author: Winston Churchill (USA author, not Sir Winston Churchill) + +Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5393] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 28, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRISIS, V6, BY CHURCHILL *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +THE CRISIS + +By Winston Churchill + + + +BOOK III + +Volume 6. + + +I. Introducing a Capitalist +II. News From Clarence +III. The Scourge of War, +IV. The List of Sixty +V. The Auction +VI. Eliphalet Plays His Trumps + + + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCING A CAPITALIST + +A cordon of blue regiments surrounded the city at first from Carondelet +to North St. Louis, like an open fan. The crowds liked best to go to +Compton Heights, where the tents of the German citizen-soldiers were +spread out like so many slices of white cake on the green beside the +city's reservoir. Thence the eye stretched across the town, catching the +dome of the Court House and the spire of St. John's. Away to the west, +on the line of the Pacific railroad that led halfway across the state, +was another camp. Then another, and another, on the circle of the fan, +until the river was reached to the northward, far above the bend. Within +was a peace that passed understanding,--the peace of martial law. + +Without the city, in the great state beyond, an irate governor had +gathered his forces from the east and from the west. Letters came and +went between Jefferson City and Jefferson Davis, their purport being that +the Governor was to work out his own salvation, for a while at least. +Young men of St. Louis, struck in a night by the fever of militarism, +arose and went to Glencoe. Prying sergeants and commissioned officers, +mostly of hated German extraction, thundered at the door of Colonel +Carvel's house, and other houses, there--for Glencoe was a border town. +They searched the place more than once from garret to cellar, muttered +guttural oaths, and smelled of beer and sauerkraut, The haughty +appearance of Miss Carvel did not awe them--they were blind to all manly +sensations. The Colonel's house, alas, was one of many in Glencoe +written down in red ink in a book at headquarters as a place toward which +the feet of the young men strayed. Good evidence was handed in time and +time again that the young men had come and gone, and red-faced commanding +officers cursed indignant subalterns, and implied that Beauty had had a +hand in it. Councils of war were held over the advisability of seizing +Mr. Carvel's house at Glencoe, but proof was lacking until one rainy +night in June a captain and ten men spurred up the drive and swung into a +big circle around the house. The Captain took off his cavalry gauntlet +and knocked at the door, more gently than usual. Miss Virginia was home +so Jackson said. The Captain was given an audience more formal than one +with the queen of Prussia could have been, Miss Carvel was infinitely +more haughty than her Majesty. Was not the Captain hired to do a +degrading service? Indeed, he thought so as he followed her about the +house and he felt like the lowest of criminals as he opened a closet door +or looked under a bed. He was a beast of the field, of the mire. How +Virginia shrank from him if he had occasion to pass her! Her gown would +have been defiled by his touch. And yet the Captain did not smell of +beer, nor of sauerkraut; nor did he swear in any language. He did his +duty apologetically, but he did it. He pulled a man (aged seventeen) out +from under a great hoop skirt in a little closet, and the man had a +pistol that refused its duty when snapped in the Captain's face. This +was little Spencer Catherwood, just home from a military academy. + +Spencer was taken through the rain by the chagrined Captain to the +headquarters, where he caused a little embarrassment. No damning +evidence was discovered on his person, for the pistol had long since +ceased to be a firearm. And so after a stiff lecture from the Colonel +he was finally given back into the custody of his father. Despite the +pickets, the young men filtered through daily,--or rather nightly. +Presently some of them began to come back, gaunt and worn and tattered, +among the grim cargoes that were landed by the thousands and tens of +thousands on the levee. And they took them (oh, the pity of it!) they +took them to Mr. Lynch's slave pen, turned into a Union prison of +detention, where their fathers and grandfathers had been wont to send +their disorderly and insubordinate niggers. They were packed away, as +the miserable slaves had been, to taste something of the bitterness of +the negro's lot. So came Bert Russell to welter in a low room whose +walls gave out the stench of years. How you cooked for them, and schemed +for them, and cried for them, you devoted women of the South! You spent +the long hot summer in town, and every day you went with your baskets to +Gratiot Street, where the infected old house stands, until--until one +morning a lady walked out past the guard, and down the street. She was +civilly detained at the corner, because she wore army boots. After that +permits were issued. If you were a young lady of the proper principles +in those days, you climbed a steep pair of stairs in the heat, and stood +in line until it became your turn to be catechised by an indifferent +young officer in blue who sat behind a table and smoked a horrid cigar. +He had little time to be courteous. He was not to be dazzled by a bright +gown or a pretty face; he was indifferent to a smile which would have won +a savage. His duty was to look down into your heart, and extract +therefrom the nefarious scheme you had made to set free the man you loved +ere he could be sent north to Alton or Columbus. My dear, you wish to +rescue him, to disguise him, send him south by way of Colonel Carvel's +house at Glencoe. Then he will be killed. At least, he will have died +for the South. + +First politics, and then war, and then more politics, in this our +country. Your masterful politician obtains a regiment, and goes to war, +sword in hand. He fights well, but he is still the politician. It was +not a case merely of fighting for the Union, but first of getting +permission to fight. Camp Jackson taken, and the prisoners exchanged +south, Captain Lyon; who moved like a whirlwind, who loved the Union +beyond his own life, was thrust down again. A mutual agreement was +entered into between the Governor and the old Indian fighter in command +of the Western Department, to respect each other. A trick for the +Rebels. How Lyon chafed, and paced the Arsenal walks while he might have +saved the state. Then two gentlemen went to Washington, and the next +thing that happened was Brigadier General Lyon, Commander of the +Department of the West. + +Would General Lyon confer with the Governor of Missouri? Yes, the +General would give the Governor a safe-conduct into St. Louis, but his +Excellency must come to the General. His Excellency came, and the +General deigned to go with the Union leader to the Planters House. +Conference, five hours; result, a safe-conduct for the Governor back. +And this is how General Lyon ended the talk. His words, generously +preserved by a Confederate colonel who accompanied his Excellency, +deserve to be writ in gold on the National Annals. + +"Rather than concede to the state of Missouri the right to demand that my +Government shall not enlist troops within her limits, or bring troops +into the state whenever it pleases; or move its troops at its own will +into, out of, or through, the state; rather than concede to the state of +Missouri for one single instant the right to dictate to my Government in +any matter, however unimportant, I would" (rising and pointing in turn to +every one in the room) "see you, and you, and you, and you, and every +man, woman, and child in this state, dead and buried." Then, turning to +the Governor, he continued, "This means war. In an hour one of my +officers will call for you and conduct you out of my lines." + +And thus, without another word, without an inclination of the head, he +turned upon his heel and strode out of the room, rattling his spurs and +clanking his sabre. + +It did mean war. In less than two months that indomitable leader was +lying dead beside Wilson's Creek, among the oaks on Bloody Hill. What he +would have been to this Union, had God spared him, we shall never know. +He saved Missouri, and won respect and love from the brave men who fought +against him. + +Those first fierce battles in the state! What prayers rose to heaven, +and curses sank to hell, when the news of them came to the city by the +river! Flags were made by loving fingers, and shirts and bandages. +Trembling young ladies of Union sympathies presented colors to regiments +on the Arsenal Green, or at Jefferson Barracks, or at Camp Benton to the +northwest near the Fair Grounds. And then the regiments marched through +the streets with bands playing that march to which the words of the +Battle Hymn were set, and those bright ensigns snapping at the front; +bright now, and new, and crimson. But soon to be stained a darker red, +and rent into tatters, and finally brought back and talked over and cried +over, and tenderly laid above an inscription in a glass case, to be +revered by generations of Americans to confer What can stir the soul +more than the sight of those old flags, standing in ranks like the +veterans they are, whose duty has been nobly done? The blood of the +color-sergeant is there, black now with age. But where are the tears of +the sad women who stitched the red and the white and the blue together? + +The regiments marched through the streets and aboard the boats, and +pushed off before a levee of waving handkerchiefs and nags. Then heart- +breaking suspense. Later--much later, black headlines, and grim lists +three columns long,--three columns of a blanket sheet! "The City of +Alton has arrived with the following Union dead and wounded, and the +following Confederate wounded (prisoners)." Why does the type run +together? + +In a never-ceasing procession they steamed up the river; those calm boats +which had been wont to carry the white cargoes of Commerce now bearing +the red cargoes of war. And they bore away to new battlefields thousands +of fresh-faced boys from Wisconsin and Michigan and Minnesota, gathered +at Camp Benton. Some came back with their color gone and their red +cheeks sallow and bearded and sunken. Others came not back at all. + +Stephen Brice, with a pain over his heart and a lump in his throat, +walked on the pavement beside his old company, but his look avoided their +faces. He wrung Richter's hand on the landing-stage. Richter was now a +captain. The good German's eyes were filled as he said good-by. + +"You will come, too, my friend, when the country needs you," he said. +"Now" (and he shrugged his shoulders), "now have we many with no cares to +go. I have not even a father--" And he turned to Judge Whipple, who was +standing by, holding out a bony hand. + +"God bless you, Carl," said the Judge And Carl could scarce believe his +ears. He got aboard the boat, her decks already blue with troops, and as +she backed out with her whistle screaming, the last objects he saw were +the gaunt old man and the broad-shouldered young man side by side on the +edge of the landing. + +Stephen's chest heaved, and as he walked back to the office with the +Judge, he could not trust himself to speak. Back to the silent office +where the shelves mocked them. The Judge closed the ground-glass door +behind him, and Stephen sat until five o'clock over a book. No, it was +not Whittlesey, but Hardee's "Tactics." He shut it with a slam, and went +to Verandah Hall to drill recruits on a dusty floor,--narrow-chested +citizens in suspenders, who knew not the first motion in right about +face. For Stephen was an adjutant in the Home Guards--what was left of +them. + +One we know of regarded the going of the troops and the coming of the +wounded with an equanimity truly philosophical. When the regiments +passed Carvel & Company on their way riverward to embark, Mr. Hopper did +not often take the trouble to rise from his chair, nor was he ever known +to go to the door to bid them Godspeed. This was all very well, because +they were Union regiments. But Mr. Hopper did not contribute a horse, +nor even a saddle-blanket, to the young men who went away secretly in the +night, without fathers or mothers or sisters to wave at them. Mr. Hopper +had better use for his money. + +One scorching afternoon in July Colonel Carvel came into the office, too +hurried to remark the pain in honest Ephum's face as he watched his +master. The sure signs of a harassed man were on the Colonel. Since May +he had neglected his business affairs for others which he deemed public, +and which were so mysterious that even Mr. Hopper could not get wind of +them. These matters had taken the Colonel out of town. But now the +necessity of a pass made that awkward, and he went no farther than +Glencoe, where he spent an occasional Sunday. Today Mr. Hopper rose from +his chair when Mr. Carvel entered,--a most unprecedented action. The +Colonel cleared his throat. Sitting down at his desk, he drummed upon it +uneasily. + +"Mr. Hopper!" he said at length. + +Eliphalet crossed the room quickly, and something that was very near a +smile was on his face. He sat down close to Mr. Carvel's chair with a +semi-confidential air,--one wholly new, had the Colonel given it a +thought. He did not, but began to finger some printed slips of paper +which had indorsements on their backs. His fine lips were tightly +closed, as if in pain. + +"Mr. Hopper," he said, "these Eastern notes are due this week, are they +not?" + +"Yes, sir." + +The Colonel glanced up swiftly. + +"There is no use mincing matters, Hopper. You know as well as I that +there is no money to pay them," said he, with a certain pompous attempt +at severity which characterized his kind nature. "You have served me +well. You have brought this business up to a modern footing, and made +it as prosperous as any in the town. I am sorry, sir, that those +contemptible Yankees should have forced us to the use of arms, and cut +short many promising business careers such as yours, sir. But we have +to face the music. We have to suffer for our principles. + +"These notes cannot be met, Mr. Hopper." And the good gentleman looked +out of the window. He was thinking of a day, before the Mexican War, +when his young wife had sat in the very chair filled by Mr. Hopper now. +"These notes cannot be met," he repeated, and his voice was near to +breaking. + +The flies droning in the hot office made the only sound. Outside the +partition, among the bales, was silence. + +"Colonel," said Mr. Hopper, with a remarkable ease, "I cal'late these +notes can be met." + +The Colonel jumped as if he had heard a shot, and one of the notes fell +to the floor. Eliphalet picked it up tenderly, and held it. + +"What do you mean, sir?" Mr. Carvel cried. "There isn't a bank in town +that will lend me money. I--I haven't a friend--a friend I may ask who +can spare it, sir." + +Mr. Hopper lifted up his hand. It was a fat hand. Suavity was come upon +it like a new glove and changed the man. He was no longer cringing. Now +he had poise, such poise as we in these days are accustomed to see in +leather and mahogany offices. The Colonel glared at him uncomfortably. + +"I will take up those notes myself, sir." + +"You!" cried the Colonel, incredulously, "You?" + +We must do Eliphalet justice. There was not a deal of hypocrisy in his +nature, and now he did not attempt the part of Samaritan. He did not +beam upon the Colonel and remind him of the day on which, homeless and +friendless, he had been frightened into his store by a drove of mules. +No. But his day,--the day toward which he had striven unknown and +unnoticed for so many years--the day when he would laugh at the pride of +those who had ignored and insulted him, was dawning at last. When we are +thoughtless of our words, we do not reckon with that spark in little +bosoms that may burst into flame and burn us. Not that Colonel Carvel +had ever been aught but courteous and kind to all. His station in life +had been his offence to Eliphalet, who strove now to hide an exultation +that made him tremble. + +"What do you mean, sir?" demanded the Colonel, again. + +"I cal'late that I can gather together enough to meet the notes, Colonel. +Just a little friendly transaction." Here followed an interval of sheer +astonishment to Mr. Carvel. + +"You have this money?" he said at length. Mr. Hopper nodded. + +"And you will take my note for the amount?" + +"Yes, sir." + +The Colonel pulled his goatee, and sat back in his chair, trying to face +the new light in which he saw his manager. He knew well enough that the +man was not doing this out of charity, or even gratitude. He reviewed +his whole career, from that first morning when he had carried bales to +the shipping room, to his replacement of Mr. Hood, and there was nothing +with which to accuse him. He remembered the warnings of Captain Lige and +Virginia. He could not in honor ask a cent from the Captain now. He +would not ask his sister-in-law, Mrs. Colfax, to let him touch the money +he had so ably invested for her; that little which Virginia's mother had +left the girl was sacred. + +Night after night Mr. Carvel had lain awake with the agony of those +Eastern debts. Not to pay was to tarnish the name of a Southern +gentleman. He could not sell the business. His house would bring +nothing in these times. He rose and began to pace the floor, tugging +at his chin. Twice he paused to stare at Mr. Hopper, who sat calmly on, +and the third time stopped abruptly before him. + +"See here," he cried. "Where the devil did you get this money, sir?" + +Mr. Hopper did not rise. + +"I haven't been extravagant, Colonel, since I've worked for you," he +said. "It don't cost me much to live. I've been fortunate in +investments." + +The furrows in the Colonel's brow deepened. + +"You offer to lend me five times more than I have ever paid you, Mr. +Hopper. Tell me how you have made this money before I accept it." + +Eliphalet had never been able to meet that eye since he had known it. He +did not meet it now. But he went to his desk, and drew a long sheet of +paper from a pigeonhole. + +"These be some of my investments," he answered, with just a tinge of +surliness. "I cal'late they'll stand inspection. I ain't forcing you +to take the money, sir," he flared up, all at once. "I'd like to save +the business." + +Mr. Carvel was disarmed. He went unsteadily to his desk, and none save +God knew the shock that his pride received that day. To rescue a name +which had stood untarnished since he had brought it into the world, he +drew forth some blank notes, and filled them out. But before he signed +them he spoke: + +"You are a business man, Mr. Hopper," said he, "And as a business man you +must know that these notes will not legally hold. It is martial law. +The courts are abolished, and all transactions here in St. Louis are +invalid." + +Eliphalet was about to speak. + +"One moment, sir," cried the Colonel, standing up and towering to his +full height. "Law or no law, you shall have the money and interest, or +your security, which is this business. I need not tell you, sir, that my +word is sacred, and binding forever upon me and mine." + +"I'm not afraid, Colonel," answered Mr. Hopper, with a feeble attempt at +geniality. He was, in truth, awed at last. + +"You need not be, sir!" said the Colonel, with equal force. "If you were +--this instant you should leave this place." He sat down, and continued +more calmly: "It will not be long before a Southern Army marches into St. +Louis, and the Yankee Government submits." He leaned forward. "Do you +reckon we can hold the business together until then, Mr. Hopper?" + +God forbid that we should smile at the Colonel's simple faith. And if +Eliphalet Hopper had done so, his history would have ended here. + +"Leave that to me, Colonel," he said soberly. + +Then came the reaction. The good Colonel sighed as he signed, away that +business which had been an honor to the, city where it was founded, I +thank heaven that we are not concerned with the details of their talk +that day. Why should we wish to know the rate of interest on those +notes, or the time? It was war-time. + +Mr. Hopper filled out his check, and presently departed. It was the +signal for the little force which remained to leave. Outside, in the +store; Ephum paced uneasily, wondering why his master did not come out. +Presently he crept to the door of the office, pushed it open, and beheld +Mr. Carvel with his head bowed, down in his hands. + +"Marse Comyn!" he cried, "Marse Comyn!" + +The Colonel looked up. His face was haggard. + +"Marse Comyn, you know what I done promise young MISS long time ago, +befo'--befo' she done left us?" + +"Yes, Ephum." + +He saw the faithful old negro but dimly. Faintly he heard the pleading +voice. + +"Marse Comyn, won' you give Ephum a pass down, river, ter fotch Cap'n +Lige?" + +"Ephum," said the Colonel, sadly, "I had a letter from the Captain +yesterday. He is at Cairo. His boat is a Federal transport, and he is +in Yankee pay." + +Ephum took a step forward, appealingly, "But de Cap'n's yo' friend, Marse +Comyn. He ain't never fo'get what you done fo' him, Marse Comyn. He +ain't in de army, suh." + +"And I am the Captain's friend, Ephum," answered the Colonel, quietly. +"But I will not ask aid from any man employed by the Yankee Government. +No--not from my own brother, who is in a Pennsylvania regiments." + +Ephum shuffled out, and his heart was lead as he closed the store that +night. + + +Mr. Hopper has boarded a Fifth Street car, which jangles on with many +halts until it comes to Bremen, a German settlement in the north of the +city. At Bremen great droves of mules fill the street, and crowd the +entrances of the sale stables there. Whips are cracking like pistol +shots, Gentlemen with the yellow cavalry stripe of the United States +Army are pushing to and fro among the drivers and the owners, and +fingering the frightened animals. A herd breaks from the confusion and +is driven like a whirlwind down the street, dividing at the Market House. +They are going to board the Government transport--to die on the +battlefields of Kentucky and Missouri. + +Mr. Hopper alights from the car with complacency. He stands for a while +on a corner, against the hot building, surveying the busy scene, +unnoticed. Mules! Was it not a prophecy,--that drove which sent him +into Mr. Carvel's store? + +Presently a man with a gnawed yellow mustache and a shifty eye walks out +of one of the offices, and perceives our friend. + +"Howdy, Mr. Hopper?" says he. + +Eliphalet extends a hand to be squeezed and returned. "Got them +vouchers?" he asks. He is less careful of his English here. + +"Wal, I jest reckon," is the answer: The fellow was interrupted by the +appearance of a smart young man in a smart uniform, who wore an air of +genteel importance. He could not have been more than two and twenty, and +his face and manners were those of a clerk. The tan of field service was +lacking on his cheek, and he was black under the eyes. + +"Hullo, Ford," he said, jocularly. + +"Howdy, Cap," retorted the other. "Wal, suh, that last lot was an extry, +fo' sure. As clean a lot as ever I seed. Not a lump on 'em. Gov'ment +ain't cheated much on them there at one-eighty a head, I reckon." + +Mr. Ford said this with such an air of conviction and such a sober face +that the Captain smiled. And at the same time he glanced down nervously +at the new line of buttons on his chest, + +"I guess I know a mule from a Newfoundland dog by this time," said he. + +"Wal, I jest reckon," asserted Mr. Ford, with a loud laugh. "Cap'n +Wentworth, allow me to make you acquainted with Mr. Hopper. Mr. Hopper, +Cap'n Wentworth." + +The Captain squeezed Mr. Hoppers hand with fervor. "You interested in +mules, Mr. Hopper?" asked the military man. + +"I don't cal'late to be," said. Mr. Hopper. Let us hope that our worthy +has not been presented as being wholly without a sense of humor. He +grinned as he looked upon this lamb in the uniform of Mars, and added, +"I'm just naturally patriotic, I guess. Cap'n, 'll you have a drink?" + +"And a segar," added Mr. Ford. + +"Just one," says the Captain. "It's d--d tiresome lookin' at mules all +day in the sun." + +Well for Mr. Davitt that his mission work does not extend to Bremen, that +the good man's charity keeps him at the improvised hospital down town. +Mr. Hopper has resigned the superintendency of his Sunday School, it is +true, but he is still a pillar of the church. + +The young officer leans against the bar, and listens to stories by Mr. +Ford, which it behooves no church members to hear. He smokes Mr. +Hopper's cigar and drinks his whiskey. And Eliphalet understands that +the good Lord put some fools into the world in order to give the smart +people a chance to practise their talents. Mr. Hopper neither drinks nor +smokes, but he uses the spittoon with more freedom in this atmosphere. + +When at length the Captain has marched out, with a conscious but manly +air, Mr. Hopper turns to Ford-- + +"Don't lose no time in presenting them vouchers at headquarters," says +he. "Money is worth something now. And there's grumbling about this +Department in the Eastern papers, If we have an investigation, we'll +whistle. How much to-day?" + +"Three thousand," says Mr. Ford. He tosses off a pony of Bourbon, but +his face is not a delight to look upon, "Hopper, you'll be a d--d rich +man some day." + +"I cal'late to." + +"I do the dirty work. And because I ain't got no capital, I only get +four per cent." + +"Don't one-twenty a day suit you?" + +"You get blasted near a thousand. And you've got horse contracts, and +blanket contracts besides. I know you. What's to prevent my goin' south +when the vouchers is cashed?" he cried. "Ain't it possible?" + +"I presume likely," said Mr. Hopper, quietly. "Then your mother'll have +to move out of her little place." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +NEWS FROM CLARENCE + +The epithet aristocrat may become odious and fatal on the banks of the +Mississippi as it was on the banks of the Seine. Let no man deceive +himself! These are fearful times. Thousands of our population, by the +sudden stoppage of business, are thrown out of employment. When gaunt +famine intrudes upon their household, it is but natural that they should +inquire the cause. Hunger began the French Revolution. + +Virginia did not read this editorial, because it appeared in that +abhorred organ of the Mudsills, the 'Missouri Democrat.' The wheels of +fortune were turning rapidly that first hot summer of the war time. Let +us be thankful that our flesh and blood are incapable of the fury of +the guillotine. But when we think calmly of those days, can we escape +without a little pity for the aristocrats? Do you think that many of +them did not know hunger and want long before that cruel war was over? + +How bravely they met the grim spectre which crept so insidiously into +their homes! + +"Virginia, child." said Mrs. Colfax, peevishly, one morning as they sat +at breakfast, "why do you persist it wearing that old gown? It has +gotten on my nerves, my dear. You really must have something new made, +even if there are no men here to dress for." + +"Aunt Lillian, you must not say such things. I do not think that I ever +dressed to please men." + +"Tut, tut; my dear, we all do. I did, even after married your uncle. It +is natural. We must not go shabby in such times as these, or be out of +fashion, Did you know that Prince Napoleon was actually coming here for +a visit this autumn? We must be ready for him. I am having a fitting at +Miss Elder's to-day." + +Virginia was learning patience. She did not reply as she poured out her +aunt's coffee. + +"Jinny," said that lady, "come with me to Elder's, and I will give you +some gowns. If Comyn had been as careful of his own money as of mine, +you could dress decently." + +"I think I do dress decently, Aunt Lillian," answered the girl. "I do +not need the gowns. Give me the money you intend to pay for them, and +I can use it for a better purpose." + +Mrs. Colfax arranged her lace pettishly. + +"I am sick and tired of this superiority, Jinny." And in the same +breath. "What would you do with it?" + +Virginia lowered her voice. "Hodges goes through the lines to-morrow +night. I should send it to Clarence." "But you have no idea where +Clarence is." + +"Hodges can find him." + +"Pshaw!" exclaimed her aunt, "I would not trust him. How do you know +that he will get through the Dutch pickets to Price's army? Wasn't +Souther captured last week, and that rash letter of Puss Russell's to +Jack Brinsmade published in the Democrat?" She laughed at the +recollection, and Virginia was fain to laugh too. "Puss hasn't been +around much since. I hope that will cure her of saying what she thinks +of people." + +"It won't," said Virginia. + +"I'll save my money until Price drives the Yankees from the state, and +Clarence marches into the city at the head of a regiment," Mrs. Colfax +went on, "It won't be long now." + +Virginia's eyes flashed. + +"Oh, you can't have read the papers. And don't you remember the letter +Maude had from George? They need the bare necessities of life, Aunt +Lillian. And half of Price's men have no arms at all." + +"Jackson," said Mrs. Colfax, "bring me a newspaper. Is there any news +to-day?" + +"No," answered Virginia, quickly. "All we know is that Lyon has left +Springfield to meet our troops, and that a great battle is coming, +Perhaps--perhaps it is being fought to-day." + +Mrs. Colfax burst into tears, + +"Oh, Jinny," she cried, "how can you be so cruel!" + +That very evening a man, tall and lean, but with the shrewd and kindly +eye of a scout, came into the sitting-room with the Colonel and handed a +letter to Mrs. Colfax. In the hall he slipped into Virginia's hand +another, in a "Jefferson Davis" envelope, and she thrust it in her gown +--the girl was on fire as he whispered in her ear that he had seen +Clarence, and that he was well. In two days an answer might be left at +Mr. Russell's house. But she must be careful what she wrote, as the +Yankee scouts were active. + +Clarence, indeed, had proven himself a man. Glory and uniform became him +well, but danger and deprivation better. The words he had written, +careless and frank and boyish, made Virginia's heart leap with pride. +Mrs. Colfax's letter began with the adventure below the Arsenal, when +the frail skiff had sunk near the island, He told how he had heard the +captain of his escort sing out to him in the darkness, and how he had +floated down the current instead, until, chilled and weary, he had +contrived to seize the branches of a huge tree floating by. And how by a +miracle the moon had risen. When the great Memphis packet bore down upon +him, he had, been seen from her guards, and rescued and made much of; and +set ashore at the next landing, for fear her captain would get into +trouble. In the morning he had walked into the country, first providing +himself with butternuts and rawhide boots and a bowie-knife. Virginia +would never have recognized her dashing captain of dragoons in this +guise. + +The letter was long for Clarence, and written under great difficulties +from date to date. For nearly a month he had tramped over mountains +and across river bottoms, waiting for news of an organized force of +resistance in Missouri. Begging his way from cabin to cabin, and living +on greasy bacon and corn pone, at length he crossed the swift Gasconade +(so named by the French settlers because of its brawling ways) where the +bridge of the Pacific railroad had been blown up by the Governor's +orders. Then he learned that the untiring Lyon had steamed up the +Missouri and had taken possession of Jefferson City without a blow, and +that the ragged rebel force had fought and lost at Booneville. Footsore, +but undaunted, he pushed on to join the army, which he heard was +retreating southward along the western tier of counties of the state. + +On the banks of the Osage he fell in with two other young amen in as bad +a plight as himself. They travelled together, until one day some rough +farmers with shotguns leaped out of a bunch of willows on the borders of +a creek and arrested all three for Union spies. And they laughed when +Mr. Clarence tried to explain that he had not long since been the dapper +captain of the State Dragoons. + +His Excellency, the Governor of Missouri (so acknowledged by all good +Southerners), likewise laughed when Mr. Colfax and the two others were +brought before him. His Excellency sat in a cabin surrounded by a camp +which had caused the dogs of war to howl for very shame. + +"Colfax!" cried the Governor. "A Colfax of St. Louis in butternuts +and rawhide boots?" + +"Give me a razor," demanded Clarence, with indignation, "a razor and a +suit of clothes, and I will prove it." The Governor laughed once more. + +"A razor, young man! A suit of clothes You know not what you ask." + +"Are there any gentlemen from St. Louis here?" George Catherwood was +brought in,--or rather what had once been George. Now he was a big +frontiersman with a huge blond beard, and a bowie, knife stuck into his +trousers in place of a sword. He recognized his young captain of +dragoons the Governor apologized, and Clarence slept that night in the +cabin. The next day he was given a horse, and a bright new rifle which +the Governor's soldiers had taken from the Dutch at Cole Camp on the way +south, And presently they made a junction with three thousand more who +were their images. This was Price's army, but Price had gone ahead into +Kansas to beg the great McCulloch and his Confederates to come to their +aid and save the state. + + "Dear mother, I wish that you and Jinny and Uncle Comyn could have + seen this country rabble. How you would have laughed, and cried, + because we are just like them. In the combined army two thousand + have only bowie-knives or clubs. Some have long rifles of Daniel + Boone's time, not fired for thirty years. And the impedimenta are a + sight. Open wagons and conestogas and carryalls and buggies, and + even barouches, weighted down with frying-pans and chairs and + feather beds. But we've got spirit, and we can whip Lyon's Dutchmen + and Yankees just as we are. Spirit is what counts, and the Yankees + haven't got it, I was made to-day a Captain of Cavalry under + Colonel Rives. I ride a great, raw-boned horse like an elephant. + He jolts me until I am sore,--not quite as easy as my thoroughbred, + Jefferson. Tell Jinny to care for him, and have him ready when we + march into St. Louis." + + + "COWSKIN PRAIRIE, 9th July. + + "We have whipped Sigel on the prairie by Coon Creek and killed--we + don't know how many. Tell Maude that George distinguished himself + in the fight. We cavalry did not get a chance. + + "We have at last met McCulloch and his real soldiers. We cheered + until we cried when we saw their ranks of gray, with the gold + buttons and the gold braid and the gold stars. General McCulloch + has taken me on his staff, and promised me a uniform. But how to + clothe and feed and arm our men! We have only a few poor cattle, + and no money. But our men don't complain. We shall whip the + Yankees before we starve." + + +For many days Mrs. Colfax did not cease to bewail the hardship which her +dear boy was forced to endure. He, who was used to linen sheets and +eider down, was without rough blanket or shelter; who was used to the +best table in the state, was reduced to husks. + +"But, Aunt Lillian," cried Virginia, "he is fighting for the South. If +he were fed and clothed like the Yankees, we should not be half so proud +of him." + +Why set down for colder gaze the burning words that Clarence wrote to +Virginia. How she pored over that letter, and folded it so that even the +candle-droppings would not be creased and fall away! He was happy, +though wretched because he could not see her. It was the life he had +longed for. At last (and most pathetic!) he was proving his usefulness +in this world. He was no longer the mere idler whom she had chidden. + + "Jinny, do you remember saying so many years ago that our ruin would + come of our not being able to work? How I wish you could see us + felling trees to make bullet-moulds, and forging slugs for canister, + and making cartridges at night with our bayonets as candlesticks. + Jinny dear, I know that you will keep up your courage. I can see + you sewing for us, I can hear you praying for us." + +It was, in truth, how Virginia learned to sew. She had always detested +it. Her fingers were pricked and sore weeks after she began. Sad to +relate, her bandages, shirts, and havelocks never reached the front,-- +those havelocks, to withstand the heat of the tropic sun, which were made +in thousands by devoted Union women that first summer of the war, to be +ridiculed as nightcaps by the soldiers. + +"Why should not our soldiers have them, too?" said Virginia to the +Russell girls. They were never so happy as when sewing on them against +the arrival of the Army of Liberation, which never came. + +The long, long days of heat dragged slowly, with little to cheer those +families separated from their dear ones by a great army. Clarence might +die, and a month--perhaps a year--pass without news, unless he were +brought a prisoner to St. Louis. How Virginia envied Maude because the +Union lists of dead and wounded would give her tidings of her brother +Tom, at least! How she coveted the many Union families, whose sons and +brothers were at the front, this privilege! + +We were speaking of the French Revolution, when, as Balzac remarked, to +be a spy was to be a patriot. Heads are not so cheap in our Anglo-Saxon +countries; passions not so fierce and uncontrollable. Compare, with a +prominent historian, our Boston Massacre and St. Bartholomew. + +They are both massacres. Compare Camp Jackson, or Baltimore, where a few +people were shot, with some Paris street scenes after the Bastille. +Feelings in each instance never ran higher. Our own provost marshal was +hissed in the street, and called "Robespierre," and yet he did not fear +the assassin's knife. Our own Southern aristocrats were hemmed in in a +Union city (their own city). No women were thrown into prison, it is +true. Yet one was not permitted to shout for Jeff Davis on the street +corner before the provost's guard. Once in a while a detachment of the +Home Guards, commanded by a lieutenant; would march swiftly into a street +and stop before a house, whose occupants would run to the rear, only to +encounter another detachment in the alley. + +One day, in great excitement, Eugenie Renault rang the bell of the Carvel +house, and ran past the astounded Jackson up the stairs to Virginia's +room, the door of which she burst open. + +"Oh, Jinny!" she cried, "Puss Russell's house is surrounded by Yankees, +and Puss and Emily and all the family are prisoners!" + +"Prisoners! What for?" said Virginia, dropping in her excitement her +last year's bonnet, which she was trimming with red, white, and red. + +"Because," said Eugenie, sputtering with indignation "because they waved +at some of our poor fellows who were being taken to the slave pen. They +were being marched past Mr. Russell's house under guard--Puss had a +small--" + +"Confederate flag," put in Virginia, smiling in spite of herself. + +"And she waved it between the shutters," Eugenie continued. And some one +told, the provost marshal. He has had the house surrounded, and the +family have to stay there." + +"But if the food gives out?" + +"Then," said Miss Renault, in a voice of awe, "then each one of the +family is to have just a common army ration. They are to be treated as +prisoners." + +"Oh, those Yankees are detestable!" exclaimed Virginia. "But they shall +pay for it. As soon as our army is organized and equipped, they shall +pay for it ten times over." She tried on the bonnet, conspicuous with +its red and white ribbons, before the glass. Then she ran to the closet +and drew forth the white gown with its red trimmings. "Wait for me, +Genie," she said, "and we'll go down to Puss's house together. It may +cheer her to see us." + +"But not in that dress," said Eugenie, aghast. "They will arrest you." +"Oh, how I wish they would!" cried Virginia. And her eyes flashed so +that Eugenie was frightened. "How I wish they would!" + +Miss Renault regarded her friend with something of adoration from beneath +her black lashes. It was about five in the afternoon when they started +out together under Virginia's white parasol, Eugenie's slimmer courage +upheld by her friend's bearing. We must remember that Virginia was +young, and that her feelings were akin to those our great-grandmothers +experienced when the British held New York. It was as if she had been +born to wear the red and white of the South. Elderly gentlemen of +Northern persuasion paused in their homeward walk to smile in admiration, +--some sadly, as Mr. Brinsmade. Young gentlemen found an excuse to +retrace their steps a block or two. But Virginia walked on air, and saw +nothing. She was between fierce anger and exaltation. She did not deign +to drop her eyes as low as the citizen sergeant and guard in front of +Puss Russell's house (these men were only human, after all); she did not +so much as glance at the curious people standing on the corner, who could +not resist a murmur of delight. The citizen sergeant only smiled, and +made no move to arrest the young lady in red and white. Nor did Puss +fling open the blinds and wave at her. + +"I suppose its because Mr. Russell won't let her," said Virginia, +disconsolately, "Genie, let's go to headquarters, and show this Yankee +General Fremont that we are not afraid of him." + +Eugenie's breath was taken away by the very boldness of this +proposition.. She looked up timidly into Virginia's face, and hero- +worship got the better of prudence. + +The house which General Fremont appropriated for his use when he came +back from Europe to assume command in the West was not a modest one. It +still stands, a large mansion of brick with a stone front, very tall and +very wide, with an elaborate cornice and plate-glass windows, both tall +and broad, and a high basement. Two stately stone porches capped by +elaborate iron railings adorn it in front and on the side. The chimneys +are generous and proportional. In short, the house is of that type built +by many wealthy gentlemen in the middle of the century, which has best +stood the test of time,--the only type which, if repeated to-day, would +not clash with the architectural education which we are receiving. A +spacious yard well above the pavement surrounds it, sustained by a wall +of dressed stones, capped by an iron fence. The whole expressed wealth, +security, solidity, conservatism. Alas, that the coal deposits under the +black mud of our Western states should, at length, have driven the owners +of these houses out of them! They are now blackened, almost buried in +soot; empty, or half-tenanted by boarders, Descendants of the old +families pass them on their way to business or to the theatre with a +sigh. The sons of those who owned them have built westward, and west- +ward again, until now they are six miles from the river. + +On that summer evening forty years ago, when Virginia and Eugenie came in +sight of the house, a scene of great animation was before them. Talk was +rife over the commanding general's pomp and circumstance. He had just +returned from Europe, where pomp and circumstance and the military were +wedded. Foreign officers should come to America to teach our army dress +and manners. A dashing Hungarian commanded the general's body-guard, +which honorable corps was even then drawn up in the street before the +house, surrounded at a respectable distance by a crowd that feared to +jest. They felt like it save when they caught the stern military eye +of the Hungarian captain. Virginia gazed at the glittering uniforms, +resplendent in the sun, and at the sleek and well-fed horses, and +scalding tears came as she thought of the half-starved rabble of Southern +patriots on the burning prairies. Just then a sharp command escaped in +broken English from the Hungarian. The people in the yard of the mansion +parted, and the General himself walked proudly out of the gate to the +curb, where his charger was pawing the gutter. As be put foot to the +stirrup, the eye of the great man (once candidate, and again to be, for +President) caught the glint of red and white on the corner. For an +instant he stood transfixed to the spot, with one leg in the air. Then +he took it down again and spoke to a young officer of his staff, who +smiled and began to walk toward them. Little Eugenie's knees trembled. +She seized Virginia's arm, and whispered in agony. + +"Oh, Jinny, you are to be arrested, after all. Oh, I wish you hadn't +been so bold!" + +"Hush," said Virginia, as she prepared to slay the young officer with a +look. She felt like flying at his throat, and choking him for the +insolence of that smile. How dare he march undaunted to within six paces +of those eyes? The crowd drew back, But did Miss Carvel retreat? Not a +step. "Oh, I hope he will arrest me," she said passionately, to Eugenie. +"He will start a conflagration beyond the power of any Yankee to quell." + +But hush! he was speaking. "You are my prisoners"? No, those were not +the words, surely. The lieutenant had taken off his cap. He bowed very +low and said: + +"Ladies, the General's compliments, and he begs that this much of the +sidewalk may be kept clear for a few moments." + +What was left for them, after that, save a retreat? But he was not +precipitate. Miss Virginia crossed the street with a dignity and bearing +which drew even the eyes of the body-guard to one side. And there she +stood haughtily until the guard and the General had thundered away. A +crowd of black-coated civilians, and quartermasters and other officers +in uniform, poured out of the basement of the house into the yards. One +civilian, a youngish man a little inclined to stoutness, stopped at the +gate, stared, then thrust some papers in his pocket and hurried down +the side street. Three blocks thence he appeared abreast of Miss Carvel. +More remarkable still, he lifted his hat clear of his head. Virginia +drew back. Mr. Hopper, with his newly acquired equanimity and poise, +startled her. + +"May I have the pleasure," said that gentleman, "of accompanying you +home?" + +Eugenie giggled, Virginia was more annoyed than she showed. + +"You must not come out of your way," she said. Then she added. "I am +sure you must go back to the store. It is only six o'clock." + +Had Virginia but known, this occasional tartness in her speech gave +Eliphalet an infinite delight, even while it hurt him. His was a nature +which liked to gloat over a goal on the horizon He cared not a whit for +sweet girls; they cloyed. But a real lady was something to attain. He +had revised his vocabulary for just such an occasion, and thrown out some +of the vernacular. + +"Business is not so pressing nowadays, Miss Carvel," he answered, with a +shade of meaning. + +"Then existence must be rather heavy for you," she said. She made no +attempt to introduce him to Eugenie. "If we should have any more +victories like Bull Run, prosperity will come back with a rush," said the +son of Massachusetts. "Southern Confederacy, with Missouri one of its +stars an industrial development of the South--fortunes in cotton" + +Virginia turned quickly, "Oh, how dare you?" she cried. "How dare you +speak flippantly of such things?" His suavity was far from overthrown. + +"Flippantly Miss Carvel?" said he. "I assure you that I want to see the +South win." What he did not know was that words seldom convince women. +But he added something which reduced her incredulity for the time. "Do +you cal'late," said he,--that I could work for your father, and wish ruin +to his country?" + +"But you are a Yankee born," she exclaimed. + +"There be a few sane Yankees," replied Mr. Hopper, dryly. A remark which +made Eugenie laugh outright, and Virginia could not refrain from a smile, + +But much against her will he walked home with her. She was indignant by +the time she reached Locust Street. He had never dared do such a thing +before, What had got into the man? Was it because he had become a +manager, and governed the business during her father's frequent absences? +No matter what Mr. Hopper's politics, he would always be to her a low- +born Yankee, a person wholly unworthy of notice. + +At the corner of Olive Street, a young man walking with long strides +almost bumped into them. He paused looked back, and bowed as if +uncertain of an acknowledgment. Virginia barely returned his bow. He +had been very close to her, and she had had time to notice that his +coat was threadbare. When she looked again, he had covered half the +block. Why should she care if Stephen Brice had seen her in company with +Mr, Hopper? Eliphalet, too, had seen Stephen, and this had added zest to +his enjoyment. It was part of the fruits of his reward. He wished in +that short walk that he might meet Mr. Cluyme and Belle, and every man +and woman and child in the city whom he knew. From time to time he +glanced at the severe profile of the aristocrat beside him (he had to +look up a bit, likewise), and that look set him down among the beasts of +prey. For she was his rightful prey, and he meant not to lose one tittle +of enjoyment in the progress of the game. Many and many a night in the +bare little back room at Miss Crane's, Eliphalet had gloated over the +very event which was now come to pass. Not a step of the way but what he +had lived through before. + +The future is laid open to such men as he. Since he had first seen the +black cloud of war rolling up from the South, a hundred times had he +rehearsed the scene with Colonel Carvel which had actually taken place a +week before. A hundred times had he prepared his speech and manner for +this first appearance in public with Virginia after he had forced the +right to walk in her company. The words he had prepared--commonplace, +to be sure, but carefully chosen--flowed from his lips in a continual +nasal stream. The girl answered absently, her feminine instinct groping +after a reason for it all. She brightened when she saw her father at the +doors and, saying good by to Eugenie, tripped up the steps, bowing to +Eliphalet coldly. + +"Why, bless us, Jinny," said the Colonel, "you haven't been parading the +town in that costume! You'll have us in Lynch's slave pen by to-morrow +night. My land!" laughed he, patting her under the chin, "there's no +doubt about your sentiments, anyhow." + +"I've been over to Puss Russell's house," said she, breathless. "They've +closed it up, you know--" (He nodded.) "And then we went--Eugenie and I, +to headquarters, just to see what the Yankees would do." + +The Colonel's smile faded. He looked grave. "You must take care, +honey," he said, lowering his voice. "They suspect me now of +communicating with the Governor and McCulloch. Jinny, it's all very well +to be brave, and to stand by your colors. But this sort of thing," said +he, stroking the gown, "this sort of thing doesn't help the South, my +dear, and only sets spies upon us. Ned tells me that there was a man in +plain clothes standing in the alley last night for three hours." + +"Pa," cried the girl, "I'm so sorry." Suddenly searching his face with a +swift instinct, she perceived that these months had made it yellow and +lined. "Pa, dear, you must come to Glencoe to-morrow and rest You must +not go off on any more trips." + +The Colonel shook his head sadly. + +"It isn't the trips, Jinny There are duties, my dear, pleasant duties-- +Jinny--" + +"Yes?" + +The Colonel's eye had suddenly fallen on Mr, Hopper, who was still +standing at the bottom of the steps. He checked himself abruptly as +Eliphalet pulled off his hat, + +"Howdy, Colonel?" he said. + +Virginia was motionless, with her back to the intruder, She was frozen by +a presentiment. As she saw her father start down the steps, she yearned +to throw herself in front of him--to warn him of something; she knew not +what. Then she heard the Colonel's voice, courteous and kindly as ever. +And yet it broke a little as he greeted his visitor. + +"Won't--won't you come in, Mr. Hopper?" + +Virginia started + +"I don't know but what I will, thank you, Colonel," he answered; easily. +"I took the liberty of walking home with your daughter." + +Virginia fairly flew into the house and up the stairs. Gaining her room, +she shut the door and turned the key, as though he might pursue her +there. The man's face had all at once become a terror. She threw +herself on the lounge and buried her face in her hands, and she saw it +still leering at her with a new confidence. Presently she grew calmer; +rising, she put on the plainest of her scanty wardrobe, and went down the +stairs, all in a strange trepidation new to her. She had never been in +fear of a man before. She hearkened over the banisters for his voice, +heard it, and summoned all her courage. How cowardly she had been to +leave her father alone with him. + +Eliphalet stayed to tea. It mattered little to him that Mrs. Colfax +ignored him as completely as if his chair had been vacant He glanced +at that lady once, and smiled, for he was tasting the sweets of victory. +It was Virginia who entertained him, and even the Colonel never guessed +what it cost her. Eliphalet himself marvelled at her change of manner, +and gloated over that likewise. Not a turn or a quiver of the victim's +pain is missed by your beast of prey. The Colonel was gravely polite, +but preoccupied. Had he wished it, he could not have been rude to a +guest. He offered Mr. Hopper a cigar with the same air that he would +have given it to a governor. + +"Thank'ee, Colonel, I don't smoke," he said, waving the bog away. + +Mrs. Colfax flung herself out of the room. + +It was ten o'clock when Eliphalet reached Miss Crane's, and picked his +way up the front steps where the boarders were gathered. + +"The war doesn't seem to make any difference in your business, Mr. +Hopper," his landlady remarked, "where have you been so late?" + +"I happened round at Colonel Carvel's this afternoon, and stayed for tea +with 'em," he answered, striving to speak casually. + +Miss Crane lingered in Mrs. Abner Reed's room later than usual that +night. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE SCOURGE OF WAR + +"Virginia," said Mrs. Colfax, the next morning on coming downstairs, +"I am going back to Bellegarde today. I really cannot put up with such +a person as Comyn had here to tea last night." + +"Very well, Aunt Lillian. At what time shall I order the carriage?" + +The lady was surprised. It is safe to say that she had never accurately +gauged the force which Virginia's respect for her elders, and affection +for her aunt through Clarence, held in check. Only a moment since Mrs. +Colfax had beheld her niece. Now there had arisen in front of her a tall +person of authority, before whom she deferred instinctively. It was not +what Virginia said, for she would not stoop to tirade. Mrs. Colfax sank +into a chair, seeing only the blurred lines of a newspaper the girl had +thrust into her hand. + +"What--what is it?" she gasped. "I cannot read." + +"There has been a battle at Wilson's Creek," said Virginia, in an +emotionless voice. "General Lyon is killed, for which I suppose we +should be thankful. More than seven hundred of the wounded are on their +way here. They are bringing them one hundred and twenty miles, from +Springfield to Rollo, in rough army wagons, with scarcely anything to eat +or drink." + +"And--Clarence?" + +"His name is not there." + +"Thank God!" exclaimed Mrs. Colfax. "Are the Yankees beaten?" + +"Yes," said Virginia, coldly. "At what time shall I order the carriage +to take you to Bellegarde?" + +Mrs. Colfax leaned forward and caught the hem of her niece's gown. "Oh, +let me stay," she cried, "let me stay. Clarence may be with them." + +Virginia looked down at her without pity. + +"As you please, Aunt Lillian," she answered. "You know that you may +always stay here. I only beg of you one thing, that when you have +anything to complain of, you will bring it to me, and not mention it +before Pa. He has enough to worry him." + +"Oh, Jinny," sobbed the lady, in tears again, "how can you be so cruel at +such a time, when my nerves are all in pieces?" + +But she did not lift her voice at dinner, which was very poor indeed for +Colonel Carvel's house. All day long Virginia, assisted by Uncle Ben and +Aunt Easter, toiled in the stifling kitchen, preparing dainties which +she had long denied herself. At evening she went to the station at +Fourteenth Street with her father, and stood amongst the people, pressed +back by the soldiers, until the trains came in. Alas, the heavy basket +which the Colonel carried on his arm was brought home again. The first +hundred to arrive, ten hours in a hot car without food or water, were +laid groaning on the bottom of great furniture vans, and carted to the +new House of Refuge Hospital, two miles to the south of the city. + +The next day many good women went there, Rebel and Union alike, to have +their hearts wrung. The new and cheap building standing in the hot sun +reeked with white wash and paint. The miserable men lay on the hard +floor, still in the matted clothes they had worn in battle. Those were +the first days of the war, when the wages of our passions first came to +appal us. Many of the wounds had not been tended since they were dressed +on the field weeks before. + +Mrs. Colfax went too, with the Colonel and her niece, although she +declared repeatedly that she could not go through with such an ordeal. +She spoke the truth, for Mr. Carvel had to assist her to the waiting- +room. Then he went back to the improvised wards to find Virginia +busy over a gaunt Arkansan of Price's army, whose pitiful, fever-glazed +eyes were following her every motion. His frontiersman's clothes, +stained with blackened blood, hung limp over his wasted body. At +Virginia's bidding the Colonel ran downstairs for a bucket of fresh +water, and she washed the caked dust from his face and hands. It was Mr. +Brinsmade who got the surgeon to dress the man's wound, and to prescribe +some of the broth from Virginia's basket. For the first time since the +war began something of happiness entered her breast. + +It was Mr. Brinsmade who was everywhere that day, answering the questions +of distracted mothers and fathers and sisters who thronged the place; +consulting with the surgeons; helping the few who knew how to work in +placing mattresses under the worst cases; or again he might have been +seen seated on the bare floor with a pad on his knee, taking down the +names of dear ones in distant states,--that he might spend his night +writing to them. + +They put a mattress under the Arkansan. Virginia did not leave him until +he had fallen asleep, and a smile of peace was come upon his sunken face. +Dismayed at the fearful sights about her, awed by the groans that rose on +every side, she was choosing her way swiftly down the room to join her +father and aunt in the carriage below. + +The panic of flight had seized her. She felt that another little while +in this heated, horrible place would drive her mad. She was almost at +the door when she came suddenly upon a sight that made her pause. + +An elderly lady in widow's black was kneeling beside a man groaning in +mortal agony, fanning away the flies already gathering about his face. +He wore the uniform of a Union sergeant,--dusty and splotched and torn. +A small Testament was clasped convulsively in the fingers of his right +band. The left sleeve was empty. Virginia lingered, whelmed in pity, +thrilled by a wonderful womanliness of her who knelt there. Her face the +girl had not even seen, for it was bent over the man. The sweetness of +her voice held Virginia as in a spell, and the sergeant stopped groaning +that he might listen: + +"You have a wife?" + +"Yes, ma'am." + +"And a child?" + +The answer came so painfully. + +"A boy, ma'am--born the week--before I came--away." + +"I shall write to your wife," said the lady, so gently that Virginia +could scarce hear, "and tell her that you are cared for. Where does she +live?" + +He gave the address faintly--some little town in Minnesota. Then he +added, "God bless you, lady." + +Just then the chief surgeon came and stood over them. The lady turned +her face up to him, and tears sparkled in her eyes. Virginia felt them +wet in her own. Her worship was not given to many. Nobility, character, +efficiency,-all were written on that face. Nobility spoke in the large +features, in the generous mouth, in the calm, gray eyes. Virginia had +seen her often before, but not until now was the woman revealed to her. + +"Doctor, could this man's life be saved if I took him to my home?" + +The surgeon got down beside her and took the man's pulse. The eyes +closed. For a while the doctor knelt there, shaking his head. "He has +fainted," he said. + +"Do you think he can be saved?" asked the lady again. The surgeon +smiled,--such a smile as a good man gives after eighteen hours of +amputating, of bandaging, of advising,--work which requires a firm hand, +a clear eye and brain, and a good heart. + +"My dear Mrs. Brice," he said, "I shall be glad to get you permission to +take him, but we must first make him worth the taking. Another hour +would have been too late." He glanced hurriedly about the busy room, and +then added, "We must have one more to help us." + +Just then some one touched Virginia's arm. It was her father. + +"I am afraid we must go, dear," he said, "your aunt is getting +impatient." + +"Won't you please go without me, Pa?" she asked. "Perhaps I can be of +some use." + +The Colonel cast a wondering glance at the limp uniform, and went away. +The surgeon, who knew the Carvel family, gave Virginia a look of +astonishment. It was Mrs. Brice's searching gaze that brought the color +to the girl's, face. + +"Thank you, my dear," she said simply. + +As soon as he could get his sister-in-law off to Locust Street in the +carriage, Colonel Carvel came back. For two reeking hours he stood +against the newly plastered wall. Even he was surprised at the fortitude +and skill Virginia showed from the very first, when she had deftly cut +away the stiffened blue cloth, and helped to take off the rough bandages. +At length the fearful operation was finished, and the weary surgeon, +gathering up his box, expressed with all the energy left to him, his +thanks to the two ladies. + +Virginia stood up, faint and dizzy. The work of her hands had sustained +her while it lasted, but now the ordeal was come. She went down the +stairs on her father's arm, and out into the air. All at once she knew +that Mrs. Brice was beside her, and had taken her by the hand. + +"My dear?" she was saying, "God will reward you for this act. You have +taught many of us to-day a lesson we should have learned in our Bibles." + +Virginia trembled with many emotions, but she answered nothing. The mere +presence of this woman had a strange effect upon the girl,--she was +filled with a longing unutterable. It was not because Margaret Brice was +the mother of him whose life had been so strangely blended with hers-- +whom she saw in her dreams. And yet now some of Stephen's traits seemed +to come to her understanding, as by a revelation. Virginia had labored +through the heat of the day by Margaret Brice's side doing His work, +which levels all feuds and makes all women sisters. One brief second had +been needful for the spell. + +The Colonel bowed with that courtesy and respect which distinguished him, +and Mrs. Brice left them to go back into the room of torment, and watch +by the sergeant's pallet. Virginia's eyes followed her up the stairs, +and then she and her father walked slowly to the carriage. With her foot +on the step Virginia paused. + +"Pa," she said, "do you think it would be possible to get them to let us +take that Arkansan into our house?" + +"Why, honey, I'll ask Brinsmade if you like," said the Colonel. "Here he +comes now, and Anne." + +It was Virginia who put the question to him. + +"My dear," replied that gentleman, patting her, "I would do anything +in the world for you. I'll see General Fremont this very afternoon. +Virginia," he added, soberly, "it is such acts as yours to-day that +give us courage to live in these times." + +Anne kissed her friend, + +"Oh, Jinny, I saw what you were doing for one of our men. What am I +saying?" she cried. "They are your men, too. This horrible war cannot +last. It cannot last. It was well that Virginia did not see the smile +on the face of the commanding general when Mr. Brinsmade at length got to +him with her request. This was before the days when the wounded arrived +by the thousands, when the zeal of the Southern ladies threatened to +throw out of gear the workings of a great system. But the General, +had had his eye on Mr. Carvel from the first. Therefore he smiled. + +"Colonel Carvel," said Mr. Brinsmade, with dignity, "is a gentleman. +When he gives his word, it is sacred, sir." + +"Even to an enemy," the General put in, "By George, Brinsmade, unless +I knew you, I should think that you were half rebel yourself. Well, +well, he may have his Arkansan." + +Mr. Brinsmade, when he conveyed the news to the Carvel house, did not +say that he had wasted a precious afternoon in the attempt to interview +his Excellency, the Commander in-chief. It was like obtaining an +audience with the Sultan or the Czar. Citizens who had been prominent +in affairs for twenty years, philanthropists and patriotic-spirited men +like Mr. Brinsmade, the mayor, and all the ex-mayors mopped their brows +in one of the general's anterooms of the big mansion, and wrangled with +beardless youths in bright uniforms who were part of the chain. The +General might have been a Richelieu, a Marlborough. His European notions +of uniformed inaccessibility he carried out to the letter. He was a +royal personage, seldom seen, who went abroad in the midst of a +glittering guard. It did not seem to weigh with his Excellency that +these simple and democratic gentlemen would not put up with this sort +of thing. That they who had saved the city to the Union were more or +less in communication with a simple and democratic President; that in +all their lives they had never been in the habit of sitting idly for +two hours to mop their brows. + +On the other hand, once you got beyond the gold lace and the etiquette, +you discovered a good man and a patriot. It was far from being the +General's fault that Mr. Hopper and others made money in mules and +worthless army blankets. Such things always have been, and always will +be unavoidable when this great country of ours rises from the deep sleep +of security into which her sons have lulled her, to demand her sword. +We shall never be able to realize that the maintenance of a standing army +of comfortable size will save millions in the end. So much for Democracy +when it becomes a catchword. + +The General was a good man, had he done nothing else than encourage the +Western Sanitary Commission, that glorious army of drilled men and women +who gave up all to relieve the suffering which the war was causing. +Would that a novel--a great novel--might be written setting forth with +truth its doings. The hero of it could be Calvin Brinsmade, and a nobler +hero than he was never under a man's hand. For the glory of generals +fades beside his glory. + +It was Mr. Brinsmade's carriage that brought Mrs. Brice home from her +trying day in the hospital. Stephen, just returned from drill at +Verandah hall, met her at the door. She would not listen to his +entreaties to rest, but in the evening, as usual, took her sewing +to the porch behind the house, where there was a little breeze. + +"Such a singular thing happened to-day, Stephen," she said. "It was +while we were trying to save the life of a poor sergeant who had lost his +arm. I hope we shall be allowed to have him here. He is suffering +horribly." + +"What happened, mother?" he asked. + +"It was soon after I had come upon this poor fellow," she said. "I saw +the--the flies around him. And as I got down beside him to fan them away +I had such a queer sensation. I knew that some one was standing behind +me, looking at me. Then Dr. Allerdyce came, and I asked him about the +man, and he said there was a chance of saving him if we could only get +help. Then some one spoke up,--such a sweet voice. It was that Miss +Carvel my dear, with whom you had such a strange experience when you +bought Hester, and to whose party you once went. Do you remember that +they offered us their house in Glencoe when the Judge was so ill?" + +"Yes," said Stephen. + +"She is a wonderful creature," his mother continued. "Such personality, +such life! And wasn't it a remarkable offer for a Southern woman to +make? They feel so bitterly, and--and I do not blame them." The good +lady put down on her lap the night-shirt she was making. "I saw how it +happened. The girl was carried away by her pity. And, my dear, her +capability astonished me. One might have thought that she had always +been a nurse. The experience was a dreadful one for me--what must it +have been for her. After the operation was over, I followed her +downstairs to where she was standing with her father in front of the +building, waiting for their carriage. I felt that I must say something +to her, for in all my life I have never seen a nobler thing done. When I +saw her there, I scarcely knew what to say. Words seemed so inadequate. +It was then three o'clock, and she had been working steadily in that +place since morning. I am sure she could not have borne it much longer. +Sheer courage carried her through it, I know, for her hand trembled so +when I took it, and she was very pale. She usually has color, I believe. +Her father, the Colonel, was with her, and he bowed to me with such +politeness. He had stood against the wall all the while we had worked, +and he brought a mattress for us. I have heard that his house is +watched, and that they have him under suspicion for communicating with +the Confederate leaders." Mrs. Brice sighed. He seems such a fine +character. I hope they will not get into any trouble." + +"I hope not, mother," said Stephen. + + +It was two mornings later that Judge Whipple and Stephen drove to the +Iron Mountain depot, where they found a German company of Home Guards +drawn up. On the long wooden platform under the sheds Stephen caught +sight of Herr Korner and Herr Hauptmann amid a group of their countrymen. +Little Korner came forward to clasp his hands. The tears ran on his +cheeks, and he could not speak for emotion. Judge Whipple, grim and +silent, stood apart. But he uncovered his head with the others when the +train rolled in. Reverently they entered a car where the pine boxes were +piled one on another, and they bore out the earthly remains of Captain +Carl Richter. + +Far from the land of his birth, among those same oaks on Bloody Hill +where brave Lyon fell, he had gladly given up his life for the new +country and the new cause he had made his own. + +That afternoon in the cemetery, as the smoke of the last salute to a hero +hung in the flickering light and drifted upward through the great trees, +as the still air was yet quivering with the notes of the bugle-call which +is the soldiers requiem, a tall figure, gaunt and bent, stepped out from +behind the blue line of the troops. It was that of Judge Whipple. He +carried in his hand a wreath of white roses--the first of many to be laid +on Richter's grave. + +Poor Richter! How sad his life had been! And yet he had not filled it +with sadness. For many a month, and many a year, Stephen could not look +upon his empty place without a pang. He missed the cheery songs and the +earnest presence even more than he had thought. Carl Richter,--as his +father before him,--had lived for others. Both had sacrificed their +bodies for a cause. One of them might be pictured as he trudged with +Father Jahn from door to door through the Rhine country, or shouldering +at sixteen a heavy musket in the Landwehr's ranks to drive the tyrant +Napoleon from the beloved Fatherland Later, aged before his time, his +wife dead of misery, decrepit and prison-worn in the service of a +thankless country, his hopes lived again in Carl, the swordsman of Jena. +Then came the pitiful Revolution, the sundering of all ties, the elder +man left to drag out his few weary days before a shattered altar. In +Carl a new aspiration had sprung up, a new patriotism stirred. His, too, +had been the sacrifice. Happy in death, for he had helped perpetuate +that great Union which should be for all time the refuge of the +oppressed. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LIST OF SIXTY + +One chilling day in November, when an icy rain was falling on the black +mud of the streets, Virginia looked out of the window. Her eye was +caught by two horses which were just skeletons with the skin stretched +over them. One had a bad sore on his flank, and was lame. They were +pulling a rattle-trap farm wagon with a buckled wheel. On the seat a +man, pallid and bent and scantily clad, was holding the reins in his +feeble hands, while beside him cowered a child of ten wrapped in a ragged +blanket. In the body of the wagon, lying on a mattress pressed down in +the midst of broken, cheap furniture and filthy kitchen ware, lay a gaunt +woman in the rain. Her eyes were closed, and a hump on the surface of +the dirty quilt beside her showed that a child must be there. From such +a picture the girl fled in tears. But the sight of it, and of others +like it, haunted her for weeks. Through those last dreary days of +November, wretched families, which a year since had been in health and +prosperity, came to the city, beggars, with the wrecks of their homes. +The history of that hideous pilgrimage across a state has never been +written. Still they came by the hundred, those families. Some brought +little corpses to be buried. The father of one, hale and strong when +they started, died of pneumonia in the public lodging-house. The walls +of that house could tell many tales to wring the heart. So could Mr. +Brinsmade, did he choose to speak of his own charities. He found time, +between his labors at the big hospital newly founded, and his +correspondence, and his journeys of love,--between early morning and +midnight,--to give some hours a day to the refugees. + +Throughout December they poured in on the afflicted city, already +overtaxed. All the way to Springfield the road was lined with remains of +articles once dear--a child's doll, a little rocking-chair, a colored +print that has hung in the best room, a Bible text. + +Anne Brinsmade, driven by Nicodemus, went from house to house to solicit +old clothes, and take them to the crowded place of detention. Christmas +was drawing near--a sorry Christmas, in truth. And many of the wanderers +were unclothed and unfed. + +More battles had been fought; factions had arisen among Union men. +Another general had come to St. Louis to take charge of the Department, +and the other with his wondrous body-guard was gone. + +The most serious problem confronting the new general--was how to care for +the refugees. A council of citizens was called at headquarters, and the +verdict went forth in the never-to-be-forgotten Orders No. 24. + +"Inasmuch," said the General, "as the Secession army had driven these +people from their homes, Secession sympathizers should be made to support +them." He added that the city was unquestionably full of these. + +Indignation was rife the day that order was published. Sixty prominent +"disloyalists" were to be chosen and assessed to make up a sum of ten +thousand dollars. + +"They may sell my house over my head before I will pay a cent," cried Mr. +Russell. And he meant it. This was the way the others felt. Who were +to be on this mysterious list of "Sixty"? That was the all-absorbing +question of the town. It was an easy matter to pick the conspicuous +ones. Colonel Carvel was sure to be there. and Mr. Catherwood and Mr. +Russell and Mr. James, and Mr. Worington the lawyer. Mrs. Addison Colfax +lived for days in a fermented state of excitement which she declared +would break her down; and which, despite her many cares and worries, gave +her niece not a little amusement. For Virginia was human, and one +morning she went to her aunt's room to read this editorial from the +newspaper:-- + +"For the relief of many palpitating hearts it may be well to state that +we understand only two ladies are on the ten thousand dollar list." + +"Jinny," she cried, "how can you be so cruel as to read me that, when you +know that I am in a state of frenzy now? How does that relieve me? It +makes it an absolute certainty that Madame Jules and I will have to pay. +We are the only women of importance in the city." + +That afternoon she made good her much-uttered threat, and drove to +Bellegarde. Only the Colonel and Virginia and Mammy Easter and Ned were +left in the big house. Rosetta and Uncle Ben and Jackson had been hired +out, and the horses sold,--all save old Dick, who was running, long- +haired, in the fields at Glencoe. + +Christmas eve was a steel-gray day, and the sleet froze as it fell. +Since morning Colonel Carvel had sat poking the sitting-room fire, or +pacing the floor restlessly. His occupation was gone. He was observed +night and day by Federal detectives. Virginia strove to amuse him, to +conceal her anxiety as she watched him. Well she knew that but for her +he would long since have fled southward, and often in the bitterness of +the night-time she blamed herself for not telling him to go. Ten years +had seemed to pass over him since the war had begun. + +All day long she had been striving to put away from her the memory of +Christmas eves past and gone of her father's early home-coming from the +store, a mysterious smile on his face; of Captain Lige stamping noisily +into the house, exchanging uproarious jests with Ned and Jackson. The +Captain had always carried under his arm a shapeless bundle which he +would confide to Ned with a knowing wink. And then the house would be +lighted from top to bottom, and Mr. Russell and Mr. Catherwood and Mr. +Brinsmade came in for a long evening with Mr. Carvel over great bowls of +apple toddy and egg-nog. And Virginia would have her own friends in the +big parlor. That parlor was shut up now, and icy cold. + +Then there was Judge Whipple, the joyous event of whose year was his +Christmas dinner at Colonel Carvel's house. Virginia pictured him this +year at Mrs. Brice's little table, and wondered whether he would miss +them as much as they missed him. War may break friendships, but it +cannot take away the sacredness of memories. + +The sombre daylight was drawing to an early close as the two stood +looking out of the sitting-room window. A man's figure muffled in a +greatcoat slanting carefully across the street caught their eyes. +Virginia started. It was the same United States deputy marshal she had +seen the day before at Mr. Russell's house. + +"Pa," she cried, "do you think he is coming here? "I reckon so, honey." + +"The brute! Are you going to pay?" + +"No, Jinny." + +Then they will take away the furniture. "I reckon they will." + +"Pa, you must promise me to take down the mahogany bed in your room. +It--it was mother's. I could not bear to see them take that. Let me put +it in the garret." + +The Colonel was distressed, but he spoke without a tremor. + +"No, Jinny. We must leave this house just as it is." Then he added, +strangely enough for him, "God's will be done." + +The bell rang sharply. And Ned, who was cook and housemaid, came in with +his apron on. + +"Does you want to see folks, Marse Comyn?" + +The Colonel rose, and went to the door himself. He was an imposing +figure as he stood in the windy vestibule, confronting the deputy. +Virginia's first impulse was to shrink under the stairs. Then she came +out and stood beside her father. + +"Are you Colonel Carvel?" + +"I reckon I am. Will you come in?" + +The officer took off his cap. He was a young man with a smooth face, and +a frank brown eye which paid its tribute to Virginia. He did not appear +to relish the duty thrust upon him. He fumbled in his coat and drew from +his inner pocket a paper. + +"Colonel Carvel," said he, "by order of Major General Halleck, I serve +you with this notice to pay the sum of three hundred and fifty dollars +for the benefit of the destitute families which the Rebels have driven +from their homes. In default of payment within a reasonable time such +personal articles will be seized and sold at public auction as will +satisfy the demand against you." + +The Colonel took the paper. "Very well, sir," he said. "You may tell +the General that the articles may be seized. That I will not, while in +my right mind, be forced to support persons who have no claim upon me." + +It was said in the tone in which he might have refused an invitation to +dinner. The deputy marvelled. He had gone into many houses that week; +had seen indignation, hysterics, frenzy. He had even heard men and women +whose sons and brothers were in the army of secession proclaim their +loyalty to the Union. But this dignity, and the quiet scorn of the girl +who had stood silent beside them, were new. He bowed, and casting his +eyes to the vestibule, was glad to escape from the house. + +The Colonel shut the door. Then he turned toward Virginia, thoughtfully +pulled his goatee, and laughed gently. "Lordy, we haven't got three +hundred and fifty dollars to our names," said he. + +The climate of St. Louis is capricious. That fierce valley of the +Missouri, which belches fitful blizzards from December to March, is +sometimes quiet. Then the hot winds come up from the Gulf, and sleet +melts, and windows are opened. In those days the streets will be fetlock +deep in soft mud. It is neither summer, nor winter, nor spring, nor +anything. + +It was such a languorous afternoon in January that a furniture van, +accompanied by certain nondescript persons known as United States Police, +pulled up at the curb in front of Mr. Carvel's house. Eugenie, watching +at the window across the street, ran to tell her father, who came out on +his steps and reviled the van with all the fluency of his French +ancestors. + +Mammy Easter opened the door, and then stood with her arms akimbo, amply +filling its place. Her lips protruded, and an expression of defiance +hard to describe sat on her honest black face. + +"Is this Colonel Carvel's house?" + +"Yassir. I 'low you knows dat jes as well as me." An embarrassed +silence, and then from Mammy, "Whaffor you laffin at?" + +"Is the Colonel at home?" + +"Now I reckon you knows dat he ain't. Ef he was, you ain't come here +'quirin' in dat honey voice." (Raising her own voice.) "You tink I +dunno whaffor you come? You done come heah to rifle, an' to loot, an' +to steal, an' to seize what ain't your'n. You come heah when young +Marse ain't to home ter rob him." (Still louder.) "Ned, whaffor you +hidin' yonder? Ef yo' ain't man to protect Marse Comyn's prop-ty, jes +han' over Marse Comyn's gun." + +The marshal and his men had stood, half amused, more than half baffled by +this unexpected resistance. Mammy Easter looked so dangerous that it was +evident she was not to be passed without extreme bodily discomfort. + +"Is your mistress here?" + +This question was unfortunate in the extreme. + +"You--you white trash!" cried Mammy, bursting with indignation. "Who is +you to come heah 'quiring fo' her! I ain't agwine--" + +"Mammy!" + +"Yas'm! Yas, Miss Jinny." Mammy backed out of the door and clutched at +her bandanna. + +"Mammy, what is all this noise about?" The torrent was loosed once more. + +"These heah men, Miss Jinny, was gwine f'r t' carry away all yo' pa's +blongin's. I jes' tol' 'em dey ain't comin' in ovah dis heah body." + +The deputy had his foot on the threshold. He caught sight of the face of +Miss Carvel within, and stopped abruptly. + +"I have a warrant here from the Provost Marshal, ma'am, to seize personal +property to satisfy a claim against Colonel Carvel." + +Virginia took the order, read it, and handed it back. "I do not see how +I am to prevent you," she said. The deputy was plainly abashed. + +"I'm sorry, Miss. I--I can't tell you how sorry I am. But it's got to +be done." + +Virginia nodded coldly. And still the man hesitated. "What are you +waiting for?" she said. + +The deputy wiped his muddy feet. He made his men do likewise. Then he +entered the chill drawing-room, threw open the blinds and glanced around +him. + +"I expect all that we want is right here," he said. And at the sight of +the great chandelier, with its cut-glass crystals, he whistled. Then he +walked over to the big English Rothfield piano and lifted the lid. + +The man was a musician. Involuntarily he rested himself on the mahogany +stool, and ran his fingers over the keys. They seemed to Virginia, +standing motionless in the ball, to give out the very chords of agony. + +The piano, too, had been her mother's. It had once stood in the brick +house of her grandfather Colfax at Halcyondale. The songs of Beatrice +lay on the bottom shelf of the what-not near by. No more, of an evening +when they were alone, would Virginia quietly take them out and play them +over to the Colonel, as he sat dreaming in the window with his cigar,-- +dreaming of a field on the borders of a wood, of a young girl who held +his hand, and sang them softly to herself as she walked by his side. +And, when they reached the house in the October twilight, she had played +them for him on this piano. Often he had told Virginia of those days, +and walked with her over those paths. + +The deputy closed the lid, and sent out to the van for a truck. Virginia +stirred. For the first time she heard the words of Mammy Easter. + +"Come along upstairs wid yo' Mammy, honey. Dis ain't no place for us, +I reckon." Her words were the essence of endearment. And yet, while she +pronounced them, she glared unceasingly at the intruders. "Oh, de good +Lawd'll burn de wicked!" + +The men were removing the carved legs. Virginia went back into the room +and stood before the deputy. + +"Isn't there something else you could take? Some jewellery? "She +flushed. "I have a necklace--" + +"No, miss. This warrant's on your father. And there ain't nothing quite +so salable as pianos." + +She watched them, dry-eyed, as they carried it away. It seemed like a +coffin. Only Mammy Easter guessed at the pain in Virginia's breast, and +that was because there was a pain in her own. They took the rosewood +what-not, but Virginia snatched the songs before the men could +touch them, and held them in her arms. They seized the mahogany velvet- +bottomed chairs, her uncle's wedding present to her mother; and, last of +all, they ruthlessly tore up the Brussels carpet, beginning near the spot +where Clarence had spilled ice-cream at one of her children's parties. + +She could not bear to look into the dismantled room when they had gone. +It was the embodied wreck of her happiness. Ned closed the blinds once +more, and she herself turned the key in the lock, and went slowly up the +stairs. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE AUCTION + +"Stephen," said the Judge, in his abrupt way, "there isn't a great deal +doing. Let's go over to the Secesh property sales." + +Stephen looked up in surprise. The seizures and intended sale of +secession property had stirred up immense bitterness and indignation in +the city. There were Unionists (lukewarm) who denounced the measure as +unjust and brutal. The feelings of Southerners, avowed and secret, may +only be surmised. Rigid ostracism was to be the price of bidding on any +goods displayed, and men who bought in handsome furniture on that day +because it was cheap have still, after forty years, cause to remember it. + +It was not that Stephen feared ostracism. Anne Brinsmade was almost the +only girl left to him from among his former circle of acquaintances. +Miss Carvel's conduct is known. The Misses Russell showed him very +plainly that they disapproved of his politics. The hospitable days at +that house were over. Miss Catherwood, when they met on the street, +pretended not to see him, and Eugenie Renault gave him but a timid nod. +The loyal families to whose houses he now went were mostly Southerners, +in sentiment against forced auctions. + +However, he put on his coat, and sallied forth into the sharp air, the +Judge leaning on his arm. They walked for some distance in silence. + +"Stephen," said he, presently, "I guess I'll do a little bidding." + +Stephen did not reply. But he was astonished. He wondered what Mr. +Whipple wanted with fine furniture. And, if he really wished to bid, +Stephen knew likewise that no consideration would stop him, + +You don't approve of this proceeding, sir, I suppose,", said the Judge. + +"Yes, sir, on large grounds. War makes many harsh things necessary." + +"Then," said the Judge, tartly, "by bidding, we help to support starving +Union families. You should not be afraid to bid, sir." + +Stephen bit his lip. Sometimes Mr. Whipple made him very angry. + +"I am not afraid to bid, Judge Whipple." He did not see the smile on the +Judge's face. + +"Then you will bid in certain things for me," said Mr. Whipple. Here +he hesitated, and shook free the rest of the sentence with a wrench. +"Colonel Carvel always had a lot of stuff I wanted. Now I've got the +chance to buy it cheap." + +There was silence again, for the space of a whole block. Finally, +Stephen managed to say:-- + +"You'll have to excuse me, sir. I do not care to do that." + +"What?" cried the Judge, stopping in the middle of a cross-street, so +that a wagon nearly ran over his toes. + +"I was once a guest in Colonel Carvel's house, sir. And--" + +"And what?" + +Neither the young man nor the old knew all it was costing the other to +say these things. The Judge took a grim pleasure in eating his heart. +And as for Stephen, he often went to his office through Locust Street, +which was out of his way, in the hope that he might catch a glimpse of +Virginia. He had guessed much of the privations she had gone through. +He knew that the Colonel had hired out most of his slaves, and he had +actually seen the United States Police drive across Eleventh Street with +the piano that she had played on. + +The Judge was laughing quietly,--not a pleasant laugh to hear,--as they +came to Morgan's great warerooms. A crowd blocked the pavement, and +hustled and shoved at the doors,--roughs, and soldiers off duty, and +ladies and gentlemen whom the Judge and Stephen knew, and some of whom +they spoke to. All of these were come out of curiosity, that they might +see for themselves any who had the temerity to bid on a neighbor's +household goods. The long hall, which ran from street to street, was +packed, the people surging backward and forward, and falling roughly +against the mahogany pieces; and apologizing, and scolding, and swearing +all in a breath. The Judge, holding tightly to Stephen, pushed his way +fiercely to the stand, vowing over and over that the commotion was a +secession trick to spoil the furniture and stampede the sale. In truth, +it was at the Judge's suggestion that a blue provost's guard was called +in later to protect the seized property. + +How many of those mahogany pieces, so ruthlessly tumbled about before the +public eye, meant a heartache! Wedding presents of long ago, dear to +many a bride with silvered hair, had been torn from the corner where the +children had played--children who now, alas, were grown and gone to +war. Yes, that was the Brussels rug that had lain before the fire, and +which the little feet had worn in the corner. Those were the chairs the +little hands had harnessed, four in a row, and fallen on its side was the +armchair--the stage coach itself. There were the books, held up to +common gaze, that a beloved parent had thumbed with affection. Yes, and +here in another part of the hall were the family horses and the family +carriage that had gone so often back and forth from church with the happy +brood of children, now scattered and gone to war. + +As Stephen reached his place beside the Judge, Mr. James's effects were +being cried. And, if glances could have killed, many a bidder would have +dropped dead. The heavy dining-room table which meant so much to the +family went for a song to a young man recently come from Yankeeland, +whose open boast it was--like Eliphalet's secret one--that he would one +day grow rich enough to snap his fingers in the face of the Southern +aristocrats. Mr. James was not there. But Mr. Catherwood, his face +haggard and drawn, watched the sideboard he had given his wife on her +silver wedding being sold to a pawnbroker. + +Stephen looked in vain for Colonel Carvel--for Virginia. He did not want +to see them there. He knew by heart the list of things which had been +taken from their house. He understood the feeling which had sent the +Judge here to bid them in. And Stephen honored him the more. + +When the auctioneer came to the Carvel list, and the well-known name was +shouted out, the crowd responded with a stir and pressed closer to the +stand. And murmurs were plainly heard in more than one direction. + +"Now, gentlemen, and ladies," said the seller, "this here is a genuine +English Rothfield piano once belonging to Colonel Carvel, and the +celebrated Judge Colfax of Kaintucky." He lingered fondly over the +names, that the impression might have time to sink deep. "This here +magnificent instrument's worth at the very least" (another pause) "twelve +hundred dollars. What am I bid?" + +He struck a base note of the keys, then a treble, and they vibrated in +the heated air of the big hall. Had he hit the little C of the top +octave, the tinkle of that also might have been heard. + +"Gentlemen and ladies, we have to begin somewheres. What am I bid?" + +A menacing murmur gave place to the accusing silence. Some there were +who gazed at the Rothfield with longing eyes, but who had no intention of +committing social suicide. Suddenly a voice, the rasp of which +penetrated to St. Charles Street, came out with a bid. The owner was a +seedy man with a straw-colored, drunkard's mustache. He was leaning +against the body of Mrs. Russell's barouche (seized for sale), and those +about him shrank away as from smallpox. His hundred-dollar offer was +followed by a hiss. What followed next Stephen will always remember. +When Judge Whipple drew himself up to his full six feet, that was a +warning to those that knew him. As he doubled the bid, the words came +out with the aggressive distinctness of a man who through a long life has +been used to opposition. He with the gnawed yellow mustache pushed +himself clear of the barouche, his smouldering cigar butt dropping to the +floor. But there were no hisses now. + +And this is how Judge Whipple braved public opinion once more. As he +stood there, defiant, many were the conjectures as to what he could wish +to do with the piano of his old friend. Those who knew the Judge (and +there were few who did not) pictured to themselves the dingy +little apartment where he lived, and smiled. Whatever his detractors +might have said of him, no one was ever heard to avow that he had bought +or sold anything for gain. + +A tremor ran through the people. Could it have been of admiration for +the fine old man who towered there glaring defiance at those about him? +"Give me a strong and consistent enemy," some great personage has said, +"rather than a lukewarm friend." Three score and five years the Judge +had lived, and now some were beginning to suspect that he had a heart. +Verily he had guarded his secret well. But it was let out to many more +that day, and they went home praising him who had once pronounced his +name with bitterness. + +This is what happened. Before he of the yellow mustache could pick up +his cigar from the floor and make another bid, the Judge had cried out a +sum which was the total of Colonel Carvel's assessment. Many recall to +this day how fiercely he frowned when the applause broke forth of itself; +and when he turned to go they made a path for him, in admiration, the +length of the hall, down which he stalked, looking neither to the right +nor left. Stephen followed him, thankful for the day which had brought +him into the service of such a man. + +And so it came about that the other articles were returned to Colonel +Carvel with the marshal's compliments, and put back into the cold parlor +where they had stood for many years. The men who brought them offered to +put down the carpet, but by Virginia's orders the rolls were stood up in +the corner, and the floor left bare. And days passed into weeks, and no +sign or message came from Judge Whipple in regard to the piano he had +bought. Virginia did not dare mention it to the Colonel. + +Where was it? It had been carried by six sweating negroes up the narrow +stairs into the Judge's office. Stephen and Shadrach had by Mr. +Whipple's orders cleared a corner of his inner office and bedroom of +papers and books and rubbish, and there the bulky instrument was finally +set up. It occupied one-third of the space. The Judge watched the +proceeding grimly, choking now and again from the dust that was raised, +yet uttering never a word. He locked the lid when the van man handed him +the key, and thrust that in his pocket. + +Stephen had of late found enough to do in St. Louis. He was the kind of +man to whom promotions came unsought, and without noise. In the autumn +he had been made a captain in the Halleck Guards of the State Militia, as +a reward for his indefatigable work in the armories and his knowledge of +tactics. Twice his company had been called out at night, and once they +made a campaign as far as the Merimec and captured a party of recruits +who were destined for Jefferson Davis. Some weeks passed before Mr. +Brinsmade heard of his promotion and this exploit, and yet scarcely a day +went by that he did not see the young man at the big hospital. For +Stephen helped in the work of the Sanitary Commission too, and so strove +to make up in zeal for the service in the field which he longed to give. + +After Christmas Mr. and Mrs. Brinsmade moved out to their place on the +Bellefontaine Road. This was to force Anne to take a rest. For the girl +was worn out with watching at the hospitals, and with tending the +destitute mothers and children from the ranks of the refugees. The +Brinsmade place was not far from the Fair Grounds,--now a receiving camp +for the crude but eager regiments of the Northern states. To Mr. +Brinsmade's, when the day's duty was done, the young Union officers used +to ride, and often there would be half a dozen of them to tea. That +house, and other great houses on the Bellefontaine Road with which this +history has no occasion to deal, were as homes to many a poor fellow who +would never see home again. Sometimes Anne would gather together such +young ladies of her acquaintance from the neighbor hood and the city as +their interests and sympathies permitted to waltz with a Union officer, +and there would be a little dance. To these dances Stephen Brice was +usually invited. + +One such occasion occurred on a Friday in January, and Mr. Brinsmade +himself called in his buggy and drove Stephen to the country early in the +afternoon. He and Anne went for a walk along the river, the surface of +which was broken by lumps of yellow ice. Gray clouds hung low in the sky +as they picked their way over the frozen furrows of the ploughed fields. +The grass was all a yellow-brown, but the north wind which swayed the +bare trees brought a touch of color to Anne's cheeks. Before they +realized where they were, they had nearly crossed the Bellegarde estate, +and the house itself was come into view, standing high on the slope above +the withered garden. They halted. + +"The shutters are up," said Stephen. "I understood that Mrs. Colfax had +come out here not long a--" + +"She came out for a day just before Christina," said Anne, smiling, "and +then she ran off to Kentucky. I think she was afraid that she was one of +the two women on the list of Sixty." + +"It must have been a blow to her pride when she found that she was not," +said Stephen, who had a keen remembrance of her conduct upon a certain +Sunday not a year gone. + +Impelled by the same inclination, they walked in silence to the house and +sat down on the edge of the porch. The only motion in the view was the +smoke from the slave quarters twisting in the wind, and the hurrying ice +in the stream. + +"Poor Jinny!" said Anne, with a sigh, "how she loved to romp! What good +times we used to have here together!" + +"Do you think that she is unhappy?" Stephen demanded, involuntarily. + +"Oh, yes," said Anne. "How can you ask? But you could not make her show +it. The other morning when she came out to our house I found her sitting +at the piano. I am sure there were tears in her eyes, but she would not +let me see them. She made some joke about Spencer Catherwood running +away. What do you think the Judge will do with that piano, Stephen?" + +He shook his head. + +"The day after they put it in his room he came in with a great black +cloth, which he spread over it. You cannot even see the feet." + +There was a silence. And Anne, turning to him timidly, gave him a long, +searching look. + +"It is growing late," she said. "I think that we ought to go back." + +They went out by the long entrance road, through the naked woods. +Stephen said little. Only a little while before he had had one of those +vivid dreams of Virginia which left their impression, but not their +substance, to haunt him. On those rare days following the dreams her +spirit had its mastery over his. He pictured her then with a glow on her +face which was neither sadness nor mirth,--a glow that ministered to him +alone. And yet, he did not dare to think that he might have won her, +even if politics and war had not divided them. + +When the merriment of the dance was at its height that evening, Stephen +stood at the door of the long room, meditatively watching the bright +gowns and the flash of gold on the uniforms as they flitted past. +Presently the opposite door opened, and he heard Mr. Brinsmade's voice +mingling with another, the excitable energy of which recalled some +familiar episode. Almost--so it seemed--at one motion, the owner of the +voice had come out of the door and had seized Stephen's hand in a warm +grasp,--a tall and spare figure in the dress of a senior officer. The +military frock, which fitted the man's character rather than the man, +was carelessly open, laying bare a gold-buttoned white waistcoat and an +expanse of shirt bosom which ended in a black stock tie. The ends of the +collar were apart the width of the red clipped beard, and the mustache +was cropped straight along the line of the upper lip. The forehead rose +high, and was brushed carelessly free of the hair. The nose was almost +straight, but combative. A fire fairly burned in the eyes. + +"The boy doesn't remember me," said the gentleman, in quick tones, +smiling at Mr. Brinsmade. + +"Yes, sir, I do," Stephen made haste to answer. He glanced at the star +on the shoulder strap, and said. "You are General Sherman." + +"First rate!" laughed the General, patting him. "First rate!" + +"Now in command at Camp Benton, Stephen," Mr. Brinsmade put in. "Won't +you sit down, General?" + +"No," said the General, emphatically waving away the chair. "No, rather +stand." Then his keen face suddenly lighted with amusement,--and +mischief, Stephen thought. "So you've heard of me since we met, sir?" +"Yes, General." + +"Humph! Guess you heard I was crazy," said the General, in his downright +way. + +Stephen was struck dumb. + +"He's been reading the lies in the newspapers too, Brinsmade," the +General went on rapidly. "I'll make 'em eat their newspapers for saying +I was crazy. That's the Secretary of War's doings. Ever tell you what +Cameron did, Brinsmade? He and his party were in Louisville last fall, +when I was serving in Kentucky, and came to my room in the Galt House. +Well, we locked the door, and Miller sent us up a good lunch and wine, +After lunch, the Secretary lay on my bed, and we talked things over. +He asked me what I thought about things in Kentucky. I told him. I got +a map. I said, 'Now, Mr. Secretary, here is the whole Union line from +the Potomac to Kansas. Here's McClellan in the East with one hundred +miles of front. Here's Fremont in the West with one hundred miles. Here +we are in Kentucky, in the centre, with three hundred miles to defend. +McClellan has a hundred thousand men, Fremont has sixty thousand. You +give us fellows with over three hundred miles only eighteen thousand.' +'How many do you want?' says Cameron, still on the bed. 'Two hundred +thousand before we get through,' said I. Cameron pitched up his hands +in the air. 'Great God?' says he, 'where are they to come from?' 'The +northwest is chuck full of regiments you fellows at Washington won't +accept,' said I. 'Mark my words, Mr. Secretary, you'll need 'em all and +more before we get done with this Rebellion.' Well, sir, he was very +friendly before we finished, and I thought the thing was all thrashed +out. No, sir! he goes back to Washington and gives it out that I'm +crazy, and want two hundred thousand men in Kentucky. Then I am ordered +to report to Halleck in Missouri here, and he calls me back from Sedalia +because he believes the lies." + +Stephen, who had in truth read the stories in question a month or two +before, could not conceal his embarrassment He looked at the man in front +of him,--alert, masterful intelligent, frank to any stranger who took his +fancy,--and wondered how any one who had talked to him could believe +them. + +Mr. Brinsmade smiled. "They have to print something, General," he said. + +"I'll give 'em something to print later on," answered the General, +grimly. Then his expression changed. "Brinsmade, you fellows did have a +session with Fremont, didn't you? Anderson sent me over here last +September, and the first man I ran across at the Planters' House was +Appleton. '--What are you in town for?' says he. 'To see Fremont,' I +said. You ought to have heard Appleton laugh. 'You don't think +Fremont'll see you, do you?' says he. 'Why not?' 'Well,' says Tom, 'go +'round to his palace at six to-morrow morning and bribe that Hungarian +prince who runs his body-guard to get you a good place in the line of +senators and governors and first citizens, and before nightfall you may +get a sight of him, since you come from Anderson. Not one man in a +hundred,' says Appleton, I not one man in a hundred, reaches his chief- +of-staff.' Next morning," the General continued in a staccato which was +often his habit, "had breakfast before daybreak and went 'round there. +Place just swarming with Californians--army contracts." (The General +sniffed.) Saw Fremont. Went back to hotel. More Californians, and by +gad--old Baron Steinberger with his nose hanging over the register." + +"Fremont was a little difficult to get at, General," said Mr. Brinsmade. +"Things were confused and discouraged when those first contracts were +awarded. Fremont was a good man, and it wasn't his fault that the +inexperience of his quartermasters permitted some of those men to get +rich." + +"No," said the General. "His fault! Certainly not. Good man! To be +sure he was--didn't get along with Blair. These court-martials you're +having here now have stirred up the whole country. I guess we'll hear +now how those fortunes were made. To listen to those witnesses lie about +each other on the stand is better than the theatre." + +Stephen laughed at the comical and vivid manner in which the General set +this matter forth. He himself had been present one day of the sittings +of the court-martial when one of the witnesses on the prices of mules was +that same seedy man with the straw-colored mustache who had bid for +Virginia's piano against the Judge. + +"Come, Stephen," said the General, abruptly, "run and snatch one of those +pretty girls from my officers. They're having more than their share." + +"They deserve more, sir," answered Stephen. Whereupon the General laid +his hand impulsively on the young man's shoulder, divining what Stephen +did not say. + +"Nonsense!" said be; "you are doing the work in this war, not we. +We do the damage--you repair it. If it were not for Mr. Brinsmade and +you gentlemen who help him, where would our Western armies be? Don't you +go to the front yet a while, young man. We need the best we have in +reserve." He glanced critically at Stephen. "You've had military +training of some sort?" + +"He's a captain in the Halleck Guards, sir," said Mr. Brinsmade, +generously, "and the best drillmaster we've had in this city. He's seen +service, too, General." + +Stephen reddened furiously and started to protest, when the General +cried:-- + +"It's more than I have in this war. Come, come, I knew he was a soldier. +Let's see what kind of a strategist he'll make. Brinsmade, have you got +such a thing as a map?" Mr. Brinsmade had, and led the way back into the +library. The General shut the door, lighted a cigar with a single +vigorous stroke of a match, and began to smoke with quick puffs. Stephen +was puzzled how to receive the confidences the General was giving out +with such freedom. + +When the map was laid on the table, the General drew a pencil from his +pocket and pointed to the state of Kentucky. Then he drew a line from +Columbus to Bowling Green, through Forts Donelson and Henry. + +"Now, Stephen," said he, "there's the Rebel line. Show me the proper +place to break it." + +Stephen hesitated a while, and then pointed at the centre. + +"Good!" said the General. "Very good!" He drew a heavy line across the +first, and it ran almost in the bed of the Tennessee River. He swung on +Mr. Brinsmade. "Very question Halleck asked me the other day, and that's +how I answered it. Now, gentlemen, there's a man named Grant down in +that part of the country. Keep your eyes on him. Ever heard of him, +Brinsmade? He used to live here once, and a year ago he was less than +I was. Now he's a general." + +The recollection of the scene in the street by the Arsenal that May +morning not a year gone came to Stephen with a shock. + +"I saw him," he cried; "he was Captain Grant that lived on the Gravois +Road. But surely this can't be the same man who seized Paducah and was +in that affair at Belmont." + +"By gum!" said the General, laughing. "Don't wonder you're surprised. +Grant has stuff in him. They kicked him around Springfield awhile, after +the war broke out, for a military carpet-bagger. Then they gave him for +a regiment the worst lot of ruffians you ever laid eyes on. He fixed +'em. He made 'em walk the plank. He made 'em march halfway across the +state instead of taking the cars the Governor offered. Belmont! I guess +he is the man that chased the Rebs out of Belmont. Then his boys broke +loose when they got into the town. That wasn't Grant's fault. The Rebs +came back and chased 'em out into their boats on the river. Brinsmade, +you remember hearing about that. + +"Grant did the coolest thing you ever saw. He sat on his horse at the top +of the bluff while the boys fell over each other trying to get on the +boat. Yes, sir, he sat there, disgusted, on his horse, smoking a cigar, +with the Rebs raising pandemonium all around him. And then, sir," cried +the General, excitedly, "what do you think he did? Hanged if he didn't +force his horse right on to his haunches, slide down the whole length of +the bank and ride him across a teetering plank on to the steamer. And +the Rebs just stood on the bank and stared. They were so astonished +they didn't even shoot the man. You watch Grant," said the General. +"And now, Stephen," he added, "just you run off and take hold of the +prettiest girl you can find. If any of my boys object, say I sent you." + +The next Monday Stephen had a caller. It was little Tiefel, now a first +lieutenant with a bristly beard and tanned face, come to town on a few +days' furlough. He had been with Lyon at Wilson's Creek, and he had a +sad story to tell of how he found poor Richter, lying stark on that +bloody field, with a smile of peace upon his face. Strange that he +should at length have been killed by a sabre! + +It was a sad meeting for those two, since each reminded the other of a +dear friend they would see no more on earth. They went out to sup +together in the German style; and gradually, over his beer, Tiefel forgot +his sorrow. Stephen listened with an ache to the little man's tales of +the campaigns he had been through. So that presently Tiefel cried out: + +"Why, my friend, you are melancholy as an owl. I will tell you a funny +story. Did you ever hear of one General Sherman? He that they say is +crazy?" + +"He is no more crazy than I am," said Stephen, warmly-- + +"Is he not?" answered Tiefel, then I will show you a mistake. You +recall last November he was out to Sedalia to inspect the camp there, and +he sleeps in a little country store where I am quartered. Now up gets +your General Sherman in the middle of the night,--midnight,--and marches +up and down between the counters, and waves his arms. So, says he, 'land +so,' says he, 'Sterling Price will be here, and Steele here, and this +column will take that road, and so-and-so's a damned fool. Is not that +crazy? So he walks up and down for three eternal hours. Says he, 'Pope +has no business to be at Osterville, and Steele here at Sedalia with his +regiments all over the place. They must both go into camp at La Mine +River, and form brigades and divisions, that the troops may be handled.'" + +"If that's insanity," cried Stephen so strongly as to surprise the little +man; then I wish we had more insane generals. It just shows how a +malicious rumor will spread. What Sherman said about Pope's and Steele's +forces is true as Gospel, and if you ever took the trouble to look into +that situation, Tiefel, you would see it." And Stephen brought down his +mug on the table with a crash that made the bystanders jump. + +"Himmel!" exclaimed little Tiefel. But he spoke in admiration. + +It was not a month after that that Sherman's prophecy of the quiet +general who had slid down the bluff at Belmont came true. The whole +country bummed with Grant's praises. Moving with great swiftness and +secrecy up the Tennessee, in company with the gunboats of Commodore +Foote, he had pierced the Confederate line at the very point Sherman had +indicated. Fort Henry had fallen, and Grant was even then moving to +besiege Donelson. + +Mr. Brinsmade prepared to leave at once for the battlefield, taking with +him too Paducah physicians and nurses. All day long the boat was loading +with sanitary stores and boxes of dainties for the wounded. It was muggy +and wet--characteristic of that winter--as Stephen pushed through the +drays on the slippery levee to the landing. + +He had with him a basket his mother had put up. He also bore a message +to Mr. Brinsmade from the Judge It was while he was picking his way along +the crowded decks that he ran into General Sherman. The General seized +him unceremoniously by the shoulder. + +"Good-by, Stephen," he said. + +"Good-by, General," said Stephen, shifting his basket to shake hands. +"Are you going away?" + +"Ordered to Paducah," said the General. He pulled Stephen off the guards +into an empty cabin. "Brice," said he, earnestly, "I haven't forgotten +how you saved young Brinsmade at Camp Jackson. They tell me that you are +useful here. I say, don't go in unless you have to. I don't mean force, +you understand. But when you feel that you can go in, come to me or +write me a letter. That is," he added, seemingly inspecting Stephen's +white teeth with approbation, "if you're not afraid to serve under a +crazy man." + +It has been said that the General liked the lack of effusiveness of +Stephen's reply. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ELIPHALET PLAYS HIS TRUMPS + +Summer was come again. Through interminable days, the sun beat down upon +the city; and at night the tortured bricks flung back angrily the heat +with which he had filled them. Great battles had been fought, and vast +armies were drawing breath for greater ones to come. + +"Jinny," said the Colonel one day, "as we don't seem to be much use in +town, I reckon we may as well go to Glencoe." + +Virginia, threw her arms around her father's neck. For many months she +had seen what the Colonel himself was slow to comprehend--that his +usefulness was gone. The days melted into weeks, and Sterling Price and +his army of liberation failed to come. The vigilant Union general and +his aides had long since closed all avenues to the South. For, one fine +morning toward the end of the previous summer, when the Colonel was +contemplating a journey, he had read that none might leave the city +without a pass, whereupon he went hurriedly to the office of the Provost +Marshal. There he had found a number of gentlemen in the same plight, +each waving a pass made out by the Provost Marshal's clerks, and waiting +for that officer's signature. The Colonel also procured one of +these, and fell into line. The Marshal gazed at the crowd, pulled off +his coat, and readily put his name to the passes of several gentlemen +going east. Next came Mr. Bub Ballington, whom the Colonel knew, but +pretended not to. + +"Going to Springfield?" asked the Marshal, genially. + +"Yes," said Bub. + +"Not very profitable to be a minute-man, eh?" in the same tone. + +The Marshal signs his name, Mr, Ballington trying not to look indignant +as he makes for the door. A small silver bell rings on the Marshal's +desk, the one word: "Spot!" breaks the intense silence, which is one way +of saying that Mr. Ballington is detained, and will probably be lodged +that night at Government expense. + +"Well, Colonel Carvel, what can I do for you this morning?" asked the +Marshal, genially. + +The Colonel pushed back his hat and wiped his brow. "I reckon I'll wait +till next week, Captain," said Mr. Carvel. "It's pretty hot to travel +just now." + +The Provost Marshal smiled sweetly. There were many in the office who +would have liked to laugh, but it did not pay to laugh at some people. +Colonel Carvel was one of them. + +In the proclamation of martial law was much to make life less endurable +than ever. All who were convicted by a court-martial of being rebels +were to have property confiscated, and slaves set free. Then there was a +certain oath to be taken by all citizens who did not wish to have +guardians appointed over their actions. There were many who swallowed +this oath and never felt any ill effects. Mr. Jacob Cluyme was one, and +came away feeling very virtuous. It was not unusual for Mr. Cluyme to +feel virtuous. Mr. Hopper did not have indigestion after taking it, but +Colonel Carvel would sooner have eaten, gooseberry pie, which he had +never tasted but once. + +That summer had worn away, like a monster which turns and gives hot gasps +when you think it has expired. It took the Arkansan just a month, under +Virginia's care, to become well enough to be sent to a Northern prison +He was not precisely a Southern gentleman, and he went to sleep over the +"Idylls of the King." But he was admiring, and grateful, and wept when +he went off to the boat with the provost's guard, destined for a Northern +prison. Virginia wept too. He had taken her away from her aunt (who +would have nothing to do with him), and had given her occupation. She +nor her father never tired of hearing his rough tales of Price's rough +army. + +His departure was about the time when suspicions were growing set. The +favor had caused comment and trouble, hence there was no hope of giving +another sufferer the same comfort. The cordon was drawn tighter. One +of the mysterious gentlemen who had been seen in the vicinity of Colonel +Carvel's house was arrested on the ferry, but he had contrived to be rid +of the carpet-sack in which certain precious letters were carried. + +Throughout the winter, Mr. Hopper's visits to Locust Street had continued +at intervals of painful regularity. It is not necessary to dwell upon +his brilliant powers of conversation, nor to repeat the platitudes which +he repeated, for there was no significance in Mr. Hopper's tales, not a +particle. The Colonel had found that out, and was thankful. His manners +were better; his English decidedly better. + +It was for her father's sake, of course, that Virginia bore with him. +Such is the appointed lot of women. She tried to be just, and it +occurred to her that she had never before been just. Again and again she +repeated to herself that Eliphalet's devotion to the Colonel at this low +ebb of his fortunes had something in it of which she did not suspect him. +She had a class contempt for Mr. Hopper as an uneducated Yankee and a +person of commercial ideals. But now he was showing virtues,--if virtues +they were,--and she tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. With his +great shrewdness and business ability, why did he not take advantage of +the many opportunities the war gave to make a fortune? For Virginia had +of late been going to the store with the Colonel,--who spent his mornings +turning over piles of dusty papers, and Mr. Hopper had always been at his +desk. + +After this, Virginia even strove to be kind to him, but it was uphill +work. The front door never closed after one of his visits that suspicion +was not left behind. Antipathy would assert itself. Could it be that +there was a motive under all this plotting? He struck her inevitably as +the kind who would be content to mine underground to attain an end. The +worst she could think of him was that he wished to ingratiate himself +now, in the hope that, when the war was ended, he might become a partner +in Mr. Carvel's business. She had put even this away as unworthy of her. + +Once she had felt compelled to speak to her father on the subject. + +"I believe I did him an injustice, Pa," she said. "Not that I like him +any better now. I must be honest about that. I simply can't like him. +But I do think that if he had been as unscrupulous as I thought, he would +have deserted you long ago for something more profitable. He would not +be sitting in the office day after day making plans for the business when +the war is over." + +She remembered how sadly he had smiled at her over the top of his paper. + +"You are a good girl, Jinny," he said. + +Toward the end of July of that second summer riots broke out in the city, +and simultaneously a bright spot appeared on Virginia's horizon. This +took the form, for Northerners, of a guerilla scare, and an order was +promptly issued for the enrollment of all the able-bodied men in the ten +wards as militia, subject to service in the state, to exterminate the +roving bands. Whereupon her Britannic Majesty became extremely popular, +--even with some who claimed for a birthplace the Emerald Isle. Hundreds +who heretofore had valued but lightly their British citizenship made +haste to renew their allegiance; and many sought the office of the +English Consul whose claims on her Majesty's protection were vague, to +say the least. Broken heads and scandal followed. For the first time, +when Virginia walked to the store with her father, Eliphalet was not +there. It was strange indeed that Virginia defended him. + +"I don't blame him for not wanting to fight for the Yankees," she said. + +The Colonel could not resist a retort. + +"Then why doesn't he fight for the South he asked" + +"Fight for the South!" cried the young lady, scornfully. "Mr. Hopper +fight? I reckon the South wouldn't have him." + +"I reckon not, too," said the Colonel, dryly. + +For the following week curiosity prompted Virginia to take that walk with +the Colonel. Mr. Hopper being still absent, she helped him to sort the +papers--those grimy reminders of a more prosperous time gone by. Often +Mr. Carvel would run across one which seemed to bring some incident to +his mind; for he would drop it absently on his desk, his hand seeking his +chin, and remain for half an hour lost in thought. Virginia would not +disturb him. + +Meanwhile there had been inquiries for Mr. Hopper. The Colonel answered +them all truthfully--generally with that dangerous suavity for which he +was noted. Twice a seedy man with a gnawed yellow mustache had come in +to ask Eliphalet's whereabouts. On the second occasion this individual +became importunate. + +"You don't know nothin' about him, you say?" he demanded. + +"No," said the Colonel. + +The man took a shuffle forward. + +"My name's Ford," he said. "I 'low I kin 'lighten you a little." + +"Good day, sir," said the Colonel. + +"I guess you'll like to hear what I've got to say." + +"Ephum," said Mr. Carvel in his natural voice, "show this man out." + +Mr. Ford slunk out without Ephum's assistance. But he half turned at the +door, and shot back a look that frightened Virginia. + +"Oh, Pa," she cried, in alarm, "what did he mean?" + +"I couldn't tell you, Jinny," he answered. But she noticed that he was +very thoughtful as they walked home. The next morning Eliphalet had not +returned, but a corporal and guard were waiting to search the store for +him. The Colonel read the order, and invited them in with hospitality. +He even showed them the way upstairs, and presently Virginia heard them +all tramping overhead among the bales. Her eye fell upon the paper they +had brought, which lay unfolded on her father's desk. It was signed +Stephen A. Brice, Enrolling Officer. + +That very afternoon they moved to Glencoe, and Ephum was left in sole +charge of the store. At Glencoe, far from the hot city and the cruel +war, began a routine of peace. Virginia was a child again, romping in +the woods and fields beside her father. The color came back to her +cheeks once more, and the laughter into her voice. The two of them, and +Ned and Mammy, spent a rollicking hour in the pasture the freedom of +which Dick had known so long, before the old horse was caught and brought +back into bondage. After that Virginia took long drives with her father, +and coming home, they would sit in the summer house high above the +Merimec, listening to the crickets' chirp, and watching the day fade upon +the water. The Colonel, who had always detested pipes, learned to smoke +a corncob. He would sit by the hour, with his feet on the rail of the +porch and his hat tilted back, while Virginia read to him. Poe and +Wordsworth and Scott he liked, but Tennyson was his favorite. Such +happiness could not last. + +One afternoon when Virginia was sitting in the summer house alone, her +thoughts wandering back, as they sometimes did, to another afternoon she +had spent there,--it seemed so long ago,--when she saw Mammy Easter +coming toward her. + +"Honey, dey's comp'ny up to de house. Mister Hopper's done arrived. +He's on de porch, talkin' to your Pa. Lawsey, look wha he come!" + +In truth, the solid figure of Eliphalet himself was on the path some +twenty yards behind her. His hat was in his hand; his hair was plastered +down more neatly than ever, and his coat was a faultless and sober +creation of a Franklin Avenue tailor. He carried a cane, which was +unheard of. Virginia sat upright, and patted her skirts with a gesture +of annoyance--what she felt was anger, resentment. Suddenly she rose, +swept past Mammy, and met him ten paces from the summer house. + +"How-dy-do, Miss Virginia," he cried pleasantly. "Your father had a +notion you might be here." He said fayther. + +Virginia gave him her hand limply. Her greeting would have frozen a man +of ardent temperament. But it was not precisely ardor that Eliphalet +showed. The girl paused and examined him swiftly. There was something +in the man's air to-day. + +"So you were not caught?" she said. + +Her words seemed to relieve some tension in him. He laughed noiselessly. + +"I just guess I wahn't." + +"How did you escape?" she asked, looking at him curiously. + +"Well, I did, first of all. You're considerable smart, Miss Jinny, but +I'll bet you can't tell me where I was, now." + +"I do not care to know. The place might save you again." + +He showed his disappointment. "I cal'lated it might interest you to know +how I dodged the Sovereign State of Missouri. General Halleck made an +order that released a man from enrolling on payment of ten dollars. I +paid. Then I was drafted into the Abe Lincoln Volunteers; I paid a +substitute. And so here I be, exercising life, and liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness." + +"So you bought yourself free?" said Virginia. "If your substitute gets +killed, I suppose you will have cause for congratulation." + +Eliphalet laughed, and pulled down his cuffs. "That's his lookout, I +cal'late," said he. He glanced at the girl in a way that made her +vaguely uneasy. She turned from him, back toward the summer house. +Eliphalet's eyes smouldered as they rested upon her figure. He took a +step forward. + +"Miss Jinny?" he said. + +"Yes?" + +"I've heard considerable about the beauties of this place. Would you +mind showing me 'round a bit?" Virginia started. It was his tone now. +Not since that first evening in Locust Street had it taken on such +assurance, And yet she could not be impolite to a guest. + +"Certainly not," she replied, but without looking up. Eliphalet led the +way. He came to the summer house, glanced around it with apparent +satisfaction, and put his foot on the moss-grown step. Virginia did a +surprising thing. She leaped quickly into the doorway before him, and +stood facing him, framed in the climbing roses. + +"Oh, Mr. Hopper!" she cried. "Please, not in here." He drew back, +staring in astonishment at the crimson in her face. + +"Why not?" he asked suspiciously--almost brutally. She had been groping +wildly for excuses, and found none. + +"Because," she said, "because I ask you not to." With dignity: "That +should be sufficient." + +"Well," replied Eliphalet, with an abortive laugh, "that's funny, now. +Womenkind get queer notions, which I cal'late we've got to respect and +put up with all our lives--eh?" + +Her anger flared at his leer and at his broad way of gratifying her whim. +And she was more incensed than ever at his air of being at home--it was +nothing less. + +The man's whole manner was an insult. She strove still to hide her +resentment. + +"There is a walk along the bluff," she said, coldly, "where the view is +just as good." + +But she purposely drew him into the right-hand path, which led, after a +little, back to the house. Despite her pace he pressed forward to her +side. + +"Miss Jinny," said he, precipitately, "did I ever strike you as a +marrying man?" + +Virginia stopped, and put her handkerchief to her face, the impulse +strong upon her to laugh. Eliphalet was suddenly transformed again into +the common commercial Yankee. He was in love, and had come to ask her +advice. She might have known it. + +"I never thought of you as of the marrying kind, Mr. Hopper," she +answered, her voice quivering. + +Indeed, he was irresistibly funny as he stood hot and ill at ease. The +Sunday coat bore witness to his increasing portliness by creasing across +from the buttons; his face, fleshy and perspiring, showed purple veins, +and the little eyes receded comically, like a pig's. + +"Well, I've been thinking serious of late about getting married," he +continued, slashing the rose bushes with his stick. "I don't cal'late to +be a sentimental critter. I'm not much on high-sounding phrases, and +such things, but I'd give you my word I'd make a good husband." + +"Please be careful of those roses, Mr. Hopper." + +"Beg pardon," said Eliphalet. He began to lose track of his tenses--that +was the only sign he gave of perturbation. "When I come to St. Louis +without a cent, Miss Jinny, I made up my mind I'd be a rich man before +I left it. If I was to die now, I'd have kept that promise. I'm not +thirty-four, and I cal'late I've got as much money in a safe place as a +good many men you call rich. I'm not saying what I've got, mind you. +All in proper time. + +"I'm a pretty steady kind. I've stopped chewing--there was a time when I +done that. And I don't drink nor smoke." + +"That is all very commendable, Mr. Hopper," Virginia said, stifling a +rebellious titter. "But,--but why did you give up chewing?" + +"I am informed that the ladies are against it," said Eliphalet,--"dead +against it. You wouldn't like it in a husband, now, would you?" + +This time the laugh was not to be put down. "I confess I shouldn't," she +said. + +"Thought so," he replied, as one versed. His tones took on a nasal +twang. "Well, as I was saying, I've about got ready to settle down, and +I've had my eye on the lady this seven years." + +"Marvel of constancy!" said Virginia. "And the lady?" + +"The lady," said Eliphalet, bluntly, "is you." He glanced at her +bewildered face and went on rapidly: "You pleased me the first day I set +eyes on you in the store I said to myself, 'Hopper, there's the one for +you to marry.' I'm plain, but my folks was good people. I set to work +right then to make a fortune for you, Miss Jinny. You've just what I +need. I'm a plain business man with no frills. You'll do the frills. +You're the kind that was raised in the lap of luxury. You'll need a man +with a fortune, and a big one; you're the sort to show it off. I've got +the foundations of that fortune, and the proof of it right here. And I +tell you,"--his jaw was set,--"I tell you that some day Eliphalet Hopper +will be one of the richest men in the West." + +He had stopped, facing her in the middle of the way, his voice strong, +his confidence supreme. At first she had stared at him in dumb wonder. +Then, as she began to grasp the meaning of his harangue, astonishment was +still dominant,--sheer astonishment. She scarcely listened. But, as he +finished, the thatch of the summer house caught her eye. A vision arose +of a man beside whom Eliphalet was not worthy to crawl. She thought of +Stephen as he had stood that evening in the sunset, and this proposal +seemed a degradation. This brute dared to tempt her with money. +Scalding words rose to her lips. But she caught the look on Eliphalet's +face, and she knew that he would not understand. This was one who rose +and fell, who lived and loved and hated and died and was buried by-- +money. + +For a second she looked into his face as one who escapes a pit gazes over +the precipice, and shuddered. As for Eliphalet, let it not be thought +that he had no passion. This was the moment for which he had lived since +the day he had first seen her and been scorned in the store. That type +of face, that air,--these were the priceless things he would buy with his +money. Crazed with the very violence of his long-pent desire, he seized +her hand. She wrung it free again. + +"How--how dare you!" she cried. + +He staggered back, and stood for a moment motionless, as though stunned. +Then, slowly, a light crept into his little eyes which haunted her for +many a day. + +"You--won't--marry me?" he said. + +"Oh, how dare you ask me!" exclaimed Virginia, her face burning with +the shame of it. She was standing with her hands behind her, her back +against a great walnut trunk, the crusted branches of which hung over the +bluff. Even as he looked at her, Eliphalet lost his head, and +indiscretion entered his soul. + +"You must!" he said hoarsely. "You must! You've got no notion of my +money, I say." + +"Oh!" she cried, "can't you understand? If you owned the whole of +California, I would not marry you." Suddenly he became very cool. He +slipped his hand into a pocket, as one used to such a motion, and drew +out some papers. + +"I cal'late you ain't got much idea of the situation, Miss Carvel," he +said; "the wheels have been a-turning lately. You're poor, but I guess +you don't know how poor you are,--eh? The Colonel's a man of honor, +ain't he?" + +For her life she could not have answered,--nor did she even know why she +stayed to listen. + +"Well," he said, "after all, there ain't much use in your lookin' over +them papers. A woman wouldn't know. I'll tell you what they say: they +say that if I choose, I am Carvel & Company." + +The little eyes receded, and he waited a moment, seemingly to prolong a +physical delight in the excitement and suffering of a splendid creature. +The girl was breathing fast and deep. + +"I cal'late you despise me, don't you?" he went on, as if that, too, +gave him pleasure. "But I tell you the Colonel's a beggar but for me. +Go and ask him if I'm lying. All you've got to do is to say you'll be my +wife, and I tear these notes in two. They go over the bluff." (He made +the motion with his hands.) "Carvel & Company's an old firm,--a +respected firm. You wouldn't care to see it go out of the family, I +cal'late." + +He paused again, triumphant. But she did none of the things he expected. +She said, simply:--"Will you please follow me, Mr. Hopper." + +And he followed her,--his shrewdness gone, for once, + +Save for the rise and fall of her shoulders she seemed calm. The path +wound through a jungle of waving sunflowers and led into the shade in +front of the house. There was the Colonel sitting on the porch. His +pipe lay with its scattered ashes on the boards, and his head was bent +forward, as though listening. When he saw the two, he rose expectantly, +and went forward to meet them. Virginia stopped before him. + +"Pa," she said, "is it true that you have borrowed money from this man?" + +Eliphalet had seen Mr. Carvel angry once, and his soul had quivered. +Terror, abject terror, seized him now, so that his knees smote together. +As well stare into the sun as into the Colonel's face. In one stride he +had a hand in the collar of Eliphalet's new coat, the other pointing down +the path. + +"It takes just a minute to walk to that fence, sir," he said sternly. +"If you are any longer about it, I reckon you'll never get past it. +You're a cowardly hound, sir!" Mr. Hopper's gait down the flagstones was +an invention of his own. It was neither a walk, nor a trot, nor a run, +but a sort of sliding amble, such as is executed in nightmares. Singing +in his head was the famous example of the eviction of Babcock from the +store,--the only time that the Colonel's bullet had gone wide. And down +in the small of his back Eliphalet listened for the crack of a pistol, +and feared that a clean hole might be bored there any minute. Once +outside, he took to the white road, leaving a trail of dust behind him +that a wagon might have raised. Fear lent him wings, but neglected to +lift his feet. + +The Colonel passed his arm around his daughter, and pulled his goatee +thoughtfully. And Virginia, glancing shyly upward, saw a smile in the +creases about his mouth: She smiled, too, and then the tears hid him from +her. + +Strange that the face which in anger withered cowards and made men look +grave, was capable of such infinite tenderness,--tenderness and sorrow. +The Colonel took Virginia in his arms, and she sobbed against his +shoulder, as of old. + +"Jinny, did he--?" + +"Yes--" + +"Lige was right, and--and you, Jinny--I should never have trusted him. +The sneak!" + +Virginia raised her head. The sun was slanting in yellow bars through +the branches of the great trees, and a robin's note rose above the bass +chorus of the frogs. In the pauses, as she listened, it seemed as if she +could hear the silver sound of the river over the pebbles far below. + +"Honey," said the Colonel,--"I reckon we're just as poor as white trash." + +Virginia smiled through her tears. + +"Honey," he said again, after a pause," I must keep my word and let him +have the business." + +She did not reproach him. + +"There is a little left, a very little," he continued slowly, painfully. +"I thank God that it is yours. It was left you by Becky--by your mother. +It is in a railroad company in New York, and safe, Jinny." + +"Oh, Pa, you know that I do not care," she cried. "It shall be yours +and mine together. And we shall live out here and be happy." + +But she glanced anxiously at him nevertheless. He was in his familiar +posture of thought, his legs slightly apart, his felt hat pushed back, +stroking his goatee. But his clear gray eyes were troubled as they +sought hers, and she put her hand to her breast. + +"Virginia," he said, "I fought for my country once, and I reckon I'm some +use yet awhile. It isn't right that I should idle here, while the South +needs me, Your Uncle Daniel is fifty-eight, and Colonel of a +Pennsylvania regiment.--Jinny, I have to go." + +Virginia said nothing. It was in her blood as well as his. The Colonel +had left his young wife, to fight in Mexico; he had come home to lay +flowers on her grave. She knew that he thought of this; and, too, that +his heart was rent at leaving her. She put her hands on his shoulders, +and he stooped to kiss her trembling lips. + +They walked out together to the summer-house, and stood watching the +glory of the light on the western hills. "Jinn," said the Colonel, +"I reckon you will have to go to your Aunt Lillian. It--it will be hard. +But I know that my girl can take care of herself. In case--in case I do +not come back, or occasion should arise, find Lige. Let him take you to +your Uncle Daniel. He is fond of you, and will be all alone in Calvert +House when the war is over. And I reckon that is all I have to say. +I won't pry into your heart, honey. If you love Clarence, marry him. +I like the boy, and I believe he will quiet down into a good man." + +Virginia did not answer, but reached out for her father's hand and held +its fingers locked tight in her own. From the kitchen the sound of Ned's +voice rose in the still evening air. + + "Sposin' I was to go to N' Orleans an' take sick and die, + Laik a bird into de country ma spirit would fly." + +And after a while down the path the red and yellow of Mammy Easter's +bandanna was seen. + +"Supper, Miss Jinny. Laws, if I ain't ramshacked de premises fo' you +bof. De co'n bread's gittin' cold." + +That evening the Colonel and Virginia thrust a few things into her little +leather bag they had chosen together in London. Virginia had found a +cigar, which she hid until they went down to the porch, and there she +gave it to him; when he lighted the match she saw that his hand shook. + +Half an hour later he held her in his arms at the gate, and she heard his +firm tread die in the dust of the road. The South had claimed him at +last. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +So much for Democracy when it becomes a catchword +They have to print something + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRISIS, V6, BY CHURCHILL *** + +********* This file should be named wc56w10.txt or wc56w10.zip ******** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, wc56w11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, wc56w10a.txt + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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