“Don’t cry out,” I entreated quickly.  “Surely you know whom I am.”

“Yes, yes,” struggling to regain her voice.  “I—­know; but why are you here?  How long have you been here?”

“It is a story too complex to repeat,” I said earnestly, “but I have been here since your father first came—­don’t blame me, for I couldn’t get away.”

“Then—­then you heard—­”

“Yes; I heard everything.  I tried not to; I pledge you my word it was all an accident.  I was here for another purpose, a military purpose.  I did not even know this was your home.  I am trapped on this balcony, and dare not attempt to get away—­I had to listen.  You will believe what I say?”

I was pleading so desperately that she stopped me, one hand grasping my sleeve.

“Yes, of course.  I am sure you could never do that purposely.  But I do not know what to say, how to explain.  You must go at once.  Can you not realize my position if you are discovered here?  What—­what Captain Le Gaire would say?”

“Very easily,” my voice insensibly hardening at the memory, “and I should like to remain to meet him, if that were the only danger.  No, please stand exactly where you are, Miss Hardy, so as to keep me in the shadow.  Thank you.  There is a man sitting on a bench yonder just within the orchard.  He has been there for the last twenty minutes, and it is his presence which has made it impossible for me to get away.  Can I escape in any manner through the house?”

She shook her head, her glance wandering from the lighted room out again into the night.

“No; there is only the one door.”

“Who are here besides Le Gaire and your father?”

“A half-dozen officers, two from the Louisiana regiment, the rest belonging to the staff; they are just ending up a feast in the dining-room.”

“And is the house under guard?”

She hesitated, looking me now squarely in the eyes, her face clearly revealed as the light from within fell upon it.

“Why do you ask?—­for military reasons?”

“No; that is all passed and gone.  We came hoping to capture General Johnston, as scouts informed us this was his headquarters for the night.  But he is not here, and you will do your cause no harm by telling me all I ask.”

“I do not think there are any guards posted,” she answered, convinced that I spoke the truth.  “I have not been out, but I am sure there are no soldiers about the place, except the officers’ servants at the stable with the horses.  The general departed before dark, and took his bodyguard with him.”

She had no reason to deceive me, and her sincerity was beyond question.  This was better than I had dared hope, and instantly a new plan leaped into my mind, the very audacity of which made me gasp.  Yet it might work, carried out with sufficient boldness, although only to be resorted to as a last desperate necessity.  As I stood there, revolving this new thought swiftly through my mind, the old fear seemed to return to her.