“‘You know I am,’ she said, as haughty as you please all of a sudden, and drew herself up with her head in the air.

“And I did know it.  Something else struck me just about then.  The old lady and the servants were gone from the hall.  There wasn’t anybody in it but herself and me; my men were out of sight on the driveway.  I forgot our army and the war and everything else, and I caught her bands in between mine, and said I, ‘Why couldn’t you let me be killed?’”

At his words I drew a quick breath, too.  For a moment I was the Southern girl with the red-gold hair.  I could feel the clasp of the young officer’s hands; I could hear his voice asking the rough, tender question, “Why couldn’t you let me be killed?”

“It was mighty still for a minute.  Then she lifted up her eyes as I held her fingers in a vise, and gave me a steady look.  That was all—­but it was plenty.

“I don’t know how I got on my horse or what order I gave, but my head was clear enough for business purposes, and I had to use it—­quickly, too.  There were thick woods near by, and I hurried my party into them and gave men and horses a short rest till I could decide what to do.  The Confederates were east of us, around Chancellorsville and in the triangle between the Rapidan and the Rappahannock, so that It was unsafe travelling in that direction.  It’s the business of an aide-de-camp carrying despatches to steal as quietly as possible through an enemy’s country, and the one fatal thing is to be captured.  So I concluded I wouldn’t get into the thick of it till I had to, but would turn west and make a detour, crossing by Morton’s Ford, farther up the Rapidan.  Germania Ford lies in a deep loop of the river, and that made our ride longer, but we found a road and crossed all right as I planned it, and then we doubled back, as we had to, eastward.

“It was a pretty ride in the May weather, through that beautiful Virginia country.  We kept in the woods and the lonely roads as much as we could and hardly saw a soul for hours, and though I knew we were getting into dangerous parts again, I hoped we might work through all right.  Of course I thought first about my errand, and my mind was on every turn of the road and every speck in the landscape, but all the same there was one corner of it—­or of something—­that didn’t forget that red-headed girl—­not an instant.  I kept wondering if I’d ever see her again, and I was mighty clear that I would, if there was enough left of me by the time I could get off duty to go and look her up.  The touch of her hands stayed with me all day.