By mutual consent the conversation turned upon the war, and Alice could scarcely forbear laying her hand in Hugh’s in token of approbation as she watched the glow of enthusiasm kindling in his cheek, and the fire of patriotism flashing from his dark, handsome eyes.

“I wonder, with your strong desire to punish the South, that you are not in the field,” Irving said, a little dryly, for though not a sympathizer with the rebellion, he was a Baltimorean, and not yet quite as much aroused as Hugh, who replied at once: 

“And so I should have been, but for circumstances I could not control.  I shall soon start in quest of my sister, and when she is found I shall volunteer at once, fighting like a blood-hound, until some ball strikes me down.”

This he said savagely, and partly for Alice’s benefit; never, however, glancing at her, and so he failed to see the sudden pallor on her cheek, as she heard, in fancy, the whizzing of the ball which was to lay that stalwart form in the dust.

“No, sir,” Hugh continued fiercely, “it’s not for lack of will that I am not with them to-day; and, I assure you, nothing could take me to Europe at such a time as this, unless I went to be rid of the trouble,” and springing from his chair, Hugh strode up and down the piazza, chafing like a caged lion, while Irving Stanley’s face flushed faintly at the insinuation he could not help understand, and Alice looked surprised that Hugh should so far have forgotten his position as host.

The same thought came to Hugh at last, and turning suddenly in his walk, he confronted Irving Stanley, and offering him his hand, said: 

“Forgive me, sir, for my rudeness.  When I get upon the war, I grow too much excited.  I knew you were from Baltimore, and I was fearful you might uphold that infernal mob which murdered the brave Massachusetts boys.  I could lay that city in ashes.”

Irving took the offered hand, and answered, good humoredly: 

“That would punish the innocent as well as the guilty, so I am not with you there, though, like you, I recoil in horror from the perpetration of that fiendish attack upon peaceable troops.  I was there myself, and did what I could to quiet the tumult, receiving more than one brickbat for my interference.  One word more, Cousin Hugh, I am not going to Europe to be rid of the trouble, or for pleasure either, but as my sister’s escort.  I do not yet see that my country needs me; when I do I shall come home and join the Union army.  We may meet yet on some battlefield, and if we do you will see I am no coward or traitor either.”

Alice’s face was white now as marble, and her breath came hurriedly.  The war, before so far off, seemed very near—­a terrible reality, when those two young men talked of standing side by side on some field of carnage.  Hugh noticed her now, and attributing her emotions wholly to her fears for Irving Stanley, wrung the hand of the latter and then walked away, half wishing that the leafy woods beyond the distant fields were so many human beings and he was one of them, marching on to duty.