On entering the room Elsy made a low curtsey to the gentlemen, and looked at Alfred earnestly for a moment, but the soldier had become so sunburnt and altered in features that she failed to recognize him.

“Do you not remember me, Elsy?” enquired Alfred, as soon as he perceived her.

His voice was still the same, and running up to him, the girl seized his hand with joy.

“I tought I knowed you, sah,” she exclaimed, “but you is so change I didn’t remember you.”

“I am indeed changed, Elsy,” he replied; “I have been sick for a long time.  And now that I am once more in the Confederacy, it is to find my wife and children driven from their homes, while God only knows if they are not wandering all over the South, homeless and friendless.  Tell me Elsy,” he continued, “tell me what caused my wife to be turned out of the city?”

In compliance with his request, the girl briefly told him of the villainy of Awtry, and the infamous manner in which he had acted towards Mrs. Wentworth.  She then went on to relate that, failing to achieve his purpose, Awtry had succeeded in having her expelled from New Orleans.

“Did your mistress—­I beg pardon—­I meant, did my wife tell you where she was going to?” enquired Alfred.

“She told me to come to Jackson, after I told her I would be sure to get away from de city,” answered the girl; “but de police ketch me up before I could look for her; and since I been belonging to Dr. Humphries I has look for her ebery whar, but I can’t find out whar she am gone to.”

“That is enough,” observed Alfred, “you can go now, Elsy, if I should want to see you again I will send for you.”

“I trust you may succeed in finding your wife, sir,” Emma said as the girl left the parlor.

“I sincerely hope so myself, Miss Humphries,” he answered, “but Heaven only knows where I am to look for her.  It will take me a much longer time than I can spare to travel over the Confederacy; in fact, I doubt whether I can get an extension of my furlough, so that I may have about three months of time to search for her.”

“It is singular that she should have told Elsy to come here to her, and not to be in the city,” observed Emily.

“I am afraid that my wife has, through prudence, gone into the country to live; for, with the means I left her, she could not possibly have afforded to reside in any part of the Confederacy where prices rule so high as they do here.  It is this belief that makes my prospect of finding her very dim.  Harry says he advertised for her in several newspapers, but that he received no information from any source respecting where she lived.  I am certain she would have seen the advertisement had she been residing in any of our cities.”

“She may not have noticed the advertising column of the newspaper,” put in Harry, “if ever she did chance to have a copy of one that contained my notice to her.  Ladies, as a general thing, never interest themselves with advertisements.”