“It would seem, sir, that you hold me responsible for evils which I cannot prevent.”

“No, sir.  I only suggest that you employ your whole influence and power to avert future evils.  I am offering a word to the wise, I trust.  Ah, Scoville, you have news?”

“Yes, sir, important,” said that officer, standing dusty and begrimed at the doorway.

“Is there haste?  Is your information for my ear only?  I’m nearly through.”

“Plenty of time for dinner, sir.  No harm can now come from hearing at once what I have to say.”

“Go ahead, then.  I’d like my staff to know.”

“Well, sir, having got the enemy on the run, we kept them going so they could not mask what was behind them.  There’s a large force coming up.”

“As large as ours?”

“I think so.  I gained an eminence from which I obtained a good view.  Major Jones told me to say that he would skirmish with the advance, delay it, and send word from time to time.”

“All right.  Get some dinner, then report to me.”

“Yes, sir;” and Scoville saluted and departed without a glance at any one except his commander.

“What do you think of my scout, Miss Baron?” asked the general with a humorous twinkle in his eyes.

“He proved himself a gentleman last evening, sir, and now I should think he was proving a very good soldier, much too good for our interests.”

“You are mistaken about your interests.  Don’t you think he was rather rude in not acknowledging your presence?”

“I don’t know much about military matters, but I reckon he thought he was on duty.”

The general laughed.  “Well,” he remarked, “it does not seem to be age that makes us wise so much as eyes that see and a brain back of them.  Scoville is a gentleman and a good soldier.  He is also unusually well educated and thoughtful for his years.  You are right, my dear.  Pardon me, but you keep reminding me of my daughter, and I like to think of all that’s good and gentle before a battle.”

“I wish I could meet her,” said Miss Lou simply.

“Come and visit her after the war, then,” said the general cordially.  “The hope of the country is in the young people, who are capable of receiving new and large ideas.”  Having made his acknowledgments to Mr. Baron and Mrs. Whately, he repaired to the veranda and lighted a cigar.  The staff-officers, who had tried to make themselves agreeable on general principles, also retired.

Miss Lou’s cheeks were burning with an excitement even greater than that which the conflicts witnessed had inspired—­the excitement of listening to voices from the great unknown world.  “These courteous gentlemen,” she thought, “this dignified general who invites me to visit his daughter, are the vandals against whom I have been warned.  They have not only treated me like a lady, but have made me feel that I was one, yet to escape them I was to become the slave of a spoiled, passionate boy!”