“Now, honey, you on de right track, sho!  Des you wait en lis’n.  Mo’ folks dan Marse Scoville wanter talk wid you on dis mar’age question.  You on’y lil chile yit.  Des you keep yosef deserved-like en say yo’ mouf ain’ waterin’ few enybody.  Marse Scoville berry nice gem’lin, but he yere to-day en like anuff a orful way yander termorrer—­”

“No matter where he is, Aun’ Jinkey, he will carry the love I could give to a kind brother if I had one.  He knows I can do no more and he does not ask more.”

“Yes, he does, honey; he ax hit in de bes way ter git hit fum you.  He ain’ de fool ter grab at hit, but he tek hit all de same.”

“Well,” she answered judicially, “I don’t see how a girl can help it if a man thinks more of her than she of him, but it does make all the difference in the world whether a man tries to grab, as you say, or waits respectfully for what should be a free gift, to be worth anything.  How strange it seems to be talking quietly of such things!  Think of what has happened, what might have happened, and what may take place before night!”

“Well, honey, hit’s a good ting ter stop tinkin’ or ter tink slow sometimes.  We couldn’t keep a gwine as we wus.  Our haids ud whirl right off our shol’ers.  Hit’s all so peaceful now, why doan you go ter yo’ room en tek a nap.  Mebbe you git berry lil sleep ter-night.”

“I reckon your advice is good, mammy.  If you have trouble, come to me.”

As she walked through the garden and shrubbery to the mansion she felt that she was reacting from the strong excitements of the morning into languor and excessive weariness.  The idle negroes had partially succumbed to the heat and quiet, and were generally dozing in the sun, even on this eventful day.  Perkins, the exacting overseer, had disappeared on the first alarm of Scoville’s charge and had not been seen since.  When entering the house Zany, who always seemed on the qui vive, told her that her aunts were in their rooms and that Mr. Baron was in his office.  Going out on the veranda, the girl saw two or three vigilant Union videttes under a tree.  It was evident that they had chosen a point which commanded a good view of the house, outbuildings and quarters.  The ridge was still lined with troops, but they appeared to be scattered about at their ease on the ground.  The girl’s eyes drooped; she wearily climbed to her room and was soon asleep.

Many others slept also who would sleep again that night in the stillness of death; others who would groan through coming days and nights in anguished wakefulness.  The temporary quiet did not deceive the resting soldiers on either side.  They well knew that the active brains of their superiors were at work.  Scoville found unexpected duty.  He was given a score of men, with orders to scour the roads to the eastward, so that, if best, his general could retire rapidly and in assured safety toward the objective point where he was to unite with a larger