CHAPTER XIX.

THE TENTH OF MAC

Would the sons of the first families surrender, “Never!” cried a young lady who sat behind the blinds in Mrs. Catherwood’s parlor.  It seemed to her when she stopped to listen for the first guns of the coming battle that the tumult in her heart would drown their roar.

“But, Jinny,” ventured that Miss Puss Russell who never feared to speak her mind, “it would be folly for them to fight.  The Dutch and Yankees outnumber them ten to one, and they haven’t any powder and bullets.”

“And Camp Jackson is down in a hollow,” said Maude Catherwood, dejectedly.  And yet hopefully, too, for at the thought of bloodshed she was near to fainting.

“Oh,” exclaimed Virginia, passionately, “I believe you want them to surrender.  I should rather see Clarence dead than giving his sword to a Yankee.”

At that the other two were silent again, and sat on through an endless afternoon of uncertainty and hope and dread in the darkened room.  Now and anon Mr. Catherwood’s heavy step was heard as he paced the hall.  From time to time they glanced at Virginia, as if to fathom her thought.  She and Puss Russell had come that day to dine with Maude.  Mr. Catherwood’s Ben, reeking of the stable, had brought the rumor of the marching on the camp into the dining-room, and close upon the heels of this the rumble of the drums and the passing of Sigel’s regiment.  It was Virginia who had the presence of mind to slam the blinds in the faces of the troops, and the crowd had cheered her.  It was Virginia who flew to the piano to play Dixie ere they could get by, to the awe and admiration of the girls and the delight of Mr. Catherwood who applauded her spirit despite the trouble which weighed upon him.  Once more the crowd had cheered,—­and hesitated.  But the Dutch regiment slouched on, impassive, and the people followed.

Virginia remained at the piano, her mood exalted patriotism, uplifted in spirit by that grand song.  At first she had played it with all her might.  Then she sang it.  She laughed in very scorn of the booby soldiers she had seen.  A million of these, with all the firearms in the world, could not prevail against the flower of the South.  Then she had begun whimsically to sing a verse of a song she had heard the week before, and suddenly her exaltation was fled, and her fingers left the keys.  Gaining the window, trembling, half-expectant, she flung open a blind.  The troops, the people, were gone, and there alone in the road stood—­Stephen Brice.  The others close behind her saw him, too, and Puss cried out in her surprise.  The impression, when the room was dark once more, was of sternness and sadness,—­and of strength.  Effaced was the picture of the plodding recruits with their coarse and ill-fitting uniforms of blue.

Virginia shut the blinds.  Not a word escaped her, nor could they tell why—­they did not dare to question her then.  An hour passed, perhaps two, before the shrill voice of a boy was heard in the street below.