It was a cool day for September, a perfect day, an auspicious day, and yet it went the way of the others before it.  This was the very fulness of the year, the earth giving out the sweetness of her maturity, the corn in martial ranks, with golden plumes nodding.  The forest still in its glory of green.  They walked in silence the familiar paths, and Alfred, clipping the late roses for the supper table, shook his white head as they passed him.  The sun, who had begun to hurry on his southward journey, went to bed at six.  The few clothes Clarence was to take with him had been packed by Virginia in his bag, and the two were standing in the twilight on the steps of the house, when Ned came around the corner.  He called his young mistress by name, but she did not hear him.  He called again.

“Miss Jinny!”

She started as from a sleep, and paused.

“Yes, Mr. Johnson,” said she, and smiled.  He wore that air of mystery so dear to darkeys.

“Gemmen to see you, Miss Jinny.”

“A gentleman!” she said in surprise.  “Where?”

The negro pointed to the lilac shrubbery.

“Thar!”

“What’s all this nonsense, Ned?” said Clarence, sharply:  “If a man is there, bring him here at once.”

“Reckon he won’t come, Marse Clarence.” said Ned, “He fearful skeered ob de light ob day.  He got suthin very pertickler fo’ Miss Jinny.”

“Do you know him?” Clarence demanded.

“No sah—­yessah—­leastwise I’be seed ’um.  Name’s Robimson.”

The word was hardly out of his mouth before Virginia had leaped down the four feet from the porch to the flower-bed and was running across the lawn toward the shrubbery.  Parting the bushes after her, Clarence found his cousin confronting a large man, whom he recognized as the carrier who brought messages from the South.

“What’s the matter, Jinny?” he demanded.

“Pa has got through the lines,” she said breathlessly.  “He—­he came up to see me.  Where is he, Robinson?”

“He went to Judge Whipple’s rooms, ma’am.  They say the Judge is dying.  I reckoned you knew it, Miss Jinny,” Robinson added contritely.

“Clarence,” she said, “I must go at once.”

“I will go with you,” he said; “you cannot go alone.”  In a twinkling Ned and Sambo had the swift pair of horses harnessed, and the light carriage was flying over the soft clay road toward the city.  As they passed Mr. Brinsmade’s place, the moon hung like a great round lantern under the spreading trees about the house.  Clarence caught a glimpse of his cousin’s face in the light.  She was leaning forward, her gaze fixed intently on the stone posts which stood like monuments between the bushes at the entrance.  Then she drew back again into the dark corner of the barouche.  She was startled by a sharp challenge, and the carriage stopped.  Looking out, she saw the provost’s guard like black card figures on the road, and Ned fumbling for his pass.