a fermented state of excitement which she declared would break her down; and which, despite her many cares and worries, gave her niece not a little amusement.  For Virginia was human, and one morning she went to her aunt’s room to read this editorial from the newspaper:—­ “For the relief of many palpitating hearts it may be well to state that we understand only two ladies are on the ten thousand dollar list.”

“Jinny,” she cried, “how can you be so cruel as to read me that, when you know that I am in a state of frenzy now?  How does that relieve me?  It makes it an absolute certainty that Madame Jules and I will have to pay.  We are the only women of importance in the city.”

That afternoon she made good her much-uttered threat, and drove to Bellegarde.  Only the Colonel and Virginia and Mammy Easter and Ned were left in the big house.  Rosetta and Uncle Ben and Jackson had been hired out, and the horses sold,—­all save old Dick, who was running, long-haired, in the fields at Glencoe.

Christmas eve was a steel-gray day, and the sleet froze as it fell.  Since morning Colonel Carvel had sat poking the sitting-room fire, or pacing the floor restlessly.  His occupation was gone.  He was observed night and day by Federal detectives.  Virginia strove to amuse him, to conceal her anxiety as she watched him.  Well she knew that but for her he would long since have fled southward, and often in the bitterness of the night-time she blamed herself for not telling him to go.  Ten years had seemed to pass over him since the war had begun.

All day long she had been striving to put away from her the memory of Christmas eves past and gone of her father’s early home-coming from the store, a mysterious smile on his face; of Captain Lige stamping noisily into the house, exchanging uproarious jests with Ned and Jackson.  The Captain had always carried under his arm a shapeless bundle which he would confide to Ned with a knowing wink.  And then the house would be lighted from top to bottom, and Mr. Russell and Mr. Catherwood and Mr. Brinsmade came in for a long evening with Mr. Carvel over great bowls of apple toddy and egg-nog.  And Virginia would have her own friends in the big parlor.  That parlor was shut up now, and icy cold.

Then there was Judge Whipple, the joyous event of whose year was his Christmas dinner at Colonel Carvel’s house.  Virginia pictured him this year at Mrs. Brice’s little table, and wondered whether he would miss them as much as they missed him.  War may break friendships, but it cannot take away the sacredness of memories.

The sombre daylight was drawing to an early close as the two stood looking out of the sitting-room window.  A man’s figure muffled in a greatcoat slanting carefully across the street caught their eyes.  Virginia started.  It was the same United States deputy marshal she had seen the day before at Mr. Russell’s house.

“Pa,” she cried, “do you think he is coming here?”