One evening in the latter part of May, as Mr. Vosburgh and his family were sitting down to dinner, Barney Ghegan, the policeman, appeared at their door with a decent-looking, elderly colored woman and her lame son.  They were refugees, or “contrabands,” as they were then called, from the South, and they bore a letter from Captain Lane.

It was a scrap of paper with the following lines pencilled upon it:—­

“Mr. Vosburgh, No. —­ —­ St.:  I have only time for a line.  Mammy Borden will tell you her story and that of her son.  Their action and other circumstances have enlisted my interest.  Provide them employment, if convenient.  At any rate, please see that they want nothing, and draw on me.  Sincere regard to you all.—­In haste,

“Lane, Captain.—­ —­U.S.  Cav.”

CHAPTER XXVII.

“De head Linkum man was cap’n Lane.”

It can be well understood that the two dusky strangers, recommended by words from Lane, were at once invested with peculiar interest to Marian.  Many months had elapsed since she had seen him, but all that he had written tended to kindle her imagination.  This had been the more true because he was so modest in his accounts of the service in which he had participated.  She had learned what cavalry campaigning meant, and read more meaning between the lines than the lines themselves conveyed.  He was becoming her ideal knight, on whom no shadow rested.  From first to last his course had been as open as the day, nor had he, in any respect, failed to reach the highest standard developed by those days of heroic action.

If this were true when “Mammy Borden” and her son appeared, the reader can easily believe that, when they completed their story, Captain Lane was her Bayard sans peur et sans reproche.

Barney explained that they had met him in the street and asked for Mr. Vosburgh’s residence; as it was nearly time for him to be relieved of duty he told them that in a few moments he could guide them to their destination.  Marian’s thanks rewarded him abundantly, and Mrs. Vosburgh told him that if he would go to the kitchen he should have a cup of coffee and something nice to take home to his wife.  They both remained proteges of the Vosburghs, and received frequent tokens of good-will and friendly regard.  While these were in the main disinterested, Mr. Vosburgh felt that in the possibilities of the future it might be to his advantage to have some men in the police force wholly devoted to his interests.

The two colored refugees were evidently hungry and weary, and, eager as Marian was to learn more of her friend when informed that he had been wounded, she tried to content herself with the fact that he was doing well, until the mother and son had rested a little and had been refreshed by an abundant meal.  Then they were summoned to the sitting-room, for Mr. and Mrs. Vosburgh shared in Marian’s deep solicitude and interest.