“What is that, papa?” was the anxious query.

“We must never give up.  We must realize that we are confronting some of the best soldiers and generals the world has known.  The North is only half awake to its danger and the magnitude of its task.  We have sent out comparatively few of our men to do a disagreeable duty for us, while we take life comfortably and luxuriously as before.  The truth will come home to us soon, that we are engaged in a life-and-death struggle.”

“Papa, these events will bring no changes to you?  In your work, I mean?”

“Not at present.  I truly believe, Marian, that I can serve my country more effectively in the performance of the duties with which I am now charged.  But who can tell what a day will bring forth?  Lane is going to the front.  He will tell you all about it.  He is a manly fellow, and no doubt will explain why you have not heard from him.”

“Real life has come in very truth,” thought Marian, as she went to her room to prepare for dinner; “but on every side it also brings the thought of death.”

Her face was pale, and clouded with apprehension, when she joined the gentlemen; but Lane was so genial and entertaining at dinner as to make it difficult for her to believe that he had resolved on a step so fraught with risk.  When at last they were alone in the drawing-room she said, “Is it true that you intend to enter the army?”

“Yes, and it is time that it was true,” was his smiling reply.

“I don’t feel like laughing, Mr. Lane.  Going to Virginia does not strike me as a pleasure excursion.  I have thought a great deal since I saw you last.  You certainly have kept your promise to be a distant and absent friend.”

He looked at her eagerly, as he said, “You have thought a great deal—­have you thought about me?”

“Certainly,” she replied, with a slight flush; “I meant all that I said that evening.”

That little emphasized word dispelled the hope that had for a moment asserted itself.  Time and a better acquaintance with her own heart had not brought any change of feeling to her, and after a moment he said, quietly:  “I think I can prove that I have been a sincere and loyal friend as well as an absent one.  Having never felt—­well, you cannot know—­it takes a little time for a fellow to—­pardon me; let all that go.  I have tried to gain self-control, and I have obeyed your request, to do nothing rash, literally.  I remained steadily at work in my office a certain number of hours every day.  If the general hope that Richmond would be taken, and the war practically ended, had proved well founded, for the sake of others I should have resisted my inclination to take part in the struggle.  I soon concluded, however, that it would be just as well to prepare for what has taken place, and so gave part of my afternoons and evenings to a little useful training.  I am naturally very fond of a horse, and resolved that if I went at all it should be as a cavalry-man, so I have been giving not a little of my time to horseback exercise, sabre, pistol, and carbine practice, and shall not be quite so awkward as some of the other raw recruits.  I construed McClellan’s retreat into an order for me to advance, and have come to you as soon as I could to report progress.”