“I have your blood, madam, and my father’s, hence I am what I am.”

“Well, then you must be a man of honor, of your word.  Will you promise never to take arms against the South?”

“I have told you I have no disposition to do so.”

“The promise, then, can cost you little, and it will be a relief to my mind.”

“Oh, well, mamma, if it will make you feel any easier, I promise with one exception.  Both South and North must keep their hands off the property my father gave me.”

“If Southern leaders were dictating terms in New York City, as they will, ere long, they would never touch your property.”

“They had better not.”

“You know what I mean, Willard.  I ask you never to assume this hated Northern uniform, or put your foot on Southern soil with a hostile purpose.”

“Yes, I can promise that.”

“Swear it to me then, by your mother’s honor and your father’s memory.”

“Is not my word sufficient?”

“These things are sacred to me, and I wish them treated in a sacred manner.  If you will do this my mind will be at rest and I may be able to do more for you in the future.”

“To satisfy you, I swear never to put on the Northern uniform or to enter the South with a hostile purpose.”

She stepped forward and touched his forehead with her lips, as she said:  “The compact is sealed.  Your oath is registered on earth and in heaven.  Your simple word as a man of honor will satisfy me as to one other request.  I wish you never to speak to any one of this solemn covenant between us.”

“I’m not in the habit of gossiping over family affairs,” he replied, haughtily.

“I know that, and also that your delicacy of feeling would keep you from speaking of a matter so sacred to me.  But I am older and more experienced than you, and I shall feel safer if you promise.  You would not gossip about it, of course.  You might refer to it to some friend or to the woman who became your wife.  I can foresee complications which might make it better that it should be utterly unknown.  You little know how I dream and plan for you, and I only ask you never to speak of this interview and its character to a living soul.”

“Certainly, mother, I can promise this.  I should feel it small business to babble about anything which you take so to heart.  These visions of empire occupy your mind and do no harm.  I only hope you will meet your disappointment philosophically.  Good-by now till lunch.”

“Poor mamma!” thought the young man, as he started out for a walk; “she rails against Northern fanatics, forgetting tnat it is just possible to be a little fanatical on the Southern side of the line.”

As he strode along in the sunshine his oath weighed upon him no more than if he had promised not to go out in his sail-boat that day.

At last, after surmounting a rather steep hill, he threw himself on the grass under the shade of a tree.  “It’s going to be awfully slow and stupid here,” he muttered, “and it will be a month or two before we can return.  I hoped to be back in time to join the Montagues in climbing Mont Blanc, and here I am tied up between these mole-hill mountains and city law-offices.  How shall I ever get through with the time?”