berkley's first letter to her was written during that week of lovely weather, the first week in march. the birds never sang more deliriously, the regimental bands never played more gaily; every camp was astir in the warm sunshine with companies, regiments, brigades, or divisions drilling.
at the ceremonies of guard mount and dress parade the country was thronged with visitors from washington, ladies in gay gowns and scarfs, congressmen in silk hats and chokers, apparently forgetful of their undignified role in the late affair at bull run—even children with black mammies in scarlet turbans and white wool dresses came to watch a great army limbering up after a winter of inaction.
he wrote to her:
"dearest, it has been utterly impossible for me to obtain leave of absence and a pass to go as far as the farm hospital. i tried to run the guard twice, but had to give it up. i'm going to try again as soon as there seems any kind of a chance.
"we have moved our camp. why, heaven knows. if our general understood what cavalry is for we would have been out long ago—miles from here—if to do nothing more than make a few maps which, it seems, our august leaders entirely lack.
"during the night the order came: 'this division will move at four o'clock in the morning with two days' rations.' all night long we were at work with axe and hammer, tearing down quarters, packing stores, and loading our waggons.
"we have an absurd number of waggons. there is an infantry regiment camped near us that has a train of one hundred and thirty-six-mule teams to transport its household goods. it's the 77th new york,
"the next morning the sun rose on our army in motion. you say that i am a scoffer. i didn't scoff at that spectacle. we were on flint hill; and, as far as we could see around us, the whole world was fairly crawling with troops. over them a rainbow hung. later it rained, as you know.
"i'm wet, ailsa. the army for the first time is under shelter tents. the sibley wall tents and wedge tents are luxuries of the past for officers and men alike.
"the army—that is, the bulk of it—camped at five. we—the cavalry—went on to see what we could see around centreville; but the rebels had burned it, so we came back here where we don't belong—a thousand useless men armed with a thousand useless weapons. because, dear, our lances are foolish things, picturesque but utterly unsuited to warfare in such a country as this.
"you see, i've become the sort of an ass who is storing up information and solving vast and intricate problems in order to be kind to my superiors when, struck with panic at their own tardily discovered incapacity, they rush to me in a body to ask me how to do it.
"rush's lancers are encamped near you now; our regiment is not far from them. if i can run the guard i'll do it. i'm longing to see you, dear.
"i've written to celia, as you know, so she won't be too much astonished if i sneak into the gallery some night.
"i've seen a lot of zouaves, the 5th, 9th, 10th, and other regiments, but not the 3rd. what a mark they make of themselves in their scarlet and blue. hawkins' regiment, the 9th, is less conspicuous, wearing only the red headgear and facings, but duryea's regiment is a sight! a magnificent one from the spectacular stand-point, but the regiments in blue stand a better chance of being missed by the rebel riflemen. i certainly wish colonel craig's zouaves weren't attired like tropical butterflies. but for heaven's sake don't say this to celia.
"well, you see, i betray the cloven hoof of fear, even when i write you. it's a good thing that i know i am naturally a coward; because i may learn to be so ashamed of my legs that i'll never run at all, either way.
"dear, i'm too honest with you to make promises, and far too intelligent not to know that when people begin shooting at each other somebody is likely to get hit. it is instinctive in me to avoid mutilation and extemporary death if i can do it. i realise what it means when the air is full of singing, buzzing noises; when twigs and branches begin to fall and rattle on my cap and saddle; when weeds and dead grass are snipped off short beside me; when every mud puddle is starred and splashed; when whack! smack! whack! on the stones come flights of these things you hear about, and hear, and never see. and—it scares me.
"but i'm trying to figure out that, first, i am safer if i do what my superiors tell me to do; second, that it's a dog's life anyway; third, that it's good enough for me, so why run away from it?
"some day some of these johnnies will scare me so that i'll start after them. there's no fury like a man thoroughly frightened.
"nobody has yet been hurt in any of the lancer regiments except one of rush's men, who got tangled up in the woods and wounded himself with his own lance.
"oh, these lances! and oh, the cavalry! and, alas! a general who doesn't know how to use his cavalry.
"no sooner does a cavalry regiment arrive than, bang! it's split up into troops—a troop to escort general a., another to gallop after general b., another to sit around headquarters while general c. dozes after dinner! and, if it's not split up, it's detailed bodily on some fool's job instead of being packed off under a line officer to find out what is happening just beyond the end of the commander's nose.
"the visitors like to see us drill—like to see us charge, red pennons flying, lances at rest. i like to see rush's lancers, too. but, all the same, sometimes when we go riding gaily down the road, some of those dingy, sunburnt western regiments who have been too busy fighting to black their shoes line up along the road and repeat, monotonously:
"'who-ever-saw-a-dead-cavalryman?'
"it isn't what they say, ailsa, it's the expression of their dirty faces that turns me red, sometimes, and sometimes incites me to wild mirth.
"i'm writing this squatted under my 'tente d'abri.' general mcclellan, with a preposterous staff the size of a small brigade, has just passed at a terrific gallop—a handsome, mild-eyed man who has made us into an army, and who ornaments headquarters with an entire squadron of claymore's 20th dragoons and one of our own 8th lancers. well, some day he'll come to me and say: 'ormond, i understand that there is only one man in the entire army fit to command it. accept this cocked hat.'
"that detail would suit me, dear. i could get behind the casemates of monroe and issue orders. i was cut out to sit in a good, thick casemate and bring this cruel war to an end.
"a terribly funny thing happened at alexandria. a raw infantry regiment was camped near the seminary, and had managed to flounder through guard mount. the sentinels on duty kept a sharp lookout and turned out the guard every time a holiday nigger hove in sight; and sentinels and guard and officer were getting awfully tired of their mistakes; and the day was hot, and the sentinels grew sleepy.
"then one sentry, dozing awake, happened to turn and glance toward the woods; and out of it, over the soft forest soil, and already nearly on top of him, came a magnificent cavalcade at full gallop—the president, and generals mcclellan and benjamin butler leading.
"horror paralyzed him, then he ran toward the guard house, shrieking at the top of his lungs:
"'great god! turn out the guard! here comes old abe and little
mac and beast butler!'
"and that's all the camp gossip and personal scandal that i have to relate to you, dear.
"i'll run the guard if i can, so help me moses!
"and i am happier than i have ever been in all my life. if i don't run under fire you have promised not to stop loving me. that is the bargain, remember.
"here comes your late lamented. i'm no favorite of his, nor he of mine. he did me a silly trick the other day—had me up before the colonel because he said that it had been reported to him that i had enlisted under an assumed name.
"i had met the colonel. he looked at me and said:
"'is ormond your name?'
[illustration: "'is ormond your name?'"]
"i said: 'it is, partly.'
"he said: 'then it is sufficient to fight under.'
"ailsa, i am going to tell you something. it has to do with me, as you know me, and it has to do with colonel arran.
"i'm afraid i'm going to hurt you; but i'm also afraid it will be necessary.
"colonel arran is your friend. but, ailsa, i am his implacable enemy. had i dreamed for one moment that the westchester horse was to become the 10th troop of arran's lancers, i would never have joined it.
"it was a bitter dose for me to swallow when my company was sworn into the united states service under this man.
"since, i have taken the matter philosophically. he has not annoyed me, except by being alive on earth. he showed a certain primitive decency in not recognizing me when he might have done it in a very disagreeable fashion. i think he was absolutely astonished to see me there; but he never winked an eyelash. i give the devil his due.
"all this distresses you, dear. but i cannot help it; you would have to know, sometime, that colonel arran and i are enemies. so let it go at that; only, remembering it, avoid always any uncomfortable situation which must result in this man and myself meeting under your roof."
his letter ended in lighter vein—a gay message to celia, a cordial one to letty, and the significant remark that he expected to see her very soon.
the next night he tried to run the guard, and failed.
she had written to him, begging him not to; urging the observance of discipline, while deploring their separation—a sweet, confused letter, breathing in every line her solicitation for him, her new faith and renewed trust in him.
concerning what he had told her about his personal relations with colonel arran she had remained silent—was too unhappy and astonished to reply. thinking of it later, it recalled to her mind celia's studied avoidance of any topic in which colonel arran figured. she did not make any mental connection between celia's dislike for the man and berkley's—the coincidence merely made her doubly unhappy.
and, one afternoon when letty was on duty and she and celia were busy with their mending in celia's room, she thought about berkley's letter and his enmity, and remembered celia's silent aversion at the same moment.
"celia," she said, looking up, "would you mind telling me what it is that you dislike about my old and very dear friend, colonel arran?"
celia continued her needlework for a few moments. then, without raising her eyes, she said placidly:
"you have asked me that befo', honey-bird."
"yes, dear. . . . you know it is not impertinent curiosity——"
"i know what it is, honey-bee. but you can not he'p this gentleman and myse'f to any ground of common understanding."
"i am so sorry," sighed ailsa, resting her folded hands on her work and gazing through the open window.
celia continued to sew without glancing up. presently she said:
"i reckon i'll have to tell you something about colonel arran after all. i've meant to for some time past. because—because my silence condemns him utterly; and that is not altogether just." she bent lower over her work; her needle travelled more slowly as she went on speaking:
"in my country, when a gentleman considers himse'f aggrieved, he asks fo' that satisfaction which is due to a man of his quality. . . . but colonel arran did not ask. and when it was offered, he refused." her lips curled. "he cited the law," she said with infinite contempt.
"but colonel arran is not a southerner," observed ailsa quietly.
"you know how all northerners feel——"
"it happened befo' you were born, honey-bud. even the no'th recognised the code then."
"is that why you dislike colonel arran? because he refused to challenge or be challenged when the law of the land forbade private murder?"
celia's cheeks flushed deeply; she tightened her lips; then:
"the law is not made fo' those in whom the higher law is inherent," she said calmly. "it is made fo' po' whites and negroes."
"celia!"
"it is true, honey-bird. when a gentleman breaks the law that makes him one, it is time fo' him to appeal to the lower law. and colonel arran did so."
"what was his grievance?"
"a deep one, i reckon. he had the right on his side—and his own law to defend it, and he refused. and the consequences were ve'y dreadful."
"to—him?"
"to us all. . . . his punishment was certain."
"was he punished?"
"yes. then, in his turn, he punished—terribly. but not as a gentleman should. fo' in that code which gove'ns us, no man can raise his hand against a woman. he must endure all things; he may not defend himse'f at any woman's expense; he may not demand justice at the expense of any woman. it is the privilege of his caste to endure with dignity what cannot be remedied or revenged except through the destruction of a woman. . . . and colonel arran invoked the lower law; and the justice that was done him destroyed—a woman."
she looked up steadily into ailsa's eyes.
"she was only a young girl, honey-bud—too young to marry anybody, too inexperienced to know her own heart until it was too late.
"and colonel arran came; and he was ve'y splendid, and handsome, and impressive in his cold, heavy dignity, and ve'y certain that the child must marry him—so certain that she woke up one day and found that she had done it. and learned that she did not love him.
"there was a boy cousin. he was reckless, i reckon; and she was ve'y unhappy; and one night he found her crying in the garden; and there was a ve'y painful scene, and she let him kiss the hem of her petticoat on his promise to go away fo' ever. and—colonel arran caught him on his knees, with the lace to his lips—and the child wife crying. . . . he neither asked nor accepted satisfaction; he threatened the—law! and that settled him with her, i reckon, and she demanded her freedom, and he refused, and she took it.
"then she did a ve'y childish thing; she married the boy—or supposed she did——"
celia's violet eyes grew dark with wrath:
"and colonel arran went into co't with his lawyers and his witnesses and had the divorce set aside—and publicly made this silly child her lover's mistress, and their child nameless! that was the justice that the law rendered colonel arran. and now you know why i hate him—and shall always hate and despise him."
ailsa's head was all awhirl; lips parted, she stared at celia in stunned silence, making as yet no effort to reconcile the memory of the man she knew with this cold, merciless, passionless portrait.
nor did the suspicion occur to her that there could be the slightest connection between her sister-in-law's contempt for colonel arran and berkley's implacable enmity.
all the while, too, her clearer sense of right and justice cried out in dumb protest against the injury done to the man who had been her friend, and her parents' friend—kind, considerate, loyal, impartially just in all his dealings with her and with the world, as far as she had ever known.
from celia's own showing the abstract right and justice of the matter had been on his side; no sane civilisation could tolerate the code that celia cited. the day of private vengeance was over; the era of duelling was past in the north—was passing in the south. and, knowing colonel arran, she knew also that twenty odd years ago his refusal to challenge had required a higher form of courage than to face the fire of a foolish boy's pistol.
and now, collecting her disordered thoughts, she began to understand what part emotion and impulse had played in the painful drama—how youthful ignorance and false sentiment had combined to invest a silly but accidental situation with all the superficial dignity of tragedy.
what must it have meant to colonel arran, to this quiet, slow, respectable man of the world, to find his girl wife crying in the moonlight, and a hot-headed boy down on his knees, mumbling the lace edge of her skirts?
what must it have meant to him—for the chances were that he had not spoken the first word—to be confronted by an excited, love-smitten, reckless boy, and have a challenge flung in his face before he had uttered a word.
no doubt his calm reply was to warn the boy to mind his business under penalty of law. no doubt the exasperated youth defied him—insulted him—declared his love—carried the other child off her feet with the exaggerated emotion and heroics. and, once off their feet, she saw how the tide had swept them together—swept them irrevocably beyond reason and recall.
ailsa rose and stood by the open window, looking out across the hills; but her thoughts were centred on colonel arran's tragedy, and the tragedy of those two hot-headed children whom his punishment had out-lawed.
doubtless his girl wife had told him how the boy had come to be there, and that she had banished him; but the clash between maturity and adolescence is always inevitable; the misunderstanding between ripe experience and northern logic, and emotional inexperience and southern impulse was certain to end in disaster.
ailsa considered; and she knew that now her brief for colonel arran was finished, for beyond the abstract right she had no sympathy with the punishment he had dealt out, even though his conscience and civilisation and the law of the land demanded the punishment of these erring' ones.
no, the punishment seemed too deeply tainted with vengeance for her to tolerate.
a deep unhappy sigh escaped her. she turned mechanically, seated herself, and resumed her sewing.
"i suppose i ought to be asleep," she said. "i am on duty to-night, and they've brought in so many patients from the new regiments."
celia bent and bit off her thread, then passing the needle into the hem, laid her work aside.
"honey-bud," she said, "you are ve'y tired. if you'll undress i'll give you a hot bath and rub you and brush your hair."
"oh, celia, will you? i'd feel so much better." she gave a dainty little shudder and made a wry face, adding:
"i've had so many dirty, sick men to cleanse—oh, incredibly dirty and horrid!—poor boys—it doesn't seem to be their fault, either; and they are so ashamed and so utterly miserable when i am obliged to know about the horror of their condition. . . . dear, it will be angelic of you to give me a good, hot scrubbing. i could go to sleep if you would."
"of co'se i will," said celia simply. and, when ailsa was ready to call her in she lifted the jugs of water which a negro had brought—one cold, one boiling hot—entered ailsa's room, filled the fiat tin tub; and, when ailsa stepped into it, proceeded to scrub her as though she had been two instead of twenty odd.
then, her glowing body enveloped in a fresh, cool sheet, she lay back and closed her eyes while celia brushed the dull gold masses of her hair.
"honey-bee, they say that all the soldiers are in love with you, even my po' confederate boys in ward c. don't you dare corrupt their loyalty!"
"they are the dearest things—all of them," smiled ailsa sleepily, soothed by the skilful brushing. "i have never had one cross word, one impatient look from union or confederate." she added: "they say in washington that we women are not needed—that we are in the way—that the sick don't want us. . . . some very important personage from washington came down to the general hospital and announced that the government was going to get rid of all women nurses. and such a dreadful row those poor sick soldiers made! dr. west told us; he was there at the time. and it seems that the personage went back to washington with a very different story to tell the powers that be. so i suppose they've concluded to let us alone."
"it doesn't surprise me that a yankee gove'nment has no use fo' women," observed celia.
"hush, dear. that kind of comment won't do. besides, some horrid stories were afloat about some of the nurses not being all they ought to be."
"that sounds ve'y yankee, too!"
"celia! and perhaps it was true that one or two among thousands might not have been everything they should have been," admitted ailsa, loyal to her government in everything. "and perhaps one or two soldiers were insolent; but neither letty lynden nor i have ever heard one unseemly word from the hundreds and hundreds of soldiers we have attended, never have had the slightest hint of disrespect from them."
"they certainly do behave ve'y well," conceded celia, brushing away vigorously. "they behave like our virginians."
ailsa laughed, then, smiling reflectively, glanced at her hand which still bore the traces of a healed scar. celia noticed her examining the slender, uplifted hand, and said:
"you promised to tell me how you got that scar, honey-bud."
"i will, now—because the man who caused it has gone north."
"a—man!"
"yes, poor fellow. when the dressings were changed the agony crazed him and he sometimes bit me. i used to be so annoyed," she added mildly, "and i used to shake my forefinger at him and say, 'now it's got to be done, jones; will you promise not to bite me.' and the poor fellow would promise with tears in his eyes—and then he'd forget—poor boy——"
"i'd have slapped him," said celia, indignantly. "what a darling you are, ailsa! . . . now bundle into bed," she added, "because you haven't any too much time to sleep, and poor little letty lynden will be half dead when she comes off duty."
letty really appeared to be half dead when she arrived, and bent wearily over the bed where ailsa now lay in calm-breathing, rosy slumber.
"oh, you sweet thing!" she murmured to herself, "you can sleep for two hours yet, but you don't know it." and, dropping her garments from her, one by one, she bathed and did up her hair and crept in beside ailsa very softly, careful not to arouse her.
but ailsa, who slept lightly, awoke, turned on her pillow, passed one arm around letty's dark curls.
"i'll get up," she said drowsily. "why didn't flannery call me?"
"you can sleep for an hour or two yet, darling," cooed letty, nestling close to her. "mrs. craig has taken old bill symonds, and they'll be on duty for two hours more."
"how generous of celia—and of old symonds, too. everybody seems to be so good to me here."
"everybody adores you, dear," whispered letty, her lips against
ailsa's flushed cheek. "don't you know it?"
ailsa laughed; and the laugh completed her awakening past all hope of further slumber.
"you quaint little thing," she said, looking at letty. "you certainly are the most engaging girl i ever knew."
letty merely lay and looked her adoration, her soft cheek pillowed on ailsa's arm. presently she said:
"do you remember the first word you ever spoke to me?"
"yes, i do."
"and—you asked me to come and see you."
"who wouldn't ask you—little rosebud?"
but letty only sighed and closed her eyes; nor did she awaken when
ailsa cautiously withdrew her arm and slipped out of bed.
she still had an hour and more; she decided to dress and go out for a breath of fresh, sweet air to fortify her against the heavy atmosphere of the sick wards.
it was not yet perfectly dark; the thin edge of the new moon traced a pale curve in the western sky; frogs were trilling; a night-bird sang in a laurel thicket unceasingly.
the evening was still, but the quiet was only comparative because, always, all around her, the stirring and murmur of the vast army never entirely ended.
but the drums and bugles, answering one another from hill to hill, from valley to valley, had ceased; she saw the reddening embers of thousands of camp fires through the dusk; every hill was jewelled, every valley gemmed.
in the darkness she could hear the ground vibrate under the steady tread of a column of infantry passing, but she could not see them—could distinguish no motion against the black background of the woods.
standing there on the veranda, she listened to them marching by. from the duration of the sound she judged it to be only one regiment, probably a new one arriving from the north.
a little while afterward she heard on some neighbouring hillside the far outbreak of hammering, the distant rattle of waggons, the clash of stacked muskets. then, in sudden little groups, scattered starlike over the darkness, camp fires twinkled into flame. the new regiment had pitched its tents.
it was a pretty sight; she walked out along the fence to see more clearly, stepping aside to avoid collision with a man in the dark, who was in a great hurry—a soldier, who halted to make his excuses, and, instead, took her into his arms with a breathless exclamation.
"philip!" she faltered, trembling all over.
"darling! i forgot i was not to touch you!" he crushed her hands swiftly to his lips and let them drop.
"my little ailsa! my—little—ailsa!" he repeated under his breath—and caught her to him again.
"oh—darling—we mustn't," she protested faintly. "don't you remember, philip? don't you remember, dear, what we are to be to one another?"
he stood, face pressed against her burning cheeks; then his arm encircling her waist fell away.
"you're right, dear," he said with a sigh so naively robust, so remarkably hearty, that she laughed outright—a very tremulous and uncertain laugh.
"what a tragically inclined boy! i never before heard a 'thunderous sigh'; but i had read of them in poetry. philip, tell me instantly how you came here!"
"ran the guard," he admitted.
"no! oh, dear, oh, dear!—and i told you not to. philip! philip! do you want to get shot?"
"now you know very well i don't," he said, laughing. "i spend every minute trying not to. . . . and, ailsa, what do you think? a little while ago when i was skulking along fences and lurking in ditches—all for your sake, ungrateful fair one!—tramp—tramp—tramp comes a column out of the darkness! 'lord help us,' said i, 'it's the police guard, or some horrible misfortune, and i'll never see my ailsa any more!' then i took a squint at 'em, and i saw officers riding, with about a thousand yards of gold lace on their sleeves, and i saw their music trudging along with that set of silver chimes aloft between two scarlet yaks' tails; and i saw the tasselled fezzes and the white gaiters and—'aha!' said i—'the zou-zous! but which?'
"and, by golly, i made out the number painted white on their knapsacks; and, ailsa, it was the 3d zouaves, colonel craig!—just arrived! and there—on that hill—are their fires!"
"oh, phil!" she exclaimed in rapture, "how heavenly for celia! i'm perfectly crazy to see curt and steve——"
"please transfer a little of that sweet madness to me."
"dear—i can't, can i?"
but she let him have her hands; and, resting beside him on the rail fence, bent her fair head as he kissed her joined hands, let it droop lower, lower, till her cheek brushed his. then, turning very slowly, their lips encountered, rested, till the faint fragrance of hers threatened his self-control.
she opened her blue eyes as he raised his head, looking at him vaguely in the dusk, then very gently shook her head and rested one cheek on her open palm.
"i don't know," she sighed. "i—don't—know—" and closed her lids once more.
"know what, dearest of women?"
"what is going to happen to us, phil. . . . it seems incredible—after our vows—after the lofty ideals we——"
"the ideals are there," he said in a low voice. and, in his tone there was a buoyancy, a hint of something new to her—something almost decisive, something of protection which began vaguely to thrill her, as though that guard which she had so long mounted over herself might be relieved—the strain relaxed—-the duty left to him.
she laid one hand on his arm, looked up, searching his face, hesitated. a longing to relax the tension of self-discipline came over her—to let him guard them both—to leave all to him—let him fight for them both. it was a longing to find security in the certainty of his self-control, a desire to drift, and let him be responsible, to let him control the irresponsibility within her, the unwisdom, the delicate audacity, latent, mischievous, that needed a reversal of the role of protector and protected to blossom deliciously into the coquetry that she had never dared.
"are you to be trusted?" she asked innocently.
"yes, at last. you know it. even if i——"
"yes, dear."
she considered him with a new and burning curiosity. it was the feminine in her, wondering, not yet certain, whether it might safely dare.
"i suppose i've made an anchorite out of you," she ventured.
"you can judge," he said, laughing; and had her in his arms again, and kissed her consenting lips and palms, and looked down into the sweet eyes; and she smiled back at him, confident, at rest.
"what has wrought this celestial change in you, phil?" she whispered, listlessly humourous.
"what change?"
"the spiritual."
"is there one? i seem to kiss you just as ardently."
"i know. . . . but—for the first time since i ever saw you—i feel that i am safe in the world. . . . it may annoy me."
he laughed.
"i may grow tired of it," she insisted, watching him. "i may behave like a naughty, perverse, ungrateful urchin, and kick and scream and bite. . . . but you won't let me be hurt, will you?"
"no, child." his voice was laughing at her, but his eyes were curiously grave.
she put both arms up around his neck with a quick catch of her breath.
"i do love you—i do love you. i know it now, phil—i know it as i never dreamed of knowing it. . . . you will never let me be hurt, will you? nothing can harm me now, can it?"
"nothing, ailsa."
she regarded him dreamily. sometimes her blue eyes wandered toward the stars, sometimes toward the camp fires on the hill.
"perfect—perfect belief in—your goodness—to me," she murmured vaguely. "now i shall—repay you—by perversity—misbehaviour—i don't know what—i don't know—what——"
her lids closed; she yielded to his embrace; one slim, detaining hand on his shoulder held her closer, closer.
"you must—never—go away," her lips formed.
but already he was releasing her, pale but coolly master of the situation. acquiescent, inert, she lay in his arms, then straightened and rested against the rail beside her.
presently she smiled to herself, looked at him, still smiling.
"shall we go into dr. west's office and have supper, phil? i'm on duty in half an hour and my supper must be ready by this time; and i'm simply dying to have you make up for the indignity of the kitchen."
"you ridiculous little thing!"
"no, i'm not. i could weep with rage when i think of you in the kitchen and—and— oh, never mind. come, will you?" and she held out her hand.
her supper was ready, as she had predicted, and she delightedly made room for him beside her on the bench, and helped him to freshly baked bread and ancient tinned vegetables, and some doubtful boiled meat, all of which he ate with an appetite and a reckless and appreciative abandon that fascinated her.
"darling!" she whispered in consternation, "don't they give you anything in camp?"
"sometimes," he enunciated, chewing vigorously on the bread. "we don't get much of this, darling. and the onions have all sprouted, and the potatoes are rotten."
she regarded him for a moment, then laughed hysterically.
"i beg your pardon, phil, but somehow this reminds me of our cook feeding her policeman:—just for one tiny second, darling——"
they abandoned any effort to control their laughter. ailsa had become transfigured into a deliciously mischievous and bewildering creature, brilliant of lip and cheek and eye, irresponsible, provoking, utterly without dignity or discipline.
she taunted him with his appetite, jeered at him for his recent and marvellous conversion to respectability, dared him to make love to her, provoked him at last to abandon his plate and rise and start toward her. and, of course, she fled, crying in consternation: "hush, philip! you mustn't make such a racket or they'll put us both out!"—keeping the table carefully between them, dodging every strategy of his, every endeavour to make her prisoner, quick, graceful, demoralising in her beauty and abandon. they behaved like a pair of very badly brought up children, until she was in real terror of discovery.
"dearest," she pleaded, "if you will sit down and resume your gnawing on that crust, i'll promise not to torment you. . . . i will, really. besides, it's within a few minutes of my tour of duty——"
she stopped, petrified, as a volley of hoof-beats echoed outside, the clash of arms and accoutrements rang close by the porch.
"phil!" she gasped.
and the door opened and colonel arran walked in.
there was a dreadful silence. arran stood face to face with berkley, looked him squarely in the eye where he stood at salute. then, as though he had never before set eyes on him, arran lifted two fingers to his visor mechanically, turned to ailsa, uncovered, and held out both his hands.
"i had a few moments, ailsa," he said quietly. "i hadn't seen you for so long. are you well?"
she was almost too frightened to answer; berkley stood like a statue, awaiting dismissal, and later the certain consequences of guard running.
and, aware of her fright, arran turned quietly to berkley:
"private ormond," he said, "there is a led-horse in my escort, in charge of private burgess. it is the easier and—safer route to camp. you may retire."
berkley's expression was undecipherable as he saluted, shot a glance at ailsa, turned sharply, and departed.
"colonel arran," she said miserably, "it was all my fault. i am too ashamed to look at you."
"let me do what worrying is necessary," he said quietly. "i am—not unaccustomed to it. . . . i suppose he ran the guard."
she did not answer.
the ghost of a smile—a grim one—altered the colonel's expression for a second, then faded. he looked at ailsa curiously. then:
"have you anything to tell me that—perhaps i may be entitled to know about, ailsa?"
"no."
"i see. i beg your pardon. if you ever are—perplexed—in doubt—i shall always——"
"thank you," she said faintly. . . . "and—i am so sorry——"
"so am i. i'm sorrier than you know—about more matters than you know, ailsa—" he softly smote his buckskin-gloved hands together, gazing at vacancy. then lifted his head and squared his heavy shoulders.
"i thought i'd come when i could. the chances are that the army will move if this weather continues. the cavalry will march out anyway. so i thought i'd come over for a few moments, ailsa. . . . are you sure you are quite well? and not overdoing it? you certainly look well; you appear to be in perfect health. . . . i am very much relieved. . . . and—don't worry. don't cherish apprehension about—anybody." he added, more to himself than to her: "discipline will be maintained—must be maintained. there are more ways to do it than by military punishments, i know that now."
he looked up, held out his hand, retained hers, and patted it gently.
"don't worry, child," he said, "don't worry." and went out to the porch thoughtfully, gazing straight ahead of him as his horse was brought up. then, gathering curb and snaffle, he set toe to stirrup and swung up into his saddle.
"ormond!" he called.
berkley rode up and saluted.
"ride with me," said colonel arran calmly.
"sir?"
"rein up on the left." and, turning in his saddle, he motioned back his escort twenty paces to the rear. then he walked his big, bony roan forward.
"ormond?"
"yes, colonel."
"you ran the guard?"
"yes, colonel."
"why?"
berkley was silent.
the colonel turned in his saddle and scrutinised him. the lancer's visage was imperturbable.
"ormond," he said in a low voice, "whatever you think of me—whatever your attitude toward me is, i would like you to believe that i wish to be your friend."
berkley's expression remained unchanged.
"it is my desire," said the older man, "my—very earnest—desire."
the young lancer was mute.
arran's voice fell still lower:
"some day—if you cared to—if you could talk over some—matters with me, i would be very glad. perhaps you don't entirely understand me. perhaps i have given you an erroneous impression concerning—matters—which it is too late to treat differently—in the light of riper experience—and in a knowledge born of years—solitary and barren years——"
he bent his gray head thoughtfully, then, erect in his saddle again:
"i would like to be your friend," he said in a voice perceptibly under control.
"why?" asked berkley harshly. "is there any reason on god's earth why i could ever forgive you?"
"no; no reason perhaps. yet, you are wrong."
"wrong!"
"i say so in the light of the past, berkley. once i also believed that a stern, uncompromising attitude toward error was what god required of an upright heart."
"error! d-do you admit that?" stammered berkley. "are you awake at last to the deviltry that stirred you—the damnable, misguided, distorted conscience that twisted you into a murderer of souls? by god, are you alive to what you did to—her?"
colonel arran, upright in his saddle and white as death, rode straight on in front of him.. beside him, knee to knee, rode berkley, his features like marble, his eyes ablaze.
"i am not speaking for myself," he said between his teeth, "i am not reproaching you, cursing you, for what you have done to me—for the ruin you have made of life for me, excommunicating me from every hope, outlawing me, branding me! i am thinking, now, only of my mother. god!—to think—to think of it—of her——"
arran turned on him a face so ghastly that the boy was silenced.
then the older man said:
"do you not know that the hell men make for others is what they are destined to burn in sooner or later? do you think you can tell me anything of eternal punishment?" he laughed a harsh, mirthless laugh. "do you not think i have learned by this time that vengeance is god's—and that he never takes it? it is man alone who takes it, and suffers it. humanity calls it justice. but i have learned that what the laws of men give you is never yours to take; that the warrant handed you by men is not for you to execute. i—have—learned—many things in the solitary years, berkley. . . . but this—what i am now saying to you, here under the stars—is the first time i have ever, even to myself, found courage to confess christ."
very far away to the south a rocket rose—a slender thread of fire. then, to the northward, a tiny spark grew brighter, flickered, swung in an arc to right, to left, dipped, soared, hung motionless, dipped again to right, to left, tracing faint crimson semicircles against the sky.
two more rockets answered, towering, curving, fading, leaving blue stars floating in the zenith.
and very, very far away there was a dull vibration of thunder, or of cannon.
