TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: —Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected. [Illustration: _See page 317._ _“I ALREADY KNOW WHAT IS IN THE PAPERS.”_] EVELYN BYRD [Illustration] By GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON AUTHOR OF “A CAROLINA CAVALIER,” “DOROTHY SOUTH,” “THE MASTER OF WARLOCK,” “RUNNING THE RIVER,” ETC., ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY CHARLES COPELAND [Illustration] NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS [Illustration] COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON. [Illustration] Published May, 1904. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. _PREFACE_ _THIS book is the third and last of a trilogy of romances. In that trilogy I have endeavoured to show forth the character of the Virginians—men and women._ _In “Dorothy South” I tried to show what the Virginians were while the old life lasted—“before the war.”_ _In “The Master of Warlock” I endeavoured faithfully to depict the same people as they were during the first half of the Civil War, when their valour seemed to promise everything of results that they desired. In “Evelyn Byrd” I have sought to show the heroism of endurance that marked the conduct of those people during the last half of the war, when disaster stared them in the face and they unfalteringly confronted it._ _GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON._ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. A STRICKEN CORSAGE 9 II. OWEN KILGARIFF 29 III. EVELYN BYRD 50 IV. THE LETTING DOWN OF THE BARS 59 V. DOROTHY’S OPINIONS 70 VI. “WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK” 79 VII. WITH EVELYN AT WYANOKE 102 VIII. SOME REVELATIONS OF EVELYN 118 IX. THE GREAT WAR GAME 144 X. THE LAW OF LOVE 152 XI. ORDERS AND “NO NONSENSE” 167 XII. SAFE-CONDUCT OF TWO KINDS 178 XIII. KILGARIFF HEARS NEWS 185 XIV. IN THE WATCHES OF THE NIGHT 210 XV. IN THE TRENCHES 216 XVI. THE STARVING TIME 224 XVII. A GUN-PIT CONFERENCE 242 XVIII. EVELYN’S REVELATION 269