Virginia -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction
labourer who did work for day’s wages in the employ of some of the men
to whom he now gives orders, and from whom he expects and receives
willing obedience. I tell you, Kilgariff, a revolution has been wrought
in this Southern land of ours, and the results of that revolution will
permanently endure, whatever the military or political outcome of the
war may be. In your case there is no need to cite these precedents,
except to show you that the old quixotism—it was a good old quixotism
in its way; it did a world of good, together with a very little of
evil—is completely gone. There is no earthly reason, Kilgariff, why
you should not render a higher and better service to the Confederacy
than that which you are now rendering. There is no reason—”
“Pardon me, Arthur; in my own mind there is reason enough. And besides,
I am thoroughly comfortable as I am. You know I am given to being
comfortable. You remember that when you and I were students at Jena,
and afterward in the Latin Quarter in Paris, I was always content
to live in the meagre ways that other students did, though I had a
big balance to my credit in the bank and a large income at home. As
sergeant-major under our volunteer system, I am the intimate associate
not only of Captain Pollard, whose scholarship you know, but also
of all the battery officers, some of whom are men worth knowing. For
the rest, I like the actual fighting, and I am looking forward to
this summer’s campaign with positively eager anticipations. So, if
you don’t mind, we will let matters stand as they are. I will remain
sergeant-major till the end of it all.”
With that, the two friends parted.
V
DOROTHY’S OPINIONS
IT was not Arthur Brent’s habit to rest satisfied in the defeat of any
purpose. He was deeply interested to induce Owen Kilgariff to become
a member of the military medical staff. Having exhausted his own
resources of persuasion, he determined to consult Dorothy, as he always
did when he needed counsel. That night he sent a long letter to her.
In it he told her all he knew about the matter, reserving nothing—he
never practised reserve with her—but asking her to keep Kilgariff’s
name and history to herself. Having laid the whole matter before that
wise young woman, he frankly asked her what he should do further in the
case. For reply, she wrote:—
I am deeply interested in Kilgariff’s case. I have thought all day and
nearly all night about it. It seems to me to be a case in which a man
is to be saved who is well worth saving. Not that I regard service in
the ranks as either a hardship or a shame to any man, when the ranks
are full of the best young men in all the land. If that were all, I
would not have you turn your hand over to lift this man into place as
a commissioned officer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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