But this opportunity failed to come at once. That night at supper April appeared as usual, indeed Dorothea could note no change in her manner; all traces of tears were gone and she seemed her bright vivacious self. There was some talk of Tracy’s sudden departure, but April gave no hint that she was aware of any reason for it, and to those who knew nothing of the afternoon’s occurrences it was easy to account for it as due to the exigencies of the war. Toward Dorothea she showed no change, so far as the girl could see, and this confirmed her conclusion that April wished the matter kept secret. Otherwise she would have spoken out, at least to her mother, and Dorothea was sure that her Aunt Parthenia would not be one to let her rest under any suspicion without giving her a chance to explain the circumstances. There was just one person who could set the matter straight in the main, at least; and he was lying in bed sorely wounded. Dorothea could not take her grievances to him while he was in this condition, but when Hal had sufficiently recovered to be down on the gallery in the sun Dorothea made up her mind that she would speak to him some day when they were alone together and see that he informed April of the exact circumstances of her meeting with Lee Hendon. Strangely enough April had come to the same conclusion from an entirely different standpoint. She thoroughly believed in Dorothea’s guilt. There was no doubt in her mind that her accusation had been just and that her cousin was a Red String. To her thinking, the English girl had taken advantage of her relationship with them to come South and spy upon the Confederacy. She was not quite logical even with herself; but although suspicion had more than once entered her mind, it was only when she believed herself thoroughly justified that she permitted these vague doubts to take a definite form. Now that she had seen Dorothea in communication with Lee Hendon she had found the necessary proof for her intuitive distrust, and there was nothing she could not have believed Dorothea capable of to further the cause of the Yankees. She thought it entirely possible that the girl had been in constant communication with Hendon, supplying him with information she had picked up from Hal and Val Tracy or the many officers who had stayed with them from time to time.