It was. The brave man, in this last emergency, did as he would have done in the field at the head of his company if subjected to a sudden attack. He promptly rearranged and marshalled all his faculties to face the enemy. There was not a moment of despairing, vain retreat. In the strong pressure upon his mind of those questions which must now be settled once for all, he forgot the girl by his side. He was still so long that she timidly raised her head and was awed by his stern, fixed expression of deep abstraction. She did not disturb him except as the stifled sobs of her deep, yet now passing agitation convulsed her bosom, and she began to give her attention to Uncle Lusthah, hitherto unheeded. The old man was on his knees in a dusky corner, praying in low tones. "Oh, I'm so glad he's here," she thought. "I'm glad he's praying God to help us both." In the uncalculating sympathy and strength of her nature she had unconsciously entered into the dying man's experience and was suffering with him. Indeed, her heart sank with a deeper dread and awe than he from the great change which he had faced so often as to be familiar with its thought. At last he seemed to waken to her presence and said compassionately, "Poor little girl! so all your grief was about me. How pale you are!" "I do so wish you could go home," she breathed; "I am so very, VERY sorry." "Well, Miss Baron," he replied with dignity, "I'm no better than thousands of others. I always knew this might happen any day. You have learned why it is peculiarly hard for me--but that's not to be thought of now. If I've got my marching orders, that's enough for a soldier. It was scarcely right in Borden to give you this heavy task. I could have faced the truth from his lips." "He felt so dreadfully about it," she replied. "He said he had been giving you false hopes in trying to make you get well." "Oh, yes, he meant kindly. Well, if it hasn't been too much for you, I'm glad you told me. Your sympathy, your face, will be a sweet memory to carry, G--od only knows where. Since it can't be little Sadie's face or my wife's I'm glad it's yours. What am I saying? as if I should forget their dear faces through all eternity." "Ah! captain, I wish you could hear one of our soldiers, talk. Dying with him just means going to Heaven." The officer shook his head. "I'm not a Christian," he said simply. "Neither am I," she replied, "but I've been made to feel that being one is very different from what I once thought it was." "Well, Miss Baron, what is it to be a Christian--what is your idea of it? There has always seemed to me such a lot of conflicting things to be considered--well, well, I haven't given the subject thought and it's too late now. I must give my mind to my family and--"