"Oh, but--I don't anticipate an immediate close of the struggle. It may last a year yet; and during that time--" "That is not the point. King Stork has succeeded King Log. King Stork's men must have the nice places and King Log's men must get out of them." "Oh, but they won't turn you out," exclaimed Lillie, and then blushed as she thought how her eagerness might be interpreted. "We shall see," answered the Colonel gravely, and almost sadly. He was so much in love with this girl that a life in Capua with her seemed more desirable than the winning of Cannæ's away from her. "Here is my fate," he said when he called on the following evening, and handed her two official documents, the one relieving him from his position as Military Governor, the other assigning him to the command of a brigade. "Now you must go into the battle again," she said, making a struggle to preserve her self-possession. "I am sorry,--on your account." At this answer her effort at stoicism and maidenly dignity failed; she dropped her head and hid her face in the sewing work on which she had been engaged. This was too much for Carter, to whom love had been a rejuvenation and almost a regeneration, so that he was as gentle, virginal, and sensitive as if he had never known the hardening experiences of a soldier and a man about town. Sitting down beside his betrothed, he pressed her temples with both his hands and kissed the light, flossy, amber-colored ripples of her hair. He could feel the half-suppressed sobs which trembled through her frame, breaking softly and noiselessly, like summer waves dying on a reedy shore. How he longed to soothe her by grasping all her being into his and making her altogether his own! He was on the point of falling before the temptation which he had that morning resolved to resist. He knew that he ought not to marry, with only his colonelcy as a support; yet he was about to urge an immediate marriage, and would have done so had he spoken. Lillie would not have refused him: it would not have been in the nature of woman: what girl would put off a lover who was going to the battle-field? Nothing prevented the consummation of this imprudence but a ring at the door-bell. Miss Ravenel sprang up and fled from the parlor, fearful of being caught with tears on her cheeks and her hair disordered. Mrs. Larue entered, gave the Colonel a saucy courtesy, cast a keen sidelong glance at his serious countenance, repressed apparently some flippant remark which was on her lips, begged him to excuse her for a few moments, and slid out of the room. "Confound her!" muttered the Colonel, indignant at Madame without cause, merely because he had been interrupted.