“No, Charles. You are wanted here on the Potomac. Your reputation in gunnery is already high. The country needs more officers of your stamp. You cannot be spared. The Captain here can go with me to the Gulf. He is wounded and entitled to a furlough. A trip to New Orleans by sea will do him good.” With a look of grave disappointment Kenrick took up a newspaper and kept his face concealed by it for a moment. Then putting it down, and turning to Vance, he said, with a sweet sincerity in his tone: “Cousin, where my wishes are so strongly enlisted, you can judge better than I of my duty. I yield to your judgment, and, if you persist in it, will make no effort to get from government the permission I covet.” “Truly I think your place is here,” said Vance. A servant entered with a letter. It was for Vance. He opened it, and finding it was from Peek, read as follows:— “NEW ORLEANS, February, 1862. ”DEAR MR. VANCE: On leaving you at the Levee I drove straight for the stable where my horses belonged. I passed the night with my friend Antoine, the coachman. The next day I went to your house, where I have stayed with those kind people, the Bernards, ever since. “Please inform Mr. Winslow I duly attended to his commissions. What will seem strange to you is the fact that in attending to his affairs I am attending to yours. Two days after your departure the newspapers contained flaming accounts of the treacherous seizure of the Artful Dodger by Messrs. Vance, Winslow, & Co.,—their pursuit by the Rebel, the encounter, the Rebel’s discomfiture, the ‘abduction’ of Mr. Ratcliff, the funeral of his poor wife, etc. Seeing that Mr. Ratcliff was absent, I thought the opportunity favorable for me to call at his house on the quadroon lady, Madame Volney, to whom Mr. Winslow had commended me. I went and found in the servant who opened the door an old acquaintance, Esha, whom years ago you sought for in vain. She was here keeping watch over a white slave. “And who is the white slave? you will ask. Ah! there’s the mystery. Who _is_ she indeed! In the first place, she is claimed by Ratcliff; in the next, she and Madame Volney are the residuary legatees of the late Mrs. Ratcliff; in the next, she is the young lady who has been staying with Miss Tremaine at the St. Charles.” Here there was a cry of pain from Vance, so sharp and sudden that Kenrick started forward to his relief. “What’s the matter? Is it bad news?” inquired Onslow. “I’ll finish reading the letter by myself,” replied Vance, taking his departure without ceremony. Seated in his own apartment, he continued the reading:—