Vance looked at his watch, and then passed out into the paved corridor and walked up and down. He thought of Clara,—of the bracelet of his wife’s hair on her wrist. It moved him to tears. Was there not something in the identity in the position of these two young and lovely women that seemed to draw him by the subtle meshes of an overruling fate to Clara’s side? Could it be that Estelle herself, a guardian angel, was favoring the conjunction? For an instant that gracious image which had so long been the light of his waking and his sleeping dreams, seemed to retire, and another to take her place; another, different, yet hardly less lovely. For an instant, and for the second time, visions of a new domestic paradise,—of beautiful children who should call him father,—of a daughter whose name should be Estelle,—of life’s evening spent amid the amenities of a refined and happy home,—flitted before his imagination, and importuned desire. But they speedily vanished, and that other transcendent image returned and resumed its place. Ah! it was so life-like, so real, so near and positive in its presence, that no other could be its substitute! For no other could his heart’s chalice overflow with immortal love. Had she not said,— “And dear as sacramental wine To dying lips was all she said,”— had she not said, “I shall see you, though you may not see me?” Vance took the words into his believing heart, and thenceforth they were a reality from the sense of which he could not withdraw himself, and would not have withdrawn himself if he could. He looked again at his watch, and re-entered that inner office of the War Department, to which none but those high in government confidence were often admitted. “We have just received a reply to your inquiry,” said the clerk. “Mr. Ratcliff of New Orleans made his escape from Fort Lafayette ten days ago. The Department has taken active measures to have him rearrested.” ----- Footnote 31: The names and the facts are real. See Harper’s Weekly, July 4, 1868. Footnote 32: Mr. W.S. Grayson of Mississippi writes, in De Bow’s Review (August, 1860): “Civil liberty has been the theme of praise among men, and most wrongfully. This is the infatuation of our age.” And Mr. George Fitzhugh of Virginia writes: “Men are never efficient in military matters, or in industrial pursuits, until wholly deprived of their liberty. _Loss of liberty is no disgrace._” Footnote 33: Testimony of Mrs. Fanny Kemble to facts within her knowledge. Footnote 34: