“Yes,” she broke out earnestly, “I know that you are fighting for your convictions and your ideals and you will not be worthy of my love if you don’t fight until you either win or are conquered. I don’t want you to compromise, or to yield, until you have fought to the last drop of your strength.” “It’s going to be a bitter struggle and a long one, whatever the most of them, on both sides, think now. In the South there isn’t much belief that the North will fight, or can fight. But I know better, Rhoda. You have taught me better, you and your father. You have made me understand what determination there is at the bottom of all this.” “It’s a war between two ideals,” she said, “whatever else they may say it is. But it’s really that, between two ideals of civilization.” “And men,” he added quickly, “always fight for their ideals as they do for nothing else. It will be to the last gasp.” She looked away and shuddered. “Oh, it is all so horrible, even to think of! But it is a long and horrible iniquity that has caused it and must now be paid for. Rachel Benedict told me once that we must ourselves pay with sweat and stripes for the evil that we do. I believe it’s true, and the North and the South must pay together for all this long evil of slavery, for they are both responsible. But this war will end it.” He smiled upon her indulgently. “Can you think so, Rhoda, you, who understand how we feel and how determined we are?” She stepped back and proudly lifted her head. Into her face came the look of exaltation he had seen there, in this same arbor, long before. It seemed to remove her far from him, and therefore set his heart to throbbing all the more with longing for her. “Yes,” she said, “this war will end it, because God is on our side. And afterward--oh, Jeff!”--her face melted to tenderness again--“beyond--after the end, after God has spoken and slavery has been ended, then there will be peace, and for us--” her voice dropped low--“happiness!” “God be the judge between us, Rhoda Ware,” he exclaimed, “as to which is right! Will you accept His judgment, as He speaks it in battle, and promise to be my wife when the war is over, whatever He has said?” Again her face was lifted, glowing with exaltation. “God will never allow such an atonement for evil-doing as this war will be,” she said solemnly, “to be crowned by that very evil itself. With faith in Him--I promise!” Scarcely had the words left her tongue when she found herself swept to his breast and his lips upon her brow, her eyes, her mouth. “Rhoda, my love, my love,” he whispered, “it is a long good-by that lies before us, perhaps even as long as it has been since I first begged for your love, here among these vines.” “And there are battles and dangers, oh, so many,” she whispered back, “between now and--the end.”