“Oh, I know,” he continued, still keeping his eyes fixed upon her, “you’re the chap I took, but you’ve fell away mightily since then. Yankee fare don’t set well on your Rebel stomach, I guess,” and a wild, coarse laugh rang through the room, making Rose shudder and draw back, for she felt intuitively that Billy was mad. She was not, however, afraid of him, and standing at a little distance, she tried to reason with him, telling him she was not a Rebel,—she was Mrs. Mather, come to do him good. Bill only laughed derisively. “Couldn’t cheat him. Guess he knew them eyes and them hands, white as cotton wool. I’ll bet I’ve got a ring that’ll fit ’em,” he continued, and reaching for his pantaloons, which he had insisted should lie behind him on the bed, he took from the pocket the costly diamond once worn by his Rebel captive, and _confisticated_ by him as _con-tra-band_. “Try it on,” he said to Rose, who mechanically obeyed, wondering why it should look so familiar to her. It was too large for her slender fingers, and dropping off, rolled upon the floor. Rose at once set herself to finding the missing ring, and had just returned it to its owner when Mrs. Baker came in, terribly alarmed at finding Mrs. Mather there. Rose, however, quieted her fears at once by telling her she had known for some days past of Bill’s desertion, and had kept it from every one but Annie, because her husband thought it best. She did not believe he would be followed, she said, for Will wrote that he had become so reckless and discontented that his absence was no loss to the army, but for a while it might be well that his presence should not be known in Rockland, as the people might be indignant at a deserter, and perhaps in their excitement do him some injury. “He ought to have medical advice, though,” she added, “for I think he’s very sick.” Mrs. Baker knew he was, and fear lest he should die overcame every other feeling, making her consent that Rose should call their family physician. It was nearly noon ere he arrived, and in the meantime Rose had reported the case to Annie, and then returning to Mrs. Baker’s, took her place by Billy, who called her “his little Rebel,” and ordered her about as if he had been a commanding officer, and she his subordinate. The novelty of the thing was rather pleasing to Rose, and notwithstanding that the physician pronounced the disease typhus fever in its most violent form, she persisted in staying, saying some one must help Mrs. Baker, and she was not afraid.