"Of course I do; I can't go myself, but I _can_ buy a pair of strong arms to fight for me, and I intend to do it. I only hope he'll have the right sort of courage, and be a credit to me." "What do you call the right sort of courage?" asked Lennox, soberly. "That which makes a man ready and glad to live or die for a principle. There's a chance for heroes now, if there ever was. When do you join your regiment?" she added, abruptly. "Haven't the least idea," and Lennox subsided again. "But you intend to do so, of course?" "Why should I?" Belle dropped her work. "Why should you? What a question! Because you have health, and strength, and courage, and money to help on the good cause, and every man should give his best, and not _dare_ to stay at home when he is needed." "You forget that I am an Englishman, and we rather prefer to be strictly neutral just now." "You are only half English; and for your mother's sake you should be proud and glad to fight for the North," cried Belle warmly. "I don't remember my mother,--" "That's evident!" "But, I was about to add, I've no objection to lend a hand if it isn't too much trouble to get off," said Lennox indifferently, for he liked to see Belle's color rise, and her eyes kindle while he provoked her. "Do you expect to go South in a bandbox? You'd better join one of the kid-glove regiments; they say the dandies fight well when the time comes." "I've been away so long, the patriotic fever hasn't seized me yet; and, as the quarrel is none of mine, I think perhaps I'd better take care of Kate, and let you fight it out among yourselves. Here's the Lancers, may I have the honor?" But Belle, being very angry at this lukewarmness, answered in her bluntest manner,-- "Having reminded me that you are a 'strictly neutral' Englishman, you must excuse me if I decline; _I_ dance only with loyal Americans," and, rolling up her work with a defiant flourish, she walked away, leaving him to lament his loss and wonder how he could retrieve it. She did not speak to him again till he stood in the hall waiting for Kate; then Belle came down in a charming little red hood, and going straight up to him with her hand out, a repentant look and a friendly smile, said frankly,-- "I was very rude; I want to beg pardon of the English, and shake hands with the American, half." So peace was declared, and lasted unbroken for the remaining week of his stay, when he proposed to take Kate to the city for a little gayety. Miss Morgan openly approved the plan, but secretly felt as if the town was about to be depopulated, and tried to hide her melancholy in her substitute's socks. They were not large enough, however, to absorb it all; and, when Lennox went to make his adieu, it was perfectly evident that the Doctor's Belle was out of tune. The young gentleman basely exulted over this, till she gave him something else to think about by saying gravely: