"My dear Madam, I shall be delighted to serve you in any such good work. To save youth and beauty from the polluting touch of a Yankee captain might well call forth the warmest zeal, the most devoted daring, of any native of the sunny South." "Sir, your sentiments do you honor. This, then, is my scheme--Is there any chance of our being overheard?" "By none except the invisibles," said Glide; "and they probably exist only in the imagination of Yankee fanatics." "My plan," whispered the lady, "is to put my daughter in a convent until the gentleman to whom I have promised her, Colonel Pegram of the Confederate army, can have an opportunity of seeing her. Of course it would not take him five minutes to drive out of her head all thought of this Yankee lover." "And has your daughter, Madam, no suspicion of this admirable scheme of yours?" "Not the slightest. She supposes we are going to Montreal on business of her father's." "Madam, you couldn't have been more fortunate in your confidence. It happens that I am on most intimate terms with Father Basil, the confessor of the nuns, and who, by the rules of the convent, must interrogate your daughter before she can be admitted to its privileges." "But," said Mrs. Dinwiddie, anxiously, "will Father Basil have the proper sympathy with my maternal motives and my Southern sentiments? Will he be disposed to strain his authority a little in order to put my daughter in durance?" "I think I may venture to promise," answered Glide, "that, such is my influence with him, he will do in the matter whatever I may request." "How fortunate!" "And now, Madam, you must make preparations for your departure. The cars start in ten minutes." Before seven o'clock that evening the whole party were comfortably disposed in one of the best of the Montreal hotels. The obliging Mr. Glide went forth immediately to make inquiries in Mrs. Dinwiddie's behalf. After breakfast the next day he presented himself to her and asked,-- "You have said nothing as yet to your daughter?" "Not a word," she replied. "Then," said he, "our course will be to drive at once to Father Basil's residence, and get him to broach the whole matter to Miss Barbara. He has a very persuasive tongue, and I think she will at once yield to his exhortations. Should she, however, be disposed to resist forcibly our measures for her benefit, there will be the means at hand to carry them out." Barbara entered the room, wholly unsuspicious of the plots against her liberty. "The carriage will soon be at the door," said her mother. "Go and get ready." And after a whispered hint from Mr. Glide, she added, "Put on your pearl silk, Barbara. We shall have to call on certain persons of distinction." Barbara was soon ready. They all three entered the carriage, and after a drive of about a mile, it stopped before a large and elegant house. "Our father confessor lives in style," whispered Mrs. Dinwiddie.