"No, I don't; pray don't ask me to draw inferences; I might infer too much." "Yes, you might, easily," said Charlotte; "for I only mean shortcomings of the kind we readily excuse in others though we never can or should pardon them in ourselves." The General turned an arch smile of perplexity upon his chief-of-staff. "I don't think we're quite up to that line of perpetual snow, Walter, are we?" The chief-of-staff "guessed they were not." Charlotte resumed. "I have come to you in the common interest, to warn you against that man. I believe he is on his way here to offer his services as a guide. He is fearless, untiring, and knows all this region by heart." "Union man, I take it, is he not?" "No, he's Federal, Confederate or guerilla as it may suit his bloody ends." "And you want me not to make use of him." "Oh, more than that; I want him stopped!--stopped from killing and burning on his and my private account. But I want much more than that, too. I know how you commonly stop such men." "We hang them to the first tree." "Yes, our side does the same. If I wanted such a fate to overtake him I should only have to let him alone. At risks too hideous to name I have saved him from it twice. I am here to-day chiefly to circumvent his purposes; but if I may do so in the way I wish to propose to you, I shall also save him once more. I am willing to save him--in that way--although by so doing I shall lose--fearfully." She dropped her glance and turned aside. "How do you propose to circumvent and yet save him?" "By getting you to send him so far to your own army's rear that he cannot get back; to compel him to leave the country; to go into your country, where law and order reign as they cannot here between the lines." "And you consider that a reasonable request?" "Oh, sir, I must make it! I can ask no less!" "But you say if this scheme works you lose by it. What will you lose?" "I may lose track of him! If I lose track of him I may have to go through a long life not knowing whether he is dead or alive." "And suppose--why,--young lady, I thought you were unmarried. I--oh, what do you mean; is he--?" Charlotte's head drooped and her hands trembled. "Yes, by law and church decree he is my husband." "Good Heaven!" murmured the General, drew a breath, and folded his arms. "But, madam! if a man _abandons_ his wife--" "I abandoned him." "Good for you!" "It was vital for me. But I did it on evidence which our laws ignore, the testimony of slaves. Oh, General, don't try to untangle me; only stop him!" "Ah! madam, I'll do the little I can. How am I to know him?" "By a pistol-wound in his right hand, got last week. He would have got it in his brain but for my pleading. His name is Oliver." "Oliver; hmm! any relation to Charlotte Oliver, your so called newspaper correspondent? I'd like to stop her.--How?--I don't quite hear you." "I am Charlotte Oliver."