"He'll eat you up before daylight, Mr. Carruthers," she said as she cast a sweet and loving glance at my Uncle, the General Robert, which, I could see as I lowered her over my arm and slid away from him, was giving to him much nice fury. "I will request that Madam black Kizzie to make a good cream gravy to me," I made answer to her with merriment. "I am very tender," I added with audacity that I was learning with such a rapidity that I trembled for the reputation of Mr. Robert Carruthers, and as I spoke the words I gave to her a little embrace in a turn of the dance. It should not have been done, but if that sweet Sue had known that a very lonely girl danced in that raven garb of a man, who wanted to hold her close for her comforting, she would have forgiven it, I feel sure. That Sue is a young woman of such a good sense that I must forever cherish her. "Don't do that again, Bobby Carruthers," she said, looking up at me with a lovely seriousness in her honest young eyes. "I know you are French, and queer, but--but don't--" After a little she added: "We are going to be grand friends, aren't we?" "Yes, lovely Sue, and I beg of you pardon," I answered her with all of the friendliness of Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, in my eyes and voice, which seemed to give to her a beautiful satisfaction. "Good! I'll tell you what let's do. You come by for me to-morrow afternoon and I'll go with you to the Capitol and I'll beard the General Lion in his den and ask him to let us be friends, and then we'll take him out to the Confederate Soldiers' Home for 'flags down'--it mellowed him so once, when I was about ten, that he let me trot home beside him holding his hand, though he didn't speak to me for a week after. Want to?" I did enjoy the mischief in those merry eyes that I laughed into. "I'll steal his big car and come and help you--what do you say?--kidnap my Uncle, the General Robert," I answered her with delight as I released her into the arms of that Buzz Clendenning before the fox had been more than half trotted. "Go pick roses out of your own garden, L'Aiglon," he said as he slid her away from me.