They had come to a white, old mansion, with steps running up to a narrow yard and a small porch. "Yes, we are staying here. Will you not come in?" "Thank you, no. I ride as far as Woodstock to-night. I have not seen Captain Cleave. Indeed, I have not seen him since last spring." "He is acting just now as aide to General Jackson. You have been all this while with General Magruder on the Peninsula?" "Yes, until lately. We missed Manassas." He stood beside the garden wall, his gauntleted hand on the gatepost. A creeper bearing yet a few leaves hung from a tree above, and one of the crimson points touched his grey cap. "I am now on General Loring's staff. Where he goes at present I go. And where General Jackson goes, apparently we all go! Heigho! How do you like war, Miss Miriam?" Miriam regarded him with her air of a brown and gold gilliflower. She thought him very handsome, and oh, she liked the gold-braided cap and the fine white gauntlet! "There is something to be said on both sides," she stated sedately. "I should like it very much did not you all run into danger." Stafford looked at her, amused. "But some of us run out again--Ah!" Cleave came from the house and down the path to the gate, moving in a red sunset glow, beneath trees on which yet hung a few russet leaves. He greeted his mother and sister, then turned with courtesy to Stafford. "Sandy Pendleton told me you were in town. From General Loring, are you not? You low-countrymen are gathering all our mountain laurels! Gauley River and Greenbriar and to-day, news of the Allegheny engagement--" "You seem to be bent," said Stafford, "on drawing us from the Monterey line before we can gather any more! We will be here next week." "You do not like the idea?" The other shrugged. "I? Why should I care? It is war to go where you are sent. But this weather is much too good to last, and I fail to see what can be done to the northward when winter is once let loose! And we leave the passes open. There is nothing to prevent Rosecrans from pushing a force through to Staunton!" "That is the best thing that could happen. Draw them into the middle valley and they are ours." Stafford made a gesture. "_Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame!_ Mrs. Cleave, there is no help for it! We are bewitched--and all by a stone wall in an old cadet cap!" Cleave laughed. "No, no! but it is, I think, apparent--You will not go in? I will walk with you, then, as far as the hotel." Margaret Cleave held out her hand. "Good-bye, Major Stafford. We think day and night of all you soldiers. God bless you all, wherever you may be!" In the sunset light the two men turned their faces toward the Taylor House. "It is a good thing to have a mother," said Stafford. "Mine died when I was a little boy.--Well, what do you think of affairs in general?" "I think that last summer we won a Pyrrhic victory."