If Miss ADAMS did _not_ have the heart of a man it was owing to no neglect on her part of any possible means to catch such a heart. That is to say, all her dearest and most intimate female friends said so. Her speech was evidently intended to impress the prisoner with a torturing sense of woman's vengeance, but, contrary to her expectation, Mr. PETERS received it with the utmost complacency. In fact, he even evinced a playful disposition and favored the attentive keeper with an insidious wink. "I don't doubt that your intentions were excellent, Miss EVE," said Mr. BOB PETERS, with an air of great enjoyment; "but they did not work as well as your affectionate heart designed. Because--you see--I did'nt come out at a quarter of Twelve at all, nor did I follow any of your directions. Oh, no! It was just quarter-past Twelve by my repeater when I departed from my late residence, and it's my private opinion that your dear friend, Miss ORDETH, had the privilege of being my adviser on that nocturnal occasion. Don't let your sensitive soul be afflicted with the thought that _you_ have wronged confiding innocence," added BOB, pathetically, "for I do assure you that you are as guiltless as the child unborn." "What do you mean, sir?" asked EVE, in some haste; "were you not arrested at a quarter of Twelve?" "Why no!" said BOB. "Don't I tell you that I didn't break cover until quarter-past?" "Well, sir," snarled EVE, with no little irritation, "you're here at any rate, and I hope you'll enjoy the society of your Yankee friends down stairs. I hope you'll all be hung. I do." And the injured fair swept magnificently from the room, dragging with her the neighbor's child, and leaving Mr. PETERS alone with the keeper. "I say, she's a spunky one," remarked the latter. "It's a pity you really did'nt wait till quarter-past. I would'nt trust a woman with such eyes as hers--I would'nt." "And I didn't trust them," said BOB. "It was full quarter-past by my repeater when I came out, and if I'm betrayed it's by another woman." "Oh, come now," put in the keeper, deprecatingly, "it's all right, you know, between us two. It was'nt but quarter-past when I locked you in here, you know." "What!" exclaimed BOB. "Fact," said the keeper. Mr. PETERS deliberately drew out his watch and held it up in full view. "By all that's true!" said BOB, "it was quarter-past Twelve by that repeater before I was taken last night." The rebel official looked steadily into the eyes of his prisoner for a moment, and then withdrew hurriedly and in silence. He evidently mistrusted the sincerity of Mr. PETERS, or believed that a man with such a fast watch was too much ahead of _his_ time to be trusted without a watch of a different kind. CHAPTER VII.--UNION SENTIMENT DEVELOPING.