"What matter?" she asked. She had wheeled half around on the piano-stool, and sat, her slim figure in its white dress, delicate and erect, one white arm, visible through the thin fabric, outstretched to the keyboard, the hand toying with resolving chords. He had been standing beside the piano as she sang, but now, with the air of inviting serious discussion, he seated himself in one of the stiff arm-chairs of the carved rosewood "parlor set" of that day, and replied gravely:---- "His association with Julius Roscoe." Her eyes widened with genuine amazement. "It seems," proceeded Ashley, slowly, "that a dozen or two of the soldiers, who claimed to have seen a Confederate officer on the balcony here, recognized him as Julius Roscoe, when he reappeared in command of the forces that captured the redoubt. And the surgeon has always insisted that Baynell's hurt was a blow, not a fall. There is a good deal of smothered talk in various quarters." He stroked his mustache contemplatively, looked vaguely about the room, and sighed in a certain disconsolateness. "I don't understand," said Mrs. Gwynn, sharply, fixing intent eyes upon him. "How can Captain Baynell be called in question?" "Oh, the general theory--however well or ill grounded--is that young Roscoe was here on a reconnoitring expedition of some sort, or perhaps merely on a visit to his kindred, and that Baynell winked at his presence on account of friendship with the family, instead of arresting him, as he should have done. It's an immense pity. Baynell is a fine officer." Mrs. Gwynn had turned pale with excitement. "But _none of us_ knew that Julius Roscoe was in the house!" she exclaimed. She hesitated a moment as the words passed her lips. Judge Roscoe's reticence on the subject might imply some knowledge of the harbored Rebel. Ashley was suddenly tense with energy. "Don't imagine for one moment, my dear madam, that I have any desire to extract information from you. It is no concern of mine how he came or went. I only mention the subject because it is very much on my mind and heart. And I don't see any satisfactory end to it. I have a great respect for Baynell as a man, and especially as an artillerist, and somehow in these campaigns I have contrived to get fond of the fellow!--though he is about as stiff, and unresponsive, and prejudiced, and priggish a bundle of animal fibre as ever called himself human." "Why, he doesn't give me that idea," exclaimed Leonora, her eyes widening. "He seems unguarded, and impulsive, and ardent." Colonel Ashley was very considerably her senior and far too experienced to be ingenuous himself. He made no comment on the conviction her words created within him. He only looked at her in silence, receiving her remark with courteous attention. Then he resumed:----