"Of course in a civil war there are always some instances of undue leniency,--the pressure of circumstances induces it,--but rarely indeed such as this; it amounts to aiding and abetting the enemy, however unpremeditated. Young Roscoe could not have secured the means or information for his destructive raid had not Baynell permitted him to be housed here. Doubtless, however, Baynell thought it a mere visit of the boy to his father's family." "But Captain Baynell never dreamed that Julius Roscoe was in the house!" she exclaimed. "That's just what he says he _did_--dreamed that he saw him! I can rely on you not to repeat my words. But I have had no confidential talk with him." "I am sure--I _know_--they were never together for a moment." "The surgeon says that Roscoe's knuckles cut to the bone," commented Ashley, with a significant smile. But the triumphs of stultifying Mrs. Gwynn in conversation were all inadequate to restore his usual serene satisfaction, and once more he looked restlessly about the rooms and sighed. "What do you think Captain Baynell was guilty of? Permitting an enemy to remain within the lines, _perdu_, unsuspected, to gather information, and make off with it--conniving at the concealment, and assisting the escape of an enemy? And _you_ call yourself his friend!" Leonora's cheeks were flushed. Her voice rang with a tense vibration. She fixed her interlocutor with a challenging eye. "Oh--I don't _know_ what he intended," replied Ashley, almost irritably. "Doubtless he had some high-minded motive, so intricate that he can never explain it, and nobody else can ever unravel it. I only know he has played the fool,--and I _fear_ he has ruined himself irretrievably." "But you don't answer my question--what do _you think_ he has done?" Ashley might have responded that his conclusions were not subject to her inquisition. But his suave methods of thought and conduct could not compass this unmannerly retort. Moreover, it was a relief to his feelings to canvass the matter so paramount in his mind with an irresponsible woman, rather than with his brother officers, among whom it was rife, thereby sending his speculations and doubts and views abroad as threads to be wrought into the warp and woof of their opinion, and possibly give undue substance and color to the character of the fabric.