“Not if I can help it, Nell! There won’t be any fighting. We’re going to protect Norfolk, you know. Just going there to be on the spot if we’re needed, I suppose.” He went away laughing, but I wasn’t convinced. When Dan came, I was almost too weak with fear to ask the question that was on my tongue. “Is Norfolk to be bombarded?” “No, I think not,” he spoke cheerily. “The boys will be back in a few days.” Oh, I hoped they would! Many of my friends were among “the boys.” “Do--do you think your company will have to go?” I was only seventeen; mother and Milicent were away; my young husband was my life. “The cavalry have not been ordered out,” he said. “I don’t think we will be sent for. Cheer up, Nell! The boys will be back in a few days, and won’t we have a high old time welcoming them home!” The Rifles went down one day. The Grays went down the next. The day after my husband came in, looking very pale and quiet. “Dan,” I said, “I know what it is.” “The cavalry are ordered to Norfolk,” he said in a low voice. “It’s only a few days’ parting, little wife. I don’t think there will be any fighting. Be brave, my darling.” I had thrown myself into his arms with a great cry. “I can’t, Dan! I can’t let you go!” He did not speak. He only held me close to his breast. “Mother and Milicent are gone,” I cried, “and I can’t let you leave me to go and be killed! I couldn’t let you go if they were here.” There was silence for a little while, then he said: “I belong to you, little wife--I leave it to you what I shall do. Shall I stay behind, a traitor and a coward? Or shall I go with my company and do my duty?” I couldn’t speak for tears. I felt how hard his heart beat against mine. “Poor wife!” he said, “poor little child!” When I spoke, I felt as if I were tearing my heart out by the roots. “I--I--must--let--you--go!” “That is my own brave girl. Never mind, Nell, I will make you proud of your soldier!” “Oh, Dan! Dan!” I sobbed, “I don’t want to be proud of you! I just don’t want you to get hurt! I don’t want you to go if I could help it--but I can’t! I don’t want fame or glory! I want you!” He smoothed my hair with slow touches, and was silent. Then he spoke again, trying to comfort me with those false hopes all fed on. “I still doubt if there will be any fighting. But if there is, I must be in it. I can’t be a coward. There! there! Nellie, don’t cry! I hope for peace. The North and the South both want peace. You will laugh at all of this, Nell, when we come back from Norfolk without striking a blow!” “Dan, let me go with you.” “Dear, I can’t. How could you travel around, with only a knapsack, like a soldier?” “Try me. I am to be a soldier’s wife.”