The Washington times., 1894-12-30

that you would wheedle her soul away as you
have others. Well-she betrayed me! For
what2''
A flush passed over Bra nt's face. But With
an effort he contained himself. sit was the
flower that betrayed you. The flower whose
red dust fell in the box when you opened it
on the desk by the window in yonder
room. The flower that stood in the window
as a signal. The flower l myself removed
and so spoiled the miserable plot your friends
had concocted."
A look of mingled terror and awe came
into her face. You changed the signal"
she repeated. dazedly; then, in lower voice:
THAT accounts for it allr' But the next mo-
ment she turned again flercely upon him.
And you mean to tell me that she didn't
help you-that she didn't sell me-your wife
to you for-for what was it?-a look-a
kiss?'
81 mean to say that she did not know the
signal was changed and that she herself re-
stored it to its place. 1t is DO fault of hers
nor of yours that am not now a prisoner"
She passed her thin hand daZedly across
her forehead. II see," she muttered. Then
again bursting out passionateiy, she said:
Fool! YOU never would have been touched!
Do you think that Lee would have gone for
you-with higher game in your division COM
mander? No! Those supports were feint to
draw him to your assistance while our main
column broke his centre. Yes, you may stare
at me, Clarence Brant. You are good law
yer-they say a dashing fighter, too. never
thought you coward, even in your irresolu-
tion, but you are lighting with men drilled in
the art OF war and strategy when you were
boy outcast on the plains." She stopped,
closed her eyes, and then added YEARLY:
'But that was yesterday-to-day, who
| knows? All may be changed. The supports
may still attack you. That was why 1
stopped to write you that note an hour 20
! NH hal oh b.,t h.ar,
ever. Yes, / did it, she went on, with half
wearied, half-dogged determination. 'You
may as well know sil. l. had arranged to
| fly; your pickets were to te drawn by friends
OF mine, who were waiting for me beyond
your lines. Well, fingered here when saw
you arrive-hngered to write you that note
And-I was too late"
But Brant had been watching her varying
expression, her kindling eye, her strange
masculine grasp of military knowledge, her
soldiery phraseology. ali SO new to her, that
he scarcely needed the feminine ending of
her speech. 1t seemed to him no longer the
Diana of his youthful fancy, but some Pallas
Athene who. now looked up at him from the
pillow. He had never before fully believed
| in her unselfsh devotion to the cause, until
| now, when it seemed to have almost unsexed
her. In his widest comprehension of her
he had never dreamed her Joan of Arc, and
| yet that was the face which might have con-
/ Ilohteu uiln, eAalteu ana inspired, on tn6
! battlefield itself. He recalled himself with
an effort.
Il thank you for your would-be warning" :"
said more gently, if not tenderly, land God
knows wish your fight had been success
! full. But even your warning is unnecessary.
For the, supports had already come up;
they had followed only the second signal and
diverged to engage our division on the left,
| leaving me alone. And their ruse OF drawing
| our commander to assist me would not have
been successful, as I had suspected it and
! sent message to him that I wanted no
! help"
1t was the truth-it was the sole purport OF
| the note he had sent through Miss Faulkner.
He might not have disclosed it, but so great
! was the strange domination OF this woman
| still over him that ne felt compelled to assert
| his superiority. She fixed her eyes upon him
,'And Miss Faulkner took your MESSAGE she