Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-03-02
CHAPTER XIV.


 A AH, but had things come right, TAI after all? There are decisions RESsssgH which do not decide. Was s&@SY this one of them? How beau tifuI that girl had looked, the very in- carnation of southern beauty, of the south he loved! Loved? Yes, the word was true. He loved it entirely; he loved the people, their habits and ways; he loved the land; he loved the water that washed the shores, the mountains that lifted their crests into the heaven, the palm tree, the live oak, the magnolia, the flowers that bloomed on them, the mocking birds that sang in them, the cotton f1elds-aye, he loved the slaves that titled them. He would give his life for the south cheer fully; but what was he to. do? There are harder things than life to give.
 He had sworn allegiance to the United States. Certainly there was no comparison as to the station of the two in his estimation. His heart cried out for the state, for the south, but that something he could not define pos sessed him so powerfully that in the still watches of that long night it all most drove him to despair. He could not give up his allegiance to the United States. Yet he had, in fact, done so!
 He had been carried away by the enthusiasm of the men at the dinner, whom from his earliest childhood he had respected and venerated, whose opinions he had prized, whose appro- bation had been his highest reward. There were good old Dr. Bampney, holy, saintly, learned priest, who had indoctrinated him in the mysteries of the religion he professed, and Dr, Venosste, and Judge Amman, and his fiery, noble, soldierlike, distinguished old father; there were the governor of the great state, the mayor of the city, educated at the sister school of his, at West Point, and all the others. Could they be wrong?
 And there was Mary Amman. Oh, what picture she had made, standing erect and slender, with sparkling eyes and heaving bosom and flushed cheeks, the incarnation of that ideal of TO- nance and beauty around which the chivalry and gallantry of the south centered! She loved him at last, at lasti
 The fire of passion which famed in his own heart had communicated its heat to her. This glorious, radiant creature, just budding into woman hood, with all the passionate possibfli- ties of unlimited devotion latent in her, being, in her soul, loved himi He had kissed her. His eyes misted, his head swam as he thought of 1t. He had pressed his own lips upon those rib bons of scarlet that had mocked him in girlish laughter through many day and dream. He had held her for one brief eternity in his arms unresist- ing. Almost he had persuaded her. she had said The mighty change that he had prayed for had come over the girl. Almost persuaded d''-his own words! Good God, he had won her by proner- ing an allegiance he could not keep, by adherence to cause from which his soul shrank.
 It was out. He could not do it. Something compelled him to be true to the uniform that he wore, to the gov ernment he had sworn to protect and defend As between state and nation, with every desire on earth leading him to state, he must choose nation. He had to do it! His honor demanded it! There was no other way.