Page:Randall Parrish--My Lady of the South.djvu/173

RELEASED FOR A PURPOSE you must have! No Northern school ever held me up at a model."

"I should imagine not, from specimens I have seen; but the colorless type grows extremely tiresome."

"Then, at least, I am not colorless?"

"Assuredly not," her very frankness disarming me, "you are as God made you."

She laughed, feeling the earnestness of the compliment.

"I must be or I should never be here talking such nonsense to a Yankee. I hardly know what spirit possesses me to make me forget the real purpose of my visit. I am sure you it was not to listen to compliments. I came in all seriousness."

"Then tell me how I can serve you!"

The slight smile awakened by our exchange of repartee deserted her lips, and she glanced uneasily at the door.

"I told you I was alone here, but for the negroes. Believing you perfectly helpless, confined here in the cellar, Colonel Donald rode away to collect some of his men who are widely scattered just now, intending to convey you under guard to-night to Johnston's headquarters. Calvert Dunn, with two of the negroes, departed even earlier, with Lieutenant Navarre's body. There was no one else to guard you but myself."

"They intend holding me then as a prisoner of war?"

She hesitated, as if doubtful of her reply, her eyes lifting suddenly to my own, then falling as quickly to the stone floor of the cellar. The light was fading, and the growing shadows already concealed the expression of her face. [ 163 ]