Page:Randall Parrish--My Lady of the South.djvu/206

MY LADY OF THE SOUTH "although in his heart I believe Colonel Donald is equally convinced of your innocence. Had he not been he would never have left you alone to my guarding."

"He is a strong man, mentally and physically; I don't think I ever saw a nobler face. It's difficult for me to think of him as a leader of guerillas."

"Nor is he, in the sense you mean. He commands irregulars, it is true, but he is doing a real service for the Confederacy, and protecting life and property in this region. No man could be more humane, more merciful. Yet he has done you Yankees greater harm than some division commanders."

"You are evidently a good friend to Colonel Donald."

"I am more than that," soberly, her eyes on mine, "I am nearer to him than any one else."

She made the confession as though it were the most natural thing in the world, without embarrassment. It was true, then, as I had suspected, her love for Donald was the real obstacle between her and Calvert Dunn. It was because of this also that she could treat me with such easy comradeship as to cause me to dream dreams. Plain as the revelation appeared I must have it yet more direct in statement. I could not yield the hopes I had begun to cherish until her own lips made such yielding imperative.

"I do not understand, Miss Denslow," the feeling in my voice rendering it tremulous, "this relationship between you and Colonel Donald?" [ 192 ]