Page:The woman in battle .djvu/372

332 "But I don't understand," he said; "how did you get these?"

"Ah!" I said, "that is my secret just now. You know you told me last night, when you showed me the portrait of your lady, that you had not seen her for three years; are you so very sure of that?"

He still failed to comprehend what I meant, and stared at me in astonishment. I, therefore, went to his pocket, and got the picture, and, placing it in his hand, said, "Now take a good look at that, and tell me if you have not seen somebody very much like it inside of three years."

He looked at the picture, and then at me, with a most puzzled expression, unable to say anything, until I, oppressed with his silence, and unable to endure longer a scene that was be coming most painful to both of us, said, " Well, captain, don't you think that the picture of your lady-love looks the least bit like your friend Harry Buford?" 'A light seemed to suddenly break upon him; he gasped for breath, and sank back overcome on his pillow, the great drops of perspiration standing out all over his forehead. Then, raising himself, he looked me hard in the face, and, grasping my hand tightly, exclaimed, "Can it be possible that you are she?"

"Yes," said I, clasping his hand still tighter, "I am, indeed, your own Loreta. It was your sweetheart who fought by your side at the great battle of Shiloh ; and not only on that occasion, but ever since the outbreak of the war she has been doing a soldier's work for the cause of the Confederacy. Can you love her a little for that as well as for herself? or will you despise her because she was not willing to stay at home like other women, but undertook to appear on the battle-field in the guise of a man for the purpose of doing a man's duty?"

"I love you ten times more than ever for this, Loreta!" he said, with a vehemence that brought tears of joy to my eyes.

I then went into a long explanation of my reasons for acting as I had done, and gave him an outline of my adventures, reserving the details for a future time when he would be stronger and less agitated. He suggested that I should not reveal the