She left the Carver Hospital on receipt of the first cry for help and hurried to her home to complete her preparations to leave for the front.
Her father was at breakfast alone.
She called her greeting from the hall, rushed to her room, packed a bag, and quickly came down.
She slipped her arm around his neck, bent2 and kissed him good-bye. He held her a moment:
"You must leave so early, dear?"
"I must catch the first bout3 for Aquia. The news from the front is hideous4. The force there is utterly5 inadequate6. They've asked for every nurse that can be spared for a week. The wounded lay on the ground for three days and nights, and hundreds of them can't be moved to Washington. The woods took fire dozens of times and many of the poor boys were terribly burned. The suffering, they say, is indescribable."
The old man suddenly rose, with a fierce light flashing in his eyes:
"Oh, the miserable7 blunderer in the White House—this war has been one grim and awful succession of his mistakes!"
Betty placed her hand on his arm in tender protest:
"Father, dear, how can you be so unreasonable—so insanely unjust? Your hatred8 of the President is a positive mania——"
"I'm not alone in my affliction, child; Arnold is his only friend in Congress to-day——"
"Then it's a shame—a disgrace to the Nation. Every disaster is laid at his door. In his big heart he is carrying the burden of millions—their suffering, their sorrows, their despair. You blamed him at first for trifling9 with the war. Now you blame him for the bloody10 results when the army really fights. You ask for an effective campaign and when you get these tragic11 battles you heap on his head greater curses. It isn't right. It isn't fair. I can't understand how a man with your deep sense of justice can be so cruelly inconsistent——"
The Senator shook his grey head in protest:
"There! there! dear—we won't discuss it. You're a woman and you can't understand my point of view. We'll just agree to disagree. You like the man in the White House. God knows he's lonely—I shouldn't begrudge12 him that little consolation13. His whole attitude in this war is loathsome14 to me. To him the Southerners are erring15 brethren to be brought back as prodigal16 sons in the end. To me they are criminal outlaws17 to be hanged and quartered—their property confiscated18, the foundations of their society destroyed, and every trace of their States blotted19 from the map——"
"Father!"
"Until we understand that such is the purpose of the war we can get nowhere—accomplish nothing. But there, dear—I didn't mean to say so much. There is always one thing about which there can be no dispute—I love my little girl——"
He slipped his arm about her tenderly again.
"I'm proud of the work you're doing for our soldiers. They tell me in the big hospital that you're an angel. I've always known it, but I'm glad other people are beginning to find it out. In all the horrors of this tragedy there's one ray of sunshine for me—the light that shines from your eyes!"
He bent and kissed her again:
"Run now, and don't miss your boat."
In the five swift days of tender service which followed, Betty Winter forgot her own heartache and loneliness in the pity, pathos20, and horror of the scenes she witnessed—the drawn21 white faces—the charred22 flesh, the scream of pain from the young, the sigh of brave men, the last messages of love—the gasp23 and the solemn silences of eternity24.
When the strain of the first rush had ended and the time to follow the lines of ambulance wagons25 back to Washington drew near, the old anguish26 returned to torture her soul. She told herself it was all over, and yet she knew that somewhere in that vast city of tents, stretching for miles over the hills and valleys about Falmouth Heights, was John Vaughan. She had put him resolutely27 out of her life. She said this a hundred times—yet she was quietly rejoicing that his name was not on that black roll of seventeen thousand. All doubt had been removed by the announcement in the Republican of his promotion28 to the rank of Captain for gallantry on the field of Chancellorsville.
She hoped that he had freed himself at last from evil associates. She couldn't be sure—there were ugly rumors29 flying about the hospital of the use of whiskey in the army. These rumors were particularly busy with Hooker's name.
Seated alone in the quiet moonlight before the field hospital, the balmy air of the South which she drew in deep breaths was bringing back the memory of another now. The pickets30 had been at their usual friendly tricks of trading tobacco and coffee and exchanging newspapers. From a Richmond paper she had just learned that Ned Vaughan had fought in Lee's army at Chancellorsville. Somewhere beyond the silver mirror of the Rappahannock he was with the men in grey to-night. Her heart in its loneliness went out to him in a wave of tender sympathy. Again she lived over the tragic hours when she had fought the battle for his life and won at last at the risk of her own.
A soldier saluted31 and handed her a piece of brown wrapping paper, neatly32 folded. Its corner was turned down in the old-fashioned way of a schoolboy's note to his sweetheart.
She went to the light and saw with a start it was in Ned Vaughan's handwriting. She read, with eager, sparkling eyes.
"Dearest: I've just seen in a Washington paper which our boys traded for that you are here. I must see you, and to-night. I can't wait. There will be no danger to either of us. Our pickets are on friendly terms. I've arranged everything with some good tobacco for your fellows. Follow the man who hands you this note to the river. A boat will be ready for you there with one of my men to row you across. I will be waiting for you at the old mill beside the burned pier33 of the railroad bridge.
"Ned."
Betty's heart gave a bound of joy, and in half an hour she was standing34 on the shining shore of the river before the old mill. Its great wheel was slowly turning, the water falling in broken crystals sparkling in the moonlight. Through the windows of the brick walls peered the black-mouthed guns trained across the water.
She looked about timidly for a moment while the man in grey who had rowed her over made fast his boat.
He tipped his old slouch hat:
"This way, Miss."
He led her down close, to the big wheel, crossed the stream of water which poured from its moss-covered buckets, and there, beneath an apple tree in bloom, stood a straight, soldierly figure in the full blue uniform of a Federal Captain, exactly as she had seen Ned Vaughan that night in the Old Capitol Prison.
The soldier saluted and Ned said:
"Wait, Sergeant35, at the water's edge with your boat."
He was gone and Ned grasped both Betty's hands and kissed them tenderly:
"My glorious little heroine! I just had to tell you again that the life you saved is all, all yours. You are glad to see me—aren't you?"
"I can't tell you how glad, Boy! How brown and well you look!"
"Yes, the hard life somehow agrees with me. It's a queer thing, this army business. It makes some men strong and clean, and others into beasts."
"And why did you wear that dangerous uniform, sir?" she asked, with a smile.
"In honor of a beautiful Yankee girl, my guest. I've not worn it since that night, Betty, until now——"
His voice dropped to a whisper:
"It has been a holy thing to me, this blue uniform that cost me the life which you gave back at the risk of your own——"
"I was in no danger. I had powerful friends."
"They might not have been powerful enough—but it's sacred for another reason—as precious to me as the seamless robe for which the Roman soldiers cast lots on Calvary—I wore it in the one glorious moment in which I held you in my arms, dearest."
"O Ned, Boy, you shouldn't be so foolish!"
"I'm not. I'm sensible. I've done no more scout36 work since. I said that my life was yours and I had no right to place it again in such mad danger——"
"And so you face death on the field!"
"Yes, come sit here, dearest, I've made a seat for you of the broken timbers from the bridge. We can see the moonlit river and the lazy turn of the old wheel while we talk."
He led her to the seat in the edge of the moonlight and Betty drew a deep breath of joy as she drank in the beauty of the entrancing scene. The shadows of night had hidden the scars of war. Only the tall stone piers37 standing, lone1 sentinels in the river, marked its ravages38 where the bridge had fallen. The moon had flung her sparkling silver veil over the blood-stained world.
"You know," Ned went on eagerly, "those big pillars won't stand there naked long. We'll put the timbers back on them soon and run our trains through to Washington——"
"Sh, Ned," Betty whispered, touching39 his arm lightly, "be still a moment, I want to feel this wonderful scene!"
The air was sweet with the perfume of apple blossoms, the water from the old wheel fell with silvery echo and ran rippling40 over the stones into the river. Somewhere above the cliff a negro was playing a banjo and far down the river, beside a little cottage torn with shot and shell, but still standing, a mocking-bird was singing in the lilac bushes.
The girl looked at Ned with curious tenderness, and wondered if she had known her own heart after all—wondered if the fierce blinding passion she had once felt for his brother had been the divine thing that links the soul to the eternal? A strange spiritual beauty enveloped41 this younger man and drew her to-night with new power. There was something restful in its mystery. She wondered vaguely42 if it were possible to love two men at the same moment. She could almost swear it were. If she had never really loved John Vaughan at all! Why had his powerful, brutal43 personality drawn her with such terrible power? Was such a force love? It was something different from the tender charm which enveloped the slender straight young figure by her side now. She felt this with increasing certainty.
Ned took her hand and kissed the tips of her fingers.
The touch of his lips sent a thrill through her heart. It was sweet to be worshipped in this old-fashioned, foolish way. Whatever her own feeling's might be, this was love—in its divinest flowering. It drew her to-night with all but resistless tug44.
"May I break the silence now, dearest, to ask you something?" he said softly.
"Yes."
"Haven't you realized yet that you are going to be mine?"
"Not in the way you mean——"
"But you are, dearest, you are!" he whispered rapturously. "You love me. You just haven't really faced the thing yet and put it to the test in your heart. War has separated us, that's all. But there's never been a moment's doubt in my soul since I looked into your eyes that night in the old prison. Their light made the cell shine with the glory of heaven! And when you kissed me, dearest——"
"You know why I did that, Ned," she murmured.
"You're fooling yourself, darling! You couldn't have done what you did, if you hadn't loved me. It came to me in a flash as I held you in my arms and pressed you to my heart. There can be no other woman on earth for me after that moment. I lived a life time with it. Say you'll be mine, dearest?"
"But I don't love you, Ned, as you love me——"
"I don't ask it now. I can wait. The revelation will come to you at last in the fullness of time—promise me, dearest—promise me!"
For an hour he poured into her ears his passionate45 tender plea, until the rapture46 of his love, the perfumed air of the spring night, and the shimmer47 of moonlit waters stole into her lonely heart with resistless charm.
She lifted her lips to his at last and whispered:
"Yes."
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1
lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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2
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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3
bout
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| n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛 | |
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4
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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5
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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6
inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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7
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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8
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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9
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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10
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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11
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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12
begrudge
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| vt.吝啬，羡慕 | |
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13
consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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14
loathsome
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| adj.讨厌的，令人厌恶的 | |
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15
erring
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| 做错事的，错误的 | |
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16
prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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17
outlaws
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| 歹徒，亡命之徒( outlaw的名词复数 )； 逃犯 | |
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18
confiscated
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| 没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
blotted
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| 涂污( blot的过去式和过去分词 )； （用吸墨纸）吸干 | |
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20
pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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21
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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22
charred
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| v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦 | |
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gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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24
eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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25
wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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26
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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29
rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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30
pickets
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| 罢工纠察员( picket的名词复数 ) | |
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31
saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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32
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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33
pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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34
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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35
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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36
scout
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| n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索 | |
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37
piers
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| n.水上平台( pier的名词复数 )；（常设有娱乐场所的）突堤；柱子；墙墩 | |
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38
ravages
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| 劫掠后的残迹，破坏的结果，毁坏后的残迹 | |
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39
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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40
rippling
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| 起涟漪的，潺潺流水般声音的 | |
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41
enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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43
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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44
tug
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| v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船 | |
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45
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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46
rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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47
shimmer
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| v./n.发微光，发闪光；微光 | |
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