Two of the morning. Had the leader, the idol3 of Kincaid's Battery, failed in his endeavor? Anna, on her bed, half disrobed, but sleepless4 yet, still prayed he might not succeed. Just this one time, oh, Lord! this one time! With Thee are not all things possible? Canst Thou not so order all things that a day or two's delay of Kincaid's Battery need work no evil to the Cause nor any such rending5 to any heart as must be hers if Kincaid's Battery should go to-night? Softly the stair clock boomed three. She lifted her head and for a full three minutes harkened toward the camp. Still no sound there, thank God! She turned upon her pillow.
But--what! Could that be the clock again, and had she slumbered6? "Three, four," murmured the clock. She slipped from her bed and stole to the window. Just above the low, dim parapet, without a twinkle, the morning star shone large, its slender, mile-long radiance shimmering7 on the gliding8 river. In all the scented9 landscape was yet no first stir of dawn, but only clearness enough to show the outlines of the camp ground. She stared. She stared again! Not a tent was standing10. Oh! and oh! through what bugling11, what rolling of drums and noise of hoofs12, wheels, and riders had she lain oblivious13 at last? None, really; by order of the commanding general--on a private suggestion of Irby's, please notice, that the practice would be of value--camp had been struck in silence. But to her the sole fact in reach was that all its life was gone!
Sole fact? Gone? All gone? What was this long band of darkness where the gray road should be, in the dull shadow of the levee? Oh, God of mercy, it was the column! the whole of Kincaid's Battery, in the saddle and on the chests, waiting for the word to march! Ah, thou ladies' man! Thus to steal away! Is this your profound--abiding--consuming love? The whisper was only in her heart, but it had almost reached her lips, when she caught her breath, her whole form in a tremor14. She clenched15 the window-frame, she clasped her heaving side.
For as though in reply, approaching from behind the house as if already the producer had nearly made its circuit, there sounded close under the balustrade the walking of a horse. God grant no other ear had noted16 it! Now just beneath the window it ceased. Hilary Kincaid! She could not see, but as sure as sight she knew. Her warrior17, her knight18, her emperor now at last, utterly19 and forever, she his, he hers, yet the last moment of opportunity flitting by and she here helpless to speak the one word of surrender and possession. Again she shrank and trembled. Something had dropped in at the window. There it lay, small and dark, on the floor. She snatched it up. Its scant20 tie of ribbon, her touch told her, was a bit of the one she had that other time thrown down to him, and the thing it tied and that looked so black in the dusk was a red, red rose.
She pressed it to her lips. With quaking fingers that only tangled21 the true-love knot and bled on the thorns, she stripped the ribbon off and lifted a hand high to cast it forth22, but smote23 the sash and dropped the emblem24 at her own feet. In pain and fear she caught it up, straightened, and glanced to her door, the knot in one hand, the rose in the other, and her lips apart. For at some unknown moment the door had opened, and in it stood Flora Valcour.
Furtively25 into a corner fluttered rose and ribbon while the emptied hands extended a counterfeit26 welcome and beckoned27 the visitor's aid to close the window. As the broad sash came down, Anna's heart, in final despair, sunk like lead, or like the despairing heart of her disowned lover in the garden, Flora's heart the meantime rising like a recovered kite. They moved from the window with their four hands joined, the dejected girl dissembling elation28, the elated one dejection.
"I don't see," twittered Anna, "how I should have closed it! How chilly29 it gets toward--"
"Ah!" tremulously assented30 the subtler one. "And such a dream! I was oblige' to escape to you!"
"And did just right!" whispered and beamed poor Anna. "What did you dream, dear?"
"I dremp the battery was going! and going to a battle! and with the res' my brother! And now--"
"Now it's but a dream!" said her comforter.
"Anna!" the dreamer flashed a joy that seemed almost fierce. She fondly pressed the hands she held and drew their owner toward the ill-used rose. "Dearest, behold31 me! a thief, yet innocent!"
Anna smiled fondly, but her heart had stopped, her feet moved haltingly. A mask of self-censure poorly veiled Flora's joy, yet such as it was it was needed. Up from the garden, barely audible to ears straining for it, yet surging through those two minds like a stifling32 smoke, sounded the tread of the departing horseman.
"Yes," murmured Anna, hoping to drown the footfall, and with a double meaning though with sincere tenderness, "you are stealing now, not meaning to."
"Now?" whispered the other, "how can that be?" though she knew. "Ah, if I could steal now your heart al-so! But I've stolen, I fear, only--your--confidenze!" Between the words she loosed one hand, stooped and lifted the flower. Each tried to press it to the other's bosom33, but it was Anna who yielded.
"I'd make you take it," she protested as Flora pinned it on, "if I hadn't thrown it away."
"Dearest," cooed the other, "that would make me a thief ag-ain, and this time guilty."
"Can't I give a castaway rose to whom I please?"
"Not this one. Ah, sweet, a thousand thousand pardon!"--the speaker bent34 to her hearer's ear--"I saw you when you kiss' it--and before."
Anna's face went into her hands, and face and hands to Flora's shoulder; but in the next breath she clutched the shoulder and threw up her head, while the far strain of a bugle35 faintly called, "Head of column to the right."
The cadence36 died. "Flora! your dream is true and that's the battery! It's going, Flora. It's gone! Your brother's gone! Your brother, Flora, your brother! Charlie! he's gone." So crying Anna sprang to the window and with unconscious ease threw it up.
The pair stood in it. With a bound like the girl's own, clear day had come. Palely the river purpled and silvered. No sound was anywhere, no human sign on vacant camp ground, levee, or highroad. "Ah!"--Flora made a well pretended gesture of discovery and distress--"'tis true! That bugl' muz' have meant us good-by."
"Oh, then it was cruel!" exclaimed Anna. "To you, dear, cruel to you to steal off in that way. Run! dress for the carriage!"
Flora played at hesitation37: "Ah, love, if perchanze that bugl' was to call you?"
"My dear! how could even he--the 'ladies' man,' ha, ha!--imagine any true woman would come to the call of a bugle? Go! while I order the carriage."
They had left the window. The hostess lifted her hand toward a bell-cord but the visitor stayed it, absently staring while letting herself be pressed toward the door, thrilled with a longing38 as wild as Anna's and for the same sight, yet cunningly pondering. Nay39, waiting, rather, on instinct, which the next instant told her that Anna would inevitably40 go herself, no matter who stayed.
"You'll come al-long too?" she pleadingly asked.
"No, dear, I cannot! Your grandmother will, of course, and Miranda." The bell-cord was pulled.
"Anna, you must go, else me, I will not!"
"Ah, how can I? Dear, dear, you're wasting such golden moments! Well, I'll go with you! Only make haste while I call the others--stop!" Their arms fell lightly about each other's neck. "You'll never tell on me?... Not even to Miranda?... Nor h-his--his uncle?... Nor"--the petitioner41 pressed closer with brightening eyes--"nor his--cousin?"
Softly Flora's face went into her hands, and face and hands to Anna's shoulder, as neat a reduplication as ever was. But suddenly there were hoof-beats again. Yes, coming at an easy gallop42. Now they trotted43 through the front gate. The eyes of the two stared. "A courier," whispered Anna, "to Captain Mandeville!" though all her soul hoped differently.
Only a courier it was. So said the maid who came in reply to the late ring, but received no command. The two girls, shut in together, Anna losing moments more golden than ever, heard the rider at the veranda44 steps accost45 the old coachman and so soon after greet Mandeville that it was plain the captain had already been up and dressing46.
"It's Charlie!" breathed Anna, and Flora nodded.
Now Charlie trotted off again, and now galloped47 beyond hearing, while Mandeville's booted tread reascended to his wife's room. And now came Constance: "Nan, where on earth is Fl--? Oh, of course! News, Nan! Good news, Flora! The battery, you know--?"
"Yes," said Anna, with her dryest smile, "it's sneaked48 off in the dark."
"Nan, you're mean! It's marching up-town now, Flora. At least the guns and caissons are, so as to be got onto the train at once. And oh, girls, those poor, dear boys! the train--from end to end it's to be nothing but a freight train!"
"Hoh!" laughed the heartless Anna, "that's better than staying here."
The sister put out her chin and turned again to Flora. "But just now," she said, "the main command are to wait and rest in Congo Square, and about ten o'clock they're to be joined by all the companies of the Chasseurs that haven't gone to Pensacola and by the whole regiment49 of the Orleans Guards, as an escort of honor, and march in that way to the depot50, led by General Brodnax and his staff--and Steve! And every one who wants to bid them good-by must do it there. Of course there'll be a perfect jam, and so Miranda's ordering breakfast at seven and the carriage at eight, and Steve--he didn't tell even me last night because--" Her words stuck in her throat, her tears glistened51, she gnawed52 her lips. Anna laid tender hands on her.
"Why, what, Connie, dear?"
"St--Ste--Steve--"
"Is Steve going with them to Virginia?"
The face of Constance went into her hands, and face and hands to Anna's shoulder. Meditatively53 smiling, Flora slipped away to dress.
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1
flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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slumbers
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| 睡眠，安眠( slumber的名词复数 ) | |
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idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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sleepless
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| adj.不睡眠的，睡不著的，不休息的 | |
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rending
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| v.撕碎( rend的现在分词 )；分裂；（因愤怒、痛苦等而）揪扯（衣服或头发等）；（声音等）刺破 | |
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slumbered
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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shimmering
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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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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bugling
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| 吹号（bugle的现在分词形式） | |
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hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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oblivious
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| adj.易忘的，遗忘的，忘却的，健忘的 | |
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tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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emblem
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| n.象征，标志；徽章 | |
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furtively
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| adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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counterfeit
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| vt.伪造，仿造；adj.伪造的，假冒的 | |
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beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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elation
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| n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意 | |
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chilly
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| adj.凉快的，寒冷的 | |
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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bugle
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| n.军号，号角，喇叭；v.吹号，吹号召集 | |
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cadence
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| n.（说话声调的）抑扬顿挫 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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petitioner
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| n.请愿人 | |
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42
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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accost
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| v.向人搭话，打招呼 | |
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46
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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47
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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48
sneaked
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| v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状 | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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50
depot
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| n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站 | |
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51
glistened
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| v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52
gnawed
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| 咬( gnaw的过去式和过去分词 )； （长时间） 折磨某人； （使）苦恼； （长时间）危害某事物 | |
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53
meditatively
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| adv.冥想地 | |
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