Yes, they were in correspondence--after a fashion. That signified nothing, she would have had you understand; so were Charlie and Victorine, so were--oh!--every girl wrote to somebody at the front; one could not do less and be a patriot1. Some girl patriots2 had a dozen on their list. Some lads had a dozen on theirs.
Ah, me! those swan-white, sky-blue, rose-pink maidens3 who in every town and on every plantation4 from Memphis to Charleston, from Richmond to New Orleans, despatched their billets by the forlornly precarious5 post only when they could not send them by the "urbanity" of such or such a one! Could you have contrasted with them the homeless, shelterless, pencil-borrowing, elbow-scratching, musty, fusty tatterdemalions who stretched out on the turfless ground beside their mess fires to extort6 or answer those cautious or incautious missives, or who for the fortieth time drew them from hiding to reread into their guarded or unguarded lines meanings never dreamed by their writers, you could not have laughed without a feeling of tears, or felt the tears without smiling. Many a chap's epistle was scrawled7, many a one even rhymed, in a rifle-pit with the enemy's shells bursting over. Many a one was feebly dictated8 to some blessed, unskilled volunteer nurse in a barn or smoke-house or in some cannon9-shattered church. From the like of that who with a woman's heart could withhold10 reply? Yes, Anna and Hilary were in correspondence.
So were Flora11 and Irby. So were Hilary and Flora. Was not Flora Anna's particular friend and Hilary's "pilot"? She had accepted the office on condition that, in his own heart's interest, their dear Anna should not know of it.
"The better part of life"--she wrote--"is it not made up of such loving concealments?"
And as he read the words in his tent he smilingly thought, "That looks true even if it isn't!"
Her letters were much more frequent than Anna's and always told of Anna fondly, often with sweet praises--not so sweet to him--of her impartial12 graciousness to her semicircle of brass13-buttoned worshippers. Lately Flora had mentioned Greenleaf in a modified way especially disturbing.
If Anna could have made any one a full confidante such might have been Flora, but to do so was not in her nature. She could trust without stint14. Distrust, as we know, was intolerable to her. She could not doubt her friends, but neither could she unveil her soul. Nevertheless, more than once, as the two exchanged--in a purely15 academical way--their criticisms of life, some query16 raised by Anna showed just what had been passing between her and Hilary and enabled Flora to keep them steered17 apart.
No hard task, the times being so highly calculated to make the course of true love a "hard road to travel," as the singing soldier boys called "Jordan." Letters, at any time, are sufficiently18 promotive of misunderstandings, but in the Confederacy they drifted from camp to camp, from pocket to pocket, like letters in bottles committed to the sea. The times being such, I say, and Hilary and Anna as they were: he a winner of men, yes! but by nature, not art; to men and women equally, a grown up, barely grown up, boy. That is why women could afford to like him so frankly19. The art of courtship--of men or women--was not in him. Otherwise the battery--every gun of which, they say, counted for two as long as he was by--must have lost him through promotion20 before that first year was half out. The moment he became a conscious suitor, to man or woman, even by proxy21, his power went from him; from pen, from tongue, from countenance22. And Anna--I may have shown the fact awkwardly, but certainly you see--Anna was incurably23 difficult.
Too much else awaits our telling to allow here a recital24 of their hearts' war while love--and love's foes--hid in winter quarters, as it were. That is to say, from the season of that mad kiss which she had never forgiven herself (much less repented), to the day of Beauregard's appeal, early in '62, to all the plantations25 and churches in Dixie's Land to give him their bells, bells, bells--every bit of bronze or brass they could rake up or break off--to be cast into cannon; and to his own Louisiana in particular to send him, hot speed, five thousand more men to help him and Albert Sidney Johnston drive Buel and Grant out of Tennessee.
Before the battery had got half way to Virginia Hilary had written back to Anna his inevitable26 rhapsody over that amazing performance of hers, taking it as patent and seal of her final, utter, absolute self-bestowal. And indeed this it might have turned out to be had he but approached it by a discreet27 circuit through the simplest feminine essentials of negative make-believe. But to spring out upon it in that straightforward28 manner--! From May to February her answer to this was the only prompt reply he ever received from her. It crowds our story backward for a moment, for it came on one of those early Peninsula days previous to Manassas, happening, oddly, to reach him--by the hand of Villeneuve--as he stood, mounted, behind the battery, under a smart skirmish fire. With a heart leaping in joyous29 assurance he opened the small missive and bent30 his eyes upon its first lines.
As he did so a hostile shell, first that had ever come so near, burst just in front of his guns. A big lump of metal struck one of them on the chase, glanced, clipped off half the low top of his forage-cap and struck in the trunk of an oak behind him, and as his good horse flinched31 and quivered he looked unwillingly32 from the page toward a puff33 of white smoke on a distant hill, and with a broad smile said--a mere34 nonsense word; but the humor of such things has an absurd valuation and persistency35 in camps, and for months afterward36, "Ah-r?--indeed!" was the battery's gay response to every startling sound. He had luck in catchwords, this Hilary. He fought the scrimmage through with those unread pages folded slim between a thumb and forefinger37, often using them to point out things, and when after it he had reopened them and read them through--and through again--to their dizzying close, the battery surgeon came murmuring privately--
"Cap, what's wrong; bad news?"
"Oh!" said Hilary, looking up from a third reading, "what, this? No-o! nothing wrong in this. I was wrong. I'm all right now."
"No, you're not, Captain. You come along now and lie down. The windage of that chunk38 of iron has--"
"Why, Doc, I shouldn't wonder! If you'll just keep everybody away from me awhile, yourself included, I will lie down," said the unnerved commander, and presently, alone and supine, softly asked himself with grim humor, "Which chunk of iron?"
The actual text of Anna's chunk was never divulged39, even to Flora. We do not need it. Neither did Flora. One of its later effects was to give the slender correspondence which crawled after it much more historical value to the battery and the battery's beloved home city than otherwise it might have had. From Virginia it told spiritedly of men, policies, and movements; sketched40 cabinet officers, the president, and the great leaders and subleaders in the field--Stuart, Gordon, Fitzhugh Lee. It gave droll41, picturesque42 accounts of the artillerist's daily life; of the hard, scant43 fare and the lucky feast now and then on a rabbit or a squirrel, turtles' eggs, or wild strawberries. It depicted44 moonlight rides to dance with Shenandoah girls; the playing of camp charades45; and the singing of war, home, and love songs around the late camp fire, timed to the antic banjo or the sentimental46 guitar. Drolly47, yet with tenderness for others, it portrayed48 mountain storm, valley freshet, and heart-breaking night marches beside tottering49 guns in the straining, sucking, leaden-heavy, red clay, and then, raptly, the glories of sunrise and sunset over the contours of the Blue Ridge50. And it explained the countless51 things which happily enable a commander to keep himself as busy as a mud-dauber, however idle the camp or however torn his own heart.
From Anna's side came such stories as that of a flag presentation to the Sumter, wherein she had taken some minor52 part; of seeing that slim terror glide53 down by Callender House for a safe escape through the blockading fleet to the high seas and a world-wide fame; of Flora's towboat privateer sending in one large but empty prize whose sale did not pay expenses, and then being itself captured by the blockaders; of "Hamlet" given by amateurs at the St. Charles Theatre; of great distress54 among the poor, all sorts of gayeties for their benefit, bad money, bad management, a grand concert for the army in Arkansas, women in mourning as numerous as men in uniform, and both men and women breaking down in body and mind under the universal strain.
Historically valuable, you see. Yet through all this impersonal55 interchange love shone out to love like lamplight through the blinds of two opposite closed windows, and every heart-hiding letter bore enough interlinear revealment of mind and character to keep mutual56 admiration57 glowing and growing. We might very justly fancy either correspondent saying at any time in those ten months to impatient or compassionate58 Cupid what Hilary is reported to have said on one of the greatest days between Manassas and Shiloh, in the midst of a two-sided carnage: "Yes, General, hard hit, but please don't put us out of action."
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1
patriot
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| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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patriots
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| 爱国者，爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 ) | |
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maidens
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| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
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plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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extort
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| v.勒索，敲诈，强要 | |
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scrawled
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| 乱涂，潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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dictated
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| v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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withhold
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| v.拒绝，不给；使停止，阻挡 | |
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flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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impartial
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| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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stint
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| v.节省，限制，停止；n.舍不得化，节约，限制；连续不断的一段时间从事某件事 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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query
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| n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑 | |
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steered
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| v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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proxy
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| n.代理权，代表权；（对代理人的）委托书；代理人 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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incurably
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| ad.治不好地 | |
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recital
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| n.朗诵，独奏会，独唱会 | |
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plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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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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flinched
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| v.（因危险和痛苦）退缩，畏惧( flinch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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unwillingly
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| adv.不情愿地 | |
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puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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persistency
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| n. 坚持(余辉, 时间常数) | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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chunk
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| n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量） | |
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divulged
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| v.吐露，泄露( divulge的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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sketched
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| v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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droll
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| adj.古怪的，好笑的 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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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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depicted
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| 描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述 | |
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45
charades
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| n.伪装( charade的名词复数 )；猜字游戏 | |
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46
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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drolly
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| adv.古里古怪地；滑稽地；幽默地；诙谐地 | |
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portrayed
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| v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画 | |
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49
tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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50
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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51
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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52
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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glide
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| n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝 | |
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54
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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impersonal
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| adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的 | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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compassionate
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| adj.有同情心的，表示同情的 | |
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