At seventeen the process of conversion is apt to be rapid. Barbara lay
awake nearly all that night, thinking, praying, and weeping. With her
sudden detestation of Pegram mingled the personal consideration that he
knew that Tony was the son of her own favorite Anjy,--the friend of her
childhood.
"If he had had one spark of true regard for me," thought Barbara, "not
to save the whole Southern Confederacy would he have shot the son of
Anjy. Pegram is a brutal ruffian, and Slavery has made him that."
Anjy helped on the work of conversion by her anguish and her solemn
adjurations. The old woman had picked up arguments, both moral and
economical, enough to have posed even Mr. Alexander H. Stephens himself,
the philosophical apostle of that new dispensation whose deity was born
of the cotton-gin and sired by the devil Avarice.
Barbara rose and breakfasted late that morning. At eleven o'clock she
took her music-lesson. Let us leave her for a few minutes, and fly to
another part of the city, where, in one of the rooms of the
Provost-Marshal's office, the Rebel mail was being examined. Captain
Penrose entered, and Detective Wilkins handed him a letter he had just
opened. It was addressed to Colonel Pegram, and was signed by Mrs.
Daniel Dinwiddie. We will take the liberty of quoting a portion of it.
"I know, my dear Charlie, that you have been obliged to draw
largely on your financial resources in aid of the great
cause of Southern independence, and I am not surprised that
you should find yourself so severely pushed for money. I
sent you five hundred dollars in greenbacks in my last, the
savings of Barbara and myself. I hope to send you as much
more by the next mail. I regret to say that for the last six
months my husband has utterly refused to allow me one cent
for what he calls disloyal purposes. I consequently have to
practise some finesse in getting what I do. The money he
gives us for dresses and for charity is all saved up for
you; and then I manage to make our grocer's and butcher's
bills appear twice as large as they really are, and thus add
to our savings. It is mortifying to have to resort to these
shifts; but when I reflect on what it is all for, I feel
abundantly justified. Mr. Dinwiddie's income the last two
years has been enormous. He is taxed for upwards of a
million. A good part of this, my dear Charlie, shall be
yours as soon as you change the title of friend for the
nearer one of son-in-law. You complain that Barbara wouldn't
engage herself the last time you met. Her refusal was merely
an act of maiden coyness, and only meant, 'I want to be won,
but not too easily.' She sees no young men, and I watch her
closely; for I am resolved that your interests shall be as
well looked after as if you were on the spot."
As Captain Penrose finished reading the letter, Mr. Dinwiddie walked in,
and it was handed to him for perusal. That worthy merchant glanced
through it rapidly, and a grim smile overspread his features. "We shall
see, Madam," he said, folding up the letter, and handing it to Detective
Wilkins for filing. Then, turning to the Captain, he remarked,--
"You are from Maine, I believe, Captain Penrose?"
"Yes, Mr. Dinwiddie,--from the very extremity of Yankeedom."
"Well, Captain, I have this morning seen a friend of your father's, who
bade me say to you he is in the city for a day or two, and hopes to see
you before he leaves."
"To whom do you refer?"
"To Mr. Calvin Carver, of Montreal."
"Oh, yes; I've often heard my father speak of him as one of the best men
in the world."
"A man, Captain Penrose, of whom you may truly say, 'His word is as good
as his bond.' I never knew him to overstate a fact, and that is saying a
great deal of an active business man. I have not seen him before to-day
since my marriage."
"I shall take an early opportunity of calling on him, Mr. Dinwiddie."
"He told me, Captain, of your gallant conduct the other day at
Nashville, during Hood's attack. He said I ought to give Stanton no
peace till he has you promoted to a colonelcy."
"All in good time, Mr. Dinwiddie. There are hundreds of brave fellows
who have a prior claim. And now, Sir, permit me to say, that I have
consulted with the Provost-Marshal, and my official duty requires me to
call on your wife and daughter, and notify them that they are at liberty
to go where they please."
The Captain might have added, had he thought it discreet, that the
police authorities had concluded they should learn more of the secrets
of the Rebel plotters by allowing Madam to go at large than by keeping
her shut up.
Dinwiddie stood nervously playing with his watch-key. An idea had
occurred to him,--a glorious, a ravishing idea,--an idea which, if
concreted successfully into action, would revenge him triumphantly on
his wife for the tricks revealed in the letter he had just read.
"Captain," said he, "if you are going to my house, have you any
objection to take a letter for my daughter?"
"I shall be pleased to do so," returned the Captain; but he would have
put more warmth into his reply, had it not been for certain chilly
misgivings in regard to the preoccupation of Barbara's heart.