An Echo of Antietam | Page 3

not now listening to her at all. His eyes were fastened

upon the girl's opposite him, and they seemed to have quite forgotten
the others. Miss Morton and her brother exchanged compassionate
glances. Tears were in the lady's eyes. A clock in the sitting-room
began to strike:
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven."
Philip started.
"What time is that?" he asked, a little huskily. No one replied at once.
Then Mr. Morton said:
"I am afraid it struck seven, my boy."
"I must leave in ten minutes then," said the young man, rising from the
table. The rest followed his example.
"I wonder if the buggy will be in time?" said he.
"It is at the gate," replied Miss Morton. "I heard it drive up some time
ago."
Unmindful of the others now, Philip put his arm about Grace's waist
and drew her away to the end of the piazza and thence out into the
garden.
"Poor young things," murmured Miss Morton, the tears running down
her cheeks as she looked after them. "It is pitiful, James, to see how
they suffer."
"Yes," said the minister; "and there are a great many just such scenes
to-day. Ah, well, as St. Paul says, we see as yet but in part."
Passing in and out among the shrubbery, and presently disappearing
from the sympathetic eyes upon the piazza, the lovers came to a little
summer-house, and there they entered. Taking her wrists in his hands,
he held her away from him, and his eyes went slowly over her from
head to foot, as if he would impress upon his mind an image that
absence should not have power to dim.

"You are so beautiful," he said, "that in this moment, when I ought to
have all my courage, you make me feel that I am a madman to leave
you for the sake of any cause on earth. The future to most men is but a
chance of happiness, and when they risk it they only risk a chance. In
staking their lives, they only stake a lottery ticket, which would
probably draw a blank. But my ticket has drawn a capital prize. I risk
not the chance, but the certainty, of happiness. I believe I am a fool,
and if I am killed, that will be the first thing they will say to me on the
other side."
"Don't talk of that, Phil. Oh, don't talk of being killed!"
"No, no; of course not!" he exclaimed. "Don't fret about that; I shall not
be killed. I've no notion of being killed. But what a fool I am to waste
these last moments staring at you when I might be kissing you, my love,
my love!" And clasping her in his arms, he covered her face with
kisses.
She began to sob convulsively.
"Don't, darling; don't! Don't make it so hard for me," he whispered
hoarsely.
"Oh, do let me cry," she wailed. "It was so hard for me to hold back all
the time we were at table. I must cry, or my heart will break. Oh, my
own dear Phil, what if I should never see you again! Oh! Oh!"
"Nonsense, darling," he said, crowding down the lump that seemed like
iron in his throat, and making a desperate effort to keep his voice
steady. "You will see me again, never doubt it. Don't I tell you I am
coming back? The South cannot hold out much longer. Everybody says
so. I shall be home in a year, and then you will be my wife, to be God's
Grace to me all the rest of my life. Our happiness will be on interest till
then; ten per cent, a month at least, compound interest, piling up every
day. Just think of that, dear; don't let yourself think of anything else."
"Oh, Phil, how I love you!" she cried, throwing her arms around his
neck in a passion of tenderness. "Nobody is like you. Nobody ever was.

Surely God will not part us. Surely He will not. He is too good."
"No, dear, He will not. Some day I shall come back. It will not be long.
Perhaps I shall find you waiting for me in this same little
summer-house. Let us think of that. It was here, you know, we found
out each other's secret that day."
"I had found out yours long before," she said, faintly smiling.
"Time 's up, Phil." It was Mr. Morton's voice calling to them from the
piazza.
"I must go, darling. Good-by."
"Oh, no, not yet; not quite yet," she wailed, clinging to him. "Why, we
have been here but a few moments. It can't be ten minutes yet."
Under the influence of that close, passionate embrace, those clinging
kisses and mingling tears, there began to