MRS. HAVERILL. I am glad to see you again, Captain, and happy as well as safe.
HEARTSEASE. Thank you, Madam. I am happy. If you will excuse me, I will join—my father—in the smoking-room. [MRS. HAVERILL inclines her head, and HEARTSEASE walks out.
MRS. HAVERILL. Jannette! You may ask General Haverill to come into this room. [Exit JANNETTE. MRS. HAVERILL walks down, reading a note.] "I have hesitated to come to you personally, as I have hesitated to write to you. If I have been silent, it is because I could not bring my hand to write what was in my mind and in my heart. I do not know that I can trust my tongue to speak it, but I will come."
Enter HAVERILL from hall; he stops.
HAVERILL. Constance!
MRS. HAVERILL. My husband! May I call you husband? After all these months of separation, with your life in almost daily peril, and my life—what? Only a weary longing for one loving word—and you are silent.
HAVERILL. May I call you wife? I do not wish to speak that word except with reverence. You have asked me to come to you. I am here. I will be plain, direct and brief. Where is the portrait of yourself, which I gave you, in Charleston, for my son?
MRS. HAVERILL. Your son is dead, sir; and my portrait lies upon his breast, in the grave. [HAVERILL takes the miniature from his pocket and holds it towards her in his extended hand. She starts back.] He gave it to you? And you ask me where it is?
HAVERILL. It might have lain in the grave of Kerchival West!
MRS. HAVERILL. Ah!