JENNY. Is he? [Looking at HEARTSEASE, who stands quietly stroking his mustache.] Why doesn't he tell me?
BUCKTHORN. You may have to help him a little; your mother assisted me. [Turning up stage.] When you and Jenny finish your chat, Captain—[Lighting a cigar at the mantel.]—you must join me in the smoking-room.
HEARTSEASE. I shall be delighted. By the way, General—I have been in such a fever of excitement since I arrived at this house—
JENNY. [Aside.] Fever? Chills!
HEARTSEASE. That I forgot it entirely. I have omitted a very important
and a very sad commission. I have brought with me the note-book of
Lieutenant Frank Bedloe—otherwise Haverill—in which Miss Gertrude
Ellingham wrote down his last message to his young wife.
JENNY. Have you seen Gertrude?
BUCKTHORN. [Taking book.] How did this note-book come into your possession?
HEARTSEASE. Miss Ellingham visited the prison in North Carolina where
I was detained. She was going from hospital to hospital, from prison
to prison, and from burial-place to burial-place, to find Colonel
Kerchival West, if living—or some record of his death.
BUCKTHORN. Another Evangeline! Searching for her lover through the wilderness of this great war!
HEARTSEASE. I was about to be exchanged at the time, and she requested me to bring this to her friends in Washington. She had not intended to carry it away with her. I was not exchanged, as we then expected, but I afterwards escaped from prison to General Sherman's army.