Her eyes were fixed on the purple western hills. The last vermilion segment of the great solar sphere was slipping beyond them, the sunset gun boomed from the fort, and the flag fluttered down the staff.
"I felt very keenly the position in which I was placed."
She merely glanced at him and then gazed at the outline of the fort against the red sky, all flecked and barred with dazzling flakes of amber. The rampart remained massive and heavy, but the sentry-boxes, giving their queer little castellated effect, were growing indistinct in the distance.
"I was tempted to express my resentment, but I was afraid of going too far—of getting into a wrangle with that fellow—"
"Oh, that would have been unpardonable; in the presence of Mrs. Clinton and the rest of the Circle!" she said definitely.
"I am so glad you approve my course," he rejoined with an air of relief.
Once more she looked at him as he stood beside her. A white jessamine clambered up the stone pillar at the outer corner of the grille work. Its blossoms wavered about her; a hummingbird flickered in and out and was still for a moment, the light showing the jewelled effect of the emblazonment of red and gold and green of his minute plumage, then was distinguishable only as a gauzy suggestion of wings. The moon was in her face, ethereal, delicate, seeming to him entrancingly beautiful. He stipulated to himself that it was not this that swayed him. He loved her beauty, but only because it was hers. He did not love her for her beauty. They were close distinctions, but they made an appreciable difference to him. She did not hold his conscience. She did not dictate his sense of right. This was apart from her, a sanction too sacred for any woman, any human soul to control. Yet he sighed with relief to feel the coincidence of his thought and hers.
"You know, about your horse—it was a matter of conscience with me—a sense of duty—a matter of conformity to my oath as a soldier and my knowledge of the needs of the service. I would not for any consideration evade or fail to forward in letter and spirit any detail even of a special order that merely chanced to come to my notice, and with which I was not otherwise concerned. Not for your sake—not even to win your approval, precious as that must always be to me, nor to avoid your displeasure, and I believe that is the strongest coercion that could be exerted upon me. But the destination of the work done by the Sewing-Circle—that is different. I have no information that it is other than is claimed. I am not bound to nourish suspicions, nor to investigate mysteries, nor to take action on details of circumstantial evidence."
He paused. There was something in her face that he did not understand;—something stunned, blankly silent, and inexpressive. He went on eagerly, the enforced repression of the afternoon finding outlet in a flood of words.
"Lieutenant Seymour understands my position thoroughly well, as Colonel Ashley does. They take a different view—their construction of their duty is more lenient. I don't know why—perhaps because they are volunteers, and the whole war to them is a temporary occupation. But orders are to be obeyed else they would not be issued. If any exceptions were intended, a permit would be granted."