“I wish to see her.”
“I don’t believe she will care to receive you at present,” returned her mother quietly.
“What she cares to do at present is of small consequence. I must see her at once. Shall I go up to her room with these men, or will you have her down here?”
The room had filled with soldiers as the two spoke together.
“Neither the one nor the other, sir,” said Mrs. Varney, who was not in the least afraid of Mr. Arrelsford or his soldiers, “until I know your business with her.”
“My business,—a few questions,—I’ve got a few questions to ask her. Listen to that noise out yonder? Do you hear those guns and the troops passing by? Now, you know what ‘Attack to-night, Plan 3,’ means.”
“Is that the attack!” asked Mrs. Varney.
“That’s the attack. They are breaking through our lines at Cemetery Hill. That was the place indicated by ‘Plan 3.’ We are rushing to the front all the reserves we have, to the last man and boy, but they may not get there in time.”
“What, may I ask, has my daughter to do with it?”
“Do with it? She did it!” asserted Arrelsford bitterly.