"Change my name?"
"Yes. You might become—Mrs. Rhett Sempland, let us say!"
"O-o-oh!" cried the girl, blushing furiously and drawing away from her lover's side.
"Quite so," answered the general with deep gravity, too deep not to be suspicious, while Sempland's heart leaped with happiness. This was the meaning of the general's little play, then?
"Proceedings which would have to be instituted against Fanny Glen could then be allowed to drop," continued Beauregard, enjoying the situation immensely. "Is not that a solution, gentlemen?" he asked, throwing back his head and laughing cheerfully at the pleasant ending of the little comedy he had planned, which pleased the small audience hugely.
"That is the happiest of all solutions, sir," said Sempland, taking Fanny Glen's hands.
"I won't be married simply to save my life," said the girl.
"Of course not," said the general. "Yet either you must be court-martialled or Mr. Sempland will be."
"I—I might do it—to save—his life, sir," she said, blushing furiously again.
"However it is done—" said Sempland, "however it may be brought about, it satisfies me completely."