"Mister Herbert Cary is—yes, sir."
The enemy smiled and made her another bow.
"I stand corrected. Where is your father now?"
Virgie hesitated.
"I—I don't know."
The voice of her inquisitor took on a sterner tone:
"Is he here?—hiding somewhere? Tell me!"
Her little heart was pounding, horribly, and the hot blood came into her cheeks; but she looked him squarely in the face, and lied—for General Lee:
"No, sir. Daddy was here—but he's gone away."
The enemy was looking at her, intently, and his handsome, piercing eyes, grew most uncomfortable. She hung for an instant between success and sobbing failure, till a bubble from Mother Eve rose up in her youthful blood and burst into a spray of perfect feminine deceit. She did not try to add to her simple statement, but began to eat her berries, calmly, as though the subject were completely closed.