“Of course you were,” she answered readily with a smile. “It was very upsetting all ’round. I was so surprised when you came rushing up that I couldn’t say a word.”
“And I had to let the fellow off, knowing all the time what was depending upon it,” he answered. “I’ll be glad when this pesky war is over—and it won’t be very long now or I’m greatly mistaken.”
“And the South will lose?” Dorothea half questioned.
Tracy shook his head affirmatively.
“It has lost!” he admitted. “Not that I would say that to any one but you.”
“I’m glad,” Dorothea said, impulsively. “And I shouldn’t say that to any one but you!” she added with a low laugh.
He smiled in answer, but his face went grave in a moment.
“So you’re against us, after all,” he remarked.
“No, that isn’t quite it, either,” Dorothea tried to explain. “I’m not against anybody. At least not as I see it now. Mr. Lincoln, you know, started me thinking long ago. But, since I’ve been here, it seems as if it was only the South that was against things—and they don’t understand. It is when the war is over that they will see how mistaken they have been. Then they’ll find that Mr. Lincoln is their best friend. You know, Captain Tracy,” she went on, lowering her voice a little, “Mr. Lincoln would be a friend to anybody who gave him a chance.”
“You seem a great admirer of his,” Tracy said shortly.