“My dear Frank!”
“My dearest Clifton!”
Were the words of affectionate greeting interchanged, as they shook hands.
“Well, and so you have been married these two years nearly, and I have never had the opportunity of congratulating you till now! Well, better late than never, though it is always a mere form to wish a man joy who has an excess of it already! But, indeed, you have the jewel of the world! If you had only waited two years longer, until I had somewhat recovered the despair of my own awful bereavement, I should have tried to dispute the prize with you—not that I was in love with noble Catherine—I never was but once in love, and I never shall be again—but that I think her just the most precious woman in the world. Nor am I alone in that opinion. I have been in her neighborhood, looking for her, before I came down here to find you, and there I found that she was deeply venerated by her people, and honored, sincerely honored, by all the proud, county aristocrats. And General Ross, the gallant General Ross, ‘second only to Wellington himself——’ we had to see Admiral Cockburn about this exchange of prisoners, and met General Ross in his company—I wish you had heard the brave and generous Ross speak of your wife. As soon as he knew what we had come for, and recognized your name and hers, he took Admiral Cockburn aside, and talked with him in the most emphatic manner, seeming to insist upon something—(and be it known that General Ross exercises a considerable influence over Cockburn, and has even restrained him from greater excesses in Washington than were committed there, obliging him to spare private dwellings, etc.)—and then they came back to where we stood, and the arrangement was effected. And to General Ross’s admiration of Catherine’s character, and to his generosity, I attribute the ease with which the business was completed. ‘Sir,’ he said, at parting, ‘had your army at Bladensburg been composed of men with spirits equal to that of this heroic woman, your city of Washington had not been taken.’ But, where is noble Catherine, now?”
“In a deep sleep, or rather a trance-sleep, superinduced by the excessive toil and fatigue she has lately gone through—”
“‘Like a warrior taking his rest!’”
“No—I wish you would not apply that line, great as it is, to her. She is not heroic, which is masculine—my Kate—she is strong only through her affections, and a very child in timidity at other times. But, my dear Frank, glad as I am to see you, I wish to know—you have not told me the ‘business of vital importance,’ which Conyers says, made you his companion in seeking me.”
The face of Captain Fairfax suddenly clouded over; he put his hand in his bosom, and then hesitating, said—
“You have seen in the papers the obituary notice of a dear friend?”
“No! Who is it? I have no very dear friend, out of this house, now—whom do you mean?”