"No, I can tell you the Mobile news first, but it's bad. Miss Flora's home--"
Anna gave a start and with a hand half upthrown said quietly, "Don't tell me. No, please, don't, I don't want to hear it. I can't explain, but I--I--" Tears wet her lashes, and her hands strove with each other. "I don't like bad news. You should have taken it straight to Flora. Oh, I wish you'd do that now, won't you--please?"
Behind the screen the hidden one stiffened where she crouched with fierce brow and fixed eyes.
Kincaid spoke: "Would you have me pass you by with my good news to go first to her with the bad?"
"Oh, Captain Kincaid, yes, yes! Do it yet. Go, do it now. And tell her the good news too!"
"Tell her the good first and then stab her with the bad?"
"Oh, tell her the bad first. Do her that honor. She has earned it. She'll bear the worst like the heroine she is--the heroine and patriot. She's bearing it so now!"
"What! she knows already?"
In her hiding Flora's intent face faintly smiled a malevolence that would have startled even the grandam who still killed time out among the roses with her juniors.
"Yes," replied Anna, "she knows already."