"Have you written your letter already?"
"No, but I shall have time immediately after dinner. Captain Morris does not come until nine."
The meal over, Maud repaired to her room and took out her tablet, quill-pen and horn inkstand. For weeks she had been hoping for a second letter from Helen, but none had come. Still she had much to tell, and the hour was nearly gone by the time her letter was finished and the envelope addressed.
She did not, however, seal it at once. Alone in her room she sat for a moment tapping her forehead. Then she took out another sheet and commenced writing again. This time it was to Dr. Beaumont, in reply to the two she had already received.
While writing she was in deep thought, carefully weighing her words. She put them down more slowly than in her longer letter to Helen. As she finished, the big bell in the church tower struck nine. For another moment she paused. Then placing the letter in a small envelope, and addressing it, she put it in the larger one to Mrs. Manning, and sealed the latter in three places after the manner of the time. As she finished a message came that Captain Morris had arrived.
"Montreal will be your headquarters, no doubt," she heard her father say as she entered the room.
"It will be farther west than that, I hope," was his answer. "Still we are willing to go anywhere. My men are quite excited over it. Being veterans, one would think they would be indifferent; but it is so long since they were in battle, that they are just itching for a fight."
"Human depravity—human depravity!" exclaimed the judge. "It can't be over a year since you left Europe. Surely they had enough of it then."
"You forget, sir," said Morris, "that it is the soldier's life. His daily occupation—his meat and drink—and that a long interruption from everyday occurrences only gives zest to a return to old conditions."
"Still it is lamentable! however essential to our glory," said the Judge, shaking his head.