"Why do you avoid me, Miss Catherwood?"
A gleam of humour appeared in her eye.
"You are getting well too fast. I do not think you will need any more attention," she replied.
He regarded her with an unmoved countenance.
"Miss Catherwood," he said, "I feel myself growing very much worse. It is a sudden attack and a bad one."
But she passed on, disbelieving, and left him rueful.
The night went by without event, and then another day and another night, and still they hovered in the rear of their army, uncertain which way to go, tangled up in the Wilderness and fearing at any moment a raid of the Northern cavalry. They yet saw the dim fire in the forest, and no hour was without its distant cannon shot.
On the second day the two editors, Raymond and Winthrop, joined them.
"I've been trying to print a paper," said Raymond ruefully, "but they wouldn't stay in one place long enough for me to get my press going. This morning a Yankee cannon shot smashed the press and I suppose I might as well go back to Richmond. But I can't, with so much coming on. They'll be in battle before another day."
Raymond spoke in solemn tones (even he was awed and oppressed by what he had seen) and Winthrop nodded assent.