CHAPTER IV
THE SECRETARY MOVES
Nearly all the guests left the Markham house at the same time and stood for a few moments in the white Greek portico, bidding one another good-night. It seemed to Prescott that it was a sort of family parting.
The last good-by said, Robert and Helen started down the street, toward the Harley home six or seven blocks away. Her gloved hand rested lightly on his arm, but her face was hidden from him by a red hood. The cold wind was still blustering mightily about the little city and she walked close beside him.
"I cannot help thinking at this moment of your army. Which way does it lie, Robert?" she asked.
"Off there," he replied, and he pointed northward.
"And the Northern army is there, too. And Washington itself is only two hundred miles away It seems to me sometimes that the armies have always been there. This war is so long. I remember I was a child when it began, and now——"
She paused, but Prescott added:
"It began only three years ago."