"None at all. I failed even to learn her name, where she lived or anything else about her. I'll tell you more this evening, because I want your advice."
The reception ended presently, and the ladies, escorted by the young men, went to their homes. Talbot, Winthrop and Raymond rejoined Prescott soon afterward near Shockoe Hill.
"Now tell us of the woman you were following," said Talbot.
"I don't think I shall," replied Prescott. "I've changed my intention about it—at least, for the present."
The affair had clung to his mind and the result of his second thought was a resolution to keep it to himself a while longer. He had formed a suspicion, but it might be wrong, and he would not willingly do injustice to any one, least of all to a woman. Her face, when he saw her close at hand, looked pure and good, and now that he recalled it he could remember distinctly that there had been in it a touch of reproach and the reproach was for him—she had seemed to ask why he annoyed her. No, he would wait before speaking of her to his friends.
Talbot regarded Prescott for a moment with an inquiring gaze, but said nothing more upon the subject.
Prescott left his friends at the Capitol and spent the remainder of the day with his mother, who on the plea of age had avoided the reception and the festivities, although she now had many questions to ask.
"I hear that great enthusiasm was shown and brilliant predictions were made," she said.
"It is quite true," he replied. "The music, the speeches and the high spirits, which you know are contagious in a crowd, have done good, I think, to the Southern cause."
"Did Morgan bring any new recruits for General Lee's army?"