The two descended to the drawing-room arm in arm, and there Jeanne related all the circumstances that led to her coming to New Orleans, concealing nothing. Her deep love and attachment to her country glowed through the narrative like a golden thread. The lady and gentleman listened in silence until she related General Butler’s doubt of herself, when her uncle sprang to his feet with an exclamation.
“The scoundrel!” he cried. “To subject you to such treatment. And we are helpless. Yes; we are helpless. Day after day some new act of injustice comes to our ears and we must submit. But our time is coming, and I fancy that Butler won’t relish what his high handed proceedings will bring him.”
“He is truly a beast without the instincts of a gentleman,” cried Madame Vance, excitedly. “That is our name for him, Jeanne. ‘Beast’ Butler, and well he deserves it.”
Jeanne moved uneasily.
“It wasn’t pleasant,” she said, “and it was a new thing to me to have my loyalty questioned, but I think he must have to do that way. You are so against him, you know, that if he were not careful you might rise up and drive him out. And the Union must have New Orleans. Father says that the rebellion can never be put down unless the Mississippi River is in our possession.”
“True for you, my little Yankee. And that is just where the Union will fail. They did take New Orleans through the cowardice of its defenders, but they’ll never get Vicksburg. And so long as we can hold that the Confederacy is safe. But you say that you ran past the Vicksburg batteries. Tell that again.”
Jeanne retold that portion of her story to please him.
“I am glad that you are here, child,” remarked Mr. Vance when she had finished. “But I am surprised at Brother Dick’s sending you to face such dangers. He always was an enthusiast in anything that he undertook, and undervalued life if it stood in the way of accomplishing his object.”
“Father did not know that it was so risky,” said Jeanne unwilling to hear aught against her father. “He would not have sent me if he had. Besides I wanted to come, and I am glad that I did come, now that I have met you and Cherie.”
“Yes; I am glad for you to know her too,” said Uncle Ben, his Yankee tones sounding in flat contrast with his wife’s sibilant ones. “I always intended taking her North to see Dick’s folks, but just as we were ready to go this war came on and here we are now at the mercy of that Yankee.”