| “I feel less anger than regret. No violence of speech, no obloquy, No accusation shall escape my lips: Need there is none, nor reason, to avoid My questions: if thou value truth, reply.” —“Count Julian,” Walter Savage Landor. |
“And if it had not been for your insisting upon it that shirt would never have been made,” went on Harriet in an aggrieved tone.
“I think that ’twas I more than Peggy who persuaded thee to make the shirt,” said Mrs. Owen quietly. “It was done to woo thee from thy fancies, Harriet, rather than with any purpose to get thee to aid our soldiers. If thee will write to thy brother and explain the matter to him he will forgive thee it. Further, according to John’s letter, had it not been for that very same garment thy brother would not have acknowledged his identity. So thou seest, my child, that good hath come out of it after all.”
“Why, so it hath,” acknowledged Harriet brightening. “I had not thought of it in that light, madam my cousin. And would you mind if my brother were to come here, if a parole can be obtained for him?”
“Of course he must come here,” returned the lady with a smile of gratification. She was pleased that Harriet should show thoughtfulness for her convenience. It had not always been the case with either the girl or her father. Colonel Owen was wont to demand a thing rather than request it, and Harriet herself had been somewhat addicted to obtaining her desires in the same fashion at Middlebrook. Of late, however, she was evincing more consideration for both Peggy and herself. “David would not wish it otherwise.”
“’Tis very kind of you, my cousin,” said the girl with sudden feeling. “But you will like Clifford. Indeed no one can help it.”
“I am quite sure that we shall,” responded Mrs. Owen graciously. “His letter bespoke him to be a lad of parts. And now as to the parole. That must first be accomplished before the exchange can be thought of; the latter will of necessity take time.”
“How much?” queried Harriet. “I know that ’twas long before father got his, but that was in the early part of the war, before England had consented to exchange prisoners.”
“I know not how long ’twill take, Harriet.” Mrs. Owen threaded her needle thoughtfully. “Those things seem in truth to go by favor. As thy brother well says, if those in authority exert themselves it should be arranged quickly. If they do not then the matter drags along sometimes for months.”
“Awaiting the convenience of the great,” added the girl with some bitterness. “And such convenience is consulted only when they have need of further service. The past is always forgotten. Still, father stands well with Sir Henry, and I myself rendered him no little service by what I did at Middlebrook. I think,—nay, I am sure,—that if I can get his ear he will see that the affair is adjusted according to my wishes. I will write to him.”