“I know it!” he said, tapping the arm of the chair, impatiently, “they never tell me half what is going on, now!––as if I was a child! and when I ask the cursed niggers, they lie so. Well, well, go on; tell me the latest news about this Yankee––Monroe.”
“The very latest?” and she smiled again in that strange mocking way. “Well, the latest is that he is entirely innocent; had nothing whatever to do with the taking of the papers.”
“Madame Caron!”
“Yes, I am quite serious. I was just about to tell Colonel McVeigh, but we can chat about it until he comes;” and she pretended not to notice the wonder in his face, and went serenely on, “in fact, it was not a man who took the papers at all, but a woman; yes, a woman,” she said, nodding her head, as a frown of quick suspicion touched his forehead and his eyes gleamed darkly on her, “in fact a confidential agent, whom Captain Masterson designated yesterday as most dangerous to the Confederate cause. I am about to inform Colonel McVeigh of her identity. But I do not fancy that will interest you nearly so much as another story I have for you personally.”
She paused and drew back a little, to better observe every expression of his countenance. He was glaring at her and his breath was coming in broken gasps.
“There are really two of those secret Federal agents in this especial territory,” she continued, “two women who have worked faithfully for the Union. I fancied you might be especially interested in the story of one of them, as she belongs to the Loring family.”
“To our family? That is some cursed Yankee lie!” he burst out fiercely, “every Loring is loyal to the South! To 364 our family? Let them try to prove that statement! It can’t be done!”
“You are quite right, Monsieur Loring,” she agreed, quietly, “it would be difficult to prove, even if you wished to do it.” He fairly glared at the possibility that he should want to prove it. “But it may have an interest to you for all that, since the girl in question was your brother’s daughter.”
“My brother’s––!” He seemed choking, and he gazed at her with a horrible expression. The door opened and Mrs. McVeigh entered rather hastily, looking for something in the desk. Loring had sunk back in the chair, and she did not see his face, but she could see Judithe’s, and it was uplifted and slightly smiling.