“What is your condition, my young friend?” he asked in a kindly voice.
“I am wounded here in the side,” said Ernest.
“Could you travel in a buggy a few miles?”
“I think I could, sir.”
“Then, if you can, I would be pleased to take you to my house, where you can have proper attention and good nursing. Will you go? I will assist you into the buggy.”
“Yes, sir; I will accept your kind offer. How far do you have to go?”
“About six miles; but it is a good road, and we can make the drive in an hour. I could hear the fighting all day from my house. At noon, during the lull, I supposed the battle might be over, and I started to the scene of action. But when I had driven three miles, I discovered that the fight was renewed with redoubled fury. When it ended, I learned from a courier how the day had gone, and I came on to do what I could for our wounded. It will afford me pleasure to take care of you till you are again ready for duty?”
“I shall be under lasting obligations, sir,” replied Ernest.
At once, Ernest was assisted into the buggy, and driven along at a slow pace till they reached the gentleman’s residence at eight o’clock in the evening. This gentleman was a Presbyterian minister, by name Dr. Arrington. His family consisted of a wife and three daughters, the elder of whom was about twenty years of age—an intelligent, well educated young lady. She had completed her education the previous year at one of the best female colleges of Virginia. We cannot say that she was perfectly beautiful, for, though her features seemed faultless when contemplated singly, yet the grouping was somehow a little defective. No one could tell what was lacking, but there was something. But the perfection of her features enabled her to bear a most rigid inspection, and she improved greatly on acquaintance. She had a decidedly classical cast of countenance. In conversation her face beamed with intelligence and sympathy, which made her appear handsome and lovely. She belonged, in a word, to that class, who attract more by their moral excellencies than their physical graces. Mildred Arrington, however, possessed a symmetrical figure, and her every movement betrayed elegance of manners and refinement of taste and intellectual culture. All who were intimately acquainted with her, thought her beautiful.