The paper dropped from the hands of Mr. Ordeth, and he stared at his wife in utter bewilderment.
"Don't be angry with us, Victor!" exclaimed that lady, tremblingly; for she had seen the paper and anticipated what was coming. "Libby hid poor Bob away because she didn't want to see one of our own relations taken and hung, and when she told me of it I didn't dare to tell you."
"And do you mean to tell me that it was in my house he was secreted?" asked the Virginian, tragically.
"Yes, my dear, up-stairs, you know."
This unexampled revelation might have produced a scene, had not the door been opened at the moment by Jocko, who unceremoniously entered with a folded paper in his hand.
"Dis wus brung for you, Mars'r, by de angel ob de—I mean by de gemman wid gold on he shoulder."
The master hastily snatched the paper from the dutiful black, waved him magisterially from the presence, and found himself ordered to report on the following morning for military duty at the headquarters
of the military commandant, Richmond. A new draft was ordered!
Passing the paper to his wife, without a word of comment, Mr. Ordeth commenced to pace the room with long and rapid strides. Finally, he stopped short before his lady's chair:—
"I am beginning to think," said he, coolly, "that the Union is best for the South, after all."