"Our Governments now stand together, Major. Ed has my leave to do the research."
"Fine." The officer stepped aside to let Julie Mae pass first through the door.
"Have y'all time for refreshments before leaving, sir? There's a very proper tavern on the campus."
Hall frowned at his watch. "I'll make the time, Ma'am."
Julie Mae Mosby, heir to her family's huge grants and honorary president of the culturally important Mosby University, patted a long curl into perfection with her folded fan. "I've learned one thing from y'all. Not all Northernahs are the uncouth messes your Erskine Caldwell says y'all are."
The officer managed a bleak smile. "You refer to his 'Marijuana Road'?"
Julie Mae nodded, allowed herself to be helped down a short flight of lustrous tiled steps. "That's the very book. I should think y'all'd be mighty unhappy with that scamp."
"He's not too well received in polite Union circles, I assure you, Ma'am."
Professor Wilkes decided his friend had taken enough. "Miss Julie's just teasin' you, Pete. She's traveled quite extensively in Union."
"That's where I met Ed here, major. Three or four years ago—nineteen forty-eight, I believe. He was slavin' his little ole brains away at dinky little Northwestern U." The woman nodded graciously to a bowing negro slave, trilled her charming laugh. "Why, Major, I do believe it's storming up to rain. If I'm going to walk with y'all to the tavern someone's going to have to give me his coat. Professor?"