"MY DEAR SIR: Will you not reconsider the offer of the colonelcy of a regiment? It will not require your presence until July. There is no need to reply at once. There is no one else so entirely fit for such a charge, and the Attorney-General, your friend Meredith, unites with me in my appeal to you. The State and the country need you.
"Yours truly,
"ANDREW CURTIN."
He reached but one conclusion as he turned the tempting offer over in his mind, and acting on it wrote the Governor from his office that his wife was at present too ill for him to consider the offer of a command.
As day by day he sat with Ann, to his relief she ceased to dwell on the matter which had so disturbed her, and rapidly regaining health, flesh and strength, began to ask about the house and the village people. It was a happy day when in May he carried her down to a hammock on the porch. A week later she spoke again, "What conclusion have you reached?" she said.
"About the mills?"
"Yes."
"Ask me in a week, Ann. Do you want to read John's letters? There are several—one about a battle at Pittsburgh Landing in Tennessee."
"I want to hear nothing of the war. Is he well?"
"Yes, thank God." The news of McClellan's army was anything but satisfactory, and more and more the soldier longed to be in the field.