"Don't give anybody much, - unless I bid you," my mother said, laughingly. "Daisy, you have matured better even than I ever thought you would, or than your aunt Gary told me. Your figure is as good as ever mine was."
She took up one of my hands, looked at it, kissed it, and as she let it drop asked carelessly, -
"What has become of Preston now?"
I felt as if breakers were all around me. "He has joined the
Southern army," I said.
"When did you see him?"
"Not since a year ago."
"Where then?"
"At West Point, mamma. He only graduated this spring."
"Were you long at West Point?"
"Yes, ma'am - some weeks."