An orderly came to the door. "Every man who is able to carry a rifle get ready to go down to Camp Distribution," he said. "Don't let any of 'em shirk, Linn. Send some of those fellows down to the office to be examined. Every man is wanted."
As Margaret went out, she saw Surgeon A—— hasten from one of the wards, and look along the floor of the hall, as if in search of something. His face was very pale, she saw, and he looked up sharply at her as she approached him.
"Perhaps you miss this photograph, Col. A——," she said, offering it to him.
His face reddened violently as he took it. "Has any one seen it besides you, madam?" he asked.
"No one."
"Will you give me an opportunity to explain?" he asked eagerly. "If you would permit me to call on you, or accompany you out now—"
"By no means," she replied coldly. "I do not wish to hear any explanation. I am here on business of my own, and shall not, probably, take any further notice of what I have seen. But if on second thought I should consider myself obliged to mention it, you can make your explanation to Mr. Lincoln."
She left him at that, and went home to hear Mrs. Black's compliments on her success.
There were no more visits that day; but the next morning a close carriage was sent to the door, and Margaret began her rounds.
In the afternoon she found herself going out Fourteenth street toward Columbia Hospital. There was a shower, and as the horses plodded along through the pouring floods of southern rain, she leaned her face upon her hand and wondered sadly what was to come of this search of hers, and if that strange, irresistible impulse on which she had been shot, like Camilla on her spear, over every obstacle to her coming, had been, after all, but a vain whim.