The Young Lieutenant Part 14

"Ah! Allan, those papers are printed to sell in the Yankee army. I'm sure I hope they are not so badly off as has been represented. I should not want my worst enemy to suffer what they are called upon to endure. It is all their own fault; but I hope G.o.d will be merciful to them."

"I think you needn't feel bad about them," added Somers, amused, but indignant at the pitiful stories which were circulated in the South to keep up the courage of the people.

"Let that pa.s.s, then. Really, Allan, I am very glad to see you. You must go to the house with me. Sue will be delighted to meet you. She talks about you a great deal; and I can insure you a warm welcome."

"I think I cannot stop to call now; but I will try to come over in a few days," replied Somers, embarra.s.sed beyond measure at the idea of facing Sue and the rest of the family.

"Not stop!" exclaimed Mr. Raynes, holding up his hands with surprise.

"Not now, sir; I am in no condition to appear before ladies," he added, extending his arms so as to display his tattered garments to the fullest advantage. "You know a young man is rather particular about his appearance when he is going into the company of ladies, and especially into the presence of _some_ ladies. The fact is, I tore my uniform all to pieces after I pa.s.sed through the Yankee lines."

"Never mind your uniform, my boy. It looks as though it had seen service; and that is the best recommendation a young man can have to the girls in these times. You must go, Allan."

"Indeed, sir, I hope you will excuse me for a few days," pleaded Somers.

"Come, Allan! this is not kind of you. Sue has been dying to see you for a year. She was terribly disappointed when you did not come up with your regiment, and again when she heard you had joined without calling upon us. If it had been Owen, she could not have felt worse when you were captured. Now you want to disappoint her again."

"You need not mention that you have seen me, Mr. Raynes," suggested Somers.

"Not tell her that you have escaped, when she is fretting about you every day of her life! That would be too bad."

"You can tell her as much as you please without informing her that you have seen me."

"I could not tell a lie, Allan. It would choke me," said the old man solemnly. "You must go with me."

"Let me get another uniform, and it would surprise her when I come."

"No more words, young man. You must go. It is only a short distance,"

replied Mr. Raynes, pa.s.sing his arm through that of Somers, and walking towards his house. "It will be the happiest day for Sue which she has seen for a year."

"Happier for her than it will be for me," thought Somers, who was disposed to break away from the old man, and make his escape.

By this time, Sue had become an awful bugbear to the poor fellow. In these days of photographs, it is more than probable that she had a picture of the original Allan Garland, and the cheat would be discovered the moment he showed his face. He was deliberating a plan for breaking away from his persistent friend, when a young lady of eighteen stepped out from the bushes by the roadside, and hailed the old man.

CHAPTER XI

THE VIRGINIA MAIDEN

"Where have you been, father?" said the young lady in a very sweet and gentle tone, which, however, sounded like the knell of doom to poor Somers. "I have been waiting for you half an hour."

But then, perceiving a stranger with her father, she drew back, abashed at her own forwardness.

"Come here, Sue," said the old man. "Come here; I want to see you."

She advanced timidly from the bushes where she had been partially concealed from the gaze of the pa.s.sers-by. She was certainly a very pleasant and comely-looking maiden; but, if she had been the "Witch of Endor," she could not have been any more disagreeable to Somers. He was as fond of adventure as any young man; and if he could have forgotten that poor Owen Raynes, the son and the brother, was at that moment lying in the mud of the swamp; his manly form no more to gladden the hearts of those who stood before him; his voice hushed in death, no more to utter the accents of affection to the devoted father and his loving sister--if he could have forgotten his relations with the dead Owen, he might even have enjoyed the exciting situation in which he was placed.

Sue, with a blus.h.i.+ng face and half-averted gaze, stepped out into the road, and stole a few timid glances at the young lieutenant. It was quite evident that she did not have a suspicion of the ident.i.ty of the young soldier before her. Her father appeared to have a vein of romance in his character, and was disposed to torture her for a time with the torments of suspense, before he declared to her the astounding truth, that the young soldier was her well-known but hitherto unseen friend from Alabama, the bosom companion of her brother Owen, and, if everything worked as the loving conspirators intended, the future husband of the affectionate maiden.

She did not like to ask who the stranger was; and she thought it was very provoking of her father not to tell her, when she was so fearfully embarra.s.sed by her position. She continued to blush; and Somers felt so awkward, that he couldn't help joining her in this interesting display of roses on the cheeks.

"Don't you know him, Sue?" demanded the farmer, when he had tantalized her as long as the circ.u.mstances would warrant.

"Why, of course I don't, father!" stammered the Virginia maiden.

"Look in his face, and see if you can't tell," persisted Mr. Raynes.

"How absurd, father!"

"Absurd, child? Not at all absurd! Haven't you his picture in the house?

And, if I mistake not, you have looked at it as many as three times a day for the last year."

"Now, father, you are too bad! I haven't done anything of the sort,"

protested Sue, pouting and twisting her shoulders as any country girl, who had not been trained in a satinwood seminary, would have done under such trying circ.u.mstances. "You don't mean to say that is Allan Garland?"

added she, her pretty face lighting up with an expression of intense satisfaction.

"But I do, Sue," replied Mr. Raynes with emphasis.

"Why, Allan! I am so glad to see you! I was afraid I should never see you!" exclaimed Sue, rus.h.i.+ng up to the young man, and extending both her hands, which he felt compelled to accept.

He was fearful that she would kiss him; and, though he would have been under obligations to submit to the infliction, he was not sure that the operation would not cause him to faint. Fortunately for him, Sue was reasonable in her behavior; and he escaped cheaper than he expected, when he beheld the impetuous charge which the maiden made upon him. If he had really been Allan Garland, his reception would have been entirely proper, and highly creditable to the affectionate nature of the Virginia damsel.

He was not the young gentleman from Alabama; and he felt as though he had been flanked on both sides, with no chance to beat off the enemy in front, or to run away in the rear. He was only a short distance from a line of rebel sentinels, and he did not consider it prudent to escape by taking to his legs. He did not wear his fighting socks at this time, and felt that it would be no disgrace to run away from such an enemy as that which confronted him.

"I am very glad to see you, Allan," repeated Sue, as the wretched young man did not venture to use his tongue.

"Thank you, thank you, Miss Raynes!" said he at last, when silence seemed even more dangerous than speech.

"Miss Raynes! Dear me, Allan, how very formal and precise you are! You called me Sue in your letters."

"Did I? Well, I didn't know it," replied Somers with a stroke of candor not to be expected under the circ.u.mstances.

"Certainly you did. I don't think you ever mentioned such a person as Miss Raynes."

"I am confident I didn't," added he with another touch of candor. "But I will always call you Sue hereafter, when I have occasion to speak to you."

"Thank you, Allan! You begin to sound a little like yourself."

Somers was very glad to hear it, but wished he had been five miles off, even if it had been in the very jaws of the Fourth Alabama.

"You don't look a bit like your photograph," continued Sue, gazing with admiration at the face of the young man; for which those who ever saw Lieutenant Somers will cheerfully pardon her.

"Do you think so?"

"I'm sure you don't."