"Remember now, you are on parole, but restricted to this room."

"For how long?" She made an exceedingly pretty picture in that frame,
and I was in no hurry to be deprived of it.

"Until--well, until I am pleased to release you. Don't scowl; I'm sure
I'm trying to be nice, and I never was so polite to a Yankee before.
Really this is the pleasantest room in the house; I have passed hours in
here myself."

"Perhaps this afternoon--"

She shook her head violently, her eyes dancing with laughter.

"Certainly not; with all these Confederate officers here. Sometimes I
think you are very conceited--I wonder if you are." And then before I
could answer,--"What a handsome man Captain Bell is; and so delightful
of him to remember having met you."

The witch was plainly enough laughing at me, but she chose a poor
subject in Bell.

"And my sentence, then, is solitary confinement?"

"That is far better than you deserve. Those windows open on the porch,
and there is a sentry there; the door leads to the rear of the house. I
shall not even lock it, nor this. I leave you here upon your word of
honor, Lieutenant Galesworth."