as safe.

HEARTSEASE. Thank you, Madam. I am happy. If you will excuse me, I
will join--my father--in the smoking-room. [MRS. HAVERILL _inclines
her head, and_ HEARTSEASE _walks out._

MRS. HAVERILL. Jannette! You may ask General Haverill to come into
this room. [_Exit_ JANNETTE. MRS. HAVERILL _walks down, reading
a note._] "I have hesitated to come to you personally, as I have
hesitated to write to you. If I have been silent, it is because I
could not bring my hand to write what was in my mind and in my heart.
I do not know that I can trust my tongue to speak it, but I will
come."

_Enter_ HAVERILL _from hall; he stops._

HAVERILL. Constance!

MRS. HAVERILL. My husband! May I call you husband? After all these
months of separation, with your life in almost daily peril, and my
life--what? Only a weary longing for one loving word--and you are
silent.

HAVERILL. May I call you wife? I do not wish to speak that word except
with reverence. You have asked me to come to you. I am here. I will
be plain, direct and brief. Where is the portrait of yourself, which I
gave you, in Charleston, for my son?

MRS. HAVERILL. Your son is dead, sir; and my portrait lies upon his
breast, in the grave. [HAVERILL _takes the miniature from his pocket