a moment, standing straight and drawing a full, deep breath. If that
were coquetry it was perfect. I swear that now I caught the full outline
of a red, red heart upon her corsage!

"Mademoiselle," I said, as I left her, "you are Ellen, and you have a
heart! At half past ten I shall come again. Some day I shall take away
your mask and your heart."

"Oh, thank thee!" she mocked again.

At half past ten I had kept my word, and I stood once more at the Row of
Mystery. The chairs were vacant, for the blue coats had wrought havoc
there! A little apart sat a blonde beauty of petite figure, who talked
in a deep contralto voice, astonishing for one so slight, with a young
lieutenant who leaned close to her. I selected her for Tudie Devlin of
Kentucky. She whom I fancied to be the "Evans girl from up North," was
just promenading away with a young man in evening dress. A brunette whom
I imagined to be Sadie Galloway of the Ninth was leaning on the back of
a chair and conversing with a man whom I could not see, hidden in the
shade of a tent fold. I looked behind me and saw a row of disgruntled
gentlemen, nervously pacing up and down. At least there were others
disappointed!

I searched the dancing floor and presently wished I had not done so. I
saw her once more--dancing with a tall, slender man in uniform. At least
he offered no disguise to me. In my heart I resented seeing him wear the
blue of our government. And certainly it gave me some pang to which I
was not entitled, which I did not stop to analyze, some feeling of
wretchedness, to see this girl dancing with none less than Gordon Orme,
minister of the Gospel, captain of the English Army, and what other