"I think there can be no mistake about it; and I should have been no
more surprised if Mr. Jefferson Davis had been ushered into my library
at this moment," continued Captain Passford, still retaining the hand of
his nephew. "I understood that you were a soldier in the Confederate
army."

"I was a soldier; but I am not one just now," replied the visitor, with
some embarrassment in his manner, though the circumstances were strange
enough to account for it.

"How are your father and mother and Miss Gerty, Corny?" asked the uncle
of the visitor, giving the young man the name by which he was generally
called both at home and in the family of his uncle.

"They were all very well when I left them," replied Corny, looking on
the floor, as though he was not altogether satisfied with himself.

"Of course, you brought letters from your father and Gerty?"

"No, sir; I brought no letters," replied Corny, and, more than before,
he looked as though he was not enjoying his present visit.

"No letters!" exclaimed Captain Passford, evidently surprised beyond
measure at the apparent want of kindly feeling on the part of members
of his brother's family in the South.

"Not a letter, Uncle Horatio," answered Corny, bracing himself up, as
though he realized that he was not presenting a demeanor such as he
thought the occasion required of him.