little of everything.”
“I suppose, though, you don’t see much of the old rebel element?” said
Laura with a smile.
If this seemed to Mrs. Schoonmaker a singular remark for a lady to make,
who was meeting “rebels” in society every day, she did not express it in
any way, but only said,
“You know we don’t say ‘rebel’ anymore. Before we came to Washington I
thought rebels would look unlike other people. I find we are very much
alike, and that kindness and good nature wear away prejudice. And then
you know there are all sorts of common interests. My husband sometimes
says that he doesn’t see but confederates are just as eager to get at the
treasury as Unionists. You know that Mr. Schoonmaker is on the
appropriations.”
“Does he know many Southerners?”
“Oh, yes. There were several at my reception the other day. Among
others a confederate Colonel–a stranger–handsome man with gray hair,
probably you didn’t notice him, uses a cane in walking. A very agreeable
man. I wondered why he called. When my husband came home and looked
over the cards, he said he had a cotton claim. A real southerner.
Perhaps you might know him if I could think of his name. Yes, here’s his
card–Louisiana.”
Laura took the card, looked at it intently till she was sure of the
address, and then laid it down, with,
“No, he is no friend of ours.”
That afternoon, Laura wrote and dispatched the following note. It was in
a round hand, unlike her flowing style, and it was directed to a number
and street in Georgetown:–
“A Lady at Senator Dilworthy’s would like to see Col. George Selby,
on business connected with the Cotton Claims. Can he call Wednesday
at three o’clock P. M.?”
On Wednesday at 3 P. M, no one of the family was likely to be in the
house except Laura.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Col. Selby had just come to Washington, and taken lodgings in Georgetown.
His business was to get pay for some cotton that was destroyed during the
war. There were many others in Washington on the same errand, some of
them with claims as difficult to establish as his. A concert of action
was necessary, and he was not, therefore, at all surprised to receive the
note from a lady asking him to call at Senator Dilworthy’s.
At a little after three on Wednesday he rang the bell of the Senator’s
residence. It was a handsome mansion on the Square opposite the
President’s house. The owner must be a man of great wealth, the Colonel
thought; perhaps, who knows, said he with a smile, he may have got some
of my cotton in exchange for salt and quinine after the capture of New
Orleans. As this thought passed through his mind he was looking at the
remarkable figure of the Hero of New Orleans, holding itself by main
strength from sliding off the back of the rearing bronze horse, and
lifting its hat in the manner of one who acknowledges the playing of that
martial air: “See, the Conquering Hero Comes!” “Gad,” said the Colonel
to himself, “Old Hickory ought to get down and give his seat to Gen.
Sutler–but they’d have to tie him on.”
Laura was in the drawing room. She heard the bell, she heard the steps
in the hall, and the emphatic thud of the supporting cane. She had risen
from her chair and was leaning against the piano, pressing her left hand
against the violent beating of her heart. The door opened and the
Colonel entered, standing in the full light of the opposite window.
Laura was more in the shadow and stood for an instant, long enough for
the Colonel to make the inward observation that she was a magnificent
Woman. She then advanced a step.
“Col. Selby, is it not?”
The Colonel staggered back, caught himself by a chair, and turned towards
her a look of terror.
“Laura? My God!”
“Yes, your wife!”
“Oh, no, it can’t be. How came you here? I thought you were–”
“You thought I was dead? You thought you were rid of me? Not so long as
you live, Col. Selby, not so long as you live;” Laura in her passion was