The Young Lieutenant Part 15

"That's very strange. Everybody who has seen my photograph says it looks exactly like me."

"I don't think so."

"I gave one to a young lady of my acquaintance, who said it was perfect."

"Indeed! Who was she?"

"She is a young lady whom I have met only two or three times."

"What is her name?"

"Lilian Ashford."

"What a pretty name!" said Sue, endeavoring to be magnanimous; though it was evident that she was troubled by the honest avowal of the young soldier.

"Where does she live?"

"She is at the North, now," answered Somers, who could not bear to tell a lie when there was no need of such a sacrifice.

He was becoming very uneasy under this rigid catechizing, and hoped she would not ask any more questions about Lilian Ashford. He had mentioned her name with the hope that it might produce a coldness on her part which would afford him some advantage. She did not, however, seem to be annihilated by the prospect of a rival, and was proceeding to interrogate him still further in regard to the lady, with whom he was apparently intimate enough to present her his photograph, when Mr. Raynes reminded her that they were standing in the road, and had better go into the house.

"Now, Mr. Raynes, as I have seen Sue, and Sue has seen me, I think I had better hasten to my regiment," suggested Somers.

"Not yet, Allan," replied the old man.

"Do you wish to run away, and leave me so soon, you monster?" added Sue.

"I tell you, sir, I shall not let you go yet."

"But, Sue! you forget that I have just returned from the Yankees. I was furnished with a pa.s.s, to enable me to find my regiment."

"You shall find it in good time."

"Come to the house, Allan: we will not detain you long," added Mr.

Raynes.

"You must and shall come!" protested Sue, taking him by the arm, and absolutely compelling him to go, or be guilty of the most unpardonable rudeness to the fair Virginia damsel.

"I should be very glad to go with you, Sue, if my duty did not call me elsewhere. I am to be sent off on very important service."

"Again?--so soon?"

"This very day. I may never see you again."

"And you would coolly run away and leave me without even going into the house!"

"But my duty, Sue!"

"You will be in time for your duty."

"I may be arrested as a deserter."

"Nonsense! You have a pa.s.s in your pocket."

"In spite of the pa.s.s, if your father had not happened to see me, I should have been arrested, and might have spent a day or two in the guardhouse before the case could have been explained."

"No more argument, Allan," said the persevering girl. "Here is the house; you shall go in and look at mother, if you don't stop but a minute.

Besides, I want to see your photograph while you are present; for I am sure you don't look any more like the picture than the picture does like you."

"Probably not," replied Somers, as the resolute maiden dragged him into the house; where, without stopping to breathe, she presented him to her mother, with the astounding declaration, that he was Allan Garland.

Mrs. Raynes gave him a cordial Virginia welcome; and, while he was endeavoring to make himself as agreeable as possible to the old lady, Sue rushed up-stairs to procure the faithless photograph. She returned in a moment with the picture in her hand, and proceeded at once to inst.i.tute a comparison between the shadow and the substance.

"Now, stand up here, sir, and let me see," said she, as she playfully whisked him round and scrutinized his features. "I told you it did not look like you; and I am very sure now that it does not."

"Let me see," added Somers, extending his hand for the picture.

"Will you promise to give it back to me?"

"Certainly I will! You don't imagine I would be so mean as to confiscate it?"

"I should not care much if you did, now that I have found out it does not look any more like you than it does like me," she answered, handing him the photograph.

"Where did you get this picture, Sue?"

"Where did I get it? Well, that is cool! Didn't you send it to me yourself?" And Sue began to exhibit some symptoms of amazement.

"I am very sure I never sent you this picture," added Somers gravely.

"You did not?"

"Never."

"Why, Allan Garland!"

"This is not my picture."

"I shouldn't think it was."

Thereupon Mr. Raynes began to laugh in the most immoderate manner; opening his mouth wide enough to take in a very small load of hay, and shaking his sides in the most extraordinary style.

"What are you laughing at, pa?" demanded Sue, blus.h.i.+ng up to the eyes, as though she already felt the force of some keenly satirical remark which was struggling for expression in the mouth of the farmer.

"To think you have been looking at that picture three times a day for a year, studying, gazing at it; kissing it, for aught I know; and then to find out that it is not Allan after all!" roared the Virginia farmer between the outbreaks of his mirth. "I haven't done anything but groan since the war began, and it does me good to laugh. I haven't had a jolly time before since the battle of Bull Run, as the Yankees call it."

"You are the most absurd pa in Virginia. I didn't look at it three times a day, I never studied it, and I'm sure I never kissed it. No wonder Allan wants to get away, when he finds what an absurd girl you make me out to be. You think I'm a fool, don't you, Allan?"

"I do not, by any means. I'm sure, if I had your picture, I shouldn't have been ashamed to look at it three times a day," replied Somers, gallantly coming to the rescue of the maiden. "But, really, my Virginia patriarch," he added, using an expression which he had found in the correspondence in his pocket, "I must tear myself away."

"You seem to be glad enough to go," pouted Sue.