" Jennie repeated the headlines of the extra
with a shiver.
The chimes of St. Michael's struck three. The minutes slowly dragged.
The half hour was sung through the soft balmy air of the Southern
spring.
Dick Welford, too, was behind one of those black guns on the shore. How
handsome he had looked in his bright new uniform! He was a soldier from
the crown of his blond head to the soles of his heavy feet. He had
laughed at danger. She had liked him for that. He hadn't posed. He
hadn't asked for sympathy or admiration. He just marched to his duty
with the quick, firm step of the man who means business.
She was sorry now she hadn't told him how much she liked and admired
him. She might not have another chance--
"Nonsense, of course I will!" she murmured with a toss of her brown
head.
A dog barked across the street, and a wagon rattled hurriedly over the
cobblestones below. A rooster crowed for day.
She looked across the way, and a dark group of whispering women were
huddled in a corner on the roof, their gaze fixed on Sumter.
Another wagon rumbled heavily over the cobbles, and another, and
another. A blue light flamed from Fort Sumter, blinking at intervals.
Anderson was signaling someone. To the fleet that lay on the eastern
horizon beyond the bar, perhaps.
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