The _Merrimac_ could not follow her in the shallows and at two o'clock
turned her prow again toward Sewell's Point.
The battle was a drawn conflict. But the plucky little _Monitor_ had won
a tremendous moral victory. She had rescued the navy in the nick of
time. The Government at Washington once more breathed.
From the heights of rejoicing the South sank again to the bitterness of
failure. For twenty-four hours her flag had been mistress of the seas.
Jefferson Davis saw the hope of peace fade into the certainty of a
struggle for the possession of Richmond.
The way had been cleared. McClellan's two hundred thousand men were
rushing on their transports for the Virginia peninsula.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE SNARE OF THE FOWLER
Long before Jennie Barton arrived in Richmond Socola had waked to the
realization of the fact that he had been caught in the trap he had set
for another. He had laughed at his growing interest in the slender dark
little Southerner. He imagined that he had hypnotized himself into the
idea that he really liked her. He had kept no account of the number of
visits he had made. They were part of his programme. They had grown so
swiftly into the habit of his thought and life he had not stopped to
question the motive that prompted his zeal in pressing his attentions.
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