I could have burned New Orleans and laughed
at its ruins to have smoked Ben Butler out of it--"
"President Davis has proclaimed him an outlaw I see," Socola added.
"If he can only capture and hang him, the people of Louisiana would be
perfectly willing to lose all--"
"But your brother, the Judge, is still loyal to the Union--you can't
hate him you know?"
Jennie's eyes flashed into Socola's.
Why had he asked the one question that opened the wound in her heart?
Perhaps her mind had suggested it. She had scarcely spoken the bitter
words before she saw the vision of his serious face and regretted it.
"Strange you should have mentioned my brother's name at the very moment
his image was before me," the girl thoughtfully replied.
"Clairvoyance perhaps--"
"You believe in such things?" Jennie asked.
"Yes. My mother leaped from her bed with a scream one night and told me
that she had seen my father's spirit, felt him bend over her and touch
her lips. He had died at exactly that moment."
"Wonderful, isn't it," Jennie murmured softly, "the vision of love!"
She was dreaming of the moments of her distress in the sacking of her
home when the vision of this man's smiling face had suddenly set her to
laughing.
"Yes," Socola answered.
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