"I'll leave it to you. Forgive me. I
can't deny you anything--"
"You're a glorious lover, Dick!" she cried tenderly. "Why didn't I love
you?"
"I don't know, honey," he replied chokingly. "We just love because we
must--there's no rhyme or reason to it--"
He paused and laughed.
"Well, it's all over now, Jennie. I've given him back to you--good-by--"
She grasped his hand and held it firmly.
"Don't you dare say good-by to me, sir--you've got to love me, too--as
long as I live--my first sweetheart--brave, generous, kind--"
She drew his blond head low and kissed him.
He looked at her through dimmed eyes and slowly said:
"That makes life worth living, Jennie."
He turned and quickly left the house.
She heard his low orders to his men and watched them pass up the street
with their rifles on their shoulders.
She opened the door and Socola entered, his face deathlike in its
pallor.
"Why did he stay so long?"
"He has searched your room and found your cipher code--"
"And you have saved my life?"
"It was I who put it in peril--"
"No--I gave my life in willing sacrifice when the war began--"
"You are to leave," Jennie went on evenly--"leave at once--"
"Of course--"
"And give me your solemn parole--never again during this war to fight
the South--"
"It is your right to demand it.
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