And then, as the gray
dawn broke, Virginia put her simple services by, and spoke in a clear
voice.
"Oh, how lovely," she said, as if well pleased. A moment more and she lay
smiling like a child, her chin pressed deep in her open palm.
* * * * *
In the full sunrise a physician, who had run in at the old woman's cry,
came from the house and stopped bareheaded in the breathless heat. For a
moment he stared over the moving city and then up into the cloudless blue
of the sky.
"God damn war!" he said suddenly, and went back to his knife.
IX
THE MONTJOY BLOOD AGAIN
A month later Dan heard of Virginia's death when, at the end of the Seven
Days, he was brought wounded into Richmond. As he lay upon church cushions
on the floor of an old warehouse on Main Street, with Big Abel shaking a
tattered palm-leaf fan at his side, a cavalryman came up to him and held
out a hand that trembled slightly from fatigue.
"I heard you were here. Can I do anything for you, Beau?" he asked.
For an instant Dan hesitated; then the other smiled, and he recognized Jack
Morson.
"My God! You've been ill!" he exclaimed in horror. Jack laughed and let his
hand fall. The boyish colour was gone from his face, and he wore an
untrimmed beard which made him look twice his age.
"Never better in my life," he answered shortly. "Some men are made of
india-rubber, Montjoy, and I'm one of them.
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