Chapter 6 - Page 2

loveliness and an interest to her appearance, that for a moment chained
her lover in silence to the spot.

Frances silently led the way into a vacant parlor, opposite to the one
in which the family were assembled, and turning to the soldier frankly,
placing both her hands in his own, exclaimed,--

"Ah, Dunwoodie! how happy, on many accounts, I am to see you! I have
brought you in here, to prepare you to meet an unexpected friend in the
opposite room."

"To whatever cause it may be owing," cried the youth, pressing her hands
to his lips, "I, too, am happy in being able to see you alone. Frances,
the probation you have decreed is cruel; war and distance may separate
us forever."

"We must submit to the necessity which governs us. But it is not love
speeches I would hear now; I have other and more important matter for
your attention."

"What can be of more importance than to make you mine by a tie that will
be indissoluble! Frances, you are cold to me--me--from whose mind, days
of service and nights of alarm have never been able to banish your image
for a single moment."

"Dear Dunwoodie," said Frances, softening nearly to tears, and again
extending her hand to him, as the richness of her color gradually
returned, "you know my sentiments--this war once ended, and you may
take that hand forever--but I can never consent to tie myself to you by
any closer union than already exists, so long as you are arrayed in arms
against my only brother. Even now, that brother is awaiting your
decision to restore him to liberty, or to conduct him to a
probable death."

"Your brother!" cried Dunwoodie, starting and turning pale; "your
brother! explain yourself--what dreadful meaning is concealed in
your words?"

"Has not Captain Lawton told you of the arrest of Henry by himself this
very morning?" continued Frances, in a voice barely audible, and fixing
on her lover a look of the deepest concern.

"He told me of arresting a captain of the 60th in disguise, but without
mentioning where or whom," replied the major in a similar tone; and
dropping his head between his hands, he endeavored to conceal his
feelings from his companion.

"Dunwoodie! Dunwoodie!" exclaimed Frances, losing all her former
confidence in the most fearful apprehensions, "what means this
agitation?" As the major slowly raised his face, in which was pictured
the most expressive concern, she continued, "Surely, surely, you will
not betray your friend--my brother--your brother--to an
ignominious death."

"Frances!" exclaimed the young man in agony, "what