Then followed a month of superintendence and drill, and the infusing
into the little camp under his instruction the spirit which seemed to
be passing out of his own life forever. Shut in by alien hills on the
borderland of the great struggle, from time to time reports reached
him of the bitter fighting, and almost disastrous successes of his old
division commander. Orders came from Washington to hurry the preparation
of his raw levies to the field, and a faint hope sprang up in his
mind. But following it came another dispatch ordering his return to the
Capital.
He reached it with neither hope nor fear--so benumbed had become his
spirit under this last trial, and what seemed to be now the mockery of
this last sacrifice to his wife. Though it was no longer a question of
her life and safety, he knew that he could still preserve her memory
from stain by keeping her secret, even though its divulgings might clear
his own. For that reason, he had even hesitated to inform Susy of
her death, in the fear that, in her thoughtless irresponsibility and
impulsiveness, she might be tempted to use it in his favor. He had made
his late appointment a plea for her withholding any present efforts to
assist him.
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