At last, after an arduous campaign, he was slightly
wounded and greatly worn, and he received a long leave of absence
after the troops went into winter quarters. He wrote then that he
was coming home to marry me, and no power on earth could prevent it
except my 'own little self,' as he expressed it--oh! I can repeat
all those letters word for word. He wrote me the very day and hour
on which he would start, and I have waited ever since; and I have
vowed before God that I will wait till he comes." And she bowed her
head, her eyes were tearless, and she went on still more hurriedly.
"I afterwards learned from a brother officer, and also from the
papers, that he left his regimental headquarters at the time he said,
but that he had to ride through a region infested with guerrillas,
and that is absolutely all I know. I am sure he wrote to his family
of his intentions in regard to me, but they have never recognized
me in the slightest way. The young lady to whom they would have
married him wore mourning a year, and then was led to the alter by
another man. But, as my Harrold said, God mated our souls, and I
shall wait till he joins our lives. Your name startled me greatly
when I heard it last June for the first time since I had spoken
it myself to one who has seemingly vanished but is ever present to
me, and while you do not resemble him in appearance to any close
extent, there is at times something in your expression that is
singularly like his; and this fact must explain and excuse all the
weak exhibitions of myself this summer.
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