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Her
father, mother, and intimate friends tried in vain to rally her;
but the conviction remained that she had read her lover's farewell
words. In spite of the most pathetic and strenuous effort, she
could not keep up any longer, and sobbed till she slept in utter
exhaustion.
On the following day, old Mr. Wetherby came into the bank. The
lines about his mouth were rigid with suppressed feeling. He
handed Mr. Kemble a letter, saying in a husky voice, "Jim sent
this. He says at the end I was to show it to you." The scrawl gave
in brief the details about Captain Nichol already known to the
reader, and stated also that Sam Wetherby was missing. "All I know
is," wrote the soldier, "that we were driven back, and bullets
flew like hail. The brush was so thick I couldn't see five yards
either way when I lost sight of Sam."
The colonel of the regiment also wrote to Captain Nichol's father,
confirming Private Wetherby's letter. The village had been thrown
into a ferment by the tidings of the battle and its disastrous
consequences.


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