"I would like better to go if it was peace here," I said.
"Would you? Then you are not afraid lest the rebels should take Washington and confiscate the whole of us?"
"Major Fairbairn thinks the danger of that is past."
"He does! However, other dangers might arise -"
"I knew you would not think Washington very safe ground for us," Mrs. Sandford rejoined.
"Mrs. Sandford is at her own risk. But I should hardly be doing the duty of a good guardian if I risked anything, where so important a charge is committed to me. I shall get you away from here without delay. How soon can you both be ready?"
I wanted to say I was ready, but I could not get out the words. My two friends debated the matter, and the doctor fixed his own time. The day after to-morrow.
It was good for me, that I had given up the charge of my own interests; or I never could have maintained the ease of manner which it was desirable to maintain in face of this proposition. I was very calm, remembering that "a man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps." I went on with my worsted stitching under the eye of the doctor. I do not know why he watched me so.
"Has anybody ventured to tell you, Miss Randolph, that you have changed within a few months?" This question was put after I had forgotten the doctor and was marching somewhere before a battery in Patterson's column. I started a little.
"Yes, indeed! has she not?" exclaimed Mrs. Sandford. "Changed! She came out of school the dearest little schoolgirl that ever lived; or I should say, she went back to school so, last year. What has the year done to you, Daisy?"
"What _has_ it done to me?" I replied, smiling at her. "How am I changed?"
"Changed!" Mrs. Sandford repeated. "Tell her, Grant, what is she now?"
"She would not thank me for telling her," said the doctor.
"But I will thank you, Mrs. Sandford," I said. "I _was_ 'the dearest little schoolgirl.' "
"My dear, you are not that now," Mrs. Sandford said solemnly.
"It all comes to this, Daisy," said the doctor. "You are a psychological puzzle to me. For the matter of that, now I think of it, you always were. When you went to visit Molly Skelton, and carried rose-bushes round the country in your pony-chaise, just as much as now. You are not the same Daisy, however."