"I thought I heard some one," she said suspiciously. "Have you been attending to Master Dick, Snowball?"
"Does yer want anyting now, Massa Dick?" asked Snowball going to the lad's side, gladly ignoring the lady's first remark.
"Give me a drink, please," said Dick weakly.
"I will give it to him myself," said Madame. "You may leave the room, Snowball. Master Dick and I want to have a little talk all by ourselves."
"Yes'm," acquiesced Snowball, but she lingered loth to leave Jeanne.
"At once," commanded Madame sharply. "Why do you loiter when I tell you to go?"
"Yes'm; I'm a-gwine now," and the girl left the room reluctantly.
"You feel much better, do you not, my boy?" and the lady stroked the lad's hair gently.
"So well that we can have our little talk again? We will not be interrupted to-day as we were yesterday."
"If you wish," and it seemed to Jeanne that Dick spoke with great weariness. "But of what use is it? You have your views and I have mine. Why not let the subject drop when we cannot agree?"
"Because the old adage has it, 'That constant dropping will wear away the hardest stone.' By keeping continually at you I shall finally succeed in overcoming your scruples, and get your signature to the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy."
"Never!" exclaimed Dick with so much resolution that his sister's heart swelled with thankfulness and pride. "Though you were to talk to me forever you could not change my principles."
"Listen to me, Dick." Madame spoke in her sweetest tones. "You are but a boy. You cannot know which side is right in this war when great men have differed upon the matter. I have heard you say that you honored Robert E. Lee. That he was a noble man, a great general, and one of the finest gentlemen that you ever met. Think you that such a man would embrace our cause if he did not believe himself right?"
"I do not," answered Dick at once. "There are many men on the side of the South who believe themselves to be in the right. But they are none the less mistaken for all that."
"And you set up your feeble judgment against them?" cried Madame, a trace of anger in her voice. "It is presumption."
Dick did not reply. Presently Madame spoke again, and Jeanne noted that her tones were once more caressingly soft.