He turned his head and looked steadily in the direction in which lay Charleston.

A look of ineffable sadness overspread his face.
The light on the table was none too bright, but Harry saw Colonel Talbot's melancholy eyes, and he could not refrain from asking: "What's the trouble, colonel ?" The South Carolinian turned from the window, sat down on the edge of the bed and smiled.

It was an illuminating smile, almost the smile of youth.
"I'm afraid that everything's the matter, Harry, boy," he said.

"South Carolina, the state that I love even more than the Union to which it belongs, or belonged, has gone out, and, Harry, because I'm a son of South Carolina I must go with it--and I don't want to go.

But I've been a soldier all my life.