So she and Letty entered the door with a stream of people who evidently had business with the officials of the American Sanitary Commission; and a very amiable young man received them in their turn, took their papers, examined their credentials, nodded smilingly, and directed them to a small boarding-house on F Street, where, he explained, they had better remain until further orders.
There had been some desultory fighting in Virginia, he said, also there were a great many sick soldiers in the army.
Perhaps, added the young man, they would be sent to one of the city hospitals, but the chances were that they would be ordered directly to a field hospital.

In that case their transportation would be by army waggon or ambulance, or the Commission might send one of its own mule-drawn conveyances.

At any rate, they had better rest and not worry, because as long as the Commission had sent for them, the Commission certainly needed them, and would see that they arrived safely at their destination.
Which turned out to be a perfectly true prophecy; for after a refreshing bath in their boarding-house quarters, and a grateful change of linen, and an early supper, a big, bony cavalryman came clanking to their door, saying that a supply train was leaving for the South, and that an ambulance of the Sanitary Commission was waiting for them in front of the house.
The night was fearfully hot; scarcely a breath of dir stirred as their ambulance creaked put toward the river.
The Long Bridge, flanked by its gate houses, loomed up in the dusk; and: "Halt! Who goes there ?" "Friends with the countersign." "Dismount one and advance with the countersign!" And the Sergeant of cavalry dismounted and moved forward; there was a low murmur; then: "Pass on, Sanitary!" A few large and very yellow stars looked down from the blackness above; under the wheels the rotten planking and worn girders of the Long Bridge groaned and complained and sagged.
Ailsa, looking out from under the skeleton hood, behind her, saw other waggons following, loaded heavily with hospital supplies and baggage, escorted by the cavalrymen, who rode as though exhausted, yellow trimmed shell jackets unbuttoned exposing sweat-soaked undershirts, caps pushed back on their perspiring heads.
Letty, lying on a mattress, had fallen asleep.

Ailsa, scarcely able to breathe in the heavy heat, leaned panting against the framework, watching the darkness.
It seemed to be a little cooler on the Virginia side after they had passed the General Hospital, and had gone forward through the deserted city of Alexandria.

About a mile beyond a slight freshness, scarcely a breeze, stirred Ailsa's hair.