Celia was still awake; she distinguished her voice in quick, frightened exclamation; then the low murmur continued for a while, then silence fell.
She raised herself on one elbow; the crack of light under the door was gone; there was no sound, no movement in the house except the measured tick of the hall clock outside, tic-toc!--tic-toc!--tic-toc! And she had been lying there a long, long while, eyes open, before she realised that the rhythm of the hall clock was but a repetition of a name which did not concern her in any manner: "Berk-ley!--Berk-ley!--Berk-ley!" How it had crept into her consciousness she could not understand; she lay still, listening, but the tic-toc seemed to fit the syllables of his name; and when, annoyed, she made a half disdainful mental attempt to substitute other syllables, it proved too much of an effort, and back into its sober, swinging rhythm slipped the old clock's tic-toe, in wearisome, meaningless repetition: "Berk-ley!--Berk-ley!--Berk-ley!" She was awakened by a rapping at her door and her cousin's imperative voice: "I want to talk to you; are you in bed ?" She drew the coverlet to her chin and called out: "Come in, Steve!" He came, tremendously excited, clutching the _Herald_ in one hand.
"I've had enough of this rebel newspaper!" he said fiercely.

"I don't want it in the house again, ever.

Father says that the marine news makes it worth taking, but----" "What on earth are you trying to say, Steve ?" "I'm trying to tell you that we're at war! War, Ailsa! Do you understand?
Father and I've had a fight already----" "What ?" "They're still firing on Sumter, I tell you, and if the fort doesn't hold out do you think I'm going to sit around the house like a pussy cat?
Do you think I'm going to business every day as though nothing was happening to the country I'm living in?
I tell you now--you and mother and father--that I'm not built that way----" Ailsa rose in bed, snatched the paper from his grasp, and leaning on one arm gazed down at the flaring head-lines: THE WAR BEGUN Very Exciting News from Charleston Bombardment of Fort Sumter Commenced Terrible Fire from the Secessionists' Batteries Brilliant Defence of Maj.

Anderson Reckless Bravery of the Confederate States Troops.
And, scanning it to the end, cried out: "He hasn't hauled down his flag! What are you so excited about ?" "I--I'm excited, of course! He can't possibly hold out with only eighty men and nothing to feed them on.

Something's got to be done!" he added, walking up and down the room.