While at supper, I proposed that we should go to the theatre, and take the girls. To this Phil readily assented, and Bob was accordingly despatched with an invitation. He soon returned, with an answer to the effect that the ladies would be most happy to accompany us.
On our way to the theatre, Miss M. suggested that we should have our pictures taken, and gallantry would not permit me to refuse. So I made an engagement with her for the next day to go to the photographers. I had not seen a play for a long time, and consequently enjoyed the entertainment immensely; and being considerably more interested in it than in the young lady, Phil had no reason to complain of the warmth of my attentions to her. He tried to take advantage of the occasion to reinstate himself in her good graces, but I am sorry to say that he did not make much headway, and Miss M., much to his chagrin, persisted in manifesting a decided partiality for Lieutenant Buford.
An Alarm.
After the play was over we took the ladies home; and I said good night to Hastings, who started for camp, while I returned to the hotel, where I found a note from my friend, Major Bacon, who was stopping at the Commercial Hotel. I accordingly went to call on him, and found that he had just arrived from New Orleans. This made me feel really uneasy, and I was not a little alarmed when he told me that he had heard of my arrest by the mayor. I was a trifle reassured, however, when I was unable to notice anything in his speech or manner to indicate that he believed me to be a woman and to quiet any suspicions that might be lurking in his mind, I said, as I twisted my mustache, and put on all the swagger I was able, "I am a queer-looking female, ain't I, major?" And then, to clinch the matter, I invited him to take a drink.
The major replied "Well, you might manage to pass for one, if you were to put on petticoats;" but, rather to my astonishment, he did not seem to be particularly interested in the matter; and as I was not especially anxious to make it a subject for conversation, we soon began to talk about some thing else.
The next day, in accordance with my promise, I went to the photographers with Miss M., and we had our pictures taken, and made an exchange. From that time, up to the date of my departure from Memphis, I was an almost daily visitor at her
