CHAPTER XXVIII.
AGAIN A WIFE AND AGAIN A WIDOW.
Convalescence. I pay a Visit to my Lover. A friendly Feeling. A Surprise in Store for him. I ask him about his matrimonial Prospects, and endeavor to ascertain the State of his Affections Cowards me. An affecting Scene. The Captain receives a Letter from his Lady-love. "She has come! She has come!" The Captain prepares for a Meeting with his Sweetheart. A Question of Likeness. A puzzling Situation. I reveal my Identity. Astonishment and Joy of my Lover. Preparations for our Wedding. A very quiet Affair proposed. The Wedding. A short Honeymoon. Departure of my Husband for the Front. My Apprehensions for his Health. My Apprehensions justified in the News of his Death in a Federal Hospital in Chattanooga. Once more a Widow.
FTER a weary waiting, which I thought would never end, both Captain De Caulp and myself were convalescent. At the earliest moment that I could obtain permission to leave my ward I went to see him, being naturally more
impatient for a meeting than he was; for, although we
had exchanged greetings through our physicians, it was
simply as friends and officers of the Confederate army,
and not as lovers, and he had no suspicion whatever
that his sick neighbor of the hospital was other than the young lieutenant whose acquaintance he had formed at Pensacola, and who had fought beside him at Shiloh.
He was extremely glad to see me, however, much more so
than I expected he would be ; but the fact was, it had been so long since he had had a chance to chat with any of his old friends, that it was a genuine pleasure to him to have any one call on him for the sake of a lively talk over old times. I found him sadly reduced and worn by the severe illness through which he had just passed ; but, although he was weak, he was evidently improving, and in a fair way for a rapid recovery.
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