Our department
quarters here are not nearly so comfortable as those left behind in Columbia.
They do well enough, however. I have not had a chance to mention that handsome
officer we saw on the train after leaving Greensboro. He was of the blonde
type, with tawny, flowing mustache, and hair bright as "streaks from
Aurora's fingers." Tall and broad-shouldered, he was attired in a
captain's uniform, and deeply absorbed in reading a book. What was the book?
Lise and I were wild to find out. We did find out, and, I hope, without
exciting the least suspicion on his part. The book was "Quits."
Knowing the story so well, and his face being so expressive, we could almost
guess the contents of the pages as he turned them over. But after awhile he did
not appear so deeply interested in it, and when our train had to be exchanged
for another he stepped forward, raised his hat, and asked to be allowed to
remove our packages. He was very grave and dignified. Were we wrong in
accepting the attention? Sadie says we must not accept the slightest attention
from unknown men while thus traveling. We have been thrust forth from the safe
environment of our homes and cannot afford to take any risks. Sadie is as
proper as a dowager duchess of eighty. But, ah! the strange exigencies of these
times! What is to become of us? There is no longer the shadow of a doubt—our
homes are in ashes.
SOURCE: South
Carolina State Committee United Daughters of the Confederacy, South
Carolina Women in the Confederacy, Vol. 1, “A Confederate
Girl's Diary,” p. 278
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