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Speaker 1: In the Virginia Room by Arlow Bates. Childless was the

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word which she murmured in her heart as she entered

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the building, which had once been the presidential mansion of

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Jefferson Davis, and now as the Confederate Museum. Why the

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thought of her strange daughter flashed upon her as she

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came to do honor to the memory of her long

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dead husband, Missus Desborough could not have told. But so

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overwhelmingly was the sadness of her mood that she could

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hardly wonder if this bitter memory took advantage of her

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moment of weakness to obtrude itself. She set her lips

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tightly and put it determinedly into the background. She would

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not think of the daughter who was lost to her

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to day, and here no thought but should go back,

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in loving homage and passionate grief to the hero whose

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name she bore. She went at once to the Virginia Room,

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bowing quickly but kindly to the custodian of the museum,

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And as she pushed open the door of the sad place,

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she thought herself alone. The heavy April rain which was

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drenching Richmond outside, kept visitors away, and the building was

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almost deserted in her yearly visits to this spot, those

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pilgrimages which she had made as to a shrine. She

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had once before had the Virginia Room to herself, untroubled

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by the presence of strangers, and now with a quick

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sigh of relief, she realized how great had been the

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comfort of that solitude to her sensitive nature. It was

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hard to stand before the memorials of her dead, and

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yet to be aware that strange eyes, eyes curious if sympathetic,

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might be reading in her face. All the emotions of

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her very soul to preserve the calm necessary before the public,

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had always seemed to her almost like being untrue to

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the memory she came to consecrate, And to day it

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was with a swelling sigh of relief that she threw

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back her heavy widows with the free, proud motion which

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belonged to the women of her race and time, the

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women bred in the South before the war. She was

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an old woman, though not much over sixty, for pain

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can age more swiftly than time. The high bred mien

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would be hers as long as life remained, and wonderful

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was her self. Control. Again and again she bad felt

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unshed tears burn in her eyes like living fire. Yet

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had been sure that no stranger had had reason to

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look upon her as more than a casual visitor to

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the museum. But to be able to let her grief

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have way seemed almost a joy. She felt the quick

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drop start at the bare thought life had left her

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no greater blessing than this liberty to weep undiscovered over

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the memorials of her dead. At the instant, a man

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came from behind one of the cases, so near that

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she might have touched him. Instinctively, she tried to take

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her handkerchief from her chateline, and in her confusion detached

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the bag. It fell at the feet of the gentleman,

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who stooped at once to pick it up. As he

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held it out, she forced a smile to her fine

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old face. Thank you, she said, I I was very awkward,

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Not at all, he responded, those bags are easily unhooked.

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The tone struck her almost like a blow. To the

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disappointment of finding that she was not alone in this

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solemn place was added the bitter fact that the intruder

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had come upon her was not of her people. An

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impulse of bitterness from the old times of blood and

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of fire swept over her like a wave. The room

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had carried her back, as it always did, to the past,

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and after almost two score years, she for the first

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time broke through the stern resolve that had kept her

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from hostile speech. You are ann she exclaimed. The words

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were nothing, but the tone she knew was hot with

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all the long pin up bitterness. She felt her cheek

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flush as almost before the words were spoken she realized

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what she had said. The stranger, however, showed no sign

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of resentment. He smiled, then grew grave again. Yes, do

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no Northerners visit to the museum. I suppose nobody came

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to Richmond without coming here. She was painfully annoyed, and

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felt her thin cheeks glow as hotly as if she

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were still a girl. To be lacking in politeness was

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sufficiently humiliating, but to seem rude to one from the North,

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to fall in living up to her traditions was intolerable.

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I beg your pardon, she forced herself to say. To

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come through that door is to step into the past.

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And I spoke as I might have when when the

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Yankee in the House of President David. This would have

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required explicit explanation. The stranger finished the sentence she knew

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not how to complete. Even in her discomposure, she appreciated

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both the courtesy which spared her the embarrassment of being

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left in the confusion of an unfinished remark, and the

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adroitness which gave to his reply just the right tone

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of lightness. He was evidently a man of the world.

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Her instinct not to be outdone in politeness, least of

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all by one of her race, made her speak again.

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I was rude, she said, stiffly. Today is an anniversary

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on which I always come here, and I forgot myself.

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Then I must have seemed doubly obtrusive. He returned gravely.

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He was certainly a gentleman. He was well groomed, moreover

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with the appearance of quiet wealth. One of his hands

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was ungloved, and she noted appreciatively how finely shaped it was,

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how white and well kept. The North had all the

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wealth now, she reflected, in voluntarily, while so many of

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the descendants of old Southern families were forced to earn

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their very bread by occupations unworthy of them. They could

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not keep their fine hands, hands that told of blood

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and breeding. For generations, as could this stranger before her.

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His attractiveness, his air of prosperity were offensive to her,

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but because they emphasized the pitiful poverty of so many

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of her kin, whose forefathers had never known what want

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could be. The museum is open to the public, she replied,

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with increasing coldness. She expected him to bow and leave her.

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Not only did he linger, but she seemed to see

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in his face a look of pity. Before she could

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resent this pity, however, she met his eyes with her own,

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and the look seemed to her to be one of sympathy.

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Will you pardon my saying that I too came here

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today because it is an anniversary? An anniversary, she echoed,

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How could an anniversary bring a northern a here? It

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isn't mind exactly, It is my son's. His mother is

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a Virginian. So highly strung was her mood that she

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noticed almost with approval, that he had said is and

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not was. He had at least not deprived his wife

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of her birthright as a daughter of the sacred soul.

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She began to be aware of a growing excitement. She

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could hardly have heard, unmoved any allusion to a marriage

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which had taken from the South, a woman born to

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his traditions and to its sorrows. She felt a fresh

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impulse of anger against his prosperous son of the North,

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who had carried away from a Virginia mother a daughter,

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as she had been robbed of hers. The cruel pang

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of crushed motherhood which ached within her at the remembrance

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of her own child, the child she had herself cast

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off because of her marriage, was so fierce that for

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a moment she could not command her voice. She could

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not shape the question which was in her heart, but

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she felt that with her eyes she all but commanded

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the stranger to tell her more. We live in the North,

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he explained. But she has long promised the boy that

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when he was eight, he should see the relics of

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his Virginian grandfather, which are in the museum here. Unfortunately,

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when the time came, she was not well enough to

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come with him, and as she wished him to be

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here on this especial day, I have brought him. The

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Southern woman felt her heart beating tumultuously, and it was

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almost as if another spoke when she said, in a

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manner entirely conventional, I trust that her illness is not serious.

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If it were, I should not be here myself, he answered.

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She collected her strengths, which seemed to be leaving her,

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and forced herself to look around the room. She could

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not have told what she expected, or whether she most

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hoped or feared what she might see. But your son,

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she asked. The man's face changed subtly. My father, he replied,

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was an officer in the Union Army. I wished to

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see this place first, to be prepared for Desbra's questions.

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It isn't easy to answer the questions of a clever

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lad whose two grandfathers had been killed in the same battle,

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fighting on opposite sides. The name struck her like a blow.

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She leaned over for support against the corner of the

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nearest case, and fixed her gaze on the pathetic coat

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of General Lee behind the glass, which showed her as

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a faint wrath or reflection of her own face. Desbra

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had been her husband's name, and this the anniversary of

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his death. She felt as if the dead had arisen

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to confront her, and that some imperative call in the

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blood insistently responded. Yet she could not believe that her

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son in law was before her, regarding her with that straightforward,

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appealingly honest gaze. She said to herself that the name

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was merely a coincidence, that every day in the year

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was the anniversary of the death of some Virginian hero,

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and that this could not be her daughter's husband. Have

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you decided what to tell your son? She heard, her voice,

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strange and far off, asking amid the thrilling quiet of

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the room. The stranger regarded her as if struck by

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the note of challenge in her tone. His serious eyes

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seemed to her to be endeavoring to probe her own

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in search of the cause of her sharpness. I can

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do no more, was his answer than to tell him

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what I have always told him, the truth as far

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as I can see it, and the truth which you

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can tell him here, here before the sacred relics of

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our dead, the sacred memorials of our lost cause. She

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could not go on, but stopped suddenly, that he might

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not hear her voice break. He has never been taught

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anything but that the men of the South fart for

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what they believed, and that no man can do a

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nobler thing than to give his life for his faith.

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She became suddenly and illogically sure that she was talking

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to her son in law. Although the ground of her

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conviction was no other than the one she had just

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before rejected, The whole thing flashed upon her mind as

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perfectly simple. Her daughter knew that on this day she

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was always to be found here, and had meant to

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meet her with the little son bearing his grandfather's name.

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The question now was whether the husband knew something in

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the air, something half propitiatory, something certainly beyond the ordinary

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deference offered to a lady who is a stranger. Gave

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her a vague distrust. She was not in touch by

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the desire for reconciliation. But she had again and again

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resisted that before, and least of all, could she tolerate

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the idea of being tricked. The possibility that her son

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in law might be feigning ignorance to work the more

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surely upon her sympathy angered her. Do you know who

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I am? She demanded abruptly. I beg your pardon, he answered,

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evidently surprised. But I have never been in Richmond before.

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If you are well known here, or are the wife

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of some men famous in the South, I am too

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completely a stranger to recognize. Yet you seem to wish

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to explain yourself to me. Why, I don't know, He began, hesitatingly,

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searching her face with his straightforward gray eyes. Then he

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flushed slightly and broke out with new feeling. Yes, I

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do know. You came just as I was going away,

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because I could not endure the sadness of it, when

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every one of these cases seemed to me to drip

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with blood and tears. That sounds to you extravagant. But

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the whole thing came over me so tremendously that I

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couldn't bear it. I do not understand, she returned, tremulously.

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You have such collections at the North, I suppose, but

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here it came over me that to all the sorrow

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of loss was added the bitterness of defeat. I felt

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that no Southerner could come here without feeling that all

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the agony this commemorates had been in vain, and the

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pity of it took me by the throat, so that

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when I spoke to you, you were a sort of

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impersonal nation of the South, of the Southern women, and

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I wanted to ask for pardon. She drew a deep

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breath and raised her head proudly not for the war,

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he said quickly, with a gesture which seemed to wave

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aside her pride, and showed her how well he had understood.

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Her triumph at the admission seemingly implied in his words,

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I am a Northern man, and I believe in my

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whole soul that the North was right. I believe in

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the cause for which my father died. Only I seem

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now that if he had lived in the South, the

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same spirit would have carried him into the Confederate army.

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But for what should you ask, pardon if the North

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was in the right, For myself, for not understanding, for

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being so dull all these years that I have lived

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with the wife, faithful to her heart to the South,

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and too loyal to me to speak, We in the

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North have forgiven, and we think that the South should forget.

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It has come over me to day how easy it

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is for the conquerors to forgive, and how hard that

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must be for the conquered. You do not understand even now,

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she said, her voice low with feeling. Because we are conquered.

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We can forgive, but we should be less than human

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to forget. The room was very still for a little,

241
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and then following out her thought. She said, as if

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in wonder, and you, a Northerner, have felt all this.

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He shook his head with a little smile. It is

244
00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:32,120
perhaps too much to ask, returned he that you Southern

245
00:14:32,159 --> 00:14:36,600
women should realize that even a Northerner is still human. Yes, yes,

246
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but to feel our suffering, to see it has always

247
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been facing me. I understand now in my wife's eyes

248
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the immeasurable pathos of a people beaten in a struggle.

249
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They felt to be right. But she had been so

250
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happy otherwise and never spoke of it. In the heart

251
00:14:55,039 --> 00:14:59,799
of every Southern woman, she said solemnly, though now without bitterness,

252
00:15:00,159 --> 00:15:03,559
is always the anguish of our lost cause. We cover

253
00:15:03,679 --> 00:15:07,320
the surface, we accept, and God knows we have been patient.

254
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But each of us has deep down a sense of

255
00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:13,080
the blood that was poured out in vain, of the

256
00:15:13,080 --> 00:15:17,919
agony of the men we lost, of how they were humiliated, humiliated,

257
00:15:18,039 --> 00:15:22,919
and of the great cause of liberty, loss lost. For long,

258
00:15:23,039 --> 00:15:25,759
bitter years, she had not spoken even to our nearest

259
00:15:25,799 --> 00:15:29,679
friends as she was talking to this stranger, this Northerner.

260
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The consciousness of this brought her back to the remembrance

261
00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:38,399
that he was the husband of her daughter. Has your

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00:15:38,440 --> 00:15:41,480
wife no relatives in the South who might have made

263
00:15:41,519 --> 00:15:46,600
you understand how Southern women must feel, she asked. He

264
00:15:46,639 --> 00:15:50,720
grew instantly colder. I have never seen her Southern relatives.

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Pardon the curiosity of an old woman. She went on,

266
00:15:53,960 --> 00:15:58,720
watching him keenly. May I ask why my wife's mother

267
00:15:58,799 --> 00:16:01,399
did not choose to know the Yankee her daughter married?

268
00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:05,679
And you, I did not choose to force an acquaintance

269
00:16:05,879 --> 00:16:09,679
or to be known on sufferance, he answered crisply. I

270
00:16:09,799 --> 00:16:12,000
was aware of no wrong, and I did not choose

271
00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:15,799
to ask to be forgiven for being a Northerner. She

272
00:16:16,039 --> 00:16:18,919
knew that in her heart she was repeatedly accepting this strong,

273
00:16:19,039 --> 00:16:22,440
fine man, alien as he was to all the traditions

274
00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:25,360
of her life, and she was not ill pleased at

275
00:16:25,399 --> 00:16:28,720
his pride. But have you even ever considered what it

276
00:16:28,799 --> 00:16:31,200
must have caused the mother to give up her daughter?

277
00:16:31,759 --> 00:16:34,960
Why need she have given her up? Marriages between the

278
00:16:35,039 --> 00:16:37,559
North and the South had been common enough without any

279
00:16:37,639 --> 00:16:40,960
family breach. She was utterly sure that he knew neither

280
00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:43,519
to whom he was talking, nor what had been the

281
00:16:43,559 --> 00:16:47,559
real cause of her separation from her daughter. She experienced

282
00:16:47,559 --> 00:16:50,960
a sort of wild inner exultation that at last had

283
00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:54,879
come the moment when she might justify herself, when she

284
00:16:55,039 --> 00:16:57,399
might tell the whole, dreadful story, which had been as

285
00:16:57,519 --> 00:17:01,320
eating poison in her veins. She raised her head proudly

286
00:17:01,559 --> 00:17:04,599
and looked at him with her whole soul in her eyes.

287
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If you have patience to listen, she said, feeling her

288
00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:13,440
cheeks warm, and will pardon my being personal. I should

289
00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:15,920
like to tell you what has happened to me. My

290
00:17:16,119 --> 00:17:19,680
husband was a colonel in the Confederate Army. We were

291
00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:22,559
married when I was seventeen, and a brief furlough he

292
00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:26,119
won by being wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness.

293
00:17:26,440 --> 00:17:28,559
I saw him in the four years of the war

294
00:17:28,640 --> 00:17:32,279
before he fell at five forks less than a dozen times,

295
00:17:32,519 --> 00:17:37,160
and always for the briefest visits. Poor scraps are fearful, hapless,

296
00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:41,039
torn out of long stretches of agony. My daughter, my

297
00:17:41,240 --> 00:17:45,480
only child, was born after her father's death. Our fortune

298
00:17:45,519 --> 00:17:48,920
had gone to the cause. My father and my husband

299
00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:53,240
both refused to invest money abroad. They considered it disloyal,

300
00:17:53,319 --> 00:17:57,400
and they put everything into Confederate securities, even after they

301
00:17:57,480 --> 00:18:01,119
felt sure they should get nothing back. They were too

302
00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:04,680
loyal to withhold anything when the country was in deadly peril.

303
00:18:05,559 --> 00:18:08,519
She paused, but he did not speak, and with swelling

304
00:18:08,559 --> 00:18:12,920
breast and parching throat, she went on, at fivefolks, my

305
00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,240
husband was killed in a hand to hand fight with

306
00:18:15,319 --> 00:18:18,880
a northern officer. He struck his enemy down after he

307
00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:22,759
had received his own death wound. I pray God he

308
00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:25,680
did not know the day was lost. He had gone

309
00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:29,160
through so much. I hope that would spared him on

310
00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:31,240
the other side of death. He must have found some

311
00:18:31,359 --> 00:18:34,880
comfort to help bad God must have had some comfort

312
00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:37,920
for our poor boys when he permitted the cause of

313
00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:41,960
liberty to be lost. She pressed her clenched hand against

314
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,720
her bosom, and she did so her eyes met those

315
00:18:44,759 --> 00:18:47,839
of her companion. She felt the sympathy of his look.

316
00:18:48,119 --> 00:18:51,079
But something recalled her to sense that she was speaking

317
00:18:51,119 --> 00:18:54,119
to one from the north. It is not the cause

318
00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:57,799
of liberty to you, she said, I have forgotten again.

319
00:18:58,200 --> 00:19:00,559
I have not spoken of all this for so long

320
00:19:00,759 --> 00:19:05,880
I have not dead. But today today I must speak,

321
00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:10,240
and you must forgive me if I use the old language.

322
00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:13,160
He dropped his glance, as if he felt an intrusion

323
00:19:13,240 --> 00:19:16,960
to see her bitter remussion and said softly, I think

324
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:22,440
I understand. You need not apologize. After the war, she

325
00:19:22,519 --> 00:19:26,000
went on hurriedly and abruptly. I lived for my daughter.

326
00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:32,400
I worked for her. She was like her father. She choked,

327
00:19:32,599 --> 00:19:36,759
but regained the appearance of composure by a mighty effort.

328
00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:40,359
When she was a woman, she was still a child

329
00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:44,480
to me over twenty, but I was not twice her age.

330
00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:48,319
She went north and there she fell in love. She

331
00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:51,119
wrote me that she was to marry a northerner, and

332
00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:54,920
when she added his name, it was the son of

333
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:59,799
the man who killed her father. It is not possible,

334
00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:05,119
the other exclaimed, you imagined it. Such things happened in

335
00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:09,880
Melodramas she put up her hand and arrested his words.

336
00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:13,960
This happened not in a melodrama, but in a tragedy

337
00:20:14,279 --> 00:20:18,480
in my life, she said, I need not go into details.

338
00:20:18,920 --> 00:20:23,000
She married him, and I have never seen her since.

339
00:20:24,079 --> 00:20:29,000
Did he know? No. It was my wedding gift to

340
00:20:29,039 --> 00:20:32,759
my daughter that I kept her secret. That was all

341
00:20:32,799 --> 00:20:35,480
I had strength to do. You'd think I was an

342
00:20:35,559 --> 00:20:39,839
unnatural mother, of course, But she saw that his eyes

343
00:20:39,839 --> 00:20:43,680
were moist as he raised them in answering. I should

344
00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:50,160
have said so yesterday, without any hesitation to day to day,

345
00:20:50,759 --> 00:20:55,759
she echoed eagerly. As he paused to day, he answered,

346
00:20:56,119 --> 00:20:59,359
letting his glance sweep over the pathetic memorials so thick

347
00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:04,079
about them. To day, at least I understand, and I

348
00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:08,200
do not wonder. She looked at him with all her

349
00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:12,359
heart in her eyes, trying to read his most hidden feeling.

350
00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:16,119
Then she touched his arm lightly with the tips of

351
00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:21,880
her sender black gloved fingers, Come, she said. She led

352
00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:24,559
him across the room and pointed to a colonel sash

353
00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:27,440
and pistols, which lay in one of the cases under

354
00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:35,079
a faded card. Those were my husband's. Those, he cried, you,

355
00:21:35,799 --> 00:21:42,160
Louise's mother. It is impossible. It may be impossible, But

356
00:21:42,319 --> 00:21:45,359
as I said of the other thing, it is true.

357
00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:50,599
The other thing, he repeated, What do you mean, the

358
00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:55,759
thing you said that my father and he that cannot

359
00:21:55,799 --> 00:22:00,359
be true. I should surely have known it is true,

360
00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:04,440
she insisted. At the moment it happened, they were surrounded

361
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:07,319
by our soldiers and his own men probably did not

362
00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:11,559
realize just what had happened, But I I know every

363
00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:14,839
minute of that fight. One of my husband's staff had

364
00:22:14,839 --> 00:22:17,400
been at West Point with them both, and he told

365
00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:20,759
me he saw it and tried to come between them.

366
00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:24,759
Your wife married you, knowing you to be the son

367
00:22:24,839 --> 00:22:28,759
of the man who killed her father. The northerner passed

368
00:22:28,759 --> 00:22:31,640
his hand across his forehead, as if to wipe away

369
00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:35,079
the confusion of his mind. His eyes were cast down,

370
00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:39,400
but she saw that their lids were wet. Poor Louise,

371
00:22:40,319 --> 00:22:45,359
he murmured, seemingly rather to himself than to her. How

372
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:50,680
she must have suffered over that secret, Poor Louise, you

373
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:54,799
come here, missus. Desber went on, feeling herself choked at

374
00:22:54,839 --> 00:22:58,279
his words, but determined not to give way to the

375
00:22:58,319 --> 00:23:02,559
warmer impulse of her heart. And even you are moved

376
00:23:02,559 --> 00:23:05,799
by these sacred relics, what do you think they are

377
00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:09,960
to us? She was half conscious that she was appealing

378
00:23:10,319 --> 00:23:13,200
to the memorials around her to strengthen her in her purpose,

379
00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:16,440
not to yield, not to make peace with the son

380
00:23:16,519 --> 00:23:19,240
of the man who had slain her husband, her hero,

381
00:23:19,799 --> 00:23:23,480
her love. She felt that in harboring for an instant

382
00:23:23,599 --> 00:23:26,799
such an impulse, she was untrue to the cause, which,

383
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:31,720
though lost, was for her forever living with the deathless

384
00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:36,000
devotion of love and anguish. These relics do move me,

385
00:23:36,599 --> 00:23:39,720
her son in law said gently. They move me so

386
00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:44,519
deeply that they seemed to me wrong. I confess that

387
00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:47,799
I was thinking before you came in, that if I

388
00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:51,240
were a Southerner, with the traditions of the South behind

389
00:23:51,279 --> 00:23:54,319
me and the bitter sense of failure to embitter me,

390
00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:58,160
they would stir me to madness, that I should feel

391
00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:02,359
it impossible ever to be loyal to anything but the South.

392
00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:06,720
The war is over. The South at last is understood.

393
00:24:07,519 --> 00:24:10,880
She is honored for the incredible bravery with which, under

394
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:15,559
crushing AWDs, she fought for her conviction. Why prolonged the

395
00:24:15,599 --> 00:24:19,519
inevitable pain? Why gather these relics to nourish of feeling

396
00:24:19,599 --> 00:24:24,000
absolutely untrue, the feeling that the Union is less your

397
00:24:24,039 --> 00:24:28,039
country than it is ours? Because it is just to

398
00:24:28,160 --> 00:24:32,359
the dead, she answered, swiftly, because it is only justice

399
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:36,200
that we keep in remembrance. How true they were, how gallant,

400
00:24:36,319 --> 00:24:40,759
how brave, how noble? And O God, that we make

401
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:44,079
some poor record of what we of the South have suffered.

402
00:24:44,759 --> 00:24:47,799
He shook his head and sighed. She saw the tears

403
00:24:47,839 --> 00:24:50,240
in his eyes and did not attempt to hide her own.

404
00:24:51,680 --> 00:24:56,400
Would you have it forgotten? She demanded passionately, that the

405
00:24:56,519 --> 00:25:00,279
grandfather of your son, the father of your wife, was

406
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:05,160
one of God's noblemen. Would you have him remembered only

407
00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:08,200
as a beaten rebel? I tell you that if we

408
00:25:08,319 --> 00:25:11,880
had not gathered these memorials, every clod that was wet

409
00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:15,440
with their blood would cry out against us. In the north,

410
00:25:15,519 --> 00:25:18,960
you call these men rebels. There is no battlefield in

411
00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:21,359
the South where the very rustle of the grass does

412
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:25,720
not whisper over their graves that they were patriots and heroes.

413
00:25:26,319 --> 00:25:30,000
And this, poor though it be, and she waved her

414
00:25:30,039 --> 00:25:33,880
hand to the cases around them, is the best memorial

415
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:38,119
we can give them. He made a step forward and

416
00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:42,039
held out both his hands impulsively. She did not take them,

417
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:46,000
and they dropped again. He hesitated, and then drew back.

418
00:25:46,799 --> 00:25:50,759
It must be as it is, he said, sadly. Even

419
00:25:50,799 --> 00:25:53,160
if I blamed you women of the South, I could

420
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:57,519
not say so here only, he added, his voice, falling,

421
00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:00,519
Can you forget that the women of the north have

422
00:26:00,599 --> 00:26:03,559
suffered too? I grew up in the shadow of a

423
00:26:03,599 --> 00:26:06,799
grief so great that it sat the very life of

424
00:26:06,839 --> 00:26:10,200
my mother, and in the end killed her. Do you

425
00:26:10,319 --> 00:26:13,319
think I could visit that? Upon the innocent head of Louise.

426
00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:18,000
I did not mean though to speak of myself. Now

427
00:26:18,039 --> 00:26:21,000
that I know who you are, I will not intrude

428
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:24,519
on you. But my little son, with your husband's name

429
00:26:24,599 --> 00:26:28,720
in his mother's eyes, is certainly guiltless. I will not

430
00:26:28,839 --> 00:26:32,160
come with him. But may I not send him with

431
00:26:32,319 --> 00:26:35,200
my man to see you this afternoon, so that I

432
00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:38,319
may say to Louise that you have kissed him and

433
00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:44,000
given him your blessing. Sorrow has taken away his other grandmother.

434
00:26:44,799 --> 00:26:47,119
It seemed to her that she could not endure the

435
00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:51,319
speaking of one syllable more. Her whole body trembled, and

436
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:54,720
she raised her hands in an impulsive gesture which implored

437
00:26:54,799 --> 00:26:58,799
him to be silent. All the old mother loved for Louise,

438
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:03,279
the passionate crime of her lonely heart, for this unseen grandson,

439
00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:06,160
with the blood of her dead husband warm in his veins,

440
00:27:06,599 --> 00:27:10,079
The grief of black years and fidelity to old ideals

441
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:15,279
roared within her and tore her like wolves. She cast

442
00:27:15,279 --> 00:27:17,839
a glance around, as if to find some way by

443
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,759
which she could flee from this position, which it was

444
00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:24,920
too terrible to face. Then she saw her companion look

445
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:30,519
at her with infinite pity and sadness. Then he said,

446
00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:34,400
I can only say good bye. But she sprang forward

447
00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:37,279
as if she burst from chains, and threw herself upon

448
00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:40,759
his breast, the agony of the long bitter past gushing

449
00:27:40,839 --> 00:27:45,400
in a torrent of hot tears. Oh, my son, my son,

450
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:51,359
she sobbed end of in the Virginia Room,