"I had turned my back, having given some excuse for my presence to one
of the clerks, who is an acquaintance. Thus the lady, who knows me,
could not see my face; but I could, by looking out of the corners of my
eyes, see _her_. She came in, in her rich gray cloak, smiling on the
clerks, and handing an open letter to one of them, said:--"'Will you
oblige me by sending that to my sister in New York, by the
flag-of-truce boat, to-morrow, sir?'
"'If there is nothing contraband in it, madam,' said the clerk.
"'Oh!' she replied, with a laugh, 'it is only on family matters. My
sister is a Southerner, and so am I, sir. You can read the letter; it
is not very dangerous!'
"And she smiled so sweetly that the clerk was almost ashamed to read
the letter. He, however, glanced his eye over it, and evidently found
nothing wrong in it. While he was doing so, the lady walked toward the
mail-bags in which the clerks had been placing such letters as they
found unobjectionable, the others being marked, 'Condemned,' and thrown
into a basket. As she passed near one of the bags, I saw the lady, whom
I was closely watching, flirt her cloak, as though by accident, across
the mouth of one of the mail-bags, and at the same instant her hand
stole down and dropped a letter into the bag.
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