[123] she was met by a small sized man, with small, dark gray eyes, iron gray hair and whiskers, and bronzed face. This was General Bragg. His manner was stern, but gentlemanly, and after glancing over the papers handed to him by her guide, he began:
Of what country are you a native, Miss Cushman? he asked, waving her to a chair with his hand. I am an American, sir; but of French and Spanish parentage,she answered. “And you were born where?” he asked. “In the city of New Orleans.” “Hum!” ejaculated the general, doubtingly. “How comes it, then, that — that your pronunciation has the Yankee twang?” “ It comes, probably, from the fact that I am, professionally, an actress,” she answered promptly, “and as I am in the habit of playing Yankee characters very frequently, it may be that I've caught the” twang “by it, and show it in my ordinary conversation, as well as on the stage.” “Hum!” growled the general again. “But what brought you down South?” “ I was not brought, sir; I was sent,” answered Pauline, proudly. “By whom, may I ask, Miss Cushman?” “By the Federal Colonel, Truesdail.” “And why were you sent?” inquired Bragg, with a sly look of incredulity. “ Because I gave warm utterance to my Southern feelings, and refused to take their oath of allegiance,” replied our heroine, pretending to shed tears, “and a pretty way I'm paid for it, too.”
