Part 3 (1/2)

”Girls?” blurted the major, startled out of his meditations.

The old country beau chuckled.

”We all know what's betwixt you and the niece. How about the aunt and me taking a lesson from you two, eh?”

Even the gloomy officer could not restrain a momentary smile.

”What, Mr. Valentine? Do you seriously think of marrying?”

”Why not? I've been married afore, hain't I? What's to hinder?”

”Why, there's the matter of age.” Colden rather enjoyed being inconsiderate of people's feelings.

”Oh, the lady is not so old,” said the octogenarian, placidly, casting a judicial, but approving look at the commanding figure of Miss Sally.

Then, as he had been for a considerable time on his legs, having walked over from the Hill to the parsonage that afternoon, and as at best his knees bent when he stood, he sat down on the settle by the staircase.

Miss Sally, though she knew it useless to protest further against Elizabeth's caprice, nevertheless felt it her duty to do so, especially as Major Colden would probably carry to the family a report of her att.i.tude towards that caprice.

”Did you ever hear of such rashness, major? A young girl like Elizabeth coming out here in time of war, when this neutral ground between the lines is overridden and foraged to death, and deluged with blood by friend as well as foe? La me! I can't understand her, if she _is_ my sister's child.”

”Why, aunt Sally, _you_ stay out here through it all,” said Elizabeth, not as much to depreciate the dangers as to give her aunt an opportunity of posing as a very courageous person.

Miss Sally promptly accepted the opportunity. ”Oh,” said she, with a mien of heroic self-sacrifice, ”I couldn't let poor Grace Babc.o.c.k stay at the parsonage with n.o.body but her children; besides I'm not Colonel Philipse's daughter, and who cares whether I'm loyal to the King or not? But a girl like you isn't made for the dangers and privations we've had to put up with out here since the King's troops have occupied New York, and Was.h.i.+ngton's rebel army has held the country above. I'm surprised the family let her come, or that you'd countenance it by coming with her, major.”

”We all opposed it,” said Colden, with a sigh. ”But--you know Elizabeth!”

”Yes,” said Elizabeth herself with cheerful nonchalance, ”Elizabeth always has her way. I was hungry for a sight of the place, and the more the old house is in danger, the more I love it. I'm here for a week, and that ends it. The place doesn't seem to have suffered any.

They haven't even quartered troops here.”

”Not since the American officers stayed here in the fall o' '76,” put in old Mr. Valentine, from the settle. ”I reckon you'll be safe enough here, Miss Elizabeth.”

”Of course I shall. Why, our troops patrol all this part of the country, Lord Cathcart told us at King's Bridge, and _we_ have naught to fear from them.”

”No, the British foragers won't dare treat Philipse Manor-house as they do the homes of some of their loyal friends,” said Miss Sally, who was no less proud of her relations.h.i.+p with the Philipses, because it was by marriage and not by blood. ”But the horrible ”Skinners,” who don't spare even the farms of their fellow rebels--”

”Bah!” said Elizabeth. ”The sc.u.m of the earth! Williams has weapons here, and with him and the servants I'll defend the place against all the rebel cut-throats in the county.”

The major thought to make a last desperate attempt to dissuade Elizabeth from remaining.

”That's all well enough,” said he; ”but there are the rebel regulars, the dragoons. They'll be raiding down to our very lines, one of these days, if only in retaliation. You know how Lord Cornwallis's party under General Grey, over in Jersey, the other night, killed a lot of Baylor's cavalry,--Mrs. Was.h.i.+ngton's Light Horse, they called the troop. And the Hessians made a great foray on the rebel families this side the river.”

”Ay,” chirped old Valentine; ”but the American Colonel Butler, and their Major Lee, of Virginia, fell on the Hessian yagers 'tween Dobbs's Ferry and Tarrytown, and killed ever so many of 'em,--and I wasn't sorry for that, neither!”

”Oho!” said Colden, ”you belong to the opposition.”

”Oh, I'm neither here nor there,” replied the old man. ”But they say that there Major Lee, of Virginia, is the gallantest soldier in Was.h.i.+ngton's army. He'd lead his men against the powers of Satan if Was.h.i.+ngton gave the word. Light Horse Harry, they call him,--and a fine das.h.i.+ng troop o' light horse he commands.”

”No more das.h.i.+ng, I'll wager, than some of ours,” said Elizabeth, whose mood for the moment permitted her to talk with reason and moderation; ”not even counting the Germans. And as for leaders, what do you say to Simcoe, of the Queen's Rangers, or Emmerick, or Tarleton, or”--turning to Colden--”your cousin James De Lancey, of this county, major?”