lation on her
almost made Mr. Valentine jump out of his chair. "For only _I_ could
save him!" she went on. "There was no other way! Oh, _how_ I have been
fooled! I--tricked by a miserable rebel! Made a laughing-stock! Oh, to
think he did not really love me, and that I--Oh, I shall choke! Send
some one to me,--Molly, aunt Sally, any one! Go! Don't sit there
gazing at me like an owl! Go away and send some one!"

Mr. Valentine, glad of reason for an honorable retreat from this
whirlwind that threatened soon to fill the whole room, departed with
as much activity as he could command.

"Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?" Elizabeth asked of the air
around her. "I must repay him for his duplicity. I shall never rest a
moment till I do! What an easy dupe he must think me! Oh-h-h!"

She brought her hand violently down on the table but fortunately
struck something comparatively soft. In her fury, she clutched this
something, raised it from the table, and saw what it was.

"_His_ hat!" she cried, and made to throw it into the fire, but, with
a woman's aim, sent it flying towards the door, which was at that
instant opened by her aunt, who saved herself by dodging most
undignifiedly.

"What is it, my dear?" asked Miss Sally, in a voice of mingled
wonderment and fear.

"I'll pay him back, be sure of that!" replied Elizabeth, who was by
this time a blazing-eyed, scarlet-faced embodiment of fury, and had
thrown off all reserve.

"Pay whom back?" tremblingly inquired Miss Sally, with vague
apprehensions for the safety of old Mr. Valentine, who had so recently
left her niece.

"Your charming captain, your gentleman rebel, your gallant soldier,
your admirable Peyton, hang him!" cried Elizabeth.

"_My_ Peyton? I only wish he was!" sighed the aunt, surprised into the
confession by Elizabeth's own outspokenness.

"You're welcome to him, when I've had my revenge on him! Oh, aunt
Sally, to think of it! He doesn't love me! He only pretended, so that
I would save his life! But he shall see! I'll deliver him up to the
troops, after all!"

"Oh, no!" said Miss Sally, deprecatingly. Great as was the news
conveyed to her by Elizabeth's speech, she comprehended it, and
adjusted her mind to it, in an instant, her absence of outward
demonstration being due to the very bigness of the revelation, to
which any possible outside show of surprise would be inadequate and
hence useless. Moreover, Elizabeth gave no time for manifestations.

"