to
her sex and station.

"Behold, Lady Geraldine," said the knight, presenting to her the
soldier, "the valiant man to whom I once owed my life."

"He is very welcome," replied the lady, in an accent just foreign
enough to impart a strange interest to her speech. "The savior of my
cousin's life is very welcome."

The embarrassed soldier, confounded at the presence of one who looked
to him like a superior being, could find no words to return to her
greeting, and only bowed low to conceal his confusion.

"I have heard, Sir Christopher," she continued, "speak of the daring
feat of arms whereby he was rescued from the foe, and longed to behold
his valorous deliverer to return my soul-felt thanks. Be seated, most
welcome gentlemen. And thou, Master Arundel, I trust, hast received
intelligence from Boston which will chase away the cloud that
sometimes gathers on thy brow."

"Honored madam," answered the young man, in the inflated style of
gallantry which the custom of high-bred society not only permitted but
enjoined, "when the beautiful majesty of the heavenly sun appears,
clouds have no place above the horizon, but fly away, chased by his
golden shafts."

"Would that I had the power," said the lady, "as the beneficent sun
dispels the clouds, so to drive away all sorrow and disappointment.
There is no grief-laden heart that should not be cheered."

"Recount now, Philip, to Lady Geraldine, the adventure which causes
the colony to lose a valiant soldier, and me to gain for our solitude
an old friend and companion in arms," said the knight.

The soldier, upon being thus addressed, found his voice, and narrated
to the lady the circumstances of his enforced departure from Boston.
She listened with an appearance of interest, and upon its conclusion
spoke a few words expressive of her sorrow for his imprisonment, and
of congratulation for the knight, to whom she hoped he would be for
the future attached.

"I do begin to consider my banishment as no misfortune," said the
soldier, whose confidence in himself was now restored. "The labor of
my forge and exposure of life for folk who know not how to excuse a
hasty word or two, are well exchanged for the service of so noble a
master and mistress."

"Be sure, thou shalt not rust like a sheathed sword," said the
knight, "and it shall go hard, but I will find for thee employment to
content an undegenerate spirit. But, Lady Geraldine, while we gain one
to our company, we lose