ay," responded Francis, with a cold and
sorrowful look at me, "I will try to find you a room where there are
no broken panes. Come, Captain, never mind about the whip to-day;
you must now act as my quartermaster. Forward, march;" and taking
him by the arm, she led off her willing slave.

When we were once more alone, the General began--

"Believe me, she means well and kindly towards you; but as we
don't reckon on visitors, you have taken us by surprise, and that's
what vexes Francis. It is so difficult to procure anything in this
out-of-the-way place."

"Every lady has her faults and her little caprices," I interposed.

"Yes, but others can hide them better under a little polish. Francis
cannot understand our social laws; unfortunately she has not had an
education suitable to her rank and station. Her own mother she never
knew; and my son-in-law, Sir John Mordaunt, did not understand the
kind of training necessary for a Dutch lady of position."

"Don't despair, General; who knows what effect a good husband will
have on her!"

"That's just my difficulty, Jonker; Francis would refuse to marry
any man she suspected of such intentions."

"You are right, grandfather," exclaimed Francis, who had again
entered the room. "Major Frank will never give up her command to
an inferior; she can only endure slaves and vassals around her,
and the sooner Jonker Leopold understands this, the better for him,
if he has intentions of conspiring against her freedom."

This was said half jestingly; but I replied, quite seriously, that
I thought Major Frank would do wrong to refuse a good husband.

Francis reddened to the roots of her hair, and then grew pale, as
she answered with a forced smile--

"Well, you are not a dangerous suitor. As the General will have told
you, Miss Mordaunt can only accept a very rich husband; and I think
you have already acknowledged that the Van Zonshovens are not among
the people who pay the highest amount of income-tax."

"But Francis!" exclaimed the General, deprecatingly.

"Well now, dear papa, that's the standard by which people are judged
nowadays, and you would wish Major Frank to be sold to the highest
bidder, if sold she must be. But come, Leopold, let me show you the
grounds before dinner. Grandfather can go with us, for the wind has
gone down and the sun come out, so that it is quite a mild spring
afternoon."

CHAPTER XIV.

We directed our steps towards the back of the Ca