-room and wait for me
there. No; not by that door--there's no use in his meeting you. What
imaginable thing has brought him here?" He replaced the papers in a
drawer, closed and locked it, looked up to see that Mocket was gone, and
spoke to the negro. "Show Major Churchill in here."

The Major entered, dry, withered, his empty sleeve pinned to the front
of his riding-coat. "Mr. Rand, good-evening. Ha, a cheerful fire against
a frosty night! I come in out of the cold to a blaze like that, sir, and
straightway, by a trick of the mind that never fails, I am back at
Valley Forge!"

Rand looked at him keenly. "Permit me to hope, sir, that there is
nothing wrong at Fontenoy? My wife is well?"

"Fontenoy is much as usual, sir," answered his visitor, "and my niece is
very well. It is natural that my appearance here should cause surprise."

Rand pushed forward a great chair. "Yes, I am surprised," he said, with
a smile. "Very much surprised. But since you bring no bad news, I am
also glad. Won't you sit, sir? You are welcome to Roselands."

Major Edward took the edge of the chair, and held out his long, thin
fingers to the blaze. "Yes; Valley Forge," he repeated, with his dry
deliberation. "Valley Forge--and starving soldiers moaning through the
icy night! Washington rarely slept; he sat there in his tent, planning,
planning, in the cold, by the dim light. There was a war--and there were
brave men--and there was a patriot soul!"

"I learn from Jacqueline that Colonel Churchill and you too, sir, have
shown her for some days past much kindness, tenderness, and
consideration. She has been made happy thereby."

"My niece has never been other than dear to me, sir," said the Major,
and still warmed his hand. "I believe, Mr. Rand, that your father fought
bravely in the war?"

"He did his part, sir. He was a scout with General Campbell and, I have
heard, fought like a berserker at King's Mountain."

"If he did his part," the Major replied, "he did well, and is to be
reckoned among the _patres patriae_. It is a good inheritance to derive
from a patriot father."

"So I have read, sir," said Rand dryly.

There was a silence while the flames leaped and roared. The Major broke
it. "You would take me, would you not, Mr. Rand, to be a man of my
word?"

"I should, sir."

"It has been my reputation. The last time that I spoke to you--"

Rand smiled gravely. "That was two years and a half ago, and your speech
was to the effect t