and hoped for
success, and took an eager interest in all the details of the scheme
that had reached her; but these were meagre enough, for, as yet, it
was only outlined; the main thing was that it was resolved upon. The
prisoners captured at Canso had been at last exchanged. They had been
brought to Boston, and had given valuable information about the place of
their captivity, the stronghold of France in America. Governor Shirley
had declared that Louisburg was to be captured, and that Colonel
Pepperell was the man to do it. Elizabeth, as she looked across at Mrs.
Eveleigh, wondered what she would say to the project. But she wondered
in silence, not only because silence had been enjoined, but because this
was not a woman to trust with the making of great events. She had heard
of an Indian war, and her chief thought had been that she would be safe.

The war had been talked about all the autumn. It was a terrible
necessity, but this new direction that it was to take was something
worth pondering over.

Elizabeth naturally, took large views of things, and, as her father's
companion, she had not learned to restrict them. But, also, for the last
months she had perceived dimly that there was a power within her which
might never be called into action. And this power rose, sometimes, with
vehemence against the monotony of her surroundings, in the midst of her
wealth of comforts and of affection.

It was the last of November, only two days after this conversation, that
Stephen Archdale was announced.

"He has come to tell me the decision," said Elizabeth to Mrs. Eveleigh;
"he promised he would come immediately. It's good news."

"Then what makes you so pale? And you're actually trembling."

Elizabeth looked at her companion in surprise, for all her years of
acquaintance with her.

"Don't you understand?" she said. "The strain is to be taken off. The
certainty must be good; and yet there is the possibility that it is not.
This and the thought that the moment has come make me tremble."

As she was speaking she moved away and in another moment was in the
drawing-room with Archdale.

"You have brought me word," she said, as soon as her greeting was over.
"You have good news; I see it in your eyes."

"Yes," he answered. "I suppose you will call it good news. You are free;
you are still Mistress Royal."

She clasped her hands impulsively, and retreated a few steps. It seemed
to him as he watched her that her first emotio