ed:

"'To defend the country from the invader, to do anything that can be
done to thwart the enemy's designs, is man's duty. But to face a
battery of bright eyes requires courage, Mistress Peggy. And that I
have not.'"

"Wasn't that fine?" cried Betty with animation. "I adore bravery and
shyness combined. Methinks 'twould be delightsome to be the woman who
could teach him how to face such a battery. Thee didn't live up to thy
opportunity, Peggy. It was thy duty to cure such a fine fellow of
bashfulness. It was thy duty, I say. Would I could take him in hand."

"Would that thee might, Betty," answered Peggy. "But I fear thee would
have thy hands full."

"I wonder if thee has heard the latest concerning Betty's doings,"
broke in Sally. "Mr. Deering told me of it. Betty was dancing a
measure with Colonel Middleton at the last Assembly when Mr. Deering
came up to her and said:

"'I see that you are dancing with a man of war, Miss Betty.'

"'Yes, sir,' says Betty, 'but I think a tender would be preferable.'"

"Oh, Betty! Betty!" gasped Peggy when the merriment that greeted this
had subsided. "How did thee dare?"

"La!" spoke Betty, arranging the folds of her paduasoy gown
complacently, "when a man is so remiss as to forget the refreshments
one must dare."

"I verily believe that she could manage your friend, Fairfax,"
commented Robert Dale laughing. "Would that I might be there to see
it."

"I kept an account of everything he said for Betty's especial
delectation," said Peggy. "She named him the 'Silent Knight,' and it
was very appropriate."

"Now why for my delectation instead of thine, or Sally's?" queried
Betty.

"Why, Sally and I are such workaday damsels that we are not accustomed
to handling such problems," explained Peggy demurely. "Thou art the
only belle in the Social Select Circle, and having been instructed in
French, I hear very thoroughly, thou hast waxed proficient in matters
regarding the sterner sex."

"Nonsense! Nonsense!" ejaculated Betty. She sat up quickly, and
sniffed the air daintily. "Peggy Owen," she cried, "do I in very
truth smell pepper-pot?"

"Thee does. I thought that would please thee. And Sally, too, but
Robert----" She glanced at the lad inquiringly.

"Robert is enough of a Quaker to enjoy pepper-pot," answered he
emphatically. "This weather is the very time for it too."

"We'll forgive thy desertion of us so long as thee was making
pepper-pot," declared Sally.

"Well,