r so long that 'twas quite time that some of us looked you up. Sit
down, and I'll tell you about it."

"Father ought not to have permitted it," he observed, when she had
finished the recital. "I don't see why he did. I like it not, my
sister."

"Nonsense, Cliff! there was no danger. Peggy can tell you that there
was no risk of my being thought other than I seemed."

"I like it not," he repeated. "And now, Harriet, what will you do? It
doth not seem wise to me, or right for you to return to New York."

"I shall stay with Peggy for a time," she told him easily.

"We shall be pleased to have her with us, my cousin," spoke Peggy
instantly, noting his troubled glance.

"But she may have to remain until peace, which may be long in coming,
Peggy."

"I think not, Clifford," spoke Harriet, before Peggy could make any
response. "If we enforce the new policy which Sir Guy Carleton hath
inaugurated, America will be glad to have peace on any terms."

"I have heard of no new policy," he said somewhat curtly. "What is
it?"

"You have scarcely been in the way of hearing new things, my brother.
Know then that the colonies are to be so harassed from all sides that
they will sue for peace. On the frontiers," she exulted, seemingly
unmindful of Peggy's presence, "and on the coasts."

"There hath been too much of that already," he said grimly. "It hath
brought us into disfavor with the entire world. Take the death of
Fairfax Johnson, for instance, which was the direct result of such a
policy. 'Twas a base and ignoble act to murder him; for it was
murder."

"Englishmen did not do that, Clifford. 'Twas the loyalists."

"Englishmen sanction the act while they retain Lippencott, the
murderer," he answered. "Have they given him up yet?"

"No, of course not," she responded. "The court-martial exonerated him.
You would not feel about the matter as you do, Cliff, if you had not
known Fairfax. Sir Guy hath also another plan of which I am not at
liberty to speak. And, Cliff, I wish you would have Major Gordon come
in here. I have something to say to him."

"Why, Harriet, you do not know him," exclaimed Clifford, turning a
startled glance upon her. "What could you possibly have to say to
him?"

"I want to tell him about the goods that I brought, my brother," she
made answer.

"I did not understand that you brought them," he said. "I thought you
merely took advantage of the fact that they were being sent to come
with them."

"Wh