tended great dejection upon learning that her heart was
already engaged; and declared that his only consolation lay in the
fact that the happy possessor of the prize was myself: for which we
both liked him exceedingly. Toward Mrs. Faringfield, too, he used a
chivalrous gallantry as complimentary to her husband as to the lady.
Only between him and Margaret was there the distance of unvaried
formality.

And yet we ought to have seen how matters stood. For now Margaret,
though she had so little apparent cordiality for the captain, had
ceased to value the admiration of the other officers, and had
substituted a serene indifference for the animated interest she had
formerly shown toward the gaieties of the town. And the captain, too,
we learned, had the reputation of an inveterate conqueror of women;
yet he had exhibited a singular callousness to the charms of the
ladies of New York. He had been three months in the town, and his name
had not been coupled with that of any woman there. We might have
surmised from this a concealed preoccupation. And, moreover, there was
my first reading of his countenance, the night of the Morris ball;
this I had not forgotten, yet I ignored it, or else I shut my eyes to
my inevitable inferences, because I could see no propriety in any
possible interference from me.

One evening in December there was a drum at Colonel Philipse's town
house, which Margaret did not attend. She had mentioned, as reason for
absenting herself, a cold caught a few nights previously, through her
bare throat being exposed to a chill wind by the accidental falling of
her cloak as she walked to the coach after Mrs. Colden's rout. As the
evening progressed toward hilarity, I observed that Tom Faringfield
became restless and gloomy. At last he approached me, with a face
strangely white, and whispered:

"Do you see?--Captain Falconer is not here!"

"Well, what of that?" quoth I. "Ten to one, he finds these companies
plaguey tiresome."

"Or finds other company more agreeable," replied Tom, with a very dark
look in his eyes.

He left me, with no more words upon the subject. When it was time to
go home, and Mrs. Faringfield and Fanny and I sought about the rooms
for him, we found he had already taken his leave. So we three had the
chariot to ourselves, and as we rode I kept my own thoughts upon Tom's
previous departure, and my own vague dread of what might happen.

But when Noah let us in, all seemed well in the Faring