ofessions of regard for her, but she
did believe thoroughly in these glimpses of character. She had been
courteous, but he had made her shrink from him. Since the last refusal,
for he had not been content with one, she had met him only in society,
but here he was constantly near her, really because he was fascinated by
her. But to her it seemed under the circumstances like a persecution.
She thought of him none the more pleasantly because she met him at every
turn. His assiduity meant to her a desire to marry a rich wife. Since
his conduct at Colonel Archdale's house she had remembered that she was
considered an heiress. She did not believe in Edmonson's capacity for
affection for any woman. Here she was mistaken. The young man was as
much in love with her as he knew how to be, and that was passionately,
if not deeply.

Twice Archdale had been to see her with Katie who was spending the
winter with her aunt in Boston. With those exceptions Elizabeth had seen
nothing of him, although he had been frequently in the city. He had been
very much occupied by military matters, and, apart from these, not in a
mood for general society. Until this morning of the embarkation
Elizabeth had not caught a glimpse of him for a month. She remembered it
as she looked at him and saw a certain fixedness in his face.

A sudden consciousness of observation made her turn her eyes toward the
middle of the boat. They met Edmonson's looking at her intently. Bowing
to him, she dropped her own, and before his greeting of her was over,
she turned to speak to her father.

But she said only a few words to him, and began again to watch the
soldiers. How many of these strong men would come back uncrippled? And a
good many would not come back at all. But as she looked at them filing
through the gangway, the sense of numbers, and of strength, swept back
the possibilities of evil, and instead of the embarkation, she seemed
to see before her the rush of the troops to the fortress, as Governor
Shirley had planned it all, the splendid attack, the defense gallant
though useless, the stormy entrance, and the English flag floating over
the battlements of Louisburg. The bloodshed and the agony were lost
sight of, it was the vision of conquest and the thought of the royal
colors floating over the stronghold of French America that flushed her
cheek and kindled her eyes.

Archdale watching her felt like holding his breath, lest in some way he
should disturb her a