g the long avenue lined on both sides
with the troops and the colors of the army. At the third arch, which was
dedicated to General Howe and which bore on its top a huge flying figure
of Fame, we entered the great Hall. There refreshments were served and
the dancing began. It continued until midnight. The windows were then
thrown open and we witnessed the wonderful display of fireworks. And
then the supper!

"Gorgeous, of course!" exclaimed Marjorie.

"Gorgeous, indeed!" Peggy repeated--"a great room, with fifty or more
pier glasses, draped with green silk and hundreds of varieties of
flowers of as many hues and shades. An hundred branches of lights,
thousands of tapers, four hundred and thirty covers, and there must have
been more than twelve hundred dishes. The attendants were twenty-four
black slaves garbed oriental fashion with silver collars and bracelets.
And then we danced and danced until dawn, when we were interrupted by
the sound of distant cannon."

"And then your knights were called to real war," remarked Marjorie.

"For the moment all thought this to be part of the program, the signal
for another great spectacle. Suddenly everything broke into confusion.
The officers rushed to their commands. The rest of us betook ourselves
as best we could. We came home and went to bed, tired in every bone.
Mother is sorry that I attended, for she thought it too gay. But I would
not have lost it for the world."

And perhaps her mother was right. For Peggy was but eighteen, the
youngest of the Shippen family. The other girls were somewhat older, yet
the three were considered the most beautiful debutantes of the city, the
youngest, if in anything, the more renowned for grace and manner. Her
face was of that plumpness to give it charm, delicate in contour, rich
with the freshness of the bloom of youth. Her carriage betrayed
breeding and dignity. And all was sweetened by a magnetism and vivacity
that charmed all who came within her influence. Still her attitude was
the more prepossessing than permanent.

Like her father, she was a Quaker in many of her observances. To that
creed she adhered with a rigorous determination. She had so often
manifested her political sympathies, which were intensified to an
irrational degree as appeared from passionate disclosures, that her
father was led to observe that she was more a Tory at heart than General
Howe himself.

Her companion, Marjorie Allison, was about her own age, but as i