e stumble across information of vital importance. Thus can
you be of great assistance to me."

"I shall be delighted to do this, and I shall tell you more--perhaps you
may ask me to do something more noble--sometime----" She hesitated to
express the wish which was father to her thought.

"Sometime I expect you to be of real service to me and to our
country--sometime----"

Marjorie did not answer. She knew what she would like to say, but dared
not. Why should he unfold his mission to her at this, almost their first
meeting? And why should he expect her to be of such assistance to him,
to him, first, and then to the country? And then, why should she feel so
responsive, so ready to spend herself, her energy, her whole being at
the mere suggestion of this young man, whom until last evening, she had
never thought to exist. She felt that she was as wax in the hands of
this soldier; she knew it and enjoyed it and only awaited the moment
when his seal would come down upon her and stamp her more to his liking.
She was slightly younger than he, and happily his contrary in nearly all
respects. He was fair, she was dark; his eyes were blue, hers brown; he
was lusty and showed promise of broadness, she was slender.

Twice she opened her mouth as if to speak to him, and each time she
dropped again her head in reflective silence. She did not talk to this
young man as she might to any number of her more intimate acquaintances.
Even the very silence was magnetic. Further utterance would dispel the
charm. That she would enlist in his service she knew as well as she knew
her own existence, but that he should arouse so keen an interest in her,
so buoyant an attitude, so secure an assurance, amazed her and filled
her with awe. She had never before experienced quite the same sensation
that now dismayed her nor had any one ever brought home to her her worth
as did this young soldier. Yes she would help him, but in what way?

And so they sat and considered and talked. They soon forgot to talk
about His Excellency, or the Army, or the Shippens. Neither did they
resolve the doubts that might have been entertained concerning the
manner of men who frequented the home of Peggy and her sisters; nor the
Alliance which had just been established, nor the vital signification of
the event. They just talked over a field of affairs none of which bore
any special relation to any one save their own selves. At length the old
clock felt constrained to spea