making
unsavory jests, but I drew her closer to me and laid my hand upon my
sword. They stood aside, for I was the best swordsman in Virginia.

The meadow was now less thronged. The river, up and down, was white with
sailboats, and across the neck of the peninsula went a line of horsemen,
each with his purchase upon a pillion behind him. The Governor, the
Councilors, and the commanders had betaken themselves to the Governor's
house, where a great dinner was to be given. But Master Piersey, the
Cape Merchant, remained to see the Company reimbursed to the last leaf,
and the four ministers still found occupation, though one couple trod
not upon the heels of another, as they had done an hour agone.

"I must first satisfy the treasurer," I said, coming to a halt within
fifty feet of the now deserted high places.

She drew her hand from mine, and looked me up and down.

"How much is it?" she asked at last. "I will pay it."

I stared at her.

"Can't you speak?" she cried, with a stamp of her foot. "At what am I
valued? Ten pounds--fifty pounds"--

"At one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco, madam," I said dryly. "I
will pay it myself. To what name upon the ship's list do you answer?"

"Patience Worth," she replied.

I left her standing there, and went upon my errand with a whirling
brain. Her enrollment in that company proclaimed her meanly born, and
she bore herself as of blood royal; of her own free will she had crossed
an ocean to meet this day, and she held in passionate hatred this
day and all that it contained; she was come to Virginia to better her
condition, and the purse which she had drawn from her bosom was filled
with gold pieces. To another I would have advised caution, delay,
application to the Governor, inquiry; for myself I cared not to make
inquiries.

The treasurer gave me my receipt, and I procured, from the crowd around
him, Humfrey Kent, a good man and true, and old Belfield, the perfumer,
for witnesses. With them at my heels I went back to her, and, giving her
my hand, was making for the nearest minister, when a voice at a little
distance hailed me, crying out, "This way, Captain Percy!"

I turned toward the voice, and beheld the great figure of Master
Jeremy Sparrow sitting, cross-legged like the Grand Turk, upon a grassy
hillock, and beckoning to me from that elevation.

"Our acquaintance hath been of the shortest," he said genially, when the
maid, the witnesses, and I had reached the f