g his fat hands into his breeches
pockets.

"If I'd known what that baggage o' mine was bent on, I'd ha' locked her
in the cellar!... George, you won't hold that against me, will you?
She's my own daughter. But the hussy was gone with Magdalen Brant before
I dreamed of it--gone on the maddest moonlight quest that mortal ever
dared conceive!--one in rags cut from a red blanket, t'other in that
rotten old armor that your aunt thought fit to ship from England when
her father stripped the house to cross an ocean and build in the forests
of a new world. George, she's all Ormond, that girl o' mine. A Varick
would never have thought to cut such a caper, I tell you. It isn't in
our line; it isn't in Dutch blood to imagine such things, or do
'em either!"

He seized pipe and mug, swearing under his breath.

"It was the bravest thing I ever knew," I said, huskily.

He dipped his nose into his mug, pulled at his long pipe, and eyed me
askance.

"What the devil's this between you and Dorothy?" he growled.

"Nothing, I trust now, sir," I answered, in a low voice.

"Oh! 'nothing, you trust now, sir!'" he mimicked, striving to turn a
sour face. "Dammy, d' ye know that I meant her for Sir George Covert?"
His broad face softened; he attempted to scowl, and failed utterly.
"Thank God, the land's clear of these bandits of St. Leger, anyhow!" he
snorted. "I'll work my mills and I'll scrape enough to pay my debts. I
suppose I'll have you on my hands when you've finished with Burgoyne."

"No," I said, smiling, "the blow that Arnold struck at Stanwix will be
felt from Maine to the Florida Keys. The blow to be delivered twenty
miles north of us will settle any questions of land confiscation. No,
Sir Lupus, I shall not be on your hands, but ... you may be on mine if
you turn Tory!"

"You impudent rogue!" he cried, struggling to his feet; then, still
clutching pipe and pewter, he embraced me, and choked and chuckled,
laying his fat head on my shoulder. "Be a son to me, George," he
whimpered, sentimentally; "if you won't, you're a damned
ungrateful pup!"

And he took himself off, sniffing, and sucking at his long clay, which
had gone out.

I turned to the window, drawing in deep breaths of sweet, pure morning
air. Troops were still passing in solid column, grim, dirty soldiers in
heavy cowhide knapsacks, leather gaiters, and blue great-coats buttoned
back at the skirts; and I heard the militia at the quarters calling
across the stab