from her
weakness and the Colonel's generosity. So I hold my peace and we come
to her gate, and the recklessness that has brought him thus far
abandons him on the instant and he falls back and lets me go in
several steps before him, so that I seem to be alone when I enter the
house, and Juliet, who is standing in the parlor between the Colonel
and her father, starts when she sees me, and breaking into sobs,
cries:

"Oh, Philo, Philo, tell my father there is nothing between us but what
is friendly and honorable; that I--I--"

"Hush!" commanded that father, while I stared at the Colonel, whose
quiet, imperturbable face was for the first time such a riddle to me
that I hardly heeded what the elder man said. "You have talked enough,
Juliet, and denied enough. I will now speak to Mr. Adams and see what
he has to say. Last night my daughter, who, as all the town knows, is
betrothed to this gentleman"--and he waved his hand deferentially
towards the Colonel--"was detected by me stealing out of the garden
gate with a little packet on her arm. As my daughter never goes out
alone, I was naturally startled, and presuming upon my rights as her
father, naturally asked her where she was going. This question, simple
as it was, seemed to both terrify and unnerve her. Stumbling back, she
looked me wildly in the eye and answered, with an effrontery she had
never shown me before, that she was flying to escape a hated marriage.
That Colonel Schuyler had returned, and as she could not be his wife,
she was going to her aunt's house, where she could live in peace
without being forced upon a man she could not love. Amazed, for I had
always supposed her duly sensible of the honor which had been shown
her by this gentleman's attentions, I drew her into my study and
there, pulling off the cloak which she held tightly drawn about her, I
discovered that she was tricked out like a bride, and had a whole
bunch of garden roses fastened in her breast. 'A pretty figure,' cried
I, 'for travelling. You are going away with some man, and it is a
runaway match I have interrupted.' She could not deny it, and just
then the Colonel came in and--but we will not talk about that. It
remained for us to find out the man who had led her to forget her
duty, and I could think of no man but you. So I ask you now before my
trembling daughter and this outraged gentleman if you are the
villain."

But here Colonel Schuyler spoke up quietly and without visible anger:
"