Audrey

"Will your Excellency permit me to volunteer for guard duty?" demanded a

young man who had pressed his horse to the leader's side. "It's odds,

though, that when you return this way you'll find me turned Papist. I'll

swear your Excellency never saw in Flanders carved or painted saint so

worthy of your prayers as yonder breathing one!"

The girl Molly had followed her parents, and now stood upon a little

grassy knoll, surveying with wide brown eyes the gay troop before her. A

light wind was blowing, and it wrapped her dress of tender, faded blue

around her young limbs, and lifted her loosened hair, gilded by the

sunshine into the likeness of an aureole. Her face was serious and

wondering, but fair as a woodland flower. She had placed her hand upon the

head of the child who was with her, clinging to her dress. The green knoll

formed a pedestal; behind was the sky, as blue as that of Italy; the two

figures might have been some painted altar-piece.

The sprightly company, which had taken for its motto "Sic juvat

transcendere montes," looked and worshiped. There was a moment of silent

devotion, broken by one of the gentlemen demanding if 't were not time for

dinner; another remarked that they might go much farther and fare much

worse, in respect of a cool, sweet spot in which to rest during the heat

of the afternoon; and a third boldly proposed that they go no farther at

all that day. Their leader settled the question by announcing that, Mr.

Mason's suggestion finding favor in his sight, they would forthwith

dismount, dine, drink red wine and white, and wear out the heat of the day

in this sylvan paradise until four of the clock, when the trumpet should

sound for the mount; also, that if the goodwife and her daughter would do

them the honor to partake of their rustic fare, their healths should be

drunk in nothing less than Burgundy.

As he spoke he swung himself from the saddle, pulled out his ruffles, and

raised his hat. "Ladies, permit me,"--a wave of his hand toward his

escort, who were now also on foot. "Colonel Robertson, Captain Clonder,

Captain Brooke, Mr. Haward, Mr. Beverley, Dr. Robinson, Mr. Fontaine, Mr.

Todd, Mr. Mason,--all of the Tramontane Order. For myself, I am Alexander

Spotswood, at your service."

The pioneer, standing behind his wife, plucked her by the sleeve. "Ecod,

Alce, 't is the Governor himself! Mind your manners!"

Alce, who had been a red-cheeked dairymaid in a great house in England,

needed no admonition. Her curtsy was profound; and when the Governor took

her by the hand and kissed her still blooming cheek, she curtsied again.

Molly, who had no memories of fine gentlemen and the complaisance which

was their due, blushed fire-red at the touch of his Excellency's lips,

forgot to curtsy, and knew not where to look. When, in her confusion, she

turned her head aside, her eyes met those of the young man who had

threatened to turn Papist. He bowed, with his hand upon his heart, and she

blushed more deeply than before.