第19章

"Stay where you are," she said mischievously, as she stooped down, and placed a flower in the lapel of his coat."That is to make amends for my rudeness.Now get up."But the major did not rise.He caught the two little hands that had seemed to flutter like birds against his breast, and, looking up into the laughing face above him, said, "Dear Mistress Thankful, dare I remind you of your own words, that 'there be some things worth stooping for'? Think of my love, Mistress Thankful, as a flower,--mayhap not as gracious to you as your violets, but as honest and--and--and--as--""Ready to spring up in a single night," laughed Thankful."But no;get up, major! What would the fine ladies of Morristown say of your kneeling at the feet of a country girl,--the play and sport of every fine gentleman? What if Mistress Bolton should see her own cavalier, the modish Major Van Zandt, proffering his affections to the disgraced sweetheart of a perjured traitor? Leave go my hand, I pray you, major,--if you respect--"She was free, yet she faltered a moment beside him, with tears quivering on her long brown lashes.Then she said tremulously, "Rise up, major.Let us think no more of this.I pray you forgive me, if I have again been rude."The major struggled to rise to his feet.But he could not.And then I regret to have to record that the fact became obvious that one of his shapely legs was in a bog-hole, and that he was perceptibly sinking out of sight.Whereat Mistress Thankful trilled out a three-syllabled laugh, looked demure and painfully concerned at his condition, and then laughed again.The major joined in her mirth, albeit his face was crimson.And then, with a little cry of alarm, she flew to his side, and put her arms around him.

"Keep away, keep away, for Heaven's sake, Mistress Blossom," he said quickly, "or I shall plunge you into my mishap, and make you as ridiculous as myself."But the quick-witted girl had already leaped to an adjacent bowlder."Take off your sash," she said quickly; "fasten it to your belt, and throw it to me." He did so.She straightened herself back on the rock."Now, all together," she cried, with a preliminary strain on the sash; and then the cords of her well-trained muscles stood out on her rounded arms, and, with a long pull and a strong pull and a pull all together, she landed the major upon the rock.And then she laughed; and then, inconsistent as it may appear, she became grave, and at once proceeded to scrape him off, and rub him down with dried leaves, with fern-twigs, with her handkerchief, with the border of her mantle, as if he were a child, until he blushed with alternate shame and secret satisfaction.

They spoke but little on their return to the farm-house, for Mistress Thankful had again become grave.And yet the sun shone cheerily above them; the landscape was filled with the joy of resurrection and new and awakened life; the breeze whispered gentle promises of hope, and the fruition of their hopes in the summer to come.And these two fared on until they reached the porch, with a half-pleased, half-frightened consciousness that they were not the same beings who had left it a half-hour before.

Nevertheless at the porch Mistress Thankful regained something of her old audacity.As they stood together in the hall, she handed him back the sash she had kept with her.As she did so, she could not help saying, "There are some things worth stooping for, Major Van Zandt."But she had not calculated upon the audacity of the man; and as she turned to fly she was caught by his strong arm, and pinioned to his side.She struggled, honestly I think, and perhaps more frightened at her own feelings than at his strength; but it is to be recorded that he kissed her in a moment of comparative yielding, and then, frightened himself, released her quickly, whereat she fled to her room, and threw herself panting and troubled upon her bed.For an hour or two she lay there, with flushed cheeks and conflicting thoughts."He must never kiss me again," she said softly to herself, "unless"--but the interrupting thought said, "I shall die if he kiss me not again; and I never can kiss another." And then she was roused by a footstep upon the stair, which in that brief time she had learned to know and look for, and a knock at the door.

She opened it to Major Van Zandt, white and so colorless as to bring out once more the faint red line made by her riding-whip two days before, as if it had risen again in accusation.The blood dropped out of her cheeks as she gazed at him in silence.

"An escort of dragoons," said Major Van Zandt slowly, and with military precision, "has just arrived, bringing with them one Capt.

Allan Brewster, of the Connecticut Contingent, on his way to Morristown to be tried for mutiny and treason.A private note from Col.Hamilton instructs me to allow him to have a private audience with you--if YOU so wish it."With a woman's swift and too often hopeless intuition, Thankful knew that this was not the sole contents of the letter, and that her relations with Capt.Brewster were known to the man before her.

But she drew herself up a little proudly, and, turning her truthful eyes upon the major, said, "I DO so wish it.""It shall be done as you desire, Mistress Blossom," returned the officer with cold politeness, as he turned upon his heel.

"One moment, Major Van Zandt," said Thankful swiftly.