"But about yourself?" I questioned. "There is much I wish to know. Until
your note reached me, I had not heard a word from you since you rode away
from Mount Vernon with Dinwiddie's messenger."

His face cleared, and he looked at me with a little smile.

"We went direct to Williamsburg," he said, "where I first met the
general, and told him what I know about the country which he has to
cross. He treated me most civilly, despite some whisperings which went on
behind my back, and shortly after sent me a courteous invitation to serve
on his staff. Of course I accepted,--you know how it irked me to remain
at home,--but I gave him at the same time a statement of my reason for
quitting the Virginia service,--that I could not consent to be outranked
by every subaltern who held a commission from the king."

I nodded, for the question was not new to me, and had already caused me
much heart-burning. It was not until long afterwards that I saw the
general's letter among Mrs. Washington's treasures at Mount Vernon, but
it seems to me worthy of reproduction here. Thus it ran:--


WILLIAMSBURG, 2 March, 1755.

Sir,--The General having been informed that you expressed some desire to
make the campaign, but that you declined it upon some disagreeableness
that you thought might arise from the regulations of command, has ordered
me to acquaint you that he will be very glad of your company in his
family, by which all inconveniences of that kind will be obviated.