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Ailsa Paige by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
page 77 of 544 (14%)
proudly smoking.

"I wonder how we did it?" mused his father.

"They were another race--those catchers of Cornwallis--those
fellows in, blue-and-buff and powdered hair."

"You and Celia are their grandchildren," observed Ailsa, "and you
are a West Point graduate."

Her brother-in-law looked at her with a strange sort of humour in
his handsome, near-sighted eyes:

"Yes, too blind to serve the country that educated me. And now
it's too late; the desire is gone; I have no inclination to fight,
Ailsa. Drums always annoyed me. I don't particularly like a gun.
I don't care for a fuss. I don't wish to be a soldier."

Ailsa said: "I rather like the noise of drums. I think I'd
like--war."

"Molly Pitcher! Molly Pitcher! Of what are you babbling,"
whispered Celia, laughing down the flashes of pain that ran through
her heart. "Wars are ended in our Western World. Didn't you know
it, grandchild of Vikings? There are to be no more Lake
Champlains, only debates--_n'est ce pas_, Curt?--very grand debates
between gentlemen of the South and gentlemen of the North in
Congress assembled----"

"_Two_ congresses assembled," said Ailsa calmly, "and the debates
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