sit there; place it by the window, cousin."

I placed the chair for her; she seated herself with unconscious grace,
and motioned me to bring another chair for myself.

"Are you going to let me in?" cried Ruyven.

"Oh, go to the--" began Dorothy, then flushed and glanced at me, asking
pardon in a low voice.

A nice parent, Sir Lupus, with every child in his family ready to swear
like Flanders troopers at the first breath!

Half reclining in her chair, limbs comfortably extended, Dorothy crossed
her ankles and clasped her hands behind her head, a picture of indolence
in every line and curve, from satin shoon to the dull gold of her hair,
which, as I have said, the powder scarcely frosted.

"To comprehend properly this war," she mused, more to herself than to
me, "I suppose it is necessary to understand matters which I do not
understand; how it chanced that our King lost his city of Boston, and
why he has not long since sent his soldiers here into our county
of Tryon."

"Too many rebels, cousin," I suggested, flippantly. She disregarded me,
continuing quietly;

"But this much, however, I do understand, that our province of New York
is the centre of all this trouble; that the men of Tryon hold the last
pennyweight, and that the balanced scales will tip only when we patroons