Thereat a silence came and sat between us, and I fell to loving her the
more because of it; but when she spoke I always loved her more for
speaking.

"My father has had little peace since coming here," she said, at length.
"He is old and none too well; and as for king and Congress, asks nothing
but his right to hold aloof. And this they will not give him."

Remembering what Jennifer had told me of Gilbert Stair's trimming, I
smiled within.

"That is the way of all the world in war-time, _ma petite_. A partizan
may suffer once for all, but both sides hold a neutral lawful prey."

'Twas as the spark to tinder; my word the spark and in her eyes the
answering flash.

"I tell him so!" she cried. "I tell him always that the king will have
his own again. But still he halts and hesitates; and when these rebels
come and quarter on us--"

I fear she must have seen my inward smile this time, for she broke off
in the midst, and I made haste to forestall her flying out at me.

"Oh, come, my dear; you should not be so fierce with him when you
yourself have brought a rebel to his house to nurse alive."

She looked me fairly in the eye. "You should be the last to remind me of
my treason, Monsieur John."