teeth in wrath that all those men should look their fill and say by wink
and nod and covert smile that this were somewhat more than hostess
loyalty.

But it was the colonel's mocking smile that lashed me sharpest; his
smile and what he said; and yet not that so much as what he left to be
inferred.

"Ha! How is this, Mistress Margery? Do you keep open house for the
king's enemies? That spells treason, my dear young lady, and hath an
ugly look for you, besides."

"It should have no look at all, save that of hospitality, sir," she
countered, bravely. "Surely I may plead for justice to a wounded man who
was, and is, my father's guest?"

"And yet he is a spy, and spies must hang."

"He is no spy."

The colonel's bow made but a mock of true politeness.

"You should not make me contradict a lady, Mistress Margery. 'Tis
evident you have not all his confidence. He was captured red-handed in
the act at yonder window, listening to that which he may never know and
live to prate about. Besides, he killed a sentry for his chance to
listen, and for that I'd hang him if he were my own father's guest."

So much he said as mild as if he had not left his reading of the law to
figure in our annals as King George's butcher. Then in a sudden gust of