ragamuffins shall not be sent to an honest farmer's house to spy
and spy--and turn a poor girl out of doors that they might do it.
'Tis shameful, so it is; there! 'tis most scandalous, so it is:
there, now! Spies, indeed! what are THEY, pray?"

In the indignation which the recollection of her wrongs had slowly
gathered in her, from the beginning of this speech, she had
advanced her face, rosy with courage, and beautiful in its
impertinence, within a few inches of the dignified features and
quiet gray eyes of the great commander. To her utter stupefaction,
he bent his head and kissed her, with a grave benignity, full on
the centre of her audacious forehead.

"Be seated, I beg, Mistress Blossom," he said, taking her cold hand
in his, and quietly replacing her in the unoccupied chair. "Be
seated, I beg, and give me, if you can, your attention for a
moment. The officer intrusted with the ungracious task of
occupying your father's house is a member of my military family,
and a gentleman. If he has so far forgotten himself--if he has so
far disgraced himself and me as--"

"No! no!" uttered Thankful, with feverish alacrity, "the gentleman
was most considerate. On the contrary--mayhap--I"--she hesitated,
and then came to a full stop, with a heightened color, as a vivid
recollection of that gentleman's face, with the mark of her riding-
whip lying across it, rose before her.

"I was about to say that Major Van Zandt, as a gentleman, has known
how to fully excuse the natural impulses of a daughter," continued
Washington, with a look of perfect understanding; "but let me now