"I thank you," replied the young man, "but I must go and seek your
brother, who placed me there in ambuscade, as he called it, with a
promise of returning an hour ago." Without making any further
explanation, the youth bowed politely to the young women, distantly and
with hauteur to the gentleman, and withdrew. Frances followed him into
the hall, and blushing richly, inquired, in a hurried voice,--

"But why--why do you leave us, Mr. Dunwoodie? Henry must soon return."

The gentleman caught one of her hands in his own, and the stern
expression of his countenance gave place to a look of admiration as he
replied,--

"You managed him famously, my dear little kinswoman; never--no, never,
forget the land of your birth; remember, if you are the granddaughter of
an Englishman, you are, also, the granddaughter of a Peyton."

"Oh!" returned the laughing girl, "it would be difficult to forget that,
with the constant lectures on genealogy before us, with which we are
favored by Aunt Jeanette; but why do you go?"

"I am on the wing for Virginia, and have much to do." He pressed her
hand as he spoke, and looking back, while in the act of closing the
door, exclaimed, "Be true to your country--be American." The ardent girl
kissed her hand to him as he retired, and then instantly applying it
with its beautiful fellow to her burning cheeks, ran into her own
apartment to hide her confusion.

Between the open sarcasm of Frances, and the ill-concealed disdain of
the young man, Colonel Wellmere had felt himself placed in an awkward