Part 57 (1/2)
”Steve Watts took you in his arms near the lilacs.”
”What was that to you, Mr. Drogue?”
”He was a spy in our uniform and in our camp!”
”Yes, sir.”
”And you gave him your lips.”
”He took what he took. I gave only what was in my heart to give to any friend in peril.”
”What was that?”
”Solicitude.”
”Oh. You warned him to leave? And he an enemy and a spy?”
”I begged him to go, Mr. Drogue.”
”Do you still call yourself a friend to liberty?” I asked angrily.
”Yes, sir. But I was his friend too. I did not know he had come here.
And when by accident I recognized him I was frightened, because I thought he had come to carry news to Lady Johnson.”
”And so he did! Did he not?”
”He said he came for me.”
”To visit you?”
”Yes, sir. And I think that was true. For when he made himself known to his sister, she came near to fainting; and so he spoke no more to her at all but begged me for a tryst before he left.”
”Oh. And you granted it?”
”Yes, sir.”
”Why?”
”I was in great fright, fearing he might be taken.... Also I pitied him.”
”Why so?” I sneered.
”Because he had courted me at Caughnawaga.... And at first I think he made a sport of his courting,--like other young men of Tryon gentry who hunt and court to a like purpose.... And so, one day at Caughnawaga, I told him I was honest.... I thought he ought to know, lest folly a.s.sail us in unfamiliar guise and do us a harm.”
”Did you so speak to this young man?”
”Yes, sir. I told him that I am a maiden. I thought it best that he should know as much.... And so he courted me no more. But every day he came and glowered at other men.... I laughed secretly, so fiercely he watched all who came to Cayadutta Lodge.... And then Sir John fled. And war came.... Well, sir, there is no more to tell, save that Captain Watts dared come hither.”
”To take you in his arms?”