第5章

Thankful turned to her father as if she had been waiting a reply to a long-asked question: "Well?""Were it not well to put on a few furbelows and a tucker?" queried the old man."'Tis a gallant young spark; none of your country folk.""No," said Thankful, with the promptness of a woman who was looking her best, and knew it.And the old man, looking at her, accepted her judgment, and without another word led her to the parlor door, and, opening it, said briefly, "My daughter, Mistress Thankful Blossom."With the opening of the door came the sound of earnest voices that instantly ceased upon the appearance of Mistress Thankful.Two gentlemen lolling before the fire arose instantly, and one came forward with an air of familiar yet respectful recognition.

"Nay, this is far too great happiness, Mistress Thankful," he said, with a strongly marked foreign accent, and a still more strongly marked foreign manner."I have been in despair, and my friend here, the Baron Pomposo, likewise."The slightest trace of a smile, and the swiftest of reproachful glances, lit up the dark face of the baron as he bowed low in the introduction.Thankful dropped the courtesy of the period,--i.e., a duck, with semicircular sweep of the right foot forward.But the right foot was so pretty, and the grace of the little figure so perfect, that the baron raised his eyes from the foot to the face in serious admiration.In the one rapid feminine glance she had given him, she had seen that he was handsome; in the second, which she could not help from his protracted silence, she saw that his beauty centred in his girlish, half fawn-like dark eyes.

"The baron," explained Mr.Blossom, rubbing his hands together as if through mere friction he was trying to impart a warmth to the reception which his hard face discountenanced,--"the baron visits us under discouragement.He comes from far countries.It is the custom of gentlefolk of--of foreign extraction to wander through strange lands, commenting upon the habits and doings of the peoples.He will find in Jersey," continued Mr.Blossom, apparently appealing to Thankful, yet really evading her contemptuous glance, "a hard-working yeomanry, ever ready to welcome the stranger, and account to him, penny for penny, for all his necessary expenditure; for which purpose, in these troublous times, he will provide for himself gold or other moneys not affected by these local disturbances.""He will find, good friend Blossom," said the baron in a rapid, voluble way, utterly at variance with the soft, quiet gravity of his eyes, "Beauty, Grace, Accom-plishment, and--eh--Santa Maria, what shall I say?" He turned appealingly to the count.

"Virtue," nodded the count.

"Truly, Birtoo! all in the fair lady of thees countries.Ah, believe me, honest friend Blossom, there is mooch more in thees than in thoss!"So much of this speech was addressed to Mistress Thankful, that she had to show at least one dimple in reply, albeit her brows were slightly knit, and she had turned upon the speaker her honest, questioning eyes.

"And then the General Washington has been kind enough to offer his protection," added the count.

"Any fool--any one," supplemented Thankful hastily, with a slight blush--"may have the general's pass, ay, and his good word.But what of Mistress Prudence Bookstaver?--she that has a sweetheart in Knyphausen's brigade, ay,--I warrant a Hessian, but of gentle blood, as Mistress Prudence has often told me,--and, look you, all her letters stopped by the general, ay, I warrant, read by my Lady Washington too, as if 'twere HER fault that her lad was in arms against Congress.Riddle me that, now!""'Tis but prudence, lass," said Blossom, frowning on the girl.

"'Tis that she might disclose some movement of the army, tending to defeat the enemy.""And why should she not try to save her lad from capture or ambuscade such as befell the Hessian commissary with the provisions that you--"Mr.Blossom, in an ostensible fatherly embrace, managed to pinch Mistress Thankful sharply."Hush, lass," he said with simulated playfulness; "your tongue clacks like the Whippany mill.--My daughter has small concern--'tis the manner of womenfolk--in politics," he explained to his guests."These dangersome days have given her sore affliction by way of parting comrades of her childhood, and others whom she has much affected.It has in some sort soured her."Mr.Blossom would have recalled this speech as soon as it escaped him, lest it should lead to a revelation from the truthful Mistress Thankful of her relations with the Continental captain.But to his astonishment, and, I may add, to my own, she showed nothing of that disposition she had exhibited a few moments before.On the contrary, she blushed slightly, and said nothing.

And then the conversation changed,--upon the weather, the hard winter, the prospects of the Cause, a criticism upon the commander-in-chief's management of affairs, the attitude of Congress, etc., between Mr.Blossom and the count; characterized, I hardly need say, by that positiveness of opinion that distinguishes the unprofessional.In another part of the room, it so chanced that Mistress Thankful and the baron were talking about themselves; the assembly balls; who was the prettiest woman in Morristown; and whether Gen.Washington's attentions to Mistress Pyne were only perfunctory gallantry, or what; and if Lady Washington's hair was really gray; and if that young aide-de-camp, Major Van Zandt were really in love with Lady or whether his attentions were only the zeal of a subaltern,--in the midst of which a sudden gust of wind shook the house; and Mr.Blossom, going to the front door, came back with the announcement that it was snowing heavily.