place on the staircase, in cold resentment. Her aunt, meanwhile, made
the newcomer a tremulous curtsey.

"I want to see the person in charge of this house, and I want a
horse," replied Peyton, with more promptitude than gentleness, yet
with strict civility. Elizabeth's manner would have nettled even a
colder man.

Elizabeth did not keep him waiting for an answer.

"I am at present mistress of this house, and I am neither selling
horses nor giving them!"

Peyton stared up at her in wonderment.

The candle-flame struggled against the wind, turning this way and
that, and made the vague shadows of the people and of the slender
balusters dance on floor and wall. From without came the sound of
Peyton's horses pawing, and of his men speaking to one another in low
tones.

"Your pardon, madam," said Peyton, "but a horse I must have. The
service I am on permits no delay--"

"I doubt not!" broke in Elizabeth. "The Hessians are probably chasing
you."

"On the contrary, I am chasing the Hessians. At Boar Hill, yonder, my
horse gave out. 'Tis important my troops lose no time. Passing here,
we saw horses being led into your stable. I ordered one of my men to
take the best of your beasts, and put my saddle on it,--and he is now
doing so."

"How dare you, sir!" and Elizabeth came quickly to the foot of the
stairs, a picture of regal, flaming wrath.

"Why, madam," said Peyton, "'tis for the service of the army. I
require the horse, and I have come here to pay for it--"

"It is not for sale--"

"That makes no difference. You know the custom of war."

"The custom of robbery!" cried Elizabeth.

Captain Peyton reddened.

"Robbery is not the custom of Harry Lee's dragoons, madam," said he,
"whatever be the practice of the wretched 'Skinners' or of De Lancey's
Tory Cowboys. I shall pay you as you choose,--with a receipt to
present at the quartermaster's office, or with Continental bills."

"Continental rubbish!"

And, indeed, Elizabeth was not far from the truth in the appellation
so contemptuously hurled.

"You prefer that, do you?" said Peyton, unruffled; whereupon he took
from within his waistcoat a long, thick pocketbook, and from that a
number of bills; which must have been for high amounts, for he rapidly
counted out only a score or two of them, repocketing the rest, and at
that time, thereabouts, "a rat in shape of a horse," as Washington
himself had complained a month before, was "not to be bought for less
t