contempt. "Hugon! Hugon, half Monacan and
half Frenchman, is bartering skins with a Quaker. Begone, child, and when
you are transformed return to us."

When the door had closed he turned upon his wife. "The girl has been cared
for," he said. "She has been fed,--if not with cates and dainties, then
with bread and meat; she has been clothed,--if not in silk and lace, then
in good blue linen and penistone. She is young and of the springtime, hath
more learning than had many a princess of old times, is innocent and good
to look at. Thou and the rest of thy sex are fools, Deborah, but wise men
died not with Solomon. It matters not about her dress."

Rising, he went to a shelf of battered, dog-eared books, and taking down
an armful proceeded to strew the volumes upon the table. The red blooms of
the columbine being in the way, he took up the bunch and tossed it out of
the window. With the light thud of the mass upon the ground eyes of
husband and wife met.

"Hugon would marry the girl," said the latter, twisting the hem of her
apron with restless fingers.

Without change of countenance, Darden leaned forward, seized her by the
shoulder and shook her violently. "You are too given to idle and
meaningless words, Deborah," he declared, releasing her. "By the Lord, one
of these days I'll break you of the habit for good and all! Hugon, and
scarlet flowers, and who will marry Audrey, that is yet but a child and
useful about the house,--what has all this to do with the matter in hand,
which is simply to make ourselves and our house presentable in the eyes of
my chief parishioner? A man would think that thirteen years in Virginia
would teach any fool the necessity of standing well with a powerful
gentleman such as this. I'm no coward. Damn sanctimonious parsons and my
Lord Bishop's Scotch hireling! If they yelp much longer at my heels, I'll
scandalize them in good earnest! It's thin ice, though,--it's thin ice;
but I like this house and glebe, and I'm going to live and die in
them,--and die drunk, if I choose, Mr. Commissary to the contrary! It's of
import, Deborah, that my parishioners, being easy folk, willing to live
and let live, should like me still, and that a majority of my vestry
should not be able to get on without me. With this in mind, get out the
wine, dust the best chair, and be ready with thy curtsy. It will be time
enough to cry Audrey's banns when she is asked in marriage."

Audrey, in her brown dress, with the co