loitering here?" asked he, with some
severity of tone. "It is my pleasure to be the last in this mansion of
the king."

"Not so, if it please Your Excellency," answered the time-stricken
woman. "This roof has sheltered me long; I will not pass from it until
they bear me to the tomb of my forefathers. What other shelter is
there for old Esther Dudley save the province-house or the grave?"

"Now, Heaven forgive me!" said Sir William Howe to himself. "I was
about to leave this wretched old creature to starve or beg.--Take
this, good Mistress Dudley," he added, putting a purse into her hands.
"King George's head on these golden guineas is sterling yet, and will
continue so, I warrant you, even should the rebels crown John Hancock
their king. That purse will buy a better shelter than the
province-house can now afford."

"While the burden of life remains upon me I will have no other shelter
than this roof," persisted Esther Dudley, striking her stuff upon the
floor with a gesture that expressed immovable resolve; "and when Your
Excellency returns in triumph, I will totter into the porch to welcome
you."

"My poor old friend!" answered the British general, and all his manly
and martial pride could no longer restrain a gush of bitter tears.
"This is an evil hour for you and me. The province which the king
entrusted to my charge is lost. I go hence in misfortune--perchance in
disgrace--to return no more. And you, whose present being is
incorporated with the past, who have seen governor after governor in
stately pageantry ascend these steps, whose whole life has been an
observance of majestic ceremonies and a worship of the king,--how will
you endure the change? Come with us; bid farewell to a land that has
shaken off its allegiance, and live still under a royal government at
Halifax."

"Never! never!" said the pertinacious old dame. "Here will I abide,
and King George shall still have one true subject in his disloyal
province."

"Beshrew the old fool!" muttered Sir William Howe, growing impatient
of her obstinacy and ashamed of the emotion into which he had been
betrayed. "She is the very moral of old-fashioned prejudice, and could
exist nowhere but in this musty edifice.--Well, then, Mistress Dudley,
since you will needs tarry, I give the province-house in charge to
you. Take this key, and keep it safe until myself or some other royal
governor shall demand it of you." Smiling bitterly at himself and her,
he took the he