ed at the door,
and came slowly down the steps.

"Come with me, young sir," he said, resting his hand on Gilbert's
shoulder. "You may take the little girls home, ladies," he added. "I am
quite sure they will not prove a danger to England's cause."

"I will wait for my son," said Mrs. Merrill. "I do not suppose you mean
to detain him long."

"I cannot say as to that, madam; but you are quite welcome to wait. If
you will come in I will see that you find a comfortable chair," he
replied courteously.

"I will wait here," said Mrs. Merrill.

"And we will wait also," declared Ruth's mother.

Ruth and Winifred clasped each other's hands as they watched Gilbert
being led up the steps. They thought their mothers were very brave
indeed to reply so calmly to an English officer.

Gilbert was absent not more than a half hour, but it seemed much longer
to the anxious little group. He came down the steps alone, and when his
mother slipped her hand under one arm while Winifred clasped his other
hand he smiled and said: "Humph! All they did was laugh and tell me to
choose a better plot for my next play. They are not soldiers at all.
Why, they asked me if I would not like to take a part in one of Major
Andre's plays."

"What did you say, Gilbert?" questioned Winifred.

"I said '_No_.' And that's all I said. And I did not thank them for the
offer; and then they laughed more than ever. I wish Washington would
drive them out of Philadelphia," answered Gilbert, who was a trifle
disappointed that the Englishmen had not taken his play more seriously.
He would not have minded if he had been held as a prisoner for a few
days; it would have made him feel that he had really done something to
prove his loyalty to the American cause.

But Mrs. Merrill was very glad to have her tall son safely beside her,
although she was inclined to agree with him that the gay young English
officers took their duties too lightly. There had been balls at the City
Tavern every week during the winter, and most of the officers seemed to
forget that there were dangers in store for them from the American Army
at Valley Forge.

Gilbert's adventure made Ruth and Winifred completely forget their plan
to make a table as a present for Betty until late that afternoon; and
then they decided not to begin it until after Aunt Deborah's departure
the next day.

"Mother has a table shaped like a heart. We could mark a heart on that
square piece of dark wood with chalk