r.

"This, ladies, is the room in which General Washington died," said the
curator, patiently repeating the familiar sentence. "It is, of course,
on that account sacred to every true American."

He bowed his head instinctively as he spoke. The General looked round
him in silence. His eye was caught by the old hearth, and by the iron
plate at the back of it, bearing the letters G. W. and some scroll work.
There flashed into his mind a vision of the December evening on which
Washington passed away, the flames flickering in the chimney, the winds
breathing round the house and over the snow-bound landscape outside, the
dying man in that white bed, and around him, hovering invisibly, the
generations of the future.

"He was a traitor to his king and country!" he repeated to himself,
firmly. Then as his patriotic mind was not disturbed by a sense of
humour, he added the simple reflection--"But it is, of course, natural
that Americans should consider him a great man."

The French window beside the bed was thrown open, and these privileged
guests were invited to step on to the balcony. Daphne Floyd was handed
out by young Barnes. They hung over the white balustrade together. An
evening light was on the noble breadth of river; its surface of blue and
gold gleamed through the boughs of the trees which girdled the house;
blossoms of wild cherry, of dogwood, and magnolia sparkled amid the
coverts of young green.

Roger Barnes remarked, with sincerity, as he looked about him, that it
was a very pretty place, and he was glad he had not missed it. Miss
Floyd made an absent reply, being in fact occupied in studying the
speaker. It was, so to speak, the first time she had really observed
him; and, as they paused on the balcony together, she was suddenly
possessed by the same impression as that which had mollified the
General's scolding on board the steamer. He was indeed handsome, the
young Englishman!--a magnificent figure of a man, in height and breadth
and general proportions; and in addition, as it seemed to her, possessed
of an absurd and superfluous beauty of feature. What does a man want
with such good looks? This was perhaps the girl's first instinctive
feeling. She was, indeed, a little dazzled by her new companion, now
that she began to realize him. As compared with the average man in
Washington or New York, here was an exception--an Apollo!--for she too
thought of the Sun-god. Miss Floyd could not remember that she had ev