dashing as well as the
eligible British Officers from the city had totally upset the cherished
social aspirations of the mother of the Shippen girls, the advent of the
gallant and unmarried Military Governor had lifted them to a newer and
much higher plane of endeavor. The termination of a matrimonial alliance
with the second in command of the patriotic forces not less than the
foremost in rank of the city gentry, would more than compensate for the
loss of a possible British peerage. Theirs was a proud lineage to boast
of and a mode of unfeigned comfort and display. And it took but the
briefest possible time for the artful mother to discern that her clever
and subtle devices were beginning to meet with some degree of success.

The present function was wholly her affair, and while it was announced
as a purely informal gathering, the manner and the scheme of the
decorations, the elegance and the care with which the women dressed, the
order, the appointments, the refreshments, not to mention the
distinguished French visitors, would permit no one to surmise that, even
for a moment. Care had been taken to issue invitations to the
representative members of the city's upper class, more especially to the
newly arrived French Officers and their wives, as well as the
commissioned members of the Continental Army. There were the Shippen
girls, their persistent friend, Miss Chew, as well as Miss Franks, whose
brother was now attached to the staff of General Arnold, and a dozen
other young ladies, all attractive, and dressed in the prevailing
elegance of fashion; the hair in an enormous coiffure, in imitation of
the fashions of the French, with turbans of gauze and spangles and ropes
of pearls, the low bodices with the bow in front, the wide sashes
below. It was an altogether brilliant assembly, with the Military
Governor the most brilliant of all.

"Tell me, Major," asked Mrs. Shippen in measured and subdued language as
she leaned forward in an apparently confidential manner, "does General
Arnold visit often?"

"Oh, yes!" replied the Major at once, "he is very generous with his
company."

Her face fell somewhat.

"Now, isn't that strange? I was told that he made a practice of calling
at no home outside of ours."

He uncrossed his leg and shifted in his chair rather uneasily.

"Quite true." He saw at once that he had made an unhappy remark. "But of
course he makes no social calls, none whatsoever. You must know that the
affa