at the Coffee House, or helping her mother with the affairs of
the household, she was equally at home. Neither the brilliance of the
social function, nor the pleasures of the dance roused unusual desires
in her. Indeed she seldom participated in such entertainments, unless on
the invitation and in company with the Shippen family with whom she was
on the most intimate terms of friendship. The gay winter season of the
British occupation of the city produced no change in her manner or
attire. The dazzling spectacle of the Mischienza found her secluded in
her home, more from her own desire than from her pretended deference to
the wishes of her mother.

Her happiness was in her homelife. This was the center of her affection
as well as of her tenderest solicitude. Here she busied herself daily,
either in the care of the house, and the preparation of the meals, which
were by no means sumptuous owing to the scarcity of all foodstuffs, or
at the wheel where she made shirtings and the sheetings for the army. A
touch of her hand here and there, to this chair, slightly out of place,
to this cup or that plate in the china-chest, to the miniature on the
wall, leaning slightly to one side, or the whisk of her sweeping-brush
through the silver-sand on the floor, transformed a disorderly aspect
into one of neatness and taste. It was here that she spent her days,
enduring their unvarying monotony, with sweet and unbroken contentment.

As she hurriedly entered the house, she arrested the attention of her
father and put a period to the conversation.

"Oh, Father, have you heard?"

"What news now, child!"

"Washington has engaged the British."

"And how fared?"

"They were compelled to withdraw."

"Thank God."

"Where, Marjorie, did you come by this good news?" inquired the mother.

"At the State House. A courier arrived from Monmouth with the tidings,"
answered Marjorie, still nervous to narrate the story, and forgetting to
remove her hat.

"When did this happen?" asked her father, impatiently.

"It seems that General Washington started in pursuit of Clinton as soon
as he had evacuated the city. He had decided that an attack must be made
as soon as possible. When the British reached Allentown, they found the
American army gaining the front and so they turned towards Monmouth.
Near the Court House the British were outflanked and the Americans
gained the superior ground and so the battle was won. Then General Lee
ordered a re