preted her confusion.

"Belike, then," said Mistress Thankful, slightly raising her voice, and
standing squarely before the major, "belike, then, I should be a
prisoner too; for the guests of this house, if they be spies, were MY
guests, and, as my father's daughter, I was their hostess; ay, man, and
right glad to be the hostess of such gallant gentlemen,--gentlemen, I
warrant, too fine to insult a defenceless girl; gentlemen spies that
did not cock their boots on the table, or turn an honest farmer's house
into a tap-room."

An expression of half pain, half amusement, covered the face of the
major, but he made no other reply than by a profound and graceful bow.
Courteous and deprecatory as it was, it apparently exasperated Mistress
Thankful only the more.

"And pray who are these spies, and who is the informer?" said Mistress
Thankful, facing the soldier, with one hand truculently placed on her
flexible hip, and the other slipped behind her. "Methinks 'tis only
honest we should know when and how we have entertained both."

"Your father, Mistress Thankful," said Major Van Zandt gravely, "has
long been suspected of favoring the enemy; but it has been the policy
of the commander-in-chief to overlook the political preferences of
non-combatants, and to strive to win their allegiance to the good cause
by liberal privileges. But when it was lately discovered that two
strangers, although bearing a pass from him, have been frequenters of
this house under fictitious names--"

"You mean Count Ferdinand and the Baron Pomposo," said Thankful
quickly,--"two honest gentlefolk; and if they choose to pay their
devoirs to a lass--although, perhaps, not a quality lady, yet an honest
girl--"

"Dear Mistress Thankful," said the major with a profound bow and smile,
that, spite of its courtesy, drove Thankful to the verge of wrathful
hysterics, "if you establish that fact,--and, from this slight
acquaintance with your charms, I doubt not you will,--your father is
safe from further inquiry or detention. The commander-in-chief is a
gentleman who has never underrated the influence of your sex, nor held
himself averse to its fascinations."

"What is the name of this informer?" broke in Mistress Thankful
angrily. "Who is it that has dared--"

"It is but king's evidence, mayhap, Mistress Thankful; for the informer
is himself under arrest. It is on the information of Capt. Allan
Brewster of the Connecticut Contingent."

Mistress Tha