said the captain, who had by this time mounted the
wall, and encircled the girl's waist with his arm. "Nonsense! you
startled me only. But," he added, suddenly taking her round chin in
his hand, and turning her face toward the moon with an uneasy
half-suspicion, "why did you take that light from the window? What has
happened?"

"We had unexpected guests, sweetheart," said Thankful: "the count just
arrived."

"That infernal Hessian!" He stopped, and gazed questioningly into her
face. The moon looked upon her at the same time: the face was as
sweet, as placid, as truthful, as her own. Possibly these two
inconstants understood each other.

"Nay, Allan, he is not a Hessian, but an exiled gentleman from
abroad,--a nobleman--"

"There are no noblemen now," sniffed the trooper contemptuously.
"Congress has so decreed it. All men are born free and equal."

"But they are not, Allan," said Thankful, with a pretty trouble in her
brows: "even cows are not born equal. Is yon calf that was dropped
last night by Brindle the equal of my red heifer whose mother come by
herself in a ship from Surrey? Do they look equal?"

"Titles are but breath," said Capt. Brewster doggedly. There was an
ominous pause.

"Nay, there is one nobleman left," said Thankful; "and he is my
own,--my nature's nobleman!"

Capt. Brewster did not reply. From certain arch gestures and wreathed
smiles with which this forward young woman accompanied her statement,
it would seem to be implied that the gentleman who stood before her was
the nobleman alluded to. At least, he so accepted it, and embraced her
closely, her arms and part of her mantle clinging around his neck. In
this attitude they remained quiet for some moments, slightly rocking
from side to side like a metronome; a movement, I fancy, peculiarly
bucolic, pastoral, and idyllic, and as such, I wot, observed by
Theocritus and Virgil.

At these supreme moments weak woman usually keeps her wits about her
much better than your superior reasoning masculine animal; and, while
the gallant captain was losing himself upon her perfect lips, Miss
Thankful distinctly heard the farm-gate click, and otherwise noticed
that the moon was getting high and obtrusive. She half released
herself from the captain's arms, thoughtfully and tenderly--but firmly.
"Tell me all about yourself, Allan dear," she said quietly, making room
for him on the wall,--"all, everything."

She turned upon him her beautif