ut Polly tells me now and then. Only he is not allowed to excite
himself by talking, and it is such little dribbles that I cannot glean
much. And you met face to face?"

"We were both doing our duty like brave men, I trust. I'm not sure but
in the melee that Allin saved my life, and then----"

"Thou couldst have taken his! Oh, Andrew, thank God it was not so," and
her voice was tremulous with the joy of thanksgiving.

"A soldier fired and wounded his right shoulder." Andrew did not say
that it was only a hair's-breadth escape of his own life. "Neither knew
he should meet the other."

"And what hath happened since?"

"He was paroled and exchanged. Since then I have heard nothing. And now
I must go. First to see Allin, and then our Commander. The bulk of the
troops are still to follow in the steps of these noble Frenchmen. And
to-morrow night I must start south on an important mission. In the
morning I shall see thee again. My respects to Madam Wetherill."

Her arms were about his neck. How tall she had grown! He remembered when
she had first come to Cherry farm he had carried her about in his arms.

"Dear----" He unclasped the clinging hands softly. And then he turned
the door knob and was gone.

She ran to her room, a pretty chamber next to Madam Wetherill's, now,
and burying her face in the pillow, cried for ever so many causes, it
seemed to her. Sorrow that her brother should not have cared enough to
write, grief that they two should have met in strife, thanksgiving that
neither should be guilty of the awful weight of the other's blood, joy
that she should have seen Andrew, and pain and grief that he could not
go home as a brave and well-loved son.

It was quite late when Madam Wetherill came up, when the last guest had
gone.

"I thought it was thy cousin, and I knew thou would not feel like
further gayety, though all the town seems wild, as if we had gained a
victory. These French soldiers in their fine attire have turned
everyone's head. After all, methinks gay clothes have their uses and
help to preserve the spirits. And Andrew--Major Henry, do we call him?"

Primrose smiled then. "He is my own dear cousin and never forgets me.
And he wished his respects to thee, and will come to-morrow morning. And
Colonel Nevitt has been paroled and is in New York."

"Go to bed now. It is full midnight. The rest will keep," and she patted
the soft cheek, warm with flushes of satisfaction.

Major Henry came the next