upon her snowy neck, her fan
languidly waving in her hand, she looked strikingly like a pictured
woman smiling down at them from over the mantel; but to the sweetness
and archness of her mother's laughing face were added some of the
colonel's pride, determination, and courage. He stepped to meet her,
and then bent and kissed the hand she extended toward him, with all the
grace of the old regime; and Seymour coming upon them was entranced
with the picture.

He too had changed his attire, and now was clad in the becoming dress
of a naval lieutenant of the period. He wore a sword, of course, and a
dark blue uniform coat relieved with red facings, with a single epaulet
on his shoulder which denoted his official rank; his blond hair was
lightly touched with powder, and tied, after the fashion of active
service, in a queue with a black ribbon.

"Now, Seymour, since you two truants have come at last, will you do me
the honor to hand Miss Wilton to the dining-room?" remarked the
colonel, straightening up.

With a low bow, Seymour approached the object of his adoration, who,
after a sweeping courtesy, gave him her hand. With much state and
ceremony, preceded by one of the servants, who had been waiting in
attention in the hall, and followed by the colonel, and lastly by the
colonel's man, a stiff old campaigner who had been with him many years,
they entered the dining-room, which opened from the rear of the hall.

The table was a mass of splendid plate, which sparkled under the soft
light of the wax candles in candelabra about the room or on the table,
and the simple meal was served with all the elegance and precision
which were habitual with the gentleman of as fine a school as Colonel
Wilton.

At the table, instead of the light and airy talk which might have been
expected in the situation, the conversation assumed that grave and
serious tone which denoted the imminence of the emergency.

The American troops had been severely defeated at Long Island in the
summer, and since that time had suffered a series of reverses, being
forced steadily back out of New York, after losing Fort Washington, and
down through the Jerseys, relentlessly pursued by Howe and Cornwallis.
Washington was now making his way slowly to the west bank of the
Delaware. He was losing men at every step, some by desertion, more by
the expiration of the terms of their enlistment. The news which
Colonel Wilton had brought threw a frail hope over the s