"Never ye fear," she repeated. "The sight of a real lady is sure to be a check on his tongue an' manners; an' I'll see to it that he knows who be in this room. 'T is true sorry I am to have to put ye on this lower floor; but ye see, we've strict orders to keep the whole o' the upper floor for some gentry who will be here by late evening."

Then bending her head quickly, she whispered with great impressiveness, "Who, think ye, we expect?"

"I have no idea," was Mary's indifferent answer. She had scarcely heard the question, for wondering what it might be that Dorothy was thinking about as she stood by the window, from which she had drawn away the curtain.

Certain it was that the girl could distinguish nothing in the pitchy darkness outside, even if she could see through the rain-dashed panes, that looked as if encrusted with gla.s.s beads.

Mistress Trask's information--whispered, like her question, as if she feared the furniture might hear her words--caused Mary to sit very erect, with kindling eyes and indrawn breath.

"Hush-h," warned the landlady, with a broad smile of delight at the surprise she had aroused. "Hush-h; we was ordered on no account to let it get out."

"Dot, did you hear what she said?" Mary asked, when the two, left to themselves, sat down to the tempting supper.

Dorothy shook her head, wondering the while at Mary's agitation.

"She said," and Mary lowered her own voice, "that the Commander-in-Chief is to arrive here soon, and that he will stop here all night, as there is to be a meeting of some sort with many of his princ.i.p.al officers."

"General Washington!" A new light came to Dorothy's face, kindling a rush of color in her cheeks, and sending a glitter from her eyes that routed all their sad abstraction.

Mary nodded.

"I wish we could see him," said Dorothy. "Oh--I must get a peep at him."

"We will certainly try to see him," Mary agreed, adding eagerly, "And oh, Dot--mayhap Jack will be of them."

"And perhaps Hugh," Dorothy said impulsively. Then quickly, as she saw the sudden change in Mary's face, "Whatever is the matter with Hugh Knollys, I wonder? He has not been to see his mother since we went to stop with her; and I have noticed that whenever his name is mentioned, you and Jack--and even his mother--look oddly. Has he done anything amiss?"

"Nothing, indeed, that I know of." And Mary lifted her cup of tea so that it hid her eyes for the moment.

"I have wished so often that he would come--I should like to see him once more. How long--how very long it seems since he left us last fall!" Dorothy sighed; and Mary knew it was not for Hugh, but because of all that had happened since his going.

CHAPTER XXVIII

"Oh, Mary, which one of them do you suppose is he?" whispered Dorothy, as the two girls hung over the bal.u.s.trade of the upper hall, watching the figures entering through the outer door, all of them so m.u.f.fled in storm-cloaks as to look precisely alike, save as to height.

The landlord, with much obsequious bustling, had hastened forward to meet them. His wife was beside him, and she had just summoned a servant to a.s.sist in taking the wet wrappings from the new arrivals as she stood courtesying before them.

"The rooms be aired, lighted, and fires made, as ordered, sir," Trask was saying.

In one hand he held aloft a clumsy bra.s.s candlestick holding three lighted candles, while the other hand was placed over his heart, as if that member needed to be repressed under the well-filled proportions of his ample waistcoat; and he was bowing with great servility before a figure whose stature far exceeded that of the other new-comers, but whose face, hidden by his hat, could not be seen by the eager onlookers at the top of the stairs.

"Oh, Dot, they are coming straight up here," Mary gasped; and both girls sprang back in dismay at sight of the procession beginning to file up the stairway, preceded by the landlord, who now carried a candlestick in either hand.

Scarcely knowing what they were doing, and intent solely upon concealing themselves, they darted through the doorway of the nearest room, which was lighted only by a cheery wood fire.

"They will surely see us as they go by," whispered Mary, for, once inside, they saw that the door by which they had entered was in the extreme corner of the room, rendering the entire interior visible to a pa.s.ser-by.

"Let us shut the door," Dorothy suggested.

But Mary said quickly, "No, that will never do. The landlord may have left it open, and would notice it being closed."

It had not occurred to them that all this was probably on account of the room being one of those a.s.signed to the new guests, for Mary had given but slight heed to what Mistress Trask said as to the entire upper floor being taken, and Dorothy had heard naught of the matter beyond what Mary told her.

"Here is another room," said the younger girl joyfully, for her alert eyes had spied a half-closed door communicating with an inner and dark apartment.

It took them only a moment to gain this place of refuge and shut the door; then, standing close to it, they listened for any sound to indicate the pa.s.sage of the procession down the hall, and so leave them an opportunity to return un.o.bserved to their own apartments.

"I wish we had never done so foolish a thing," Mary said in a low voice. She was breathing rapidly, and trembling from agitation.

"So do I--as it is," was Dorothy's hurried answer. "But if I only could have seen him, so as to know him, I should not care."

The next minute they were awakened to new dismay by the sound of heavy footsteps entering the outer room. Then they heard the landlord say, "This is the room, your Excellency; I trust it be such as to suit you."

A calm, full-toned voice replied: "Thank you, landlord; everything seems quite as it should be. The other gentlemen will be here shortly; show them up at once, when they arrive."

"Yes, sir--certainly, sir," Trask replied. "This is the bedroom, sir."

And the sound of his heavy feet approaching the door caused still greater terror to the trembling girls.

The latch was actually lifted, when the other voice arrested any farther movement by saying with a note of impatience: "Yes, yes--very well, landlord. We should like supper as speedily as it can be served, and as there will be many of us, we will have it downstairs."

Trask seemed now to take his leave, for they heard the outer door close. Then the same voice, mellow and dignified as at first, came to them again.

"No doubt, Dalton, they have been detained by the storm."

"Faith, sir, 't is little such a man as Glover cares for water,"

replied another voice, more jovial and evidently younger; "although, to be sure, he may prefer the water to be salt, being more used to that flavor."

Mary pulled Dorothy by the arm.

"We must walk straight out of here," she whispered, "this very minute.

There is nothing else for us to do."

"Well,--go on." The words came brokenly from the younger girl's lips, for her heart was beating in a way to make her actually dizzy.

Then, as Mary hesitated, Dorothy's st.u.r.dy self-reliance returned; and pushing the door wide open, she pa.s.sed in front of her sister-in-law and stepped forth into the presence of four officers, wearing the uniform of the Continental army.

Three of them were wandering about the room, as though awaiting the orders of the fourth,--a very tall man, of ma.s.sive frame, seated by a table.

He was examining a sealed packet, and seemed about to open it under the light of the candles, but looked up quickly as the childish figure came and stood directly in front of him. Then, as his large gray-blue eyes glanced at the taller one, he arose to his feet, with the unopened packet in his hand.

The other officers had come to a standstill, as though rooted, in various parts of the room, and stood staring open-mouthed at the fair intruders,--a very evident admiration soon taking the place of their amazement.

Their commander now addressed the two girls, looking down from his great height upon the faces wherein embarra.s.sment and veneration seemed hopelessly mingled.

"Well, ladies," he demanded,--his words and manner, albeit perfectly respectful and courteous, tinged with sternness--"what is the meaning of this?"