Most unwillingly he yielded to the steady pressure of my elbow; and we moved on, he turning his handsome head continually.  After a while he laughed.

“Nevertheless,” said he, “there stands the rarest essence of real beauty I have ever seen, in lady born or beggar; and I am an ass to go my way and leave it for the next who passes.”

I said nothing.

He grumbled for a while below his breath, then: 

“Yes, sir!  Sheer beauty—­ by the roadside yonder—­ in ragged ribbons and a withered rose.  Only—­ such Puritans as you perceive it not.”

After a silence, and as we entered the gateway to the manor house: 

“I swear she wore no paint, Loskiel—­ whatever she is like enough to be.”

“Good heavens!” said I.  “Are you brooding on her still?”

Yet, I myself was thinking of her, too; and because of it a strange, slow anger was possessing me.

“Thank God,” thought I to myself, “no woman of the common class could win a second glance from me.  In which,” I added with satisfaction, “I am unlike most other men.”

A Philistine thought the same, one day—­ if I remember right.

CHAPTER II

 Poundridge

We now approached the door of the manor house, where we named ourselves to the sentry, who presently fetched an officer of Minute Men, who looked us over somewhat coldly.

“You wish to see Major Lockwood?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Boyd, “and you may say to him that we are come from headquarters express to speak with him on private business.”

“From whom in Albany do you come, sir?”

“Well, sir, if you must have it, from General Clinton,” returned Boyd in a lower voice.  “But we would not wish it gossipped aloud.”

The man seemed to be perplexed, but he went away again, leaving us standing in the crowded hall where officers, ladies of the family, and black servants were continually passing and repassing.

Very soon a door opened on our left, and we caught a glimpse of a handsome room full of officers and civilians, where maps were scattered in confusion over tables, chairs, and even on the floor.  An officer in buff and blue came out of the room, glanced keenly at us, made a slight though courteous inclination, but instead of coming forward to greet us turned into another room on the right, which was a parlour.

Then the minute officer returned, directed us where to place our rifles, insisted firmly that we also leave under his care our war axes and the pistol which Boyd carried, and then ushered us into the parlour.  And it occurred to me that the gentleman on whose head the British had set a price was very considerably inclined toward prudence.

Now this same gentleman, Major Lockwood, who had been seated behind a table when we entered the parlour, rose and received us most blandly, although I noted that he kept the table between himself and us, and also that the table drawer was open, where I could have sworn that the papers so carelessly heaped about covered a brace of pistols.