“This is another caprice of yours, Francis.”
“If you are determined to stay,” responded Francis, with a cold and sorrowful look at me, “I will try to find you a room where there are no broken panes. Come, Captain, never mind about the whip to-day; you must now act as my quartermaster. Forward, march;” and taking him by the arm, she led off her willing slave.
When we were once more alone, the General began—
“Believe me, she means well and kindly towards you; but as we don’t reckon on visitors, you have taken us by surprise, and that’s what vexes Francis. It is so difficult to procure anything in this out-of-the-way place.”
“Every lady has her faults and her little caprices,” I interposed.
“Yes, but others can hide them better under a little polish. Francis cannot understand our social laws; unfortunately she has not had an education suitable to her rank and station. Her own mother she never knew; and my son-in-law, Sir John Mordaunt, did not understand the kind of training necessary for a Dutch lady of position.”
“Don’t despair, General; who knows what effect a good husband will have on her!”
“That’s just my difficulty, Jonker; Francis would refuse to marry any man she suspected of such intentions.”
“You are right, grandfather,” exclaimed Francis, who had again entered the room. “Major Frank will never give up her command to an inferior; she can only endure slaves and vassals around her, and the sooner Jonker Leopold understands this, the better for him, if he has intentions of conspiring against her freedom.”
This was said half jestingly; but I replied, quite seriously, that I thought Major Frank would do wrong to refuse a good husband.