Bob had lost for a moment his dignity, and was looking flushed and boyish with so many eyes fixed upon him. “My promotion, I suppose,” he explained, a little huskily. “I’m a captain—or will be to-morrow.”
“But that’s not all,” interrupted Arthur Leslie, smiling at Bob’s confusion. “He hasn’t told you that he is recommended for decoration by both French and American commanders.”
Lucy thought her heart was too full for any more emotion, but the next minute she heard General Clinton saying:
“We expected your devoted service, General Gordon, and your son’s as well. But we had no claim on your daughter’s, yet she has given all she had of resourcefulness and bravery to the common cause. She deserves a reward as much as any soldier!”
Lucy could not have spoken a word in the midst of her happiness without bursting into childish tears. She wanted to explain Captain Beattie’s part in her success. More than anything she hoped the General understood how complete her reward was in seeing honors heaped upon those she loved so dearly.
“He’s right. It’s you who deserve it all,” Bob whispered in her ear.
Unable to stay quietly where she was, with such hot cheeks and pounding heart, she edged her way toward the door, when an officer had drawn General Clinton to one side.
Out in the street the cool air touched her face gratefully. At that moment she thought of Elizabeth, longing to see her again in this triumphant hour. To-day was Lucy’s fifteenth birthday, and Elizabeth, in the midst of their fears of the past weeks, had promised Lucy a present, in one of her kind efforts to cheer the anxious girl from her growing depression. Lucy eagerly questioned the people around her, but without avail.
“There’s not a German left in Château-Plessis,” Captain Harding told her, when she explained to him the object of her search. “Elizabeth must have gone on with the German wounded from the hospital. We advanced before they could force our own people to go.”
For a moment a cloud dimmed Lucy’s happiness. Was she not to see that faithful friend again after those dreadful weeks of captivity? Did Elizabeth mean to vanish from Château-Plessis, now that her work there was ended? Before she could answer her own doubts she caught sight of old Clemence, standing with Michelle at the edge of the little crowd.