“Every man is needed. With so little success on the frontier, reverses at sea, and this vandal, Cockburn, ready to destroy and pillage along these shores, it is every man’s duty to be at his post, if he is able to get there.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Betty sighed. “That is what William says. With his father and uncle on the frontier, his brother gone to join Barney, and with the plantations running to waste down here, they all have no word but duty.”
“And that is right,” Lettice spoke up. “It is to protect their women and their homes that they go.”
Mr. Baldwin nodded with a pleased smile. “After all that you have suffered, to hear you say that, Miss Lettice, proves that you are very loyal.”
“I am the more so that I have suffered. The worse we are treated the more eager we are for the war to go on.”
“That is beginning to be the prevailing spirit. But I wish I could know you safe in Baltimore. I think it is very unsafe for ladies to be left unprotected when the enemy is so near.”
“And such an enemy!” cried Betty. “Then don’t you think you ought to stay and protect us, Mr. Baldwin?”
He laughed. “You make me choose my words, and put me in the position of seeming very ungallant. I must go. I cannot do otherwise.”
“Yes, I agree with you,” Lettice gave her opinion, “and if I were a man I would go too.” And Betty arising from the table, they adjourned to another room, Lettice being carefully assisted by the young man.
“Each moment I remain is dangerous,” he whispered, “for each moment it becomes less my desire to leave.” Lettice blushed, and while Betty went to her baby, they two sat in a corner of the wide hall and had a long talk. They had not many friends in common, but they loved their country, and they had struggled with a common foe; then no wonder they were not long strangers.