“Here’s to the gold, gentlemen, he says we’re welcome—hic—to it,” said Arnold as he extended a wobbling wine-glass.
“Captain Kidd must have been a bold rover of the seas,” remarked Roderick Barclugh, “to have been commissioned by the British Admiralty to clear the seas of pirates and then to have turned to the plundering himself. I rather admire the audacity of character. His riches would have made him a great man if he had escaped the gallows, like many another before and since his time. The riches are what we must have, no matter so much how they come.”
“Hear, hear, gentlemen,” said Arnold, as he stupidly raised his wine-glass and drank again, “we must have the riches.”
At this moment the butler came quietly into the room and touching General Arnold on the arm, delivered a message.
The Commander of Philadelphia took his leave, and everybody smiled as he made extra efforts to steady his steps out of the room.
While the gentlemen were discussing privateers and the “jolly mariner,” the ladies had gone to the drawing-room to have coffee served.
Mrs. FitzMaurice by an opportune retirement of the ladies from the table had evaded an impending storm, for she had known Mrs. Arnold from girlhood, and saw that a conflict of sentiment between her and Miss Greydon was inevitable. As the hostess had a premonition of the impending clash, she thought best to have the scene among the ladies alone, for they all knew the hysterical temper of the General’s wife.
As soon as the ladies had been seated at the tables for coffee, Mrs. Arnold’s ire began to gather headway.
“I should think,” she said, “that examples of the Spartan woman were good enough for the common people, but for the gentry to give up their birth-rights and fortunes, and to sacrifice themselves and their future for a miserable system of self-government, such statements are vulgar and indecent. Why, just to think! General Arnold asked the Committee on Military Affairs and the Commander-in-Chief to be transferred to the command of West Point, and thus far they have ignored his request. Surely he deserves some honors.”
“Why, Mrs. Arnold, I believe the proper thing to do, entertaining such sentiments toward our principles of free government, instead of seeking West Point, that General Arnold ought to resign, or in fact join the other party,” flashed from Miss Greydon’s ready tongue.