"Permit me, ma'selle," said a pleasant voice, and the green sprays were offered her.
Sally had raised her eyes in surprise, but said "Thank you," and was hurrying on when the soldier suddenly exclaimed "Ah! ah!" as if surprised at the beauty of the young face, and had no mind to let the maid escape so easily.
"There are many abroad to-night," he said, with a strange way of calling his words, "and it might be convenient to have a friend near; would ma'selle permit me to walk beside her?"
But Sally, with all her shyness at times, was no coward, and she very well knew that the British soldier and a stranger should not seek to walk with her. So she replied, in a low voice but with a fine, maidenly air:
"My home is at the parson's close by. I have no fear, nor is there need that any one should walk with me;" and she raised her eyes part way to his face.
The soldier said "Ah!" again, but this time with so great a note of surprise that Sally looked him full in the face, and lo! it was not a young man at all that she saw, but a tall, handsome man with thick moustaches that were going gray.
Now neither Englishmen nor Americans wore moustaches in those days. A beard or side-whiskers were often worn, but Sally had never before seen a man with long moustaches that swept his smooth cheek.
But it was not the brave, distinguished look of the soldier that made Sally pause for an instant with her eyes on his face. Some dim memory was stirred at sight of him. As she dropped her eyes the soldier said, in a gentle voice:
"Would not young ma'selle tell her name? I bear myself a name both true and tried, one of which never to be ashamed. I would know what name ma'selle is called by."
Sally was quick of thought.