"Some great calamity."
"How—what do you mean?" he asked.
"If you should be removed, say, or transferred to some less important post?"
A thought flashed into his mind.
"Further humiliated?"
"Yes. What then?"
"Why,—I don't know. I had thought of no possible contingency. I wished for a command in the Navy and wrote to Washington to that effect; but nothing came of it. I suppose my increasing interest in domestic affairs in the city, as well as my attentions to you, caused me to discontinue the application. Then again, I thought I was fitted for the kind of life led by my friend Schuyler in New York and had hoped to obtain a grant of land in the West where I might lead a retired life as a good citizen."
"I would die in such a place. The Indians would massacre us. Imagine me hunting buffalo in Ohio!"
Her face wore a sardonic smile. It was plain to be seen that she was in a flippant mood.
"Have you given the matter a thought? Tell me," he questioned.