"Margaret, don't chide me in that manner. I did what I thought best. But I'm through now with these cursed Catholics and with France."
"You are a free man now," she murmured.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that this court-martial relieves you of any further obligation to the colonies," was the answer.
"But I may still be Second in command."
She paused to regard him. Did he continue to cherish ambitions of this nature; or was he attempting to jest with her?
"You seem to forget Gates and the Congress," she said with manifest derision.
"No. In spite of them."
She lost all patience.