"Well, I have ten days to consider before your ship sails," said De Lysle.
"And will you consider—honestly consider?" asked Brandon.
"I will—or I will play you whether I go or whether I stay."
"Still the gambler!" commented Brandon. "Well, if it come to the pinch, we will play—but what is the good in playing—except on the voyage home?"
XVI THE CRESCENT AND THE STAR
Whitehall, the country residence of Governor Sharpe, lay on the banks of the Chesapeake, about ten miles north of Annapolis.
It was originally part of the Colonel Greenberry estate, and was willed by him to St. Margaret's Church, Westminster Parish. Colonel Sharpe, when he decided to make his home permanently in America, purchased it, after considerable difficulty with the vestry, and proceeded to erect thereon, three years before, a most commodious and handsome mansion.
The large central house, of English brick, square and of two-and-a-half stories, stands on a slight—a very slight—eminence, from which a long esplanade of velvety lawn, set with flowers and shrubbery, led down to the blue waters of the Bay, a quarter of a mile distant.