“This way,” he said, leading them across the parade-ground where a company was drilling. “I sent for Captain Williams to be in the anteroom. He should be there waiting for you. I did not tell him who wished to see him.”
Major Dale was standing at the entrance of the barracks, and the party stopped for a moment’s chat with him. Presently Peggy passed on into the anteroom. Clifford was sitting disconsolately by a table with his head resting on his hand. He was pale, and thinner than she had ever seen him, but his resemblance to her father was more marked than ever. He cried out at sight of her.
“Peggy,” he cried springing to his feet, “is this what that Yankee captain meant by sending for me? Cousin David said that he expected you, but he did not tell me that you had come.”
“I just came last night, my cousin,” she answered scanning his face with deep concern. “And how is thee?”
“Oh, I’m all right,” he answered carelessly. “That is,” he added hastily, “as right as one well can be who is a prisoner.”
“Mother is here too, Clifford. She wishes to see thee so much. We want thee to be with us, my cousin, while we are here, and Captain Drayton hath said that thee might come and go at thy pleasure if thee would give thy word not to try to escape.”
“Drayton is very kind,” he remarked, his lip curling. “I give no word to him of any sort. Why, Harriet!” he broke off abruptly. “How did you get here?”
“Hasn’t Peggy told you all about it?” cried Harriet running to him. “Oh, Cliff, ’twas such a good joke that I played on her. I made a stricter Quakeress than she does. You see we had not heard from you for so long that ’twas quite time that some of us looked you up. Sit down, and I’ll tell you about it.”
“Father ought not to have permitted it,” he observed, when she had finished the recital. “I don’t see why he did. I like it not, my sister.”