“Then on Tuesday ye will both be gone,” said Fairfax with such a sigh of relief that Sally, despite the gravity of the situation, could not forbear a little laugh.
“Oh, Peggy!” she cried, “why weren’t we named Betty? Had we been Captain Johnson would not wish us gone as soon as we arrived.”
“’Tis not as you think, Mistress Sally,” he protested earnestly. “Indeed, in truth”—he faltered, then continued manfully—“did I regard your friend as your words imply I would not consent to wait until Tuesday to take her back.”
A puzzled look spread over Sally’s face.
“Doth he mean that he is indeed fond of Betty?” she whispered to Peggy under cover of Thomas Ashley’s laughter which followed the youth’s response.
“I fear to say,” was Peggy’s amused reply.
And so, in spite of the fact that ravage and pillage had come very near to them in the night, they returned to the farm in much better spirits than would have been deemed possible when they left the meeting-house.