Both relieved and yet more frightened, Janice, in an attempt to conceal the latter feeling, remarked, “I thought you had departed, sir.”
“Think you I’d rest content without farewell, or choose to have one with the whole staff as witnesses?" answered Jack, as he came forward. “Furthermore, I had some matters of which to speak that were not to be published to the world.”
“Mommy is—”
“Where I’d have her,” interjected the officer; “for what I have to say is to you. First: I put the screws on old Hennion and Bagby, and have their word that they will not push their forfeiture bill, or in any other way molest you.”
“We thank you deeply, Colonel Brereton.”
“I rode to Brunswick and saw Parson McClave yesterday afternoon, to bespeak his aid, and he says he is certain you may live at peace here, if you will not seek to be rigorous with your tenants, and that he will do his best to keep the community from persecuting you.”
“’T is glad news, indeed.”
“Knowing how you were circumstanced, I then rode about your farms and held interview with a number of your tenants and pleaded with them that they pay a part of their arrears in supplies; and several of the better sort gave me their word that you should not want for food.”
“’T was most thoughtful of you.”
“Finally, I wrote a letter to your father, and have sent it under a flag that was going to New York, telling him that you were safe arrived at Greenwood.”