What if Letitia Primrose were the secret ally of the Pope!...
"But she's not a Catholic," said one.
"She's Episcopalian," said another.
"What's the difference?" inquired a third.
"Mighty little, I can tell ye," said Colonel Shears. "The thing's worth seein' to."
A knock on Letitia's door that afternoon was so peremptory that she answered it in haste and some trepidation, yet was not more surprised by the sudden summons than by the man who stepped impressively into the school-room. The pupils turned smilingly to David Shears.
"Your father!" they whispered.
It was, indeed, Colonel Samuel Shears, of the Guards of Liberty. He declined the chair Letitia offered him.
"No," he said, majestically, "I thank you. I prefer"—and here he thrust up his chin by way of emphasis—"to stand."
The school giggled.