“Contented!” said Miss Wynne. “Already they talk of taxes in which we are to have no voice. Contented! and not a ship dare trade with France. It amazes me that there is a man in the plantations to sit quiet under it.”
“I am of your opinion, madam,” said Mr. Macpherson, “and I might go still further.”
“They consider us as mere colonials, and we may not so much as have a bishop of our own. I would I had my way, sir.”
“And what would you do, Mistress Wynne?” asked Mr. Chew.
“I would say, ‘Mr. Attorney-General, give us the same liberty all the English have, to go and come on the free seas!’”
“And if not?” said Montresor, smiling.
“And if not,” she returned, “then—” and she touched the sword at his side. I wondered to see how resolute she looked.
The captain smiled. “I hope you will not command a regiment, madam.”
“Would to God I could!”
“I should run,” he cried, laughing. And thus pleasantly ended a talk which was becoming bitter to many of this gay company.