The girl was leaning back with her hand over her eyes, evidently in deep thought.
“Ah, Captain,” she said, as Richard paused, mistaking him for one of Mistress Hamlin’s party from across the pavilion, “you have come to bear me company in Major Grant’s absence?”
“With your permission,” answered Richard, gallantly, “and if Providence is kind to me, General Howe will find much to say to him.”
“That is not likely, since the plans are all laid.”
“Yes; they were not long in the forming,” he ventured cautiously. “The division marches to-night.”
“So soon? I thought it was at ten in the morning?”
“No doubt, then, I was misinformed; I was not at the meeting with the couriers. If Major Grant said ten in the morning, then it must be so,” he hastily corrected himself; but he had learned one needed item.
“I hoped it had been hurried up that it might the sooner be over.”
“This French marquis is inclined to give us trouble and himself airs.”