"Good soldier! Huh!" she cried, with a pretty toss of her head. "If Virginia depends on such men for soldiers, my lord Dunmore will soon settle the disturbance. Good soldier, indeed! Why it was only last week he and Captain Barron were sitting up drinking and telling their abominable adventures, and they were anything but a soldier-like kind. Poor Mrs. Bullbeggor overheard them and has threatened to get a divorce. Snake said she had hysterics, and kept screaming that her husband was fit for nothing but paying bills. Good soldier, indeed!" And Mary went into the house with an air of indignation that would have done credit to a queen—or a Judkins.
I went over to Harrison's, but on the way I couldn't help wondering if this power to pay bills, which Mary held in such high disdain in the Major, was not just a little attractive in young Harrison. Women have strange methods of reasoning out the proper way to look at things.
Harrison declined to see me, at first, but after I had sat out two cigars on his verandah, he appeared.
He refused to listen to any peaceful overtures that I advanced, and I wasted all the afternoon and evening trying to settle matters without a meeting. His friend Phripps dined with him and afterwards left with a formal challenge to the Major, requesting a meeting at sunrise the next morning. I left Harrison at about nine in the evening, after an uncomfortable meal, with the feeling that trouble was in store for the Major.
On reaching the Hall, I found dinner over and the Major and Barron in bed. The Major had requested Barron to act for him and had accepted the challenge. They had settled upon a spot down on the river shore, and all who know the James will remember how flat and smooth the shore is at this bend.
The fact that there was to be a meeting had been kept secret from my mother and sister, for even Mary did not think the last words she had overheard meant anything dangerous, but, in spite of this, it was easy to see that the house servants suspected something was wrong.
My mother gave me a lecture about the advisibility of taking her advice, and also how to treat the Major. She really liked the old soldier, in spite of his eccentricities, but wished, also, to avoid offending Harrison. I forget now just what the advice was, but, as a matter of course, had I taken it, all must have ended well, for time and again afterwards have I heard her affirm this—so also has she in regard to other matters.
I walked out on the cool lawn under the bright stars, and then around the house, hoping to find Will who had stepped over to the stables. I met him as he was coming back and together we walked around behind the slave quarters, discussing the affair of the Major's and also the gloomy outlook of war in the colonies. The news of Bunker Hill had affected both of us greatly. As we passed an angle of the house we heard voices.
"Is yo' sho' nuff a Prince Gawge nigger?" said one.
"Dat I is, honey, sho'; an' I's de nigger uf er Prince Gawge man," answered the other.