"All!" repeated Maud, quickly--"would there be nothing to tell of a certain major Willoughby, brother of mine?"
"Not a syllable. I am as heart-whole as a sound oak, and hope to remain so. At all events, all I love is in this house. To tell you the truth, girls, these are not times for a soldier to think of anything but his duty. The quarrel is getting to be serious between the mother country and her colonies."
"Not so serious, brother," observed Beulah, earnestly, "as to amount to _that_. Evert Beekman thinks there will be trouble, but he does not appear to fancy it will go as far as very serious violence."
"Evert _Beekman_!--most of that family are loyal, I believe; how is it with this Evert?"
"I dare say, _you_ would call him a _rebel_," answered Maud, laughing, for now Beulah chose to be silent, leaving her sister to explain, "He is not _fiery_; but he calls himself an _American_, with emphasis; and that is saying a good deal, when it means he is not an _Englishman_. Pray what do you call yourself, Bob?"
"I!--Certainly an American in one sense, but an Englishman in another. An American, as my father was a Cumberland-man, and an Englishman as a subject, and as connected with the empire."
"As St. Paul was a Roman. Heigho!--Well, I fear I have but one character--or, if I have two, they are an American, and a New York girl. Did I dress in scarlet, as you do, I might feel English too, possibly."
"This is making a trifling misunderstanding too serious," observed Beulah. "Nothing can come of all the big words that have been used, than more big words. I know that is Evert Beekman's opinion."
"I hope you may prove a true prophet," answered the major, once more buried in thought. "This place _does_ seem to be fearfully retired for a family like ours. I hope my father may be persuaded to pass more of his time in New York. Does he ever speak on the subject, girls, or appear to have any uneasiness?"
"Uneasiness about what? The place is health itself: all sorts of fevers, and agues, and those things being quite unknown. Mamma says the toothache, even, cannot be found in this healthful spot."
"That is lucky--and, yet, I wish captain Willoughby--_Sir Hugh_ Willoughby could be induced to live more in New York. Girls of your time of life, ought to be in the way of seeing the world, too."