settled the question by announcing that, Mr. Mason’s suggestion finding favor in his sight, they would forthwith dismount, dine, drink red wine and white, and wear out the heat of the day in this sylvan paradise until four of the clock, when the trumpet should sound for the mount; also, that if the goodwife and her daughter would do them the honor to partake of their rustic fare, their healths should be drunk in nothing less than Burgundy.

As he spoke he swung himself from the saddle, pulled out his ruffles, and raised his hat.  “Ladies, permit me,”—­a wave of his hand toward his escort, who were now also on foot.  “Colonel Robertson, Captain Clonder, Captain Brooke, Mr. Haward, Mr. Beverley, Dr. Robinson, Mr. Fontaine, Mr. Todd, Mr. Mason,—­all of the Tramontane Order.  For myself, I am Alexander Spotswood, at your service.”

The pioneer, standing behind his wife, plucked her by the sleeve.  “Ecod, Alce, ’t is the Governor himself!  Mind your manners!”

Alce, who had been a red-cheeked dairymaid in a great house in England, needed no admonition.  Her curtsy was profound; and when the Governor took her by the hand and kissed her still blooming cheek, she curtsied again.  Molly, who had no memories of fine gentlemen and the complaisance which was their due, blushed fire-red at the touch of his Excellency’s lips, forgot to curtsy, and knew not where to look.  When, in her confusion, she turned her head aside, her eyes met those of the young man who had threatened to turn Papist.  He bowed, with his hand upon his heart, and she blushed more deeply than before.

By now every man had dismounted, and the valley was ringing with the merriment of the jovial crew.  The negroes led the horses down the stream, lightened them of saddle and bridle, and left them tethered to saplings beneath which the grass grew long and green.  The rangers gathered fallen wood, and kindled two mighty fires, while the gentlemen of the party threw themselves down beside the stream, upon a little grassy rise shadowed by a huge sugar-tree.  A mound of turf, flanked by two spreading roots, was the Governor’s chair of state, and Alce and Molly he must needs seat beside him.  Not one of his gay company but seemed an adept in the high-flown compliment of the age; out of very idleness and the mirth born of that summer hour they followed his Excellency’s lead, and plied the two simple women with all the wordy ammunition that a tolerable acquaintance with the mythology of the ancients and the polite literature of the present could furnish.  The mother and daughter did not understand the fine speeches, but liked them passing well.  In their lonely lives, a little thing made conversation for many and many a day.  As for these golden hours,—­the jingle and clank and mellow laughter, the ruffles and gold buttons and fine cloth, these gentlemen, young and handsome, friendly-eyed, silver-tongued, the taste of wine, the taste of flattery, the sunshine that surely was never yet so bright,—­ten years from now they would still be talking of these things, still wishing that such a day could come again.