“I arose and kissed her hand and I remember well the words I spoke:  ‘Madame,’ I said, ’let me not try now to express my thanks.  I shall need time for friendly action and well chosen words.  Do you think that Margaret will fall in with your plans?’

“She answered: 

“’How can she help it?  She is a woman.  Have you not both been waiting these many years for the chance to marry?  I think that I know a woman’s heart.’

“‘You know much that I am eager to know,’ I said.  ’The General has not told me that he is to meet the British.  May I know all the good news?’

“‘Of course he will tell you about that,’ she assured me.  ’He has told me only a little.  It is some negotiation regarding an exchange of prisoners.  I am much more interested in Margaret and the wedding.  I wish you would tell me about her.  I have heard that she has become very beautiful.’

“I showed Mrs. Arnold the miniature portrait which Margaret had given me the day of our little ride and talk in London and then an orderly came with a message and that gave me an excuse to put an end to this untimely babbling for which I had no heart.  The message was from Solomon.  He had got word that the British war-ship had come back up the river and was two miles above Stony Point with a white flag at her masthead.

“My nerves were as taut as a fiddle string.  A cloud of mystery enveloped the camp and I was unable to see my way.  Was the whole great issue for which so many of us had perished and fought and endured all manner of hardships, being bartered away in the absence of our beloved Commander?  I have suffered much but never was my spirit so dragged and torn as when I had my trial in the thorny way of distrust.  I have had my days of conceit when I felt equal to the work of Washington, but there was no conceit in me then.  Face to face with the looming peril, of which warning had come to me, I felt my own weakness and the need of his masterful strength.

“I went out-of-doors.  Soon I met Merriwether coming into camp.  Arnold had returned.  He had ridden at a walk toward the headquarters of the Second Brigade and turned about and come back without speaking to any one.  Arnold was looking down as if absorbed in his own thoughts when Merriwether passed him in the road.  He did not return the latter’s salute.  It was evident that the General had ridden away for the sole purpose of being alone.

“I went back to my hut and sat down to try to find my way when suddenly the General appeared at my door on his bay mare and asked me to take a little ride with him.  I mounted my horse and we rode out on the east road together for half a mile or so.

“‘I believe that my wife had some talk with you this morning,’ he began.

“‘Yes,’ I answered.

“’A British officer has come up the river in a ship under a white flag with a proposal regarding an exchange of prisoners.  In my answer to their request for a conference, some time ago, I enclosed a letter from Mrs. Arnold to Miss Margaret Hare inviting her to come to our home where she would find a hearty welcome and her lover—­now an able and most valued officer of the staff.  A note received yesterday says that Miss Hare is one of the party.  We are glad to be able to do you this little favor.’