Then came the expedition.

The streets of Boston were thronged with a crowd of serious faces.  One vessel after another had slipped quietly off to the Roads.  But the last of the fleet was here.  And not only the friends of the soldiers, but friends of the cause, and lookers-on had assembled.  The whole city seemed to be there.

When Elizabeth with her father and Mrs. Eveleigh drove up, the embarkation was nearly over, and some of the transports were already standing off to sea.  The largest vessel, however, was still at the pier, and as Elizabeth looked at the troops marching steadily on board, she saw Archdale near the gangway.  He seemed to be in command.  She watched him a moment with a feeling of sadness.  Who could tell that he would ever come back, that youth and prowess might not prove too weak for the sword of the enemy or for some stray shot?  How lightly Mr. Edmonson had spoken of such a thing!  She did not know whom he had been talking of, but his tone was mocking.  He paid people in society more attention than Archdale did, he certainly was more kind and interested in all that concerned herself.  And yet, in an emergency, if a call came for self-denial, or devotion to honor, was it Edmonson to whom she would appeal?

Since her freedom the latter had not failed to press his suit eagerly, and he had endeavored to conceal the fury that possessed him when he became convinced that she meant her refusal.  He had not succeeded very well in this, and Elizabeth had caught another glimpse of his inner life.  She did not believe in his professions of regard for her, but she did believe thoroughly in these glimpses of character.  She had been courteous, but he had made her shrink from him.  Since the last refusal, for he had not been content with one, she had met him only in society, but here he was constantly near her, really because he was fascinated by her.  But to her it seemed under the circumstances like a persecution.  She thought of him none the more pleasantly because she met him at every turn.  His assiduity meant to her a desire to marry a rich wife.  Since his conduct at Colonel Archdale’s house she had remembered that she was considered an heiress.  She did not believe in Edmonson’s capacity for affection for any woman.  Here she was mistaken.  The young man was as much in love with her as he knew how to be, and that was passionately, if not deeply.

Twice Archdale had been to see her with Katie who was spending the winter with her aunt in Boston.  With those exceptions Elizabeth had seen nothing of him, although he had been frequently in the city.  He had been very much occupied by military matters, and, apart from these, not in a mood for general society.  Until this morning of the embarkation Elizabeth had not caught a glimpse of him for a month.  She remembered it as she looked at him and saw a certain fixedness in his face.

A sudden consciousness of observation made her turn her eyes toward the middle of the boat.  They met Edmonson’s looking at her intently.  Bowing to him, she dropped her own, and before his greeting of her was over, she turned to speak to her father.