After that she came to all my birthdays, and lost some of her shyness.  And was invited to other great houses, even as Mr. Carvel had predicted.  But her chief pleasure seemed ever her duty.  Whether or no such characters make them one and the same, who can tell?  She became the light of her father’s house, and used even to copy out his briefs, at which task I often found her of an evening.

As for Tom, that graceless scamp, I never could stomach him.  I wondered then, as I have since, how he was the brother of such a sister.  He could scarce bide his time until Mr. Swain should have a coach and a seat in the country with the gentry.  “A barrister,” quoth he, “is as good as any one else.  And if my father came out a redemptioner, and worked his way, so had old Mr. Dulany.  Our family at home was the equal of his.”  All of which was true, and more.  He would deride Patty for sewing and baking, vowing that they had servants enough now to do the work twice over.  She bore with him with a patience to be marvelled at; and I could never get it through my head why Mr. Swain indulged him, though he was the elder, and his mother’s favourite.  Tom began to dress early.  His open admiration was Dr. Courtenay, his confessed hope to wear five-pound ruffles and gold sword knots.  He clung to Will Fotheringay with a tenacity that became proverbial among us boys, and his boasts at King William’s School were his father’s growing wealth and intimacy with the great men of the province.

As I grew older, I took the cue of political knowledge, as I have said, from Mr. Swain rather than Captain Daniel, who would tell me nothing.  I fell into the habit of taking supper in Gloucester Street.  The meal was early there.  And when the dishes were cleared away, and the barrister’s pipe lit, and Patty and her mother had got their sewing, he would talk by the hour on the legality of our resistance to the King, and discuss the march of affairs in England and the other colonies.  He found me a ready listener, and took pains to teach me clearly the right and wrong of the situation.  ’Twas his religion, even as loyalty to the King was my grandfather’s, and he did not think it wrong to spread it.  He likewise instilled into me in that way more of history than Mr. Allen had ever taught me, using it to throw light upon this point or that.  But I never knew his true power and eloquence until I followed him to the Stadt House.

Patty was grown a girl of fifteen then, glowing with health, and had ample good looks of her own.  ’Tis odd enough that I did not fall in love with her when Dolly began to use me so outrageously.  But a lad of eighteen is scarce a rational creature.  I went and sat before my oracle upon the vine-covered porch under the eaves, and poured out my complaint.  She laid down her needlework and laughed.

“You silly boy,” said she, “can’t you see that she herself has prescribed for you?  She was right when she told you to show attention to Jenny.  And if you dangle about Miss Dolly now, you are in danger of losing her.  She knows it better than you.”