exploits with Arnold-had read, with flushed cheeks and beating heart, the high commendations officially bestowed upon him, and as he stood there before her, bronzed, weather-worn, yet bearing himself so gallantly, her heart beat high with the hope which her lips dare not express.

"I am sure I don't know, Aaron," she murmured. "I beg pardon," she interrupted, as she remembered. that he was now Major Burr, and the leader of the party.

'No, Aaron always, and always the same Aaron,” he said, raising her hand to his lips, and imprinting a kiss on it, at the same time fastening upon her a glance which brought the crimson tide again to her face. "I have come to relieve you of the presence of let me see, what is her name," and he drew from his pocket a letter, which, having opened, he glanced over hastily. "Margaret Moncrieffe," he continued, refolding the letter, and replacing it in his pocket. "I have come for her by order from General Putnam."

"Surely you are not going to take her pri

soner ?"

"Oh, no," he replied, laughingly; "we don't make war upon, nor prisoners of, women."

"She isn't a woman, Aaron-she is only a child. But "

"Well, go on," he said, seeing that she hesitated. "No matter; judge for yourself. Come, take a seat

in the parlor, and I will find something for you to eat

and drink."

"But where is Miss Moncrieffe? I must hurry her off, for it is necessary I should be in the city to-night.” "She is somewhere about-I suppose under the trees, reading. She spends half her time out of doors, reading, or firing at a mark, and I can tell you, Aaron, she is a desperate shot.”

"She won't bring me down, Patsy," said the young major, gallantly, "for your image will be between us ;" and again the warm blood mantled her brow and cheeks, and her eyes fairly glistened with happiness. "While you are getting some refreshments, I will seek her out. Where do you suppose she is ?"

"In the small grove," and she pointed to the spot named, which was distant, perhaps, two hundred feet from the house.

Unbuckling the heavy horseman's sword, which had, during this brief conversation, been dangling about his heels, he laid it on the table, and, with a graceful bow and smile, left the room, and strode off toward the grove, which he well knew, for with it were associated memories of a character so pleasant as not to be easily effaced, for it was in that grove he had told his boyish love to the blushing, happy girl whom he had just left, and had received an avowal of her own in return.

CHAPTER III.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.

As he approached the well remembered spot, he observed the object of his search, half reclining on the green sward, leaning against a tree, and deeply engaged in the perusal of a book which she held in her hand.

"Miss Moncrieffe," he said, approaching the young lady, who, pausing in the perusal of her book, dropped it by her side, and fixed upon the intruder a gaze of the most unbounded astonishment.

"I suppose it is me you mean, for my name is Moncrieffe, though I don't know why you call me Miss. Are you looking for me?"

"I am ordered to seek Miss Moncrieffe, and convey her to New York," he replied, with a graceful bow and a military salute.

"Ordered to convey me to New York !" she exclaimed, throwing her book away; and springing up, she stood before him, with flushed cheeks and flashing eyes; "and who has presumed to order me to be conveyed

to New York ?"

Major Burr smiled with a singular expression, while he gazed upon the young Pythoness, as she stood glar

ing at him; then gracefully removing his hat, he felt in his pocket for the letter under which he was acting, and while thus engaged, she continued:

"If you have come to take me a prisoner, I tell you plainly I won't go, and you don't look like ".

"Young lady, don't give yourself any unnecessary alarm," said the major, a little haughtily, and as he spoke, he extended to her the letter for which he had been searching in his pockets. "You are at perfect liberty to stay or go with me, as you choose, but it your father's wish".

is

"My father!" she exclaimed, hurriedly interrupting him, and grasping the letter which the young officer held toward her. "Is he a prisoner ?"

How soon he may be,

"He is not, Miss Moncrieffe. the fate of war can alone determine."

"Then I don't care for anything ;" and as she spoke, she opened the letter which the major had handed to her. A hasty glance showed her that it was a missive addressed to General Putnam by her father, in which he implored his protection for his daughter, until her father's circumstances should permit him to reclaim her; for as he was at present situated, he could afford her neither shelter nor protection, and the spot where she was then located might soon become the theatre of active hostilities.

"I beg your pardon, sir; I did not imagine such a state of things. General Putnam is very kind, and I

am truly grateful to him. I am at your command,

sir."

"Command me, Miss Moncrieffe," said Major Burr, with a smile, and one of those graceful bows which in after years made him so irresistible.

“Oh, for gracious sakes!" she exclaimed, half pettishly, and she half smiled, half pouted, "don't call me Miss Moncrieffe. My name is Margaret. Please to call me Margaret. I am not a young lady by some years. How old do you think I am?" she inquired archly, bending upon him a searching glance, but dropping her eyes as they met the flashing orbs of the young soldier fixed upon her with an expression of intense admiration.

She was tall-quite up to the standard fixed by that arbiter elegantiorum, Lord Chesterfield-with a form fully developed in all the glory of budding womanhood; large, lustrous eyes, a complexion so shaded between blonde and brunette, it was impossible to decide which predominated; hair black as the raven's wing, and presenting an ensemble, which a painter or sculptor would have been proud to embody as his ideal of perfection in womanhood and beauty.

And there she stood before a young officer scarcely out of his teens, awaiting, as did Helen before Paris, the judgment she had courted.

Perhaps she was shocked at the boldness of her own question; perhaps she was struck with the gallant bearing of the slender, graceful youth who stood be