A curious light came into the old lady's eyes as she saw the girl steady the basket in front of her; but she checked the words that had sprung to her lips and trudged slowly along, the riders holding back their horses to keep beside her. "What have you two been plotting together this afternoon?" she asked, looking from one to the other with the pleasure age often finds in contemplating youth and beauty. "Have we the appearance of dark conspirators?" laughed Joscelyn. "Nay, you both look sweet and innocent enough; but somehow I'm always giving that Bible verse a twist and reading it: 'Where two or three Tories are gathered together, there is the devil in their midst.'" "You should not twist your Scripture, Mistress Strudwick." "Mayhap not, but sometimes it makes an uncommon good hit." "Well, you were wrong to-day. Two Loyalists have been congregated together; but Cupid, rather than the devil, has been our co-conspirator." "So! It was sweethearts you were discussing? Tell me now, was it your match or Mary's you were arranging? There is nothing pleases me more than a wedding." "I thought you took no interest in matters concerning King George's subjects." "King George has naught to do with the wooing of our maids; and love is love, whether it be Redcoat or Continental," replied the old matchmaker. Joscelyn laughed. "I verily believe you'd like to know the courtship of Satan himself, provided he had one." "Of course he had, my dear, and a most engaging lover he made, I'll be bound, seeing he is so apt a beguiler in other things. Oh, yes, everybody knows that Satan is a married man." "Where got he his wife?" The old lady threw up her hands with quizzical scouting: "'Tis not set down in the books, but it would have been just like some soft-hearted creature to creep after him when he was exiled from heaven. And she is not the only woman who has followed a man to perdition, either,--more's the pity!" "You are seeing things awry to-day, Mistress Strudwick." "Mayhap, mayhap," puffed the old lady. "I haven't much of a prophet's eye, but I see things of to-day plain enough, and I know that you are a pair of uncommon pretty girls, and are like to have many a beau on your string; but when marrying time comes, take an old woman's advice and choose a man who is hale and hearty, for as sure as you are born, love flies out of the heart when indigestion enters the stomach." "Truly, Mistress Strudwick, you are better than 'Poor Richard's Almanac,'" laughed Joscelyn.