“Undoubtedly, mistress; but in times like these there are regulations to be observed by both sides. One who breaks them does so at his own risk, and subjects himself and those with whom he abides to suspicion. I warned you against this very thing. I promised to attend to any letter you might wish to send to the British commander after we had found an officer who might be exchanged for your brother. That you preferred to risk sending a message through the lines irregularly rather than to benefit by my assistance doth not speak well for the harmlessness of the letter, however innocent it doth appear on the surface.” “But it contains nothing that can harm any one,” she protested. “And you were so long in telling me about the parole. Why, look you! ’Tis all of a month since you promised to get my brother here, and he hath not come yet! Think you I could wait longer? The letter hath not been written five days, and had you obtained my brother’s release as you promised ’twould not have been written at all. ’Tis unfair to hold me to account for a matter for which you yourself are to blame.” “Your brother was not at Fredericksburg as you thought he would be, Mistress Harriet,” answered he. “I was but seeking to find where he had been taken. The delay was in your service. Why did you not come to me instead of taking matters in your own hands? I would have explained. As the affair now stands you have not only brought punishment upon yourself, but you have subjected these, your cousins, to suspicion.” “As to myself,” she said superbly, “it doth not matter. I was right to seek aid of my own people. I would do it again if it were to do over. My brother’s welfare merits any risk I might run. As for Peggy and her mother, it is needless to say anything. They are not responsible for any of my doings, and cannot be held for them. ’Tis ridiculous to tell me that I have brought suspicion upon them, and ’tis done merely to fright me.” “You speak that which you know not of,” he said soberly. “These be parlous times, mistress. Have you forgot that at Middlebrook you played the spy? Have you forgot that despite that fact you are brought again in our lines on the plea of ill health? Have you forgot that your father is a colonel in the British army, and that you yourself are an English girl? There are those who say that these facts show plainly that your cousins but use their patriotism as a mask to aid the side with which they truly sympathize.” Harriet stared at him in dismay, and turned very pale as a wail broke from Peggy: “Oh, Harriet, Harriet! why did thee do it? And thee promised.” “No harm shall come to you, Peggy,” cried Harriet. “Sir,” turning to Mr. Reed, “believe me when I say that these two had naught to do with either the writing or the sending of the letter. In truth, they knew not when ’twas done, nor how.”