"That is best," nodded Claudia; "accept the creature as he is. We're fools if we're bitten before we're married, and fortunate if we're not nipped afterward. Anyway, I love men, and so God bless them, for they can't help being what they are and it's our own fault if they play too roughly and hurt us." Lady Johnson laughed and laid her hand lightly on my shoulder. "Dear Jack," said she, "we do not mean you, of course." "Oho!" cried Claudia, "it's in 'em all and crops out one day. Jack Drogue is no tamer than the next man. Nay, I know the sort--meek as a mouse among petticoats----" "Claudia!" protested Lady Johnson. "I hear you, Polly. But when I solemnly swear to you that I have been afraid of this young man----" "Afraid of what?" said I, smiling at her audacity, but vexed, too. "Afraid you might undo me, Jack----" "What!" "--And then refuse me an honest name----" "What mad nonsense do you chatter!" exclaimed Lady Johnson, out of countenance, yet laughing at Claudia's effrontery. And Penelope, abashed, laughed a little, too. But Claudia's nonsense madded me, though her speech had been no broader than was fashionable among a gentry so closely in touch with London, where speech, and manners, too, were broader still. Vexed to be made her silly butt, I sat gazing out of the window, over the great Vlaie, where, in the reeds, tall herons stood as stiff as driven stakes, and the painted wood-ducks, gorgeous as tropic birds, breasted Mayfield Creek, or whirred along the waterways to and fro between the Stacking Ridge and the western bogs, where they nested among trees that sloped low over the water. Beyond, painted blue mountains ringed the vast wilderness of bog and woods and water; and presently I was interested to see, on the blunt nose of Maxon, a stain of smoke. I watched it furtively, paying only a civil heed to the women's chatter around me--watched it with sideway glance as I dipped my spoon into the smoking soupaan and crumbled my johnnycake. At first, on Maxon's nose there was only a slight blue tint of vapour, like a spot of bloom on a blue plum. But now, above the mountain, a thin streak of smoke mounted straight up; and presently I saw that it became jetted, rising in rings for a few moments. Suddenly it vanished. Claudia was saying that one must assume all officers of either party to be gentlemen; but Lady Johnson entertained the proposition coldly, and seemed unwilling to invite Continental officers to a dish of tea. "Not because they are my captors and have driven my husband out of his own home," she said haughtily; "I could overlook that, because it is the fortune of war. But it is said that the Continental officers are a parcel of Yankee shop-keepers, and I have no desire to receive such people on equal footing." "But," said Claudia, "Jack is a rebel officer, and so is Billy Alexander." "I think Lord Stirling must be crazy," retorted Lady Johnson. Then she looked at me, bit her lip and laughed, adding: