CHAPTER XXI.

ELFRIDA’S ARRIVAL.

As soon as the early family breakfast was over, Mr. Goldsborough got ready to go to the convent to fetch away his daughter.

“You will bring her immediately here, I hope?” said Erminie.

“Oh, of course—of course he will,” added Erminie’s father.

“Thank you both. I certainly intend to call with Alberta before leaving town,” replied Mr. Goldsborough.

“Call with her? Bring her here and make a visit with her. You surely cannot mean to take her direct from the convent to the country without giving her a sight of the city!” exclaimed the old doctor.

“We must leave Washington this evening at the latest. The necessity for our return is imperative!” answered Mr. Goldsborough, gravely.

“I suppose you are anxious to get back, to stem with all your strength this tendency to secession, or should you not succeed in that, at least to take care of your family interests, threatened by State politics. Well, perhaps you are right,” said the unsuspicious old minister.

Mr. Goldsborough’s face flushed scarlet, but that might have been from the efforts he was making to draw on a very tight glove, or even from the compression of the very thick woolen scarf that was wound around his throat as he stood there booted and greatcoated, and ready for his start. He answered not a word, but took his hat from the rack, bowed, and went away.

The snow that had been falling all night long, lay deep upon the ground, and was falling fast still.

The old doctor shut the door quickly after his departing guest, and came back into the library with a renewed appreciation of the comforts of his own fireside.

Erminie ran upstairs to get ready her best spare room for the reception of Alberta; for though Mr. Goldsborough had said that he must leave Washington with his daughter on that same evening, Erminie entertained hopes that he would change his mind, and pass the day and night with them.

While she was busy having the fire lighted, the bed linen changed, and the water brought up, thinking all the time how comfortable and happy she would try to make her friend Alberta, whether her stay should be short or long, she received a hasty summons from her own father.

She ran downstairs to the lower hall where, to her unbounded astonishment, she saw Farmer Fielding and his daughter Elfrida. They had just been admitted by the servant, and were shaking hands with Dr. Rosenthal, who had come out of the library to receive them.

“I am so glad, oh, so glad to see you, my darling Elfie!” exclaimed Erminie, running and catching her little friend in her arms, and kissing her a dozen times before she even thought of the elder visitor. When she did recall his existence, she turned toward him with a blush and a smile, saying:

“Excuse me, Mr. Fielding. I am very happy to see you. How do you do?”

“Thank you, Miss Minie, I do as well as any man can in my circumstances. I have been——” began the farmer, but he was cut short by the doctor, who finished the sentence for him in his, the doctor’s, own way.

—“‘Exposed to a snowstorm, and I am wet and cold;’ that’s what he would say, my Minie. Come right up into my room, farmer, and change your clothes at once.”

“Thank ye kindly, no. I’m not wet. We came in a covered wagon as far as the Drover’s Rest, close by here, and only walked the little bit from there here. Bless you, we do look powdered over pretty well, but it’s all on the outside. It don’t penetrate like some things do, doctor. No, Miss Minie; the circumstance to which I allude was the being turned out of my home by a lot of lunatics, who are also trying to turn the Government upside down!” said the farmer, beginning to unbutton his overcoat as he stood.

Erminie and her father stared in silence for a moment, and then exclaimed in surprise, and at the same instant:

“Driven out of your home, Mr. Fielding!”

“Yes, driven out of our home—nothing else. Ask my girl, here!”

“Yes—that was it!” broke in Elfie. “Old Virginny was made too hot to hold us—literally too hot. In short, our houses were burned over our heads, and we should have been burned in it if we hadn’t made good our escape.”

“You shock me beyond measure!” exclaimed the minister, in consternation.

“Oh, my dear Elfie, what a misfortune! How did that happen? But don’t try to tell me here, my darling. Come up to my room and change your clothes first,” said Erminie, in deep sympathy.

“Oh, no. I can just take off my hood and cloak and overshoes here, if you please, and let your maid carry them away. I am dying to tell you all about it. Let us go into that pleasant-looking room, there. I dare say it is your usual sitting-room,” said Elfie, nodding her head toward the open door, while she impatiently tore off her hood and cloak and kicked off her overshoes.

“It is our library, and a favorite room with us all,” replied Erminie, pushing the door wider open and leading the way.

The room was empty. Colonel Eastworth had left the house soon after Mr. Goldsborough went, and the doctor’s two brothers, Hans and Friedrich Rosenthal, were up in the doctor’s snuggery enjoying a good smoke.

Erminie placed chairs round the fire, and the party of four drew up to it.

Erminie and her friend sat on one side of the chimney, and the two gentlemen on the other.

“First of all, though, have you had breakfast?” inquired Dr. Rosenthal, while Erminie placed her hand upon the bell, ready to ring and give orders.

“Oh, yes, thank ye; we had a very good breakfast at the Drover’s,” replied the farmer.

“Then tell us all about this affair,” urged the doctor, earnest in his sympathy and eager in his curiosity.

“Ask my girl here; she’ll tell ye. She knows a deal more about it than I do,” said the farmer.

“Tell us all about it, Elfie, darling,” said Erminie, affectionately.

“Oh, don’t you be afraid but what I’ll tell you all about it. I’ve been dying to do so ever since it happened. First, you must know it was all my doings.”

“The burning of your father’s house, my dear?” exclaimed Erminie in horror.

“No, but the provocation of those who did burn it. The first public act of my life resulted in getting our house burned over our heads! Encouraging, wasn’t it? It was all my fault!”

“It was all her glory, she should say, Miss Minie!” put in the farmer.

“That’s a mere matter of opinion, pap. The glory or the shame of my act is an open question that will be settled in quite opposite manners by opposing parties. The Secessionist will call it an act of treason! The Unionist will say it is an act of patriotism! The first will call me a wretch; the second will say I am a heroine. All I say about the matter is, that it was all my doings, because I am a self-willed little party, who don’t like contradiction.”

“I see I must tell the story myself,” put in the farmer. “Well, I suppose you know there is a pretty strong secesh feeling down there in Virginny?”

“I have heard so, I am very sorry to say,” replied the doctor.

“Bless you, yes; and down our way——Whew! Why, as far back as last Christmas, when our Virginia boys, who were at college in Washington, came home for the holidays, they made their boast that when they went back to Washington it would be behind the ‘red-cross’ banner (whatever in the deuce’s name that might be), to the sound of drum and bugle, and with swords and muskets to take the city. Bosh! I let the lads talk. I didn’t even think it even worth while to contradict them. I only thought they were a little more inflated with gas than ever college boys usually are, and I considered their blowing it off a necessary process.”

“I heard the talk of Secessionists very much in the same spirit. I could not believe it real,” said the doctor.

“Yes; but the jest has become very serious now. The madness has spread, and is spreading. Our neighborhood is a regular hotbed of secession. A few weeks ago I had occasion to go to Winchester with my two brothers. It was a lawsuit that took us there. In fact, we were subpœnaed as witnesses in the great case of Trowbridge _versus_ Kay, and we had to go, and the case detained us there more than a fortnight. I will just observe here that on our road to Winchester we noticed at every public house, post office, blacksmith and country store, and at ever so many private houses, banners raised, and bearing such mottoes as these: ‘Secession;’ ‘The Southern Confederacy;’ ‘No Compromise;’ ‘State’s Rights,’ and so forth. I didn’t see one Star-Spangled Banner in the whole route! Well, meantime, you know, I left my little Elfie at home, with no one to protect her but the negroes. Bless you, I thought she was as safe as safe could be! Now you tell what happened after I went away, Elfie, for you know more about it than I do,” said the farmer, turning to his little daughter.

“I knew he’d break down in the story. He’d better let me told it from the first. Well, when pap and my two unks had gone and left me alone, with the old blind mare, the cow, the pigs and the darkies, I got into mischief the first thing!”

“Of course you did,” said Dr. Rosenthal, laughing. “‘When the cat’s away the mice will play!’ But what particular species of mischief did you get into?”

“Ah! ‘thereby hangs a tale,’ and not a mouse’s tail neither. Well, seeing so many strange new flags flying round, I thought I would just hoist the old one, for fear people might forget its existence. The only difficulty in my way was that I hadn’t an old one to hoist.”

“But mark you what she did!” exclaimed her father, proudly.

“I made a raid upon our drawing-room and best bedchamber. There were red moreen curtains hanging up in one and white cotton in the other; so I took down the curtains red and white, and tore them into strips, and sewed them together like the stripes of the dear old flag! Then I took my blue merino dress and cut out the square for the stars. Then I cut the stars and sewed them upon it. It was twenty-four feet long by eight broad. It had forty-eight stripes and a hundred stars, and it took me a whole fortnight to make it! When it was done, I had a misgiving that it was over regulation size, and that there were more stripes than was lawful, and more stars than States; but I wasn’t sure, for I had forgotten all about my geography and history; and, besides, I thought if I had made a mistake it was certainly on the right side, and at worst, it was only a prophecy of the future, for the dear old flag is bound to grow and increase; and if she isn’t entitled to a hundred stars now, she will be when we have annexed South America and the rest of creation! So I resolved to let my flag fly as I had made it.”

“But where could you expect to find a staff strong enough to bear it?” inquired Dr. Rosenthal.

“This was my second difficulty. And I was at my wits’ ends for a little while. However, there was a tall Lombardy poplar tree growing before our house. So I made Ned, our man of all work, take an ax and go up that tree and shred off all its branches, until it stood up a bare pole—tall, straight and strong, as the mainmast of a three-decker. The stumps of the limbs that were lopped off made very good holds for the feet and hands in climbing. I made Ned take the flag up to the top of that pole and nail it there, so that it might never be drawn down!”

Here Elfie’s father nodded approvingly toward his host, as if claiming admiration for his daughter, while little Elfie went on.

“Well, they did let Sunday go by without making any very violent demonstrations against the flag. They confined themselves to hooting and howling. But bright and early Monday morning three ruffians came to the house and rapped. I hadn’t left my room, so I looked out of the window and saw who they were and guessed what they came for, and I called down to Ned, who slept in the hall, not on any account to open the door. And then I went and hoisted the window and asked what they wanted.

“‘We want that blamed flag down!’ roared one.

“‘Then want will be your master,’ said I.

“‘It has no business here! It shall come down!’ howled another.

“‘Serve you right!’ said I.

“‘Send out your beastly black man to haul it down!’ growled the third.

“‘Do you good,’ I observed.

“They didn’t seem to see the point of my answers, for the first one that had spoken broke out into a terrific volley of imprecations, that was enough to raise the hair up off my head, only it didn’t! And then he ordered me to have the flag lowered.

“‘You’re another!’ I said.

“Then all three began to curse and swear in a horrible manner. And I began to sing as loud as I could:

“‘Three blind mice! they all ran after the farmer’s wife!’

“Then, still cursing and swearing, like a crew of pirates in a sea fight, they went to the flagpole and began to climb it. Seeing which, I went and got father’s gun, examined it and found it all right. It was a double-barreled gun; and I carried it to the window and rested it on the sill and pointed its muzzle toward the top of the pole. The three men had reached it then, and were tearing away at the flag to get it loose.

“‘Come down!’ I shouted, ‘or as sure as I live I will fire!’

“They answered me with curses. Now, I am no sharpshooter, so what followed was all owing to chance. Using the window sill as a rest, I trained the gun as well as I could, pointed it toward them, and pulled the trigger. And simultaneously with the flash and the report one of the men uttered a fierce yell, and fell to the ground. Oh, Heaven, Minie, what a tremendous revulsion of feeling I experienced when I thought that I had killed a man! I do not know whether I could have fired again. However, the two others did not wait for the discharge of the second barrel. They slid down that pole like monkeys, and ran off like quarter horses, leaving their wounded upon the field. Then I laughed. I could not help it; I sung out:

“‘See how they run! see how they run!’

“And then, in my excitement, I blazed away at them with the other barrel. But they were so far off that only one of them got struck, and in the back, and with a spent ball, for I saw him stop suddenly, with a great howl, clap his hands behind him, bend backward, and then run faster than before.”

“I call that a brilliant victory,” said Farmer Fielding, nodding toward his friends.

But the Lutheran minister and his daughter were too gravely interested in Elfie’s narrative to express any admiration of her feat.

“I am not proud of the victory,” said Elfie, candidly. “I was delighted with it—elated with it—but not proud of it. How could I be? For it is true, I was one girl against three men, yet I had the great advantage of fighting behind my entrenchments, while they were exposed. I had also firearms, which they had not. No, I don’t think I have any reason to vaunt myself for this easy victory.”

“But the man you shot from the pole! Oh, my dear Elfie, I hope—I hope he was not killed!” said Erminie, clasping her hands in the earnestness of her anxiety.

“As soon as the other two men had run away, I set the old gun up in its place, and ran downstairs to the hall, where I found my faithful Ned guarding the door with an old blunderbuss.

“‘Miss Allfrida!’ he said, ‘I told you we’d have a fight for the old flag, and we’s had it; and it won’t be the last, nuther. They’re gone now, but they’ll come back to-night in stronger numbers.’

“‘I don’t care, Ned,’ I said; ‘come one, come all, this house shall fly from off its firm ground as soon as I!’

“And then I told him to open the door, for I wanted to go out and look after our wounded prisoner. Lor’, Minie, when I went up to him I thought he was dead, sure enough! He was lying on his stomach, with his head, arm and leg doubled under him. Ned was frightened, too.

“‘Goodness gracious me alive, Miss Elfie; he’s done for; and the constables will do for us!’

“‘Turn him over, Ned,’ I said.

“Ned turned him over, showing a ghastly face turned up towards the sky. I ran into the house, and brought out a pitcher of water and a bottle of whisky. And we dashed the water in his face; but with very little effect. Then Ned opened his clenched teeth with an oyster knife, and I uncorked the bottle and poured the whisky down his throat. Bless you! he swallowed it like mother’s milk. Did you ever see a baby suck in its sleep? Well, that’s the way that fellow sucked, in his unconsciousness. When the bottle was empty, and I drew it from his mouth, he opened his eyes and began to stare around.

“‘You’ll do!’ I said.

“And then I told Ned to call one of the field negroes to help him, and to bring the wounded man in, and lay him on pap’s bed, and then go for the doctor. When the man was moved, oh! he shrieked out, I tell you. And when the doctor came and examined his injuries, he found that my shot had passed through his shoulder, and the fall from the flagpole had broken his leg. So you see his injuries, though serious, were not fatal. Later in the day his friends came, in a large wagon, with a feather bed and blanket in the bottom of it, and took him away. They ‘cussed sum,’ and threatened loudly to have me arrested and sent to prison for life. I assured them that I was justified in what I did, and that the law would sustain me, and they knew it. Finally they went off, vowing vengeance against all our tribe.”

“Were you not terrified by their threats?” inquired Dr. Rosenthal.

“Not then! I was too mad! But, after I had calmed down and saw that it was growing late and night was coming on, I began to feel uneasy; because, you see, there was no one to guard the house but myself and old Ned and old Cassy! So, very early in the evening, I fastened up the house, bolting and barring every door and window. And I loaded three double-barreled guns, and made other preparations to meet the assault. And I went up into the attic to watch the approaches to the house. And, I tell you what, I was glad when I saw pap’s wagon coming down the road!”

“Yes,” put in Farmer Fielding. “The case of Trowbridge _versus_ Kay, closed that very morning, and my two brothers and myself were at liberty to come home. My two brothers, however, decided to stay over that evening, to attend a Union meeting, got up to make some little stand against the progress of the Secessionists. But I was anxious about my girl, and so I resolved to come home, and in good time, too, for I found her fortifying the house to withstand an assault. I was so astonished that my breath was suspended! But she soon told me what had happened; and I soon had reason to see the prudence of her preparations, and also their inefficiency!”

“What a dreadful state of things!”

“You would think so if you had been at our house that night!”

“What night was that, by the way?”

“Why last Monday night, of course.”

“Oh, certainly—yes! I recollect Miss Elfie’s naming the day.”

“It is a day to be remembered in the annals of my domestic life. Myself and my girl sat up and watched. But, for all that, I did not believe that our own old neighbors would pull the house down over our heads, merely because we were loyal to the old Union and the old flag. But what will not maniacs do? Myself and my brave girl watched until near daybreak, when, thinking that all was right for the time being, and that we would not have an attack that night, we separated, and went to bed, to get an hour or two of repose before breakfast. I had been some time asleep when I was rudely awakened by a terrific yell—such a yell as a hand of painted savages, armed with firebrands and tomahawks, might roar forth in surprising a peaceful home.

“I sprang up and rushed to the window and threw up the sash and looked out. The eastern horizon was quite red, and by its light I saw a crowd of men armed with guns, pistols, swords, pitchforks and a variety of weapons, gathered around the house. As I bent out to look down, I saw a quantity of straw, shavings and dry brushwood piled around the posts that supported the porch. The moment they saw me they saluted me with a perfect howl of rage.

“‘Come out of that, you——’ Here followed a volley of profane and indecent imprecations and vituperations—‘come out of that house with your devil’s imp of a daughter, unless you wish to be burned alive inside of it!’

“Before I could reply, my brave girl, who had heard the row, was by my side. She put a gun into my hand and said:

“‘Pap, I have called up Ned, and he can do good service. Now you take this gun, and fire into them from this window, and I will fire from the other. And we’ll keep it up as long as the ammunition lasts; and then we’ll die game, pap!’

“I turned to answer my girl, to tell her not to show herself at the other window—to be careful; but she was gone—she was already before the other window, and training the gun so that its muzzle should be in a line with the crowd below. I did the same at my window. We fired at the same moment, and our fire was answered by a roar of rage and a discharge of musketry. The shots rattled against the front of the house, and shivered the windows, shutters and sashes. I trembled for my girl.

“‘Elfie, for Heaven’s sake, leave the window! fall flat upon the floor,’ I said.

“‘Not if I know it, pap,’ she answered; ‘not while I have a shot left to send at the enemy.’ And, so saying, she blazed away with her other barrel.

“I did the same with my other; and again we were answered by a volley of musketry; and again the shot rattled against the walls, and split the timber of the window frames. I saw my brave girl fall, and, in an agony of terror, I threw down my gun, and ran and raised her up.

“‘I’m all right, pap,’ she said. ‘It was only my gun kicked and knocked me down; and, now, if you don’t load up and let ’em have it again, you are no pap of mine! I’ll disinherit you!’

“But, notwithstanding her words, I bore her into a back room, where she would be safe from the shots; and, even as I carried her away, I saw the smoke and flames rising from the outside of the house, and heard the rioters roar forth with many fierce curses:

“‘Come out of that, or be burned alive in it.’

“I laid my girl on the bed, in the back room, and hastened to my own room, where I secured my little money and valuable papers. While I was hiding them about my person, old Ned came to the door and whispered:

“‘Massa, massa, for de Lord’s sake, come away! Take Miss Elfie by main force, if she won’t give in any other way, and come! I’m got the wagon and horses at the back door.’

“‘Ned,’ said I, ‘come with me to Miss Elfie’s room, and tell her the state of affairs.’

“And we went to my girl’s room, and I got her clothes, and ordered her to dress herself quickly, and threatened if she did not do so, to take her just as she was.

“‘Oh, if I am to contend with foes outside and cowards inside, of course I shall have to evacuate! And I will do it decently!’ said my girl. And she got ready very quickly, and went down the back stairs to the back door, where Ned had the wagon ready. And I put my girl into it and got in beside her; and Ned mounted the driver’s seat, and we set off by the back road and made our escape. And here we are! But if it had not been for the thought of my dear, brave girl, I should have stayed there and defied the mob to the utmost!”

“If it hadn’t been for the thought of me! Well, now, I like that! That’s cool!” exclaimed Elfie; “especially when, by your own showing, pap, if it had not been for you and Ned and the kicking gun, I should have stood my ground and died game, or driven off the assailants on the last occasion as I had done on the first. I’m sure I did very well on that first occasion, when I hadn’t you to help me, pap! But on the last! Well, what could I do with fiery-hearted foes outside raging to get in, and faint-hearted friends inside crying to get out; and my very weapon recoiling upon me and kicking me down! I tell you all what! I fought against fearful odds on every hand! Joan of Arc herself would have given in under such circumstances! Not that I would, if it hadn’t been for that cowardly pap of mine!”

“I don’t think either you or your papa have reason to be ashamed of your conduct on that occasion. ‘What could you ’gainst the shock of hell?’” said Dr. Rosenthal.

“Well, anyhow, I know what I’ll do next time. If ever I find myself in command of a domestic castle in siege, I’ll lock pap up in his bedroom till the fight’s over. You hear that good, don’t you pap?” said pap’s daughter, saucily.

“But, Elfie, my darling, where have you left that good old negro who rescued you from the burning house?” inquired Erminie.

“Oh, he’s all right. He is at the Drover’s.”

“You know, Elfie, he would be quite welcome in our kitchen. Our servants would take care of him.”

“‘Thanky, honey,’ as Ned would say; he is very well where he is. Besides, pap and I haven’t come to quarter ourselves upon you so suddenly. We only wanted to see the smiling faces of friends after having seen the frowning faces of so many foes. That is all. Presently we intend to go out and look for a boarding-house where we can stop for the present.”

“Indeed, you will do no such thing, Miss Elfie! In the first place, there are no boarding-houses but what are already crowded. In the second place, here is my house, open to receive any of my friends at any time, and especially wide open to welcome any number of friends for any length of time, who have suffered from their devotion to this Union which has fostered me for nearly fifty years! So, friend Fielding, you will please make yourself at home where you are,” said Dr. Rosenthal, with earnest sincerity in every word, tone and look.

Farmer Fielding put out his sturdy hand and shook the fat fist of the good doctor, as he replied:

“Thank ye, minister! for the present I accept your kind invitation, the more especially as I shall be backward and forward from here to Virginia, and sha’n’t like to leave my little girl alone in a boarding-house. Thank ye, kindly, minister! We’ll stop with you a bit, until we can turn ourselves round.”

“That’s settled, then! And now I am happy to tell you that to-day you will meet an old friend of yours here,” said Dr. Rosenthal, cordially.

“An old friend of mine? Humph! I should like to see one besides yourself. Nearly all my old friends have become Secessionists, and are no longer friends of mine!”

“Ah, but this one hasn’t. He is loyal to the Union, and is very much disturbed in his mind on account of the spread of the Secession spirit through his native State. I am speaking of Mr. Goldsborough, of Richmond,” said the unsuspicious old man.

“Goldsborough! One of the rip-stavingest Secessionists in the State—one of the moving spirits of secession!—a leader among them!” exclaimed Farmer Fielding.

“Who, Goldsborough?”

“Himself.”

“Are you not mistaken?”

“Not a bit of it! He has been stumping the State, making secession speeches in every congressional district. I heard him make one, in our neighborhood, at the Bull’s Head Tavern. Who do you think replied to it?”

“I don’t know, I am sure. I am so astonished to hear that Goldsborough is a Secessionist that I am filled with perplexity.”

“Why, Vittorio Corsoni answered him. You know that there is no love lost between Goldsborough and Corsoni; and Goldsborough being a Secessionist might have been cause enough to make Corsoni a Unionist; though I have observed that naturalized foreigners, who have been protected by our Government, have been among the most zealous in its defense, and if this matter ever comes to blows, they will strike good ones.”

Just then the doorbell rang violently, and when the servant ran in haste to see the cause of the noisy summons, Mr. Goldsborough burst into the house, and then into the library. His face was inflamed, his features distorted, and his eyes flashing with passion.

“For Heaven’s sake, Goldsborough, what has happened?” exclaimed Dr. Rosenthal, rising, in alarm.

“What? She has gone! Fled from the convent!” roared the enraged man, throwing his hat upon one chair, and his gloves upon another, and without noticing any one in the room, except his host; “yes, brought dishonor upon all her family! And may the curses of——”

“Hush!” said the minister, laying his hand gently upon the lips of the speaker; “no curses, Goldsborough. Sit down quietly and compose yourself, and tell us all about it. See, here is Mr. Fielding and his daughter, your old friends.”

“How do you do, Fielding? How are you, Miss Elfie? I beg your pardon for not seeing you! But you will not wonder at a man being blind with rage when his only daughter has disgraced herself and her family,” said Mr. Goldsborough, gruffly enough, as he coldly shook hands with Elfie and her “pap.”

“Oh no, Mr. Goldsborough, not so bad as that! Young people will sometimes choose for themselves, you know. And though their choice may be indiscreet, and even unfortunate, it need not be disgraceful. Try to calm yourself, and make the best of it! The young man is something of a monkey, to be sure; but I believe him to be a well-meaning monkey!” urged the farmer.

And all party politics seemed for a moment forgotten in the interest felt in this domestic calamity.

“Sit down, Mr. Goldsborough! Do sit down and compose yourself! And let us hear the details of this flight,” entreated the doctor.

“No, I cannot sit down! And I will not compose myself! I will pursue the abductor of my daughter, and shoot him wherever I find him.”

“But how do you know who was the abductor, if it comes to that?” inquired the farmer.

“Oh! I know well enough! A fellow, answering to the description of this Corsoni, was seen lurking around the convent all day yesterday! Besides, you know, she would have run off with no one else! Good-by, Fielding! Good-by, Rosenthal! Young ladies, your servant!” said Mr. Goldsborough, seizing up his hat and gloves, and leaving the house before the startled company had recovered from their astonishment.