This
gentleman was already arrived, and had been passing the half hour he had
been there, in a sensible and well-bred conversation with the spinster,
that in no degree touched upon their domestic affairs.
To the eager inquiries of Miss Peyton, relative to her success in her
romantic excursion, Frances could say no more than that she was bound to
be silent, and to recommend the same precaution to the good maiden also.
There was a smile playing around the beautiful mouth of Frances, while
she uttered this injunction, which satisfied her aunt that all was as it
should be. She was urging her niece to take some refreshment after her
fatiguing expedition, when the noise of a horseman riding to the door,
announced the return of the major. He had been found by the courier who
was dispatched by Mason, impatiently waiting the return of Harper to the
ferry, and immediately flew to the place where his friend had been
confined, tormented by a thousand conflicting fears. The heart of
Frances bounded as she listened to his approaching footsteps. It wanted
yet an hour to the termination of the shortest period that the peddler
had fixed as the time necessary to effect his escape. Even Harper,
powerful and well-disposed as he acknowledged himself to be, had laid
great stress upon the importance of detaining the Virginians during that
hour.
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