She wore, I remember, a gown of pale sprigged
muslin, with a blue kerchief about her shoulders and blue ribbons
in her wide hat. As her hand lay lightly on my arm I did not think
of my triumph, being wholly taken up with the admiration of her grace.
The walk was all too short, for the Governor's lodging was but a
stone's-throw distant. When we parted at the door I hoped to find some
of my mockers still lingering, for in that hour I think I could have
flung any three of them into the river.
None were left, however, and as I walked homewards I reflected very
seriously that the baiting of Andrew Garvald could not endure for long.
Pretty soon I must read these young gentry a lesson, little though I
wanted to embroil myself in quarrels. I called them "young" in scorn,
but few of them, I fancy, were younger than myself.
Next day, as it happened, I had business with Mercer at the water-side,
and as I returned along the harbour front I fell in with the Receiver
of Customs, who was generally called the Captain of the Castle, from
his station at Point Comfort. He was an elderly fellow who had once
been a Puritan, and still cherished a trace of the Puritan modes of
speech. I had often had dealings with him, and had found him honest,
though a thought truculent in manner.
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