He came kneeling on one knee before me, taking my hand and
kissing it, and laughing.
"And I see ye're not confident without reason!" added Miss
Cardigan. "Daisy'll just let ye say your mind, and no punish
you for it."
"But it is _true_, Miss Cardigan," — I said, turning to her. I
wished I had held my tongue the next minute, for the words
were taken off my lips, as it were. It is something quite
different from eating your own words, which I have heard of as
not pleasant; mine seemed to be devoured by somebody else.
"But is it true they are coming to attack Washington?" Miss
Cardigan went on, when we had all done laughing. "I read it in
the prints; and it seems to me I read every other thing
there."
"I am afraid you read too many prints," said Thorold. "You are
thinking of 'hear both sides,' aunt Catherine? — you must know
there is but one side to this matter. There never are two
sides to treason."
"That's true," said Miss Cardigan. "But about Washington, lad?
I saw an extract from a letter written from that city, by a
lady, and she said the place was in terror; she said the
President sleeps with a hundred men, armed, in the east room,
to protect him from the Southern army; and keeps a sentinel
before his bedroom door; and often goes clean out of the White
House and sleeps somewhere else, in his fear.
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