"On what mission are you here, if it be not to
intrude unwarrantably on a parent's privacy?"
The young officer's cheek flushed high, as he proudly
answered:--"I was sent by Captain Blessington, sir, to
take your orders in regard to an Indian who is now without
the fort under somewhat extraordinary circumstances, yet
evidently without intention of hostility. It is supposed
he bears some message from my brother."
The tone of candour and offended pride in which this
formal announcement of duty was made seemed to banish
all suspicion from the mind of the governor; and he
remarked, in a voice that had more of the kindness that
had latterly distinguished his address to his son, "Was
this, then, Charles, the only motive for your abrupt
intrusion at this hour? Are you sure no inducement of
private curiosity was mixed up with the discharge of your
duty, that you entered thus unannounced? You must admit,
at least, I found you employed in a manner different from
what the urgency of your mission would seem to justify."
There was lurking irony in this speech; yet the softened
accents of his father, in some measure, disarmed the
youth of the bitterness he would have flung into his
observation,--"That no man on earth, his parent excepted,
should have dared to insinuate such a doubt with impunity.
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