He slapped the ship timbers. “Tell her about it! Don’t expect her to guess how you feel! Hurry to her in the morning and tell her, and keep it up all day! Don’t let her forget it! If you have to go away for five minutes, write her a letter. Write her two letters!”

Ellen, removing a needle from her knitting to start a new row of stitches, glanced at the half-circle of faces that stared at Arnold: from Wilkinson, with his air of portentous gravity and his steadily moving jaw muscles, around to Cap Huff, who stood beside me, breathing heavily, his mouth open and a look of concentration on his crimson countenance, as if he strove valiantly to hold each syllable in his memory. When her eyes met mine, they clung for a moment. Her eyebrows, I thought, lifted almost imperceptibly. Then she went at her knitting again, her needles twinkling and clicking.

Arnold moved an impatient shoulder. “As I see it, your difficulty’s no difficulty at all. I have no objection to a reasonable number of ladies”—he coughed delicately—“accompanying my troops, but I have to insist they be married. Unattached, they promote dissatisfaction—yes, and dissension. There’s enough of that among our troops without any outside help. Therefore I’ll have to ask you to stop balking at trifles, and get married.”

“But General!” I protested. “I’d hate to see my brother or this lady forced into something against their wills.” I fished in my mind for a likely reason why they shouldn’t be married, but could only add weakly, “It may be they feel they’re too young.”

“Too young!” Arnold exclaimed. “I never heard of anyone feeling too young to be married—no, nor too old, either!” He glared at all of us: then bowed to Ellen, clapped his hat on his head and slapped it to set it in place. “Your servant, ma’am. When I return from Albany in a few days’ time, I’ll be glad to hear pleasant news of a conjugal nature.”

To Nathaniel, with more tartness, he added, “See that I do hear such news, sir!” On that he turned, limped back through the tent, and bolted off for the barracks as if enraged at the time he had wasted. Behind him stalked Wilkinson, full of disapproval of everyone in the world but himself.

Cap Huff hooked his thumbs in his belt and with his fingers rapped a tattoo on his stomach. “By God, he’s right!” he told Nathaniel. “In case you don’t know what he means, I’d be glad to show you.” He looked at Ellen. “Maybe I better show you anyway.”