"Then you mean that you will go on?"
"Yes!"
"You do not understand----"
"No! I understand only that Mr. Jefferson has never abandoned a plan or a promise or a friend. Shall I, then, who have been his scholar and his friend?"
"Ah, you two! What manner of men are you that you will not listen to reason? He is high in power. Will you not also listen to the call of your own ambition? Why, in that country below, you might hold a station as proud as that of Mr. Jefferson himself. Will you throw that away, for the sake of a few dried skins and flowers? You speak of being devoted to your country. What is devotion--what is your country? You have no heart--that I know well; but I credited you with the brain and the ambition of a man!"
He sat motionless under the sting of her reproaches; and as some reflection came to her upon the savagery of her own words, she laughed bitterly.
"Think you that I would have come here for any other man?" she demanded. "Think you that I would ask of you anything to my own dishonor, or to your dishonor? But now you do not listen. You will not come back--even for me!"
In answer he simply bent and kissed her hand, stepped from the carriage, raised his hat. Yet he hesitated for half an instant and turned back.
"Theodosia," said he, "it is hard for me not to do anything you ask of me--you do not know how hard; but surely you understand that I am a soldier and am under orders. I have no option. It seems to me that the plans of your father and his friends should be placed at once before Mr. Jefferson. It is strange they sent you, a woman, as their messenger! You have done all that a woman could. No other woman in the world could have done as much with me. But--my men are waiting for me."
This time he did not turn back again.
* * * * * Colonel Burr's carriage returned more slowly than it had come. It was a dejected occupant who at last made her way, still at an early hour, to the door of her father's house.
Burr met her at the door. His keen eye read the answer at once.
"You have failed!" said he.
She raised her dark eyes to his, herself silent, mournful.
"What did he say?" demanded Burr.
"Said he was under orders--said you should go to Mr. Jefferson with your plan--said Mr. Jefferson alone could stop him. Failed? Yes, I failed!"
"You failed," said Burr, "because you did not use the right argument with him. The next time you must not fail. You must use better arguments!"