He judged that it would be wise to leave the four together, in the coffee-house, and, after receiving careful instructions how to reach the mansion of that most respectable and worthy Bostonian, Colonel Elihu Strong, he went into the street.
He found the Strong home to be a goodly house, one of the best in the city, partly of brick and partly of wood, with columns in front, all very spacious and pleasing.

He knocked with a heavy brass knocker and a trim colored maid responded.
"Is Colonel Strong at home ?" he asked.
"He is, sir," she responded in English as good as his own, "though confined to his chair with a wound in the leg which makes his temper a trifle short at times." "Naturally.

So would mine be if I couldn't walk.

I wish to see him." "What name, sir, shall I say ?" "Tell him 'tis one who served with him in wilderness fighting, on the eve of Ticonderoga." She looked at him doubtfully, but her face cleared in a moment.

Robert's frank, open gaze invited everybody's confidence.
"Come into the hall, sir," she said, and then led the way from the hall into a large room opening upon a lawn, well-shaded by many fine, large trees.