Unless our people are willing to sacrifice everything, we cannot maintain that glorious independence which has been so brilliantly declared." He said this with all the boldness of the Declaration itself; but she, being yet a woman, asked him wistfully,-- "Would you give me up, sacrifice me for country, then ?" "Not for the whole wide--" She laid a finger upon his lips.
"Hush, hush! Do not even speak treason to the creed.

I am a daughter of Virginia.

My father, my brother, my friends, my people, and, yes, I will say it, my lover are perilling their lives and have engaged their honor in this contest for the independence of these colonies, for the cause of this people, and the safeguarding of their liberties; and if I stood in the pathway of liberty for a single instant, I should despise the man who would not sweep me aside without a moment's hesitation." She spoke with a pride and spirit which equalled his own, her head high in the air, and her eyes flashing.
She had released her hands and had suited the gesture to the word, throwing out her hand and arm with a movement of splendid freedom and defiance.

She was a woman of many moods and "infinite variety." Each moment showed him something new to love.

He caught the outstretched hand,--the loose sleeve had fallen back from the wrist,--he pressed his lips to the white arm, and said with all his soul in his voice,-- "May God prevent me from ever facing the necessity of a choice like that, Katharine! But indeed it is spirit like yours which makes men believe the cause is not wholly desperate.