When a Witch is Young by Philip Verrill Mighels

DAVID DONNER was not to be deterred for long, by the shadow of a memory which he had seen flit like a ghost of his past, across Garde's features. He was arriving at that age when a man's memory is not so strong as in years past and when the events of the day at hand seem therefore the more important. He fretted under his promise to go abroad, desiring this to be abrogated by his fellow-colonists, and this could only be done when he should persuade them that the charter would be saved, or at least his country better served, by his remaining where he was. He had not as yet spoken to his colleagues of Randolph's proposition. He was waiting for Garde to give him her answer.

The girl watched the old man narrowly, to see how long she could wait, for her answer was no more ready after a week than it had been on the first day. This was not entirely because her affections were placed elsewhere. She was a little patriot, otherwise her love for Adam would have prompted her reply at once, and from hot lips. She was undergoing a genuine struggle with herself. If it were true that she could save the charter, should she permit her own happiness or Adam's to stand before the happiness and rights of all the Massachusetts people? Had not Adam himself written that when there are three and only two could be happy, the one, representing the minority, should suffer sorrow, that the greater number might preserve their joy? Then, when she and Adam were only two, how much more they should endure sorrow, when all the people of that colony weighed against them in the question.