A low mischievous laugh was her answer as John lifted his hat and stood smiling before them.
"Miss Winter, this is my brother, whose praises I"ve long been chanting.
I"ve a little work to do in the crowd--I"ll be back in a few minutes."
There was just a touch of irony in the smile with which the younger man spoke as he hurried away, but the girl was too much absorbed in the striking picture John Vaughan made to notice. The sparkling brown eyes took him in from head to foot in a quick comprehending flash. The fame of his personal appearance was more than justified. He was the most strikingly good-looking man she had ever seen, and to her surprise there was not the slightest trace of self-consciousness or conceit about him.
His high intellectual forehead, thick black hair inclined to curl at the ends and straight heavy eyebrows suggested at once a man of brains and power. He looked older than he was--at least thirty, though he had just turned twenty-six. The square strong jaw and large chin were eloquent of reserve force. Two rows of white, perfect teeth smiled behind the black drooping moustache and invited friendship. The one disquieting feature about him was the look from the depths of his dark brown eyes--so dark they were black in shadow. He had been a dreamer when very young and followed Charles A. Dana to Brook Farm for a brief stay.
Before he had spoken a dozen words the girl felt the charm of his singular and powerful personality.
"I needn"t say that I"m glad to see you, Miss Winter," he began, with a friendly smile. "Ned has told me so much about you the past month I"d made up my mind to join the Abolitionists, and apply for a secretaryship to the Senator if I couldn"t manage it any other way."
"And you"ll be content to resume a normal life after to-day?"
She looked into his eyes with mischievous challenge. She had recovered her poise.
He laughed, and a shadow suddenly swept his face:
"I wonder, Miss Winter, if any of us will live a normal life after to-day?"
"You"ve seen the Rail-splitter, our new President?"
"No, I didn"t wait in the Senate Chamber. I came out here to make sure of my seat beside you----"
"To hear every word of the Inaugural, of course," Betty broke in.
"Yes, of course----" he paused and the faintest suggestion of a smile flickered about the corners of his eyes. "Ned told me you had three good seats. I am anxious to hear what he says--but more anxious to see him when he says it. I can read his Inaugural, but I want to see the soul of the man behind its conventional phrases----"
"He"ll use conventional phrases?"
"Certainly. They all do. But no man ever came to the Presidential chair with as little confidence back of him. The Abolitionists have already begun to denounce him before he has taken the oath of office. The rank and file of the party that elected him are not Abolitionists and never for a moment believed that the Southern people were in earnest when they threatened Secession during the campaign. We thought it bluff. To say that the whole North and West is panic-stricken is the simple truth.
"Horace Greeley and the _Tribune_ are for Secession.
""Let our erring sisters go!" the editor tells the millions who hang on his words as the oracle of heaven.
"The North has been talking Secession for thirty years, and now that the South is doing what they"ve been threatening, we wake up and try to persuade ourselves that no such right exists in a sovereign state. Yet we all know that Great Britain surrendered to the thirteen colonies as sovereign states and named each one of them in her articles of surrender and our treaty of peace. We know that there never would have been a Const.i.tution or a Union if the men who drew it and created the Union had dared to question the right of either of these sovereign states to withdraw when they wished. They didn"t dare to raise the question. They left it for their children to settle. Now we"re facing it with a vengeance.
"Our fathers only dreamed a Union. They never lived to see it. This country has always been an aggregation of jangling, discordant, antagonistic sections. How is this man who comes into power to-day, this humble rail-splitter, this County Court advocate, to achieve what our greatest statesmen have tried for nearly a hundred years and failed to do? Seward, the man he has called to be Secretary of State, has been here for two months, juggling with his enemies. He"s a Secessionist at heart and expects the Union to be divided----"
"Surely," Betty interrupted, "you can"t believe that."
"It"s true. We don"t dare say this in our paper, but we know it. So sure is Seward of the collapse of the Lincoln administration that he withdrew his acceptance of the post of Secretary of State, only day before yesterday. It"s uncertain at this hour whether he"ll be in the cabinet----"
"Why?" Betty asked in breathless surprise.
The young editor was silent a moment and spoke in low tones:
"You can keep a secret?"
"State secrets--easily."
"Mr. Seward expects to be called to a position of greater power than President----"
"You mean?"
"The Dictatorship. That"s the talk in the inner circles. n.o.body in the North expects war or wants war----"
"Except my father," Betty laughed.
"The Abolitionists don"t count. If we have war there are not enough of them to form a corporal"s guard--to say nothing of an army. The North is hopelessly divided and confused. If the South unites--if North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri and Maryland join the Confederacy under Davis, the Union is lost. What"s going to hinder them from uniting? They are all Slave States. They believe the new President is a Black Abolitionist Republican. He isn"t, of course, but they believe it. How can he rea.s.sure them? The States that have already plunged into Secession have hauled the flag down from every fort and a.r.s.enal except Sumter and Pickens. The new President can only retake these forts by force. The first shot fired will sweep every Slave State out of the Union and arraign the millions of Democratic voters in the North solidly against the Government. G.o.d pity the man who takes the oath to-day to preserve, protect and defend the Const.i.tution!"
When John Vaughan"s voice died away at last into a pa.s.sionate whisper, Betty stood looking at him in a spell. She recovered herself with a start and a smile.
"You"ve mistaken your calling, Mr. Vaughan," she said with emotion.
"Why do you say that?"
"You"re a statesman--not an editor--you should be in the Cabinet."
"Much obliged, Miss Betty--but I"m not in this one, thank you. Besides, you"re mistaken. I"m only an intelligent observer and reporter of events. I"ve never had the will to do creative things."
"Why?"
"The responsibility is too great. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Only G.o.d Almighty can save this Nation to-day. It"s too much to expect of one man."
"Yet G.o.d must use man, mustn"t He?"
"Yes. That"s why my soul goes out in sympathy to the lonely figure who steps out of obscurity and poverty to-day to do this impossible thing.
No such responsibility was ever before laid on the shoulders of one man.
In all the history of the world he has no precedent, no guide----"
Ned interrupted the flow of John"s impa.s.sioned speech by suddenly appearing with uplifted hand.
"Never such a crowd as this!"
"Why, they say it"s smaller than usual!" Betty exclaimed.
"I don"t mean size," Ned went on rapidly. "It"s their temper that"s remarkable. An Inauguration crowd should support the administration. The Lord help the Rail-splitter if that sullen dumb mob are his const.i.tuents! Half of them are downright hostile----"
"Washington"s a Southern town," John remarked.
"They are not Washington folks--not one in a hundred. And the only honest backers old Abe seems to have are about a thousand serious young fellows from the West, whom General Scott has armed as a special guard to circle the crowd."
He paused and pointed to a group of a dozen Westerners standing beside a bush in the outer rim of the throng.
"There"s a bunch of them--and there"s one stationed every ten yards. The artillery in position, the infantry in line, the sharpshooters masked in windows, the guard under the platform with muskets c.o.c.ked, and a thousand volunteers to threaten the crowd from without, I think the new President should get a respectful hearing! The procession is coming up the Avenue now with a guard of sappers and miners packed so closely around the open carriage you can"t even see the top of old Abe"s head----"
"Let"s get our seats!" Betty cried.