Jennie blushed and smiled in friendly response to the Secretary"s awkward effort at Southern politeness.
"Miss Barton, may I ask a little favor of you?"
"Certainly, Mr. Holt. Allow me to introduce my friend, Mr. Welford of Virginia."
The Secretary bowed stiffly and d.i.c.k nodded his head with indifference.
"The Italian Minister with whom I"ve just been talking wishes the honor of an introduction for his Secretary. Miss Jennie, will you meet him?"
"Certainly--"
"He"s looking forward to the possible new Empire of the South," Holt whispered, "and proposes at an early day to forestall the French--"
d.i.c.k threw him a look of scorn as he returned to the door and rose with a scowl.
"I"ll go out and get fresh air."
"Don"t go--"
"I can"t breathe in here. Two"s company and three"s a crowd."
She seized his arm:
"Please sit down, d.i.c.k."
"I"ll be back directly--"
In spite of her protest he bounded up the steps of the gallery, turned sharply to the right, avoided the intruders and disappeared in the crowd.
The Secretary of War bowed again:
"Miss Barton, permit me to introduce to you Signor Henrico Socola, Secretary to His Excellency, the Minister of Sardinia."
The slender figure bent low with an easy grace.
"Pleased to meet you, Signor Socola," Jennie responded, lifting the heavy lashes from her l.u.s.trous brown eyes with the slightest challenge to his.
"The pleasure is all mine, Mad"moiselle," he gravely replied.
"You"ll excuse me now if I hurry on?" the Secretary said, again bowing and disappearing in the crowd.
"Mr. Holt tells me, Miss Barton, that you know every Senator on the floor."
"Yes. My father has been in Congress and the Senate for twenty years."
"You"ll explain the drama to me to-day when the curtain rises?"
"If I can."
"I"ll be so much obliged--" he paused and the even white teeth smiled pleasantly. "I"m pretty well up on American history but confess a little puzzled to-day. Your Southern Senators are really going to surrender their power here without a struggle?"
"What do you mean?" the girl asked with a slight frown.
"That your Democratic party has still a majority in both the House and the Senate. If the Southern members simply sit still in their places, the incoming administration of Abraham Lincoln will be absolutely powerless. The new President can not even call a cabinet to his side without their consent."
"The North has elected their President," Jennie answered with decision.
"The South scorns to stoop to the dishonor of cheating them out of it.
They"ve won the election. They can have it. The South will go and build a government of her own--as we built this one--"
"And fight twenty-three million people of the North?"
"If forced to--yes!"
"With the certainty of an uprising of your slaves at home?"
Jennie laughed.
"Our slaves would fight for us if we"d let them--"
A curious smile twitched the lips of the Italian.
"You speak with great confidence, Miss Barton!"
"Yes. I know what I"m talking about."
The keen eyes watched her from the shadows of the straight thick brows.
"And your Senators who took a solemn oath in entering this Chamber to support the Const.i.tution will leave their seats in violation of that oath?"
The Southern girl flushed, turned with quick purpose to answer, laughed and said with winning frankness:
"You don"t mind if I give you my father"s answer in his own words? I know them by heart--"
"By all means."
"An oath to support the Const.i.tution of the United States does _not_ bind the man who takes it to support an administration elected by a mob whose purpose is to subvert the Const.i.tution!"
"Oh,--I see," was the quiet response.
"You speak English with perfection, Signor!" Jennie said with a smile.
"Yes, Mad"moiselle, I"ve spent my life in the Diplomatic service."
He bowed gravely, lifted his head and caught the smile on the lips of the Secretary of War standing in the shadows of the doorway of the Diplomatic gallery.
The stately figure of John C. Breckinridge, the Vice-President, suddenly mounted the dais and his piercing eyes swept the a.s.sembly. He rapped for order and the silence which followed was as the hush of death.
"The curtain rises on our drama, Mad"moiselle," the smooth even voice said.