Two Friends--Walter Lane Harding and Tom Leslie--Merchant and Journalist--A Torn Dress and a Stalwart Champion--Tom Leslie's Story of Dexter Ralston--Three Meetings--An Incident on the Potomac--The Inauguration of Lincoln--A Warning of the Virginia Secession--Governmental Blindness--Friend or Foe to the Union? 23 CHAPTER II. Richard Crawford and Josephine Harris--The Invalid and the Wild Madonna--An Odd Female Character and a Temptation--Discouragement and Consolation--Miss Joe Harris on the Character of Colonel Egbert Crawford--A Suggestion of Hatred and Murder--A New Agony for the Invalid--A Lady with an Attachment to Cerise Ribbon. 41 CHAPTER III. A Scene at Judge Owen's--Mother and Daughter--Pretty Emily with One Lover Too Many--Emily's Determination, and Judge Owen's Ultimatum--A Pompous Judge playing Grand Signeur in his own Family--Aunt Martha to the Rescue--Her Story of Marriage without Love, Wedded Misery and Outrage--How Old is Colonel John Boadley Bancker, and what is the Character of Frank Wallace? 60 CHAPTER IV. Harding and Leslie make Discoveries on Prince Street--Secesh Flags and Emblems of the Golden Circle--What do they mean?--Tom Leslie takes a Climb and a Tumble--The Red Woman--A Carriage Chase Up-town--A Mysterious House--Amateur Detectives under a Door-step, and what they saw and heard. 63 CHAPTER V. Who was the Red Woman?--Tom Leslie's Strange Story of Parisian Life and Fortune-telling--The 20th of December, 1860--An Hour in the Rue la Reynie Ogniard--The Vision of the White Mist--The Secession of South Carolina seen across the Atlantic--Was the Sorceress in America? 73 CHAPTER VI. Colonel Egbert Crawford and Miss Bell Crawford--Miss Harris entering upon the Spy-System--Some Dissertations thereon, as practised in the Army and Elsewhere--What McDowell knew before Bull Run--Colonel Crawford's Affectionate Care of his Sick Cousin--Josephine Harris behind a Glass Door--What she overheard about Cousin Mary and the Rich Uncle at West Falls--Colonel Crawford trying his Hand at Doctoring--A Suspicious Bandage, and what the Watcher thought of it 83 CHAPTER VII. Introduction of the Contraband--What He Was and What He Is--Three Months Earlier--Colonel Egbert Crawford in Thomas Street--Aunt Synchy, the Obi Woman--How a Man who is only half evil can be tempted to murder--The Black Paste of the Obi Poison 99 CHAPTER VIII. Colonel John Boadley Bancker and Frank Wallace at Judge Owen's--A Pouting Lover and a Satisfied Rival--The Philosophy of Male and Female Jealousy--Frank Wallace doing the Insulting--A Bit of a Row--A Smash-up in the Streets, and a True Test of Relative Courage 115 CHAPTER IX.