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.