The Squire wrote to his wife from Philadelphia on the ninth: 

“DEAR ANN:  We never talk politics because you were born a Democrat and consider Andrew Jackson a political saint.  I begin to wish he might be reincarnated in the body of Buchanan.  He will need backbone, I fear.  He has carried our State by only three thousand majority in a vote of 433,000.  I am told that the excitement here was so great that the peacemaking effect of a day of cold drizzle alone prevented riot and bloodshed.  Mr. Buchanan said in October, ’We shall hear no more of “Bleeding Kansas."’ Well, I hope so.  Here we are at one.  I should feel more regret at the defeat of my party if I had more belief in Fremont, but your man is, I am sure, elected, and we must hope for the best and try to think that hope reasonable.

“I have been fortunate in my contracts for rails with the two railroads.  I shall finish this letter in Baltimore.—­

“Baltimore.—­I saw Leila, who has quite the air of a young lady and is well, handsome and reasonably contented.  Dined with your brother Henry; and really, Ann, the cold-blooded way the men talked of secession was a little beyond endurance.  I spoke my mind at last, and was heard with courteous disapproval.  My friend, Lt.-Colonel Robert Lee of the Army, was the only man who was silent about our troubles.  Two men earnestly advocated the re-opening of the slave-trade, and if as they say slavery is a blessing, the slave-trade is morally justified and logically desirable.  I do want you to feel, my dear Ann, how extreme are the views of these pleasant gentlemen.

“The Madeira was good, and despite the half-hidden bitterness of opinion, I enjoyed my visit.  Let John read this letter if you like to do so.

“Yours always and in all ways,

“JAMES PENHALLOW.”

She did not like, but John heard all about this visit when the Squire came home.

The winter of 1856-7 went by without other incident at Westways, with Mrs. Ann’s usual bountiful Christmas gifts to the children at the mills and Westways.  Mr. Buchanan was inaugurated in March.  The captain smiled grimly as he read in the same paper the message of the Governor of South Carolina recommending the re-opening of the trade in slaves, and the new President’s hopes “that the long agitation over slavery is approaching its end.”  Nor did Penhallow fancy the Cabinet appointments, but he said nothing more of his opinions to Ann Penhallow.

CHAPTER XIII

In the early days of May the Squire began to rebuild the parsonage, and near by it a large room for Sunday school and town-meetings.  Ann desired to add a library-room for the town and would have set about this at once had not her husband resolutely set himself against any addition to the work with which she filled her usefully busy life.  She yielded with reluctance, and the library plan was set aside to the regret of Rivers, who living in a spiritual atmosphere was slow to perceive what with the anxiety of a great love James Penhallow saw so clearly—­the failure of Ann Penhallow’s health.