“Yes.  The North is stiffening up.  It is as well.  Did you see what Seward said, ‘An irrepressible conflict,’ and that man Lincoln, ’The house divided against itself cannot stand’?  Now I should like to think them both wrong.”

“And do you not?” she asked.

“No.  Some devilish fate seems to be at the helm, as Rivers says.  We avoid one rock to fall into wild breakers of exasperation; with fugitive-slave cases on one side, and on the other importations of slaves.  Where will it end?”

“But what would you do, uncle?”

“Oh, amend the Fugitive-Slave Law.  Try the cases by jury.  Let slavery alone to cure itself, as it would in time.  It would if we let it alone.”

“And Kansas?” asked Leila.

“Oh, Douglas is right, but his view of the matter will never satisfy the South nor the extreme men at the North.  My dear Leila, the days are dark and will be darker, and worst of all they really think we are afraid.”  His face grew stern.  “I hate to talk about it.  Have you heard from John lately?”

“Yes, only last week.”

“And you write to him, of course?”

“Yes, I answer his letters.  Aunt Ann writes every Sunday.  Are things better at the mills?”

“Rather.  Now for a gallop—­it puts me always in a more hopeful humour.  Don’t let your aunt overwork you, Leila; she will.”

“She can’t, Uncle Jim.”  It was true.  Leila gently rebelled against incessant good works—­sewing-classes for the village girls, Sunday school, and the endless errands which left no time for books.  Her occasional walks with Marks Rivers enabled her to form some clear idea of the difference of opinion which so sharply divided parties north of Maryland.  His own belief was that slavery was a sinful thing with which there should be no truce and no patient waiting upon the influence of time.  He combated the Squire’s equally simple creed—­the unbroken union of the States.  She fought the rector hard, to his delight.  Far more pleasant on three afternoons in the week were the lessons in Italian with her aunt, and Rivers’s brilliant commentary on Dante.  The months ran on into and through the winter, with an economical Christmas to Ann’s regret.

* * * * *

As a rule the political contests of our country go on without deeply affecting the peace of families.  In the cotton States opinion was or had to appear to be at one.  In the North the bitterness and unreason of limited groups of anti-slavery people excited the anger of men who saw in their ways and speeches continual sources of irritation, which made all compromise difficult.  The strife of parties where now men were earnest as they never were before since revolutionary days was felt most seriously in the border States.

“James,” said Ann after breakfast, when Leila had gone to dress for a ride, “I think I ought to tell you that I have had this morning letters from both my brothers.  I wrote, you know, asking them to bring the girls to us.  Leila is too much alone.  They both decline.  Charles has come out for the Republicans, and now—­it is too dreadful—­they do not speak.  Charles tells me there is a strong minority with him and that the State is not all for the South.  I cannot believe it.”