Rivers wondered at the very abrupt and very American introduction of unexpected sentiment and humour.

“Let me know and I’ll write them, Mrs. Crocker,” cried Leila.  She had the very youthful reflection that it was odd for such a fat woman to be sentimental.

“I should like to open all the letters for a week, Mrs. Crocker,” said Rivers.

“Wouldn’t Uncle Sam make a row?”

“He would, indeed!”

“Idle curiosity,” laughed Leila, as they went out into the storm.

He made no reply and reflected on this young woman’s developmental change and the gaiety which he so lacked.

Leila, wondering what Peter wrote to the lonely old widow, went to look for her in the kitchen, while Rivers sat down in the neatly kept front room.  He waited long.  At last Leila came out alone, and as they walked away she said, “The letter was from Peter.”

“Indeed!”

“Yes, I got it all out of her.”

“Got what?”

“She gets three dollars a week from Aunt Ann and all her vegetables from Aunt Ann, and she is all the time complaining to Uncle Jim.  Then, of course, Uncle Jim gives her more money—­and Peter gets it—­”

“Where is he?”

“Oh, in Philadelphia, and here and there.”

“You should tell the Squire.”

“No, I think not.”

“Perhaps—­yes—­perhaps you are right.”  And facing the wild norther she left him at his door and went homewards with a new burden of thought on her mind.

The winter broke up and late in May Penhallow left home on business.  He wrote from Philadelphia: 

“My dear Ann:  Trade is dead, money still locked up, and the railways hesitating to give orders for much-needed rails.  I have one small order, which will keep us going, but will hardly pay.

“I never talk of the political disorder, but now you will feel as I do a certain dismay at the action of the Vicksburg Convention in the interest of the slave States.  Not all were represented—­Tennessee and Florida voted against the resolution that all State and Federal laws prohibiting the African slave trade ought to be repealed.  South Carolina to my surprise divided its vote; there were forty for, nineteen against this resolution.  It seems made to exasperate the North and build up the Republican party.  I who am simply for the Union most deeply regret this action.

“I want Leila to meet me here to-day week.  We will take the steamer and go to West Point, let her see the place, and bring John home for his month of furlough.

“I have talked here to the Mayor and other moderate Union men, and find them more hopeful than I of a peaceful ending.

“Yours always,

“JAMES PENHALLOW.”

CHAPTER XVII

When Leila sat upon the upper deck of the great Hudson River steamer, she was in a condition of excitement natural to an imaginative nature unused to travel.  Her mind was like a fresh canvas ready for the hand of the artist.  She was wondering at times what John Penhallow would look like after over two years of absence and hardly heard the murmur of talk around her, and was as unconscious of the interested glances of the young men attracted by the tall figure standing in the bow as the great river opened before her.