way of
looking frankly and inquiringly into his eyes with a deep, serious
expression. Such a look could not mean idle curiosity.

And yet the problem he could not solve was how far he dared as yet to
presume on that interest. A single false step might imperil his
enterprise. His plan was of double importance since the break between
her impulsive father and the President of the Confederacy. Barton was
now the spokesman for the Opposition. His tongue was one that knew no
restraint. An engagement with his daughter might mean the possession of
invaluable secrets of the Richmond Government. Barton's championship of
the quarrelsome commanders, who, in the first flood tide of their
popularity as the heroes of Manassas, gave them the position of military
dictators, would also place in his hands information of the army which
would be priceless. The Confederate Congress sat behind closed doors. On
the right footing in the Barton household he could put himself in
possession of every scheme of the Southern law-makers from the moment of
its conception.

The trait of the girl's character which astounded him was the sudden
merging of every thought in the cause of the South. Even the time she
spent laughing and flirting with those soldier boys was a sort of holy
service she was rendering to her country. The devotion of these Southern
women to the Confederacy was remarkable.

It had already become an obsession.

From the moment blood had begun to flow, the soul and body of every
Southern woman was laid a living offering on the altar of her country.
He watched this development with awe and admiration. It was an ominous
sign. It meant a reserve power in the South on which statesmen had not
counted. It might set at nought the weight of armies.

The moment he began to carefully approach the inner citadel of the
girl's heart he found the figure of a gray soldier clad in steel on
guard. What he said didn't interest her. He was a foreigner. She
listened politely and attentively but her real thoughts were not there.
He had not believed it possible that patriotism could so obsess the soul
of a beautiful girl of nineteen. The devotion of the Southern women,
young and old, to the cause of the South was fast developing into a
mania.

They were displaying a wisdom, too, which Southern men apparently did
not possess. While the hot-headed, fiery masters of men were busy
quarreling with one another, criticising and crippling the
administration