ghter from distant
groups,--Teutonic song and, laughter. The moonlight trembled through the
shifting leaves. And Stephen was filled with a sense of the marvelous.
It was as if this fierce duel, so full of national significance to a
German, had been fought in another existence, It was incredible to him
that the unassuming lawyer he knew, so wholly Americanized, had been the
hero of it. Strange, indeed, that the striving life of these leaders of
European Revolution had been suddenly cut off in its vigor. There
came to Stephen a flash of that world-comprehension which marks great
statesmen. Was it not with a divine purpose that this measureless force
of patriotism and high ideal had been given to this youngest of the
nations, that its high mission might be fulfilled?

Miss Russell heard of Stephen's speeches. She and her brothers and Jack
Brinsmade used to banter him when he came a-visiting in Bellefontaine
Road. The time was not yet come when neighbor stared coldly upon
neighbor, when friends of long standing passed each other with averted
looks. It was not even a wild dream that white-trash Lincoln would be
elected. And so Mr. Jack, who made speeches for Breckenridge in the face
of Mr. Brinsmade's Union leanings, laughed at Stephen when he came to
spend the night. He joined forces with Puss in making clever fun of the
booby Dutch, which Stephen was wise enough to take good-naturedly. But
once or twice when he met Clarence Colfax at these houses he was aware
of a decided change in the attitude of that young gentleman. This
troubled him more than he cared to admit. For he liked Clarence, who
reminded him of Virginia--at once a pleasure and a pain.

It is no harm to admit (for the benefit of the Society for Psychical
Research) that Stephen still dreamed of her. He would go about his work
absently all the morning with the dream still in his head, and the girl
so vividly near him that he could not believe her to be travelling in
England, as Miss Russell said. Puss and Anne were careful to keep him
informed as to her whereabouts. Stephen set this down as a most natural
supposition on their part that all young men must have an interest in
Virginia Carvel.

How needless to add that Virginia in her correspondence never mentioned
Stephen, although Puss in her letters took pains to record the fact
every time that he addressed a Black Republican meeting: Miss Carvel
paid no attention to this part of the communications. Her concern