lone, and would be
bored, but for you. In return--a slight jest on Sir Richard to-night!--I
will teach him that no fat gentleman should pay even bored attentions to
a lady who soon will be fat, when his obvious duty should call him
otherwhere! Bah! 'tis as though I myself were fat; which is not true."

"You go too deep for me, Madam," I said. "I am but a simple messenger."
At the same time, I saw how admirably things were shaping for us all. A
woman's jealousy was with us, and so a woman's whim!

"There you have the measure of England's sincerity," she went on, with
contempt. "England is selfish, that is all. Do you not suppose I have
something to do besides feeding a canary? To read, to study--that is my
pleasure. I know your politics here in America. Suppose you invade
Texas, as the threat is, with troops of the United States, before Texas
is a member of the Union? Does that not mean you are again at war with
Mexico? And does that not mean that you are also at war with England?
Come, do you not know some of those things?"

"With my hand on my heart, Madam," I asserted solemnly, "all I know is
that you must go to see my master. Calhoun wants you. America needs you.
I beg you to do what kindness you may to the heathen."

"_Et moi?_"

"And you?" I answered. "You shall have such reward as you have never
dreamed in all your life."

"How do you mean?"

"I doubt not the reward for a soul which is as keen and able as your
heart is warm, Madam. Come, I am not such a fool as you think, perhaps.
Nor are you a fool. You are a great woman, a wonderful woman, with head
and heart both, Madam, as well as beauty such as I had never dreamed.
You are a strange woman, Madam. You are a genius, Madam, if you please.
So, I say, you are capable of a reward, and a great one. You may find it
in the gratitude of a people."

"What could this country give more than Mexico or England?" She smiled
quizzically.

"Much more, Madam! Your reward shall be in the later thought of many
homes--homes built of logs, with dingy fireplaces and couches of husks
in them--far out, all across this continent, housing many people, many
happy citizens, men who will make their own laws, and enforce them, man
and man alike! Madam, it is the spirit of democracy which calls on you
to-night! It is not any political party, nor the representative of one.
It is not Mr. Calhoun; it is not I. Mr. Calhoun only puts before you the
summons of--"

"Of what?"

"Of th