e is equally guilty of treachery----"

"And you hold him responsible for his Commander's ambitions?"

"Yes."

The President sprang to his feet and paced the floor a moment, stopped
and gazed at her with a look of curious tenderness:

"By jinks, Miss Betty, if I had a few more like you in my Cabinet I
wouldn't be so lonesome!"

"They did force you?" she demanded.

"Not as you mean it, my child. I'm not going to pretend to you that I
don't understand the seriousness of the situation. The Army of the
Potomac is behind McClellan to a man. It amounts to infatuation. I
sounded his officers. I sounded his men. To-day they are against me and
with him. If the issue could be sprung--if the leaders dared to risk
their necks on such a revolution, they might win. They don't know this
as clearly as I do. Because they are not so well informed they are
afraid to move. I have chosen to beat them at their own game----"

He paused and laughed:

"I hate to shatter your ideal, Miss Betty, but I'm afraid there's
something of the fox in my make-up after all. Will it shock you to learn
this?"

"I shall be greatly relieved to know it," she responded firmly.

"Think, then, for a moment. I suspend McClellan for his failure and
replace him with a man I believe to be his superior. The army sullenly
resent this change. They do not agree with me. They believe McClellan
the greatest General in sight. It's a marvellous thing this power over
men which he possesses. It can be used to create a Nation or destroy
one. It's a dangerous force. I must handle it with the utmost care. So
long as their idol is a martyr the army is unfit for good service. The
moment I restore the old commander, in whom both officers and men have
unbounded faith, I show them that I am beyond the influence of the
political forces which demand his destruction--don't I?"

"Yes."

"And the moment I dare to brave popular disapproval and restore their
commander don't you see that I win the confidence of the army in my
fairness and my disinterested patriotism?"

"Of course."

"See then what must happen. Now mind you, I would never have restored
McClellan to command if I did not know that at this moment he can do the
work of putting this disorganized and defeated army into fighting shape
better than any other. McClellan thus returned to power must fight. He
must win or lose. If he wins I am vindicated and his success is mine. If
he loses, he loses his power over the imagi