om between her long, dark lashes.

"Why do you say that?" she inquired.

"Because it is the truth. I don't want him about."

"Then you will be disappointed."

"Why do you say that? Did you not hear him say that he was going
West by coach from here?"

"You did not give him time. He is not going West by coach."

"What do you mean?"

"He will be with us on the boat!"

CHAPTER II

THE GATEWAY, AND SOME WHO PASSED

When Captain Edward Carlisle made casual reference to the
"weak-kneed compromise," he simply voiced a personal opinion on a
theme which was in the mind of every American, and one regarded
with as many minds as there were men. That political measure of
the day was hated by some, admired by others. This man condemned
it, that cried aloud its righteousness and infallibility; one
argued for it shrewdly, another declaimed against it loudly. It
was alike blessed and condemned. The southern states argued over
it, many of the northern states raged at it. It ruined many
political fortunes and made yet other fortunes. That year was a
threshold-time in our history, nor did any see what lay beyond the
door.

If there existed then a day when great men and great measures were
to be born, certainly there lay ready a stage fit for any mighty
drama--indeed, commanding it. It was a young world withal, indeed
a world not even yet explored, far less exploited, so far as were
concerned those vast questions which, in its dumb and blind way,
humanity both sides of the sea then was beginning to take up.
America scarce more than a half century ago was for the most part a
land of query, rather than of hope.

Not even in their query were the newer lands of our country then
alike. We lay in a vast chance-medley, and never had any country
greater need for care and caution in its councils. By the grace of
the immortal gods we had had given into our hands an enormous area
of the earth's richest inheritance, to have and to hold, if that
might be; but as yet we were not one nation. We had no united
thought, no common belief as to what was national wisdom. For
three quarters of a century this country had grown; for half a
century it had been divided, one section fighting against another
in all but arms. We spoke of America even then as a land of the
free, but it was not free; nor on the other hand was it wholly
slave. Never in the history of the world has there been so great a
land, nor one of so diverse sys