er succeed, is that the 'rebellion,' as you call it,
has emissaries among you in every class of society, from the club-house
to the brothel. You will scarcely believe, even with your experience,
how society is getting mixed up! I found Kate F----, the daughter of one
of my rich old neighbors, seduced and lured away from home, the inmate
of one of those houses I have just named; and as I could do nothing
better to relieve her just then, I employed her for _the cause_.
To-night she is asleep in this house, my wife's servant. You wouldn't
trust her, would you?--I would. But you need not suppose that the
machinery is all worked among the lower classes. Don't trust the
brown-stone houses too far! We had a brown-stone house up-town, until
not many days ago--"

"Yes, on East 5-- Street, not far from the Eastern Dispensary," said
Leslie, breaking in upon the Virginian in turn; "and another on Prince
Street, and--"

"Oh, you seem to know a good deal about it," said Ralston, trying to
keep up his tone of banter, but his voice showing that he was really a
little surprised. "And yet I do not think that you can be altogether
behind the curtain after all. The worst foes of what you call the 'Union
cause' have not been those who declared themselves secessionists. Some
of your leading officials, it may be pleasant to you to know, are as
arrant 'rebels' as even Virginia can furnish; and with them and the
correspondence carried on through their offices, we have worked more
effectively than in almost any other way."

"Yes," said Leslie, looking steadily at Ralston, and with a wicked smile
peeping out from under his moustache. "Yes--not only local officials,
but Congressmen, judging by the conversation that you held with the
Honorable ---- ----, under the arches of the Capitol, the night before
Lincoln's inauguration."

"What!" cried the Virginian, for once surprised out of his equanimity.
"The d--l! You know that?" Then he laughed and grew placid again. The
instant after he held out his hand to Leslie. "Leslie, you are keener
than I thought, and perhaps it is just as well that we are not to play
against each other any more. I am going to Europe by the next steamer
from Quebec. It is late--I must go to bed. Let me say good-bye."

"To Europe?" asked Leslie. "Eh? oh! more ships, cotton and tobacco
loans, I suppose."

"No!" said Ralston, and his voice sunk into a low tone of concentrated
bitterness, very different from the manner he ha