t we sought courage. She seemed to feel grateful
for this contact, and the next minute, flinging all her scruples to
the wind, she began a relation of events which more or less answered
my late unwelcome queries.

"The death in the library, about which her most perplexing memory
hung, took place when she was a child and her father held that high
governmental position which has reflected so much credit upon the
family. Her father and the man who thus perished had been intimate
friends. They had fought together in the War of 1812 and received
the same distinguishing marks of presidential approval afterward.
They were both members of an important commission which brought them
into diplomatic relations with England. It was while serving on this
commission that the sudden break occurred which ended all intimate
relations between them, and created a change in her father that was
equally remarked at home and abroad. What occasioned this break no
one knew. Whether his great ambition had received some check through
the jealousy of this so-called friend--a supposition which did not
seem possible, as he rose rapidly after this--or on account of other
causes darkly hinted at by his contemporaries, but never breaking
into open gossip, he was never the same man afterwards. His children,
who used to rush with effusion to greet him, now shrank into corners
at his step, or slid behind half open doors, whence they peered with
fearful interest at his tall figure, pacing in moody silence the
halls of his ancestral home, or sitting with frowning brows over the
embers dying away on the great hearthstone of his famous library.

"Their mother, who was an invalid, did not share these terrors. The
father was ever tender of her, and the only smile they ever saw on
his face came with his entrance into her darkened room.

"Such were Callista Moore's first memories. Those which followed
were more definite and much more startling. President Jackson, who
had a high opinion of her father's ability, advanced him rapidly.
Finally a position was given him which raised him into national
prominence. As this had been the goal of his ambition for years,
he was much gratified by this appointment, and though his smiles
came no more frequently, his frowns lightened, and from being
positively threatening, became simply morose.

"Why this moroseness should have sharpened into menace after an
unexpected visit from his once dear, but long estranged
c