"Please don't do it again. It hurts. You've called me Ned too long to drop it now, don't you think?" "Yes."

Her eyes twinkled with mischief as she took his hand in parting.

"Good-bye-Ned!" she breathed softly.

And then he did a foolish thing, but the impulse was resistless. He bent low, reverently kissed the tips of her fingers and fled without daring to look back.

CHAPTER IV

A PAIR OF YOUNG EYES

When Betty's card was sent in at the White House next morning, a smile lighted the sombre face of the President. He waved his long arms impulsively to his Secretaries and the waiting crowd of Congress

men:

"Clear everybody out for a few minutes, boys; I've an appointment at this hour."

The tall figure bowed with courtly deference over the little hand and his voice was touched with deep feeling:

"I want to thank you personally, Miss Betty, for your kind words about my Inaugural. They helped and cheered me in a trying moment."

"I'm glad," was the smiling answer.

"Tell me everything you said about it?" he urged laughingly.

"I'm afraid Mrs. Lincoln might not like it!" she said demurely.

"We'll risk it. I'm going to take you in to see her in a minute. I want her to know you. Tell me, what else did you say?"

He spoke with the eager wistfulness of a boy. It was only too plain that few messages of good cheer had come to lighten the burden his responsibilities had brought.

A smile touched her eyes with tender sympathy: "You won't be vain if I tell you exactly what I said, Mr. President?"

"After all the brickbats that have been coming my way?" he laughed. No man could laugh with more genuine hearty enjoyment. His laughter convulsed his whole being for the moment and fairly hypnotized his hearer into sympathy with his mood.

"Out with it, Miss Betty, I need it!" he urged. "I said, Mr. President, that you were very tender and very strong- "she paused and looked straight into his deep set eyes -and that a great man had appeared in our history."

66

He was still for a moment and a mist veiled the light at which she gazed. He took her hand in both his, pressed it gently and murmured:

"Thank you, Miss Betty, I shall try to prove worthy of my little champion."

"I think you do things without trying, Mr. President," she answered.

"And you don't want an office, do you?"

"No."

"You have no favors to ask for your friends, have you?"

"None whatever."

"And you're Senator Winter's daughter?"

"Yes."

"The old grizzly bear! He hates me but I've always liked him

in.

"I hope you'll always like him," Betty quickly broke

"Of course I will. I've never cherished resentments.

Life's too short, and the office I fill is too big for that.

Do you know why I've sent for you?"

Betty smiled:

"To have me flatter you, of course.

All men

are vain. The greater the man, the greater his vanity."

Again he laughed with every muscle of his face and body.

"Honestly-no, that's not the reason," he said confidentially. "I want you to accept a position in my Cabinet."

"I didn't know that women were admitted?"

"They're not, but I've always been in favor of votes,! for women and I'm going to make a place for you." Betty's lips trembled with a smile:

"What's the salary?"

"No salary, save the eternal gratitude of your Chief-will you accept?"

"I'll consider it-what duty?"

He looked steadily into her brown eyes:

"You have very bright, clear eyes, Miss Betty, I can see myself in them now more distinctly than in that mirror over the mantel. I'd like to borrow your eyes now and then to see things with. Will you accept the position?"

"If I can be of service, yes."

"The White House is open to you at all hours, and I shall send for you sometimes when I'm blue and puzzled and want a pair of pure, beautiful, young eyes-you understand?"

Betty extended her hand and her voice trembled: "You have conferred on me a very great honor, Mr. President."

"For instance now," he said dreamily: "You endorse my Inaugural?"

"I'm sure it was wise, firm, friendly, dignified.”

"I couldn't have said less than that I must possess and hold the property of the Government, could I? Well, I must now order a fleet to sail for Charleston Harbor to relieve our fort or allow the men who wear our uniform and fly our flag to die of starvation or surrender. Pretty poor Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy if I do that, am I not? Suppose I send a fleet to provision our men in Fort Sumter, not reinforce it-mind you, merely provisions for the handful of men who are there, and suppose the Southern troops manning those land batteries open fire on our flag and force Major Anderson to surrender-what would happen in the North?"

He paused and looked at her steadily. The fine young figure suddenly stiffened:

"Every man, woman and child would say fight!" The big jaws came together with firm precision and his huge fist struck the table:

"That's what I think. And at the same time something else would be happening over there" His long arm swept toward the hills of Virginia, dark and threatening on the horizon. "The moment that shot crashes against our fort, North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, and Tennessee will join the Confederacy, to say nothing of what may happen in Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri-all Slave States. The shock will be felt on both sides with precisely opposite effects. Sometimes we must do our duty and leave the rest to God, mustn't we? Yes of course must-and now, I've kept you too long, Miss Betty.

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