y?"

"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 we must--and now, I've kept you too long, Miss Betty.
It's a bargain, isn't it? You accept the position in my Cabinet?"

"Of course, Mr. President,--but if my duties are no heavier than I find
them on this occasion