injustice, and
defending him warmly, both as a financier and statesman. Mr. Morris
still clinging to his hastily formed opinion, the two gentlemen
continued to argue the matter until, Mr. Morris's carriage having been
announced, he took his final leave and stumped his way down the broad
staircase, attended to the door by Calvert.

But deeply as Calvert was already interested in the affairs of France,
it was not the miscarried business of a nation that troubled his sleep
that night. For the first time in his life the face of a woman haunted
his dreams, now luring him on with glance and voice, as it seemed to
him, now sending him far from her with teasing laughter and disdainful
eyes.

CHAPTER VII

AN AFTERNOON ON THE ICE

Calvert's second morning at the Legation was even busier than the first
had been, so that there was no time for disquieting thoughts or the
memory of troubled dreams. Indeed, the young man had very good nerves
and such power of concentration and so conscientious a regard for
whatever he might have on hand to do as always kept him absorbed in his
work. The packet by which he and Mr. Morris had arrived being ready to
start on the return voyage, it was necessary to make up the American
mail, which Calvert found to be no light task. Mr. Jefferson's large
private correspondence always necessitated the writing of a dozen or
more letters for every packet, several copies of the more important
having to be made, owing to the unreliability of the vessels themselves
and the danger of all communications being opened and possibly destroyed
by the French agents before they could even be sent on their way.
Besides these private letters there were also many communications
concerning official business to be written. The most important one was a
letter to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Jay, concerning the
recall of Monsieur le Comte de Moustier, whose conduct had become most
offensive to the American Congress, and the possible appointment of
Colonel Ternant to his office. This officer had won a great European
reputation as _Generalissimo_ of one of the United Provinces, and it was
even hinted that, had he been put at the head of affairs instead of the
pusillanimous Rhinegrave of Salm, the cause might have been saved. All
this and other details had to be communicated to Mr. Jay, and so
delicate was the business that Calvert was instructed to put the letter
in cipher lest it be opened and the French Go