d with the world, and having all reason
to believe the world pleased with her, no one could suspect that she
had any more serious problem to solve than that of arranging her own
amusements.

Just now the things most interesting to her were the affairs of the
Confederacy. Judge Clarkson answered all her questions with much good
humor, mingled with amusement, for the Marquise, despite her American
sympathies, would get affairs hopelessly mixed when trying to
comprehend political and military intricacies; and then the gallant
Judge would explain it all over again. Whether from Columbia or
Charleston, he was always in touch with the latest returns, hopes,
plans of the leaders, and possibilities of the Southern Confederacy,
together with all surreptitious assistance from foreign sources, in
which Great Britain came first and Spain close behind, each having
special reasons of their own for widening the breach in the union of
states.

From Mobile there came, also, through letters to Mrs. McVeigh, many of
the plans and possibilities of the Southern posts--her brother being
stationed at a fort there and transmitting many interesting views and
facts of the situation to his sister on her more Northern plantation.

Thus, although they were out of the whirl of border and coast strife,
they were by no means isolated as regards tidings, and the fact was so
well understood that their less fortunate neighbors gathered often at
the Terrace to hear and discuss new endeavors, hopes and fears.

"I like it," confessed Judithe to Delaven, "they are like one great
family; in no country in the world could you see such unanimous
enthusiasm over one central question. They all appear to know so many
of the representative people; in no other agricultural land could it
be so. And there is one thing especially striking to me in comparison
with France--in all this turmoil there is never a scandal, no
intrigues in high places such as we are accustomed to in a court where
Madame, the general's wife, is often quite as much of a factor in the
political scene as the general himself; it is all very refreshing to a
foreigner."

"Our women of the South," said the Judge, who listened, "are more of
an inspiration because they are never associated in our minds with any
life but that of the home circle and its refining influences. When our
women enter the arena, it is only in the heart and memory of some man
whose ideals, Madame, are higher, whose ambitions