s born to command and yet never could resist
the cry of a child or the plea of a woman. He hates, but he hates ideas
and systems. He makes threats, yet when he meets the man who stands for
all he hates he falls in love with his enemy."

"Then there's hope for me?"

"Yes, but I must be the judge of the time to speak."

"Well, if he looks at me as he did once to-day, you may have to do the
speaking also."

"You will like him when you know him. He is one of the greatest men in
America."

"At least he's the father of the greatest girl in the world, which is far
more important."

"I wonder if you know how important?" she asked seriously. "He is the
apple of my eye. His bitter words, his cynicism and sarcasm, are all on
the surface--masks that hide a great sensitive spirit. You can't know with
what brooding tenderness I have always loved and worshipped him. I will
never marry against his wishes."

"I hope he and I will always be good friends," said Ben doubtfully.

"You must," she replied, eagerly pressing his hand.

CHAPTER VII

A WOMAN LAUGHS

Each day the conflict waxed warmer between the President and the
Commoner.

The first bill sent to the White House to Africanize the "conquered
provinces" the President vetoed in a message of such logic, dignity, and
power, the old leader found to his amazement it was impossible to rally
the two-thirds majority to pass it over his head.

At first, all had gone as planned. Lynch and Howle brought to him a report
on "Southern Atrocities," secured through the councils of the secret
oath-bound Union League, which had destroyed the impression of General
Grant's words and prepared his followers for blind submission to his
Committee.

Yet the rally of a group of men in defence of the Constitution had given
the President unexpected strength.

Stoneman saw that he must hold his hand on the throat of the South and
fight another campaign. Howle and Lynch furnished the publication
committee of the Union League the matter, and they printed four million
five hundred thousand pamphlets on "Southern Atrocities."

The Northern States were hostile to negro suffrage, the first step of his
revolutionary programme, and not a dozen men in Congress had yet dared to
favour it. Ohio, Michigan, New York, and Kansas had rejected it by
overwhelming majorities. But he could appeal to their passions and
prejudices against the "Barbarism" of the South. It would work like magic.
When he