Yet she perplexed him. She revealed so
much about herself without the slightest hesitation, yet at the same time
seemed to veil herself completely. He and her father could broach no topic
of conversation in which she could not take an intelligent part. Matters
of European policy were touched upon, and she was at home in regard to
them. She smiled broadly when he tried to explain to her father that
patience would still be required with the South, but that in time the two
parts of the country would be more firmly welded together than ever. "Such
antipathies amuse me," she said. "It is one side keeping up a quarrel
which the other has forgotten all about."
"The circumstances are different, Miss Ainsley," Clancy replied. "The war
cost me my father, my property, and impoverished my State."
He could not tell whether her eyes expressed sympathy or not, for they had
beamed on him with a soft alluring fire from the first, but her father
spoke up warmly: "The North has not forgotten, especially the older
generation. We have not suffered materially and have become absorbed in
new interests, but the heart of the North was wounded as truly as that of
the South. I wish to assure you, Mr. Clancy, how deeply I sympathize with
and honor your spirit of conciliation. What is there for us all but to be
Americans? Believe me, sir, such men as yourself are the strength and hope
of your section."
"I believe with you, Mr.
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