Ned?"
For the life of him he couldn't get back his conventional tones for an
answer. His voice trembled in spite of his effort.
"Thank you," he said slowly, "it will not be possible. I've an
assignment at the White House for that evening."
He turned abruptly and left them.
CHAPTER II
JANGLING VOICES
The roar of the Inauguration passed, and Washington was itself again--an
old-fashioned Southern town of sixty thousand inhabitants, no longer
asleep perhaps, but still aristocratic, skeptical, sneering in its
attitude toward the new administration.
Behind the scenes in his Cabinet reigned confusion incredible. The tall
dark backwoodsman who presided over these wrangling giants appeared at
first to their superior wisdom a dazed spectator.
He had called them because they were indispensable. Now that the issues
were to be faced, Mr. Seward, Mr. Chase, Mr. Cameron and Mr. Bates
realized that the country lawyer who had won the Presidency over their
superior claims knew his weakness and relied on their strength,
training, and long experience in public affairs.
Certainly it had not occurred to one of them that his act in calling the
greatest men of his party, and the party of opposition as well, into his
Cabinet was a deed of such intellectual audacity that it scarcely had a
parallel in history.
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