Almost--were it not for Hector and for this
home--could you take Hector also--I should forget all and go with
you even yet. To-morrow I shall go with you to the boat."
But alas! in the morning Jeanne had again forgotten.
When at last the busy little steamer swung inshore, presently to
churn her way out again into the current, Josephine went aboard
with only the colored girl for her company. Her heart sank
strangely, and she felt more lonely than ever in her life before.
She leaned against the rail for a time, looking at the banks slip
back across the turbid stream. The truth was coming into her heart
that it was not with exultation she now was turning back to the
East to take up her life again. Something was different now--was
it the loss of Jeanne? Again surprise, terror, shame, withal
wonder.
CHAPTER XXIII
IM WASHINGTON
Meantime, the storm dreaded as so immediate by the administration
at Washington--the organization of a new political party, born of
the unrest over the slavery question--had spent its force, and,
temporarily, long since had muttered away in the distance, leaving
scarce a trace behind it on the political sky.
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