"My grandson edit an Abolitionist paper?"
Mr. Tallmadge blinked in a slightly nervous fashion, but answered, steadfastly:
"Abolition is abolished, madam; it has served its end. Ethan will naturally fall heir to my property and my profession."
"Ethan is his father's heir first of all—heir to a man who gave his life at Bull Run for our rights, not for the abolition of them."
"Abolition was right, and is law, by the sanction of the God of battles."
Mrs. Gano rose from her chair; the door opened, and in came Miss Hannah. Whether it was chance, or whether she had been waiting outside for the psychological moment, certainly her entrance was opportune. She went through her greeting with a flustered civility that, by its own extreme nervousness, made the situation she had broken in upon seem calm to the point of commonplace. Mrs. Gano found herself trying to put Miss Hannah at her ease.
The tall, thin spinster, with her smooth gray hair and anxious manner, must have been more than double the age of Ethan's mother.
Supper would be ready in twenty minutes.
"Of course," she said, "you will stay? Ethan has just been asking if he mayn't sit up a little later to-night."