"Aren't you going to do it?"
Prescott laughed.
"Mother," he said, "I wouldn't have your divided heart for anything. It must cause you a terrible lot of worry."
"I do very well," she said, with her quiet smile, "and I cherish no illusions."
CHAPTER XXVI
CALYPSO
It was announced that the presidential reception on the following evening would be of special dignity and splendour, and it was thought the part of duty by all who were of consequence in Richmond to attend and make a brave show before the world. Mr. Davis, at the futile peace conference in the preceding July, had sought to impress upon the Northern delegates the superior position of the South. "It was true," he said, "that Sherman was before Atlanta, but what matter if he took it? the world must have the Southern cotton crop, and with such an asset the Southern Republic must stand." He was not inclined now to withdraw in any particular from this position, and his people stood solidly behind him.
Prescott, as he prepared for the evening, had much of the same spirit, although his was now a feeling of personal defiance toward a group of persons rather than toward the North in general.