"Then the wrong done them was that they were out-voted?" Mr.
Marshall said.
"Put it so!" De Saussure replied, with heat; "we have a right to say we will govern ourselves and sail our own boat."
"Yes, so I think we have," said the other. "Whether it is worth such a war, is another question, Such a war is a serious thing."
"It would be mean-spirited to let our rights be taken from us," said Ransom. "It is worth anything to maintain them."
"It will not be much of a war," resumed De Saussure. "Those poor tailors and weavers will find their workshops are a great deal more comfortable than soldiers' tents and the battle- ground; and they won't stand fire, depend upon it."
"Cowardly Yankees!" said Ransom.
"That is Preston's favourite word," I remarked. "But I am not clear that you are not both mistaken."
"You have lived among Yankees, till it has hurt you," said
Ransom.
"Till I have learned to know something about them," I said.
"And is your judgment of the probable issue of the war, different from that I have expressed, Miss Randolph?" Mr. De Saussure asked.