"
Mr. St. George heard him, and paused a moment before them, one evening,
as Marlboro' thus harangued Eloise.
"Consolidation? Centralization?" said he. "The very things we all
oppose."
"Nullification is a good solvent."
"A ghost that is laid. There's a redder phantom than that on the
horizon, man!"
"What are you talking about, politics or marriage?"
"God forbid that I should soil a lady's ears with the first!" said Mr.
St. George, bowing to Eloise; "and as to the last,--I'll none of it!"
And after Mr. Marlboro' had gone that night, as Eloise was about to
ascend to her own rooms, Mr. St. George came along again, and, lightly
taking the candle, held up the tiny flame before her face.
"What has that _contrabandista_ been saying to you?" demanded Mr. St.
George.
Eloise looked ignorantly up.
"Gilding hell? Do not believe him! Never believe anything any one says,
when you know he is in love with you! Slavery is a curse! a curse that
we inherit for the sins of those drunken Cavaliers, our forefathers! Let
us make the best of it!"
"Ah, Mr. St. George," said she, gayly, "this from you, for whom the
disciples claim Calhoun's mantle? For what, then, do you contend?"
"For the right of being a free man myself! for the right of enduring
the dictation of no man in Maine or Louisiana! for the right to do as I
have the mind!" exclaimed Mr.
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