She gazed at him hungrily. He was thinner, who had always been lean. His skin was weathered dark as oak. His hands were seamed, rough with calluses. She touched one softly.

'Merne, you're so cold, so still. Are you not glad to be back? Did you not do all that you set out to? Did you find the other ocean?'

'Yes, the other ocean and mountains and great rivers'. 'Were there savages? I never dared think of them. I have been so terrified for you.'

He gave a short laugh. 'There were savages, and amongst them the truest, most loyal friend a man could find, Sacajawea. Without her we could have done nothing. '

'A woman,' she said quickly. 'And were there other women, Merne?'

He shrugged. 'Other women, of course. Lights-o'-love, a French trollop or two in St. Louis.'

She shrank against the cushions, staring at him miserably. He had not looked at her once since they entered the carriage.

'Oh, what is it, my dear?' she faltered after a moment. 'Why do you speak so harshly to me? You hurt me.'

'I'm sorry for that,' he answered coldly. 'Can you expect me to be merry with a woman whose father has attempted to wrest from the Union those very territories which I have labored for four years to bring into it?'

'That's not true!' she cried. 'He was interested only in Mexico!'

'And anything else he could lay his hands on,' said Merne bitterly. His anger, though she could not guess it, was as much for himself as for her. Why did she still have the power to disquiet him? He had thought himself cured, their love safely relegated to the status of a vanished dream. Yet the sight of her in the courtroom had moved him profoundly.

'You don't understand,' she said urgently, her first swift resentment passed. 'If some of the western territories should break away, it would be their own doing. They have no feeling of allegiance to Washington. They are too far away. They wish to form another nation.'

Her flushed earnestness touched him. He turned and looked at her ruefully. How well her father had trained her! She had acquired all his dexterity for proving that black was white.

'I trust you arc wrong about that,' he said, with a faint smile, 'since I have just been appointed Governor to those territories you assure me are ripe for revolt.'