CHAPTER XXII.
BUT YET A WOMAN Woman turns every man the wrong side out, And never gives to truth and virtue that Which simpleness and merit purchaseth.
-- _Shakespeare_.
My chief played his game of chess coldly, methodically, and with skill; yet a game of chess is not always of interest to the spectator who does not know every move.

Least of all does it interest one who feels himself but a pawn piece on the board and part of a plan in whose direction he has nothing to say.

In truth, I was weary.

Not even the contemplation of the hazardous journey to Oregon served to stir me.

I traveled wearily again and again my circle of personal despair.
On the day following my last interview with Mr.Calhoun, I had agreed to take my old friend Doctor von Rittenhofen upon a short journey among the points of interest of our city, in order to acquaint him somewhat with our governmental machinery and to put him in touch with some of the sources of information to which he would need to refer in the work upon which he was now engaged.