CHAPTER VII.
REGARDING ELISABETH Without woman the two extremities of this life would be destitute of succor and the middle would be devoid of pleasure .-- _Proverb_.
In some forgotten garret of this country, as I do not doubt, yellowed with age, stained and indistinguishable, lost among uncared-for relics of another day, there may be records of that interview between two strange personalities, John Calhoun and Helena von Ritz, in the arrangement of which I played the part above described.

I was not at that time privileged to have much more than a guess at the nature of the interview.

Indeed, other things now occupied my mind.

I was very much in love with Elisabeth Churchill.
Of these matters I need to make some mention.

My father's plantation was one of the old ones in Maryland.