"
Zoe got up, stretched her hands to me, then hurried through the darkness
to the town. I followed her with my eyes until she was lost to view. The
voice of Douglas by a sudden swell of the air was borne to me. One
articulate word fell upon my ears. It was "slavery." His voice lapsed
into the silence of the receding breeze. I sat alone for a few minutes.
Then I arose, and went to the place where Douglas was speaking.
He was just finishing. In a burst of impetuous and impassioned
eloquence he was pointing to the future glory of the United States, when
Great Britain would own no foot of soil from the North Pole to the Gulf.
The audience applauded tumultuously. Douglas stepped from the rude
platform into the arms of bewitched admirers. He freed himself and came
to me. He brought with him a Mr. DeWitt Williams who had prevailed upon
Douglas to accept his hospitality for the night. As Douglas' traveling
companion, I was invited to share in the entertainment.
CHAPTER XXIII
I had no opportunity now to tell Douglas that I had found Zoe. Her own
injunctions to keep her whereabouts a secret appealed to me. Perhaps her
going away, the changing of her name, her determination to keep her life
free from mine, made for a real solution. Perhaps she could continue in
this way for years, taking from me what I might send her.
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