airs asserting their supremacy in his mind.
"Why, Eugie!" he gasped. "What's happened?"

Eugenia seized his arm impatiently. "Oh, you were so late, Dudley," she
cried, half angrily. "You made me miserable--it wasn't right of you!"

She hesitated an instant and, looking up, found that his companion was
Nicholas Burr. His eyes were upon her, and he lifted his hat without
speaking, but Dudley at once turned to him.

"You are old friends with Mrs. Webb, Governor," he said lightly, "but
you don't know the ways of a woman who thinks her husband may lose
himself between Washington and Richmond."

Nicholas met the impatient flicker in Eugenia's eyes and laughed.

"Oh, she hardly fancied you had fallen overboard," he returned. "It's
too difficult in these days. I trust you have had no great anxiety,
Mrs. Webb."

And he passed on, his bag in his hand.

When Dudley and Eugenia were in the carriage she held herself erect and
attacked him with asperity. "You might at least not laugh at me," she
said.

For reply he smiled and flung his arm about her. "My darling girl, it's
one of the things that make life worth living," he retorted. "When I
cease to laugh at you I'll cease to love you--and that's a long way
off."

IV

The campaign which would decide the election of a United States Senator
was warming to white heat. On the last day of October Tom Bassett,
dropping into Galt's office, greeted him with the exclamation: "So
you've taken to the stump!"

Galt put aside his papers and rose with a laugh, holding out his hand.
"My dear fellow, may I ask where you have spent the last fortnight? Is
it possible that my oratorical fame has just penetrated to your
retreat?"

Tom sat down, and taking off his hat, ran his hand through his hair with
an exhausted gesture. "Oh, I've been West. I got back last night, and
I'm off to New York in an hour. So it's a fact that you've been on the
stump?"

"It is! I don't mean to allow the Webb men to do all the talking. You
heard about my joint debate with Diggs at Amelia Court-house, didn't
you? That, my dear Tom, was the culminating point of my glorious career.
I squared him off as nicely as you please, and with no rough edges
either."

But Tom refused to be impressed. "Oh, anybody could do up Diggs," he
said. "I hear, however, that you had some hot words between you."

Galt shook his head. "Ah, the words were as nothing to the drinks that
followed," he sighed. "Diggs mayn't be