her gloves." He made a difficult masse. "She told
me all about it. At the time, however, I had a pretty bad case of
heart-trouble. But I understand. She was in the habit of dropping in
on you. Why not? Your cooperation made you both famous. A man in love
finds all sorts of excuses for jealousy. But I'm glad you've spoken. I
can readily understand how you felt when you found the gloves gone.

"You're a good man, John," said Warrington.

"Kate loves me; it ought to make any man good to have a wife who loves
him. I have no use for a man who sees evil in everything and good in
nothing. Say no more about it, boy."

"I hadn't seen you in so long that I was confused. If I had reflected
... But you see, I didn't know that you were engaged, or even that you
knew her. I never understood, until you were gone, why she wanted to
hide herself. I'm glad I've relieved my mind." Warrington sighed.

"It's all right. There! I told you that I'd win even at those odds."

Presently they heard a stir down stairs. Mrs. Franklyn-Haldene was
going. The door closed. The family came up to the billiard-room.
Warrington looked at Patty, whose cheeks were flushed and whose eyes
flashed.

"Why, what's the matter, Pat?" John asked.

"Nothing."

"Mrs. Haldene has been making herself useful as usual," said Mrs.
Jack, slipping her arm around Patty's waist.

Patty was in a rage about something; nobody seemed to know what it
was.

"You are not going to join the Auxiliary, are you, mother?" John
inquired, putting the cues in the rack.

"Indeed I am not. The men in my family always used their own judgment
in politics. They have always been Whigs or Republicans."

"Did you ever meet a woman, Dick, who was a Democrat?" laughed John.

"Perhaps," was the reply, "but it has escaped my recollection."

But he was thinking: after all, he had a right to win Patty if he
could. It was not what he had done in the past, it was what he was
capable of doing from now on that counted.

"You're going to have a stiff fight at the convention," said John.

"I know it. But a fight of any kind will keep my mind occupied. The
senator has assured me that I shall get the nomination."

On the way home Mrs. Franklyn-Haldene saw the flutter of a white dress
on the Wilmington-Fairchilds' veranda. She couldn't resist, so she
crossed the lawn and mounted the veranda steps. She did not observe
her husband in the corner, smoking with the master of the house.

"I've be