ting. Hitt had said he
would be wise in whatever use he made of her findings. But, though
quite devoid of malignity, this account and its added comment were
nothing less than a personal attack upon the master spinner, Ames. And
she had sent another report from Washington last night, one comprising
all she had learned from Mr. Sands. What would Hitt do with that? She
must get in touch with him at once. So she set out to find a telegraph
office, that she might check the impulsive publisher who was openly
hurling his challenge at the giant Philistine.

When the message had gone, the girl dismissed the subject from her
thought, and gave herself up completely to the charm of the glorious
morning and her beautiful environment. For some time she wandered
aimlessly about the city; then bent her steps again toward the
Capitol.

At the window of a florist she stopped and looked long and lovingly at
the gorgeous display within. In the midst of the beautiful profusion a
single flower held her attention. It was a great, brilliant red rose,
a kind that she had never seen before. She went in and asked for it.

"We call it the 'President' rose, Miss," said the salesman in response
to her query. "It is quite new."

"I want it," she said simply.

And when she went out with the splendid flower burning on her bosom
like living fire, she was glad that Hitt had not been there to see her
pay two dollars for it.

The great Capitol seemed to fascinate her, as she stood before it a
few moments later. The spell of tradition enwrapped her. The mighty
sentiments and motives which had actuated the framers of the
Constitution seemed to loom before her like monuments of eternal
stone. Had statesmanship degenerated from that day of pure patriotism
into mere corruption? Mr. Sands would have her so believe.

"The people!" he had exclaimed in scoffing tones. "Why, my dear girl,
the people of your great State are represented in the national Senate
by--whom? By nobody, I say. By the flies on the panes; by the mice in
the corners; by the god, perhaps, to whom the chaplain offers his
ineffectual prayers; but not by men. No; one of your Senators
represents a great railroad; the other an express company! The people?
Those Senators know no such ridiculous creature as 'the people'!"

She turned from the Capitol, and for an hour or more strolled in the
brilliant sunlight. "An economic disease," she murmured at length.
"That's what it is. And, like all di