o they have society here?" asked Wade.

"Well, they call it that," still grinning, "anyhow you'll be interested,
not to say amused. The game is new as yet, but they go through the
motions, and Oh, boy, how lavish they are! You'll see everything money
can buy this evening, and probably meet people you wouldn't be likely
to run across anywhere else.

"You're bidden to appear, sir, at the ornate mansion of a Senator of the
United States--the Senator, perhaps, I should say, I've secured the
invitation, and Mrs. Rexhill will never recognize me again if you don't
go."

"Would that be serious?"

"Very serious. I am counsel for one of the Senator's companies."

"And does that imply social obligation?"

"It does with Mrs. Rexhill."

"Oh, very well, I'll go anywhere once, but who is Mrs. Rexhill? I
suppose, of course, she is the Senator's wife, but who is she in
society? I never heard of her."

"You wouldn't; it isn't what she is, it is what she wants to be. You
must not laugh at her; she is doing the best she can. You'll admit one
thing readily enough when you see her. She is probably the handsomest
woman of her age in Chicago, and she isn't more than forty. Where the
Senator found her, I can't say, but she was his wife when he made his
first strike in Denver, and I will say to his credit that he has always
been a devoted husband."

"I'm glad to hear something to his credit," said Wade dryly. "The
general impression I've gathered from reading the newspapers lately,
hasn't been of the most exalted sort."

"Oh, well," replied Stout, and his habitual grin faded away as he spoke.
"A man in public life always makes enemies, and the Senator has plenty
of them. It almost seems sometimes that he has more enemies than
friends, and yet he has certainly been a very successful man, not only
in politics, but in business. He has more irons in the fire than any one
else I know, and somehow or other he seems to put everything through. I
doubt if he could do so well if he was not at the same time a political
power."

"Yes," said Wade, still more dryly. "I have heard the two facts
mentioned together."

"Come, come," said Stout, more earnestly than he was in the habit of
speaking, "you mustn't put too much faith in what the newspapers say. I
know how they talk about him in the other party, but I happen to know
him pretty well personally, and there is a good side to him as I suppose
there is to everybody. Anyhow, he pays me well for