very meeting--and
others to work up the ward organizations so that we shall be prepared to
work intelligently and together by the next election. We want to get
some clean business man, who is well known, to stand for mayor. There's
a chance for you, Lenox."

Lenox laughed. "You've caught me there, haven't you? I am condemned for
being still in the stage where I am content to mention things with
indignation. However, if you have really gone so far, I'm more than
willing to trail after you. I'll at least back you with a few facts,
such as every business man knows, and I'm good for a substantial
contribution toward any campaign you may undertake. And what I do there
are others who will do, too."

"I'll not forget your promise," said Dick.

As usual, when men talk public affairs, the women had been content to
listen, but Madeline's temperament was too strong for her restraint.

"It's all very well for you to put your hand in your pocket, Mr. Lenox,"
she cried, "but I don't want to hear you trying to undermine Dick's
idealism. If he does not have the comfort of some purpose higher than
the daily fight, how can he endure it? Don't persuade him to run through
life on all fours and never look at the stars."

Mr. Lenox looked at her warmly.

"Thank the Lord for you women," he said. "You do not forget that there
are stars and sky above the city smoke. If it were not for you and your
kind, I'm afraid most of the world would be tied to the ground like
serfs."

"Oh, I fancy nature has liberated a few of you, and I am glad to believe
that Dick is among the free," she said.

She sat beside Dick, but she turned from him and spoke to Mr. Lenox.
When Percival, softened by her words and the tone of belief in which
they were spoken, looked up, he saw, not her eyes, but, across the
table, those of Lena, big and sympathetic. As he gazed into them he saw
all of Madeline's confidence in him, all of Madeline's ideals, but the
more spiritual, the more feminine, because they were unspoken. Lena's
eyes were eloquent even if she was silent; internally she was really
resenting Madeline's tone, which seemed to her to assume that Dick was
somehow Miss Elton's particular property. "Perhaps you needn't be so
sure, missy," she thought.

[Illustration: "You look like incarnate song"--Page 199]

After dinner, when the three men found their way to the drawing-room,
Mrs. Lenox had started Madeline on a career of song. She was already in
the mids