ance magically bettered expectation. The committee, virtuously
true to the course of action they had planned, had passed Emmet by
without a look, but the people surged to their feet and cheered, as
they saw the President pause and take their mayor by the hand. The two
stood in front of the passing chorus, apparently chatting like old
friends, and as the audience caught sight of the President's famous
smile, they laughed aloud. Even those who might later call the
President's action shrewd politics now felt that it was dictated by
unaffected humanity, and their carefully nursed attitude of criticism
melted for the time in the warmth of that solvent personality.

As the confusion began to subside, while the observed and the observers
resumed their seats, Leigh suddenly saw Bishop Wycliffe sitting beside
the local bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. The proximity of the
two men, the easy courtesy of their manner as they exchanged a
whispered remark and turned again to glance at the President, stirred
Cardington to comment.

"That's a touching picture of Christian charity," he murmured, with a
gleam of amusement in his eyes, "our Anglican and Latin ecclesiastical
princes side by side, forgetful of the Eve of St. Bartholomew and of
Henry VIII. I have n't the slightest doubt that they are more
conscious at this moment of those very things and of their respective
traditions than of the situation before them."

His companion, looking for the bishop's daughter, scarcely heard what
he said. He discovered her in a box at one side of the stage, in the
midst of her friends, and was not surprised at the studied unconcern of
her manner. She must have come prepared to play her part. It was her
beauty only that surprised him. His mental picture of her was pale
compared with the glowing reality, for she seemed to have brought with
her all the warmth and colour of the south. Though her eyes were
turned in Emmet's direction, the casual observer might naturally have
supposed that the President, sitting in the same line of vision, was
the object of her interest. Only Leigh, glancing from one to the
other, saw her falter slightly as she encountered her husband's fixed
and meaning look. There was a determination in his aspect that shook
ever her fortified resolve. The colour slowly mounted in his face, and
his cheek pulsed with emotion. As her gaze fluttered away, he turned
himself in his chair with a decisive motion, like one