, but the purchaser never intended to keep the information
from those of his kind. Lobbyists must be honest with each other.

Not all lobbyists are men. The woman legislative agent has been known
to occupy an important position in Washington, and she does yet.
She is hard to detect and frequently more unprincipled than the men
similarly engaged, if that is possible.

A woman with a measure of social standing would naturally prove
the most successful as a lobbyist in Washington because of the
opportunities her position would afford her to meet people of
prominence. And just such a one was Mrs. Cora Spangler, with whom
the Langdons had been thrown in contact quite intimately since their
arrival at the capital.

Pretty and vivacious, Mrs. Spangler bore her thirty-seven years with
uncommon ease, aided possibly by the makeup box and the modiste.
Her dinners and receptions were attended by people of acknowledged
standing. Always a lavish spender of money, this was explained
as possible because of a fortune left her by her late husband,
Congressman Spangler of Pennsylvania. That this "fortune" had
consisted largely of stock and bonds of a bankrupt copper smelting
plant in Michigan remained unknown, except to her husband's family,
one or two of her own relatives and Senator Peabody, who, coming from
Pennsylvania, had known her husband intimately.

He it was who had suggested to her that she might make money easily
by cultivating the acquaintance of the new members of both houses
and their families, exerting her influence in various "perfectly
legitimate ways," he argued, for or against matters pending in
legislation. The Standard Steel corporation kept Mrs. Spangler well
supplied with funds deposited monthly to her account in a Philadelphia
trust company.

She avoided suspicion by reason of her sex and her many acquaintances
of undisputed rank. Senator Peabody was never invited to her home, had
never attended a single dinner, reception or musicale she had given,
all of which was a part of the policy they had mutually agreed on to
deaden any suspicion that might some time arise as to her relation to
the Standard Steel Company. It was well known that Peabody had been
put into the Senate by Standard Steel to look after its interests.

He had found Mrs. Spangler chiefly valuable thus far as a source of
information regarding the members of Congress, which she obtained
largely from their families. He was thus able to gain an i