mper, in talking as openly and as violently
as he had and in dragging the name of Senator Stevens into the
controversy. He must try to keep Stevens from hearing of this day's
blunder, for Jim Stevens knew as well as he, didn't he, that the man
who loses his temper, like the man who talks too much, is of no use in
politics.

"I want to know how you formed your opinion of political matters--of
Senators. Is it possible, sir, that you have actual knowledge of
actual happenings that give you the right to talk as you have? I want
to know if I must feel shame, feel disgrace, sir, to be a Senator from
Mississippi; that State, sir, that the Almighty himself, sir, would
choose to live in if he came to earth."

"There, there, Senator, don't take too seriously what I have said,"
Sanders replied in reassuring tone, having outlined his course of
action. "I lost my head because you wouldn't promise me something I
needed--that appointment for Hagley. What I said about Senators an'
such was all wild words--nothin' in 'em. Why, how could there be,
Senator?" This query was a happy afterthought which Sanders craftily
suggested in a designedly artless manner.

"Just what I thought and know!" exclaimed Langdon, sharply. "It
couldn't be; it isn't possible. Now you go, sir, and let it be your
greatest disgrace that you are not fit to enter any gentleman's
house."

"Oh, don't rub it in too hard, Senator. You may need my help some day,
but you'll have to deliver the goods beforehand."

"I said, 'Go!'"

"I'm goin', but here's a tip. Don't blame me for fightin' you. I've
got to fight to live. I'm a human bein', an' humans are pretty much
the same all over the world; all except you--you're only half natural.
The rest of you is reformer."

After Sanders' departure the Colonel sat at his table, his head
resting in his hand, the events of the day crowding his brain
bewilderingly.

"The battles of peace are worse than any Beauregard ever led me into,"
he murmured. "Fighting o conquer oneself is harder than turning the
left flank of the Eighth Illinois in an enfilading fire."

But the new Senator from Mississippi did not know that for him the
wars of peace had only just begun, that perhaps his own flesh and
blood and that of the wife and mother who had gone before would turn
traitor to his colors in the very thickest of the fray.

CHAPTER III

HOW TO PLEASE A SENATOR

The International Hotel in Washington was all hustle and bust