at example. Elizabeth had not been taken into the confidence
of either; their private affairs were kept screened from the gaze of any
but themselves. By a word dropped here and there, however, she learned
that Nathan had speculated and lost much money; also that he had favoured
measures advanced by butter-tongued lobbyists, and that he had lost the
good-will of many of his constituents.

While Elizabeth watched the tender association of Nathan Hornby and his
wife and found such glowing tribute in her heart toward the life they
lived together, a tragedy, in spite of the support and affection lavished
by a faithful wife, was to leave the sunny, cordial man a broken,
half-suspicious one.

Nathan Hornby was to learn that legislative assemblies were death-traps to
those whom providence had failed to coach in diplomacy and judgment, that
legislation was a game at which none but gamesters might successfully
play, a devouring flame singeing the wings of all who failed to
distinguish between the light of a common candle and that of a real sun,
that it was a nightmare to most, and ticklish business for all. Unable to
distinguish between the good and the bad intentions of those who advocated
the passage of bills, convinced long before the end of the legislative
session that a bill looking innocent and direct in its wording might be
evil and indirect in its outworking, Nathan became more and more confused
and less and less able to withstand the attacks made upon him.

Nathan Hornby was a leaden figure in the legislative assembly. He was
honest, but slow of wit, and apt to become passive if pushed beyond his
power to understand. This man who could throw the earth up to a hill of
corn with skill and precision, who could build a haystack which would turn
the rains and snows of winter, and break a colt to the harness without
breaking its spirit, who had handled successfully the problems to which he
had been trained, was not able to throw arguments up to the legislative
hill or protect his reputation against the floods of criticism and
accusation to which his actions were subjected either here in the Capitol
or at home among his constituents. His spirit was broken: he recognized
that he was totally unfit for the position into which fortune had thrust
him. Nathan sat back in his chair, in the House, with few books and papers
on the desk before him, and these unopened, his manner, like his wrinkled
boots, indicative of the farm, his whol