and a
library that had once been Mr. Duncan's pride. The Marchesa cared very
little about the library, or about the house, for that matter; a great
aunt and uncle, spinster and bachelor, were living in it that winter,
and they vacated for Mr. Crewe. He travelled to the capital on the
legislative pass the Northeastern Railroads had so kindly given him, and
brought down his horses and his secretary and servants from Leith a few
days before the first of January, when the session was to open, and
laid out his bills for the betterment of the State on that library
table where Mr. Duncan had lovingly thumbed his folios. Mr. Crewe, with
characteristic promptitude, set his secretary to work to make a list
of the persons of influence in the town, preparatory to a series of
dinner-parties; he dropped into the office of Mr. Ridout, the counsel
of the Northeastern and of the Winona Corporation in the capital, to pay
his respects as a man of affairs, and incidentally to leave copies of
his bills for the improvement of the State. Mr. Ridout was politely
interested, and promised to read the bills, and agreed that they ought
to pass.

Mr. Crewe also examined the Pelican Hotel, so soon to be a hive, and
stood between the snow-banks in the capital park contemplating the
statue of the great statesman there, and repeating to himself the
quotation inscribed beneath. "The People's Government, made for the
People, made by the People, and answerable to the People." And he
wondered, idly,--for the day was not cold,--how he would look upon a
pedestal with the Gladstone collar and the rough woollen coat that would
lend themselves so readily to reproduction in marble. Stranger things
had happened, and grateful States had been known to reward benefactors.

At length comes the gala night of nights,--the last of the old
year,--and the assembling of the five hundred legislators and of the
army that is wont to attend them. The afternoon trains, steaming hot,
are crowded to the doors, the station a scene of animation, and Main
Street, dazzling in snow, is alive with a stream of men, with eddies
here and there at the curbs and in the entries. What handshaking, and
looking over of new faces, and walking round and round! What sightseeing
by the country members and their wives who have come to attend the
inauguration of the new governor, the Honourable Asa P. Gray! There he
is, with the whiskers and the tall hat and the comfortable face, which
wears alrea