him about the city as much as he
could spare time to do, and when he released him, Bradley went back to
the capitol, which exercised the profoundest fascination upon him.

He had not the courage to go back to the private gallery into which
Radbourn had penetrated, but went into the common gallery, which was
full of negroes, unweariedly listening to the dry and almost
unintelligible speeches below.

He sat there the whole afternoon and went back to his hotel meek and
very tired.

Radbourn introduced him to a few of the members the next day. It was
evident that nobody cared very much whether he had been elected or not.
Each man had his own affairs to look after, and greeted him with a
flabby hand-shake and looked at him with cold and wandering eyes. It
was all very depressing.

He grew nervous over the expenses which he was incurring, although he
constantly referred himself back to the fact that he was a Congressman,
at a salary of six thousand dollars. His economy was too deeply
ingrained to be easily wiped out. He seldom got into a street-car that
he did not hold a mental debate with himself to justify the
extravagance.

He went about a good deal during the next two or three days, but he
continued at the cheap hotel, where he was obliged to keep his overcoat
on in order to write a letter or read a newspaper. He went twice to the
theatre. He bought a dollar seat the first time, which worried him all
through the play, and he did penance the following evening by walking
the twenty blocks (both ways), and by taking a fifty-cent seat. He
figured it a clear saving of sixty cents. He really enjoyed the play
more than he would have done in a dollar seat and consoled himself with
the reflection that no one knew he was a Congressman, anyway.

* * * * *

He told Radbourn at the station that he had enjoyed every moment of his
stay. As the train drew out he looked back upon the city, and the great
dome its centre, with a deep feeling of admiration, almost love. It had
seized upon him mightily. He had only to shut his eyes to see again
that majestic pile with its vast rotundas, its bewildering corridors
and its tumultuous representative hall. Life there would be worth
while. He began to calculate how long it would be before he should
return. It seemed a long while to wait.

XXV.

IDA COMES INTO HIS LIFE AGAIN.

After his return home he accepted every invitation to speak, b