tone: "I'll tell you in confidence, Minnie; she's
sending him to Congress!"

"Ah!" she cried triumphantly. "If she loved him she wouldn't do _that_,
would she?"

"Minnie!" Briscoe turned upon her sternly. "I don't want to hear any
more talk like that. It's the way with some papers to jibe at our great
institutions, and you've been reading them; that's the trouble with you.
The only criticism any one has any business making against Congress is
that it's too good for some of the men we send there. Congress is our
great virtue, understand; the congressmen are our fault."

"I didn't mean anything like that," protested the girl. "I haven't been
reading any papers except the 'Herald.' I meant why should she send him
away if she cared about him?"

"She'll go with him."

"They couldn't both go. What would become of the 'Herald'?"

"They'd fix that easy enough; there are plenty of smart young fellows in
Rouen they could get to run it while they are in Washington."

"Mr. Harkless is sure to be elected, is he?"

"He is, if he's nominated."

"Can't he get the nomination?"

"Get it! Nobody ever happened to think of him for it till it came into
_her_ head; and the only thing I look to see standing in the way of it
is Harkless himself; but I expect we can leave it to her to manage, and
I guess she will. She's got more diplomacy than Blaine. Kedge Halloway
is up the spout all right, but they want to keep it quiet; that's why
she had them come here instead of the office."

"She wouldn't marry him a minute sooner because he went to Congress,"
said Minnie thoughtfully.

"You're giving up," he exclaimed. "You know I'm right."

"Wait and see. It might--No, you're wrong as wrong can be! I wish you
weren't. Don't you see? You're blind. She _couldn't_ do all these
things for him if she loved him. That's the very proof itself. I suppose
you--well, you can't understand."

"I'll tell you one thing," he returned. "If she doesn't, the rest of it
won't amount to a rip with John Harkless."

"Yes, it will. Nobody could help liking to find himself as big a man as
he'll be when he comes back here. Besides, don't you see, it's her way
of making it up to him for not liking him as much as he wants. _You_
give up, don't you?"

"No," he cried, with feeble violence, "I don't. She'll find out some
things about herself when she sees him again."

Minnie shook her head.

There was a sound of wheels; the buckboard drew up at the gate, and