e paused in his harangue, one hand uplifted, and turned and glanced at
the storekeeper abstractedly.

"Mr. Bass asked me to tell you to drop into Number 7," said Wetherell,
and added, remembering express instructions, "if you were going by."

Wetherell had not anticipated the magical effect this usual message
would have on Mr. Sutton, nor had he thought that so large and dignified
a body would move so rapidly. Before the astonished gentlemen who had
penned him could draw a breath, Mr. Sutton had reached the stairway and,
was mounting it with an agility that did him credit. Five minutes later
Wetherell saw the Speaker descending again, the usually impressive
quality of his face slightly modified by the twitching of a smile.

Thus the day passed, and the gentlemen of the Lovejoy and Duncan
factions sat, as tight as ever in their seats, and the Truro Franchise
bill still slumbered undisturbed in Mr. Chauncey Weed's committee.

At supper there was a decided festal air about the dining room of the
Pelican House, the little band of agricultural gentlemen who wished to
have a session not being patrons of that exclusive hotel. Many of the
Solons had sent home for their wives; that they might do the utmost
justice to the Honorable Alva's hospitality. Even Jethro, as he ate
his crackers and milk, had a new coat with bright brass buttons, and
Cynthia, who wore a fresh gingham which Miss Sukey Kittredge of Coniston
had helped to design, so far relented in deference to Jethro's taste as
to tie a red bow at her throat.

The middle table under the chandelier was the immediate firmament of
Miss Cassandra Hopkins. And there, beside the future governor, sat the
president of the "Northwestern" Railroad, Mr. Lovejoy, as the chief
of the revolving satellites. People began to say that Mr. Lovejoy was
hooked at last, now that he had lost his head in such an unaccountable
fashion as to pay his court in public; and it was very generally known
that he was to make one of the Honorable Alva's immediate party at the
performance of "Uncle Tam's Cabin."

Mr. Speaker Sutton, of course, would have to forego the pleasure of
the theatre as a penalty of his high position. Mr. Merrill, who sat at
Jethro's table next to Cynthia that evening, did a great deal of
joking with the Honorable Heth about having to preside aver a
woodchuck session, which the Speaker, so Mr. Wetherell thought, took
in astonishingly good part, and seemed very willing to make the