y breakfast? Why the devil can't she--Now, Mary, what is it? I
warn you I'm cross, and I shan't listen well till I've had breakfast.
I'm waiting for that young lady you're coddling. Where's that young
lady? Why doesn't she--What?"

For the flood-gates were open, and the soft verbal oceans of Mary were
upon him. He listened two minutes, mute with astonishment, and then he
rose up in his wrath and was verbal also.

"What! You told her I was _married_? What the dev--And you're
actually asking _me_ to tell her so _too_? Mary, are you insane?
Embarrassed? What if she is embarrassed? And what do I care if--What?
Sweet and pretty? Mary, don't be an idiot. Am I to improvise a wife, in
my own house, because a stray girl may object to visiting a bachelor?
Not if I know it. Not much." The Governor bristled with indignation.
"Confound the girl, I'll--" At this point Mary, though portly, vanished
like a vision of the night, and there stood in the doorway a smiling
embodiment of the morning, crisp in a clean shirt-waist, and free from
consciousness of crime.

"Is it Governor Rudd?" asked Lindsay; and the Governor was, somehow,
shaking hands like a kind and cordial host, and the bitterness was gone
from his soul. "I certainly don't know how to thank you," she said.
"You-all have been very good to me, and I've been awfully comfortable. I
was so lost and unhappy last night; I felt like a wandering Jewess. I
hope I haven't kept you waiting for breakfast?"

"Not a moment," said the Governor, heartily, placing her chair, and it
was five minutes before he suddenly remembered that he was cross. Then
he made an effort to live up to his convictions. "This is a mistake," he
said to himself. "I had no intention of being particularly friendly with
this young person. Rudd, I can't allow you to be impulsive in this way.
You're irritated by the delay and by last night: you're bored to be
obliged to entertain a girl when you wish to read the paper; you're
anxious to get down to the Capitol to see those men; all you feel is a
perfunctory politeness for the McNaughtons' friend. Kindly remember
these facts, Rudd, and don't make a fool of yourself gambolling on the
green, instead of sustaining the high dignity of your office." So
reasoned the Governor secretly, and made futile attempts at high
dignity, while his heart became as wax, and he questioned of his soul at
intervals to see if it knew what was going on.

So the Governor sat before Lindsay Le