't speak so of Moore. It shows a spirit I'm sorry to see you
cultivate. Go in and win. You have probably told Winifred something of
your standards of public morality and the sacredness of the ballot, and
she fears that Charlie will disgrace both himself and her. She perhaps
fears your disgust if----"

"She is mistaken if she thinks so poorly of me. Her brother's conduct
could never change my feeling for her; rather, pity would come to plead
for love. Do you think she does care for me?"

"Do I? You had better ask her--not go tilting at political windmills
when more important matters should be----"

"If Charlie's foolishness is the only thing in my way, I'll force him to
be a man if I have to gag him in joint assembly!" cried the lover,
joyously.

"What transformations love will work!" sighed the matchmaker after he
had bidden the light-hearted Danvers good-night. "Standing practically
alone against the might of Burroughs' millions--holding his scant forces
by sheer force of character, yet downed by the mistaken attitude of a
mere slip of a girl!"

[Illustration]

Chapter IX

A Frontier Knock

The next afternoon Winifred lay back in a low chair before a leaping
wood fire. She wanted to think, to puzzle out all that was taking place
around her. She recognized, yet refused to accept the verdict of her
common sense. She was no unsophisticated school girl; she was a woman of
the world. The social and political atmosphere in which she moved seemed
charged with dynamic possibilities. Her closed eyes suddenly brimmed
with tears. Winifred let them fall unheeded, feeling miserable
consolation in her self-pity, as women will.

Apart from the senatorial contest lay her personal interest in the game
being played by the scheming Burroughs, the unscrupulous Moore and the
ambitious Eva, on the one side, and her brother on the other. What
chance had Charlie against such a combination? Robert Burroughs had
judged truly; Blair's degradation would hurt Winifred inexpressibly. He
had chuckled as he had watched the growing attachment between his
brother-in-law and the girl, and thought of his vow. He realized that
here was a way to bring vicarious suffering upon the man whose
distinction had first roused his envy and whose rectitude had won his
hatred.

As Winifred groped in the tangle of State and private intrigues that
enmeshed her, the fire burned low and the snapping of an occasional
spark checked and soothed until h