excused general disregard to conventions among the
men-folks that morning. The Duke was there. He patronized them with a
particularly amiable smile.

"May I?" asked Linton, touching the chair next Madeleine.

"Yes," said the girl. "You know, Herbert and I are very old friends, Mr.
Thornton." There was a hint of apology to Harlan behind the brilliant
smile she gave him. He had moved toward the chair. He flushed when he
realized that he felt a queer sense of hurt at her choice. It was
another new experience for him who had made the woods his mistress--a
woman had chosen another, slighting him. As he took his seat beside his
grandfather he was angry at himself--at the sudden boyish pique he felt.
He had not been conscious till then that he had been interested
especially in Madeleine Presson. It needed the presence of this other
young man, selected over his head, to make him understand that one may
not draw near beauty with impunity, even though one may be very
certain--telling his own heart--that love is undreamed of. He wondered
whether he might not be afflicted with asinine pride.

He did not relish the glance that Linton bestowed on him; it seemed
there was just a flash of triumph in it--that bit of a boast one sees in
the eyes of a man who becomes, even briefly, the proprietor of a pretty
woman.

"We were just talking over the latest news--or, rather, it's a rumor,"
said Miss Presson. With quick intuition she felt that something,
somehow, was not just right. She hastened to break the silence. "They
are saying that Mr. Spinney has withdrawn, and that his name will not go
before the convention. Of course, you've heard about it, Herbert--and
Mr. Thornton!"

They had not heard it. They looked guilty. They had been all the morning
with Colonel Wadsworth, locked away from the throng, finishing matters
of the night before. The expression on their faces was confession of
their ignorance.

"If you're going to be early political fishermen you'll have to look for
your worms sharp in the morning or you'll fetch up short of bait,"
suggested the Duke, maliciously.

"Three cheers and a snatch of band-music take on a hopeful color when
they're lit up by red fire overnight," remarked the State chairman. "So
do some other things. But a fellow with good eyesight usually comes to
himself in the daylight."

"Is that true about Spinney?" asked Harlan, scenting mischief and
treachery, and not yet enough of a politician to understan