of men of State influence as far as she was able. She did this
instinctively, rather from the social viewpoint than the political. Luke
Presson did not take her into his confidence to the extent that he
desired her to cultivate men of power for his own purposes. He only
dimly and rather contemptuously recognized that women had any influence
in political matters. But it did occur to him, after that State
convention, that perhaps he needed his wife to assist him in beginning a
reconciliation with General Waymouth.

Mrs. Presson came to him, directly the convention had adjourned. The few
men who were lingering in headquarters dodged out, for they perceived
that the chairman's wife had something on her mind.

He endured her indignant reproaches for some time. She taxed him with
betrayal of her personal interests.

"I've never tried to pry into your schemes. I don't care about them. But
when you make a fool of me in regard to the next Governor of this State,
you shall answer for it to me!"

"I did no such thing," he protested, wanting to placate her for private
reasons of his own.

"I say you did. You're chairman of the State Committee. You knew which
man would be nominated--you must have known it all along. You wouldn't
be State chairman if you didn't know that!"

The unhappy magnate was ashamed to tell her the bitter truth.

"You allowed me to come here to-day with Mrs. Dave Everett and her
daughters. Here is the bouquet I brought to present to her husband!" She
shook it under his nose and tossed it into a corner. "You never told me
a word about the plan to nominate General Waymouth. It was deliberate
deceit on your part--for what reason I cannot understand."

Presson tried to think of a story that would explain and shield him, but
the convention had not been an affair to promote clear thinking.

"Here's a legislative session at hand, and you've allowed me to stay
entirely out of touch with the next first gentleman of the State! I'm
like all the rest of the trailers, now. I haven't any prior social claim
on him. And I can't even find him at this late hour to offer my
congratulations."

"I haven't been able to offer mine, either," said the chairman, grimly.

"I'll endure no more of this foolery, Luke! If you propose to make a
plaything of your own wife from now on--"

"I'm telling you the truth. General Waymouth hurried out of the hall
before I could get to him. That devilish Canibas bull moose picked him
up,