atives longer? Or was it resoluted at a mass
meeting?" she asked with her Mona Lisa smile.

He laughed. "Well, no! I'm a self-appointed committee voicing a personal
desire that has universal application. But if it would have more weight
with you I'll have the Chamber take it up and get myself an accredited
representative."

"So kind of you. But do you think the committee could do itself justice
on the street curb?"

She had among other sensuous charms a voice attuned to convey slightest
shades of meaning. James caught her half-shuttered smoldering glance and
divined her a woman subtle and complex, capable of playing the world-old
game of the sexes with unusual dexterity. The hint of challenging
mystery in the tawny depths of the mocking eyes fired his imagination.
She was to him a new find in women, one altogether different from
those he had known. He had a curiosity to meet at close range this
cosmopolitan heiress of such cultivation as Joe Powers' millions could
purchase.

What Verden said of her he knew: that she was too free, too scornful,
too independent of conventions. All the tabby cats whispered it to
each other with lifted eyebrows that suggested volumes, the while they
courted her eager and unashamed. But he had a feeling that perhaps
Verden was not competent to judge. The standards of this town and of
New York were probably vastly different. James welcomed the chance to
enlarge his social experience. Promptly he accepted the lead offered.

"I'm sure it can't. To present the evidence cogently will take at least
two hours. May I make the argument this evening, if it please the court,
during a call?"

"But I understood you were too busy saving the state--from my father and
my uncle by the way--to have time for a mere woman," she parried.

The good humor of her irony flattered him because it implied that she
offered him a chance to cultivate her--he was not at all sure how much
or how little that might mean--regardless of his political affiliations.
Not many women were logical enough to accept so impersonally his
opposition to the candidacy of an uncle and the plans of a father. "I AM
busy," he admitted, "but I need a few hours' relaxation. It will help me
to work more effectively to-morrow--against your father and your uncle,"
he came back with a smile that included them both.

Alice Frome took up the challenge gaily. "We're going to beat you.
Father will be elected."

"Then I'll be the first to congr