FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   >>  
tions. It was the autumn of the year 1868, and he was an enthusiastic admirer of Grant. He stumped the State for that admirable warrior and indifferent statesman, with the result that his own following increased; and his interest in politics waxed with each of several notable successes in behalf of the candidate. He finally announced decisively that he should run for Congress at the next elections, and a member of the House of Representatives from his district dying two days later, he was appointed at once to fill the vacant chair. The Senora was still in bed with a persistent cold and cough when he left for Washington late in November, but he rode over to leave a good-bye with old Marcia, and ordered a bookseller in San Francisco to send her all the illustrated papers and magazines. She entered his mind but seldom during those interesting months in Washington. Talbot became sure of his particular talent at last, and determined to remain in politics for the rest of his life. Moreover, the excitement until the 4th of March was intense, for Southern blood was still hot and bitter, and there were rumors in the air that Grant would be assassinated on the day of his inauguration. He was not, however, and Talbot was glad to be in Washington on that memorable day. He wrote the Senora an account both of the military appearance of the city and of the brilliant scene in the Senate Chamber, but she had ceased, for the time, to be a weekly necessity in his life. And being a bachelor, wealthy, handsome, and properly launched, he was soon skimming that social sea of many crafts. For the first time since his abrupt severance from the Los Olivos festivities he enjoyed society. San Francisco's had seemed a poor imitation of what novels described, but Washington was full of brilliant interest. And he met more than one woman who recalled his boyish ideals, women who were far more like the vision in the English church-yard than Delfina Carillo; who, indeed, had not resembled the English girl in anything but manifest of race, and had been an ideal apart, never to be encountered again in this world. It was a long and exciting session, and he gave all the energies of his mind to the great question of reconstruction, but more than once he asked himself if the time had not come to marry, if it were not a duty to his old self to gratify the ambition to which he owed the foundations of his success with life. A beautiful and high-bred wife
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   >>  



Top keywords:
Washington
 

brilliant

 

Senora

 

Talbot

 

Francisco

 
English
 
politics
 

interest

 
abrupt
 

crafts


ambition

 

imitation

 
society
 

enjoyed

 
social
 

Olivos

 
festivities
 
severance
 

beautiful

 

Chamber


Senate

 

appearance

 

ceased

 

success

 

handsome

 

properly

 

launched

 

wealthy

 

bachelor

 

weekly


necessity

 
foundations
 

skimming

 

novels

 

manifest

 
resembled
 

Carillo

 
reconstruction
 

question

 
exciting

energies
 

encountered

 
Delfina
 
session
 

recalled

 

military

 
church
 

vision

 
boyish
 

ideals