oceeded.

"I did not think you were interested."

"Didn't you know that this Child Labor business was opposed to my
interests?"

"Dear, I did not dream it. It's a Republican bill, to be sure; but you
seemed very friendly with Senator Smith, who introduced it. We were
simply trying to improve it."

"Suppose we didn't want it improved."

"That's what some said; but I did not believe such--deception."

The blood rushed to Cresswell's face.

"Well, you will drop this bill and the Civic Club from now on."

"Why?"

"Because I say so," he retorted explosively, too angry to explain
further.

She looked at him--a long, fixed, penetrating look which revealed more
than she had ever seen before, then turned away and went slowly
up-stairs. She did not come down to dinner, and in the evening the
doctor was called.

Cresswell drooped a bit after eating, hesitated, and reflected. He had
acted too cavalierly in this Civic Club mess, he concluded, and yet he
would not back down. He'd go see her and pet her a bit, but be firm.

He opened her boudoir door gently, and she stood before him radiant,
clothed in silk and lace, her hair loosened. He paused, astonished. But
she threw herself upon his neck, with a joyful, half hysterical cry.

"I will give it all up--everything! Willingly, willingly!" Her voice
dropped abruptly to a tremulous whisper. "Oh, Harry! I--I am to be the
mother of a child!"

_Twenty-nine_

A MASTER OF FATE

"There is not the slightest doubt, Miss Wynn," Senator Smith was saying,
"but that the schools of the District will be reorganized."

"And the Board of Education abolished?" she added.

"Yes. The power will be delegated to a single white superintendent."

The vertical line in Caroline Wynn's forehead became pronounced.

"Whose work is this, Senator?" she asked.

"Well, there are, of course, various parties back of the change: the
'outs,' the reformers, the whole tendency to concentrate responsibility,
and so on. But, frankly, the deciding factor was the demand of the
South."

"Is there anything in Washington that the South does not already own?"

Senator Smith smiled thinly.

"Not much," drily; "but we own the South."

"And part of the price is putting the colored schools of the District in
the hands of a Southern man and depriving us of all voice in their
control?"

"Precisely, Miss Wynn. But you'd be surprised to know that it was the
Negroes themselves who stirred the Sou