man of
the triangular committee named to notify the President that the House
had convened, and his declination was accepted by Speaker Frost, who
calmly filled the place with a member whom Mr. Hawke despised. Then the
House swung into the channel, and went plowing ahead upon the business
of the session, and in forty-eight hours, Mr. Hawke, forgotten, had
ceased to be important to any save himself. The whole of that first
Monday night Speaker Frost put in with Senator Hanway, in the latter's
study, revising committee lists and settling chairmanships with the
purpose of advancing the White House chances of Senator Hanway and
destroying those of Governor Obstinate.

Although Congress had begun its session, no change was made in those
morning calls of Richard, who came religiously at eleven to listen to
Senator Hanway and look at Dorothy. The latter young lady was never
absent from these interviews; she had conceived a wonderful interest in
politics, and gave her "Uncle Pat" no peace. Richard's call commonly
lasted but a half-hour, for Senator Hanway must be in the Senate chamber
at noon. Thirty heavenly minutes they were; Dorothy and Richard promised
and again promised undying love to one another with their eyes. Senator
Hanway never suspected this love-making, never intercepted one soft
glance; for your politician is like a horse wearing blinders, seeing
only the road before him, thinking of nothing but himself. One morning
after Senator Hanway had departed, Dorothy took Richard across to meet
the blonde pythoness. Dorothy said she wanted Richard to see Bess. This
was fiction; she wanted Bess to see Richard, of whom she was privily
proud.

The Marklins lived across the street from the Harley house. Mother
Marklin was an invalid and seldom out of her own room. Father Marklin
was dead, and had been these five years. When the situation promoted her
to be the head of the Marklin household, Bess had taken on a quiet,
grave atmosphere of authority that was ten years older than her age.

The Marklins were fair rich. Father Marklin had been a physician whose
patients were women of fashion; and that makes a practice wherein your
doctor may know less medicine and make more money than in any other walk
of drugs. A woman likes big bills from a physician if the malady be her
own; she draws importance from the size of the bills. When one reflects
that there is nothing to some women except their aches and their
ailments, it all seems