,
"Well, by God!"

CHAPTER XXIV

A WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY BALL

The Bassetts moved to the capital that winter, arriving with the phalanx
of legislators in January, and establishing themselves in a furnished
house opportunely vacated by the Bosworths, who were taking the
Mediterranean trip. Bassett had been careful to announce to the people
of Fraserville that the removal was only temporary, and that he and his
family would return in the spring, but Marian held private opinions
quite at variance with her father's published statements.

Mrs. Bassett's acquiescence had been due to Mrs. Owen's surprising
support of Marian's plan. In declaring that she would never, never
consent to live in a flat, Mrs. Bassett had hoped to dispose of Marian's
importunities, to which Bassett had latterly lent mild approval. When,
however, Mrs. Owen suggested the Bosworth house, which could be occupied
with the minimum of domestic vexation, Mrs. Bassett promptly consented,
feeling that her aunt's interest might conceal a desire in the old
lady's breast to have some of her kinsfolk near her. Mrs. Bassett had
not allowed her husband to forget the dangerous juxtaposition of Sylvia
Garrison to Mrs. Owen's check-book. "That girl," as Mrs. Bassett
designated Sylvia in private conversation with her husband, had been
planted in Elizabeth House for a purpose. Her relief that Sylvia had not
been settled in the Delaware Street residence had been of short
duration: Mrs. Bassett saw now that it was only the girl's adroit method
of impressing upon Mrs. Owen her humility and altruism. Still Mrs.
Bassett was not wholly unhappy. It was something to be near at hand
where she could keep track of Sylvia's movements; and the social scene
at the capital was not without its interest for her. She was not merely
the wife of Morton Bassett, but the only child of the late Blackford
Singleton, sometime Senator in Congress. She was moreover the niece of
Sally Owen, and this in itself was a social asset. She showed her
husband the cards that were left at their door, and called his attention
to the fact that the representative people of the capital were looking
them up. He made the mistake of suggesting that the husbands of most of
the women who had called had axes to grind at the State House,--a
suggestion intended to be humorous; but she answered that many of her
callers were old friends of the Singletons, and she expressed the hope
that he would so conduct hi