eated
before the fire.

"No," she replied, folding her arms and looking at the point of her
slipper that rested against the brass fender.

"You will be glad to know that the trouble is all over. Ramsay has the
senatorship, all but the confirmation of the joint session, which is
merely a formality. They've conferred on me the joy of presenting his
name. Ramsay is clean and straight, and thoroughly in sympathy with all
the new ideas that are sound. Personally I like him. He's the most
popular and the most presentable man we have, and his election to the
Senate will greatly strengthen the party."

He did not know how far he might speak of the result and of the causes
that had contributed to it. He was relieved when she asked, very simply
and naturally,--

"I suppose Mr. Bassett made it possible; it couldn't have been, you
couldn't have brought it about, without him."

"If he hadn't withdrawn he could have had the nomination himself!
Thatcher's supporters were growing wobbly and impatient. We shouldn't
any of us care to see Thatcher occupy a seat in the Senate that has been
filled by Oliver Morton and Joe MacDonald and Ben Harrison and Dave
Turpie. We Hoosiers are not perfect, but our Senators first and last
have been men of brains and character. Ramsay won't break the apostolic
succession; he's all right."

"You think Mr. Bassett might have had it; you have good reason for
believing that?" she asked.

"I could name you the men who were ready to go to him. He had the
stampede all ready, down to the dress rehearsal. He practically gave
away a victory he had been working for all his life."

"Yes; he is like that; he can do such things," murmured Sylvia.

"History has been making rapidly in the past twenty-four hours. Bassett
has bought Thatcher's interest in the 'Courier,' and he proposes editing
it himself. More than that, he was at my office this morning when I got
there, and he asked me, as a special favor to him, to take a few shares
in the company to qualify me as secretary of the corporation, and said
he wanted me to help him. He said he thought it about time for Indiana
to have a share in the general reform movement; talked about it as
though this were something he had always intended doing, but had been
prevented by press of other matters. He spoke of the Canneries case and
wanted to know if I cared to reconsider my refusal to settle it. He put
it quite impersonally--said Fitch told him he couldn't do more