n enviously,
and his pretty sister, the youngest of the group, with gravest
apprehension. But Jean seemed rather to like it, though it was most
undignified, and Grant, though he ruled his children well, seemed
rather to approve of their treatment of her majesty. They were a happy
lot together. The Ape was a good deal interested in the election, but
was not allowed to talk outside the house. And Jean wore a serious
look. She lived for one man.

I attended a party soon after my visit to Gunderson, and a very pretty
affair it was. A very pretty incident I saw there, too.

What I saw was the advent of a big, blowsy woman, who was blazing with
diamonds, whose face was good-natured, but who seemed ill at ease. She
was like a Muscovy duck among game fowl. She was well received by the
mass and overlooked by the few, and, being a woman, though of no acute
comprehension, she understood vaguely her condition. She was unhappy,
and there was a flush, upon her face.

I saw a small woman, neat in a gown of the Directory, it seemed to me,
though of course not so pronounced, brought by apparent accident in
contact with the big, blazing creature. The smaller woman was
self-contained and of the blue-blooded in look and unconsciousness from
head to heel. The two engaged in conversation, the one affable and
interested, the other flushed and happy.

I do not know that I ever enjoyed a party more, yet I did nothing on
that occasion, save to watch at a distance the two people I have
mentioned. They drifted along together, and there was soon a group
about them. Was not Mrs. Grant Harlson a social power, and was not a
friend of hers fit friend and confidant for any one? I do not
understand the ways of women. I do not comprehend their manner of
doing things, but I know a thing when it is done. And when that party
ended I knew that fat Mrs. Gunderson had risen to a higher plane than
she had dared to covet for the time, and that she knew who had
accomplished it. Grant was not present at the party, and of the
incident I told him nothing then. I wanted him to note its possible
sequence first.

The day of election came, and a great day it was. Outside the Ninth
Ward we had passed beyond our hopes. That ward, though,--at least from
the first reports, and we paid slight attention to the later
ones,--remained, through Gunderson, sullen, incomprehensible,
uncommitted. And at night, the voting over, newspapers began to show
the