Mr. and Mrs. Grayson received him with courtesy, even with warmth, and
Harley saw that he had made new progress in their esteem. He remained
with them only a few minutes, and he said nothing about the
objectionable conduct of Miss Morgan, who had set herself as a guard
upon their door. He deemed it wiser to make no reference to her at all,
because she was only an insignificant and momentary incident of the
campaign, not really relevant. Chicago was merely a beginning, and they
would drop her there. When he returned from the drawing-room, she was
still sitting near the door, and at his appearance she looked up pertly.

"Did you find him in a good-humor?" she asked.

"I think Mr. Grayson is always in a good-humor, or at least he is able
to appear so."

"I doubt whether perpetual good-humor, or the appearance of it, is
desirable. One ought to make a difference in favor of friends; I do not
care to present an amiable face to my enemies."

She pursed up her lips and looked thoughtful.

"When Uncle James goes to Washington to take the Presidency," she
continued, "he will need me to protect him from the people who have no
business with him."

"I hope the last remark is not personal?"

"Oh no," she said; "I recognize the fact that the press must be
tolerated."

Harley again felt piqued, and, not willing to retire with the sense of
defeat fresh upon him, he sat down near her and began to talk to her of
her Western life. He wished to know more about the genesis and progress
of a girl who seemed to him so strange, but he was not able to confine
her to certain channels of narrative. She was flippant and vague, full
of allusions to wild things like Indians or buffaloes or grizzly bears,
but with no detailed statement, and Harley gathered that her childhood
had been in complete touch with these primitive facts. Only such early
associations could account for the absence of so many conventions.

The correspondents who travelled with Harley were mostly men of
experience, readily adaptable, and the addition of a new member to Mr.
Grayson's party could not escape their attention. Harley was surprised
and shocked to find that all of them were well acquainted with Miss
Morgan inside of six hours, and that they seemed to be much better
comrades with her than he had been. Hobart, the most frivolous of the
lot, and the most careless of speech, returning from the Grayson car,
informed him that she was a "great girl, as fine as sil