ncy, and she hastened to prove it by the ethical standard without
which all hopes were valueless to her. Even now had anyone told her that
the ruling passion of her life was to be wooed and made much of by the
very people she professed to despise, she would have spurned the accuser
as a malicious slanderer. Nor indeed would it have been wholly true.
Mrs. Williams had practically told her this at their last meeting in New
York, and its utterance had convinced her on the contrary of repugnance
to them, and of her desire to be the leader of a social protest against
them. Now here, in Washington of all places, she was confronted by the
bitter suggestion that she was without allies, and that her enemies were
the keepers of the door which led to leadership and power. Despondency
stared her in the face, but a splendid possibility--aye probability was
left. She would not forsake her principles. She would not lower her
flag. She would return to Benham. Washington refused her homage now, but
it should listen to her and bow before her some day as the wife of one
of the real leaders of the State, whom Society did not dare to ignore.

CHAPTER VII.

At the close of the fortnight of her stay in Washington subsequent to
the reception at the White House, Selma found herself in the same frame
of mind as when she parted from Mr. Elton. During this fortnight her
time was spent either in sight seeing or at the hotel. The exercises at
the Capitol were purely formal, preliminary to a speedy adjournment of
Congress. Consequently her husband had no opportunity to distinguish
himself by addressing the house. Of Flossy she saw nothing, though the
two men had several meetings. Apparently both Lyons and Williams were
content with a surface reconciliation between their wives which did not
bar family intercourse. At least her husband made no suggestion that she
should call on Mrs. Williams, and Flossy's cards did not appear. Beyond
making the acquaintance of a few more wives and daughters in the hotel,
who seemed as solitary as herself, Selma received no overtures from her
own sex. She knew no one, and no one sought her out or paid her
attention. She still saw fit to believe that if she were to establish
herself in Washington and devote her energies to rallying these wives
and daughters about her, she might be able to prove that Flossy and Mr.
Elton were mistaken. But she realized that the task would be less simple
than she had anticipated. Bes