r Drive, for which cards had been issued a fortnight
previous. She pathetically explained to the reporters that, had the
dimensions and resources of her establishment permitted, she and the
Governor would simply have announced themselves at home to the community
at large; that they would have preferred this, but of course it would
never do. The people would not be pleased to see a rabble confound the
hospitality of the chief magistrate and his wife. The people demanded
proper dignity from their representatives in office. The list of
invitations which Selma sent out was, however, comprehensive. She aimed
to invite everyone of social, public, commercial or political
importance. A full band was in attendance, and a liberal collation was
served. Selma confided to some of her guests, who, she thought, might
criticise the absence of wine, that she had felt obliged, out of
consideration for her husband's political prospects, to avoid wounding
the feelings of total abstainers. The entertainment lasted from four to
seven, and the three hours of hand-shaking provided a delicious
experience to the hostess. She gloried in the consciousness that this
crush of citizens, representing the leaders of the community in the
widest sense, had been assembled by her social gift, and that they had
come to offer their admiring homage to the clever wife of their
Governor. It gratified her to think that Pauline and Mrs. Taylor and the
people of that class, to all of whom she had sent cards, should behold
her as the first lady of the State, and mistress of a beautiful home,
dispensing hospitality on broad, democratic lines to an admiring
constituency. When Mr. Horace Elton approached, Selma perpetrated a
little device which she had planned. As they were in the act of shaking
hands a very handsome rose fell--seemingly by chance--from the bouquet
which she carried. He picked it up and tendered it to her, but Selma
made him keep it, adding in a lower tone, "It is your due for the
gallant friendship you have shown me and my husband." She felt as though
she were a queen bestowing a guerdon on a favorite minister, and yet a
woman rewarding in a woman's way an admirer's devotion. She meant Elton
to appreciate that she understood that his interest in Lyons was largely
due to his partiality for her. It seemed to her that she could recognize
to this extent his chivalrous conduct without smirching her blameless
record as an American housewife.

Meantime the