ch under Mr. Flint's
orders as the conductors and brakemen. Old Tom, in consulting the map,
conceived an unheard-of effrontery, a high treason which took away the
breath of his secretary and treasurer when it was pointed out to him. The
plan contemplated a line of railroad from the heart of the lumber regions
down the south side of the valley of the Pingsquit to Kingston, where the
lumber could take to the sea. In short, it was a pernicious revival of an
obsolete state of affairs, competition, and if persisted in, involved
nothing less than a fight to a finish with the army, the lobby of the
Northeastern. Other favoured beings stood aghast when they heard of it,
and hastened to old Tom with timely counsel; but he had reached a frame
of mind which they knew well. He would listen to no reason, and
maintained stoutly that there were other lawyers in the world as able in
political sagacity and lobby tactics as Hilary Vane; the Honourable
Galusha Hammer, for instance, an old and independent and wary war-horse
who had more than once wrung compromises out of the Honourable Hilary.
The Honourable Galusha Hammer was sent for, and was now industriously, if
quietly and unobtrusively, at work. The Honourable Hilary was likewise at
work, equally quietly and unobtrusively. When the powers fall out, they
do not open up at once with long-distance artillery. There is always a
chance of a friendly settlement. The news was worth a good deal, for
instance, to Mr. Peter Pardriff (brother of Paul, of Ripton), who
refrained, with praiseworthy self-control, from publishing it in the
State Tribune, although the temptation to do so must have been great. And
most of the senatorial twenty saw the trouble coming and braced their
backs against it, but in silence. The capital had seen no such war as
this since the days of Jethro Bass.

In the meantime Mr. Crewe, blissfully ignorant of this impending
conflict, was preparing a speech on national affairs and national issues
which was to startle an unsuspecting State. Mrs. Pomfret, who had
received many clippings and pamphlets, had written him weekly letters of
a nature spurring to his ambition, which incidentally contained many
references to Alice's interest in his career. And Mr. Crewe's mind, when
not intent upon affairs of State, sometimes reverted pleasantly to
thoughts of Victoria Flint; it occurred to him that the Duncan house was
large enough for entertaining, and that he might invite Mrs. Pomfret