despite the attempted seriousness of her tone they
joined in an irresistible and spontaneous laughter. They were again on
that plane of mutual understanding and intimacy for which neither could
account.

"I have no criticism to make of Mr. Crewe as an orator, at least," he
said.

Then she grew serious again, and regarded him steadfastly.

"And--what he said?" she asked.

Austen wondered again at the courage she had displayed. All he had been
able to think of in the theatre, while listening to Mr. Crewe's words of
denunciation of the Northeastern Railroads, had been of the effect they
might have on Victoria's feelings, and from time to time he had glanced
anxiously at her profile. And now, looking into her face, questioning,
trustful--he could not even attempt to evade. He was silent.

"I shouldn't have asked you that," she said. "One reason I came was
because--because I wanted to hear the worst. You were too considerate to
tell me--all."

He looked mutely into her eyes, and a great desire arose in him to be
able to carry her away from it all. Many times within the past year, when
the troubles and complications of his life had weighed upon him, his
thoughts had turned to, that Western country, limited only by the bright
horizons where the sun rose and set. If he could only take her there, or
into his own hills, where no man might follow them! It was a primeval
longing, and, being a woman and the object of it, she saw its essential
meaning in his face. For a brief moment they stood as completely alone as
on the crest of Sawanec.

"Good night," she said, in a low voice.

He did not trust himself to speak at once, but went down the steps with
her to the curb, where Hastings Weare was waiting in the runabout.

"I was just telling Miss Flint," said that young gentleman, "that you
would have been my candidate."

Austen's face relaxed.

"Thank you, Mr. Weare," he said simply; and to Victoria, "Good night."

At the corner, when she turned, she saw him still standing on the edge of
the sidewalk, his tall figure thrown into bold relief by the light which
flooded from the entrance. The account of the Ripton meeting,
substantially as it appeared in the State Tribune, was by a singular
coincidence copied at once into sixty-odd weekly newspapers, and must
have caused endless merriment throughout the State. Congressman
Fairplay's prophecy of "negligible" was an exaggeration, and one
gentleman who had rashly predicted tha