it,
but she will see the reports first in the papers and she may not like
it at all."

"Oh, she's a sensible woman," said Cleary. "She will understand a
political and military necessity. She won't mind."

CHAPTER XV

Politics

[Illustration]

But Marian did mind, and for once Cleary was mistaken. She was
delighted at the prominence which Sam had achieved, and saw him
mentioned as a candidate for President with pride and gratification,
but she did not see how that excused his promiscuous osculation of the
female population of the country, and she determined that it should
cease. She wrote to him frequently and decidedly on the subject, and he
reported her protests to Cleary, who absolutely refused to allow them.

"It won't do," said he, as they discussed the subject at a hotel in a
small city on their line of progress. "This kissing is your strong
point. _The Lyre_ is backing you up on the strength of it. So is the
Benevolent Assimilation Trust, Limited. In every city and town the
girls have turned out, and you've captured them hands down. If you stop
now it will upset the whole business. The Convention delegates are
coming out for you by the dozen. Our committee is working it up so that
it will be nearly unanimous. There won't be another serious candidate,
and I doubt if they put anybody up against you when you're nominated.
You're as good as President now, but you must go on kissing. That's all
there is of it."

Sam wrote to Marian rehearsing these arguments, and he got Cleary to
write too, but the letters had no effect. At last he received a
telegram from her announcing her intention of meeting him at St. Lewis.
She reached that city before him and was present at the station when he
arrived, altho he did not know it, and from a good point of vantage
she saw him kissing the young ladies of that city by wholesale to an
accompaniment of "Captain Jinks." It was more than she could stand, and
when she joined her _fiance_ at the hotel the meeting was very
different from the one he had so often pictured to himself. It was a
stormy scene, intermixed with tender episodes, but she gave it as her
ultimatum that the kissing must cease forthwith, and, in order to give
a good reason for it, she insisted that they be married at once. Sam
was willing to take this course, and Cleary was called into their
counsels. At first he bitterly opposed the project, but Marian's
blandishm