d bandages to his head. An anxious mother and aunt
were already preparing to receive him as an invalid, the news of the
accident and of his return to Roma having been telephoned. But before he
went, he found a chance to murmur to Gertrude Van Deusen his thanks for
her flying of the flag of truce, and his appreciation of her kindness.

Feverish as he was, he half hoped she might win next day, whenever in
that long night, he recalled the look on her face, as she bent over him
in the moonlight.

As for Gertrude, she tossed through sleepless hours, after the
excitement had passed and everybody had gone home, thinking, thinking,
thinking.

"What a pity for him to feel as he does about women," she said to
herself. "A man full of all tenderness and chivalry at heart, he is
behind his age. I wonder how we would have met if I had never gone into
politics. I wonder if he would have liked me then, really?"

CHAPTER VIII

Modern Journalism

The "Progressive Workers" has been especially busy in arranging for the
joint debate between their own and the Republican candidates, and they
were in full force and early at the meeting. When eight o'clock came and
Gertrude Van Deusen had not appeared, they felt no anxiety, but as the
moments passed and she did not come, they began to be surprised and then
alarmed.

"Gertrude is always prompt," said Mrs. Bateman, as they waited in the
ante-room. "I cannot imagine what is keeping her. Telephone over to her
house, Anna, and see if she has left, won't you? I have to attend to
things here."

Mrs. Stillman hurried to the telephone, coming back later with a puzzled
expression on her aristocratic features.

"Her cousin says she left there at half past seven in an automobile,"
she said. "It is half past eight now."

"An automobile?" said Mrs. Bateman. "Did anybody send for her, I
wonder?"

No one seemed to know. Their candidate had always been transported in
her own carriage and no one had thought of sending for her. Still, some
friend might have done so--and in an automobile, Bailey Armstrong, for
instance--who had a new one. Nothing was more natural than--

But just then Bailey came into the ante-room.

"It's the strangest thing," he began, "Miss Van Deusen does not come,
and nobody seems to know where she is. And Jack Allingham is missing,
too. None of his friends can account for his absence. What are we going
to do?"

"Do?" repeated Mrs. Bateman. "What can we do?"

"The