a peculiar grace of curve which prevented his weight from
carrying any suggestion of the coming solidity of middle age. His rich,
rather oily hair, worn longer than the fashion, fell in affected
carelessness across his brow and lent to his candid eyes an expression
of intensity and eloquence. His clear-cut nose and the firm, fleshy
curve of his prominent chin modified the effect of instability produced
by his large and somewhat loosely moulded lips. The salient quality of
his personality, as of his appearance, was an ease of proportion almost
urbane. His presence in the overcrowded room diffused an infectious
affability. Though he spoke to few, he was at once, and irrepressibly,
the friend of all. He did not go out of his way to shake a single hand,
he confined his conversation, with the old absorption, to the men at his
table--personal supporters, for the most part; but there was about him a
pacific emanation--an atmosphere at once social and political, which
extended to the far end of the room and to men whose names he did not
know.

He talked rapidly in a vibrant, low-toned voice, with frequent gestures
of his shapely hands. His laugh was easy, full, and inspiriting--the
laugh of a man with a vital sense of humour. As Galt watched him, he
smiled in unconscious sympathy.

"But for Burr, I think I'd like to see Webb governor," he said. "After
all, it is something to have a man who looks well in a procession--and
he has a charming wife."

II

The gas light and electric light illuminating the opera house fell with
a curious distinction in tone upon the crowd which filled the building
and overflowed through darkened doors and windows. Beneath the electric
jets the faces were focussed to a white hush of expectancy, which
mellowed into a blur of impatient animation where the dim gas flickered
against the walls.

Since the birth of Virginia Democracy, the people had not witnessed so
generous an outpouring of delegates. In a State where every man is more
or less a politician, the convention had assumed the air of a carnival
of males--the restriction of sex limiting it to an expression of but
half the population.

The delegations from the congressional districts were marshalled in line
upon the floor and stage, their positions denoted by numbered placards
on poles, while in the galleries an enthusiastic swarm of visitors gave
vent to the opinions of that tribunal which is the public. A straggling
fringe of fee