tch things, if you expect them
to go smooth. You've got to get acquainted with the men. Most men are
reasonable when you get well acquainted with them. I tell your husband
that people are about as reasonable in Washington as you'll find them
anywhere."

"Washington is certainly very pleasant."

"Yes, that's so; it is pleasant. Where most everybody wants something,
they are bound to be accommodating. That's my idea. I reckon you don't
find Jerry Hollowell trying to pull a cat by its tail," he added,
dropping into his native manner.

"Well, I must go and hunt up the old man. Glad to have made your
acquaintance, Mrs. Henderson." And then, with a sly look, "If I knew
you better, ma'am, I should take the liberty of congratulating you that
Henderson has come round so handsomely."

"Come round?" asked Margaret, in amused wonder.

"Well, I took the liberty of giving him a hint that he wasn't
cut-out for a single man. I showed him that," and he lugged out his
photograph-case from a mass of papers in his breast-pocket and handed it
to her.

"Ah, I see," said Margaret, studying the photographs with a peculiar
smile.

"Oh, Henderson knows a good thing when he sees it," said Hollowell,
complacently.

It was not easy to be offended with Hollowell's kind-hearted
boorishness, and after he had gone, Margaret sat a long time reflecting
upon this new specimen of man in her experience. She was getting many
new ideas in these days, the moral lines were not as clearly drawn as
she had thought; it was impossible to ticket men off into good and bad.
In Hollowell she had a glimpse of a world low-toned and vulgar; she had
heard that he was absolutely unscrupulous, and she had supposed that he
would appear to be a very wicked man. But he seemed to be good-hearted
and tolerant and friendly. How fond he was of his family, and how
charitable about Congress! And she wondered if the world was generally
on Hollowell's level. She met many men more cultivated than he,
gentlemen in manner and in the first social position, who took, after
all, about his tone in regard to the world, very agreeable people
usually, easy to get on with, not exacting, or professing much faith in
anybody, and mildly cynical--only bitterly cynical when they failed to
get what they wanted, and felt the good things of life slipping away
from them. It was to take her some time to learn that some of the most
agreeable people are those who have succeeded by the most questio