oppress and crush their fellow-men! What a low
order of intelligence the rich possess! An intelligence wherein the
sentiments of love and justice have melted into money!"

"Mr. President," put in Ames at this juncture, "I think we have spent
quite enough time moralizing. Suppose you now indicate your attitude
on the cotton tariff. I'd like to know what to expect."

Carmen glanced quickly up. Her sparkling eyes looked right into the
President's. A smile wreathed her mouth. "I admire the man," she said,
"who dares to stand for the right in the face of the great taboo!
There are few men nowadays who stand for anything in particular."

"Look here!" exclaimed Ames, aware now that he had made a mistake in
permitting the girl to remain, "I wish my interview to be with you
alone, Mr. President."

Carmen rose. "I have embarrassed you both, haven't I?" she said. "I
will go. But first--"

She went to Ames and laid a hand on his arm. "I wish--I wish I might
awaken you," she said gently. "There is no victim at Avon in so
desperate a state as you. More gold will not cure you, any more than
more liquor can cure a slave to strong drink. You do not know that you
are hourly practicing the most despicable form of robbery, the
wringing of profits which you do not need out of the dire necessities
of your fellow-beings."

She stopped and smiled down into the face of the man. His emotions
were in a whirl. This girl always dissected his soul with a smile on
her face.

"I wish I might awaken you and your poor victims by showing you and
them that righteousness makes not for a home in the skies, but for
greater happiness and prosperity for everybody right here in this
world. Don't you really want the little babies to have enough to eat
down there at Avon? Do you really want the President to support you in
the matter of the cotton schedule, and so increase the misery and
sorrow at your mills? You don't know, do you? that one's greatest
happiness is found only in that of others." She stood looking at him
for a few moments, then turned away.

The President rose and held out his hand to her. She almost laughed as
she took it, and her eyes shone with the light of her eager, unselfish
desire.

"I--I guess I'm like Paul," she said, "consumed with zeal. Anyway,
you'll wear my rose, won't you?"

"Indeed I will!" he said heartily.

"And--you are not a bit afraid about a second term, are you? As for
party principle, why, you know, there is on