d the Senator.
"If he was not such a good fellow he would bore a man to death. He bores
many a man as it is, and people in office won't stand being bored. He's
too ingenuous. The shrewd ones say his ingenuousness is too good to be
true. He can't keep De Willoughby's virtues out of his stories of
him--and a man's virtues have nothing much to do with his claim."

"I met him in one of the squares yesterday," said Mrs. Meredith, "and he
almost cried when he spoke of the claim. He told me that everything was
going wrong--that it was being pushed aside by all sorts of things, and
he had lost heart. His eyes and nose got quite red, and he had to wink
hard to keep back the tears."

"The fellow believes in it, at any rate," said the Senator; "he has that
to support him."

"He believes in everything," said Mrs. Meredith, "and it would have
touched your heart to hear him talk about the claimants. There is a young
nephew and a beautiful girl creature, who is big Mr. De Willoughby's
adopted daughter. She is not a claimant, it is true, but they all adore
each other, and the nephew is in love with her; and if the claim goes
through they will be happy forever afterwards. I saw the nephew once, and
he was a beautiful boy with Southern eyes and a charming expression. Upon
the whole, I think I am in love with the young couple, too. Their story
sounded like a pastoral poem when Judge Rutherford told it."

"Suppose you tell it to us, Marion," said the Senator, with a laugh, and
a glance round the table. "It may appeal to our feelings and advance the
interests of the claim."

"Pray, tell it, Mrs. Meredith," Baird put in; "the mere mention of it has
appealed to my emotions. Perhaps Senator Harburton and Mr. Lewis will be
moved also, and that will be two votes to the good--perhaps more."

"The charm of it is that it is a story without a plot," Mrs. Meredith
said. "There is nothing in it but youth and love and innocence and
beauty. It is Romeo and Juliet without the tragedy. Romeo appeared on a
moonlight night in a garden, and Juliet stood upon a balcony among
roses--and their young souls cried out to each other. It is all so young
and innocent--they only want to spend their lives together, like flowers
growing side by side. They want nothing but each other."

"And the claim," added the Senator.

"They cannot have each other if the claim fails. They will have to starve
to death in each other's arms like the 'Babes in the Wood'; I am sur