l clinches of the House and
Senate caucuses the early days have little serious business.

Presson's great hotel and the lesser lights of the capital's houses of
entertainment were packed to their roofs. The State House on the hill
sent sparkling radiance at night from all its hundreds of windows out
across the snow which loaded the broad lawns. Senator Pownal,
renominated in joint caucus, spoke to crowded floor and galleries on the
second evening. Harlan Thornton, in his seat in the House, listened and
wondered if that convention had not been a dream.

This later convocation seemed so entirely harmonious.

The Republicans ruled House and Senate by safe majorities. Presson,
sauntering about hotel or State House lobby, seemed bland and contented
again. The wounds in the party seemed to have been healed.

On inauguration day Governor Waymouth added to the general spirit of
harmony.

He came unobtrusively to the State House from the modest mansion he had
leased in the capital city for the legislative winter and took his oath
of office before an admiring throng. He had made a confidant of no one
regarding his inaugural speech. There were vague rumors that the
Governor would follow his hand, as he had shown it in his letter of
acceptance, and deliver an inaugural address which would blister the
ears of the politically unregenerate.

In that ancient State House, its accommodations for spectators limited,
there were no hard-and-fast rules regulating admission to the floor.
Harlan Thornton had a chair placed in the aisle beside his seat, and
entertained Madeleine Presson there. He had anticipated Linton, who came
with a similar invitation. Harlan was still enough of a boy to feel
delight in the discomfiture of his rival, and to be gratified by the
open admiration his fellow-members showed for the girl at his side. He
relished the sour looks which Linton sent in that direction.

Under cover of the general buzz and bustle that accompanied the
convening of the joint session of House and Senate for the purpose of
the inauguration the girl rallied him a bit.

"The beginning of the righteous reign seems to be sane and sweet, after
all," she said. "Even my father is complacent and purring this morning.
Which has he eaten, do you know--the raven of contention or the dove of
peace?"

"I think every one understands that Governor Waymouth has straightened
matters out for all of us," he replied.

"How? By simply talking about it