this is highly gratifying," said Senator Hanway. "And you will have
them call upon me, too, I've no doubt. You should wire them at once; the
caucus, you know, isn't ten days away; Congress convenes on the first
Monday of next month."

Senator Hanway, being of a quick intelligence, had by this time found
his rightful line. He divided himself fairly; for he gave his entire
conversation to Richard while he conferred upon Mr. Gwynn his whole
respect. In good truth, the less Mr. Gwynn said and the less he seemed
to hear and understand, the more Senator Hanway did him honor in his
heart. The rigid witlessness of Mr. Gwynn fairly came over him as the
token and sign of an indubitable nobility, and it was with a feeling
treading upon reverence for that wonderful man that Senator Hanway arose
to go.

"I am much refreshed by this interview," said he, taking Mr. Gwynn's
hand and shaking it pump-handlewise. "Your help should insure Mr.
Frost's success. With Mr. Frost Speaker, railway interests will be
safe-guarded. And," continued Senator Hanway, quoting from one of his
Senate speeches, lifting his voice the while, and falling into a fine
declamatory pose, "he who safeguards the railroads, safeguards his
country. Patriotism cannot count the debt the nation owes the railroads.
Had it not been for the knitting together of the country by the
railroads, bringing into closer touch with one another the West and the
East, the South and the North--the wiping out of sectionalism--the
annihilation of special interests by making all interests general--all
done by the railroads, sir!--this country, broken across the knee of
mountain ranges and sawed into regions by great rivers, would ere this
have been frittered into fragments; and where we have now the glorious
United States--a free and unified people--Europe, who envies as well as
fears us, would be gratified by the spectacle of four and perhaps a half
dozen different and differing countries, each alien and, doubtless, each
hostile to the others." Senator Hanway had reached the door. "And that
this condition of disseverment does not exist," cried he, as he bowed
with final grace to Mr. Gwynn, who approved stonily, "is due to you,
sir; and to gentlemen like you; and to those railways which, like the
Anaconda Airline, form the ties that bind us safe against such
dismembering possibilities and give us, for war or for peace, absolute
coherency as a commonwealth."

CHAPTER V

HOW RICHA