Senate
became a Hanway propaganda. Even the opposition, so far as slightly lay
with them, were pleasantly willing to help the work along, and Senator
Hanway blushed to find himself a Senate idol. By the encouragement which
his colleagues gave him, and the generous light of it, Senator Hanway
saw the way clear to become the choice of his party's national
convention. But he must work.

It was in that prior day when Senator Hanway served his State in the
legislature that he wedded Dorothy Harley. It is to be assumed that he
loved her dearly; for twelve years later when she died his grief was
like a storm, and for the rest of his days he would as soon think of a
top hat without a crown as without a mourning band.

When Senator Hanway married Dorothy Harley, her brother, John Harley,
married Barbara Hanway. Whether this exchange of sisters by the two was
meant for retort or for compliment lived a point of dispute--without
being settled--among the friends of the high contracting parties for
many, many months.

Not that anyone suffered by these double nuptials; the families owned
equal social standing, having none at all, and were evenly balanced in
fortune, since neither had a dollar. Both Senator Hanway and John Harley
had their fortunes to make when, each with the other's sister on his
arm, they called in the preacher that day; and after the wedding they
set about the accumulation of those fortunes.

In a half-sense the two became partners; for while a lawmaker can be
highly useful to a man of energy outside the halls of legislation, the
converse is every inch as true. They must be folk of course who know and
trust one another; and, aside from marrying sisters--a fact calculated
to quickly teach two gentlemen the worst and the best about each
other--John Harley and Senator Hanway had been as Damon and Pythias for
a decade. Not that either would have died for the other, but he would
have lied and plotted and defrauded and stopped at nothing short of
murder for him, which, considering the money appetites of the pair and
those schemes they had for feeding them, should be vastly more
important.

When Senator Hanway came to Washington, John Harley and his wife,
Barbara Hanway-Harley as she preferred to style herself, came with him.
Senator Hanway made his home with the Harleys, when now he was a
widower; and the trio, with the daughter, Dorothy--named for the
Senator's wife--who lost her boot heel when Richard lost his hea