was overdoing it, and in
her opinion that was as bad as not doing it at all. Nor did she like the
spectacle of a middle-aged man of affairs trying to play the gallant;
there was another manner, one just as good, that would become him more.
She was impelled to admonish him again, but she restrained herself,
reflecting that she had not improved matters by her first warning, and
she might make them worse by her second. Nevertheless, she summoned the
nominee of a great party to the American Presidency to a conference, and
he came with more alacrity than he would have obeyed the call of a
conference of governors.

"Sylvia is doing what it is natural for her to do," she said, abruptly.

"Then, my dear, why find fault with me because of it?" replied the
mystified candidate.

"I don't find fault with you; I merely want your advice, although I know
that you can have none to give."

The candidate wisely kept silent, and waited for the speaker of the
house to proceed.

"Sylvia is your niece, and Mr. Plummer is your most powerful political
supporter in the West," she said. "If she jilts him because of any fancy
or impulse--well, you know such things can make men, especially elderly
men, do very strange deeds. I speak of it because I am sure it must have
been in your thoughts."

The candidate stirred uneasily.

"It is a thing that I do not like to take into consideration," he said.

"Nor do I, but it forces itself upon us."

"It is right that Harley should pay her attention. They are members of
this party, and they are of an age likely to make them congenial."

"That is where the danger lies. It may not amount at present to anything
more than a fancy, but a fancy can make a very good beginning."

They talked on at length and with much earnestness, but they could come
to no other conclusion than to use that last refuge, silence and
waiting.

Meanwhile Sylvia was enjoying herself. She was young and vigorous, and
she had a keen zest in life. She was surrounded by men, some young,
too, who had seen much of the world, and they interested her; neither
would she have been human, nor of her sex, if their attentions had not
pleased her; and there, too, was the great campaign throwing its glow
over everything. She was gracious even to the "King," whom she had been
treating rather worse than he deserved for several days. She seemed to
appreciate his increased gallantry, and it was "dear old daddy" very
often now, whether in the