her eyes bright, her
lips slightly parted, and he knew that he held her attention. He was
aware, too, that he was flattered by the interest that he had been able
to create in the mind of this Idaho girl whose opinion he had been
holding so cheaply.

"I envy a man," she said, at last, sighing a little. "You can go where
you please and do what you please. Even our 'advanced women' have less
liberty than the man who is not advanced at all. And yet I do not want
to be a man. That, I suppose, is a paradox."

Harley was about to make a light reply, something in the tone of
perforced compliment, but a glimpse of her caused him to change his
mind. She seemed to have a touch of genuine sadness, and, instead, he
said nothing.

When the carriage reached the ladies' entrance of the hotel they were
still silent, and as Harley helped her from the carriage her manner was
unchanged. The little touch of sadness was yet there, and it appealed to
him. She surprised his look of sympathy, and the color in her cheeks
increased.

"I am tired," she said. "I just begin to realize how greatly so much
travelling and so many crowds weigh upon one."

Then, with the first smile of comradeship that she had given him, she
went into the hotel.

The Graysons, Miss Morgan, Harley, Hobart, and a few others formed a
family group again at the table, when they dined that evening, and all
the tensity and anxiety visible the day before was gone. Mr. Grayson's
success in Chicago had been too complete, too sweeping to leave doubt of
its continuance; he would be the hero and leader of his party, not a
weight upon it, and the question now was whether or not the party had
votes enough; hence there was a certain light and joyous air about them
which gave to their short stay in the dining-room a finer flavor than
any that a _chef_ could add.

Churchill, of the _Monitor_, was not one of this party. Churchill did
not confine his criticisms to his professional activities, but had a
disposition to carry them into private life, injecting roughness into
social intercourse, which ought to be smooth and easy. Therefore,
somewhat to his own surprise, which ought not to have been the case, he
had not become a member of this family group, and had much to say about
the "frivolous familiarity" of Jimmy Grayson and "his lack of dignity."

But on this evening Churchill had no desire to sit at table with the
Graysons, because he felt that something great was going to happ