tic patient group whose claims were waiting
for the passage of some impossible bill.

There came, too, the sightseers and trippers, sweeping from one end of
the town to the other, climbing the dome of the Capitol, walking down the
steps of the Monument, venturing into the White House, piloted through
the Bureau where the money is made, riding on "rubber-neck wagons,"
sailing about in taxis, stampeding Mt. Vernon, bombarding Fort Myer, and
doing it all gloriously under golden November skies.

And because of the sightseers and statesmen, and the folk who had been
away for the summer, the shops began to take on beauty. Up F Street and
around Fourteenth into H swept the eager procession, and all the windows
were abloom for them.

Roger walked, too, in the country. In other lands, or at least so their
poets have it, November is the month of chill and dreariness. But to the
city on the Potomac it comes with soft pink morning mists and toward
sunset, with amethystine vistas. And if, beyond the city, the fields are
frosted, it is frost of a feathery whiteness which melts in the glory of
a warmer noon. And if the trees are bare, there is yet pale yellow under
foot and pale rose, where the leaves wait for the winter winds which
shall whirl them later in a mad dance like brown butterflies. And
there's the green of the pines, and the flaming red of five-fingered
creepers.

It was on a sunny November day, therefore, as he followed Rock Creek
through the Park that Roger came to the old Mill where a little tea room
supplied afternoon refreshment.

As it was far away from car lines, its patronage came largely from those
who arrived in motors or on horseback, and a few courageous pedestrians.

Here Roger sat down to rest, ordering a rather substantial repast, for
the long walk had made him hungry.

It was while he waited that a big car arrived with five passengers. He
recognized Porter Bigelow at once, and there were besides two older men
and two young women.

The taller of the two young women had eyes that roved. She had blue
black hair, and she wore black--a small black hat with a thin curved
plume, and a tailored suit cut on lines which accentuated her height and
slenderness. Her furs were of leopard skins. Her cheeks were touched
with high color under her veil.

The other girl had also dark hair. But she was small and bird-like.
From head to foot she was in a deep dark pink that, in the wool of her
coat and the