rs; he had known even
elders to nod; and so he took his hat and said farewell with a good
grace, and a promise to help her with a letter to the Secretary of State
whenever the time came to write it.

Late on the night of that day in which this conversation occurred,
Mrs. Butler sat at her writing-desk, essaying for the tenth time how to
address that great man whose favor she would propitiate. Letter-writing
had never been her gift, and she distrusted her powers even unfairly in
this respect. The present was, besides, a case of some difficulty. She
knew nothing of the sort of person she was addressing beyond the fact
that he and her husband, when very young men, lived on terms of close
intimacy and friendship. It might be that the great Minister had
forgotten all about that long ago, or might not care to be reminded of
it. It might be that her husband in his sanguine and warm-hearted way,
calculated rather on the affection he bestowed than that he should
receive, and so deemed the friendship between them a closer and stronger
tie than it was. It might be, too,--she had heard of such things,--that
men in power are so besieged by those who assume to have claims upon
them, that they lose temper and patience, and indiscriminately class
all such applicants as mere hungry place-hunters, presuming upon some
accidental meeting,--some hap-hazard acquaintance of a few minutes. "And
so," said she, "if he has not heard of my husband for thirty-odd years,
he may come to look coldly on this letter of mine, and even ask, 'Who is
Eleanor Butler, and of whom is she the widow?' I will simply say to him:
The son of the late Colonel Walter Butler, with whose name his widow
believes you are not unacquainted, solicits some assistance on your
part, towards--towards--shall I say at once an appointment in one of our
colonies, or merely what may forward his pursuits in a new world? I wish
I could hit upon something that will not sound like the every-day tune
that must ring in his ears; but how can I, when what I seek is the
selfsame thing?"

She leaned her head on her hand in thought, and, as she pondered, it
occurred to her what her husband would have thought of such a step as
she was taking. Would Walter have sanctioned it? He was a proud man on
such points. He had never asked for anything in his life, and it was one
of his sayings,--"There was no station that was not too dearly bought at
the price of asking for it" She canvassed and debated t