ate
legislation. He had avowed himself unmistakably the champion of popular
principles in order to win the confidence of the common people, but his
policy of reasonable conciliation led him to cast sheep's eyes at vested
interests when he could do so without exposing himself to the charge of
inconsistency. Many of his friends were wealthy men, and his private
ambition was to amass a handsome fortune. That had been the cause of his
speculative ventures in local enterprises which promised large returns,
and in the stock market. Horace Elton was a friend of but three years'
standing; one of the men who had consulted him occasionally in regard to
legal matters since he had become a corporation attorney. He admired
Elton's strong, far-reaching grasp of business affairs, his capacity to
formulate and incubate on plans of magnitude without betraying a sign of
his intentions, and his power to act with lightning despatch and
overwhelming vigor when the moment for the consummation of his purposes
arrived. He also found agreeable Elton's genial, easy-going ways outside
of business hours, which frequently took the form of social
entertainment at which expense seemed to be no consideration and
gastronomic novelties were apt to be presented. Lyons attended one of
these private banquets while in Washington--a dinner party served to a
carefully chosen company of public men, to which newspaper scribes were
unable to penetrate. This same genial, easy-going tendency of Elton's to
make himself acceptable to those with whom he came in contact took the
form of a gift to Mrs. Lyons of a handsome cameo pin which he presented
to her a day or two after their dialogue at the President's reception,
and for which, as he confidentially informed Selma, he had been seeking
a suitable wearer ever since he had picked it up in an out-of-the-way
store in Brussels the previous summer.

On the day of their departure Selma, as she took a last look from the
car window at the Capitol and the Washington Monument, said to her
husband: "This is a beautiful city--worthy in many respects of the
genius of the American people--but I never wish to return to Washington
until you are United States Senator."

"Would you not be satisfied with Justice of the Supreme Court?" asked
Lyons, gayly.

"I should prefer Senator. If you were Senator, you could probably be
appointed to the Supreme Court in case you preferred that place. I am
relying on you, James, to bring me back