ents finally succeeded, and she gained him as an ally. He was
sent as an emissary to the campaign committee and presented the case as
strongly as he could for her. The proposition really seemed most
plausible. Could anything help the chances of a candidate more than his
marriage to a handsome young woman? The committee had doubts on the
subject and waited in person on Miss Hunter, but she persuaded them as
she had persuaded Cleary, and furthermore convinced them that whether
they were persuaded or not the marriage would take place. Marian
determined to fix the hour for the next day. She pledged the committee
to secrecy, and no word of the proposed wedding got into the papers. At
noon a clergyman was called into the hotel, and in Sam's private
sitting-room the pair were married with Cleary and a few of the members
of the committee as witnesses. Almost before the ceremony was over they
could hear the newsboys crying out the tidings of the event.

"It's out of the question to talk about a wedding-tour," said Sam,
after the ceremony. "I can't walk in the streets alone without being
mobbed, and with Marian we could not keep the clothes on our backs.
Just hear them singing 'Captain Jinks' now!"

"Mark my words, dear," said his wife. "You will see when we get the
papers to-morrow with the news of our marriage, that it has made you
more popular than ever. Now send out word to the reporters that you
will not do any more public kissing."

In obedience to these orders Cleary, acting as go-between, conveyed the
information as gently as he could to the representatives of the press,
that as a married man General Jinks expected to be spared the ordeal of
embracing all the young ladies of the country.

No one was prepared for the striking effect which this news, coupled
with that of the marriage, had upon the newspapers and their readers.
The first papers which Sam and his wife saw on the following morning
were those of St. Lewis. They expressed sorrow at the fact that Captain
Jinks had taken such a resolution when only a handful of the fair women
of St. Lewis had had the opportunity of saluting him. Were they less
beautiful and attractive than the ladies of St. Kisco who had kissed
him to their hearts' content? Marian was visibly annoyed when she saw
these articles, but she advised her husband to wait till they received
the papers from other cities. These journals came, but, alas! they went
rapid