MORLEY VERNON came out of the dining-room in a temper far different from
that he had worn when he went in. His breakfast, after so many
vicissitudes, was sure to be a failure, though John, striving against
fate, had tried to restore the repast to its original excellence by
replacing each dish with a fresh one. He affected a heroic cheerfulness,
too, but the cheer was hollow, for his experience of men and of
breakfasts must have taught him that such disasters can never be
repaired.
Vernon, however, had heavier things on his mind. In his new position as
knight-errant of Illinois womankind, he had looked forward to this day
as the one of triumph; now, at its beginning, he found himself with two
offended women on his hands, and two hopelessly irreconcilable
mistresses to serve. He began to see that the lot of a constructive
statesman is trying; he would never criticize leaders again.
The lobby of the hotel was filling rapidly, and men with their hair
still damp from the morning combing were passing into the breakfast room
with newspapers in their hands. In the center of the lobby, however, he
saw a group of senators, and out of the middle of the group rose a dark
bonnet; the flowers on the bonnet bobbed now and then decisively. Around
it were clustered other bonnets, but they were motionless, and, as it
were, subordinate.
"Can you tell me who that is?" asked Brooks of Alexander, jerking his
thumb at the group.
"Yes," said Vernon, "that's General Hodge-Lathrop. She's on her way to
the front to assume command."
"Oh!" said Brooks. "I saw something in the papers--" And he went away,
reading as he walked.
Vernon looked everywhere for Miss Greene, but he could not find her. The
porter at the Capitol Avenue entrance told him that she had driven over
to the State House a few minutes before. Vernon was seized by an impulse
to follow, but he remembered Amelia. He could not let matters go on thus
between them. If only Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop were not in command; if
he could get Amelia away from her for a while, if he could see her
alone, he felt that explanations would be possible.
He looked at his watch; it was half-past nine; the Senate would convene
at ten; the resolution would not be reached before half-past ten at any
rate; and so he determined to brave Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop again. He
turned back into the lobby; there she was, hobnobbing with men; she did
not pass from group to group, after the manner of any other lobbyist,
but by some coercion he wished he might be master of, she drew them
unerringly to her side. Now she had Braidwood, the leader of the House,
and chairman of the steering committee, and Porter, the leader of the
Senate. She appeared to be giving them instructions.
She had set her committee on less important game; the ladies were
scattered over the rotunda, each talking to a little set of men. When
Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop saw Vernon coming, she turned from Braidwood
and Porter and stood awaiting him. Strangely enough Braidwood and Porter
stayed where they were, as if she had put them there. And Vernon
reflected that he had never known them, as doubtless no one else had
ever known them, to do such a thing as that before.
"Where's Amelia?" he asked before she could speak.
"I have sent her upstairs," said Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop, "poor
child!"