IX

A month passed. Betty received with Lady Mary on Tuesdays, and under

that popular young matron's wing called on a number of women prominent

in the official life of the dying Administration, whom she received on

Fridays. They were very polite, and returned her calls promptly; but

they did not always remember her name, and her personality and position

impressed but a few of these women, overwhelmed with social duties,

visiting constituents, and people-with-letters. Most of them paid from

fifteen to twenty calls on six days out of seven, and had filled their

engagement books for the season during its first fortnight. Betty was

chagrined at first, then amused. Moreover, her incomplete success

raised the political world somewhat in Mrs. Madison's estimation; she

had expected that her house would be besieged by these temporary

beings, eager for a sniff at Old Washington air. Betty realized that

she must be content to go slowly this winter, and begin to entertain as

soon as the next season opened. Lady Mary took her to four large

receptions, and she was invited to two or three dinners of a

semi-official character; for several women not only fancied her, but

appreciated the fact that the official were not the highest social

honours in the land, and were glad to further her plans.

Senator Burleigh called several times. One day he arrived with a large

package of books: Bryce's "American Commonwealth," a volume containing

the Constitution and Washington's Farewell Address, and several of the

"American Statesmen" monographs.

"Read all these," he said dictatorially. ("He certainly takes me very

seriously," thought Betty. "Doubtless he'll stand me in a corner with

my face to the wall if I don't get my lessons properly.") "I want you

to acquire the national sense. I don't believe a woman in this country

knows the meaning of the phrase. Study and think over the characters of

the men who created this country: Washington and Hamilton,

particularly. You'll know what I mean when you've read these little

volumes; and then I'll bring you some thirty volumes containing the

letters and despatches and communications to Congress of these two

greatest of all Americans. I don't know which I admire most. Hamilton

was the most creative genius of his century, but the very fact that he

was a genius of the highest order makes him hopeless as a standard. But

all men in public life who desire to attain the highest and most

unassailable position analyze the character of Washington and ponder

over it deeply. There never was a man so free from taint, there never

was such complete mental poise, there never was such cold, rarified,

unerring judgment. The man seems to us--who live in a turbulent day

when the effort to be and to remain high-minded makes the brain

ache--to have been nothing less than inspired. And his political wisdom

is as sound for to-day as for when he uttered it; although, for the

life of me, I cannot help disregarding his admonition to keep hands out

of foreign pie, this time. I want the country to go to the rescue of

Cuba, and I'll turn over every stone I can to that end."

Betty had listened to him with much interest. "Would Washington have

gone?" she asked. "Would he advise it now, supposing he could?"

"No, I don't believe he would. Washington had a brain of ice, and his

ideal of American prosperity was frozen within it. He would fear some

possible harm or loss to this country, and the other could be left to

the care of an all-merciful Providence. I love my country with as sound

a patriotism as a man may, and I revere the memory of Washington, but I

have not a brain of ice, and I think a country, like a man, should

think of others besides itself. And the United States has got to that

point where almost nothing could hurt it. A few months' patriotic

enthusiasm, for that matter, would do it no end of good. If you care to

listen, I'll read the Farewell Address to you."

He read it in his sonorous rolling voice, that must have done as much

to make him a popular idol in his State as his more distinguished gifts

for public life. Betty decided that the more senatorial he was the

better she liked him. She knew that he was a favourite with men, and

had a vague idea that men, when in the exclusive society of their own

sex, always told witty anecdotes, but she could not imagine herself

making small talk with Senator Burleigh. Her day for small talk,

however, she fervently hoped was over.

She had seen Senator North again but once. Lady Mary Montgomery gave a

great evening reception, as magnificent an affair of the sort as Betty

was likely to see in Washington. It was given in honour of a

distinguished Englishman, who, rumour whispered, had come over in the

interests of the General Arbitration Treaty between the United States

and Great Britain, now at the mercy of the Committee on Foreign

Relations. There was another impression, equally alive in Washington

that Lady Mary aspired to be the historic link between the two

countries. Certain it was that the Secretary of State, the British

Ambassador, and the Committee on Foreign Relations dined and called

constantly at her house. The Distinguished Guest had called on her

every day since his arrival.

Betty knew what others divined; for the friends were inseparable, and

Mary Montgomery was very frank with her few intimates. "Of course I

want the treaty to go through," she had said to Betty, only the day

before her reception; "and I am quite wild to know what the Committee

are doing with it. But of course they will say nothing. Senator Ward

kisses my hand and talks Shakespeare and Socrates to me, and when I use

all my eloquence in behalf of a closer relationship between the two

greatest nations on earth--for I want an alliance to follow this

treaty--he says: _'Ma belle dame sans merci,_ the American language

shall yet be spoken in the British Isles; I promise you that.' He is

one of the few Americans I cannot understand. He has eyes so heavy that

he never looks quite awake, and he is as quick as an Italian's blade in

retort. He has a large and scholarly intellect, and it is almost

impossible to make him serious. You never see him in his chair on the

floor of the Senate, although he sometimes drifts across the room with

a cigar in the hollow of his hand, and he is admittedly one of its

leading spirits, and the idol of a Western State--of all things!

Senator North is the reverse of transparent, but sometimes he goes to

the point in a manner which leaves nothing to be desired. He is not on

the Committee of Foreign Relations, so I asked him point blank the

other day if he thought the treaty would go through and if he did not

mean to vote for it. He is usually as polite as all men who are

successful in politics and like women, but he gave a short and brutal

laugh. 'Lady Mary,' he said, 'when some of my colleagues were

cultivating their muscles on the tail of your lion in the winter of

1895, I told them what I thought of them in language which only

senatorial courtesy held within bounds. If the Committee on Foreign

Relations--for whose members I have the highest respect: they are

picked men--should do anything so foolish and so unpatriotic as to

report back that treaty in a form to arouse the enthusiasm of the

British press, I fear I should disregard senatorial courtesy. But the

United States Senate does not happen to be composed of idiots, and the

President may amuse himself writing treaties, but he does not make

them.'

"Then I asked him if he had no sentiment, if he did not think the

spirit of the thing fine: the union of the great English-speaking

races; and he replied that he saw no necessity for anything of the

sort: we did very well on our separate sides of the water; and as for

sentiment, we were like certain people,--much better friends while

coquetting than when married. He added that the divorce would be so

extremely painful. I asked him what was to prevent another lover's

quarrel, if there were no ring and no blessing, and he replied: 'Ah

that is another question. To keep out of useless wars with the old

country and to tie our hands fast to her quarrels are two things, and

the one we will do and the other we won't do.'

"That is all he would say, but fortunately there is a less conservative

element in the Senate than his, although I believe they all become

saturated with that Constitution in time. I can see it growing in

Senator Burleigh."

All elements had come to her reception to-night. Ambassadors and Envoys

Extraordinary were there in the full splendour of their uniforms. So

were Generals and Admirals; and the women of the Eastern Legations had

come in their native costumes. The portly ladies of the Cabinet were as

resplendent as their position demanded, and the aristocracy of the

Senate and the women of fashion were equally fine. Other women were

there, wives of men important but poor, who walked unabashed in

high-neck home-made frocks; and their pretty daughters, were as simple

as themselves. One wore a cheese-cloth frock, and another a blue

merino. The dames of the Plutocracy were there, blazing with converted

capital,--Westerners for the most part, with hogsheads of money, who

had come to the City of Open Doors to spend it. It was seldom they were

in the same room with the Old Washingtonians, and when they were they

sighed; then reminded themselves of recent dinners to people whose

names were half the stock in trade of the daily press. Sally Carter,

who regarded them through her lorgnette with much the same impersonal

interest as she would accord to actors on the boards, wore a gown of

azure satin trimmed with lace whose like was not to be found in the

markets of the world. Her hair was elaborately dressed, and her thin

neck sufficiently covered by a curious old collar of pearls set with

tiny miniatures. Careless as she was by day, it often suited her to be

very smart indeed by night. She looked brilliant; and Jack Emory, who

had been commanded by Betty to accept Lady Mary's invitation, did not

leave her side. And she snubbed her more worldly-minded followers and

devoted herself to his amusement.

All the men wore evening clothes. It seemed to be an unwritten law that

the politician should have his dress-suit did his wife wear serge for

ever. Consequently they presented a more uniformly fine appearance than

their women, and most of them held themselves with a certain look of

power. Their faces were almost invariably keen and strong. Few of the

younger members of the House were here to-night, only those who had

been in it so many years that they were high in political importance.

Among them the big round form and smooth round head of their present

and perhaps most famous Speaker were conspicuous: the United States was

moving swiftly to the parting of the ways, and there are times when a

Speaker is a greater man than a President.

What few authors Washington boasts were there, as well as Judges of the

Supreme Court, scholars, architects, scientists, and journalists. And

they moved amid great splendour. Lady Mary had thrown open her

ball-room, and the walls looked like a lattice-work of American Beauty

roses and thorns. Great bunches of the same expensive ornament swung

from the ceiling, and the piano was covered with a quilt of them deftly

woven together. The pale green drawing-room was as lavishly decorated

with pink and white orchids and lilies of the valley. Lady Mary felt

that she could vie in extravagance with the most ambitious in her

husband's ambitious land.

Betty was entertaining four Senators, the Distinguished Guest, and the

Speaker of the House when she caught a glimpse of Senator North. She

immediately became a trifle absent, and permitted Senator Shattuc, who

liked to tell anecdotes of famous politicians, to take charge of the

conversation. While he was thinking her the one woman in Washington

charming enough to establish a _salon_, she was congratulating herself

that she should meet Senator North again when she looked her best. She

wore a wonderful new gown of mignonette green and ivory white, and many

pearls in her warm hair and on her beautiful neck. She looked both

regal and girlish, an effect she well knew how to produce. Her head was

thrown back and her eyes were sparkling with triumph as they met

Senator North's. He moved toward her at once.

"I should be stupid to inquire after your health," he said as he shook

her hand. "You are positively radiant. I shall ask instead if you still

find time to come up and see us occasionally, and if we improve on

acquaintance?"

"I go very often indeed, but I have seen you only three times."

"I have been North for a week, and in my Committee Room a good deal

since my return."

Betty was determined not to let slip this opportunity. She resented the

platitudes that are kept in stock by even the greatest minds, and

wished that he would hold out a peremptory arm and lead her to some

quiet corner and talk to her for an hour. But he evidently had a just

man's appreciation of the rights of others, for he betrayed no

intention to do anything of the kind. His eyes dwelt on her with frank

admiration, but Washington is the national headquarters of pretty

women, and he doubtless contented himself with a passing glimpse of

many. And this time Betty felt the full force of the man's magnetism.

She would have liked to put up a detaining hand and hold him there for

the rest of the evening. Even were there no chance for conversation,

she would have liked to be close beside him. She forgot, that he was an

ideal on a pedestal and shot him a challenging glance. "I have hoped

that you would come up to the gallery and call on me," she said

pointedly.

He moved a step closer, then drew back. His face did not change.

"I certainly shall when I am so fortunate as to see you up there," he

said. "But the fourth of March is not far off, and the pressure

accumulates. I am obliged to be in my Committee Room, as well as in

other Committee Rooms, for the better part of every day. But if I can

do anything for you, if there is any one you would care to meet, do not

fail to let me know. Send word to my room, and if possible I will go to

you."

Betty looked at him helplessly. She wanted to ask him to call at her

house on Sunday, but felt a sudden diffidence. After all, why should he

care to call on her? He had more important things to think of; and

doubtless he spent his few leisure hours with some woman far more

brilliant than herself. Her head came down a trifle and she turned it

away. He stood there a moment longer, then said,--

"Good-night," and, after a few seconds' hesitation, and with

unmistakable emphasis: "Remember that it would give me the greatest

possible pleasure to do anything for you I could." Immediately after,

he left the room.

When she was alone an hour later, she anathematized herself for a fool.

Diffidence had no permanent part in her mental constitution. She was

sure that if she could talk with him for thirty consecutive minutes she

could interest him and attach him to her train. Her pride, she felt,

was now involved. She should estimate herself a failure unless she

compelled Senator North to forget the more experienced women of the

political world and spend his leisure hours with her. She had been a

brilliant success in other spheres, she would not fail in this.

But two more weeks passed and she did not see him. He came neither to

the floor of the Senate within her experience of it, nor to the

gallery. Nor did he appear to care for Society. Few of the Senators

did, for that matter. They did not mind dining out, as they had to dine

somewhere, and an agreeable and possibly handsome partner would give

zest to any meal; but they were dragged to receptions and escaped as

soon as they could.

X

Betty rose suddenly from the breakfast-table and went into the library,

carrying a half-read letter. She had felt her face flush and her hand

tremble, and escaped from the servants into a room where she could

think alone for hours, if she wished.