At the close of the fortnight of her stay in Washington subsequent to
the reception at the White House, Selma found herself in the same frame
of mind as when she parted from Mr. Elton. During this fortnight her
time was spent either in sight seeing or at the hotel. The exercises at
the Capitol were purely formal, preliminary to a speedy adjournment of
Congress. Consequently her husband had no opportunity to distinguish
himself by addressing the house. Of Flossy she saw nothing, though the
two men had several meetings. Apparently both Lyons and Williams were
content with a surface reconciliation between their wives which did not
bar family intercourse. At least her husband made no suggestion that she
should call on Mrs. Williams, and Flossy's cards did not appear. Beyond
making the acquaintance of a few more wives and daughters in the hotel,
who seemed as solitary as herself, Selma received no overtures from her
own sex. She knew no one, and no one sought her out or paid her
attention. She still saw fit to believe that if she were to establish
herself in Washington and devote her energies to rallying these wives
and daughters about her, she might be able to prove that Flossy and Mr.
Elton were mistaken. But she realized that the task would be less simple
than she had anticipated. Besides she yearned to return to Benham, and
take up again the thread of active life there. Benham would vindicate
her, and some day Benham would send her back to Washington to claim
recognition and her rightful place.
Lyons himself was in a cheerful mood and found congenial occupation in
visiting with his wife the many historical objects of interest, and in
chatting in various hotel corridors with the public men of the country,
his associates in Congress. His solicitude in regard to the account
which Williams was carrying for him had been relieved temporarily by an
upward turn in the stock market, and the impending prompt adjournment of
Congress had saved him from the necessity of taking action in regard to
the railroad bill which Williams had solicited him to support. Moreover
Selma had repeated to him Horace Elton's prophecy that it was not
unlikely that some day he would become Senator. To be sure he recognized
that a remark like this uttered to a pretty woman by an astute man of
affairs such as Elton was not to be taken too seriously. There was no
vacancy in the office of Senator from his state, and none was likely to
occur. At the present time, if one should occur, his party in the state
legislature was in a minority. Hence prophecy was obviously a random
proceeding. Nevertheless he was greatly pleased, for, after all, Elton
would scarcely have made the speech had he not been genuinely well
disposed. A senatorship was one of the great prizes of political life,
and one of the noblest positions in the world. It would afford him a
golden opportunity to leave the impress of his convictions on national
legislation, and defend the liberties of the people by force of the
oratorical gifts which he possessed. Elton had referred to these gifts
in complimentary terms. Was it not reasonable to infer that Elton would
be inclined to promote his political fortunes? Such an ally would be
invaluable, for Elton was a growing power in the industrial development
of the section of the country where they both lived. He had continued to
find him friendly in spite of his own antagonism on the public platform
to corporate power. A favorite and conscientious hope in his political
outlook was that he might be able to make capital as well as labor
believe him to be a friend without alienating either; that he might
obtain support at the polls from both factions, and thus be left free
after election to work out for their mutual advantage appropriate
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 here some day."
She whispered this in his ear, as they sat with heads close together
looking back at the swiftly receding city. Selma's hands were clasped in
her lap, and she seemed to her lover to have a dreamy air--an air
suggesting poetry and high ethical resolve such as he liked to associate
with her and their scheme of wedded life. It pleased him that his wife
should feel so confident that the future had in store for him this great
prize, and he allowed himself to yield to the pathos of the moment and
whisper in reply:
"I will say this, Selma. My business affairs look more favorable, and,
if nothing unforeseen happens, I do not see why we shouldn't get on
reasonably fast. Nowadays, in order to be a United States Senator
comfortably, it is desirable in the first place to have abundant means."
"Yes."
"We must be patient and God-fearing, and with your help, dear, and your
sympathy, we may live to see what you desire come to pass. Of course, my
ambition is to be Senator, and--and to take you back to Washington as a
Senator's wife."
Selma had not chosen to confide to Lyons in set terms her social
grievance against the capital of her country. But she was glad to
perceive from his last words that he understood she was not satisfied
with the treatment accorded her, and that he also was looking forward to
giving her a position which would enable her to rebuke the ungodly and
presumptuous.
"Thank you, James," she answered. "When that time comes we shall be able
to teach them a number of things. For the present though, I feel that I
can be of best service to you and to the truths which we are living for
by interesting myself in whatever concerns Benham. We believe in Benham,
and Benham seems inclined to believe in us and our ideas."
The ensuing year passed uneventfully. Lyons was able to be at home from
the first of April to the reassembling of Congress in the following
December. He was glad to give himself up to the enjoyment of his
handsome establishment. He resumed the tenor of his professional
practice, feeling that as a sober-minded, married citizen he had become
of more importance to the community, and he was eager to bear witness to
his sense of responsibility. He took a more active part in soliciting
contributions for evangelizing benighted countries, and he consented on
several occasions to deliver an address on "Success in Life" to
struggling young men of Benham and the surrounding towns. His easy flow
of words, his dignity and his sober but friendly mien made him a
favorite with audiences, and constantly broadened his circle of
acquaintance.
Selma, on her side, took up the organization of the Free Hospital
provided by Mr. Parsons. Her husband left the decision of all but legal
and financial questions to her and Miss Luella Bailey, who, at Selma's
request, was made the third member of the board of trustees. She decided
to call in a committee of prominent physicians to formulate a programme
of procedure in matters purely medical; but she reserved a right of
rejection of their conclusions, and she insisted on the recognition of
certain cardinal principles, as she called them. She specified that no
one school of medicine should dictate the policy of the hospital as
regards the treatment of patients. To the young physician whom she
selected to assist her in forming this administrative board she stated,
with stern emotion: "I do not intend that it shall be possible in this
hospital for men and women to be sacrificed simply because doctors are
unwilling to avail themselves of the latest resources of brilliant
individual discernment. I know what it means to see a beloved one die,
who might have been saved had the physician in charge been willing to
try new expedients. The doors of this hospital must be ever open to
rising unconventional talent. There shall be no creeds nor caste of
medicine here."
She also specified that the matron in charge of the hospital should be
Mrs. Earle, whose lack of trained experience was more than
counterbalanced by her maternal, humanitarian spirit, as Selma expressed
it. She felt confident that Mrs. Earle would choose as her assistants
competent and skilful persons, and at the same time that her broad point
of view and sympathetic instincts would not allow her to turn a deaf ear
to aspiring but technically ignorant ability. This selection of Mrs.
Earle was a keen pleasure to Selma. It seemed to her an ideal selection.
Mrs. Earle was no longer young, and was beginning to find the constant
labor of lecture and newspaper work exhausting. This dignified and
important post would provide her with a permanent income, and would
afford her an attractive field for her progressive capabilities.
Selma's choice of young Dr. Ashmun as the head of the medical board was
due to a statement which came to her ears, that he was reviled by some
of the physicians of Benham because he had patented certain discoveries
of his own instead of giving his fellow-practitioners the benefit of his
knowledge. Selma was prompt to detect in this hostility an envious
disposition on the part of the regular physicians to appropriate the
fruits of individual cleverness and to repress youthful revolt against
conventional methods. Dr. Ashmun regarded his selection as the
professional chief of this new institution as a most auspicious
occurrence from the standpoint of his personal fortunes. He was
ambitious, ardent, and keen to attract attention, with an abundant fund
of energy and a nervous, driving manner. He was, besides, good looking
and fluent, and he quickly perceived the drift of Selma's intentions in
regard to the hospital, and accommodated himself to them with
enthusiasm. They afforded him the very opportunity which he most
desired--the chance to assert himself against his critics, and to obtain
public notice. The watchword of liberty and distrust of professional
canons suited his purposes and his mood, and he threw himself eagerly
into the work of carrying out Selma's projects.
As a result of the selection of Dr. Ashmun and of the other members of
the administrative board, who were chosen with a view to their
availability as sympathetic colleagues, letters of protest from several
physicians appeared in the newspapers complaining that the new hospital
was being conducted on unscientific and shallow principles, disapproved
of by the leading men of the profession. Selma was indignant yet
thrilled. She promptly took steps to refute the charge, and explained
that the hostility of these correspondents proceeded from envy and
hide-bound reluctance to adopt new and revolutionizing expedients.
Through the aid of Mrs. Earle and Miss Luella Bailey a double-leaded
column in the Benham _Sentinel_ set forth the merits of the new
departure in medicine, which was cleverly described as the revolt of the
talented young men of the profession from the tyranny of their
conservative elders. Benham became divided in opinion as to the merits
of this controversy, and Selma received a number of anonymous letters
through the post approving her stand in behalf of advanced, independent
thought. Among the physicians who were opposed to her administration of
the hospital she recognized with satisfaction the name of a Dr. Paget,
who, as she happened to know, was Mrs. Hallett Taylor's medical adviser.
Another matter in which Selma became interested was the case of Mrs.
Hamilton. She was a woman who had been born in the neighborhood of
Benham, but had lived for twenty years in England, and had been tried in
England by due process of law for the murder of her husband and
sentenced to imprisonment for life. Some of the people of the state who
had followed the testimony as reported in the American newspapers had
decided that she ought not to have been convicted. Accordingly a
petition setting forth the opinion of her former neighbors that she was
innocent of the charge, and should as an American citizen be released
from custody, was circulated for signature. A public meeting was held
and largely attended, at which it was resolved to send a monster
petition to the British authorities with a request for Mrs. Hamilton's
pardon, and also to ask the government at Washington to intercede on
behalf of the unfortunate sufferer. The statement of the case appealed
vividly to Selma, and at the public meeting, which was attended chiefly
by women, she spoke, and offered the services of her husband to lay the
matter before the President. It was further resolved to obtain the names
of influential persons all over the country in order that the petition
might show that the sentiment that injustice had been done was national
as well as local.
Selma espoused the case with ardor, and busied herself in obtaining
signatures. She called on Miss Flagg and induced her to sign by the
assurance that the verdict was entirely contrary to the evidence. She
then had recourse to her former sister-in-law, conceiving that the
signature of the President of Wetmore College would impress the English.
She and Pauline had already exchanged visits, and Pauline had shown no
umbrage at her marriage. The possibility of being rebuffed on this
occasion did not occur to Selma. She took for granted that Pauline would
be only too glad to give her support to so deserving a petition, and she
considered that she was paying her a compliment in soliciting her name
for insertion among the prominent signers. Pauline listened to her
attentively, then replied:
"I am sorry for the woman, if she is innocent: and if she has been
falsely accused, of course she ought to be released. But what makes you
think she is innocent, Selma?"
"The testimony did not justify her conviction. Every one is of that
opinion."
"Have you read the testimony yourself, Selma?"
"No, Pauline."
"Or your husband?"
"My husband is satisfied from what others have told him, just as I am,
that this poor American woman is languishing in prison as the result of
a cruel miscarriage of justice, and that she never committed the crime
of which she has been found guilty. My husband has had considerable
legal experience."
Pauline's questions were nettling, and Selma intended by her response to
suggest the presumptuousness of her sister-in-law's doubts in the face
of competent authority.
"I realize that your husband ought to understand about such matters, but
may one suppose that the English authorities would deliberately allow an
innocent woman to remain in prison? They must know that the friends of
Mrs. Hamilton believe her innocent. Why should we on this side of the
water meddle simply because she was born an American?"
"Why?" Selma drew herself up proudly. "In the first place I believe--we
believe--that the English are capable of keeping her in prison on a
technicality merely because she is there already. They are worshippers
of legal form and red tape, my husband says. And as to meddling, why is
it not our duty as an earnest and Christian people to remonstrate
against the continued incarceration of a woman born under our flag and
accustomed to American ideas of justice? Meddling? In my opinion, we
should be cowards and derelict in our duty if we did not protest."
Pauline shook her head. "I cannot see it so. It seems to me an
interference which may make us seem ridiculous in the eyes of the
English, as well as offensive to them. I am sorry, Selma, not to be able
to do as you wish."
Selma rose with burning cheeks, but a stately air. "If that is your
decision, I must do without your name. Already we have many signatures,
and shall obtain hundreds more without difficulty. We look at things
differently, Pauline. Our point of view has never been the same.
Ridiculous? I should be proud of the ridicule of people too selfish or
too unenlightened to heed the outcry of aspiring humanity. If we had to
depend on your little set to strike the note of progress, I fear we
should sit with folded hands most of the time."
"I do not know what you mean by my little set," said Pauline with a
smile. "I am too busy with my college duties to belong to any set. I see
my friends occasionally just as you see yours; and as to progress--well,
I fear that you are right in your statement that we shall never look at
things alike. To me progress presupposes in the individual or the
community attaining it a prelude of slow struggle, disheartening doubts,
and modest reverence for previous results--for the accumulated wisdom of
the past."
"I mean by your set the people who think as you do. I understand your
point of view. I should have liked," she added, "to ask you to share
with me the responsibility of directing the policy of the Benham Free
Hospital, had I not known that you would listen to the voice of
conservative authority in preference to that of fearless innovation."
"I certainly should have hesitated long before I overruled the
experience of those who have devoted their lives to conscientious effort
to discover truth."
"That illustrates admirably the difference between us, Pauline. No one
is more eager to aid the discovery of truth than I, but I believe that
truth often is concealed from those who go on, day after day, following
hum-drum routine, however conscientious. I recognized that Dr. Ashmun
was a live man and had fresh ideas, so I chose him as our chief of
staff, notwithstanding the doctors were unfriendly to him. As a result,
my hospital has individuality, and is already a success. That's the sort
of thing I mean. Good-by," she said, putting out her hand. "I don't
expect to convert you, Pauline, to look at things my way, but you must
realize by this time that it is the Benham way."
"Yet the leading physicians of Benham disapprove of your plans for the
management of the hospital," said Pauline firmly.
"But the people of Benham approve of them. I prefer their sanction to
that of a coterie of cautious, unenthusiastic autocrats."
Selma, true to her intentions, did not return to Washington with her
husband when Congress reassembled in December. While she was absorbed
with her philanthropic plans in Benham, Lyons was performing his public
duties; seeking to do the country good service, and at the right moment
to attract attention to himself. The opportunity to make a speech along
the line of his public professions in behalf of labor against corporate
monopoly did not offer itself until late in the session. He improved the
few minutes allowed him to such advantage that he was listened to with
close attention, and was at once recognized as one of the persuasive and
eloquent speakers of the minority. Before Congress adjourned he obtained
another chance to take part in debate, by which he produced an equally
favorable impression. The newspapers of the country referred approvingly
to his cogent gift of statement and dignified style of delivery. Both
the bills against which he spoke were passed by the Republican majority,
but echoes of his words came back from some of their constituents, and
Lyons was referred to as certain to be one of the strong men of the
House if he returned to Congress. He went home at the close of the
session in a contented frame of mind so far as his political prospects
were concerned, but he was not free to enjoy the congratulations
accorded him for the reason that his business ventures were beginning to
give him serious solicitude. The trend of the stock market was again
downward. In expectation of a rise from the previous depression, he had
added to the line of shares which Williams & Van Horne were carrying for
him. A slight rise had come, sufficient to afford him a chance to escape
from the toils of Wall street without loss. But he needed a profit to
rehabilitate his ventures in other directions--his investments in the
enterprises of his own state, which had now for some months appeared
quiescent, if not languishing, from a speculative point of view.
Everything pointed, it was said, to a further advance as soon as
Congress adjourned. So he had waited, and now, although the session was
over, the stock market and financial undertakings of every sort appeared
suddenly to be tottering. He had not been at home a month before prices
of all securities began to shrink inordinately and the business horizon
to grow murky with the clouds of impending disaster. To add to his
worry, Lyons was conscious that he had pursued a fast and loose mental
coarse in regard to the railroad bill in which his broker, Williams, was
interested. He had given Williams to understand that he would try to see
his way to support it; yet in view of his late prominence in Washington,
as a foe of legislation in behalf of moneyed interests, he was more than
ever averse to casting a vote in its favor. The bill had not been
reached before adjournment, a result to which he had secretly
contributed, but it was certain to be called up shortly after Congress
reassembled. It disturbed him to feel that his affairs in New York were
in such shape that Williams could embarrass him financially if he chose.
It disturbed him still more that he appeared to himself to be guilty of
bad faith. His conscience was troubled, and his favorite palliative of
conciliation did not seem applicable to the case.