little act of gallantry, but the something lacking which she had always felt to a certain extent was more perceptible now, and to herself she accused him of having degenerated since he had passed from her influence.  She never dreamed of charging it to her interviews with Judge Markham, whose topics of conversation were so widely different from Frank’s.  She was not generous enough to concede anything in his favor, though she felt glad that Frank was not quite the same he had been—­it would make the evening bridal before her easier to bear; and Ethelyn’s eyes were brighter and her smiles more frequent as she sat down to dinner and answered Mrs. Van Buren’s question:  “Where is the Judge that he does not dine with us?”

“Sick, is he?” Mrs. Van Buren said, when told of his headache, while Frank remarked, “Sick of his bargain, maybe,” laughing loudly at his own joke, while the others laughed in unison; and so the dinner passed off without that stiffness which Ethelyn had so much dreaded.

After it was over, Mrs. Dr. Van Buren felt better, and began to talk of the “Judge,” and to ask if Ethelyn knew whether they would board or keep house in Washington the coming winter.  Ethelyn did not know.  She had never mentioned Washington to Richard Markham, and he had never guessed how much that prospective season at the capital had to do with her decision.  That it would be hers to enjoy she had no shadow of doubt, but as she felt then she did not particularly care to keep up a household for the sake of entertaining her aunt, and possibly Frank and his wife, so she replied that she presumed “they should board, as it would be the short session—­if he was re-elected they might consider the house.”

“There may be a still higher honor in store for him than a re-election,” Mrs. Van Buren said, and then proceeded to speak of a letter which she had received from a lady in Camden, who had once lived in Boston, and who had written congratulating her old friend upon her niece’s good fortune.  “There was no young man more popular in that section of the country than Judge Markham,” she said, “and there had been serious talk of nominating him for governor.  Some, however, thought him too young, and so they were waiting for a few years when he would undoubtedly be elected to the highest office in the State.”

This piece of intelligence had greatly increased Mrs. Van Buren’s respect for the lady-elect of Iowa’s future governor, and she gave the item of news with a great deal of satisfaction, but did not tell that her correspondent had added, “It is a pity, though, that he does not know more of the usages of good society.  Ethelyn is so refined and sensitive that she will be often shocked, no doubt, with the manners of the husband and his family.”

This clause had troubled Mrs. Dr. Van Buren.  She really liked Ethelyn, and now that she was out of Frank’s way she liked her very much, and would do a good deal to serve her.  She did not wish her to be unhappy, as she feared she might be from the sundry rumors which had reached her concerning that home out West, whither she was going.  So, when, after dinner, they were alone for a few moments, she endeavored to impress upon her niece the importance of having an establishment of her own as soon as possible.