THE LADY OF THE DAGUERREOTYPE

“Daniel doesn’t seem to be coming,” remarked Mrs. Owen.  “He hardly ever misses a Sunday afternoon.”

“He’s working hard.  I had no idea legislators had to work so hard,” said Sylvia.

They sat in Mrs. Owen’s office, which was cosier than the sitting-room, and the place where she seemed most comfortable.  Since we looked at her desk last a file-hook has been added to its furniture, and on it hang impaled a few cuttings from agricultural newspapers.  The content of these clippings will ultimately reach the “Courier’s” readers,—­there is no doubt of that, as Mrs. Owen and Mr. Atwill now understand each other perfectly.  It was the first Sunday in March and a blustery day, with rain and sleet alternating at the windows and an impudent wind whistling in the chimneys.  Hickory logs snapped pleasantly in the small fireplace that was a feature of the room.  Sylvia had dined with her friend, and the day being of the sort that encourages confidences, they had prolonged their talk.

“When did you see Daniel last?” asked Mrs. Owen casually.

“Last night,” replied Sylvia, meeting her friend’s eyes easily.  “He dropped in for a little while.  He wanted to talk about his stand on that corporation bill.”

“Well, he and Morton have broken up housekeeping.  Daniel has climbed on to the other side of the breastworks.”

Sylvia smiled.  “Yes, that’s about it.  But I think he has acted quite finely about it.”

“You mean he didn’t jump on Morton as he might have done—­didn’t make a grand stand play of it?”

“Yes; he might have made capital for himself out of the corporation bill, but he didn’t.  He made his report without bringing personalities into it.”

“And the bill was passed over the governor’s veto!  That was Morton’s way of showing that he didn’t need Daniel.”

“Very likely.  I’m rather glad it happened that way.”

“Glad Daniel got a licking?”

“Oh, not just that; but it shows him that if he’s going to be the people’s champion he will have to be unhorsed pretty often.  If all these things could be accomplished easily, there wouldn’t be any glory in success.  It’s not an easy thing to drive a man like Mr. Bassett out of politics, or even to defeat the dangerous measures he introduces in the legislature.  If it were easy to get rid of them, such men wouldn’t last long.  Besides, I’m a little afraid it wasn’t half so much Dan’s patriotism that was involved as it was his vanity.  He was bitter because he found that Mr. Bassett had deceived him and was trying to use him.  But in view of Mr. Bassett’s many kindnesses to him he wouldn’t make a personal matter of it in the House.  Dan’s opposition was based on legal defects in that bill,—­points that were over the heads of most of the legislators,—­but he is now determined to keep up the fight.  He finds that Mr. Bassett is quite able to do as he pleases even without his services.  He felt that he dealt with him magnanimously in keeping his antagonism to the corporation bill on the high plane of its legal unsoundness.  Mr. Bassett ignored this, and merely secured the passage of the bill by marshaling all the votes he needed in both parties.”