The key turned in the door downstairs and in a moment she heard Dudley in the hall.  As her door opened she looked up brightly.  “Up, old girl?” he asked cheerfully, and as he came to the fire he bent to kiss her.

“Did you make a speech? and what did you say?” she inquired.

“Oh, they got a good deal out of me,” he responded with a genial recollection which he proceeded to unfold.  His eyes shone and his face was flushed.  As he stood on the hearth rug before her she admitted with a sigh of satisfaction his physical splendour.  The glow of his personality warmed her into an emotion half maternal.  She regarded him with the eyes of tolerant affection.

“Oh, yes, I think I made a friend of Diggs,” he was adding complacently as he flecked a particle of cigar ash from his coat.  “He got off a capital story, by the way.  I’d give it to you, but I’m half afraid—­you’re so squeamish.”

“His jokes don’t amuse me,” returned Eugenia indifferently.  “Who else was there?”

“Well, the governor was very much there.  He did some stiff talking.  I say, Eugie, do you know, I believe he used to have a pretty strong fancy for you—­didn’t he?”

Eugenia looked at him with a laugh.  “Oh, a fancy?” she repeated.

She moved away, gathering her hair from her shoulders; but in a moment she came back again and rubbed her cheek against Dudley’s arm as she used to rub it against General Battle’s old linen sleeve.  “Dudley,” she said with a sudden break, “the baby would have been ten years old to-night—­do you remember?”

Dudley was looking into the fire; his face grew grave, and he patted Eugenia’s head.  “You don’t say so!  Poor little chap!” he exclaimed.

They were both silent.  Dudley’s eyes were still on the flame, but the shadow lifted from his brow.  Eugenia’s lips quivered and grew firm.  She gently drew herself away and began braiding her hair, but her hands were unsteady.

In a moment Dudley spoke again.  “It was a great pity I lost that governorship,” he said abstractedly.

A week after this Eugenia went with Juliet Galt to the Capitol to hear a speech in which Dudley was interested.  The Senate Chamber was crowded, and as the atmosphere grew oppressive while Dudley’s gentleman held the floor, she rose and went out into the lobby where a noisy circle pulsed round Houdon’s Washington.  She had spoken to several acquaintances, and her hand was in the clasp of a house member from her old county, when she started at the sound of a shrill voice rising above the persistent hum of the legislators and the lobbyists.

“I’m a-lookin’ for the governor, Nick Burr,” it said.

“I didn’t know the governor posed as a cavalier,” laughed the house member, and as a wave of humour lighted the faces around her, Eugenia turned to find Marthy Burr standing in the doorway.  She wore a stiff alpaca dress, and beneath the green veil above her bonnet she cast alert, nervous glances from side to side.  Her hands clutched, in a deathlike grip, a cotton umbrella and a small, covered basket.